Bible of Rights Socialism – The infertility of CPUSA reformism
Reformist and revisionist tendencies in the communist movement can be found everywhere. One of the most ridiculous types surely is the CPUSA’s “Bill of Rights Socialism”. If the far more recent “MAGA Communism” would not exist, it would be the peak laughingstock.
First things first: What is the origin of “Bill of Rights Socialism”? The answer is: An article published in 1990 by the long-term revisionist leader of the CPUSA Gus Hall. The title is “The American Way to Bill of Rights Socialism”.
I will skip his definition of socialism, because there is no major flaw. The flaws begin when it comes to the question of how to achieve socialism in America. Gus Hall writes:
“We say that it may be possible in the U.S. to bring socialism through peaceful means. Perhaps through the ballot box.”1
That amount of naivety might have some reasoning in Europe where parties have at least a theoretical chance due to proportional elections according to percentage. But when looking at the American electoral system, this is absolutely unrealistic.
The USA is de facto a two party regime. To elect a third party president is de facto impossible. So saying that the ballot would be even an option can be nothing else than either a joke or a distraction. It cannot be taken as a serious proposal.
Gus Hall also wrote:
“But if the ruling class says: ‘Forget it!’ and calls out the army, the police and the National Guard, that is how revolutions become violent. It starts with the ruling class. Workers and their allies have to defend themselves to fight for what is rightfully theirs.”2
Great that he also thinks about the potential failure of reformism! The issue is that in such a case the workers are likely not ready to fight since they were not prepared for a violent revolution. The bourgeoisie will not voluntarily step down, just like no exploiting class ever voluntarily stepped down. The bourgeois dictatorship is played down as a threat as if the McCarthy era never existed and could never return. Also the CPUSA only took the reformist side from Hall’s article and made it the party doctrine.
Now to the reason why Gus Hall baptized his revisionist ideas “Bill of Rights Socialism”:
“We believe and advocate a socialist society in our country that will guarantee all the liberties defined in the Bill of Rights, but have never been fully realized.”3
This is what the CPUSA would later carry on as well.
The CPUSA declared on 1. May 2016:
“Socialism in the United States would be built on the strong foundation of our Constitution’s Bill of Rights.”4
There is not even a pinch of criticism on the Bill of Rights being 18th century bourgeois law and even part of the oldest constitution of the world still being valid, after the Constitution of San Marino adopted in 1600. Other countries of the world adjusted their constitutions according to new upcoming conditions. In America on the other hand the constitution and its Bill of Rights could be called a “Bible of Rights” since it seems to be seen as being written for eternity.
Does the CPUSA seriously think that being opportunist towards the bourgeois law would benefit them? Do they want to hear applause by liberals? It seems so, otherwise they would not have effectively turned into a socialdemocratic party.
The CPUSA in 2020 declared “Bill of Rights Socialism” a “creative application of Marxism-Leninism” and compared it to Ho Chi Minh Thought in Vietnam, Jose Marti’s legacy on Cuba and even “Socialism with Chinese characteristics”5. That makes it obvious that they simply try to justify their revisionist deviation from Marxism with a socialdemocratic badly founded theory. With that erroneous theory the CPUSA will never come a single step closer to socialism.
Mao pointed out the only possible way to socialism:
“The seizure of power by armed force, the settlement of the issue by war, is the central task and the highest form of revolution. This Marxist-Leninist principle of revolution holds good universally, for China and for all other countries.”6
1 http://houstoncommunistparty.com/the-american-way-to-bill-of-rights-socialism/
2 Ibidem
3 Ibidem
4 https://www.cpusa.org/party_info/socialism-in-the-usa/
5 https://www.cpusa.org/article/bill-of-rights-socialism-and-the-future-of-the-republic/
6 https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-2/mswv2_12.htm