In relation to the proposition of the Coordinating Committee for the tasks of the International Conference of Santo Domingo

I.
In the Santo Domingo Conference, our party had to read a document which sanctioned its intervention in the conference and which summarised its point of view with regard to the document of the Coordinating Committee on the situation of the workers' movement, posing tactical tasks for Marxist-Leninists. For technical reasons we have not been able to make the document known. That is why we are publishing this intervention as our contribution to the debate.

II.
Since the Communist Proclamation of Quito (August 1994) which put on record a summary of the general principles of the class struggle and the proletarian revolution, the task which immediately arose from this was to ascertain that Marxist-Leninist parties and organisations had really understood these principles, that they had effectively assimilated them, and that they were ready to put them in practise with the acceptance of a form of control adequate to the real situation, a form of control which had to be determined by and submitted to everyone in order to be agreed upon. Without this, no list of tactical tasks makes sense, and it would be very dangerous for the movement if it defined tactical tasks without any guarantee of their being carried out.
The document entitled "International Communist Movement: Objectives, principles, methods and tasks (this means general tasks)" is a contribution from the Communist Party of Benin recalling principles and method. We think that it is necessary to spread among the international proletariat such an understanding in order to teach the parties what their international tasks are. The parties which really want to base themselves on Marxist-Leninist positions will naturally face the necessity of mutual control among the parties, control based on the practise of criticism and self-criticism. Without this, sanctions will appear arbitrary and the International Conference will not be able to position itself correctly in relation to the proletariat and other workers deceived in one way or another. Anyway, with the methods and principles observed, it would be a mistake to think that parties which are today integrated with other groups cannot become united in the future with the International Conference. This does not mean having illusions about one or another party as it appears today. But we must not underestimate the pressure of the proletarian masses and other workers on the leaderships of the parties which represent them. What is important is that the real communists continue being active in these parties in order to deepen from the inside the struggle for principles and method. It is important to take into account the fact that the old parties, whether revisionist or not, have more experience than the young Marxist-Leninist parties.
In the Proclamation of Quito there is written this celebrated phrase from the Communist Manifesto: "The communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but its chains. They have a world to win."
When we talk of a common tactic, we are talking of a common organisation. We must not forget that we are dealing with an organisation of the proletariat on a world scale. The International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations must not hide its projects or its proposals. Working on a world scale, the International Conference insists on the triumph of the world proletarian revolution with minimal grief. In effect the proposal of every International is the world proletarian revolution. If any International achieves another historical objective, this does not change anything with regard to its principles. With time, the fundamental principles have become more precise and more practical. Since the second congress of the Third International, the fundamental principles of the Communist International have been: the dictatorship of the proletariat and the power of the soviets, synonymous with the world proletarian revolution.
In the 2nd issue of the review "Unity and Struggle", the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador quotes these words of Lenin: "The revolution cannot be made without organisation". We have to confess here that we were mistaken before during the early days of our party when we talked of making the revolution. Since then in saying that it is the masses who make the revolution and the party which brings them consciousness, we have corrected to some degree our use of concepts. Nevertheless from time to time we continue talking about making the revolution and we think that we should see this as a distortion. What we must keep in mind is that the International Conference must organise the world proletarian revolution, the world republic of soviets and the dictatorship of the proletariat.
What is necessary in terms of general tasks? The answer to this will follow in the next section, paraphrasing Lenin (Works, p.31 and onwards, Progress Publishers):

III.
The victory of socialism, first stage of communism, over capitalism demands from the proletariat, the only truly revolutionary class, that it fulfils the following three tasks:
The first task: to defeat the exploiters and in the first place the big bourgeoisie of the developed capitalist countries, the bourgeoisie of the underdeveloped countries and of imperialism, and the principle economic and political representatives of the exploiters; to inflict on them total defeat; to crash their resistance; to prevent any attempt, whatever it may be, to restore imperialist domination, the yoke of capital and wage slavery.
The second task: to attract and to lead towards the revolutionary vanguard of the proletariat, the communist party, not only all the proletariat or the immense majority of it, but also the whole mass of labourers and victims of capital; to instruct them, organise them and educate them in the development of a brave and firm struggle undertaken in a spirit of sacrifice against the exploiters; to eradicate the subordination of the majority of the population in every capitalist country towards the bourgeoisie, and to inspire confidence in the leading role of the proletariat and of its revolutionary vanguard thorough practical experience.
The third task: to neutralise or to render harmless the various vacillations between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, between bourgeois or liberal democracy and soviet power, which can appear in the class of small proprietors in agriculture, and in industry and commerce, which are still today very numerous in almost every country.
And Lenin adds: "The first and the second of these tasks are independent tasks which each require particular forms of action as much in relation to the exploiters as to the exploited. The third comes out of the first two and does not need anything more than a combination, timely and flexible, of the methods employed for the realisation of the first two tasks, in function of the concrete circumstances of the various types of vacillation."
Then Lenin later insists on the role of the vanguard party of the working class, its role as educator, and in the role of the soviets as a place of education and of practical experience for the socialist education for the working masses, above all the proletariat.

IV.
Two dangers face us which we must identify and warn against absolutely. The first is to avoid our Conferences being no more than an opportunity for tourism or for sheltering any organisation which merely wishes to give itself the title of communist in its country. In view of everything that has just been said, quality is more important than quantity. That is why we always insist on the quality of the membership; a quality verifiable through publications (e.g. party publications, above all its internal publications) , as much as on terrain of the struggle. We must not forget that the bourgeoisie knows how to denigrate effectively false communists and their organisations. If it wants to show that it is different, it requires great authority and a great influence among the working masses. The organisation will only be able to prove these qualities if it has the capacity among other things to spread widely international literature in its country. If not, they will leave innumerable masses of workers -who are not deaf to soviet ideas- to the mercy of the bourgeoisie and false communists. Here we are talking about a danger from the right which will appear differently in different parties. It relates, in one way or another, to the crushing of bourgeois and revisionist ideology.
The second danger consists on the part of false communists of not looking for adequate methods to reach the masses under their control, giving themselves the means of proclaiming speedily and openly before the world their communist nature, as much at the level of party organisation as among its members; one must give oneself the possibility of speaking to the proletariat and other labourers wherever one finds them; of using where it is necessary compromise without braking one's principles; of stating openly to the revisionists one's opposition to their strategy and tactics, knowing that those members of the proletariat within their organisations will receive our message. Here we are dealing with a problem of custom; we are faced with leftist demonstrations while the real problem is the fear of the legal struggle.
At the present moment the movement needs above all the open discussion of Marxist analyses of present problems based on doctrine. It is necessary to take once again the initiative towards the bourgeoisie and to beat it on the terrain of theory. There we have a partial objective of the organisation as it is being built, an objective which whatever it costs must be reached because it is only through this that the necessary authority can be won. Without defining the internationalist dimension of the building of the world republic of soviets, it is not possible to define a strategy and tactic which takes into account the present balance of forces, the global strategy of imperialism and the particular strategies of the various imperialist powers; the forces of the proletariat and its allies, the vacillating elements, etc.; it is not possible to know how to define the inevitable theoretical tasks for the resumption of the initiative on the part of the proletariat and its vanguard; it is not possible to renew the lessons of the Paris Commune or of its last manifestation, the soviets; it is not possible to examine carefully the laws and methods of organisation of revolutionaries alongside recent scientific and technical advances; moreover, it is not possible to examine new demands which are raised and which will bring in new elements and new tactics for the next class struggles.

V.
To summarise, we would say that in order to meet truly proletarian methods of organisation we must take firmly into account the actual living movement and be aware that we are dealing with an empirical combat which brings into our position the two fundamentally opposed classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, and that this conflict is also played out according to geographical frontiers. We must be aware of the proletariat's objectives and of its general strategy, and through everyday immediate struggles we must be able to determine with confidence the tactics which will enable us to take forward the revolutionary struggle achieving partial objectives on the road to our strategic objectives which are: the construction of the world republic of soviets and the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Now what do we observe? The forgetting of this general method; confusing, in the literature, objectives with methods. The third section of the present document containing Lenin's teachings shows to us how to look at this problem. To untangle this confusion is not a simple task. Our experience shows us that it needs a great deal of perseverance and patience on the part of the leaders and the cadres. The composition of the party with its large proportion of petty bourgeois elements has some bearing on the problem, while in relation to us, the bourgeoisie correctly makes a distinction between the two things.
In practise sovietism greatly preoccupies us. At the present moment there is a general obliviousness in our party about the soviets. The form that the soviets take in every country is very important. We have talked about three forms and we think that these are made and unmade everyday in the concrete struggle and if they are not observed, sustained and channelled by revolutionaries then the situation in general will be allowed to develop incorrect ways. The description of the real situation of the soviets is only possible with the help of bourgeois writers and more generally of people who do not have any pretensions to communism. A minimum of effort from a communist will enable him/her to put things in order in such a way that the use of various materials will make us more convincing and more credible. And in relation to this, the communists of the developed capitalist countries must play an important role.
Whatever level, a form of soviet will materialise in a country through a revolutionary crisis and will permit progress towards socialism. This must be the main preoccupation of all revolutionaries now. In doing so they must use the latest discoveries of science in order to improve their organisation without tagging along behind the bourgeoisie. We have just said that everyone has forgotten sovietism. Look at the document of the synthesis of the Coordinating Committee; there is not a single word there about this question. Only the assimilation of doctrine allows us to remember essential things without preoccupying ourselves with secondary questions. It is in sovietism that we can find the dictatorship of the proletariat and of the peasantry, or the dictatorship of the proletariat according to the country and the level of its development. If one can find a common denominator in the struggles of the proletariat of every country, and as a result a common aspect to tactics, propaganda, agitation and instructions for the soviets is necessary to understand details. It is necessary to distinguish between the situation of the colonies (some still remain in the world) from that of the near colonies and dependent countries and that of the developed capitalist countries; in all these countries the general stance should consist of calling for the building of soviets, while in the old socialist countries it should consist of the effort to reconstruct the soviets. Naturally, everything depends on the level reached by propaganda before arriving at the formulation of directives for the people. A deep and detailed analysis of the situation and the publicising of its results is sufficient. Without this, exhortations to join the struggle against the national bourgeoisie, raised today in many texts in which we find in the document of the Committee, seem to us to lack perspectives and rigour. To engage in the present context in a significant struggle against opportunism, reformism and revisionism is impossible without propaganda arising from struggles for sovietism. In the analysis of scientific progress and particularly in the analysis of the consequences of the scientific and technical revolution we can see that the communist parties of the developed countries insist much more on the mess, the anarchy of production rather than on the demands to be made on behalf of the proletariat in those countries and, above all, on behalf of the oppressed people. This attitude is essentially populist especially when it makes no demand for progress in the control of the means of communication and of organisation on the part of the working class.
Another reflection on present problems makes us point out the singular fact that the struggle for access to scientific and technological information on the one hand, and on the other hand the struggle for rebirth of sovietism constitute the real points of demarcation between the proletarian and non-proletarian parties. The immediate struggle for these two objectives is the only one which can assure the future of the proletarian movement. The understanding of this struggle and its development leads the proletariat to search for everything needed for further struggles; to speak openly and directly to those groups around the treacherous or reactionary parties, and for the well being of the proletariat and the people salvaging from them their anti-imperialist aspects.
To speak clearly, we need to be convinced that the parties integrated in the International Conference desire only to be truly communist, anti-revisionist and anti-reformist. Outside of this nothing distinguishes us fundamentally from the other groupings. We need a correct revolutionary programme based on sovietism and the practical principles of proletarian organisation perhaps we have to wait the necessary time in order to arrive at such an organisation. In any case, the authority of that organisation and its influence on the working masses and the youth depends on that. The task is not going to be easy; we will have to overcome the force of routine which has been generated during these last decades, a great force of inertia, prejudice, and lack of confidence which has introduced inadmissible wrong ideas in proletarian meetings. The bourgeois intelligentsia who do no more than practice empirical criticism seem more capable than ourselves. Now we must give them a positive and educative example if we want to help them to be influenced by our better method. Now we are considering the negative experience of the proletariat during this period.
Basing our activities on the assimilation of the Marxist-Leninist principles and methods as much as on the practical resolution of the outstanding great problems (sovietism and proletarian organisation with the utilisation of the latest discoveries of science -we cannot instruct or educate without that-), we must found an international organisation which will silence the reactionaries and the opportunists of every shades and which will inspire the workers, labourers and the people, which will mobilise, organise and galvanise them for the triumph of the world proletarian revolution.

Long live Marxism-Leninism!
Long live the unity of the proletariat of all countries!
Long live friendship between peoples!