American Council of Bolsheviks

The Birth of the American Council of Bolsheviks

February 7, 2023

by the Provisional Central Committee of the American Council of Bolsheviks

Introduction

            The American Council of Bolsheviks (ACB) was officially formed on the early morning of 8/12/2022 in the fires of ideological struggle within the PCUSA. Throughout that struggle, the ACB created a center of Marxism-Leninism inside of, and later outside of, the PCUSA. After a series of events, including lies and deceit from PCUSA leadership before, during, and after the split, mass resignations, and even the threat of lawsuits after ACB was formed, the ACB successfully split and constituted itself as its own formation. The following two statements, dubbed by our membership as ‘Mass Email 1’ (released publicly and to the membership of the PCUSA on 8/15/2022) and ‘Mass Email 2’ (released to the PCUSA’s email list on 8/21/2022) represent this struggle both as it was beginning and as it developed.

The two statements are republished here for a few reasons. Firstly, it is prudent to disseminate these statements to provide transparency and historical context as to how the split from PCUSA took place. Secondly, it is of the utmost importance to ensure that for our posterity these statements are not lost upon the American Communist Movement, and can be accessed freely, accurately, and openly. Finally, these statements allow us to gauge our history; where we have come from, and where we are going.

The ACB always endeavors to provide the working class with cogent, truthful, and accurate information. As such, the following two statements are republished here in their entirety, save for a few grammatical, textual, and spelling errors which have been fixed. The spirit and substance of the text remain completely unchanged from their original publications. We are fixing these minor issues, which were a product of the strenuous, ever-changing, and critical nature during that time, to provide a more accurate and clearer reading.

We do not in any way consider these documents to be “perfect” representations of a Marxist-Leninist analysis. We acknowledge that the nature of our origins means that our entire membership carried with them, in some way, the revisionist, opportunist baggage of the PCUSA at the time that these statements were written. These statements represent an imperfect yet sincere attempt at a formal ideological break with revisionism and opportunism. The development of the ACB has developed organically along strict Marxist-Leninist lines since those events, with the baggage from the PCUSA increasingly evaporating over time. New Spark will release a critical analysis of these foundational statements prior to the one-year anniversary of our organization’s birth.

Statement 1

Released 8/15/2022

Declaration of the ACB To The Workers In The PCUSA

In May of 2016, the Party of Communists USA held its historic First Congress in AROW Park, NY. PCUSA’s establishment was a massive step forward for the working-class movement in the United States, as it sought to pick up the red banner that the CPUSA had brazenly tossed into the mud. It sought to become a Bolshevik Party; a Party that lived up to the standards of applying dialectical materialism; and a Party that would continue the legacy of the Communist movement in this country. However, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and the PCUSA has proven itself incapable of filling the historically necessary role of leading the working class to the building of socialism in this country.

The PCUSA has now existed for over 6 years. Under the Leninist definition of Party membership, the PCUSA has under 100 members in a country of over 330 million people. The US working class cannot wait on a Party with a turnover rate of nearly 100%, and sycophantic leadership that actively and consistently pushes its most resolute, loyal, and energetic workers out. All of this has been done without even entertaining the possibility of utilizing the Bolshevik method of criticism and self-criticism to build a stronger and healthier Party. Given this, all should be lost. Yet, let it be known that the work of comrades, who dedicated years of their lives to the PCUSA, is not in vain.

The American Council of Bolsheviks (ACB) has been established as a pre-party formation exclusively by recent ex-members of the PCUSA who have over 10 combined years of dedication and loyalty to that Party, and currently has the support of over 60% (a decisive majority) of the active members of the PCUSA. We urge all comrades in the PCUSA to analyze the situation of the Party dialectically, to utilize the science of Marxism-Leninism in assessing the state of the Party, where it has been, where it is, and where it is going. The work we are doing is a matter of life and death for billions of people across this Earth. We implore you to treat this situation with the severity that it merits. The present contradictions within the Bolshevik movement in this country have now come to their dialectical conclusion.

A dialectical analysis will lead all Communists in this country, particularly those still in the PCUSA, to realize that the center of the Bolshevik movement in America now lies with the ACB, and not with the now-defunct PCUSA.

The current General Secretary of the PCUSA, Dr. Angelo D’Angelo, is quite correct when he asserts that the only reason to leave a Party is over ideology. Therefore, we have left the PCUSA. The PCUSA is not a Marxist-Leninist Party — and has not been for quite some time. It does not apply Dialectical and Historical Materialism when conducting Party work and mass work. It does not adhere to its own 8 Points of Unity, particularly Democratic Centralism (Point 4).

“History has shown us that before becoming real vanguards the revolutionary parties usually pass through a number of stages of political and organizational development. At the outset they are more often than not, propagandist groups and their work is mainly conducted within their own ranks… The speed with which a party passes from one stage to another depends on objective conditions as well as on the correctness of its own policies and the ability of its leadership.”[1]

The PCUSA has been dying for some time, and it has now been put out of its misery by its most ardent workers. This alone proves our dedication. We now march onward to the building of a revolutionary vanguard Party of the working class, to the overthrow of capitalism, and to the establishment of socialism. We have a world to win — join us to win it.

Solidarity Forever,
The Central Executive Committee of the American Council of Bolsheviks

  • Phil (IL) – National Chair
  • Brian (IL) – Organizational Secretary
  • Paul (MN) – Technological Secretary
  • Patrick – Recording Secretary
  • Bethany (IL) – Communications Secretary
  • Justin (KY) – Member at Large

Email Contact: [email protected]

“Forward ever — backward never.”

– Maurice Bishop

Statement 2

Released 8/21/2022

The Final Declaration of the ACB To The Workers In The PCUSA

This will be the final use of this mass email list. If you would like to maintain contact with us and receive updates, please subscribe to our new mailing list below. Solidarity!

Stay In Contact: https://americancouncilofbolsheviks.org/

1. Who We Are

What follows is a brief overview of the key leadership roles that the current members of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the American Council of Bolsheviks (ACB) held during their tenure as leaders in the Party of Communists USA (PCUSA).

NameACB CEC Secretary RoleFormer PCUSA Leadership Roles
Phil ILNational ChairMember of the Political Bureau and Central Committee (PB & CC), National Communications Secretary, Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of New Outlook Publishers (NOP), Website Manager of the Board of Directors of the central organ of the League of Young Communists USA (LYC)
Brian ILOrganizational SecretaryMember of the PB & CC, National Organizational Secretary
Paul MNTechnological SecretaryMember of the PB & CC, Midwest District Organizer, Midwest District Organizational Secretary, National Recording Secretary of the PB of the LYC
PatrickRecording SecretaryMember of the PB & CC, Southern District Organizer, Chair of the Emma Tenayuca-Woody Guthrie-Dave Robbins Club
Bethany ILCommunications SecretaryCo-chair of the Social Media Division of the Communications Department of the CC, National Chair of the Women’s Commission of the CC, National Membership Secretary of the PB of the LYC
Zay MIMember at LargeMember of the CC, National Chair of the Oppressed Nationalities Department of the CC, National Chair of the Black Liberation Commission of the CC, Editor in Chief of The Emancipator
Justin KYMember at LargeMember of the PB & CC, Editor in Chief of The Communist, National Technology Secretary, National Ideological Secretary, Managing Editor for The Worker, Congress Committee Member, Technology Officer of the Organizational Department, Member of the Board of Directors of NOP

The credentials of our Provisional Central Committee are of a similar caliber and include the following roles:

  • National Student Department Secretary of the LYC PB
  • National Chair of the Health, Safety, Aged, and Disability Commission
  • National Chair of the Religious Affairs Commission
  • Midwest District Financial, Membership, and Technology Secretaries
  • Pacific District Financial Secretary
  • Southern District Membership Secretary
  • Chair of the William Zebulon Foster Club
  • Co-chairs of the Israel Flory-Jack Kling-Wyndham Mortimer Club
  • Co-chair of the Earl Browder-Benjamin J. Davis-Lorenzo Torrez Club

It must be emphasized that despite this bevy of high-ranking positions occupied by what is now the Provisional Central Committee (PCC) of the ACB, it was collectively concluded that changing the Party from within was a fruitless endeavor and detaching ourselves from the non-Marxist-Leninist leadership of the PCUSA became a necessity.


Due to the fact that the PCUSA does not adhere to the Leninist definition of party membership and instead embraces the Menshevik position of an “amorphous organization,” we as Communists cannot measure “active” membership by the number of human bodies alone. Utilizing internal analytics, we have measured the activity levels of PCUSA membership and have determined that a majority of the active members are firmly in support of the measures taken by the ACB. Since the initial Declaration of the ACB was sent, the percentage of supporters has increased from 60% to over 70%. Below is a table of our internal analytics.

ACB to PCUSA Weighted Percentage
ActivityInfluence
75.47%50.88%
ACB to PCUSA Unweighted Percentage
ActivityInfluence
73.53%55.88%

These calculations will raise some questions. The PCUSA roster was combed to eliminate all persons who did not meet the Leninist definition of party membership. For example, if a member did not pay dues, or has not attended club meetings three times in a row, they were removed. Additionally, the roster was cleared of many people who had not been with the party for a long time — in many cases, years. Many entries were kept either due to incompetence or in an attempt to inflate the actual number of members. Regardless, when we finished combing the roster, there were around 100 people left who qualified under the Leninist definition of party membership. We will not release the combed roster due to privacy concerns as it contains member information.

We then sorted and categorized everyone based on activity and influence level in the Party. There were 4 levels in each category: none, low, medium, and high. For example, someone could have high activity, but low influence, meaning they were very active but not very high up in the party. We then sorted people between those who were a prospective member of ACB and those who were going to stay with the PCUSA. Then, a simple weight was applied to every level, and then a ratio was taken to find the percentage of valid active members who were with the ACB. The weights were: none = 0, low = 0, medium = 1, high = 2. Using these weights, we initially had around 60% of the activity from PCUSA behind ACB, and just under 50% of the influence. That has now increased to around 75.47% of the activity in the PCUSA. If you unweight everything, you get similar results.

“Garbage in, garbage out” is a common slogan in data analysis. We tried our best to accurately sort through the membership and categorize everyone as objectively as possible. However, there is a level of subjectivity to these processes. This should not be viewed as definitive, but rather, a very educated rational guess as to the general makeup and composition of the ACB from the PCUSA. This picture paints a clear story: a majority of the valid activity and influence in the PCUSA sided with the ACB, however, the PCUSA has relatively more influential members compared to the ACB (which makes sense as the PCUSA has retained many PB/CC members).

2. What We Did

  1. A mass resignation email was sent out to the PCUSA leadership clique on August 14th, 2022.[2]
  2. Technology/Services.
    • Email Accounts and Services
      • The email services and accounts were served by, and provided by, comrade Justin via their self-run server rack and self-owned domains, purchased without compensation by PCUSA.
      • These services were retained due to the above ownership by comrade Justin.
    • Domains
      • All domains are under ownership of comrade Justin’s Domain Hosting Account.
    • Websites
      • All websites are under ownership of comrade Justin’s Website Hosting Account.
    • Social Media
      • All PSMLS social media infrastructure and accounts were retained by their account managers and/or creators.
      • PCUSA Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts were retained by their account managers and/or creators.
    • WREE
      • All WREE website and social media data has been returned to the PCUSA and the domain is awaiting a transfer request.
    • Financials
      • We never touched the PCUSA Bank Account, Stripe, or PayPal. We have screenshots to prove we have not taken any money should we be falsely accused. We even sent PCUSA leadership a notice to change their credentials to these services ASAP to ensure there would not be any issues.

3. Why We Acted

The primary reason for the actions taken by the CEC of the ACB was that the leadership of the PCUSA was no longer committed to the building of a Marxist-Leninist party in this country. As was stated in our initial declaration, the departure of those from the PCUSA who would go on to form the ACB was ideological. As with all qualitative changes, this event is not the result of this or that violation of the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism. Rather, it is the result of a quantitative amalgamation of contradictions and violations of these principles that itself has produced the ACB. The following constitute the primary violations of Marxist-Leninist principles that compelled the ACB to carry out this task in the interests of the working masses.

  • Incessant violations, misapplications, distortions, and vulgarizations of Democratic Centralism (Point 4 of the 8 Points of Unity of the PCUSA)[3], which among other things states that “All directing bodies of the Party, from top to bottom, shall be elected…” that “There shall be strict Party discipline and the subordination of the minority to the majority,” and that “All decisions of the higher bodies shall be absolutely binding on lower bodies and on all Party members.”
    • At the LYC Congress Planning Committee meeting on August 2, 2022, General Secretary Angelo made the baseless, ahistorical claim that the youth league of the American Communist movement is “not an independent organization” to the party and further claimed that having the Central Committee of the LYC elect its Political Bureau is “participatory democracy,” “New Left,” and “NOT Bolshevik, definitely not.” This was asserted to serve as a basis for General Secretary Angelo to unilaterally override the decision to have the CC of the LYC elect its PB, which was passed unanimously with no opposition at a prior meeting that included both the General Secretary and the National Chair of the PCUSA. As the J. Peters ‘The Communist Party Manual on Organization’ states “There is complete freedom of discussion in the Party until a majority decision has been made by the Unit or the leading committee, after which discussion must cease and the decision be carried out by every organization and individual member of the Party.” [1]

      The initial justification for violating democratic centralism within this planning committee was that “new people…don’t know how anything is done in the Bolshevik movement. Completely don’t know.” After comrade Angelo was challenged for this impulsive overriding of the previous collective decision of the planning committee, the goal posts were moved which revealed the real ‘justification,’ which was that the PCUSA was going through “stormy times,” that there was a need to “get the wagons and circle them,” and that “people don’t know what democratic centralism is.” This paranoia about ‘wagon-circling’ is an allusion to the hyperbolized ‘threat’ of comrade Justin, whose ‘crime’ was voicing accurate and necessary criticism of Party leadership with the intent to help strengthen the ranks of the Party. The long-standing history of how the Party tolerates criticism and elections is further explained in the attached resignation letter of comrade Patrick.[2]

      General Secretary Angelo acts as though circumventing democratic centralism, to appoint his trusted and loyal followers into high positions, is a casual decision that is necessary to protect the existence of the Party. However, it is the rank-and-file who must deal with incompetent leadership that was only appointed to their positions in order to protect the “chosen few” of the Party, whether right or wrong. This incompetency was clearly demonstrated when the appointed General Secretary of the LYC, Antoine CA, admitted that his understanding of Democratic Centralism is simply that “we follow leadership–they have the right to step in and override a decision,” as well as when the appointed Organizational Secretary of the LYC, Joe WA, claimed, “the LYC is completely subservient to the Party, if they want to appoint leadership as opposed to elections, that’s entirely within their power.” It should be noted that the original motion to have the LYC CC (which was already handpicked by General Secretary Angelo) elect its PB, was put forward by Joe WA himself. This indicates that the two members appointed to the highest positions within the LYC PB, do not have a fundamental understanding of democratic centralism and are merely foot soldiers for General Secretary Angelo and his clique.

      Through research, one will find that the supposed “Bolshevik” rationalizations for the blatant violation of democratic centralism are the exact opposite of the directives given by the Young Communist International (YCI) to the Young Communist League (YCL) of the U.S.A.:
      • “In order to free the working class youth from this intolerable situation, an independent organization, to be known as the Young Communist League, Section of the Young Communist International, shall be organized.”[6]
      • “At the earliest possible moment a national convention of the YCL will be called, at which time the members will outline the ways, means, and policies of the organization and elect their own officials.”[7]
      • “Be it further resolved, that we condemn the prevalent manifestations of petty factionalism so destructive to our movement and endorse the appeal of the Young Communist International (YCI) and the Comintern (CI) for a united, harmonious movement, in which differences of opinion will be vigorously maintained, but in which able comrades will not be prevented from contributing their services to the movement in an effort to punish them for holding minority opinions.”[8]
    • The unilateral shutting down of the primary internal Party Communications server by the General Secretary, National Chair, and the Financial Secretary
      • General Secretary Angelo concluded his national office report at the Eastern District Meeting on August 8, 2022, with “right now we’re having problems so [our internal communications platform and our email service] has to be taken down again. It should be clear why this is happening. Right now, it’s under the control of one individual, and that one individual is using that as a lever, against the rest of us collectively…. Don’t be confused, the elected leadership is doing what it needs to do and right now we are having a problem with one or two individuals, and it’s affecting the whole uh the whole issue of [our internal communications platform], so use your own email lists….”

        The next day, August 9, 2022, General Secretary Angelo, and National Chair Chris B., unofficially announced at the LYC Congress Planning Committee that we were to cease the use of our internal communication systems, email services, and cloud services. The explanation provided by General Secretary Angelo for this significant and impactful decision was as follows:

        “The General Secretary in connection with the discussion with the finance – uh – person and the National Chair, made that decision. That’s allowable, if you look at our constitution, clearly – everyone should go back to the constitution – everything rests with the General Secretary, they’re the ones that appoint the people to the commission, appoint the editors of The Worker, appoint the department heads, everything… that’s what is in the Constitution. People want to change that, they do it at a Congress.”

        There is no party rule or procedure which allows any unilateral action by the General Secretary, nor by the supposed grouping of the General Secretary, National Chair, and Financial Secretary. What you will find in the constitution is, “The General Secretary shall in no case carry out unilateral actions without the approval of a majority of the Politburo.”[9]

        National Chair Chris B. then went on to claim that “the other [master] account is not a party account, it’s owned by one person, and he was supposed to give Paul from MN the master login. He still hasn’t done it, it’s been like a week, a week and half, he still hasn’t done it, so we can’t trust it….”

        This was a lie perpetrated by the family-circle to continue the narrative that comrade Justin was an anti-Party wrecker who was trying to blackmail Party leadership. The truth is that a motion was passed on August 6, 2022, to allow Justin two weeks to handover the technology infrastructure to the newly-appointed Technology Secretary, comrade Paul. It had been merely 2 days before National Chair Chris B. demanded that comrade Paul, who had no capability to do so, turn off Justin’s email or simply start new and “just rebuild it.” Comrade Paul responded to this egregious request with his letter of resignation.

        The General Secretary, National Chair, and Financial Secretary violated the motion that permitted a two-week time limit and by-passed the PB to demand that all members abandon our Party’s apparatus. All of the hard work by many comrades put into the building of this infrastructure was casually discarded by three individualists who would rather spend their time plugging their ears, incessantly shrieking that “the Party is under attack!” The Financial Secretary openly admitted to comrade Paul, after his departure, that they were “telling leadership that basically Justin is holding us hostage on the system because he will not impart to you the necessary password and super admin emails.”[10] No evidence of comrade Justin’s refusal to cooperate was provided, because no evidence exists. Now, multiple sycophants have proclaimed that the ACB “stole” the PCUSA’s chat and email system, but the reality is that their leadership threw it away and proceeded to lie about comrade Justin to justify their unilateral decisions.
    • Controlling of Votes by the National Chair
      • During the August 6th meeting of the PB of the CC, National Chair Chris B. sent comrade Brian controlling text messages designed to influence comrade Brian’s vote on a particular motion.[11] This is yet another blatant example of the utilization of the “family-circle” method of “solving” inner-party disputes.
    • Unilateral altering of the Constitution by the General Secretary
      • When investigating issues in the party in late November 2021, Justin was looking into the PCUSA constitution. They were looking for any sort of problems the party could have with interpreting rules, since there was contention on multiple items as well as accidental grammar edits on the website earlier in the year. What Justin found was that the constitution had been modified outside of a congress. On the PCUSA website the earliest copy of a post-congress constitution is found on August 7, 2016. That version of the constitution states:

        “ARTICLE VII – AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION: Amendments to this Constitution may be made by a two thirds (2/3) vote of the delegates present at a national conference. Amendments shall be proposed in writing at least three weeks before the conference and will be communicated to all members.”

        The original version persists and contains only 7 articles until the snapshot taken on March 2, 2018. The next copy dated September 20, 2018, is a revised version which is what most of us are familiar with. In addition the March 20, June 5, and August 7 2018 Politburo minutes mention a “new constitution” but does not mention a congress or discussion period. The modifications include the addition of current articles 4,9,10,11,12,13 as well as modification of other articles and slight re-ordering and renumbering of articles. This being a verifiable fact that anyone with internet access can verify means that democratic centralism was broken to modify the binding document of the party. In addition to this, when Justin asked General Secretary Angelo NY about this he admitted to it and said he and Joe Hancock did so in order to prevent from happening to people in PCUSA what happened to them in CPUSA.[12] [13] [14]

  • The utilization of the “family-circle method” within the Party leadership, the grave dangers of which are clearly spelled out by comrades Lenin and Stalin.
    • On the Congress Committee June 5th 2022, the meeting was deferred as it was surmised by preliminary conversation that someone had made unauthorized changes in GoDaddy. At this time Angelo, Chris B., and Karen told Justin and Tim that Joe H. CA had recently taken actions that they had problems with. This included having Frank G. email Angelo to tell him Joe H. CA could not do any party work for a while. They also told us that Joe H. CA had recently attempted to secure a PPP loan in the bank account and name of Labor Today. Additionally, they stated Joe H. CA had recently been arrested in some capacity, and that the “code” for the arrest was for “going crazy” or something to that effect.

      Due to this and the votes that had recently occurred at Labor Today meetings, where it was stated that Joe H. CA refused to participate in, it was determined to remove his access from everything afforded to party leadership. Justin performed this task but did not close Joe H. CA’s account per prior party decisions from the suspension of Article X. At a later time when checking the directory, Joe H. CA had been disabled by someone else without any sort of formal hearing of the CC. This amounted to the withholding of information about events in the party, which were potentially calamitous to its operations, to an extremely small and private minority of people in the party. Justin also had to deal with the alleged theft of Labor Today from the party by silently removing Joe H. CA and Kelly M. CA (who has been deemed guilty by association) from party membership outside of party rules and procedure.
    • The general defense of Christian L. CA’s chauvinism, unscientific beliefs, and mistakes were covered up using the family-circle method.
      • Patrick contacted Dr. Angelo on 1/8/2022 regarding comments Christian L. CA had made in the PSMLS discord regarding the inefficacy of vaccines and the unscientific belief that diabetes was man-made. Patrick received no response from this inquiry and these unscientific attitudes were not handled.
        • Patrick reported the following comments to General Secretary Angelo:
          • “That’s very rare Comrade. I mean anything can happen, someone healthy could have a massive sudden heart attack, but highly unlikely. I want vaccines for people at risk but not a lifetime vaccine subscription for healthy people.”
          • “Very easily you can fight flu with your natural immune system if you’re healthy. Flu killed thousands unhealthy people each year before COVID.”
          • When [Patrick] stated that his claims were unscientific, and that of course healthy people need a vaccine [Christian L. CA] stated: “Very scientific, natural immune system is science sorry. Nothing foolish or unwise.”When [Patrick] asked if they were a doctor, [Christian L. CA] responded: “I don’t need a weatherman to tell me which way the wind’s blowing. It’s called common sense.”
          • “There is medecine and medecine. Diabetes is man made except when you’re born with it. One medecine will give pills, another one will prevent people to get diabetes to begin with. Nutrition is medecine’s last frontier.” 
          • “34M people in US have diabetes, the rate of high blood pressure has doubled in 10 years. All these need vaccines, healthy people don’t.”
        • What is more important than the unscientific viewpoints held by a CC member, is that criticism and self-criticism are not upheld. People are not held accountable for their statements and actions. No critical inquiry was done into Christian L.’s unscientific viewpoints. We do not cite him to single him out, as other people also hold similar viewpoints, but as an example of a larger problem. Namely, the lack of criticism and self-criticism in the PCUSA.
      • On January 28, 2022, per direction of the PCUSA National Chair Chris B. CA, Justin was to give Christian L. CA control of the Party’s Twitter account. Justin gave them this access as directed. This decision was required due to the fallout of Charles FL tweeting support of patriotic socialism using the Party’s Twitter. When selecting a new person for this task, Chris B. CA stated that Christian L. CA would not post anything he was not told to post. Justin discovered that after he gave him access to Twitter, Christian L. CA was also given access to other party social media accounts. On February 25, 2022 a tweet which stated “The Party of Communists USA Statement On Russian Military Operations In Ukraine” and linked to the International Department statement drafted by that department. On February 26, 2022 the text “PCUSA Statement on Russian Military Operations in Ukraine.” was entered in on a post on the Party’s Facebook which linked to the same statement.

        This broke democratic centralism by representing the whole party with a department statement which it did not yet have the ability to discuss. In addition, it also broke part of a motion passed at the February 12, 2022, Central Committee meeting to address fallout of the Florida debacle which states in part “Above all, make sure that party responsibilities are carried out by all officers, and all party rules are followed, to not break chain of command or democratic centralism.” When this problem was brought up to General Secretary Angelo NY, his response was to conciliate by saying that the Ideological Department could draft its own statement, which was also later walked back on. The problem was swept under the rug, and Christian L. CA was not disciplined, nor was Chris B. CA’s judgment called into question regarding his character assessment of Christian L. CA. It also leaves questions on if the motion from the Central Committee from February 12, 2022, was violated upon giving Christian L. CA further access to national party accounts despite being a candidate.

        In the fallout, Christian L. CA doubled down on the position in the document including using insults and vulgar Marxism to justify it. In response to Justin’s complaints about this, Angelo NY washed his hands of the problem and stated to Justin that the discussion on Ukraine was “childish.” The only thing which was done was a motion that officiated in the Politburo on Justin’s motion that would bar this act from happening in clear cut terms in the future and would also allow department heads to release statements from their department.
    • On July 8th, 2022, William Z. Foster club chair Silas KY was contacted by Alex KY informing them that another member, A.D. CA had called them while at work to berate them over their position on Russia/Ukraine as well as additional personal attacks supposedly coming from the Greg Rose-Harry Bridges club as a whole. On July 9th 2022, Silas KY arranged for a phone call between General Secretary Angelo NY, Alex KY, and themself to report this. Instead of being understanding, the General Secretary took the opportunity to berate comrade Alex KY over the issue much in the same way as had been done just less than two days earlier. Instead of the necessary disciplinary actions being taken, Angelo decided to talk over the two comrades and lecture them for almost an hour on the topic of Ukraine and the Center for Political Innovation (CPIUSA). Angelo minimized all of the raised concerns about A.D. ‘s behavior, rationalized the blatantly factionalist activity of the Greg Rose-Harry Bridges club, once again deferring to the “family-circle” method of dealing with problems.This event is one of the more recent catalyst for the ongoing events
      • A.D. CA was also the same individual who contacted a fascist organization for greetings for the 2nd Congress of the PCUSA. They then lied that they did not do this. When caught and made to fess up, they were not reprimanded or required to self-criticize due to their gross negligence, lying, and incompetence. They were allowed to remain in their position.
    • “Often we settle questions, not only in the districts, but also at the center, by the family, domestic-circle method, so to speak. [Ivan I.] member of the top leadership of such and such an organization, has, say, made a gross mistake and has messed things up. But [Ivan F.] is reluctant to criticise him, to expose his mistakes and to correct them. He is reluctant to do so because he does not want to “make enemies.” He has made a mistake, he has messed things up—what of it? Who of us does not make mistakes? Today I shall let him, [Ivan F.], off; tomorrow he will let me, [Ivan I.] off; for what guarantee is there that I, too, shall not make a mistake? Everything in order and satisfactory. Peace and good will. They say that a mistake neglected is detrimental to our great cause? Never mind! We’ll muddle through somehow…”[15]
    • “If we, the representatives of the proletarian revolution, shut our eyes to our defects, settle questions by the family-circle method, hush up each other’s mistakes and drive the ulcers inwards into the organism of the Party, who will correct these mistakes, these defects?”[16]
    • “Is it not obvious that we shall cease to be proletarian revolutionaries, and that we shall certainly perish if we fail to eradicate from our midst this philistinism, this family-circle method of settling highly important questions of our work of construction?”[17]
    • “There should be no division within the Party into the “chosen few,” on whom discipline is not binding, and the “many,” on whom discipline is binding. If this condition is not observed, the integrity of the Party and the unity of its ranks cannot be maintained.”[18]
  • The violation of the Leninist principle of Party membership, i.e., the eagerness to adopt the Menshevik principle of allowing those not active or involved in Party organizations to be considered members of the Party. The accusation that we (the ACB) do not have over 60% of the support of the active membership of the PCUSA is further proof of their continued lack of adherence to this basic principle.
    • In February 2022, at a meeting of the California club of the PCUSA, in discussing the number of club members, National Chair Chris B. stated, “We have a whole bunch of people who don’t come to these things” and proceeded to list several names, one of whom had moved to Minnesota several months prior. The rest were people who had already left the party. It mentioned that it was believed by the club leadership that they had well over 30 members despite club meetings never reaching that level of attendance.
    • On August 14, 2022, twenty members collectively resigned from the PCUSA in one mass resignation letter. In the “Statement on the Splitting Renegades,” put out by the Politburo of the PCUSA, they state, “…the reality is that, based off of the letter, 10% would be a charitable estimation.” According to the basic calculation, the PB of the PCUSA is claiming to have more than 200 active members. As of early August, the Party reported 168 members in total across the 4 districts. This data, particularly in the Pacific District, does not add up with the latest LYC data as maintained by the former National LYC Membership Secretary, who can confirm that multiple names still listed as members, are no longer associated with the Party in any way. This number, while already falling short of the declared 200+, is still inflated. It is inflated by counting members that do not contribute to Party work, but are merely supporters. This further proves that the PCUSA is not a Bolshevik Party, but a Menshevik Party, with a leadership that is completely unconcerned with enforcing the Party’s policy on membership in order to present themselves as much larger than they really are.
      • According to Lenin’s formulation, one could be a member of the Party who accepted its program, supported it financially, and belonged to one of its organizations. Martov’s formulation, while admitting that acceptance of the program and financial support of the Party were indispensable conditions of Party membership, did not, however, make it a condition that a Party member should belong to one of the Party organizations, maintaining that a Party member need not necessarily belong to a Party organization.[19]
      • Lenin regarded the Party as an organized detachment, whose members cannot just enroll themselves in the Party, but must be admitted into the Party by one of its organizations, and hence must submit to Party discipline. Martov, on the other hand, regarded the Party as something organizationally amorphous, whose members enroll themselves in the Party and are therefore not obliged to submit to Party discipline, inasmuch as they do not belong to a Party organization.[20]
      • “Whoever wants to be a member of our Party cannot rest content with merely accepting our Party’s programmatic, tactical and organizational views, but must set about applying these views, putting them into effect… Clearly, to be a Party member one must belong to one of the Party organizations.”[21]

4. Clarifying False Accusations

As a result of the ACB’s undertaking in the interests of working people the world over, various slanderous remarks have emerged in regards to us which we must clarify.

  • We have been accused of Trotskyism[22]
    • It appears here that Trotskyism is being used as a stand-in for “wrecking” or “sabotaging.” As has been demonstrated in Section 2, the actions of the ACB in no way constitute “wrecking” or “sabotage,” let alone “Trotskyism.” This is akin to saying that because apples are red, that if it is red it must be an apple. Just because we split does not prove, per se, that we are Trotskyites. Unfortunately, words do have meaning.
    • In interchanging “wrecking” for “Trotskyism,” this accusation demonstrates an astounding lack of understanding of the historic role played by Trotskyites in the Soviet Union, as well as how and why they were able to execute their actual wrecking activities.
    • The ACB as an idea has existed for less than 10 days, while there is a combined 10+ years of PCUSA experience among our CEC. Thus, loyalty to the ACB as a center was not possible until its very recent emergence. As opposed to the Trotskyites in the Soviet Union, the members of the CEC of the ACB earned their positions in leadership through work ethic, dedication, and loyalty. All members of the CEC can attest to having been referred to as “indispensable” by former leadership of the PCUSA in the spirit of the famous Bertolt Brecht quote listed on that Party’s website.[23] In the Soviet Union, Trotskyism was a years-long ongoing campaign against Party leadership disguised with “revolutionary” phrases. In his memoirs, former CPUSA Comintern delegate Sam Darcy recalls a conversation with Comintern leader Dmitry Manuilsky on the question of why Trotskyites wound up in such high-ranking positions:
      • [Darcy] “How is it that for over four years, maybe longer, those people were able to build up such a vast network of criminal activities and organization and not be detected? I could understand if it were merely a secret propaganda organization but not this! Isn’t this evidence that something has gone wrong with the leadership of the Soviet Union, that you have really become soft and too comfortable in the seats of power?”[24]
      • Manuilsky answered with a humility for which I [Sam Darcy] will never forgive myself: “We never believed they would go so far. We thought it would remain a matter of internal political differences. We gave them, as you can see, leading posts in the government, in industry and in scientific and cultural organizations. We wanted to assure them that differences of opinion alone were not sufficient to condemn them. And that they were welcome to participate in Soviet life…”[25]
    • As you can see comrade Justin, now a member of the CEC, was not even afforded the decency given to Trotskyites in the Soviet Union when he was suspended by what is supposed to be the Bolshevik leadership of the PCUSA for holding minority opinions.
    • Whereas Trotskyite wreckers in the Soviet Union used the Party as a means to destabilize and undermine the carrying out of revolutionary work, the CEC of the ACB were among the most loyal and dedicated leaders of the Party who, as has already been stated, acted in accordance with the guiding principles of Marxism-Leninism and for the strengthening of the working class movement in the USA.
    • Those who have made this baseless accusation have provided no evidence that we [the ACB] have any ideological tendencies even closely related to Trotskyism. We emphatically claim no support of Leon Trotsky or Trotskyism, we have never claimed any such support, and we never will. We are Marxist-Leninists.
  • Accusations regarding the CPIUSA and the PCUSA Statement on Russian Military Operations in Ukraine
    • As we have explained in Section 3, the reasons for ACB’s creation were due to violations of various Marxist-Leninist principles. The PCUSA has used comrade Justin’s individual actions as a scapegoat in order to obfuscate and deflect from the obvious necessity of applying the timeless Bolshevik method of criticism and self-criticism. The issues of Ukraine and CPIUSA were certainly hotly contested issues within the Party itself and indeed became catalysts for the events that unfolded, but definitely were not the primary or even secondary reasons for the formation of the ACB. It is worth mentioning that the failure of the Party to resolve these inner-Party disputes is further evidence of the poor leadership abilities that have already been extensively demonstrated in this document, as well as the wanton violation of democratic centralism. Preliminary discussions of the CEC of the ACB and its PCC have focused almost exclusively on blatant violations of Marxist-Leninist principles, as outlined in Section 3. Accusations that the formation of the ACB is a result of a covert anti-CPIUSA or anti-Z faction have no basis in reality.

5. Where We Go From Here

The leading body between all Provisional Central Committee (PCC) meetings is the CEC, which serves only at the confidence of the PCC. It will operate as a provisional Political Bureau for a period of no longer than 2 months, after which the organizational direction of the ACB will be collectively determined by the PCC of the ACB. The PCC of the ACB will create and approve a roadmap towards the formal creation of a pre-party formation, and the subsequent holding of our First Congress to formally create a Bolshevik Communist Party. It must be emphasized that the ACB operates, and will continue to operate, as a collective organization where decisions in the higher bodies will be felt by rank-and-file members of the party, and the contributions of the rank-and-file will be felt by the higher bodies of the Party. The PCC will produce and approve a comprehensive document that specifically outlines all of the ideological errors and mistakes made by the PCUSA, as well as specifically how we as the ACB (and whatever Party emerges from it) will ensure that it will not repeat the chronic mistakes of the PCUSA that have led to its ultimate collapse, downfall, and dismemberment.

Solidarity Forever,

The Provisional Central Committee of the American Council of Bolsheviks

Stay In Contact: https://americancouncilofbolsheviks.org/

Join ACB: https://americancouncilofbolsheviks.org/join-acb/

Join IMLE: https://imle.center/

P.S. Please be advised that we have received many contact emails and we will respond to them ASAP. As you can imagine we were and are incredibly busy and have not had time to respond to all inquiries properly. We appreciate and respect your emails and will do our best to respond in a timely matter going forward. [Editor’s Note: ACB now has the infrastructure in place to respond in a timely manner]

Afterword

The American Council of Bolsheviks is the militant and sworn defender of the working class, and an ardent Marxist-Leninist formation. If you are interested in joining the ACB, want to learn more, or contact us, you can find more information here:

https://americancouncilofbolsheviks.org/

Solidarity Forever,

The American Council of Bolsheviks

[1] Otto Wille Kuusinen et al., Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism, 411-412.

[2] https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:1f9f9e45-6145-3c6f-b2dd-02b5fc6cbe2c

[3] https://web.archive.org/web/20220819113159/https://partyofcommunistsusa.org/about/eight-points-of-unity/

[4] Peters, J., The Communist Party: A Manual on Organization, (San Francisco: Proletarian Publishers, 1975).

[5] https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:20719d03-6933-32e5-946c-65360edcd2b6

[6] https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/parties/cpusa/1921/01/0100-ucp-yclaresolution.pdf

[7] https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/parties/cpusa/1921/04/0400-ycla-toycicongress.pdf

[8] https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/parties/ycl/1924/1218-ywlny-minoritythesis.pdf

[9] https://web.archive.org/web/20220821040635/https://partyofcommunistsusa.org/about/constitution/

[10] https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:384eaa91-5f58-3e28-8261-0b67f7a0d4c2

[11] The motion in question reads as follows: A vote of Confidence for the General Secretary (put forward by Brian): A vote of confidence in the work of the General Secretary as the elected leader of the Party until the next Congress. In this context, we cannot have continuous out-of-place criticism which effectively becomes attacks. Party-wide emails and announcements, email groupings such as commissions or Party bodies, are subject upon the approval of only the elected General Secretary and National Chair. Unsanctioned club-to-club communique is a breach of security. We cannot have group email lists be misused for continuous criticism and attacks on leadership, which is a breach of security and historical protocol. https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:b3ceb68c-2b25-3a97-9abe-a488c0265ab0

[12] PCUSA Constitution 08/07/2016: https://web.archive.org/web/20160807083937/http://www.partyofcommunistsusa.org:80/constitution.html

[13] PCUSA Constitution 03/02/2018: https://web.archive.org/web/20180302074501/http://partyofcommunistsusa.org:80/about/constitution/

[14] PCUSA Constitution 09/20/2018:
https://web.archive.org/web/20180920113431/https://partyofcommunistsusa.org/about/constitution/

[15] https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1927/12/02.htm

[16] Ibid.

[17] Ibid.

[18] https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch02.htm#4.

[19] https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch02.htm#2.

[20] Ibid.

[21] https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1905/01/01.htm

[22] https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:8d46ff2f-472d-3ee9-bcdc-9c146ef0719a

[23] The Bertolt Brecht quote reads “There are comrades who fight a day and are good. Others fight a year and they’re better. There are those who fight many years and are very good, but there are those who fight their whole lives and those are the indispensable ones.” https://web.archive.org/web/20220819103225/https://partyofcommunistsusa.org/

[24] Sam Darcy, Memoirs of Sam Darcy, c. 1940.

[25] Ibid.