The revolution is for today
Communist Party of Labour of Dominican Republic

I. The revolution has daily rhythms and forms
The principal task of every revolutionary is to make the revolution. That is obvious. Given the sacrifices and dangers which militant activity involves there is no point in investing in such activity if the aim is not revolutionary. However, among the many attitudes which one finds, there is one which occurs particularly frequently, and especially in the recent period -and that is the attitude which considers the revolution as something abstract, which will happen one day in the future. Attached to the notion that "the revolution is historically inevitable", many of us remain there, "ringing the bell", without understanding the events, whatever they may be, which will enable us to take forward our cause. Time passes, we get old, and finally we cannot claim any merit except the longevity of our struggle.
To emphasise too much the fact that there are not immediate possibilities of revolutionary explosions reinforces this attitude and leads many militants to place too much emphasise on providing for their own and their families' future, reducing almost to nothing all revolutionary effort.
We have already said in other circumstances that the revolution is a very concrete question, which expresses itself daily according to diverse forms and rhythms; it is or should be present in our day to day work. Seen in this light, the issue is about encouraging activities to go out into the world and take part in revolutionary process, no matter how minute each step in the process may seem.
Obviously we must make it clear that we are far from taking up the petite bourgeois position which see insurrection at every demonstration or on every street corner. Before everything, we wish to emphasise that the revolution will be the result of what we do towards it at every instant, more or less as was claimed by Che.
The idea according to which "the revolution is historically inevitable" should be understood solely as a theoretical formula concerning the dynamics of the revolution of capitalist society, which lead to class conflicts which make ruptures possible. This vision feeds and enriches our subjectivity.
But beware: this does not mean that the revolution will arrive without the conscious and material labour of the party and of the other actors called upon to inspire and develop it. In fact the revolution will take shape in discussions in our work with workers and with other sectors of the people, at the place of work, in factories and communities, in the universities, in cultural activity and in every aspect of life.
The activity of our members should be stepped in revolutionary passion. Inasmuch as the party is a collective, it needs to renew in every member a conspiratorial psychology, because we are just that, conspirators against the system, even though in conditions appropriate to broad-based and open political work, but nevertheless always deeply concerned with the appearance and development of revolutionary conditions.
In this perspective, the revolution becomes an everyday question, and the work of revolutionaries ceases to be a coming and going of various approaches towards this or that problem which affects a few individuals. The revolution is the watershed towards which everything we do is directed.

II. Power as our aim
Here is the fundamental question. Every struggle or effort is misplaced if it is not animated by this aim. We communists are agents of change, and these changes operate in the direction of the state.
In thinking about this we should not see ourselves as small. Parties do not grow and do not become a reference point for the masses until they take on the issue of power and agitate on this basis. The masses have no enthusiasm for parties or politicians who proclaim dreams, nor for those eternal oppositionists who spend their time giving opinions on every problem without ever offering real alternative solutions.
The popular masses do not have allegiance to any single political or ideological current, because they follow those who propose solutions to their material and spiritual problems.
In the Dominican Republic the people have evolved politically from a fringe outside the parties of the system, looking for answers to their problems. Deceived and frustrated in the electoral period, they gave their allegiance to another party outside the system, only to suffer new deceptions and frustrations. That is the experience since the execution of Trujillo, 35 years ago. The workers and the popular masses in general are not anchored to the left, since the left has not presented itself as a viable challenger for power. Repression has played its part in this, but the causes go further back: it is necessary to underline the fact the people have been allowed to engage only in limited struggles and not in political actions. And that in its turn is a consequence of an absence of theory on how to work for the revolution in the specific conditions of the Dominican Republic. Thus, at times of rapid expansion of popular and revolutionary struggle, many groups of the left or the leftist groups of against the flow of the process.
Since its foundation, the PCT has tried to assimilate the experiences of the movement and to work in a different way, integrating into its activity all the forms of organisation and of struggle which the present conjuncture dictates. The party's continual effort is directed towards creating a particular kind of militant, the Leninist, the people's tribune who goes into the streets when the struggle takes the form of street demonstrations, who integrates himself into the electoral campaign and votes when that is conjuncturally appropriate, and who is also prepared to take up arms and fight to the death against oppression when conditions demand it.
This is the type of militant who contributes to the revolution. He concerns himself with the daily preoccupations of the masses, but not only that: -he sees further ahead and always puts politics as the point of departure.

III. The revolution can grow
In the country, good possibilities are opening up for the accumulation of revolutionary forces; economic problems are hitting the people particularly hard. Moreover, we are witnessing a change of generations at the level of political leadership which goes alongside a recomposition of our forces. The regime in power is revealing itself as more and more obsolete, excluding popular sectors from any say, and rendering them more aware of the necessity of struggle in order to effect political change. All this is objective.
The conjuncture is altering the balance of forces in our favour, and is opening up wider possibilities for popular and revolutionary struggle. The Dominican revolution can grow.
Now is posed the question as to what is our state of mind in relation to these special circumstances. Our response is speedy: let us not hesitate to push forward the revolution, basing our ideas and our actions on the people, and promoting a platform of political and social changes which express an alternative to the agenda of the ruling classes and imperialism; let us start to develop a new national leadership and fight with our faces turned towards power. Let us put into action a vigorous mass political movement.
Let us go forward, as tribunes of the people. The revolution is today.