Communist Platform – for the Communist Party of the Proletariat of Italy
Published in Unity & Struggle No.50, May 2025
What are “partial demands”? They are all those demands dictated by the concrete situation, expressing specific needs of the working class and the laboring masses.
Partial demands do not fall from the sky, but are formulated from the problems suffered by the workers. They are “partial” when compared to the ultimate aims of the communist movement, but they are often brought to the forefront in the course of the class struggle because they express the urgent and vital needs of broad exploited masses, which are denied by the ruling class.
Their importance is crucial for the mobilization and organization of struggles led by the communists that can thereby increase their influence among the masses.
Slogans and demands are absolute conditions of just tactics, aimed at uniting and mobilizing the working class. For example, the politics of the proletarianunitedfront are inconceivable and unrealizable without partial demands, thus without expressing the uncompromising defense of the economic and political interests of the working class, which in all capitalist and imperialist countries must be the starting point and fundamental content of the proletarian united front and its mass bodies (workers’ and people’s Committees).
The ability to attract layers of semi-proletarians and the petty bourgeoisie oppressed by capital around the working class depends on the ability to formulate, support and incorporate into its program of action certain partial demands that do not conflict with the fundamental interests of the working class.
Partial demands therefore form the basis of the mass work of communists, to unify and mobilize the proletariat around these demands, and to create a system of class alliances led by the working class that enables broad working masses to mobilize against capitalism and the bourgeois state.
Given their importance, it is therefore necessary to arrive at a complete theoretical-practical clarity on this issue, observing the development it has had in the history of the communist and workers’ movement, in order to properly understand their characteristics, function and to avoid errors and deviations in this area.
Partial demands in Marx and Engels
Marx and Engels knew the role and importance that partial demands play in the class struggle of the proletariat and the approach that communists should follow regarding them.
In the “Manifesto of the Communist Party” they wrote:
“The Communists fight for the attainment of the immediate aims, for the enforcement of the momentary interests of the working class; but in the movement of the present, they also represent and take care of the future of that movement.”
This statement illustrates the relationship that Marx and Engels always sought to establish with the labor movement of their times and the importance they gave to topical slogans, linking them to the broad aims of the communist movement.
Marx drafted a program of partial demands for the Geneva Congress (1866) of the International Workingmen’s Association, the First International.
This program, drafted in the form of “Instructions for delegates” and read by Marx at the Congress, included several partial demands: eight hours as the legal limit of the working day, the prohibition of night work, the limitation of working hours for young people and children, the total abolition of indirect taxes and their replacement by direct taxes, the formation of mutual aid societies, a statistical survey of the conditions of the working class carried out by the workers themselves, etc.
In a letter to Kugelmann dated October 9, 1866, Marx explained why he considered this program necessary:
“…I deliberately restricted it [the program] to those points which allow of immediate agreement and concerted action by theworkersand give direct nourishment and impetus to the requirements of the class struggle and theorganization of the workers into a class.”
We can observe here Marx’s ability to grasp the necessary links at a given moment and act tactically to unite the working-class masses and lead them to the battle against capital.
The elaboration by the Communist International
With the formation of the Communist International, the question of partial demands was elaborated and mastered.
At the Third Congress of the Communist International (1921), the “Theses on Tactics” inspired by Lenin were approved,with a specific chapter on “Single-Issue Struggles and Single-Issue Demands,” in which it states:
“Communist parties can develop only in struggle. Even the smallest communist parties should not restrict themselves to mere propaganda and agitation. They must form the spearhead of all proletarian mass organizations, showing the backward, vacillating masses, by putting forward practical proposals for struggle, by urging on the struggle for all the daily needs of the proletariat, how the struggle should be waged, and thus exposing to the masses the treacherous character of all non-communist parties. Only by placing themselves at the head of the practical struggle of the proletariat, only by promoting these struggles, can they really win over large masses of the proletariat to the fight for the dictatorship.”
After making it clear that social democracy deceives the workers by flashing hopes of winning over one sector of industry after another, the Theses state:
“The communist parties do not put forward any minimum program to strengthen and improve the tottering structure of capitalism. The destruction of that structure remains their guiding aim and their immediate mission. But to carry out this mission the communist parties must put forward demands whose fulfillment is an immediate and urgent working-class need, and they must fight for these demands in mass struggle, regardless of whether they are compatible with the profit economy of the capitalist class or not.
“It is not the viability and competitive capacity of capitalist industry, nor the profitability of capitalist finance to which communist parties should pay regard, but the poverty which the proletariat cannot and should not endure any longer. If the demands correspond to the vital needs of broad proletarian masses and if these masses feel that they cannot exist unless these demands are met, then the struggle for these demands will become the starting-point of the struggle for power. In place of the minimum program of the reformists and centrists, the Communist International puts the struggle for the concrete needs of the proletariat, for a system of demands which in their totality disintegrate the power of the bourgeoisie…
“As more and more people are drawn into the struggle around these demands and as the needs of the masses come into conflict with the needs of capitalist society, the working class will come to realize that if it wants to live, capitalism will have to die. This realization will be the main motivation in their struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat….
“Every objection to the putting forward of such partial demands, every charge of reformism on this account, is an emanation of the same inability to grasp the essential conditions of revolutionary action as was expressed in the hostility of some communist groups to participation in the trade unions, or to making use of parliament. It is not a question of proclaiming the final goal to the proletariat, but of intensifying the practical struggle, which is the only way of leading the proletariat to the struggle for the final goal…
“The revolutionary character of the present epoch consists precisely in this, that the most modest conditions of life for the working masses are incompatible with the existence of capitalist society, and that therefore the fight for even the most modest demands grows into the fight for communism.”
A wonderful lesson in strategy and tactics, extremely relevant today!
Later, in 1924, in the “Theses of the Fifth Congress on Comintern Tactics,” the issue of partial demands was reaffirmed and clarified as follows:
“The tactics of the Communist International not only does not exclude in our agitation and policy the introduction of partial demands, but, on the contrary, even provides for it. In this connection, however, three points must be kept in view:
“1) The partial demands we make must arise from living reality, that is, they must be such that they can count on the support of broad masses of the working population.
“2) These demands must be directed in the direction of revolutionary development.
“3) These demands must always be linked to the ultimate goal. We must advance from the particular to the universal, from particular demands to a general system of demands which, all together, signify socialist revolution.
“Whereas reformist partial demands are designed to replace the proletarian revolution, partial demands put forward by communists are designed for the exactly opposite purpose of preparing the proletarian revolution more successfully.
“Communist agitation for partial demands links each of them to the program of revolutionary overthrow. This is particularly valid for those countries where the crisis of the bourgeois system has begun.”
At the 6th Congress (1928) the “Program of the Communist International” was adopted. In continuity with the previous elaboration, the following is stated under “The Fundamental tasks of communist strategy and tactics”:
“In determining its tactical line, every communist party must take into its calculations the given internal and external situation, the relation of class forces, the degree of stability and strength among the bourgeoisie, the level of militancy and preparedness among the proletariat, the attitude of the middle strata, etc. The party determines its slogans and methods of struggle in accordance with these conditions, starting from the need to mobilize and organize the masses as widely as possible at the highest possible level of that struggle. When a revolutionary situation is developing, the party advances a series of transitional slogans and partial demands corresponding to the given circumstances; these must be subordinated to the principal revolutionary aim, which is the seizure of power and the overthrow of the bourgeois capitalist order. To neglect the every-day demands and every-day struggles of the proletariat is as mistaken as to restrict the party’s activities to them exclusively. The task of the party is to use these every-day needs of the working class as a starting-point to lead the workers on to the revolutionary struggle for power.”
With regard to the communist movement in our country, in the “Lyon Theses,” drafted by Gramsci and adopted by the Third Congress of the Communist Party of Italy (1926), the issue of partial demands assumed particular prominence in Thesis 39 twice, excerpts of which we reprint:
“Thesis 39. The party directs and unifies the working class by participating in all struggles of a partial character, and by formulating and agitating for a program of demands of immediate interest to the working class. Partial and limited actions are regarded by it as necessary to achieve the progressive mobilization and unification of all the forces of the working class. The party combats the conception that one should refrain from supporting or taking part in partial actions because problems of interest to the working class are solvable only with the overthrow of the capitalist regime and with general action by all anti-capitalist forces. It is aware of the impossibility of serious and lasting improvement of the workers’ conditions during the period of imperialism and before the capitalist regime has been overthrown. The agitation for a program of immediate demands and support for partial struggles, however, is the only way by which we can reach the broad masses and mobilize them against capital. On the other hand, every agitation or victory of working-class categories in the field of immediate demands sharpens the crisis of capitalism, and also subjectively hastens its downfall as it shifts the unstable economic balance on which it now bases its power. The Communist Party ties every immediate claim to a revolutionary goal, uses every partial struggle to teach the masses the necessity of general action, of insurrection against the reactionary domination of capital, and seeks to have every struggle of a limited character prepared and directed so that it can lead to the mobilization and unification of proletarian forces, and not to their dispersion….
“Thesis 39a. It is a mistake to assume that immediate demands and partial actions can only be economic in nature.As the crisis of capitalism deepens, the capitalist and agrarian ruling classes are compelled, in order to maintain their power, to limit and suppress the proletariat’s organizational and political freedoms; thus the vindication of these freedoms provides an excellent ground for partial agitations and struggles, which can lead to the mobilization of broad strata of the working people….”
From these historical documents of the international communist movement, the importance of partial demands for communist revolutionary action stands out incontrovertibly.
Some tasks of communists regarding partial demands
In the long history of the class struggle, the proletarians continually present a variety of partial demands and struggle against the capitalists and their governments for their attainment.
The communists, by supporting the workers in these struggles, by joining the movement of the proletariat, do not simply passively accept these demands, but examine them and the reasons that particularly aggravate the situation of this or that sector of workers; they point out the most urgent needs and goals for which the struggle must be waged; they express more exactly and precisely the common economic and political demands, formulate them publicly by appropriate means and represent the interests of the whole class movement, bringing scientific socialism to its core.
By expressing the partial demands, the communists, as we have seen, must ensure their connection with revolutionary ends, subordinating the partial, temporary, class and national interests of the proletariat to its overall, permanent, general, class and international interests.
Thus, it is necessary to go beyond the particular and establish the link with the general: from the struggle of groups of workers against individual capitalists, to the struggle of the working class as a whole against the bourgeoisie and its state, to the conquest of power and the overthrow of capitalism.
The communists’ program of action, hinging on a series of partial demands arising from the particularity of the concrete situation, class struggles, etc., must therefore be evaluated from the point of view of its connection with the revolution, leaving no room for extremist or reformist tendencies.
This represents a complex task that requires communists to combine their general program of the dictatorship of the proletariat and building socialism with the demands expressed on the economic and political terrain, which can produce reforms within the capitalist system. This task requires clarity and strategic firmness combined with tactical flexibility and ingenuity, as well as mastering all forms of organization and struggle, using reforms, which in capitalism are always limited and provisional, to advance the revolutionary struggle.
Lenin, in particular, established the dialectical interrelationship between agitation, propaganda and revolutionary theory, and explained the way in which the forces of revolutionary Marxism, by winning over the most advanced strata of the class, can subsequently win over the mass of the proletariat and, through the latter, the other oppressed strata of society. This strategy, the result of theoretical clarity, was expressed in the great socialist revolution of 1917.
Therefore, it is not a question of giving economic struggles a reformist and parliamentary political character (as advocated by economists who degrade revolutionary political struggle to the level of trade union politics), but of freeingthe proletariat from the influence of the bourgeoisie and reformism by knowing how to unite revolutionary political struggle with everyday struggles.
Communists must know how to link these two aspects, strengthening both and understanding them within a single class struggle of the proletariat, orienting and leading the working class and working masses to the revolutionary struggle for power.
We must therefore avail ourselves of every partial demand to explain to the masses the necessity of revolution, to show the masses, with hard facts, the impossibility of serious and lasting improvement, let alone essential improvement, in their position as long as the rule of capital is maintained.
At the same time, the communists must show the masses that it is precisely the reformists who are sabotaging any serious struggle for partial demands, while the Communist Party is the only one capable of leading a consistent struggle for the everyday interests of the working masses and repelling attacks on their living standards.
Particularly, in the absence of a revolutionary wave, communist (Marxist-Leninist) organizations and parties must, taking the daily needs of workers as their starting point, advance slogans and partial demands, linking them with the fundamental demands and goals of the communist movement, explaining their connection with the struggle of workers in other countries.
Such an approach should be followed especially today, at a time of the deepening general crisis of capitalism, in which even the most modest workers’ demands clash head-on with the existence of capitalism and its laws of operation; therefore, the struggle for these demands facilitates the realization of the necessity for the overthrow of this barbaric system and thus the building of socialism.
Examples of partial demands in the field of workers’ issues
As Marxist-Leninists, we must never give up partial demands, which can become the starting point of large mass movements.
In our country today such partial demands should include:
Problems of economic struggle (struggle against the attacks of monopoly capital, struggle against layoffs, questions of wages, the workday, work rhythms and workloads, unemployment) which often turn into problems of a general political struggle (major industrial conflicts, strike movements, demonstrations, etc.).
Problems of direct political struggle (full freedom to strike, organize, the press, etc.); fiscal policy: measures to shift the burden of taxes onto the shoulders of the rich, cancellation of public debt at the expense of the banks and bosses, drastic measures:against capital fleeing abroad; government policy in general: struggle against reactionary transformation of the state and fascism, withdrawal of anti-worker, repressive laws and the persecution of combative trade unionists and revolutionaries, measures against reactionary terrorism.
World political issues: struggle against imperialism and the dangers of war, international proletarian solidarity, support for peoples’ liberation struggles, struggle for the unity of the international labor and trade union movement, etc.
Of course, in every area of confrontation with the bourgeoisie, including social, environmental, health, etc., certain partial demands should be worked out and propagated.
Partial demands should be advanced regardless of whether or not they can be realized within the framework of monopoly capitalism and the bourgeois state.
Today, the vast majority of democratic demands can no longer be realized within the framework of the existing imperialist system; but by advancing and advocating them, we can expose the reactionary and fascist nature of the present bourgeois state, reveal the class character of the policy of the social democratic and reformist leaders who have abandoned the defense of the workers’ elementary interests and freedoms.
Two dangerous tendencies
In regard to partial demands there are two dangerous tendencies that must be avoided and fought openly.
First, there is a tendency that underestimates the importance of partial demands in the action of organized communists to increase their influence on the working class.
This tendency is expressed in giving the greatest importance to general political slogans and putting aside issues of immediate interest to workers.
There are those who treat the demands as if they should not concern communists engaged in solving a key problem: that of combining, merging, scientific socialism with the workers’ movement. Or they criticize them by judging them as a “shopping list” or a “surrender of the revolution.”
Such an attitude is deeply mistaken, indicative of an unacceptable detachment from the daily struggle of the working class, of passivity and political inability to mobilize and unite the exploited and oppressed masses. Therefore, it becomes much more difficult to politicize the working-class struggle in a revolutionary sense, starting from the struggle around the questions of working conditions, wages, working hours, unemployment, etc.
That is, one remains in the sphere of abstract revolutionary propaganda, neglecting the connection with the immediate battles and their real motives, which are often ignored, thus neglecting all the work in preparation for the revolutionary struggle to overthrow capitalism.
The underestimation of partial demands is often linked to the underestimation or denial of active work in mass unions to increase communist influence in the class.
This renunciation “in principle,” or by underestimation, of partial demands is incompatible with the tactical principles of communism, because it condemns communist organization to passivity and detaches it from the masses.
This is a manifestation of the extremist deviation (which in Italy also manifests itself outside Bordighist-type organizations), as the ideological and political expression of radicalized layers of the petty bourgeoisie, incapable of grasping the essential conditions of revolutionary action and developing practical struggle. Such deviation leads to separation from the masses and sectarianism, political passivity.
There is also another dangerous tendency. It consists in overestimating the importance of partial demands and detaching them from the general demands and aims of communists.
Often this tendency manifests itself in the refusal to tie general class slogans to partial demands.
In other words: we adapt to immediate goals, converting reforms that satisfy partial demands into an end in themselves, forgetting that they should instead help us create better conditions for revolutionary aims.
This tendency is typical of right-wing opportunist, “movementist” and reformist positions that push to adapt to the bourgeoisie, to avoid the radicalization of the workers’ movement, to exalt the “movement” by denying “the goal”, if not even by putting particular and personal issues into the foreground.
Both of these dangerous tendencies lead to the development of a flawed method of work, which prevents the communist organization from assuming a leading role in the working class.
These defects turn out to be even more serious at a time when the economic situation is worsening, and communists must know how to take advantage of this, to make the working masses understand that socialist revolution is the only way to solve the existing problems, using every local struggle and every partial demand to that end.
In conclusion…
Increasing the fighting capacity of the working class and the working masses, developed on the basis of experience from the struggle for partial demands to the struggle for the general class tasks of the proletariat, is one of the main tasks for all communist forces, especially in today’s conditions.
It is therefore necessary to make the program of partial demands the basis of mass work for the organization and development of the class struggle of the exploited against the exploiters,taking into account the peculiarities of the concrete situation.
It is the characteristics of the present period that compel us to carry out this task in order to accelerate and spread the struggle of the working class and other oppressed and exploited workers, through partial economic and political demands and battles, to the social revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat.
March 2025
Communist Platform – for the Communist Party of Proletariat of Italy