ACB Delegate Report from the 7th Congress of the Communist Party of Mexico (PCM)

February 17, 2023

Baseline Information

Delegate: Philip Thomas (IL)

Location: Mexico City, Mexico

Dates: December 16, 17, & 18, 2022

Preface: The contents of this report are compiled almost exclusively from memory, and its contents were written entirely on 12/18/2022. The author has made a concerted effort to make sure that all of the details contained within this report are entirely true and to not include information that may be considered conjecture. This report is not to be considered an exhaustive account of every excruciating detail between 12/16 and 12/18, but the delegate believes that this report sufficiently covers the major essential takeaways from this experience.

General Summary of the Delegate’s Experiences

During the month of November, our organization received an invitation from the Communist Party of Mexico (PCM) to attend its 7th Congress in Mexico City. I, Philip Thomas, was selected by the Provisional Central Committee (PCC) of the American Council of Bolsheviks (ACB) to serve as the organization’s one and only delegate to this Congress.

I arrived in Mexico City on the evening of December 15th, where I was met at the airport by two members of the PCM, as well as the only delegate from Marxism-Leninism Today (a U.S.-based Marxist-Leninist online publication). 

On Friday before the Congress began, we were taken on a Communist sightseeing tour. We first visited the location where Mexican Communist Julio Antonio Mella was killed at the age of 25 in 1929. We then had lunch at a La Café Habana where Fidel Castro used to eat when he would travel to Mexico. We then were taken on a tour of the Diego Rivera Anahuacalli Museum, which contained extensive amounts of Communist artwork.

To say that we received a warm and comradely greeting from our comrades in the PCM would be an understatement. Our comrades in the PCM were nothing short of enthusiastic to have our organization represented at their congress, as well as the other two American organizations (ML Today and the Communist Workers’ Platform USA or CWPUSA).

I was asked to give two speeches at the Congress on behalf of the ACB, which I agreed to do. The first was on 12/16 and the second was on 12/18. Both speeches were delivered in Spanish and were followed by significant applause lines, the second of which was followed by a revolutionary chant. The texts of both speeches have been translated into English, included as a component of this article, and are presented in the order in which the speeches were given.

I was immediately struck by the proportion of woman representation (roughly 30% if I had to guess) at the Congress, as well as the representation of sympathetic mass organizations and trade unions with varying levels of ties to the PCM. One could clearly see the firm foundation that the PCM has within the working class of Mexico. It will be a great service to our movement to learn how the PCM has built and is building these ties with the Mexican working class. Approximately 175 people attended the Congress each day.

The following literature was physically obtained by our delegate from the Congress (all in Spanish):

  • Vidas Consagradas a la Lucha: Lenin (Sacred Lives to the Struggle: Lenin)
  • Programa del PCM (Program of the PCM)
  • Los Cuatro Primeros Congresos de la Internacional Comunista (The First Four Congresses of the Comintern)
  • Lenin (a biography)
  • Eurocomunismo y socialismo (Eurocommunism and Socialism)
  • El Marxismo-Leninismo, doctrina viva y eficiente (Marxism Leninism, a living and efficient doctrine)
  • El Machete April 2021 booklet entitled “La lucha de clases internacional, los antagonismos imperialistas y los cambios en la correlación de fuerzas (The international class struggle, the imperialist antagonisms, and the changes in the correlation of forces)
  • Materiales del VII Congreso del PCM (Materials of the 7th Congress of the PCM)
  • El Comunista December 2022 booklet (their theoretical publication)
  • Vidas consagradas a la lucha de los Estados Unidos: Gus Hall y Henry Winston (Sacred lives to the struggle: Gus Hall and Henry Winston)
  • 2 copies of the El Machete December 2020 booklet entitled “Programa de la internacional juvenil comunista” (Program of the Young Communist International)
  • Sobre la historia de la seccion mexicana de la international comunista: de 1919 a la reorganización dirigida por Sen Katayama (On the history of the Mexican section of the Comintern: from 1919 to the reorganization directed by Sen Katayama).
  • Greetings from the CWPUSA to the 7th Congress of the PCM
  • The November 2022 paper edition of El Machete
  • The June 2021 paper edition of El Machete

Communication with Other Organizations

Communist Worker’s Platform USA (CWPUSA): Three delegates of the CWPUSA attended this Congress. As of December, the ACB has been engaging in bilateral meetings with the CWPUSA for several months. This Congress served as an opportunity to further clarify and strengthen relations between our organizations. In our discussions, I explained the birth of our formation, what conditions led to our break from the Party of Communists USA (PCUSA), and the primary work that our organization is currently engaged in.

The communication between our organizations was comradely, and we both expressed a clear desire to continue strengthening our relations beyond bilateral meetings, beginning with joint political work. 

Marxism-Leninism Today (ML Today): One delegate from ML Today attended this Congress. This delegate was an ex-member of PCUSA, who left over concerns with the leadership in that organization, as well as their position on the 2020 bourgeois election, in which the PCUSA’s General Secretary supported voting for Joe Biden as a way to “oppose fascism.”

Communist Party of Mexico (PCM): I was very fortunate to speak with several members of the PCM for extended periods of time. I was informed that the party has approximately 10,000 members nationwide. Those members of the PCM with whom I spoke extensively included but were not limited to:

  1. The General Secretary of the PCM
  2. The Second Secretary of the PCM
  3. The Editor of El Machete, the central organ of the PCM
  4. The two PCM reps responsible for overseeing the American delegation

The primary takeaways from these discussions include but are not limited to:

  1. The PCM is incredibly excited to have established connections with our organization, as well as the 2 other American organizations represented at the Congress. The PCM communicated that they are willing to assist and guide the American Communist movement in any/every possible way. They see a unified Communist movement within North America as an essential task in the march toward socialism-communism. They offer their assistance within this context.
  2. The General Secretary of the PCM informed our delegate that they had received and read the documents which we have produced (known to our comrades in the ACB as “Mass Email 1” and “Mass Email 2”) via our direct contact with the PCM. We were informed that they were impressed by these documents, and they believed that they represented a righteous struggle against the opportunism of the PCUSA.
  3. The PCM broke relations with the PCUSA in February, after the PCUSA’s National Chair, Chris Bovet, lied to the PCM about the PCUSA’s position on the Russo-Ukrainian War, saying that the PCUSA would support the PCM’s position when in reality they were taking the opposite position.
  4. The General Secretary made it clear that a vital weakness they saw in the PCUSA was the almost exclusive dependence on virtual organizing. The comrade mentioned that meeting in person requires great sacrifice in terms of finances and time. However, they made it clear that it is necessary for Communists in America to move away from virtual organizing as much as possible and to begin conducting Party work in person. I voiced the current necessity of the virtual component of our organizing and stressed its current importance and essentiality for the continuation of our work, while also agreeing with the sentiment of moving definitively in the direction of prioritizing in-person meetings and work.
  5. The PCM wants to assist the ACB in its ideological education through the usage of a curriculum, which we have been provided in Spanish.

Communist Party of Cuba (PCC): Two delegates from the PCC attended the Congress, both of whom defined themselves as advisors of the PCC. These delegates had met and worked with both comrades Fidel and Raul Castro.

Worker’s Party of Korea (WPK): One delegate from the WPK attended the Congress and was only present for roughly 30 minutes on the first day. He left soon after presenting greetings to the Congress on behalf of the WPK and said that the WPK and the PCM have a “shared ideal.” He was the representative of the DPRK at the Mexican embassy and had been working in that position since 2015.

Communist Party of the Workers of Spain (PCTE): One delegate from the PCTE attended the Congress, who was the Party’s General Secretary. Over dinner, the comrade talked extensively about the ideological flaws of Maoism, and its eclectic, petty-bourgeois nature. He also talked about the development of the movement in Spain, and mentioned that upon the formation of the PCTE, the party actually shrunk slightly because there were many who ‘didn’t want to build up a new party from scratch.’

Communist Party of Greece (KKE): Two delegates from the KKE attended the Congress, one of whom was the International Secretary of their Party. The comrade was the only delegate who spoke English or Spanish. They seem (rightfully, in my estimation) hesitant about rushing into relations with American organizations, given their bitter experiences with organizations such as the CPUSA and the PCUSA. The KKE has officially broken relations with the PCUSA.

Brazilian Communist Party (PCB): Two delegates from the PCB attended the Congress. The comrade and I had a long discussion explaining the situation of the Communist movement in each of our countries.

Communist Party of Argentina (PCA): One delegate from the CPA attended the Congress.

Communist Party of Peru (Unity) (PCP(U)): One delegate from the PCP(U) attended the Congress. The comrade mentioned the ongoing political struggles in Peru and asked all international delegates to support the PCP(U)’s current participation in the struggles of the working class of Peru.

Popular Rebellion of Argentina (RPA): One delegate from the RPA attended the Congress.

Questions and Answers

Question 1: What does the PCM think about the “International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organizations” (ICMLPO), the Communist Party of Mexico (Marxist-Leninist) (PCMML), and their ideology?

Our direct contact described the ideology of the PCMML as Hoxhaist. They did not go deep into the ideology of the group, but they estimated that they are similar in size to the PCM (around 10,000 members). The PCM has strength in the urban population centers, while the PCMML has most of its strength in the countryside and rural areas. Our direct contact with the PCM said that the policy of the PCM to the PCMML is essentially to “ignore their existence.”

Question 2: How can the ACB help show solidarity with the PCM and build proletarian internationalism?

This process is to begin with the establishment of consistent and frequent communication with the PCM about the developments within the American Communist movement and frequently updating them on the work of our organization. A key first step in this process is the consistent and effective distribution of El Machete in the United States. The comrades also request that we propose article topics for the English section of El Machete, as the PCM wants their English section to be easily consumable by American readers.

Question 3: How does the PCM ideologically educate its membership?

The PCM has built an extensive curriculum for its members, who are required to study the material for an extended period of time on their own, and then engage in live in-person educational sessions over the curriculum. This curriculum has been shared with us but still needs to be translated into English. The PCM has requested that we study the curriculum within our formation and send at least one delegate down every year to attend the aforementioned educational sessions. These sessions are held over the course of multiple days.

Question 4: What recommendations does the PCM have for building a united Communist movement on the North American continent?

The PCM wants to help the three American organizations with representation to build a strong foundation for a Communist Party in the U.S. It was mentioned that unity between our organizations should not be rushed, but that it is ultimately essential for us to operate within the same organizational framework (i.e., the same Party). The PCM sees unity amongst Canadian, American, and Mexican Communists as an essential component of combating the strengthening imperialist alliance between these three capitalist countries.

Question 5: Would the PCM be willing to meet on a regular basis with the ACB to advise it on its progress in order to aid us in reaching our goal of having a congress as soon as we can have one that is legitimate and can serve its purpose?

Yes, enthusiastically so.

ACB Delegate Speech to the 7th Congress of the PCM

Good afternoon, comrades. Thank you to our comrades in the Communist Party of Mexico. We are infinitely grateful to have the opportunity to have representation at this historic Congress. I am a representative of the American Council of Bolsheviks, and I am here with my comrades from the Communist Worker’s Platform U.S.A. and Marxism-Leninism Today. Our group formed in August of this year, and the CWPUSA formed in January of this year.

My comrades and I are very grateful for the opportunity to learn from experienced Communists, to form international connections, and to work together for the building of a movement with the ability to overthrow capitalism and imperialism, and to replace this system with the system of socialism-communism. The U.S. is the heart and center of world imperialism. For this reason, the importance of building a Communist movement in the U.S. cannot be underestimated.

The movement in the U.S. is very weak, especially due to the reasons of opportunism, class collaborationism, individualism, and revisionism. There currently does not exist a strong, revolutionary Communist Party in the U.S., but it is our job to build it. It is not possible to build a successful Communist movement without studying, analyzing, and correcting the problems and questions that have long plagued Communists in the U.S. We know that this congress will serve to strengthen all of the Parties that have representation here.

Our organizations may be very young, but I promise to all of you here that both of our organizations understand the importance of the ideological struggle against counter-revolutionary tendencies. We know the importance that the forming of a revolutionary, anti-revisionist Communist Party has for our comrades in each part of the world. We are ready to assume this task.

Long live the struggle for a Leninist Party in the U.S.!

Long live the 7th Congress of the Communist Party of Mexico!

Long live Marxism-Leninism and the Communist revolution!

Greetings from the ACB Delegate to the 7th Congress of the PCM

From the Provisional Central Committee of the American Council of Bolsheviks (ACB), we greet the 7th Congress of the Partido Comunista de México (PCM) with warm and comradely regards. We are thankful for the invitation to attend the Congress and hope to continue our fraternal and comradely cooperation as ardent Marxist-Leninists.

Although the ACB is a new organization, many of our members have been long supporters of the PCM. They are well aware of the progress that the PCM has made throughout the decades in the task of liberating the proletariat of Mexico. We have been studying the PCM for guidance and cogent political analysis and deeds for a while now. Our organization has taken multiple steps to further our political development, and that necessitates a communal struggle with the PCM.

The Americas have long been the stomping grounds of foreign capital, militaries, and imperialists. Mexico is not divorced from this history, and we U.S. Communists are acutely aware of the U.S.’s contribution to the brutal subjugation of the Americas via gross and exploitative imperialism. We U.S. Communists know wholeheartedly of the historic task ahead of us to take down the Goliath of U.S. capitalism – and it is a task that necessarily involves the PCM due to our shared history and ideology of Marxism-Leninism. It is the belief of the ACB that an association with all Communists throughout the Americas is not only of great interest and importance but an absolute necessity. Indeed, an international alliance with all ardent Marxist-Leninists is required for our movement to succeed.

The liberation of the proletariat in Mexico is a historic and necessary task that the PCM has ardently, painfully, and earnestly sacrificed for. We are grateful to have comrades of such caliber so close to home. We eagerly await the events of the 7th Congress and wish all comrades of the PCM the absolute best in all their works.

Solidarity forever,

The Provisional Central Committee of the American Council of Bolsheviks