Organization

The Sole Weapon of the Oppressed

Philosophers have only interpreted the world, the point however is to change it.

Danishwaroun nay sirf dunya ko samjha hai, asal maqsad dunya ko tabdeel karna hay.

Some people say, “it is all very well of talking of uniting the poor to fight against the rich.  We agree with everything you say, but it is not possible in Pakistan.  The rich are too powerful and they have all the wealth, arms, knowledge, and connections.  On the other hand, poor people have nothing.  How can poor people who have absolutely nothing possibly defeat the rich who have every imaginable privilege and power?”  The answer is,

He who is unafraid of death by a thousand cuts will unseat the emperor.

The relation of the workers to the capitalists is just like a fight between an elephant and ants.  An individual ant is no match for an elephant.  With each stroke the elephant can kill thousands of ants.  Yet, the ants are so numerous that eventually they crawl all over the body of the elephant and compel the elephant to surrender.  This is called “death by a thousand little cuts.” 

Similarly, an individual worker is no match for a capitalist.  With each stroke the capitalists can kill thousands of workers.  Yet, the workers are much more numerous.  Think about it, every day a worker rises to give a capitalist tea and breakfast, a worker drives the capitalist to the factory, a worker opens the gate of the factory, another office worker brings all the ready made files and reports to the capitalist which the capitalist barely glances at and signs, hundreds of workers toil in the factory for the profit of the capitalist.  During the day, workers take care of and raise the children of the capitalist-class.  In the evening when the capitalists go out for “entertainment” workers serve them food and drinks.  When capitalists fight with each other over profit or monopoly of a market, even here workers do the fighting for them.  The capitalists are totally dependent on workers.  Although individual workers are dependent on capitalists, the capitalist class as a whole is totally dependent on the services of the working-class.  If the working-class unites against the capitalists, they can compel them to surrender just like the ants and the elephant.  That is why our party says, “he who is unafraid of death by a thousand cuts can unseat the emperor.”

Organization is the source of all power

It is not enough to lay down the principles of Unity.  In order to change the world, the workers need a rock solid organization.  The fact is that poorly organized forces succumb to better-organized forces.  This is the law in the natural world, where species that are unable to organize to defend themselves against predators perish.  This is also true for human history, where poorly organized communities and societies are enslaved and at times wholly eliminated by better-organized forces.   In our own history we see that 10,000 highly organized British officers were able to enslave 300,000,000 Indians.  Today a small but supremely well-organized ruling-class in the USA is able to subjugate the rest of the world. Better-organized classes defeat poorly organized classes.  In conclusion, workers can become free if they learn the lesson that organization is the source of all power. In the battle against the ruling class the workers have no other weapon but organization. 

The reason why the workers of Pakistan lost in all previous battles against the ruling-class is because they did not possess a rock solid revolutionary party.  The revolutionary party is key to future success.  The revolutionary party is constructed by painstaking work and understanding the four principles of organization. Vanguard, Disciplined, Connected, Centralized.

I.

Vanguard

Role of the Revolutionary Intelligentsia and Battle Hardened Workers

 The working class has many organizations.  Trade unions, cultural organizations, community based self-help organizations, and so on, are some examples of workers organizations.   But these are not constructed along the lines of a revolutionary organization.  Consequently they are not revolutionary organizations.  The revolutionary party is not an ordinary organization of the working-class.  The party is the highest form of all forms of organization and its mission is to guide all the other organizations of the working class.  That is why we call it the vanguard organization of the working class.

The party must be armed with the most advanced knowledge of human society.  It must be armed with theory of Marxism-Leninism.  The party must have knowledge of the life, the laws of development of society, and the laws of development of class struggle.  The party must be class-conscious and have experience of the revolutionary movement.  Only when the party has command over the knowledge of society and class struggle is it in a position to lead and direct the struggle of the entire working-class and all its organizations to victory.  Therefore, any attempt to belittle or depreciate the leading role of the party weakens all the other organizations of the working-class that are guided by the party and consequently the entire working-class struggle is weakened and disarmed. 

In this particular document we have tried to summarize and simplify some of the basic principles of class struggle.  But these are not enough.  The party must have the ability to apply these general principles to the concrete conditions of life of every country.  The basic principle that every class-consciousness worker needs to grasp is that every idea, every action, every ideology, every organization is built to benefit a certain class.  Therefore, workers need to ask one basic question every time they confront any situation in their lives.  The basic question is “Which class of people does this idea or action benefit?”  The work of the party is to expose the class roots of all ideas in society and to consolidate a workers movement on the basis of those ideas that are based on the truth and working class struggle.  Thus, the task of the vanguard party is first and foremost to expose the class base of other ideologies and organizations and on that basis chart a course for the working-class revolution.  The task of the party is to educate the entire working class to the level of the vanguard party and to lead the working class to victory.  But the question is “where can the workers find such knowledgeable individuals?”  They can be found from two sources: the revolutionary intelligentsia and battle hardened workers.

In every society a special segment of the population is separated from the general work of production to perform of the role of thinkers.  Their role in society is not to engage in the direct process of production but to conceive, think, reflect, ponder, contemplate, study, examine, research and analyze all the different elements of society.  This group of individuals are called the intelligentsia (danishwar).  In a society divided between rich and poor, the intelligentsia (danishwar) are also trained by the rich and serve the rich.  They not only develop new scientific discoveries, they also develop ideologies through which the rich can control the poor.  However, as the process of scientific inquiry and human understanding develops, a tiny section of the intelligentsia (danishwar) begins to scientifically uncover the economic basis of the exploitation of the working class.  They begin to understand the laws of class struggle and history.  They begin to unravel all the different mechanisms through which the ruling class is able to control the working class.  As they uncover this truth, the truth makes them more and more revolutionary minded.  Thus, a small portion of the intelligentsia that has grasped the scientific basis of exploitation and class struggle becomes the revolutionary intelligentsia (inqalabi danishwar).  In other words, they are class traitors to the capitalist class.

The revolutionary intelligentsia plays a very important role in bringing a scientific understanding of the dynamics of history and class struggle to the entire working class.  The fact is that the deeper the depth of knowledge of the revolutionary intelligentsia, the greater their loyalty to the working class. That is why the greatest leaders of the workers of the world have been the greatest intellectual minds of the last two centuries.  For example, Marx, Engels, and Lenin were all from privileged backgrounds, but their vast knowledge about the capitalist system forms the basis of the principles of class struggle of all the workers of the world today.  Thus, on the one hand, workers must learn to distinguish genuine revolutionary intellectuals from impostors, and on the other hand, safeguard and learn from genuine revolutionary intellectuals.  But it is not necessary that revolutionary intellectuals come exclusively from privileged backgrounds.  Workers who have been hardened by many years of class struggle posses an extraordinary instinct and natural understanding of the dynamics of society.  Battle hardened workers are an invaluable asset of the working class movement.  Thus, the leadership of the working class (the vanguard) should be composed of the most knowledgeable and revolutionary elements recruited from the revolutionary intelligentsia and battle hardened workers.

Strategy and Tactics

In order to lead the workers movement, the vanguard must be fully aware of the strategy and tactics of political movements.

Strategy – Strategy refers to the broad goals of the movement.  The strategy is to fight for the oppressed against the oppressor.  Thus, the strategy of the movement is to organize workers and peasants, win the middle as a strong friend, neutralize the national capitalists and rich peasants, and overthrow the ruling class of civil military bureaucrats, big capitalists, and feudal lords.

Tactics – A child must learn to walk before he can run.  Similarly, big strategic task cannot be accomplished without taking small steps.  These small steps are called tactics.  Some people think that tactics are not important.  When differences over tactics arise they say, “oh these are just differences of tactics, we are agreed on everything else.”  This is incorrect.  Without correct tactics success cannot be achieved.  Since incorrect tactics lead to failure, differences on tactics are of the most vital importance to a movement.

In any conflict the aim of each side is to break the will of the enemy to resist.  The will of the enemy to resist can be broken only by the growth and unity of the forces at our disposal and the destruction and division of the forces at the disposal of the opposition. The forces at the disposal of the opposition are ideological, political, economic, military, social, organizational, and cultural.  Our tactics should be able to destroy the ideological, political, economic, military, social, organizational, and cultural power of the ruling class and build the power of the working class.  This can be done by correctly applying the principle of the Mass Line. The mass line unites the many to fight the few.  The correct mass line energizes the oppressed classes and isolates and weakens the ruling class.  The most serious mistake in tactics arises from confusing objective reality with the desire of revolutionaries.  One must not regard what is obsolete for us as being obsolete for the class or the masses.  In choosing the appropriate tactics one must soberly observe the actual state of class-consciousness and preparedness of the whole class and of all the toiling masses.  In other words, the mass line must unite the working people and take them along with the revolutionaries.

II.

Disciplined

Professional Revolutionary  

However, knowledgeable a vanguard may be, it can do nothing with that knowledge if it is not organized and disciplined.  Without unity of will, unity of action, and unity of discipline, the knowledge of that vanguard cannot be utilized in a political movement for revolution. Thus, the revolutionary Party is not a mere agglomeration of persons who declare that they are party members.  It is not a group of people without any order, hierarchy, discipline, or organization.  Such a loose group of people can never win any battle.  In a loose group 1 + 1 equals the power of 2.  In an organized group 1 + 1 equals 11.  A loose group of people is like an open hand with all the fingers separated.  A revolutionary party is like a tightly closed fist. 

The revolutionary Party is tightly knit, disciplined, and organized detachment of the working class.  The solidity of this organization depends on the discipline of its members.  Thus, a revolutionary party has a common discipline binding on all members, both leaders and workers.  In a revolutionary party there are no ‘chosen few’ on whom discipline is not binding.  The duties binding on ordinary party member are binding on leading party members.  The heroism, strength of conviction, and resolve of its leadership determine the integrity and unity of the entire party.  Thus, the leadership of a revolutionary working-class party must be imbued with the spirit of sacrifice and struggle.  The leadership must have the capacity to inspire all the working people to fight under its revolutionary banner.  The party must be composed of the finest, most honest, brave, sincere, self-sacrificing, militant and battle-hardened members of the working-class.  The party cannot tolerate even an iota of corruption or dishonesty in its ranks.  The entire working-class is inspired and held together by the heroism and discipline of the party.  Therefore, the party should be composed of rock solid individuals who are ready to sacrifice their lives for the workers.  The hearts of party members must burn with fire, and their nerves must be cool as ice.

Thus, a party member must be a professional revolutionary.  A professional revolutionary is a person who makes revolution his or her profession.  Therefore, they must be ready to subjugate all personal and private matters to the greater interests of the party and the struggle of the working class.  A professional revolutionary must learn all the methods of organization, political mobilization, and most importantly how to safeguard internal information of the party and struggle from the intelligence agencies that are always intriguing to split movements and parties.

It follows that the voluntary and self-imposed discipline of a revolutionary party is extremely strict and borders on military discipline.  Individuals become members of an organization of the party and are obliged to obey party decisions.  Without this form of self-imposed party discipline it is not possible to create real organizational unity.  Thus, the unity of will and unity of action is a product of the unity of discipline of a party.  Whoever weakens the discipline of the party helps the enemies of the party.

In conclusion, the party can lead the revolution of the working class and direct it towards one aim only if all its members are organized in a system of organizations of professional revolutionaries forming one solid common detachment, welded together by unity of will, unity of action, and unity of discipline.

III.

Connected

Mass Organizations and Party Fronts

Some organizations are knowledgeable and also highly committed and disciplined; however, they are not connected with the struggle of the working-class.  Such organizations forget that a revolutionary party is built to serve the working-class.  However fine a vanguard party may be, and however well it may be organized and disciplined, it cannot exist and develop without connections with the non-Party masses.  It cannot grow without constantly multiplying and strengthening these connections.  A party that shuts itself up in its own shell and isolates itself from the masses is bound to lose the confidence and support of the masses.  If the party loosens, slackens or even relaxes its connections with its class, it is bound to perish.  Connections with the masses of people are like nutrition and oxygen for the party.  In order to live to the full and to develop, the party must multiply its connections with the masses and win the confidence of the millions of its class. Thus, the party must be intricately connected to the struggle of the working-class millions.

The party is connected to the working-class millions through mass organizations such as trade unions, peasant committees, student unions, and cultural societies.  Party members work selflessly for the working-class within these mass organizations and establish mass links.  By their honest hard work they attempt to win influence among the broad working population.  In conclusion, party members seek to win the leadership of these organizations by dint of honest hard work and revolutionary farsightedness.  Therefore, generally speaking any platform that helps to build links and connections to the masses should be utilized by the revolutionary party. 

Why Revolutionaries should participate in Reactionary Trade Unions?

Capitalism creates the industrial working-class from diverse and disunited elements.  At first, workers are totally helpless owing to their disunity.  Gradually, workers become aware of their common class interests and form trade unions to bargain for better wages and better working conditions.  Thus, trade unions are the first, most elementary, most simple, and most easily accessible form of class organization of workers.  They are schools for working-class struggle, for a future working-class society, and help to prepare workers for gradually transferring the management of the whole economy to the hands of the working-class.  Therefore, trade unions represent enormous progress for the working-class.

Limitations of Trade Unions

Trade unions are the most elementary form of class organization and the revolutionary party is the highest form of class organization.  Therefore, when workers begin to form a revolutionary party the limitations of trade unions become apparent.  These limitations are that trade unions have a tendency towards becoming inert, non-political, or exclusively focused on their own factory or industry.  Furthermore, employers utilize the services of police-agents, mullahs, and pocket union leaders not only to divide and weaken trade unions but also to ensure that workers do not come in contact with revolutionaries.  These agents of the capitalist class try to create a narrow minded, selfish, hard-hearted, corrupt, covetous, and capitalist minded culture in the workers.  They try to indoctrinate ideas such as the defence of capitalist democracy, the “independence” of trade unions from the revolutionary party, and on the whole try to sabotage working-class discipline.  Moreover, these elements attempt by every means to make the work of revolutionaries in the trade unions as unpleasant as possible.  They insult, bait, and persecute revolutionaries.  Owing to all these limitations of trade unions certain people conclude that revolutionaries should not work in such trade unions.  This is totally incorrect.

Why We Must Participate Even in Reactionary Trade Unions?

The development of the proletariat can only proceed through the trade unions and through their interaction with the party of the working class.  Therefore, to refuse to work in reactionary trade unions means leaving workers under the influence of the agents of the capitalist class, reactionary leaders, police agents, pocket union leaders, and capitalist minded leaders.  To fear the limitations of trade unions, to try to avoid them, or skip them, is the greatest mistake.  It means fearing to assume the role of a revolutionary teacher and leader of workers.  The purpose of the revolutionary teacher and leader of the working class is to destroy the political influence of the agents of the capitalist class and train, educate, enlighten, and draw into new life all the workers and the peasants.

Therefore, boycotting trade unions helps the capitalist class, not the workers.  The party is ready to make any and every sacrifice to overcome all obstacles in order to penetrate the trade unions and establish contact with the working-class.  The party systematically, perseveringly, persistently and patiently continues revolutionary agitation in all institutions, societies, and associations—even the most reactionary—to which workers belong.  The party works in all organizations where the masses are to be found.  And the trade unions are precisely the organizations in which the masses are to be found.  Only by working in these mass organizations can the party help the masses and win their sympathy, confidence, and support.  Further, it is absolute stupidity to make recognition of our party or program a precondition of membership of a trade union.  This damages the influence of the revolutionaries on the masses.  The whole task of the communists is to be able to convince the backward elements by working among them and not to fence themselves off from them by artificial revolutionary slogans.

In conclusion, the revolutionary party relies directly on the trade unions.  Without close contact and the self-sacrificing hearty support of trade unions, it is not possible to lead the workers to victory.  In conclusion, the revolutionary party seeks to gain such broad prestige in the working-class that the controlling bodies of the overwhelming majority of the unions carry out all the instructions of the party even if they are not members of the party.  If the party succeeds in its work of connecting the working class, the movement will develop a flexible, relatively wide, and very powerful working-class apparatus.  With the development of this mass working class apparatus the workers revolution becomes a reality.

The Revolutionary Party and the Peasants

In Pakistan the majority of the working people are peasants.  Approximately 55 of all people live in villages and a great many others are linked to villages through small towns. Therefore, a revolution in Pakistan is impossible without a solid connection with the peasants.  The party has to work actively to promote the struggle against feudalism and large landlords.  The urban workers and the rural workers are the solid base of the revolution in Pakistan.  The party must promote all revolutionary minded peasants and all the struggles of the peasantry. 

In order to achieve this noble task, contact of the revolutionary party with the broad masses of peasants must be established through mass organizations, secret societies, committees, and conferences of peasants.  The party and class conscious workers strive by every means to support, develop and extend these peasant mass organizations in order to be able to learn from people, come closer to them, respond to their needs, promote their best workers, and educate them.  The congresses of peasants committees are the basis of working class democracy and help to unite the working people.  The revolutionary party should send capable working-class leaders to all peasant mass organizations in order to unite the workers and peasants of Pakistan.  In conclusion, the agrarian work of the party can only be carried out through the mass organizations of the peasants.

Why Revolutionaries Should Participate in Capitalist Parliaments and Elections

The capitalist class created the parliamentary system in order to facilitate the work of the capitalist class.  Thus, the parliament is an instrument of capitalist rule.  It follows that the final goal of our party is to dispense with capitalist parliaments and create a peoples parliament.  Some people conclude from this argument that we must not participate in the capitalist parliament.  They argue that we must always boycott parliaments and capitalist institutions because participation in bourgeois institutions corrupts revolutionaries.   This is also incorrect.

Generally speaking, as long as revolutionaries are unable to disperse capitalist institutions with revolutionary institutions, we work inside them to educate workers who are stupefied by the agents of the capitalist class.  Therefore, revolutionaries build a working-class opposition within all capitalist institutions. 

People who argue that parliaments should always be boycotted because they have a corrupting influence on revolutionaries have not understood the tactics of class struggle.  Our goal is to create a new revolutionary society of justice and equality.  Naturally, such a society cannot be created with leaders who are easily corrupted by petty privileges.  In fact, parliament is an excellent test to check the honesty and sincerity of leaders.  The workers can not only create a good incorruptible parliamentary group of convinced, devoted, heroic revolutionaries, they are actively creating an entire society on the basis of equality and justice. 

During ordinary conditions the parliament helps to gauge the measure of success of the workers struggle. During repressive conditions when it is often necessary to hide leaders underground, the development of good, reliable, experienced and authoritative leaders can only be accomplished by combining open parliamentary and trade union activity with the work of distributing Party literature.  Further, at times the tactic of boycott is extremely useful for the working-class.  In a situation where extra parliamentary revolutionary mass action (for example, strikes and agrarian movements) is growing with exceptional rapidity, the tactic of boycott may intensify the revolutionary wave and strengthen the connection of the party with the broad masses. 

In conclusion, the revolutionary party utilizes elections and the parliamentary platform in a revolutionary manner to educate and enlighten the working-class.  The experience of revolutionary movements in the world teaches important lessons.  Experience teaches that the work of dispersing a capitalist parliament is not hindered but facilitated by the presence of a working-class opposition within the parliament. Therefore, participation in elections and the parliament is obligatory for the revolutionary party of the working-class. 

IV.

Centralized

Chain of Command  

A party may be knowledgeable, disciplined, and also connected to the working class but if there is no clear chain of command in the party then the party is unable to take rapid decisions in order to manoeuvre sharply to avoid the rocks and pitfalls in its path.  Without a clear chain of command the party is like a dull knife.  With a clear chain of command the party becomes like a sharp knife.

Therefore, the party is organized on the principle of centralism.  Centralization means that the party structure is hierarchical.  This hierarchical centralism is based on four principles.  Failing these conditions, organizations cannot be transformed into revolutionary parties and cannot carry out its tasks in guiding the class.  The four conditions are:

This centralization ensures that the party functions as a monolith of iron. Thus, the party has one set of rules, a uniform party discipline, and one leading organ—the Party Congress. 

All-Party Congress

The All-Party Congress is the supreme and leading organ of the party.  It has absolute power in all matters concerning the party.  The All-Party Congresses gives all branches and individual members of the party the chance to voice their opinions to the entire party.  The debates and the decisions of the Congress are published for the entire party to read.  Thus, regular All-Party Congresses are the oxygen of democracy in the party.  Through a series of conferences and debates at all levels the All-Party Congress creates the centralized structure of national, provincial, and district committees of the party and sets the general line of the party.

Central Committee

In the interval between the All-Party Congresses, the Central Committee is the leading organ of the party.   The Central Committee is elected during the All-Party Congress and is composed of the most farsighted and dedicated individuals from all over the country.  The Central Committee is like the General Head Quarters (GHQ) or like the brain of the party and works to implement the general line of the Central Committee in the specific conditions of the country.

Provincial Committee

The Central Committee is connected to the Provincial Committees.  The provincial committees are composed of the leading individuals from the entire province.  The provincial committees work to implement the decisions of the Central Committee in the specific conditions of their province.  Therefore, the provincial committees are like the communications department or the nervous system of the body.  They carry the signals of the brain to all the individual parts of the body and translate general decisions into specific signals to specific branches.

District Committee

The Provincial Committees are connected to the District Committees.  The District Committees work to implement the decisions of the Provincial Committee in the specific conditions of their district.  The district committees are the foot soldiers or the arms and legs of the party.  They mobilize the cadres at the ground level and implement decisions.

Mass Organizations

The district committees are connected to Cells that operate within mass organizations.  The cells work to convince the mass organizations and the general population to undertake a certain action. The mass organizations are the weapons in the hands of soldiers or the tools in the arms of the party.  With the assistance of these weapons powerful enemies can be defeated and with the assistance of these tools hard rocks be smashed and great loads be lifted. Thus, the entire structure of the party looks like the following diagram.

Attacks Against the Party

Wherever the workers begin to get organized, certain elements that favour the ruling-class begin to work against organization.  The capitalist class understand that organization is the main weapon of the oppressed.  Thus, they call into question the very principles of organization and try to destroy the centralized leadership of workers organizations. That is why they attack all the four principles of the party and use various ideological tricks to confuse the people.

Attacks on the Vanguard – First, agents of the capitalist class attack and ridicule the revolutionary intelligentsia.  They say that intellectuals can never become leaders of the workers and ‘only workers should lead workers’.  These capitalist elements take great pleasure in pointing out all the personal habits in which revolutionary intellectuals are different from workers.  By doing so, they hope to lower the prestige or ridicule the revolutionary intellectuals in the eyes of the workers.  The fact is that revolutionary ideas first take root among the intelligentsia and then they travel to the workers.  While workers must learn to recognise opportunist intellectuals from genuine revolutionary intellectuals but this does not mean that workers should be opposed to all intellectuals.  Those who promote the philosophy that ‘only workers should lead workers’ help the capitalist class by preventing revolutionary ideas from influencing the working-class.  And by preventing revolutionary ideas from influencing the working-class these elements strengthen the ruling-class.  Such elements cannot be tolerated in our ranks.

Attacks on Party Discipline – Second, agents of the capitalist class attack the discipline of the party.  They say that that party discipline is oppressive and ‘workers need freedom from discipline’.  They argue that capitalism is terrible because it introduces tight discipline, and that similarly, party discipline is like capitalist discipline.  They try to involve party workers in all kinds of secondary and unimportant activities to prevent them from doing their real revolutionary work.  The fact is that capitalist discipline is enforced in order to produce more profit for the capitalist.  Party discipline is voluntarily accepted in order to overthrow the capitalist system.  Without discipline it is not possible to overthrow the ruling-class.  Therefore, whoever weakens party discipline and undermines the iron unity and iron discipline of the party helps the capitalists against the workers.  Such elements cannot be tolerated in our ranks.

Attacks on the Connections of the Party – Third, the agents of the capitalist class attack the connections of the party to mass organizations.  They understand that without connections to the mass of people the party cannot grow or lead the mass of workers.  Thus, they discourage people from working in trade unions, student organizations, peasant organizations and other mass fronts.  They point out weaknesses within mass fronts and try to convince revolutionaries from not working in these organizations.  Thus, they seek to sever the connection of the revolutionaries with the masses.  The fact is that mass fronts are like oxygen and food for the party.  The party cannot recruit new cadres or lead the mass of the working people without engaging in mass fronts.  We cannot build a revolutionary society from human material created by our imagination, but with the material given to us by capitalism. This is very difficult but no other approach to this task is serious enough to deserve discussion.  Thus, any attack on the connection of the party to mass fronts is like cutting the oxygen and food of the party.  Such elements cannot be tolerated in our ranks.

Attacks on Centralization – Fourth, the agents of the capitalist class attack the centralization of the party.  They claim that a centralized party structure is undemocratic.  They say that centralized parties impose a ‘dictatorship of the leaders’ where the workers have no voice.  They say that if such a centralized party comes to power, it will lead to a terrible dictatorship.  Instead of a “top down party” they say they wish to create a “bottom up party”.  The fact is that the masses are divided into classes.  Each class has a separate party that is led by a stable group of leaders (Masses – Class – Party – Leaders).  Without a stable group of leaders, it is not possible to organize a party to lead the revolutionary class.  Revolutionary experience teaches the workers that without good leaders the workers have nothing.  Those who talk of a ‘dictatorship of the leaders’ only wish to substitute the party leadership for their own leadership.  It is true that at times party leaders make mistakes and even display undemocratic attitudes, however, this does not mean that the very concept of leadership and centralization should be called into question.  All political parties and political movements are built “top down” and not “bottom up” because those people who are politically conscious take the initiative and organize the rest of the people.  Since they take the initiative and have the courage to organize the people, they become leaders whom the people love, admire, respect, and protect.  Such leaders are precious and deserve our hearty support.

These capitalist elements often say, “if we have too much centralism we will not have democracy, and if we have too much democracy we will not have centralism.”  Thus, they hold the opinion that centralization is the opposite of democracy and they equate decentralisation with democracy.  In fact, this thinking is influenced by the capitalist philosophy of liberalism that equates decentralisation with democracy.  When revolutionaries talk of democratic centralism we do not mean decentralised centralism.  That would be a self-contradictory term.  By democratic centralism revolutionaries mean a voluntarily accepted centralism.  This centralism is obtained by holding regular party congresses in which unity of thought, unity of discipline, and unity of action is obtained by discussion and debate.  Thus, democracy leads to centralism and centralism is the expression of the unity of the party and the unity of the workers.  Opportunism elements that try to undermine the principle of centralization cannot be tolerated among our ranks.

Those who attack the party spirit by attacking its vanguard, discipline, connections, or centralization help the ruling class.  These elements hold back the growth of the party by spreading confusion.  Therefore, when such elements are thrown out of the party, the party becomes stronger. 

In conclusion, organization is the source of power.  A revolutionary party is built on four principles.