In the past year since our first conference in 2017, the number of independent Marxist collectives has grown. Our nascent tendency’s initial forays into mass organizing have started the process of embedding our organizations within working class milieus. Our interventions into strategic debates on the left have gained notice and, in some circles, even admiration.
At this stage, it’s imperative our trend makes a qualitative leap forward toward a coherent national organization. There’s an urgent need to provide more support for the growing number of independent collectives. And in the present period of political upheaval, as we increasingly see the old order shaken up, political currents which are unable to grow and consolidate will quickly suffer marginalization or outright dissolution.
We have much to be optimistic about. While social democratic reformism has expanded its influence into the political mainstream, the ossified revolutionary sect system of the late 20th and early 21st century is undergoing a sea change. This metamorphosis opens the way for bold new thinking which breaks with bad habits of the past while retaining fidelity to the core insights of the revolutionary Marxist tradition.
In order to play a role in the unfolding realignment, we propose the following:
- Establish a unified website, which will function as a clearinghouse for articles written by members of Marxist Center collectives and others
- At first, this will primarily draw from existing content generated by independent collectives through their own local newsletters (e.g. the Philadelphia Partisan, Nebraska’s The Triumph, Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Revolution, etc.). However, eventually we hope to branch out to solicit original material.
- Vote on an editorial collective to run the website until our next conference
- Create a corporate entity to begin collecting donations from affiliated organizations and individuals
- A delegate council would be responsible for maintaining and keeping track of the treasury (see Affiliation Requirements proposal)
- Treasury would be used to finance the website fees, organize annual conferences, support the efforts of the Organizing Center (see below) and provide block grants to local collectives and affiliated groups as per majority vote of the delegate council, as well as other purposes in line with the aims of the organization’s mission
- Organizing Committee. As per the open letter signed by dozens of activists within the Marxist Center network, we would work toward setting up an Organizing Committee (OC). The Organizing Center would be tasked with:
- Visiting local collectives and facilitating organizer exchanges (as budget permits)
- Providing troubleshooting consultations remotely as requested and determine needs of collectives based on conversations with local organizers
- Work with the delegates council to prioritize resource allocation to affiliated collectives
- Until the organization is large enough to sustain a separate Organizing Committee, the responsibilities of the OC would be handled by the Delegate Council