Introductory Explanation:
On the Nature, Purpose
and Role of This
Constitution (Draft Proposal)
This Constitution (Draft Proposal) is written with the future in
mind. It is intended to set forth a basic model, and fundamental
principles and guidelines, for the nature and functioning of a vastly
different society and government than now exists: the New Socialist
Republic in North America, a socialist state which would embody,
institutionalize and promote radically different relations and
values among people; a socialist state whose final and fundamental
aim would be to achieve, together with the revolutionary
struggle throughout the world, the emancipation of humanity
as a whole and the opening of a whole new epoch in human
history–communism–with the final abolition of all exploitative
and oppressive relations among human beings and the destructive
antagonistic conflicts to which these relations give rise.
In order to bring this new socialist state into being, it would
be necessary to thoroughly defeat, dismantle and abolish the
capitalist-imperialist state of the USA; and this in turn would
only become possible with the development of a profound and
acute crisis in society and the emergence of a revolutionary
people, in the millions and millions, who have the leadership of
a revolutionary communist vanguard and are conscious of the
need for revolutionary change and determined to fight for it. To
work for this objective–to hasten while awaiting the emergence
of these necessary conditions, with the goal of revolution and
ultimately communism clearly in mind–is the strategic orientation
of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. And, as one
important part of giving life to and carrying out this strategic
i
ii
orientation, we are publishing this “Constitution for the New
Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)”: as a
contribution to a process in which growing numbers of people
are seriously considering and grappling with whether, how,
and in what form there could be a real alternative to the present
capitalist-imperialist system and the unspeakable suffering and
depredations it imposes on the great majority of people in the
world, on humanity as a whole, as well as on the environment
and the webs of interconnected species which inhabit this earth;
to provide a more concrete sense of the basic nature, structure
and functioning of the socialist society, and its government, envisioned
here, and the principles and objectives underlying and
guiding this; and to enable people to see, sharply outlined, what
is in reality the radical difference between the society and government
envisioned here and the capitalist-imperialist system
which currently rules in this country and exercises domination
over the world as a whole, with such terrible consequences.
The term “New Socialist Republic in North America” has
been chosen not because that would necessarily be the name of
such a socialist society, brought into being through revolution
in this part of the world (the formal name would of course be
decided at the time of the actual establishment of such a socialist
state); rather, this term is utilized in order to emphasize that this
is intended as a proposal for the Constitution of a socialist state
as it would have been newly brought into being, in the first stages
of its existence, with the victory of the revolution that would have
put an end to the imperialist USA and replaced it with a new, revolutionary
society on the road of socialism. And, while we have
sought to indicate here, as much as possible, the basic principles,
institutions, structures, and processes which would characterize
this new socialist society, and particularly the functioning of its
government, much of the specific features of this would naturally
be influenced by the situation that existed at the time of the establishment
of this new socialist state–including factors such as the
size of the territory that had been liberated from the imperialists
(and other reactionaries) and consolidated as the territory of the
new socialist state, and what overall situation prevailed, particularly
in terms of the struggle between revolutionary and reactionary
forces, in this part of the world, and in the world overall, at
iii
the time of the founding of this new socialist state. Some of this
is spoken to in the Constitution (Draft Proposal) that follows,
but there are clearly aspects of such a future situation which can
be anticipated only in broad terms, and others which may arise
which cannot at all be anticipated now. Nevertheless, it has been
our purpose, and we have striven to the best of our ability, to
put forward as clearly as possible the basic principles that would
be embodied in a Constitution for a new socialist state in North
America, and much of the specific ways in which these principles
would be applied, in order to enable and encourage people to
engage, in a serious and substantive way, with the vision that is
put forth here of this new socialist state and the potential for a
radically different society and world that it represents. For, again,
that is our purpose in publishing this Draft Proposal: to stimulate,
as broadly as possible, such serious and substantive engagement
with this Draft Proposal, and vigorous discussion and debate
about what it puts forward as the kind of society and world to be
not only imagined but actively struggled for.
A final point. As a Draft Proposal for a Constitution for a
new socialist state, this document focuses on and is primarily
concerned with addressing the purposes, nature, objectives,
and functioning of the government in this new society and does
not attempt to discuss to any great depth the philosophicalideological
and political-strategic thinking regarding the necessity
and basis for, and the means for bringing into being, such
a state. For more background in relation to this, we strongly
recommend the talks and writings of the Chair of our Party, Bob
Avakian, as well as other Party publications, including: Birds
Cannot Give Birth to Crocodiles, But Humanity Can Soar Beyond the
Horizon; Revolution and Communism: A Foundation and Strategic
Orientation; Constitution of the Revolutionary Communist Party,
USA; and Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage: A Manifesto
from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.
Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, October 2010
CONSTITUTION FOR THE
NEW SOCIALIST REPUBLIC
IN NORTH AMERICA
(Draft Proposal)
This Constitution consists of a Preamble and six Articles:
Article I. The Central Government.
Article II. Regions, Localities, and Basic Institutions.
Article III. Rights of the People and the Struggle to
Uproot All Exploitation and Oppression.
Article IV. The Economy and Economic Development in
the New Socialist Republic in North America.
Article V. Adoption of This Constitution.
Article VI. Amendments to This Constitution.
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 1
Preamble
The New Socialist Republic in North America could only
have been brought into being as a result of heroic, self-sacrificing
struggle carried out by millions and millions of people who had
been forced to live under a system of exploitation and oppression
in the former United States of America; who could no longer
tolerate the continual outrages and injustices perpetrated by the
system of capitalism-imperialism and the structures and institutions
of power and repression which enforced all this with
violence and brutality as well as lies and deception; who refused
to any longer accept that this was the best possible society and
world, and were increasingly aware of and inspired by the possibility
of a radically different and better society and world; and
who therefore rose up, with the leadership of the Revolutionary
Communist Party, to defeat, abolish and dismantle the imperialist
system in the former USA and its institutions and apparatus of
repression and violence. At the same time, this new socialist state
could only have resulted from a whole process of revolutionary
work and struggle, in the realm of theory as well as practicalpolitical
activity, by the Revolutionary Communist Party, acting
as the vanguard of the revolutionary process, to enable both the
Party itself and growing numbers of broader masses to prepare
for and then to seize on the emergence of a revolutionary situation,
to defeat and dismantle the forces of the old, oppressive
order, and establish the new socialist state. In this whole process,
the interaction and mutual reinforcement between the vanguard
role of the Revolutionary Communist Party–with its theoretical
basis in the science of communism and the further development
of this science through the new synthesis brought forward by
Bob Avakian–and the growing consciousness and increasingly
determined struggle of masses of people, constitute a decisive
element in the success of the revolution and the founding of the
2 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
new, revolutionary socialist state. The Constitution for the New
Socialist Republic in North America continues and gives further
expression and initiative, in the conditions of the new society, to
the fundamental principles and motive forces that constitute the
basis for the establishment of this new socialist state.
In contrast to the way in which the capitalist-imperialist
state serves and enforces the interests of a small ruling group of
exploiters, the New Socialist Republic in North America, with the
continuing leadership of the Revolutionary Communist Party,
bases itself on, and proceeds from, the fundamental interests of
those most bitterly exploited and oppressed under the old system,
and the masses of people broadly, and provides the means
for them to play an increasingly widening role in the exercise of
political power and the functioning of society in accordance with
those interests–in order to carry forward the struggle to transform
society, with the goal of uprooting and finally eliminating
all oppressive and exploitative relations among human beings
and the destructive antagonistic conflicts to which these relations
give rise.
This is a process and goal which, fundamentally and in the
final analysis, can only be achieved on a global scale, with the
advance to communism throughout the world. The orientation
and principles of this state, as embodied in this Constitution,
are internationalist: While giving due emphasis to meeting the
material, intellectual and cultural needs of the people within
this state, on a continually expanding basis, and to promoting
the further transformation of this society to continue uprooting
social inequalities and remaining aspects of exploitation and
oppression, the socialist state must give fundamental priority to
the advance of the revolutionary struggle, and the final goal of
communism, throughout the world, and must adopt and carry
out policies and actions which are in accordance with and give
concrete effect to this internationalist orientation.
Regardless of differences, even very great and qualitative
differences, in their political structures, institutions and guiding
principles, all states have a definite social content and class character:
they are an expression of the prevailing social relations, and
most fundamentally the economic relations (relations of production),
which have a decisive and ultimately determining role in
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 3
regard to how the particular society functions and is organized.
The state serves to protect and expand those relations and to
enforce the interests of the social group–the ruling class–which
holds the dominant position in society, as a result of its role in the
economy, and in particular its ownership and control of the major
means of production (including land, raw materials and other
resources, technology and physical structures such as factories,
and so on). In capitalist society, it is the capitalist class which
holds this dominant position: the government structures and
processes–and above all the organs of the state as an instrument
of class rule and suppression (the armed forces, police, courts
and prisons, the executive power, and the bureaucracies)–are
controlled by this capitalist class as a means of exercising its rule
over society and its repression of forces whose interests are in significant
opposition to, and/or which resist, its rule. In short, all
states are an instrument of dictatorship–of a monopoly of political
power, concentrated as a monopoly of “legitimate” armed
force and violence–exercised by, and in the interests of, one class
or another. Any democracy which is practiced in this situation is
democracy on the terms of, and fundamentally serving the interests
of, the ruling class and its exercise of dictatorship. And it will
remain the case that there will be a state, and that the state will
constitute a dictatorship of one kind or another, serving the interests
of one ruling class or another, so long as society is divided
into classes (and other groups) with interests that are fundamentally
antagonistic–a division rooted in the underlying social relations,
and above all the production relations, which predominate
in the given society.
The New Socialist Republic in North America is, like all states,
a form of dictatorship–the dictatorship of the proletariat–which
means that, in its essential character and its basic principles, structures,
institutions and political processes, it must give expression
to and serve the fundamental interests of the proletariat, a class
whose exploitation is the engine of the accumulation of capitalist
wealth and the functioning of capitalist society and whose emancipation
from its exploited condition can only be brought about
through the communist revolution, with its goal of abolishing all
relations of exploitation and oppression and achieving the emancipation
of humanity as a whole. In accordance with this, the
4 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
governing bodies and processes of this socialist state, at all levels,
must be vehicles for the furtherance of the communist revolution;
and, as a key dimension of this, they must provide the means for
those who were exploited and oppressed in the old society–and
were effectively locked out of the exercise of political power and
the governance of society, as well as the spheres of intellectual
endeavor and working with ideas overall–to increasingly take
part in these spheres, with the aim of continually transforming
society in the direction of communism. All this is given expression
through the principles and provisions, and the institutions,
structures and processes which are set forth and provided for in
this Constitution.
At the same time, the New Socialist Republic in North America
is a continuation of the strategic orientation of United Front
under the Leadership of the Proletariat, in the conditions of the
new society which has been brought into being through the revolutionary
struggle. This means that, while it must be recognized
that the essential nature, and the basic principles and processes, of
this Republic are oriented in accordance with the interests of the
proletariat, as a class, in the most fundamental and largest sense–
abolishing all relations of exploitation and oppression through
the advance to communism throughout the world–the struggle
to achieve this goal cannot be, and will not be, carried out simply
by PROLETARIANS, as some idealized “perfect embodiment of
communist principles,” and in some uniform and linear sense.
As the new synthesis brought forward by Bob Avakian has given
emphasis to, the process of making revolution, and then continuing
the revolution in the new socialist state toward the final goal
of communism, must involve the active participation of broad
ranks of the people, of different strata, and will proceed through
many different “channels,” involving many diverse forces among
the people in many different spheres of human endeavor, not
only those more directly political or relating more directly, at any
given time, to the functioning and objectives of the leadership of
the revolution and the new socialist state; and the orientation and
aim, consciously taken up by growing numbers of the people,
must be to work so as to enable all this to contribute, in the final
analysis, to the struggle to further transform society in the direction
of communism.
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 5
In keeping with this orientation and these objectives, the principle
of “solid core, with a lot of elasticity” must be applied. This
means that, on the one hand, there must be a continually expanding
force in society, with the revolutionary communist party
as its leading element, which is firmly convinced of the need
to advance to communism and deeply committed to carrying
forward this struggle, through all the difficulties and obstacles;
and, on the basis of and at the same time as continually strengthening
this “solid core,” there must be provision and scope for a
wide diversity of thinking and activity, among people throughout
society, “going off in many different directions,” grappling
and experimenting with many diverse ideas and programs and
fields of endeavor–and once again all this must be “embraced”
by the vanguard party and the “solid core” in an overall sense
and enabled to contribute, through many divergent paths, to the
advance along a broad road toward the goal of communism. This
orientation and approach is embodied in the Constitution for the
New Socialist Republic in North America.
The New Socialist Republic in North America is a multinational
and multi-lingual state, which is based on the principle
of equality between different nationalities and cultures and has as
one of its essential objectives fully overcoming national oppression
and inequality, which was such a fundamental part of the
imperialist USA throughout its history. Only on the basis of these
principles and objectives can divisions among humanity by country
and nation be finally overcome and surpassed and a world
community of freely associating human beings be brought into
being. This orientation is also embodied in the various institutions
of the state and in the functioning of the government in the
New Socialist Republic in North America.
The oppression of women arose together with the emergence
of exploitative class divisions among human beings thousands
of years ago, has been carried forward and become deeply
entrenched in all societies ruled by exploiting classes, and was
a marked feature of the imperialist United States of America
and its domination and influence in the world. Abolishing and
uprooting all this is one of the most important objectives of the
New Socialist Republic in North America. This is expressed not
only in full legal equality between women and men, but beyond
6 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
that in the declared orientation and policy of this Republic to
overcome all “tradition’s chains” embodied in traditional gender
roles and divisions, and all the oppressive relations bound up
with this, in every sphere of society, and to enable women, as
fully as men, to take part in and contribute to every aspect of the
struggle to transform society, and the world, in order to uproot
and abolish all relations of oppression and exploitation and
emancipate humanity as a whole.
In an overall sense, and in accordance with the principles and
provisions of this Constitution, the Revolutionary Communist
Party provides leadership to the state and its key institutions.
Members of the Party, at all levels, dedicate themselves
to upholding, propagating and implementing the Constitution
of the Party as well as the Constitution of the New Socialist
Republic in North America. While there are differences between
these two Constitutions–as aspects of the viewpoint, objectives
and responsibilities of Party members, embodied in the Party
Constitution, extend beyond what is set forth in the Constitution
for the New Socialist Republic–there is a fundamental unity
between the principles of the two Constitutions; the Party, and
all its members, are accountable to and may not act in violation
of, and on the contrary must consistently act on the basis of
and in accordance with, the Constitution for the New Socialist
Republic in North America.
As historical experience has demonstrated, socialist society
will–for a considerable period of time–contain, and in fact regenerate,
elements of exploitation, social inequality and oppression,
which have been, unavoidably, inherited from the old society
and cannot be uprooted and abolished all at once, or soon after
the establishment of the socialist state. Further, there is likely to
be a protracted period in which new socialist states come into
existence in a situation where they are, to one degree or another,
encircled by imperialist and reactionary states, which will continue
to exert significant influence and force, and may even
occupy a dominant position in the world for some time. These
factors will, for a long time, repeatedly give rise to forces within
socialist society itself, as well as within the parts of the world
still dominated by imperialism and reaction, which will attempt
to overthrow any socialist states that exist and restore capitalism
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 7
there. And historical experience has also demonstrated that, as a
result of these contradictions, forces will emerge within the vanguard
party itself, including at its top levels, which will fight for
lines and policies that will actually lead to the undermining of
socialism and the restoration of capitalism. All this underscores
the importance of continuing the revolution within socialist society,
and of doing so in the overall framework of the revolutionary
struggle throughout the world and with the internationalist
orientation of giving fundamental priority to the advance of this
worldwide struggle toward the achievement of communism,
which is only possible on a world scale–and the importance of
struggle within the party itself, as well as in society as a whole, to
maintain and strengthen the revolutionary character and role of
the party, in keeping with its responsibilities to act as the leadership
of the continuing revolution toward the final goal of communism,
and to defeat attempts to transform the party into its
opposite, into a vehicle for the restoration of the old, exploitative
and oppressive society.
With the final abolition of class divisions and all other
exploitative and oppressive relations among people, throughout
the world, there will still remain a need for government, in
the sense of providing an organized framework for decisionmaking
and the administration of the common affairs of the
human beings who make up society, on its various levels, and
for the pursuit by individuals and groups within society of
their particular inclinations, preferences and concerns within
the overall cooperative functioning and ethos of society. But
the need and the basis for a state–as an organ of class rule and
of suppression of classes and groups antagonistically opposed
to the ruling class–will have been eliminated, and the state will
have been abolished. In these conditions, the basis and need
for an organized group of people exercising a disproportionate
influence in the sphere of government, and in society overall,
will also have been surpassed, and vanguard parties, with a
special role in the governance of society, will have been eliminated.
Advancing to such a communist society, bringing into
being the conditions that make that possible and achievable–
through continuing revolutionary struggle to transform all
spheres of society, within a particular socialist state and in the
8 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
worldIntroductory Explanation:
On the Nature, Purpose
and Role of This
Constitution (Draft Proposal)
This Constitution (Draft Proposal) is written with the future in
mind. It is intended to set forth a basic model, and fundamental
principles and guidelines, for the nature and functioning of a vastly
different society and government than now exists: the New Socialist
Republic in North America, a socialist state which would embody,
institutionalize and promote radically different relations and
values among people; a socialist state whose final and fundamental
aim would be to achieve, together with the revolutionary
struggle throughout the world, the emancipation of humanity
as a whole and the opening of a whole new epoch in human
history–communism–with the final abolition of all exploitative
and oppressive relations among human beings and the destructive
antagonistic conflicts to which these relations give rise.
In order to bring this new socialist state into being, it would
be necessary to thoroughly defeat, dismantle and abolish the
capitalist-imperialist state of the USA; and this in turn would
only become possible with the development of a profound and
acute crisis in society and the emergence of a revolutionary
people, in the millions and millions, who have the leadership of
a revolutionary communist vanguard and are conscious of the
need for revolutionary change and determined to fight for it. To
work for this objective–to hasten while awaiting the emergence
of these necessary conditions, with the goal of revolution and
ultimately communism clearly in mind–is the strategic orientation
of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. And, as one
important part of giving life to and carrying out this strategic
i
ii
orientation, we are publishing this “Constitution for the New
Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)”: as a
contribution to a process in which growing numbers of people
are seriously considering and grappling with whether, how,
and in what form there could be a real alternative to the present
capitalist-imperialist system and the unspeakable suffering and
depredations it imposes on the great majority of people in the
world, on humanity as a whole, as well as on the environment
and the webs of interconnected species which inhabit this earth;
to provide a more concrete sense of the basic nature, structure
and functioning of the socialist society, and its government, envisioned
here, and the principles and objectives underlying and
guiding this; and to enable people to see, sharply outlined, what
is in reality the radical difference between the society and government
envisioned here and the capitalist-imperialist system
which currently rules in this country and exercises domination
over the world as a whole, with such terrible consequences.
The term “New Socialist Republic in North America” has
been chosen not because that would necessarily be the name of
such a socialist society, brought into being through revolution
in this part of the world (the formal name would of course be
decided at the time of the actual establishment of such a socialist
state); rather, this term is utilized in order to emphasize that this
is intended as a proposal for the Constitution of a socialist state
as it would have been newly brought into being, in the first stages
of its existence, with the victory of the revolution that would have
put an end to the imperialist USA and replaced it with a new, revolutionary
society on the road of socialism. And, while we have
sought to indicate here, as much as possible, the basic principles,
institutions, structures, and processes which would characterize
this new socialist society, and particularly the functioning of its
government, much of the specific features of this would naturally
be influenced by the situation that existed at the time of the establishment
of this new socialist state–including factors such as the
size of the territory that had been liberated from the imperialists
(and other reactionaries) and consolidated as the territory of the
new socialist state, and what overall situation prevailed, particularly
in terms of the struggle between revolutionary and reactionary
forces, in this part of the world, and in the world overall, at
iii
the time of the founding of this new socialist state. Some of this
is spoken to in the Constitution (Draft Proposal) that follows,
but there are clearly aspects of such a future situation which can
be anticipated only in broad terms, and others which may arise
which cannot at all be anticipated now. Nevertheless, it has been
our purpose, and we have striven to the best of our ability, to
put forward as clearly as possible the basic principles that would
be embodied in a Constitution for a new socialist state in North
America, and much of the specific ways in which these principles
would be applied, in order to enable and encourage people to
engage, in a serious and substantive way, with the vision that is
put forth here of this new socialist state and the potential for a
radically different society and world that it represents. For, again,
that is our purpose in publishing this Draft Proposal: to stimulate,
as broadly as possible, such serious and substantive engagement
with this Draft Proposal, and vigorous discussion and debate
about what it puts forward as the kind of society and world to be
not only imagined but actively struggled for.
A final point. As a Draft Proposal for a Constitution for a
new socialist state, this document focuses on and is primarily
concerned with addressing the purposes, nature, objectives,
and functioning of the government in this new society and does
not attempt to discuss to any great depth the philosophicalideological
and political-strategic thinking regarding the necessity
and basis for, and the means for bringing into being, such
a state. For more background in relation to this, we strongly
recommend the talks and writings of the Chair of our Party, Bob
Avakian, as well as other Party publications, including: Birds
Cannot Give Birth to Crocodiles, But Humanity Can Soar Beyond the
Horizon; Revolution and Communism: A Foundation and Strategic
Orientation; Constitution of the Revolutionary Communist Party,
USA; and Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage: A Manifesto
from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.
Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, October 2010
CONSTITUTION FOR THE
NEW SOCIALIST REPUBLIC
IN NORTH AMERICA
(Draft Proposal)
This Constitution consists of a Preamble and six Articles:
Article I. The Central Government.
Article II. Regions, Localities, and Basic Institutions.
Article III. Rights of the People and the Struggle to
Uproot All Exploitation and Oppression.
Article IV. The Economy and Economic Development in
the New Socialist Republic in North America.
Article V. Adoption of This Constitution.
Article VI. Amendments to This Constitution.
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 1
Preamble
The New Socialist Republic in North America could only
have been brought into being as a result of heroic, self-sacrificing
struggle carried out by millions and millions of people who had
been forced to live under a system of exploitation and oppression
in the former United States of America; who could no longer
tolerate the continual outrages and injustices perpetrated by the
system of capitalism-imperialism and the structures and institutions
of power and repression which enforced all this with
violence and brutality as well as lies and deception; who refused
to any longer accept that this was the best possible society and
world, and were increasingly aware of and inspired by the possibility
of a radically different and better society and world; and
who therefore rose up, with the leadership of the Revolutionary
Communist Party, to defeat, abolish and dismantle the imperialist
system in the former USA and its institutions and apparatus of
repression and violence. At the same time, this new socialist state
could only have resulted from a whole process of revolutionary
work and struggle, in the realm of theory as well as practicalpolitical
activity, by the Revolutionary Communist Party, acting
as the vanguard of the revolutionary process, to enable both the
Party itself and growing numbers of broader masses to prepare
for and then to seize on the emergence of a revolutionary situation,
to defeat and dismantle the forces of the old, oppressive
order, and establish the new socialist state. In this whole process,
the interaction and mutual reinforcement between the vanguard
role of the Revolutionary Communist Party–with its theoretical
basis in the science of communism and the further development
of this science through the new synthesis brought forward by
Bob Avakian–and the growing consciousness and increasingly
determined struggle of masses of people, constitute a decisive
element in the success of the revolution and the founding of the
2 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
new, revolutionary socialist state. The Constitution for the New
Socialist Republic in North America continues and gives further
expression and initiative, in the conditions of the new society, to
the fundamental principles and motive forces that constitute the
basis for the establishment of this new socialist state.
In contrast to the way in which the capitalist-imperialist
state serves and enforces the interests of a small ruling group of
exploiters, the New Socialist Republic in North America, with the
continuing leadership of the Revolutionary Communist Party,
bases itself on, and proceeds from, the fundamental interests of
those most bitterly exploited and oppressed under the old system,
and the masses of people broadly, and provides the means
for them to play an increasingly widening role in the exercise of
political power and the functioning of society in accordance with
those interests–in order to carry forward the struggle to transform
society, with the goal of uprooting and finally eliminating
all oppressive and exploitative relations among human beings
and the destructive antagonistic conflicts to which these relations
give rise.
This is a process and goal which, fundamentally and in the
final analysis, can only be achieved on a global scale, with the
advance to communism throughout the world. The orientation
and principles of this state, as embodied in this Constitution,
are internationalist: While giving due emphasis to meeting the
material, intellectual and cultural needs of the people within
this state, on a continually expanding basis, and to promoting
the further transformation of this society to continue uprooting
social inequalities and remaining aspects of exploitation and
oppression, the socialist state must give fundamental priority to
the advance of the revolutionary struggle, and the final goal of
communism, throughout the world, and must adopt and carry
out policies and actions which are in accordance with and give
concrete effect to this internationalist orientation.
Regardless of differences, even very great and qualitative
differences, in their political structures, institutions and guiding
principles, all states have a definite social content and class character:
they are an expression of the prevailing social relations, and
most fundamentally the economic relations (relations of production),
which have a decisive and ultimately determining role in
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 3
regard to how the particular society functions and is organized.
The state serves to protect and expand those relations and to
enforce the interests of the social group–the ruling class–which
holds the dominant position in society, as a result of its role in the
economy, and in particular its ownership and control of the major
means of production (including land, raw materials and other
resources, technology and physical structures such as factories,
and so on). In capitalist society, it is the capitalist class which
holds this dominant position: the government structures and
processes–and above all the organs of the state as an instrument
of class rule and suppression (the armed forces, police, courts
and prisons, the executive power, and the bureaucracies)–are
controlled by this capitalist class as a means of exercising its rule
over society and its repression of forces whose interests are in significant
opposition to, and/or which resist, its rule. In short, all
states are an instrument of dictatorship–of a monopoly of political
power, concentrated as a monopoly of “legitimate” armed
force and violence–exercised by, and in the interests of, one class
or another. Any democracy which is practiced in this situation is
democracy on the terms of, and fundamentally serving the interests
of, the ruling class and its exercise of dictatorship. And it will
remain the case that there will be a state, and that the state will
constitute a dictatorship of one kind or another, serving the interests
of one ruling class or another, so long as society is divided
into classes (and other groups) with interests that are fundamentally
antagonistic–a division rooted in the underlying social relations,
and above all the production relations, which predominate
in the given society.
The New Socialist Republic in North America is, like all states,
a form of dictatorship–the dictatorship of the proletariat–which
means that, in its essential character and its basic principles, structures,
institutions and political processes, it must give expression
to and serve the fundamental interests of the proletariat, a class
whose exploitation is the engine of the accumulation of capitalist
wealth and the functioning of capitalist society and whose emancipation
from its exploited condition can only be brought about
through the communist revolution, with its goal of abolishing all
relations of exploitation and oppression and achieving the emancipation
of humanity as a whole. In accordance with this, the
4 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
governing bodies and processes of this socialist state, at all levels,
must be vehicles for the furtherance of the communist revolution;
and, as a key dimension of this, they must provide the means for
those who were exploited and oppressed in the old society–and
were effectively locked out of the exercise of political power and
the governance of society, as well as the spheres of intellectual
endeavor and working with ideas overall–to increasingly take
part in these spheres, with the aim of continually transforming
society in the direction of communism. All this is given expression
through the principles and provisions, and the institutions,
structures and processes which are set forth and provided for in
this Constitution.
At the same time, the New Socialist Republic in North America
is a continuation of the strategic orientation of United Front
under the Leadership of the Proletariat, in the conditions of the
new society which has been brought into being through the revolutionary
struggle. This means that, while it must be recognized
that the essential nature, and the basic principles and processes, of
this Republic are oriented in accordance with the interests of the
proletariat, as a class, in the most fundamental and largest sense–
abolishing all relations of exploitation and oppression through
the advance to communism throughout the world–the struggle
to achieve this goal cannot be, and will not be, carried out simply
by PROLETARIANS, as some idealized “perfect embodiment of
communist principles,” and in some uniform and linear sense.
As the new synthesis brought forward by Bob Avakian has given
emphasis to, the process of making revolution, and then continuing
the revolution in the new socialist state toward the final goal
of communism, must involve the active participation of broad
ranks of the people, of different strata, and will proceed through
many different “channels,” involving many diverse forces among
the people in many different spheres of human endeavor, not
only those more directly political or relating more directly, at any
given time, to the functioning and objectives of the leadership of
the revolution and the new socialist state; and the orientation and
aim, consciously taken up by growing numbers of the people,
must be to work so as to enable all this to contribute, in the final
analysis, to the struggle to further transform society in the direction
of communism.
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 5
In keeping with this orientation and these objectives, the principle
of “solid core, with a lot of elasticity” must be applied. This
means that, on the one hand, there must be a continually expanding
force in society, with the revolutionary communist party
as its leading element, which is firmly convinced of the need
to advance to communism and deeply committed to carrying
forward this struggle, through all the difficulties and obstacles;
and, on the basis of and at the same time as continually strengthening
this “solid core,” there must be provision and scope for a
wide diversity of thinking and activity, among people throughout
society, “going off in many different directions,” grappling
and experimenting with many diverse ideas and programs and
fields of endeavor–and once again all this must be “embraced”
by the vanguard party and the “solid core” in an overall sense
and enabled to contribute, through many divergent paths, to the
advance along a broad road toward the goal of communism. This
orientation and approach is embodied in the Constitution for the
New Socialist Republic in North America.
The New Socialist Republic in North America is a multinational
and multi-lingual state, which is based on the principle
of equality between different nationalities and cultures and has as
one of its essential objectives fully overcoming national oppression
and inequality, which was such a fundamental part of the
imperialist USA throughout its history. Only on the basis of these
principles and objectives can divisions among humanity by country
and nation be finally overcome and surpassed and a world
community of freely associating human beings be brought into
being. This orientation is also embodied in the various institutions
of the state and in the functioning of the government in the
New Socialist Republic in North America.
The oppression of women arose together with the emergence
of exploitative class divisions among human beings thousands
of years ago, has been carried forward and become deeply
entrenched in all societies ruled by exploiting classes, and was
a marked feature of the imperialist United States of America
and its domination and influence in the world. Abolishing and
uprooting all this is one of the most important objectives of the
New Socialist Republic in North America. This is expressed not
only in full legal equality between women and men, but beyond
6 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
that in the declared orientation and policy of this Republic to
overcome all “tradition’s chains” embodied in traditional gender
roles and divisions, and all the oppressive relations bound up
with this, in every sphere of society, and to enable women, as
fully as men, to take part in and contribute to every aspect of the
struggle to transform society, and the world, in order to uproot
and abolish all relations of oppression and exploitation and
emancipate humanity as a whole.
In an overall sense, and in accordance with the principles and
provisions of this Constitution, the Revolutionary Communist
Party provides leadership to the state and its key institutions.
Members of the Party, at all levels, dedicate themselves
to upholding, propagating and implementing the Constitution
of the Party as well as the Constitution of the New Socialist
Republic in North America. While there are differences between
these two Constitutions–as aspects of the viewpoint, objectives
and responsibilities of Party members, embodied in the Party
Constitution, extend beyond what is set forth in the Constitution
for the New Socialist Republic–there is a fundamental unity
between the principles of the two Constitutions; the Party, and
all its members, are accountable to and may not act in violation
of, and on the contrary must consistently act on the basis of
and in accordance with, the Constitution for the New Socialist
Republic in North America.
As historical experience has demonstrated, socialist society
will–for a considerable period of time–contain, and in fact regenerate,
elements of exploitation, social inequality and oppression,
which have been, unavoidably, inherited from the old society
and cannot be uprooted and abolished all at once, or soon after
the establishment of the socialist state. Further, there is likely to
be a protracted period in which new socialist states come into
existence in a situation where they are, to one degree or another,
encircled by imperialist and reactionary states, which will continue
to exert significant influence and force, and may even
occupy a dominant position in the world for some time. These
factors will, for a long time, repeatedly give rise to forces within
socialist society itself, as well as within the parts of the world
still dominated by imperialism and reaction, which will attempt
to overthrow any socialist states that exist and restore capitalism
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 7
there. And historical experience has also demonstrated that, as a
result of these contradictions, forces will emerge within the vanguard
party itself, including at its top levels, which will fight for
lines and policies that will actually lead to the undermining of
socialism and the restoration of capitalism. All this underscores
the importance of continuing the revolution within socialist society,
and of doing so in the overall framework of the revolutionary
struggle throughout the world and with the internationalist
orientation of giving fundamental priority to the advance of this
worldwide struggle toward the achievement of communism,
which is only possible on a world scale–and the importance of
struggle within the party itself, as well as in society as a whole, to
maintain and strengthen the revolutionary character and role of
the party, in keeping with its responsibilities to act as the leadership
of the continuing revolution toward the final goal of communism,
and to defeat attempts to transform the party into its
opposite, into a vehicle for the restoration of the old, exploitative
and oppressive society.
With the final abolition of class divisions and all other
exploitative and oppressive relations among people, throughout
the world, there will still remain a need for government, in
the sense of providing an organized framework for decisionmaking
and the administration of the common affairs of the
human beings who make up society, on its various levels, and
for the pursuit by individuals and groups within society of
their particular inclinations, preferences and concerns within
the overall cooperative functioning and ethos of society. But
the need and the basis for a state–as an organ of class rule and
of suppression of classes and groups antagonistically opposed
to the ruling class–will have been eliminated, and the state will
have been abolished. In these conditions, the basis and need
for an organized group of people exercising a disproportionate
influence in the sphere of government, and in society overall,
will also have been surpassed, and vanguard parties, with a
special role in the governance of society, will have been eliminated.
Advancing to such a communist society, bringing into
being the conditions that make that possible and achievable–
through continuing revolutionary struggle to transform all
spheres of society, within a particular socialist state and in the
8 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
worldIntroductory Explanation:
On the Nature, Purpose
and Role of This
Constitution (Draft Proposal)
This Constitution (Draft Proposal) is written with the future in
mind. It is intended to set forth a basic model, and fundamental
principles and guidelines, for the nature and functioning of a vastly
different society and government than now exists: the New Socialist
Republic in North America, a socialist state which would embody,
institutionalize and promote radically different relations and
values among people; a socialist state whose final and fundamental
aim would be to achieve, together with the revolutionary
struggle throughout the world, the emancipation of humanity
as a whole and the opening of a whole new epoch in human
history–communism–with the final abolition of all exploitative
and oppressive relations among human beings and the destructive
antagonistic conflicts to which these relations give rise.
In order to bring this new socialist state into being, it would
be necessary to thoroughly defeat, dismantle and abolish the
capitalist-imperialist state of the USA; and this in turn would
only become possible with the development of a profound and
acute crisis in society and the emergence of a revolutionary
people, in the millions and millions, who have the leadership of
a revolutionary communist vanguard and are conscious of the
need for revolutionary change and determined to fight for it. To
work for this objective–to hasten while awaiting the emergence
of these necessary conditions, with the goal of revolution and
ultimately communism clearly in mind–is the strategic orientation
of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. And, as one
important part of giving life to and carrying out this strategic
i
ii
orientation, we are publishing this “Constitution for the New
Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)”: as a
contribution to a process in which growing numbers of people
are seriously considering and grappling with whether, how,
and in what form there could be a real alternative to the present
capitalist-imperialist system and the unspeakable suffering and
depredations it imposes on the great majority of people in the
world, on humanity as a whole, as well as on the environment
and the webs of interconnected species which inhabit this earth;
to provide a more concrete sense of the basic nature, structure
and functioning of the socialist society, and its government, envisioned
here, and the principles and objectives underlying and
guiding this; and to enable people to see, sharply outlined, what
is in reality the radical difference between the society and government
envisioned here and the capitalist-imperialist system
which currently rules in this country and exercises domination
over the world as a whole, with such terrible consequences.
The term “New Socialist Republic in North America” has
been chosen not because that would necessarily be the name of
such a socialist society, brought into being through revolution
in this part of the world (the formal name would of course be
decided at the time of the actual establishment of such a socialist
state); rather, this term is utilized in order to emphasize that this
is intended as a proposal for the Constitution of a socialist state
as it would have been newly brought into being, in the first stages
of its existence, with the victory of the revolution that would have
put an end to the imperialist USA and replaced it with a new, revolutionary
society on the road of socialism. And, while we have
sought to indicate here, as much as possible, the basic principles,
institutions, structures, and processes which would characterize
this new socialist society, and particularly the functioning of its
government, much of the specific features of this would naturally
be influenced by the situation that existed at the time of the establishment
of this new socialist state–including factors such as the
size of the territory that had been liberated from the imperialists
(and other reactionaries) and consolidated as the territory of the
new socialist state, and what overall situation prevailed, particularly
in terms of the struggle between revolutionary and reactionary
forces, in this part of the world, and in the world overall, at
iii
the time of the founding of this new socialist state. Some of this
is spoken to in the Constitution (Draft Proposal) that follows,
but there are clearly aspects of such a future situation which can
be anticipated only in broad terms, and others which may arise
which cannot at all be anticipated now. Nevertheless, it has been
our purpose, and we have striven to the best of our ability, to
put forward as clearly as possible the basic principles that would
be embodied in a Constitution for a new socialist state in North
America, and much of the specific ways in which these principles
would be applied, in order to enable and encourage people to
engage, in a serious and substantive way, with the vision that is
put forth here of this new socialist state and the potential for a
radically different society and world that it represents. For, again,
that is our purpose in publishing this Draft Proposal: to stimulate,
as broadly as possible, such serious and substantive engagement
with this Draft Proposal, and vigorous discussion and debate
about what it puts forward as the kind of society and world to be
not only imagined but actively struggled for.
A final point. As a Draft Proposal for a Constitution for a
new socialist state, this document focuses on and is primarily
concerned with addressing the purposes, nature, objectives,
and functioning of the government in this new society and does
not attempt to discuss to any great depth the philosophicalideological
and political-strategic thinking regarding the necessity
and basis for, and the means for bringing into being, such
a state. For more background in relation to this, we strongly
recommend the talks and writings of the Chair of our Party, Bob
Avakian, as well as other Party publications, including: Birds
Cannot Give Birth to Crocodiles, But Humanity Can Soar Beyond the
Horizon; Revolution and Communism: A Foundation and Strategic
Orientation; Constitution of the Revolutionary Communist Party,
USA; and Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage: A Manifesto
from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.
Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, October 2010
CONSTITUTION FOR THE
NEW SOCIALIST REPUBLIC
IN NORTH AMERICA
(Draft Proposal)
This Constitution consists of a Preamble and six Articles:
Article I. The Central Government.
Article II. Regions, Localities, and Basic Institutions.
Article III. Rights of the People and the Struggle to
Uproot All Exploitation and Oppression.
Article IV. The Economy and Economic Development in
the New Socialist Republic in North America.
Article V. Adoption of This Constitution.
Article VI. Amendments to This Constitution.
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 1
Preamble
The New Socialist Republic in North America could only
have been brought into being as a result of heroic, self-sacrificing
struggle carried out by millions and millions of people who had
been forced to live under a system of exploitation and oppression
in the former United States of America; who could no longer
tolerate the continual outrages and injustices perpetrated by the
system of capitalism-imperialism and the structures and institutions
of power and repression which enforced all this with
violence and brutality as well as lies and deception; who refused
to any longer accept that this was the best possible society and
world, and were increasingly aware of and inspired by the possibility
of a radically different and better society and world; and
who therefore rose up, with the leadership of the Revolutionary
Communist Party, to defeat, abolish and dismantle the imperialist
system in the former USA and its institutions and apparatus of
repression and violence. At the same time, this new socialist state
could only have resulted from a whole process of revolutionary
work and struggle, in the realm of theory as well as practicalpolitical
activity, by the Revolutionary Communist Party, acting
as the vanguard of the revolutionary process, to enable both the
Party itself and growing numbers of broader masses to prepare
for and then to seize on the emergence of a revolutionary situation,
to defeat and dismantle the forces of the old, oppressive
order, and establish the new socialist state. In this whole process,
the interaction and mutual reinforcement between the vanguard
role of the Revolutionary Communist Party–with its theoretical
basis in the science of communism and the further development
of this science through the new synthesis brought forward by
Bob Avakian–and the growing consciousness and increasingly
determined struggle of masses of people, constitute a decisive
element in the success of the revolution and the founding of the
2 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
new, revolutionary socialist state. The Constitution for the New
Socialist Republic in North America continues and gives further
expression and initiative, in the conditions of the new society, to
the fundamental principles and motive forces that constitute the
basis for the establishment of this new socialist state.
In contrast to the way in which the capitalist-imperialist
state serves and enforces the interests of a small ruling group of
exploiters, the New Socialist Republic in North America, with the
continuing leadership of the Revolutionary Communist Party,
bases itself on, and proceeds from, the fundamental interests of
those most bitterly exploited and oppressed under the old system,
and the masses of people broadly, and provides the means
for them to play an increasingly widening role in the exercise of
political power and the functioning of society in accordance with
those interests–in order to carry forward the struggle to transform
society, with the goal of uprooting and finally eliminating
all oppressive and exploitative relations among human beings
and the destructive antagonistic conflicts to which these relations
give rise.
This is a process and goal which, fundamentally and in the
final analysis, can only be achieved on a global scale, with the
advance to communism throughout the world. The orientation
and principles of this state, as embodied in this Constitution,
are internationalist: While giving due emphasis to meeting the
material, intellectual and cultural needs of the people within
this state, on a continually expanding basis, and to promoting
the further transformation of this society to continue uprooting
social inequalities and remaining aspects of exploitation and
oppression, the socialist state must give fundamental priority to
the advance of the revolutionary struggle, and the final goal of
communism, throughout the world, and must adopt and carry
out policies and actions which are in accordance with and give
concrete effect to this internationalist orientation.
Regardless of differences, even very great and qualitative
differences, in their political structures, institutions and guiding
principles, all states have a definite social content and class character:
they are an expression of the prevailing social relations, and
most fundamentally the economic relations (relations of production),
which have a decisive and ultimately determining role in
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 3
regard to how the particular society functions and is organized.
The state serves to protect and expand those relations and to
enforce the interests of the social group–the ruling class–which
holds the dominant position in society, as a result of its role in the
economy, and in particular its ownership and control of the major
means of production (including land, raw materials and other
resources, technology and physical structures such as factories,
and so on). In capitalist society, it is the capitalist class which
holds this dominant position: the government structures and
processes–and above all the organs of the state as an instrument
of class rule and suppression (the armed forces, police, courts
and prisons, the executive power, and the bureaucracies)–are
controlled by this capitalist class as a means of exercising its rule
over society and its repression of forces whose interests are in significant
opposition to, and/or which resist, its rule. In short, all
states are an instrument of dictatorship–of a monopoly of political
power, concentrated as a monopoly of “legitimate” armed
force and violence–exercised by, and in the interests of, one class
or another. Any democracy which is practiced in this situation is
democracy on the terms of, and fundamentally serving the interests
of, the ruling class and its exercise of dictatorship. And it will
remain the case that there will be a state, and that the state will
constitute a dictatorship of one kind or another, serving the interests
of one ruling class or another, so long as society is divided
into classes (and other groups) with interests that are fundamentally
antagonistic–a division rooted in the underlying social relations,
and above all the production relations, which predominate
in the given society.
The New Socialist Republic in North America is, like all states,
a form of dictatorship–the dictatorship of the proletariat–which
means that, in its essential character and its basic principles, structures,
institutions and political processes, it must give expression
to and serve the fundamental interests of the proletariat, a class
whose exploitation is the engine of the accumulation of capitalist
wealth and the functioning of capitalist society and whose emancipation
from its exploited condition can only be brought about
through the communist revolution, with its goal of abolishing all
relations of exploitation and oppression and achieving the emancipation
of humanity as a whole. In accordance with this, the
4 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
governing bodies and processes of this socialist state, at all levels,
must be vehicles for the furtherance of the communist revolution;
and, as a key dimension of this, they must provide the means for
those who were exploited and oppressed in the old society–and
were effectively locked out of the exercise of political power and
the governance of society, as well as the spheres of intellectual
endeavor and working with ideas overall–to increasingly take
part in these spheres, with the aim of continually transforming
society in the direction of communism. All this is given expression
through the principles and provisions, and the institutions,
structures and processes which are set forth and provided for in
this Constitution.
At the same time, the New Socialist Republic in North America
is a continuation of the strategic orientation of United Front
under the Leadership of the Proletariat, in the conditions of the
new society which has been brought into being through the revolutionary
struggle. This means that, while it must be recognized
that the essential nature, and the basic principles and processes, of
this Republic are oriented in accordance with the interests of the
proletariat, as a class, in the most fundamental and largest sense–
abolishing all relations of exploitation and oppression through
the advance to communism throughout the world–the struggle
to achieve this goal cannot be, and will not be, carried out simply
by PROLETARIANS, as some idealized “perfect embodiment of
communist principles,” and in some uniform and linear sense.
As the new synthesis brought forward by Bob Avakian has given
emphasis to, the process of making revolution, and then continuing
the revolution in the new socialist state toward the final goal
of communism, must involve the active participation of broad
ranks of the people, of different strata, and will proceed through
many different “channels,” involving many diverse forces among
the people in many different spheres of human endeavor, not
only those more directly political or relating more directly, at any
given time, to the functioning and objectives of the leadership of
the revolution and the new socialist state; and the orientation and
aim, consciously taken up by growing numbers of the people,
must be to work so as to enable all this to contribute, in the final
analysis, to the struggle to further transform society in the direction
of communism.
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 5
In keeping with this orientation and these objectives, the principle
of “solid core, with a lot of elasticity” must be applied. This
means that, on the one hand, there must be a continually expanding
force in society, with the revolutionary communist party
as its leading element, which is firmly convinced of the need
to advance to communism and deeply committed to carrying
forward this struggle, through all the difficulties and obstacles;
and, on the basis of and at the same time as continually strengthening
this “solid core,” there must be provision and scope for a
wide diversity of thinking and activity, among people throughout
society, “going off in many different directions,” grappling
and experimenting with many diverse ideas and programs and
fields of endeavor–and once again all this must be “embraced”
by the vanguard party and the “solid core” in an overall sense
and enabled to contribute, through many divergent paths, to the
advance along a broad road toward the goal of communism. This
orientation and approach is embodied in the Constitution for the
New Socialist Republic in North America.
The New Socialist Republic in North America is a multinational
and multi-lingual state, which is based on the principle
of equality between different nationalities and cultures and has as
one of its essential objectives fully overcoming national oppression
and inequality, which was such a fundamental part of the
imperialist USA throughout its history. Only on the basis of these
principles and objectives can divisions among humanity by country
and nation be finally overcome and surpassed and a world
community of freely associating human beings be brought into
being. This orientation is also embodied in the various institutions
of the state and in the functioning of the government in the
New Socialist Republic in North America.
The oppression of women arose together with the emergence
of exploitative class divisions among human beings thousands
of years ago, has been carried forward and become deeply
entrenched in all societies ruled by exploiting classes, and was
a marked feature of the imperialist United States of America
and its domination and influence in the world. Abolishing and
uprooting all this is one of the most important objectives of the
New Socialist Republic in North America. This is expressed not
only in full legal equality between women and men, but beyond
6 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
that in the declared orientation and policy of this Republic to
overcome all “tradition’s chains” embodied in traditional gender
roles and divisions, and all the oppressive relations bound up
with this, in every sphere of society, and to enable women, as
fully as men, to take part in and contribute to every aspect of the
struggle to transform society, and the world, in order to uproot
and abolish all relations of oppression and exploitation and
emancipate humanity as a whole.
In an overall sense, and in accordance with the principles and
provisions of this Constitution, the Revolutionary Communist
Party provides leadership to the state and its key institutions.
Members of the Party, at all levels, dedicate themselves
to upholding, propagating and implementing the Constitution
of the Party as well as the Constitution of the New Socialist
Republic in North America. While there are differences between
these two Constitutions–as aspects of the viewpoint, objectives
and responsibilities of Party members, embodied in the Party
Constitution, extend beyond what is set forth in the Constitution
for the New Socialist Republic–there is a fundamental unity
between the principles of the two Constitutions; the Party, and
all its members, are accountable to and may not act in violation
of, and on the contrary must consistently act on the basis of
and in accordance with, the Constitution for the New Socialist
Republic in North America.
As historical experience has demonstrated, socialist society
will–for a considerable period of time–contain, and in fact regenerate,
elements of exploitation, social inequality and oppression,
which have been, unavoidably, inherited from the old society
and cannot be uprooted and abolished all at once, or soon after
the establishment of the socialist state. Further, there is likely to
be a protracted period in which new socialist states come into
existence in a situation where they are, to one degree or another,
encircled by imperialist and reactionary states, which will continue
to exert significant influence and force, and may even
occupy a dominant position in the world for some time. These
factors will, for a long time, repeatedly give rise to forces within
socialist society itself, as well as within the parts of the world
still dominated by imperialism and reaction, which will attempt
to overthrow any socialist states that exist and restore capitalism
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 7
there. And historical experience has also demonstrated that, as a
result of these contradictions, forces will emerge within the vanguard
party itself, including at its top levels, which will fight for
lines and policies that will actually lead to the undermining of
socialism and the restoration of capitalism. All this underscores
the importance of continuing the revolution within socialist society,
and of doing so in the overall framework of the revolutionary
struggle throughout the world and with the internationalist
orientation of giving fundamental priority to the advance of this
worldwide struggle toward the achievement of communism,
which is only possible on a world scale–and the importance of
struggle within the party itself, as well as in society as a whole, to
maintain and strengthen the revolutionary character and role of
the party, in keeping with its responsibilities to act as the leadership
of the continuing revolution toward the final goal of communism,
and to defeat attempts to transform the party into its
opposite, into a vehicle for the restoration of the old, exploitative
and oppressive society.
With the final abolition of class divisions and all other
exploitative and oppressive relations among people, throughout
the world, there will still remain a need for government, in
the sense of providing an organized framework for decisionmaking
and the administration of the common affairs of the
human beings who make up society, on its various levels, and
for the pursuit by individuals and groups within society of
their particular inclinations, preferences and concerns within
the overall cooperative functioning and ethos of society. But
the need and the basis for a state–as an organ of class rule and
of suppression of classes and groups antagonistically opposed
to the ruling class–will have been eliminated, and the state will
have been abolished. In these conditions, the basis and need
for an organized group of people exercising a disproportionate
influence in the sphere of government, and in society overall,
will also have been surpassed, and vanguard parties, with a
special role in the governance of society, will have been eliminated.
Advancing to such a communist society, bringing into
being the conditions that make that possible and achievable–
through continuing revolutionary struggle to transform all
spheres of society, within a particular socialist state and in the
8 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
world
On the Nature, Purpose
and Role of This
Constitution (Draft Proposal)
This Constitution (Draft Proposal) is written with the future in
mind. It is intended to set forth a basic model, and fundamental
principles and guidelines, for the nature and functioning of a vastly
different society and government than now exists: the New Socialist
Republic in North America, a socialist state which would embody,
institutionalize and promote radically different relations and
values among people; a socialist state whose final and fundamental
aim would be to achieve, together with the revolutionary
struggle throughout the world, the emancipation of humanity
as a whole and the opening of a whole new epoch in human
history–communism–with the final abolition of all exploitative
and oppressive relations among human beings and the destructive
antagonistic conflicts to which these relations give rise.
In order to bring this new socialist state into being, it would
be necessary to thoroughly defeat, dismantle and abolish the
capitalist-imperialist state of the USA; and this in turn would
only become possible with the development of a profound and
acute crisis in society and the emergence of a revolutionary
people, in the millions and millions, who have the leadership of
a revolutionary communist vanguard and are conscious of the
need for revolutionary change and determined to fight for it. To
work for this objective–to hasten while awaiting the emergence
of these necessary conditions, with the goal of revolution and
ultimately communism clearly in mind–is the strategic orientation
of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. And, as one
important part of giving life to and carrying out this strategic
i
ii
orientation, we are publishing this “Constitution for the New
Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)”: as a
contribution to a process in which growing numbers of people
are seriously considering and grappling with whether, how,
and in what form there could be a real alternative to the present
capitalist-imperialist system and the unspeakable suffering and
depredations it imposes on the great majority of people in the
world, on humanity as a whole, as well as on the environment
and the webs of interconnected species which inhabit this earth;
to provide a more concrete sense of the basic nature, structure
and functioning of the socialist society, and its government, envisioned
here, and the principles and objectives underlying and
guiding this; and to enable people to see, sharply outlined, what
is in reality the radical difference between the society and government
envisioned here and the capitalist-imperialist system
which currently rules in this country and exercises domination
over the world as a whole, with such terrible consequences.
The term “New Socialist Republic in North America” has
been chosen not because that would necessarily be the name of
such a socialist society, brought into being through revolution
in this part of the world (the formal name would of course be
decided at the time of the actual establishment of such a socialist
state); rather, this term is utilized in order to emphasize that this
is intended as a proposal for the Constitution of a socialist state
as it would have been newly brought into being, in the first stages
of its existence, with the victory of the revolution that would have
put an end to the imperialist USA and replaced it with a new, revolutionary
society on the road of socialism. And, while we have
sought to indicate here, as much as possible, the basic principles,
institutions, structures, and processes which would characterize
this new socialist society, and particularly the functioning of its
government, much of the specific features of this would naturally
be influenced by the situation that existed at the time of the establishment
of this new socialist state–including factors such as the
size of the territory that had been liberated from the imperialists
(and other reactionaries) and consolidated as the territory of the
new socialist state, and what overall situation prevailed, particularly
in terms of the struggle between revolutionary and reactionary
forces, in this part of the world, and in the world overall, at
iii
the time of the founding of this new socialist state. Some of this
is spoken to in the Constitution (Draft Proposal) that follows,
but there are clearly aspects of such a future situation which can
be anticipated only in broad terms, and others which may arise
which cannot at all be anticipated now. Nevertheless, it has been
our purpose, and we have striven to the best of our ability, to
put forward as clearly as possible the basic principles that would
be embodied in a Constitution for a new socialist state in North
America, and much of the specific ways in which these principles
would be applied, in order to enable and encourage people to
engage, in a serious and substantive way, with the vision that is
put forth here of this new socialist state and the potential for a
radically different society and world that it represents. For, again,
that is our purpose in publishing this Draft Proposal: to stimulate,
as broadly as possible, such serious and substantive engagement
with this Draft Proposal, and vigorous discussion and debate
about what it puts forward as the kind of society and world to be
not only imagined but actively struggled for.
A final point. As a Draft Proposal for a Constitution for a
new socialist state, this document focuses on and is primarily
concerned with addressing the purposes, nature, objectives,
and functioning of the government in this new society and does
not attempt to discuss to any great depth the philosophicalideological
and political-strategic thinking regarding the necessity
and basis for, and the means for bringing into being, such
a state. For more background in relation to this, we strongly
recommend the talks and writings of the Chair of our Party, Bob
Avakian, as well as other Party publications, including: Birds
Cannot Give Birth to Crocodiles, But Humanity Can Soar Beyond the
Horizon; Revolution and Communism: A Foundation and Strategic
Orientation; Constitution of the Revolutionary Communist Party,
USA; and Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage: A Manifesto
from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.
Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, October 2010
CONSTITUTION FOR THE
NEW SOCIALIST REPUBLIC
IN NORTH AMERICA
(Draft Proposal)
This Constitution consists of a Preamble and six Articles:
Article I. The Central Government.
Article II. Regions, Localities, and Basic Institutions.
Article III. Rights of the People and the Struggle to
Uproot All Exploitation and Oppression.
Article IV. The Economy and Economic Development in
the New Socialist Republic in North America.
Article V. Adoption of This Constitution.
Article VI. Amendments to This Constitution.
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 1
Preamble
The New Socialist Republic in North America could only
have been brought into being as a result of heroic, self-sacrificing
struggle carried out by millions and millions of people who had
been forced to live under a system of exploitation and oppression
in the former United States of America; who could no longer
tolerate the continual outrages and injustices perpetrated by the
system of capitalism-imperialism and the structures and institutions
of power and repression which enforced all this with
violence and brutality as well as lies and deception; who refused
to any longer accept that this was the best possible society and
world, and were increasingly aware of and inspired by the possibility
of a radically different and better society and world; and
who therefore rose up, with the leadership of the Revolutionary
Communist Party, to defeat, abolish and dismantle the imperialist
system in the former USA and its institutions and apparatus of
repression and violence. At the same time, this new socialist state
could only have resulted from a whole process of revolutionary
work and struggle, in the realm of theory as well as practicalpolitical
activity, by the Revolutionary Communist Party, acting
as the vanguard of the revolutionary process, to enable both the
Party itself and growing numbers of broader masses to prepare
for and then to seize on the emergence of a revolutionary situation,
to defeat and dismantle the forces of the old, oppressive
order, and establish the new socialist state. In this whole process,
the interaction and mutual reinforcement between the vanguard
role of the Revolutionary Communist Party–with its theoretical
basis in the science of communism and the further development
of this science through the new synthesis brought forward by
Bob Avakian–and the growing consciousness and increasingly
determined struggle of masses of people, constitute a decisive
element in the success of the revolution and the founding of the
2 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
new, revolutionary socialist state. The Constitution for the New
Socialist Republic in North America continues and gives further
expression and initiative, in the conditions of the new society, to
the fundamental principles and motive forces that constitute the
basis for the establishment of this new socialist state.
In contrast to the way in which the capitalist-imperialist
state serves and enforces the interests of a small ruling group of
exploiters, the New Socialist Republic in North America, with the
continuing leadership of the Revolutionary Communist Party,
bases itself on, and proceeds from, the fundamental interests of
those most bitterly exploited and oppressed under the old system,
and the masses of people broadly, and provides the means
for them to play an increasingly widening role in the exercise of
political power and the functioning of society in accordance with
those interests–in order to carry forward the struggle to transform
society, with the goal of uprooting and finally eliminating
all oppressive and exploitative relations among human beings
and the destructive antagonistic conflicts to which these relations
give rise.
This is a process and goal which, fundamentally and in the
final analysis, can only be achieved on a global scale, with the
advance to communism throughout the world. The orientation
and principles of this state, as embodied in this Constitution,
are internationalist: While giving due emphasis to meeting the
material, intellectual and cultural needs of the people within
this state, on a continually expanding basis, and to promoting
the further transformation of this society to continue uprooting
social inequalities and remaining aspects of exploitation and
oppression, the socialist state must give fundamental priority to
the advance of the revolutionary struggle, and the final goal of
communism, throughout the world, and must adopt and carry
out policies and actions which are in accordance with and give
concrete effect to this internationalist orientation.
Regardless of differences, even very great and qualitative
differences, in their political structures, institutions and guiding
principles, all states have a definite social content and class character:
they are an expression of the prevailing social relations, and
most fundamentally the economic relations (relations of production),
which have a decisive and ultimately determining role in
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 3
regard to how the particular society functions and is organized.
The state serves to protect and expand those relations and to
enforce the interests of the social group–the ruling class–which
holds the dominant position in society, as a result of its role in the
economy, and in particular its ownership and control of the major
means of production (including land, raw materials and other
resources, technology and physical structures such as factories,
and so on). In capitalist society, it is the capitalist class which
holds this dominant position: the government structures and
processes–and above all the organs of the state as an instrument
of class rule and suppression (the armed forces, police, courts
and prisons, the executive power, and the bureaucracies)–are
controlled by this capitalist class as a means of exercising its rule
over society and its repression of forces whose interests are in significant
opposition to, and/or which resist, its rule. In short, all
states are an instrument of dictatorship–of a monopoly of political
power, concentrated as a monopoly of “legitimate” armed
force and violence–exercised by, and in the interests of, one class
or another. Any democracy which is practiced in this situation is
democracy on the terms of, and fundamentally serving the interests
of, the ruling class and its exercise of dictatorship. And it will
remain the case that there will be a state, and that the state will
constitute a dictatorship of one kind or another, serving the interests
of one ruling class or another, so long as society is divided
into classes (and other groups) with interests that are fundamentally
antagonistic–a division rooted in the underlying social relations,
and above all the production relations, which predominate
in the given society.
The New Socialist Republic in North America is, like all states,
a form of dictatorship–the dictatorship of the proletariat–which
means that, in its essential character and its basic principles, structures,
institutions and political processes, it must give expression
to and serve the fundamental interests of the proletariat, a class
whose exploitation is the engine of the accumulation of capitalist
wealth and the functioning of capitalist society and whose emancipation
from its exploited condition can only be brought about
through the communist revolution, with its goal of abolishing all
relations of exploitation and oppression and achieving the emancipation
of humanity as a whole. In accordance with this, the
4 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
governing bodies and processes of this socialist state, at all levels,
must be vehicles for the furtherance of the communist revolution;
and, as a key dimension of this, they must provide the means for
those who were exploited and oppressed in the old society–and
were effectively locked out of the exercise of political power and
the governance of society, as well as the spheres of intellectual
endeavor and working with ideas overall–to increasingly take
part in these spheres, with the aim of continually transforming
society in the direction of communism. All this is given expression
through the principles and provisions, and the institutions,
structures and processes which are set forth and provided for in
this Constitution.
At the same time, the New Socialist Republic in North America
is a continuation of the strategic orientation of United Front
under the Leadership of the Proletariat, in the conditions of the
new society which has been brought into being through the revolutionary
struggle. This means that, while it must be recognized
that the essential nature, and the basic principles and processes, of
this Republic are oriented in accordance with the interests of the
proletariat, as a class, in the most fundamental and largest sense–
abolishing all relations of exploitation and oppression through
the advance to communism throughout the world–the struggle
to achieve this goal cannot be, and will not be, carried out simply
by PROLETARIANS, as some idealized “perfect embodiment of
communist principles,” and in some uniform and linear sense.
As the new synthesis brought forward by Bob Avakian has given
emphasis to, the process of making revolution, and then continuing
the revolution in the new socialist state toward the final goal
of communism, must involve the active participation of broad
ranks of the people, of different strata, and will proceed through
many different “channels,” involving many diverse forces among
the people in many different spheres of human endeavor, not
only those more directly political or relating more directly, at any
given time, to the functioning and objectives of the leadership of
the revolution and the new socialist state; and the orientation and
aim, consciously taken up by growing numbers of the people,
must be to work so as to enable all this to contribute, in the final
analysis, to the struggle to further transform society in the direction
of communism.
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 5
In keeping with this orientation and these objectives, the principle
of “solid core, with a lot of elasticity” must be applied. This
means that, on the one hand, there must be a continually expanding
force in society, with the revolutionary communist party
as its leading element, which is firmly convinced of the need
to advance to communism and deeply committed to carrying
forward this struggle, through all the difficulties and obstacles;
and, on the basis of and at the same time as continually strengthening
this “solid core,” there must be provision and scope for a
wide diversity of thinking and activity, among people throughout
society, “going off in many different directions,” grappling
and experimenting with many diverse ideas and programs and
fields of endeavor–and once again all this must be “embraced”
by the vanguard party and the “solid core” in an overall sense
and enabled to contribute, through many divergent paths, to the
advance along a broad road toward the goal of communism. This
orientation and approach is embodied in the Constitution for the
New Socialist Republic in North America.
The New Socialist Republic in North America is a multinational
and multi-lingual state, which is based on the principle
of equality between different nationalities and cultures and has as
one of its essential objectives fully overcoming national oppression
and inequality, which was such a fundamental part of the
imperialist USA throughout its history. Only on the basis of these
principles and objectives can divisions among humanity by country
and nation be finally overcome and surpassed and a world
community of freely associating human beings be brought into
being. This orientation is also embodied in the various institutions
of the state and in the functioning of the government in the
New Socialist Republic in North America.
The oppression of women arose together with the emergence
of exploitative class divisions among human beings thousands
of years ago, has been carried forward and become deeply
entrenched in all societies ruled by exploiting classes, and was
a marked feature of the imperialist United States of America
and its domination and influence in the world. Abolishing and
uprooting all this is one of the most important objectives of the
New Socialist Republic in North America. This is expressed not
only in full legal equality between women and men, but beyond
6 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
that in the declared orientation and policy of this Republic to
overcome all “tradition’s chains” embodied in traditional gender
roles and divisions, and all the oppressive relations bound up
with this, in every sphere of society, and to enable women, as
fully as men, to take part in and contribute to every aspect of the
struggle to transform society, and the world, in order to uproot
and abolish all relations of oppression and exploitation and
emancipate humanity as a whole.
In an overall sense, and in accordance with the principles and
provisions of this Constitution, the Revolutionary Communist
Party provides leadership to the state and its key institutions.
Members of the Party, at all levels, dedicate themselves
to upholding, propagating and implementing the Constitution
of the Party as well as the Constitution of the New Socialist
Republic in North America. While there are differences between
these two Constitutions–as aspects of the viewpoint, objectives
and responsibilities of Party members, embodied in the Party
Constitution, extend beyond what is set forth in the Constitution
for the New Socialist Republic–there is a fundamental unity
between the principles of the two Constitutions; the Party, and
all its members, are accountable to and may not act in violation
of, and on the contrary must consistently act on the basis of
and in accordance with, the Constitution for the New Socialist
Republic in North America.
As historical experience has demonstrated, socialist society
will–for a considerable period of time–contain, and in fact regenerate,
elements of exploitation, social inequality and oppression,
which have been, unavoidably, inherited from the old society
and cannot be uprooted and abolished all at once, or soon after
the establishment of the socialist state. Further, there is likely to
be a protracted period in which new socialist states come into
existence in a situation where they are, to one degree or another,
encircled by imperialist and reactionary states, which will continue
to exert significant influence and force, and may even
occupy a dominant position in the world for some time. These
factors will, for a long time, repeatedly give rise to forces within
socialist society itself, as well as within the parts of the world
still dominated by imperialism and reaction, which will attempt
to overthrow any socialist states that exist and restore capitalism
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 7
there. And historical experience has also demonstrated that, as a
result of these contradictions, forces will emerge within the vanguard
party itself, including at its top levels, which will fight for
lines and policies that will actually lead to the undermining of
socialism and the restoration of capitalism. All this underscores
the importance of continuing the revolution within socialist society,
and of doing so in the overall framework of the revolutionary
struggle throughout the world and with the internationalist
orientation of giving fundamental priority to the advance of this
worldwide struggle toward the achievement of communism,
which is only possible on a world scale–and the importance of
struggle within the party itself, as well as in society as a whole, to
maintain and strengthen the revolutionary character and role of
the party, in keeping with its responsibilities to act as the leadership
of the continuing revolution toward the final goal of communism,
and to defeat attempts to transform the party into its
opposite, into a vehicle for the restoration of the old, exploitative
and oppressive society.
With the final abolition of class divisions and all other
exploitative and oppressive relations among people, throughout
the world, there will still remain a need for government, in
the sense of providing an organized framework for decisionmaking
and the administration of the common affairs of the
human beings who make up society, on its various levels, and
for the pursuit by individuals and groups within society of
their particular inclinations, preferences and concerns within
the overall cooperative functioning and ethos of society. But
the need and the basis for a state–as an organ of class rule and
of suppression of classes and groups antagonistically opposed
to the ruling class–will have been eliminated, and the state will
have been abolished. In these conditions, the basis and need
for an organized group of people exercising a disproportionate
influence in the sphere of government, and in society overall,
will also have been surpassed, and vanguard parties, with a
special role in the governance of society, will have been eliminated.
Advancing to such a communist society, bringing into
being the conditions that make that possible and achievable–
through continuing revolutionary struggle to transform all
spheres of society, within a particular socialist state and in the
8 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
worldIntroductory Explanation:
On the Nature, Purpose
and Role of This
Constitution (Draft Proposal)
This Constitution (Draft Proposal) is written with the future in
mind. It is intended to set forth a basic model, and fundamental
principles and guidelines, for the nature and functioning of a vastly
different society and government than now exists: the New Socialist
Republic in North America, a socialist state which would embody,
institutionalize and promote radically different relations and
values among people; a socialist state whose final and fundamental
aim would be to achieve, together with the revolutionary
struggle throughout the world, the emancipation of humanity
as a whole and the opening of a whole new epoch in human
history–communism–with the final abolition of all exploitative
and oppressive relations among human beings and the destructive
antagonistic conflicts to which these relations give rise.
In order to bring this new socialist state into being, it would
be necessary to thoroughly defeat, dismantle and abolish the
capitalist-imperialist state of the USA; and this in turn would
only become possible with the development of a profound and
acute crisis in society and the emergence of a revolutionary
people, in the millions and millions, who have the leadership of
a revolutionary communist vanguard and are conscious of the
need for revolutionary change and determined to fight for it. To
work for this objective–to hasten while awaiting the emergence
of these necessary conditions, with the goal of revolution and
ultimately communism clearly in mind–is the strategic orientation
of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. And, as one
important part of giving life to and carrying out this strategic
i
ii
orientation, we are publishing this “Constitution for the New
Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)”: as a
contribution to a process in which growing numbers of people
are seriously considering and grappling with whether, how,
and in what form there could be a real alternative to the present
capitalist-imperialist system and the unspeakable suffering and
depredations it imposes on the great majority of people in the
world, on humanity as a whole, as well as on the environment
and the webs of interconnected species which inhabit this earth;
to provide a more concrete sense of the basic nature, structure
and functioning of the socialist society, and its government, envisioned
here, and the principles and objectives underlying and
guiding this; and to enable people to see, sharply outlined, what
is in reality the radical difference between the society and government
envisioned here and the capitalist-imperialist system
which currently rules in this country and exercises domination
over the world as a whole, with such terrible consequences.
The term “New Socialist Republic in North America” has
been chosen not because that would necessarily be the name of
such a socialist society, brought into being through revolution
in this part of the world (the formal name would of course be
decided at the time of the actual establishment of such a socialist
state); rather, this term is utilized in order to emphasize that this
is intended as a proposal for the Constitution of a socialist state
as it would have been newly brought into being, in the first stages
of its existence, with the victory of the revolution that would have
put an end to the imperialist USA and replaced it with a new, revolutionary
society on the road of socialism. And, while we have
sought to indicate here, as much as possible, the basic principles,
institutions, structures, and processes which would characterize
this new socialist society, and particularly the functioning of its
government, much of the specific features of this would naturally
be influenced by the situation that existed at the time of the establishment
of this new socialist state–including factors such as the
size of the territory that had been liberated from the imperialists
(and other reactionaries) and consolidated as the territory of the
new socialist state, and what overall situation prevailed, particularly
in terms of the struggle between revolutionary and reactionary
forces, in this part of the world, and in the world overall, at
iii
the time of the founding of this new socialist state. Some of this
is spoken to in the Constitution (Draft Proposal) that follows,
but there are clearly aspects of such a future situation which can
be anticipated only in broad terms, and others which may arise
which cannot at all be anticipated now. Nevertheless, it has been
our purpose, and we have striven to the best of our ability, to
put forward as clearly as possible the basic principles that would
be embodied in a Constitution for a new socialist state in North
America, and much of the specific ways in which these principles
would be applied, in order to enable and encourage people to
engage, in a serious and substantive way, with the vision that is
put forth here of this new socialist state and the potential for a
radically different society and world that it represents. For, again,
that is our purpose in publishing this Draft Proposal: to stimulate,
as broadly as possible, such serious and substantive engagement
with this Draft Proposal, and vigorous discussion and debate
about what it puts forward as the kind of society and world to be
not only imagined but actively struggled for.
A final point. As a Draft Proposal for a Constitution for a
new socialist state, this document focuses on and is primarily
concerned with addressing the purposes, nature, objectives,
and functioning of the government in this new society and does
not attempt to discuss to any great depth the philosophicalideological
and political-strategic thinking regarding the necessity
and basis for, and the means for bringing into being, such
a state. For more background in relation to this, we strongly
recommend the talks and writings of the Chair of our Party, Bob
Avakian, as well as other Party publications, including: Birds
Cannot Give Birth to Crocodiles, But Humanity Can Soar Beyond the
Horizon; Revolution and Communism: A Foundation and Strategic
Orientation; Constitution of the Revolutionary Communist Party,
USA; and Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage: A Manifesto
from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.
Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, October 2010
CONSTITUTION FOR THE
NEW SOCIALIST REPUBLIC
IN NORTH AMERICA
(Draft Proposal)
This Constitution consists of a Preamble and six Articles:
Article I. The Central Government.
Article II. Regions, Localities, and Basic Institutions.
Article III. Rights of the People and the Struggle to
Uproot All Exploitation and Oppression.
Article IV. The Economy and Economic Development in
the New Socialist Republic in North America.
Article V. Adoption of This Constitution.
Article VI. Amendments to This Constitution.
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 1
Preamble
The New Socialist Republic in North America could only
have been brought into being as a result of heroic, self-sacrificing
struggle carried out by millions and millions of people who had
been forced to live under a system of exploitation and oppression
in the former United States of America; who could no longer
tolerate the continual outrages and injustices perpetrated by the
system of capitalism-imperialism and the structures and institutions
of power and repression which enforced all this with
violence and brutality as well as lies and deception; who refused
to any longer accept that this was the best possible society and
world, and were increasingly aware of and inspired by the possibility
of a radically different and better society and world; and
who therefore rose up, with the leadership of the Revolutionary
Communist Party, to defeat, abolish and dismantle the imperialist
system in the former USA and its institutions and apparatus of
repression and violence. At the same time, this new socialist state
could only have resulted from a whole process of revolutionary
work and struggle, in the realm of theory as well as practicalpolitical
activity, by the Revolutionary Communist Party, acting
as the vanguard of the revolutionary process, to enable both the
Party itself and growing numbers of broader masses to prepare
for and then to seize on the emergence of a revolutionary situation,
to defeat and dismantle the forces of the old, oppressive
order, and establish the new socialist state. In this whole process,
the interaction and mutual reinforcement between the vanguard
role of the Revolutionary Communist Party–with its theoretical
basis in the science of communism and the further development
of this science through the new synthesis brought forward by
Bob Avakian–and the growing consciousness and increasingly
determined struggle of masses of people, constitute a decisive
element in the success of the revolution and the founding of the
2 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
new, revolutionary socialist state. The Constitution for the New
Socialist Republic in North America continues and gives further
expression and initiative, in the conditions of the new society, to
the fundamental principles and motive forces that constitute the
basis for the establishment of this new socialist state.
In contrast to the way in which the capitalist-imperialist
state serves and enforces the interests of a small ruling group of
exploiters, the New Socialist Republic in North America, with the
continuing leadership of the Revolutionary Communist Party,
bases itself on, and proceeds from, the fundamental interests of
those most bitterly exploited and oppressed under the old system,
and the masses of people broadly, and provides the means
for them to play an increasingly widening role in the exercise of
political power and the functioning of society in accordance with
those interests–in order to carry forward the struggle to transform
society, with the goal of uprooting and finally eliminating
all oppressive and exploitative relations among human beings
and the destructive antagonistic conflicts to which these relations
give rise.
This is a process and goal which, fundamentally and in the
final analysis, can only be achieved on a global scale, with the
advance to communism throughout the world. The orientation
and principles of this state, as embodied in this Constitution,
are internationalist: While giving due emphasis to meeting the
material, intellectual and cultural needs of the people within
this state, on a continually expanding basis, and to promoting
the further transformation of this society to continue uprooting
social inequalities and remaining aspects of exploitation and
oppression, the socialist state must give fundamental priority to
the advance of the revolutionary struggle, and the final goal of
communism, throughout the world, and must adopt and carry
out policies and actions which are in accordance with and give
concrete effect to this internationalist orientation.
Regardless of differences, even very great and qualitative
differences, in their political structures, institutions and guiding
principles, all states have a definite social content and class character:
they are an expression of the prevailing social relations, and
most fundamentally the economic relations (relations of production),
which have a decisive and ultimately determining role in
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 3
regard to how the particular society functions and is organized.
The state serves to protect and expand those relations and to
enforce the interests of the social group–the ruling class–which
holds the dominant position in society, as a result of its role in the
economy, and in particular its ownership and control of the major
means of production (including land, raw materials and other
resources, technology and physical structures such as factories,
and so on). In capitalist society, it is the capitalist class which
holds this dominant position: the government structures and
processes–and above all the organs of the state as an instrument
of class rule and suppression (the armed forces, police, courts
and prisons, the executive power, and the bureaucracies)–are
controlled by this capitalist class as a means of exercising its rule
over society and its repression of forces whose interests are in significant
opposition to, and/or which resist, its rule. In short, all
states are an instrument of dictatorship–of a monopoly of political
power, concentrated as a monopoly of “legitimate” armed
force and violence–exercised by, and in the interests of, one class
or another. Any democracy which is practiced in this situation is
democracy on the terms of, and fundamentally serving the interests
of, the ruling class and its exercise of dictatorship. And it will
remain the case that there will be a state, and that the state will
constitute a dictatorship of one kind or another, serving the interests
of one ruling class or another, so long as society is divided
into classes (and other groups) with interests that are fundamentally
antagonistic–a division rooted in the underlying social relations,
and above all the production relations, which predominate
in the given society.
The New Socialist Republic in North America is, like all states,
a form of dictatorship–the dictatorship of the proletariat–which
means that, in its essential character and its basic principles, structures,
institutions and political processes, it must give expression
to and serve the fundamental interests of the proletariat, a class
whose exploitation is the engine of the accumulation of capitalist
wealth and the functioning of capitalist society and whose emancipation
from its exploited condition can only be brought about
through the communist revolution, with its goal of abolishing all
relations of exploitation and oppression and achieving the emancipation
of humanity as a whole. In accordance with this, the
4 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
governing bodies and processes of this socialist state, at all levels,
must be vehicles for the furtherance of the communist revolution;
and, as a key dimension of this, they must provide the means for
those who were exploited and oppressed in the old society–and
were effectively locked out of the exercise of political power and
the governance of society, as well as the spheres of intellectual
endeavor and working with ideas overall–to increasingly take
part in these spheres, with the aim of continually transforming
society in the direction of communism. All this is given expression
through the principles and provisions, and the institutions,
structures and processes which are set forth and provided for in
this Constitution.
At the same time, the New Socialist Republic in North America
is a continuation of the strategic orientation of United Front
under the Leadership of the Proletariat, in the conditions of the
new society which has been brought into being through the revolutionary
struggle. This means that, while it must be recognized
that the essential nature, and the basic principles and processes, of
this Republic are oriented in accordance with the interests of the
proletariat, as a class, in the most fundamental and largest sense–
abolishing all relations of exploitation and oppression through
the advance to communism throughout the world–the struggle
to achieve this goal cannot be, and will not be, carried out simply
by PROLETARIANS, as some idealized “perfect embodiment of
communist principles,” and in some uniform and linear sense.
As the new synthesis brought forward by Bob Avakian has given
emphasis to, the process of making revolution, and then continuing
the revolution in the new socialist state toward the final goal
of communism, must involve the active participation of broad
ranks of the people, of different strata, and will proceed through
many different “channels,” involving many diverse forces among
the people in many different spheres of human endeavor, not
only those more directly political or relating more directly, at any
given time, to the functioning and objectives of the leadership of
the revolution and the new socialist state; and the orientation and
aim, consciously taken up by growing numbers of the people,
must be to work so as to enable all this to contribute, in the final
analysis, to the struggle to further transform society in the direction
of communism.
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 5
In keeping with this orientation and these objectives, the principle
of “solid core, with a lot of elasticity” must be applied. This
means that, on the one hand, there must be a continually expanding
force in society, with the revolutionary communist party
as its leading element, which is firmly convinced of the need
to advance to communism and deeply committed to carrying
forward this struggle, through all the difficulties and obstacles;
and, on the basis of and at the same time as continually strengthening
this “solid core,” there must be provision and scope for a
wide diversity of thinking and activity, among people throughout
society, “going off in many different directions,” grappling
and experimenting with many diverse ideas and programs and
fields of endeavor–and once again all this must be “embraced”
by the vanguard party and the “solid core” in an overall sense
and enabled to contribute, through many divergent paths, to the
advance along a broad road toward the goal of communism. This
orientation and approach is embodied in the Constitution for the
New Socialist Republic in North America.
The New Socialist Republic in North America is a multinational
and multi-lingual state, which is based on the principle
of equality between different nationalities and cultures and has as
one of its essential objectives fully overcoming national oppression
and inequality, which was such a fundamental part of the
imperialist USA throughout its history. Only on the basis of these
principles and objectives can divisions among humanity by country
and nation be finally overcome and surpassed and a world
community of freely associating human beings be brought into
being. This orientation is also embodied in the various institutions
of the state and in the functioning of the government in the
New Socialist Republic in North America.
The oppression of women arose together with the emergence
of exploitative class divisions among human beings thousands
of years ago, has been carried forward and become deeply
entrenched in all societies ruled by exploiting classes, and was
a marked feature of the imperialist United States of America
and its domination and influence in the world. Abolishing and
uprooting all this is one of the most important objectives of the
New Socialist Republic in North America. This is expressed not
only in full legal equality between women and men, but beyond
6 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
that in the declared orientation and policy of this Republic to
overcome all “tradition’s chains” embodied in traditional gender
roles and divisions, and all the oppressive relations bound up
with this, in every sphere of society, and to enable women, as
fully as men, to take part in and contribute to every aspect of the
struggle to transform society, and the world, in order to uproot
and abolish all relations of oppression and exploitation and
emancipate humanity as a whole.
In an overall sense, and in accordance with the principles and
provisions of this Constitution, the Revolutionary Communist
Party provides leadership to the state and its key institutions.
Members of the Party, at all levels, dedicate themselves
to upholding, propagating and implementing the Constitution
of the Party as well as the Constitution of the New Socialist
Republic in North America. While there are differences between
these two Constitutions–as aspects of the viewpoint, objectives
and responsibilities of Party members, embodied in the Party
Constitution, extend beyond what is set forth in the Constitution
for the New Socialist Republic–there is a fundamental unity
between the principles of the two Constitutions; the Party, and
all its members, are accountable to and may not act in violation
of, and on the contrary must consistently act on the basis of
and in accordance with, the Constitution for the New Socialist
Republic in North America.
As historical experience has demonstrated, socialist society
will–for a considerable period of time–contain, and in fact regenerate,
elements of exploitation, social inequality and oppression,
which have been, unavoidably, inherited from the old society
and cannot be uprooted and abolished all at once, or soon after
the establishment of the socialist state. Further, there is likely to
be a protracted period in which new socialist states come into
existence in a situation where they are, to one degree or another,
encircled by imperialist and reactionary states, which will continue
to exert significant influence and force, and may even
occupy a dominant position in the world for some time. These
factors will, for a long time, repeatedly give rise to forces within
socialist society itself, as well as within the parts of the world
still dominated by imperialism and reaction, which will attempt
to overthrow any socialist states that exist and restore capitalism
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 7
there. And historical experience has also demonstrated that, as a
result of these contradictions, forces will emerge within the vanguard
party itself, including at its top levels, which will fight for
lines and policies that will actually lead to the undermining of
socialism and the restoration of capitalism. All this underscores
the importance of continuing the revolution within socialist society,
and of doing so in the overall framework of the revolutionary
struggle throughout the world and with the internationalist
orientation of giving fundamental priority to the advance of this
worldwide struggle toward the achievement of communism,
which is only possible on a world scale–and the importance of
struggle within the party itself, as well as in society as a whole, to
maintain and strengthen the revolutionary character and role of
the party, in keeping with its responsibilities to act as the leadership
of the continuing revolution toward the final goal of communism,
and to defeat attempts to transform the party into its
opposite, into a vehicle for the restoration of the old, exploitative
and oppressive society.
With the final abolition of class divisions and all other
exploitative and oppressive relations among people, throughout
the world, there will still remain a need for government, in
the sense of providing an organized framework for decisionmaking
and the administration of the common affairs of the
human beings who make up society, on its various levels, and
for the pursuit by individuals and groups within society of
their particular inclinations, preferences and concerns within
the overall cooperative functioning and ethos of society. But
the need and the basis for a state–as an organ of class rule and
of suppression of classes and groups antagonistically opposed
to the ruling class–will have been eliminated, and the state will
have been abolished. In these conditions, the basis and need
for an organized group of people exercising a disproportionate
influence in the sphere of government, and in society overall,
will also have been surpassed, and vanguard parties, with a
special role in the governance of society, will have been eliminated.
Advancing to such a communist society, bringing into
being the conditions that make that possible and achievable–
through continuing revolutionary struggle to transform all
spheres of society, within a particular socialist state and in the
8 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
worldIntroductory Explanation:
On the Nature, Purpose
and Role of This
Constitution (Draft Proposal)
This Constitution (Draft Proposal) is written with the future in
mind. It is intended to set forth a basic model, and fundamental
principles and guidelines, for the nature and functioning of a vastly
different society and government than now exists: the New Socialist
Republic in North America, a socialist state which would embody,
institutionalize and promote radically different relations and
values among people; a socialist state whose final and fundamental
aim would be to achieve, together with the revolutionary
struggle throughout the world, the emancipation of humanity
as a whole and the opening of a whole new epoch in human
history–communism–with the final abolition of all exploitative
and oppressive relations among human beings and the destructive
antagonistic conflicts to which these relations give rise.
In order to bring this new socialist state into being, it would
be necessary to thoroughly defeat, dismantle and abolish the
capitalist-imperialist state of the USA; and this in turn would
only become possible with the development of a profound and
acute crisis in society and the emergence of a revolutionary
people, in the millions and millions, who have the leadership of
a revolutionary communist vanguard and are conscious of the
need for revolutionary change and determined to fight for it. To
work for this objective–to hasten while awaiting the emergence
of these necessary conditions, with the goal of revolution and
ultimately communism clearly in mind–is the strategic orientation
of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. And, as one
important part of giving life to and carrying out this strategic
i
ii
orientation, we are publishing this “Constitution for the New
Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)”: as a
contribution to a process in which growing numbers of people
are seriously considering and grappling with whether, how,
and in what form there could be a real alternative to the present
capitalist-imperialist system and the unspeakable suffering and
depredations it imposes on the great majority of people in the
world, on humanity as a whole, as well as on the environment
and the webs of interconnected species which inhabit this earth;
to provide a more concrete sense of the basic nature, structure
and functioning of the socialist society, and its government, envisioned
here, and the principles and objectives underlying and
guiding this; and to enable people to see, sharply outlined, what
is in reality the radical difference between the society and government
envisioned here and the capitalist-imperialist system
which currently rules in this country and exercises domination
over the world as a whole, with such terrible consequences.
The term “New Socialist Republic in North America” has
been chosen not because that would necessarily be the name of
such a socialist society, brought into being through revolution
in this part of the world (the formal name would of course be
decided at the time of the actual establishment of such a socialist
state); rather, this term is utilized in order to emphasize that this
is intended as a proposal for the Constitution of a socialist state
as it would have been newly brought into being, in the first stages
of its existence, with the victory of the revolution that would have
put an end to the imperialist USA and replaced it with a new, revolutionary
society on the road of socialism. And, while we have
sought to indicate here, as much as possible, the basic principles,
institutions, structures, and processes which would characterize
this new socialist society, and particularly the functioning of its
government, much of the specific features of this would naturally
be influenced by the situation that existed at the time of the establishment
of this new socialist state–including factors such as the
size of the territory that had been liberated from the imperialists
(and other reactionaries) and consolidated as the territory of the
new socialist state, and what overall situation prevailed, particularly
in terms of the struggle between revolutionary and reactionary
forces, in this part of the world, and in the world overall, at
iii
the time of the founding of this new socialist state. Some of this
is spoken to in the Constitution (Draft Proposal) that follows,
but there are clearly aspects of such a future situation which can
be anticipated only in broad terms, and others which may arise
which cannot at all be anticipated now. Nevertheless, it has been
our purpose, and we have striven to the best of our ability, to
put forward as clearly as possible the basic principles that would
be embodied in a Constitution for a new socialist state in North
America, and much of the specific ways in which these principles
would be applied, in order to enable and encourage people to
engage, in a serious and substantive way, with the vision that is
put forth here of this new socialist state and the potential for a
radically different society and world that it represents. For, again,
that is our purpose in publishing this Draft Proposal: to stimulate,
as broadly as possible, such serious and substantive engagement
with this Draft Proposal, and vigorous discussion and debate
about what it puts forward as the kind of society and world to be
not only imagined but actively struggled for.
A final point. As a Draft Proposal for a Constitution for a
new socialist state, this document focuses on and is primarily
concerned with addressing the purposes, nature, objectives,
and functioning of the government in this new society and does
not attempt to discuss to any great depth the philosophicalideological
and political-strategic thinking regarding the necessity
and basis for, and the means for bringing into being, such
a state. For more background in relation to this, we strongly
recommend the talks and writings of the Chair of our Party, Bob
Avakian, as well as other Party publications, including: Birds
Cannot Give Birth to Crocodiles, But Humanity Can Soar Beyond the
Horizon; Revolution and Communism: A Foundation and Strategic
Orientation; Constitution of the Revolutionary Communist Party,
USA; and Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage: A Manifesto
from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.
Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, October 2010
CONSTITUTION FOR THE
NEW SOCIALIST REPUBLIC
IN NORTH AMERICA
(Draft Proposal)
This Constitution consists of a Preamble and six Articles:
Article I. The Central Government.
Article II. Regions, Localities, and Basic Institutions.
Article III. Rights of the People and the Struggle to
Uproot All Exploitation and Oppression.
Article IV. The Economy and Economic Development in
the New Socialist Republic in North America.
Article V. Adoption of This Constitution.
Article VI. Amendments to This Constitution.
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 1
Preamble
The New Socialist Republic in North America could only
have been brought into being as a result of heroic, self-sacrificing
struggle carried out by millions and millions of people who had
been forced to live under a system of exploitation and oppression
in the former United States of America; who could no longer
tolerate the continual outrages and injustices perpetrated by the
system of capitalism-imperialism and the structures and institutions
of power and repression which enforced all this with
violence and brutality as well as lies and deception; who refused
to any longer accept that this was the best possible society and
world, and were increasingly aware of and inspired by the possibility
of a radically different and better society and world; and
who therefore rose up, with the leadership of the Revolutionary
Communist Party, to defeat, abolish and dismantle the imperialist
system in the former USA and its institutions and apparatus of
repression and violence. At the same time, this new socialist state
could only have resulted from a whole process of revolutionary
work and struggle, in the realm of theory as well as practicalpolitical
activity, by the Revolutionary Communist Party, acting
as the vanguard of the revolutionary process, to enable both the
Party itself and growing numbers of broader masses to prepare
for and then to seize on the emergence of a revolutionary situation,
to defeat and dismantle the forces of the old, oppressive
order, and establish the new socialist state. In this whole process,
the interaction and mutual reinforcement between the vanguard
role of the Revolutionary Communist Party–with its theoretical
basis in the science of communism and the further development
of this science through the new synthesis brought forward by
Bob Avakian–and the growing consciousness and increasingly
determined struggle of masses of people, constitute a decisive
element in the success of the revolution and the founding of the
2 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
new, revolutionary socialist state. The Constitution for the New
Socialist Republic in North America continues and gives further
expression and initiative, in the conditions of the new society, to
the fundamental principles and motive forces that constitute the
basis for the establishment of this new socialist state.
In contrast to the way in which the capitalist-imperialist
state serves and enforces the interests of a small ruling group of
exploiters, the New Socialist Republic in North America, with the
continuing leadership of the Revolutionary Communist Party,
bases itself on, and proceeds from, the fundamental interests of
those most bitterly exploited and oppressed under the old system,
and the masses of people broadly, and provides the means
for them to play an increasingly widening role in the exercise of
political power and the functioning of society in accordance with
those interests–in order to carry forward the struggle to transform
society, with the goal of uprooting and finally eliminating
all oppressive and exploitative relations among human beings
and the destructive antagonistic conflicts to which these relations
give rise.
This is a process and goal which, fundamentally and in the
final analysis, can only be achieved on a global scale, with the
advance to communism throughout the world. The orientation
and principles of this state, as embodied in this Constitution,
are internationalist: While giving due emphasis to meeting the
material, intellectual and cultural needs of the people within
this state, on a continually expanding basis, and to promoting
the further transformation of this society to continue uprooting
social inequalities and remaining aspects of exploitation and
oppression, the socialist state must give fundamental priority to
the advance of the revolutionary struggle, and the final goal of
communism, throughout the world, and must adopt and carry
out policies and actions which are in accordance with and give
concrete effect to this internationalist orientation.
Regardless of differences, even very great and qualitative
differences, in their political structures, institutions and guiding
principles, all states have a definite social content and class character:
they are an expression of the prevailing social relations, and
most fundamentally the economic relations (relations of production),
which have a decisive and ultimately determining role in
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 3
regard to how the particular society functions and is organized.
The state serves to protect and expand those relations and to
enforce the interests of the social group–the ruling class–which
holds the dominant position in society, as a result of its role in the
economy, and in particular its ownership and control of the major
means of production (including land, raw materials and other
resources, technology and physical structures such as factories,
and so on). In capitalist society, it is the capitalist class which
holds this dominant position: the government structures and
processes–and above all the organs of the state as an instrument
of class rule and suppression (the armed forces, police, courts
and prisons, the executive power, and the bureaucracies)–are
controlled by this capitalist class as a means of exercising its rule
over society and its repression of forces whose interests are in significant
opposition to, and/or which resist, its rule. In short, all
states are an instrument of dictatorship–of a monopoly of political
power, concentrated as a monopoly of “legitimate” armed
force and violence–exercised by, and in the interests of, one class
or another. Any democracy which is practiced in this situation is
democracy on the terms of, and fundamentally serving the interests
of, the ruling class and its exercise of dictatorship. And it will
remain the case that there will be a state, and that the state will
constitute a dictatorship of one kind or another, serving the interests
of one ruling class or another, so long as society is divided
into classes (and other groups) with interests that are fundamentally
antagonistic–a division rooted in the underlying social relations,
and above all the production relations, which predominate
in the given society.
The New Socialist Republic in North America is, like all states,
a form of dictatorship–the dictatorship of the proletariat–which
means that, in its essential character and its basic principles, structures,
institutions and political processes, it must give expression
to and serve the fundamental interests of the proletariat, a class
whose exploitation is the engine of the accumulation of capitalist
wealth and the functioning of capitalist society and whose emancipation
from its exploited condition can only be brought about
through the communist revolution, with its goal of abolishing all
relations of exploitation and oppression and achieving the emancipation
of humanity as a whole. In accordance with this, the
4 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
governing bodies and processes of this socialist state, at all levels,
must be vehicles for the furtherance of the communist revolution;
and, as a key dimension of this, they must provide the means for
those who were exploited and oppressed in the old society–and
were effectively locked out of the exercise of political power and
the governance of society, as well as the spheres of intellectual
endeavor and working with ideas overall–to increasingly take
part in these spheres, with the aim of continually transforming
society in the direction of communism. All this is given expression
through the principles and provisions, and the institutions,
structures and processes which are set forth and provided for in
this Constitution.
At the same time, the New Socialist Republic in North America
is a continuation of the strategic orientation of United Front
under the Leadership of the Proletariat, in the conditions of the
new society which has been brought into being through the revolutionary
struggle. This means that, while it must be recognized
that the essential nature, and the basic principles and processes, of
this Republic are oriented in accordance with the interests of the
proletariat, as a class, in the most fundamental and largest sense–
abolishing all relations of exploitation and oppression through
the advance to communism throughout the world–the struggle
to achieve this goal cannot be, and will not be, carried out simply
by PROLETARIANS, as some idealized “perfect embodiment of
communist principles,” and in some uniform and linear sense.
As the new synthesis brought forward by Bob Avakian has given
emphasis to, the process of making revolution, and then continuing
the revolution in the new socialist state toward the final goal
of communism, must involve the active participation of broad
ranks of the people, of different strata, and will proceed through
many different “channels,” involving many diverse forces among
the people in many different spheres of human endeavor, not
only those more directly political or relating more directly, at any
given time, to the functioning and objectives of the leadership of
the revolution and the new socialist state; and the orientation and
aim, consciously taken up by growing numbers of the people,
must be to work so as to enable all this to contribute, in the final
analysis, to the struggle to further transform society in the direction
of communism.
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 5
In keeping with this orientation and these objectives, the principle
of “solid core, with a lot of elasticity” must be applied. This
means that, on the one hand, there must be a continually expanding
force in society, with the revolutionary communist party
as its leading element, which is firmly convinced of the need
to advance to communism and deeply committed to carrying
forward this struggle, through all the difficulties and obstacles;
and, on the basis of and at the same time as continually strengthening
this “solid core,” there must be provision and scope for a
wide diversity of thinking and activity, among people throughout
society, “going off in many different directions,” grappling
and experimenting with many diverse ideas and programs and
fields of endeavor–and once again all this must be “embraced”
by the vanguard party and the “solid core” in an overall sense
and enabled to contribute, through many divergent paths, to the
advance along a broad road toward the goal of communism. This
orientation and approach is embodied in the Constitution for the
New Socialist Republic in North America.
The New Socialist Republic in North America is a multinational
and multi-lingual state, which is based on the principle
of equality between different nationalities and cultures and has as
one of its essential objectives fully overcoming national oppression
and inequality, which was such a fundamental part of the
imperialist USA throughout its history. Only on the basis of these
principles and objectives can divisions among humanity by country
and nation be finally overcome and surpassed and a world
community of freely associating human beings be brought into
being. This orientation is also embodied in the various institutions
of the state and in the functioning of the government in the
New Socialist Republic in North America.
The oppression of women arose together with the emergence
of exploitative class divisions among human beings thousands
of years ago, has been carried forward and become deeply
entrenched in all societies ruled by exploiting classes, and was
a marked feature of the imperialist United States of America
and its domination and influence in the world. Abolishing and
uprooting all this is one of the most important objectives of the
New Socialist Republic in North America. This is expressed not
only in full legal equality between women and men, but beyond
6 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
that in the declared orientation and policy of this Republic to
overcome all “tradition’s chains” embodied in traditional gender
roles and divisions, and all the oppressive relations bound up
with this, in every sphere of society, and to enable women, as
fully as men, to take part in and contribute to every aspect of the
struggle to transform society, and the world, in order to uproot
and abolish all relations of oppression and exploitation and
emancipate humanity as a whole.
In an overall sense, and in accordance with the principles and
provisions of this Constitution, the Revolutionary Communist
Party provides leadership to the state and its key institutions.
Members of the Party, at all levels, dedicate themselves
to upholding, propagating and implementing the Constitution
of the Party as well as the Constitution of the New Socialist
Republic in North America. While there are differences between
these two Constitutions–as aspects of the viewpoint, objectives
and responsibilities of Party members, embodied in the Party
Constitution, extend beyond what is set forth in the Constitution
for the New Socialist Republic–there is a fundamental unity
between the principles of the two Constitutions; the Party, and
all its members, are accountable to and may not act in violation
of, and on the contrary must consistently act on the basis of
and in accordance with, the Constitution for the New Socialist
Republic in North America.
As historical experience has demonstrated, socialist society
will–for a considerable period of time–contain, and in fact regenerate,
elements of exploitation, social inequality and oppression,
which have been, unavoidably, inherited from the old society
and cannot be uprooted and abolished all at once, or soon after
the establishment of the socialist state. Further, there is likely to
be a protracted period in which new socialist states come into
existence in a situation where they are, to one degree or another,
encircled by imperialist and reactionary states, which will continue
to exert significant influence and force, and may even
occupy a dominant position in the world for some time. These
factors will, for a long time, repeatedly give rise to forces within
socialist society itself, as well as within the parts of the world
still dominated by imperialism and reaction, which will attempt
to overthrow any socialist states that exist and restore capitalism
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) 7
there. And historical experience has also demonstrated that, as a
result of these contradictions, forces will emerge within the vanguard
party itself, including at its top levels, which will fight for
lines and policies that will actually lead to the undermining of
socialism and the restoration of capitalism. All this underscores
the importance of continuing the revolution within socialist society,
and of doing so in the overall framework of the revolutionary
struggle throughout the world and with the internationalist
orientation of giving fundamental priority to the advance of this
worldwide struggle toward the achievement of communism,
which is only possible on a world scale–and the importance of
struggle within the party itself, as well as in society as a whole, to
maintain and strengthen the revolutionary character and role of
the party, in keeping with its responsibilities to act as the leadership
of the continuing revolution toward the final goal of communism,
and to defeat attempts to transform the party into its
opposite, into a vehicle for the restoration of the old, exploitative
and oppressive society.
With the final abolition of class divisions and all other
exploitative and oppressive relations among people, throughout
the world, there will still remain a need for government, in
the sense of providing an organized framework for decisionmaking
and the administration of the common affairs of the
human beings who make up society, on its various levels, and
for the pursuit by individuals and groups within society of
their particular inclinations, preferences and concerns within
the overall cooperative functioning and ethos of society. But
the need and the basis for a state–as an organ of class rule and
of suppression of classes and groups antagonistically opposed
to the ruling class–will have been eliminated, and the state will
have been abolished. In these conditions, the basis and need
for an organized group of people exercising a disproportionate
influence in the sphere of government, and in society overall,
will also have been surpassed, and vanguard parties, with a
special role in the governance of society, will have been eliminated.
Advancing to such a communist society, bringing into
being the conditions that make that possible and achievable–
through continuing revolutionary struggle to transform all
spheres of society, within a particular socialist state and in the
8 Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
world
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