The essential difference in Chinese history is that it has never had a proletarian revolution to compare with the Russian October of 1917. At no time has China been a proletarian power and the ideology of Maoism was nothing but the means for dragooning the masses into sacrificing their interests for the benefit of the national capital.

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We publish this platform in three parts. This is the third part.

Guiding Principles for the Organisation

1. The era of history when national liberation was progressive for the capitalist world ended with the First Imperialist war in 1914. The global character of capitalism in the imperialist epoch means that the apparent diversity of social formations in the world is not the reflection of a variety of different modes of production. Thus there is no need for the proletariat to adopt different strategies for revolutionary action in different parts of the globe. Marx's work had already drawn a distinction between the mode of production and the social formations more or less corresponding to it. The historical experience of class society confirms that different social formations, the product of different histories, can exist under the capitalist mode of production but they all nevertheless are dominated by imperialism, which makes use of national, ethnic and cultural differences to maintain its own existence. Just as the social strata and traditions differ in various regions and countries, so does the way in which the bourgeoisie dominates politically. However, in every case the real power which they represent is the same: that of capitalism. Any idea that the national question is still open in some regions of the world and that therefore the proletariat can relegate its own revolutionary strategy and tactics to the background in favour of an alliance with the national bourgeoisie (or worse with one of the imperialist fronts) has to be absolutely rejected. Only when the proletariat unites to defend its own class interests will the basis of all national oppressions be undermined. Revolutionary organisations reject all attempts to prevent class solidarity through ideologies of racial or cultural separateness.

2. The universal nature of capitalist domination demands a universal revolutionary strategy. The proletarian revolution and the installation of the dictatorship of the proletariat are the basic tenets of the communist party in every country. Differences in specific situations, or more precisely the diversity of social and political forms of bourgeois domination throughout the world call for different tactical approaches. Nevertheless, the tactics of the proletariat's international organisation will always be defined on the basis of its universal revolutionary programme. The era of democratic struggles ended a long time ago and they cannot be repeated in the present imperialist epoch. Although demands for certain elementary freedoms might be included in revolutionary agitation, communist party tactics aim for the overthrow of the state and the installation of the dictatorship of the proletariat._Communists have no illusions that workers freedom can be won through electing a majority in parliament. In the first place it is an illusion of 'parliamentary cretinism' (Marx) to believe that the ruling class would peacefully stand by whilst we legislated in socialism. Parliamentary democracy is only the fig leaf to disguise the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. The real organs of power in democratic capitalist society lie outside Parliament with the state bureaucracy, its security forces and the controllers of the means of production. Parliament is useful to the bourgeoisie in that it gives the illusion that workers choose who is to misrule them. As such revolutionaries oppose parliamentary elections by calling for the workers to fight on their own class terrain. It is up to the party of revolutionaries to show that only through the destruction of capitalism and its state organs is it possible for the working class to secure complete freedom of expression and organisation.

3. Unions arose as negotiators of the terms of sale of workers' labour power. Trades unions are organs of mediation between labour and capital. They are not, and have never been, useful instruments for the overthrow of capitalism. In the imperialist era the unions, regardless of their social composition, are organisations which work for the preservation of capitalism especially at the most crucial moments when it is under threat. From this it follows that it is impossible for revolutionaries to conquer the unions or to transform them into organs for revolution. Everywhere the proletarian revolution will have to fight the unions as they will be bastions of the counter-revolution._The experience of the last revolutionary wave and the counter-revolution which followed made it absolutely clear to revolutionary Marxists that the union is not, nor can it be, the organ of mass struggle in which the political minority of the class (the party) works to get across its programme and slogans to the working class as a whole. Such mass organs, which communist theory has traditionally understood as organs of both struggle and power, appear in situations of rising class struggle. Historically they have appeared in the form of the commune or soviet (councils). Just as communists can only reach a position of political leadership in exceptional situations so -- and because of this -- the mass organs which the working class creates and which make communist leadership possible, are born only in periods of mounting struggle. Yet, outside of such situations the party has to develop its work of political leadership and development of the advance guard of the class. It is the permanent duty of communists to take part in workers' struggles, to stimulate them and to point the way forward. The possibility of the favourable development of struggles away from the immediate level from which they spring onto the wider arena of a political struggle against capital depends on the active presence of communists inside the workplaces. It is the task of the communist organisation to find a means of organising the most conscious workers in the workplace, not for trade union activity but as a direct link between the party and the broad mass of the working class.

4. The revolutionary process which began with the October victory in Russia ended when the Russian state turned in on itself in defence of its capitalist economic foundations. This was the result of the isolation of Soviet Russia and the defeat of the waves of proletarian struggle in the main European countries. This experience has demonstrated for Marxists once and for all that socialism in one country is impossible. No socialist or revolutionary state can exist outside of a real international revolutionary process. This is not to say that when a proletarian insurrection has been successful in a particular country that it cannot express real proletarian power. It does mean, however, that unless revolutionary movements elsewhere are successful and open up the concrete possibility of beginning the construction of new social relations, it will be impossible for that fledgling power to hold out.

5. In the second half of the Twenties the Communist International was now totally dominated by the Russian Party and it was no longer a centralised means for pursuing the strategic and tactical needs of the international working class. What was left of the potential for revolution in Europe and in China was undermined by Comintern policies which were now subservient to the [CPSU] state's need for self-preservation. In [the USSR] itself the break in the revolutionary process led to the strengthening of an anti-working class dictatorship [under Stalin] based on capitalist social relations. The development of such a regime in a country as large as [the USSR] meant its re-emergence as an imperialist power. It was with this character that the Stalinist state and the various national-communist parties participated, first in the war in Spain, then in the Second World War. Following the Second World War the countries of Eastern Europe were taken over by Russian imperialism and adopted the Stalinist state capitalist model. The failure of perestroika and the collapse of this bloc was not the signal that a "workers' state" had finally completed its degeneration but evidence of the extent of the capitalist crisis in the weakest "superpower".

6. In China a different process led to the same result: A state capitalist regime which, even today is still searching for its 'true' role within the international alliance system of imperialism. The essential difference in Chinese history is that it has never had a proletarian revolution to compare with the Russian October of 1917. The history of the present Chinese regime begins with the tragic defeat of the proletarian movement in Canton and Shanghai in 1927. This was followed by a national war conducted by a bloc of classes in which the peasantry acted as the shock troops. It ended with the establishment of a regime under [Stalinist] auspices and based on the same kind of highly centralised state capitalist relations. This regime, which broke away from the Russian sphere of influence in the Sixties under the banner of neo-Stalinism, found itself turning to the US in the 1970s. Both these apparently contradictory moves stemmed from attempts to maintain control of the economy and encourage capital accumulation. At no time has China been a proletarian power and the ideology of Maoism was nothing but the means for dragooning the masses into sacrificing their interests for the benefit of the national capital.

7. The above points show it is time to work actively for the construction of the international revolutionary party, the International Party of the Proletariat. The task of combating the political subjection of the proletariat to the forces of reaction and war must be developed as effectively as the meagre forces of the revolutionaries allow. This demands their organisation and centralisation on an international scale. The process of moving from today's fragmentary struggles of revolutionary forces scattered throughout the globe to tomorrow's political and military battles of the international revolutionary party demands the maximum of effort by communists to secure political homogenisation and the organisation of new cadres. The formation of the International Party of the Proletariat will come about through the dissolution of the various 'national' organisations which have worked together and are in agreement about the platform and programme for revolution. The International Bureau For the Party aims to be the focus for coordination and unification of these organisations. Its statutes will provide the basis for the organisational homogenisation which will eventually result in the dissolution of the individual affiliated bodies and their centralisation into a genuinely international structure. Then the Bureau will have completed the task it has set itself.

International Bureau for the Revolutionary Party 1997

Internationalist Workers'Group, Canadian affiliate of the International Bureau for the Revolutionary Party

Email: can...@ibrp.org

Website: www.ibrp.org