Any worker or any other person involved in the revolutionary struggle who accepts the Constitution of the Party, is committed to working actively in a Party organization, to carrying out the Party’s decisions and to observing Party discipline and paying Party membership dues, may become a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.
Applicants for Party membership must go through the procedure for admission individually. An applicant must apply for membership, be recommended by two Party members and discuss his/her application with a delegation of Party members. The Party branch concerned must, to the extent possible under the given conditions, seek the opinions of the masses as to the attitude and practice of the applicant in relation to the question of proletarian revolution and the basic principles of the Party’s line. Admission into the Party involves an extremely serious responsibility on the part of both the applicant and the branch and should be discussed and considered in this light. Application is subject to acceptance by the general membership meeting of the Party branch and approval by the next higher Party committee.
Members of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA must:
1. Keep constantly in mind, base themselves wholeheartedly on and dedicate their whole lives to the proletarian revolution and the historic mission of the international proletariat: the achievement of communism throughout the world;
2. Conscientiously study Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tsetung Thought, thoroughly criticize and struggle against revisionism and all forms of opportunism and fight to grasp, defend, apply and develop the correct line in opposition to the incorrect line;
3. Actively distribute the Party’s press–its newspaper and other publications–as its main weapon among the masses, vigorously expose the capitalist system and the bourgeoisie, support the outbreaks of protest and struggle of the masses, and arouse the masses to revolution;
4. Systematically apply the mass line in all their work;
5. Firmly uphold the revolutionary unity of the working class and proletarian internationalism and combat all forms of chauvinism and racism, while also struggling against nationalism and other forms of bourgeois ideology, within the Party as well as among the masses;
6. Be bold in making criticism and self-criticism;
7. Resolutely uphold the Party’s discipline and take initiative in carrying out its line and policies;
8. Uphold proletarian morality.
When Party members violate Party discipline, the Party organization at the level concerned shall, within its functions and powers and on the merits of each case, take appropriate disciplinary measures–warning, serious warning, removal from posts in the Party, placing on probation within the Party, termination of their Party membership, or expulsion from the Party. Such decisions must be reported to the next higher body and the general right of members to appeal also applies in these cases.
The period for which a Party member is placed on probation shall not exceed one year. During this period he/she has no right to vote or elect or be elected.
A Party member whose revolutionary will has degenerated and who, after repeated education and serious struggle to rekindle his/her revolutionary spirit, does not change, should be persuaded to withdraw from the Party. When, after a period of discussion and struggle, a Party member asks to withdraw from the Party, the Party unit concerned shall report the matter to the next higher party committee and, after consultation, drop his/her membership.
Proven counter-revolutionaries, unrepentant opportunists, enemy agents, degenerates and elements hostile to the proletarian revolution must be expelled–cleared out of the Party and not readmitted.
The organizational principle of the Party is democratic centralism. This principle combines centralized leadership and the greatest degree of discipline with the fullest discussion and struggle over line and policy within the Party and the selection and political supervision of Party leaders by Party members, on the basis of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tsetung Thought.
The leadership of the Party at all levels shall be elected through democratic consultation in accordance with the requirements of leadership of the proletarian revolution–those selected as leaders should be the comrades who have demonstrated the greatest ability to grasp and apply the principles of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tsetung Thought in a living and sweeping way and to arm and lead others in doing the same. Leadership in a communist organization is not and must not be treated as personal capital, but as a solemn responsibility to the party and the international proletariat; the relationship and differences in roles between leaders in the Party and those under their leadership represents a division of labor through which they all make their greatest contribution to the struggle for communism, and not a bourgeois political machine of bigshots and flunkies.
The whole Party must observe Party discipline: the individual is subordinate to the Party; the minority is subordinate to the majority; the lower level is subordinate to the higher level; and the entire Party is subordinate to the National Party Congress, or to the Central Committee chosen by it when this Party Congress is not in session.
Standing bodies within the Party shall regularly report on their work to the general membership meetings of the bodies to which they are directly responsible. Party leadership on all levels must constantly listen to the opinions of the masses, both inside and outside the Party, and encourage their criticism. Party leaders and leading bodies must accept the political supervision of those they are responsible for leading. Party members have the right to criticize leading bodies or members of the Party at all levels and make proposals to them.
If Party members hold different views with regard to the decisions or directives of the Party body they serve on, or others above it, they may reserve their opinion while maintaining Party discipline and have the right to bypass immediate leadership and report directly to the higher levels, up to and including the Central Committee. It is absolutely impermissible to suppress criticism or to retaliate. It is essential to create a political situation in which there is both centralism and democracy, both unified line and broad initiative, both discipline and ideological struggle, both unity of will and action and personal ease of mind and liveliness.
The highest body of the Party is the National Party Congress, and when it is not in session, the Central Committee elected by it.
The National Party Congress shall be held every 5 years. Under special circumstances it may be convened before its due date or postponed.
The Central Committee elects its Chairman and other officers and its standing bodies, to which it delegates all of its authority when it is not in session. The Central Committee, under the leadership of its Chairman and other officers and its standing bodies, shall set up a number of necessary bodies, and in some cases shall directly guide the work of Party members, in order to carry out the day-to-day work of the national Party leadership and guide the overall work of the Party on the basis of centralized guidance and unified command.
Party branches shall be set up as the basic units of the Party, to provide political leadership first and foremost among the working class, especially the industrial proletariat, but also among other sections of the masses, in order to carry out the central task and strategy of the Party and carry through the struggle to realize the basic programme of the Party.
Officers of the Party branches shall be chosen on the basis of democratic consultation, and this shall be reviewed yearly on the same basis; under special circumstances this review may occur earlier or later than the one-year interval.
The main tasks of the Party branches are:
1. To give constant education to Party members and supporters concerning the ideological and political line and lead them in fighting in unity with and at the head of the proletariat and broad masses against the class enemy and for the goal of proletarian revolution;
2. To lead the Party members and supporters in studying Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tsetung Thought conscientiously, thoroughly criticizing and struggling against revisionism and all forms of opportunism, and fighting to grasp, defend, apply and develop the correct line in opposition to the incorrect line;
3. To lead Party members in fulfilling all their basic requirements as Party members (as enumerated in Article 3);
4. To maintain close political ties with the masses, constantly listen to their opinions and demands, and wage an active ideological struggle so as to keep Party life vigorous;
5. To propagate and carry out the line and policies of the Party, implement its decisions and fulfill every task assigned by the Party;
6. To take in new Party members, enforce Party discipline and constantly consolidate the Party organizations, getting rid of the stale and taking in the fresh, so as to constantly safeguard and strengthen the proletarian-revolutionary character of the Party and its role as the vanguard of the working class and proletarian revolution.