Approved by the ACB’s General Membership
Preface: New Spark is publishing the Immediate Tasks of the ACB, a document approved in April 2023 by the ACB’s membership that outlines the formation’s immediate work. As of the publication of this article, all tasks have a scheduled completion date of November 9th, 2023. Should the dates for any of these tasks change, this article will be updated accordingly.
Task 1: Organize the ACB on an Industrial/Economic Basis
Who: The Provisional Central Committee of the ACB (PCC)
What: Organizational structure and rules of operation, including the Congress structure
When: Alongside tasks 2 and 3, to be completed on or before November 9th, 2023.
Where: Internal communication systems and in-person
Why: One of the main differences is organizing the party on an economic/shop/factory basis, versus the Menshevik/reformist/social-democrat method of organizing on locality, this method critical to a successful party.
How: Discussions on the topic of how to achieve this. What is necessary? What are we missing? What can we attain with our current resources? This plan should naturally require discussion on how New Spark fits in, as New Spark will be a key component. After this discussion, a draft plan must be published in New Spark. Membership will have 1 month after it is published to criticize and put forth resolutions to modify it to be held at a weekly meeting in this time period. Once it is voted on, we will hold elections in the ACB and begin to organize ourselves around the plan and publish the structure (without names) and rules in a pamphlet/book to distribute to all members new and old in physical and digital form.
Update: In August of 2023, the PCC indefinitely postponed work on task 1 until the completion of task 3. This was done to ensure sufficient focus on the essential work of the ACB’s draft program.
Task 2: Begin the Transformation of New Spark from an E-Newspaper to a Bolshevik Press Organization
Who: PCC, in concert with New Spark Editorial Board
What: The primary tool/means of production for a communist party
When: Side-by-side with task 1, to be completed on or before November 9th, 2023.
Where: Internal communication systems and in-person
Why: The party paper may have been the primary method of communicating to the entire population in 1917, but radio and television quickly followed after this and gave the bourgeoisie an advantage over the proletariat and strengthened its cultural hegemony. Today there are even more avenues of communicating in broadcast and on-demand technological methods, but far fewer people it seems who read the communist press.
How: We must find the primary function the party paper served based on its method/mode of operation in history. How party members used it, how the readers interacted with it, how it was distributed, how new events shaped the writing and direction of the papers, and how the interaction from the readers shape the writing and direction. We must also investigate current bourgeois press methods, even the nasty dirty ones we despise such as clickbait and disinformation. Once we determine this, we can and must then distill the paper to its essential functions. Once we have this, we can plan for how to grow New Spark to fulfill these essential functions using today’s technology. The distribution of and agitation via New Spark must be done both in-person and digitally.
Task 3: Publish a Provisional Party Program, Provisional Party Constitution, and Points of Unity
Who: Directed by the PCC, but involves the entire ACB
What: Ideological basis, strategy, and tactics of our future party
Subpoint 1: Organizational, structural, and procedural basis of our future party
When: ASAP, alongside task 1, to be completed on or prior to November 9th, 2023
Where: Internal communication systems
Why: A program, or platform as some call it, is a foundation of any political party. This tells everyone outside of us who we are, why we exist, and what our ideology is today. This also serves as a plan of work for the party until the next congress. While there are many things that are important to cover in this work, developing a better understanding and practice of democratic centralism is needed to ensure the future development of communism as a specific point of concern given our experiences in PCUSA.
Subpoint 1: The provisional constitution will serve as the foundation for our party’s first constitution, which will be crafted at our founding national convention. A constitution is required as it lays out the various procedures, rules, and organization for our party, which allows the Party to function.
How: The organization and development of a Communist program require historic research into past parties, as well as ideological work to make sure that the ACB does not skip anything it may be blind to. This work will be dependent upon the first 2 tasks in order to be effective, as organizing work that utilizes New Spark to grow an understanding of the current political situation through practice is necessary for a correct understanding of our political situation. Else we risk isolating ourselves and coming off as sectarian to our audience in New Spark and in the world as a whole. The PCC will organize conversations, debates, discussions, conferences, etc. to discover the topics the program must cover for our success, and then organize this work into a program through this work. This will require having educational classes on certain subjects that are coordinated with the Institute for Marxist-Leninist Education (IMLE). It will then refine this program to a final draft. The draft itself will have its own discussion period where there will be open criticism of the document. During this time there will also be a form made available to congress delegates for submitting resolutions to modify the draft program. These resolutions are distributed to the entire membership for discussion, and the membership should direct any points of criticism toward their representative. At a TBD party congress, representatives will vote on the resolutions, and then a final vote will be made on the complete program and establish the ACB as a proper party. Provisional Points of Unity shall also be drafted during this time.
Subpoint 1: The PCC will appoint the necessary person(s) to draft and develop a first draft of a provisional constitution. In our case, a leading comrade has already started the process of developing a draft constitution. After collective feedback, investigation, and criticism by all ACB membership, a second and final draft of the provisional constitution should be developed. This final draft will then be voted on by the PCC as the organizational framework for our party. All members are allowed to submit their critiques and suggestions of the provisional constitution, but it will only be approved by a majority vote at a PCC meeting.
All 3 documents will be available in print versions once completed.
Task 4: Publish Our PCUSA Polemic That Exposes PCUSA as a Counter-Revolutionary Force in the Communist Movement
Who: Editorial board for the polemic, with oversight by the PCC
What: A polemic that explains why revolutionary-minded people should not join PCUSA and urges them to join with the ACB for revolutionary communism. This will include the organizational and ideological history of the PCUSA with the purpose of contextualizing that Party’s role within the current American Communist movement.
When: To be published via New Spark on or prior to November 9th, 2023.
Where: Internal communication systems
Why: To justify the existence of the ACB and our split with PCUSA, as well as to prevent the counter-revolutionary force of PCUSA to continue to grow and fester in the communist movement
How: Editorial staff to complete the work set out for them based on an outline approved by the PCC. Member contributions and criticism can continue up to the final draft of the document.