Self-reliance is one of the most important and basic principles of our class, and yet simultaneously it is one of its least understood and most poorly applied, at least here in the United States. It is also one of the principles which most easily distinguishes a comrade’s class stand: those with a solid proletarian class stand often very easily assimilate and understand this principle, while those with a bourgeois or a petty-bourgeois class stand often struggle to comprehend even its simplest application. To the activist who comes to our movement via books and online discourse rather than class struggle, the principles of proletarian self-reliance stand in contrast to the petty-bourgeois “networking” style of united front work learned in the capitalist universities and bourgeois political spaces. To the activists who comes to our movement via class struggle, the principle of self-reliance is a self-evident truth expressed embryonically in the spontaneous consciousness of our class, and expressed consciously in the political interests of our movement.
It was Chairman Mao, leader of the Chinese Revolution, who most famously raised the banner of self-reliance, applying the principle as a slogan during the period of the Second United Front and Anti-Japanese War of Resistance, writing “We stand for self-reliance. We hope for foreign aid but cannot be dependent on it; we depend on our own efforts, on the creative power of the whole army and the entire people.” Similarly in the same period he wrote: “On what basis should our policy rest? It should rest on our own strength, and that means regeneration through one’s own efforts. We are not alone; all the countries and people in the world opposed to imperialism are our friends. Nevertheless, we stress regeneration through our own efforts. Relying on the forces we ourselves organize, we can defeat all Chinese and foreign reactionaries.”
Even prior to the Chairman, the principle of self-reliance appears again and again, for example, when Lenin wrote: “The basic rule, the first commandment, of any trade union movement is not to rely on the ‘state’ but to rely only on the strength of one’s own class. The state is an organization of the ruling class.” Similarly, the principle of self-reliance was and is often expressed through the use of the term “independent” or “autonomous”, for example when Marx and Engels write in the Communist Manifesto: “All previous historical movements were movements of minorities, or in the interest of minorities. The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority [emphasis ours].”
In all these cases regardless of the exact wording used, the essence of the principle of self-reliance is that the proletariat and its organizations must always be self-reliant in the sense that they rely mainly on their own efforts, forces, and strength in their work, policy, and practice, whether economically or politico-ideologically. This can be contrasted to the very common approach, especially to united front or coalition work, where an organization relies upon the bourgeois state and its legal framework, or the strength of bourgeois, or petite bourgeois groups, to conduct its work and policy. For example, during the Anti-Japanese War of Resistance, the Communist Party of China entered into a united front with the bourgeois nationalist Kuomintang Party, and received aid from the Soviet Union and Comintern. Nevertheless, the CPC never relied too heavily on the support of either party in its work, always emphasizing its independence and relying primarily on the forces of the Chinese masses and proletariat, policies which made them impossible to defeat through intrigue, betrayal or repression.
We can contrast this with the sight of the many activists who join the ranks of state unions, NGOs, academia, and revisionist groups: as they give up self-reliance and choose to work within the framework provided by the imperialist State, often for short-term economic gains, they ended up working to maintain the status quo, whether willingly or unwillingly, with many bought up by the imperialists and standing on the opposite side of the working class, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman.
The principle of self-reliance has both a national and international aspect, which Chairman Gonzalo expanded on further in the period leading up to and following the Initiation of Armed Struggle in Peru. In their General Political Line, the Peruvian comrades include as one of their basic principles: “The need for a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Communist Party that firmly applies independence, autonomy and self-reliance.” Through the work of the revolutions in China and Peru, self-reliance in relation to both the struggle domestically and the international movement was correctly centered as one of our class’ most central and beloved principles. This emphasis on proletarian self-reliance functions as a corrective to certain errors committed during the latter Comintern period, especially the Popular Front period, during which the ideological, political, and organizational independence and autonomy of a country’s revolutionary forces were downplayed in some instances. While revolutionaries elsewhere have experience in their respective struggles and it is essential to learn from them, in the final analysis, the revolutionary movement in each country must lead its own revolutionary process, form the closest possible links with and organize their own masses through mass work and class struggle, and therefore must make their own decisions based on their own analysis, lines, and concrete conditions.
Self-reliance is an indispensable principle to grasp, study and apply for all comrades, but especially for comrades leading or conducting work among the masses. In our mass work nationally and locally, we must never sacrifice our self-reliance on the altar of short-term gains: that is opportunism and is what long-term leads to the liquidation and defection of so many organizations and activists whose work relies primarily on the systems, policies and resources of the capitalists and their “civil society” or state unionist organizations. It means consciously basing our strength on the masses, training up new members and leaders from among the proletariat and its allied classes, and forming united fronts based on class-conscious principles and the line of socialist revolution which ensure proletarian politics remain in command and principal.
Self-reliance implies requires hard patient work on the part of all revolutionaries resolved in implementing it. This is why the Quotations from Chairman Mao section on self-reliance is paired with quotes on “arduous struggle”. It is not an easy way out, but rather means applying the principles of self-reliance by establishing our work on a strong foundation which will not crack or fall apart at every vacillation, obstacle or attack. We do not want a revolutionary movement built on a foundation of sand: while laying a foundation of stone may require more effort up front, it pays its dividends in strength and success on the long road of victory for our revolution and our class.
For further study and reading on this principle of our class we suggest:
- Quotations from Chairman Mao, Chapter 21 – Self-Reliance and Arduous Struggle
- Interview with Chairman Gonzalo, II and III
- Theses On The United Front – Fourth Congress of the Communist International
- The Question of Independence and Initiative Within the United Front – Chairman Mao
- Draft Resolution on the Provisional Revolutionary Government – Lenin
