A New Start for Marxist-Leninist Education

We are excited to announce that PSMLS has been re-constituted as the Institute for Marxist-Leninist Education (IMLE). Our role is to educate the American working class about Karl Marx’s most important conclusion in his work, the necessity of a dictatorship of the proletariat to overthrow the capitalist system, so it is possible for the proletariat to begin building socialism, and ultimately communism. The most crucial development that the IMLE represents in the ongoing development of the American Communist movement is the establishment of a free anti-revisionist Marxist-Leninist educational institution that is available to American workers. This necessitated a complete break with and repudiation of our former affiliate (Party of Communists USA) and the birth of a new revolutionary organization, the American Council of Bolsheviks (ACB).

To solidify ourselves as an anti-revisionist Marxist-Leninist educational institution, we are drawing razor-sharp lines of demarcation against all historic manifestations of opportunism and revisionism within the international Communist movement since the founding of the First International. Revisionism in the Marxist context is a counter-revolutionary tendency described by Lenin in Marxism and Revisionism as follows:

“To determine its conduct from case to case, to adapt itself to the events of the day and to the chopping and changing of petty politics, to forget the primary interests of the proletariat and the basic features of the whole capitalist system, of all capitalist evolution, to sacrifice these primary interests for the real or assumed advantages of the moment—such is the policy of revisionism. And it patently follows from the very nature of this policy that it may assume an infinite variety of forms, and that every more or less ‘new’ question, every more or less unexpected and unforeseen turn of events, even though it change the basic line of development only to an insignificant degree and only for the briefest period, will always inevitably give rise to one variety of revisionism or another,”

Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 15 pp. 38-39

The result of this way of thinking is further clarified in Lenin’s Opportunism and the Collapse of the Second International, where he states that the political essence of opportunism is:

“Class collaboration, repudiation of the proletarian dictatorship, rejection of revolutionary action, obeisance to bourgeois legality, non-confidence in the proletariat, and confidence in the bourgeoisie,”

Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 21 p. 442

The period leading up to socialist revolution requires a fierce, relentless struggle against these tendencies, as was demonstrated by Lenin and the Bolsheviks prior to October of 1917. The establishment of the IMLE marks the beginning of an educational institution that seeks to wage such a struggle by taking a lead role in shaping the budding vanguard of the American proletariat.

Starting in 2023, we will host online classes every Tuesday and Thursday beginning at 8:00 PM ET and lasting just under 2 hours. Class information, materials, and schedules will be made available on our website (https://imle.center). Classes on Tuesdays are currently devoted to the study of foundational Marxist-Leninist literature, and Thursday classes are devoted to studying the history of the American Communist movement from before its inception all the way up to the present.

While this name change may not be the biggest impact today, the successful struggle against opportunism within the ranks of other Marxist organizations (even other so-called anti-revisionists) has steeled the leadership of IMLE, as well the ACB. To defeat the opportunist trends afflicting the American communist movement, American communists must take this project all the way to re-establishing in-person schools of revolution. Our virtual activities (social media, classes, etc.) are a vehicle for us to achieve this goal. If you are only now hearing of IMLE and the ACB or if you have only heard enough to be skeptical, here is what to take away from this announcement: if you seek to channel your revolutionary energy in an effective direction, if you recognize the vital necessity of overthrowing capitalism and imperialism: we invite you to join us in our struggle, so we can develop the comrades needed to win the future. Communists everywhere are the future leaders of society, as Lenin reminds us all:

“It will be the duty of the leaders to gain an ever clearer insight into all theoretical questions, to free themselves more and more from the influence of traditional phrases inherited from the old world outlook, and constantly to keep in mind that socialism, since it has become a science, demands that it be pursued as a science, i.e., that it be studied.”

Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 5. P. 372

Long live Marxism-Leninism!

Long live Communism!