Civilize the Mind and Make Savage the Body
Eddie L. Smith
Abstract
This article, Civilize the Mind and Make Savage the Body: Speech at the 1st National Convention of the ACP, presents Edward Liger Smith’s call for a revival of communist character, discipline, and revolutionary purpose in the American working-class movement. Delivered at the founding convention of the American Communist Party, the speech argues that political transformation begins with the cultivation of individual and collective virtue — the unification of intellectual rigor, moral courage, and physical discipline. Drawing inspiration from Aristotle’s concept of habit, Lenin’s organizational principles, Che Guevara’s revolutionary ethics, and Mao Zedong’s dictum to “civilize the mind and make savage the body,” Smith contends that the erosion of character under capitalism — through consumerism, nihilism, and self-indulgence — serves the interests of the ruling class. Against this degradation, communists must embody integrity, self-sacrifice, and dedication to the collective good, resisting both the ideological manipulation of the bourgeoisie and the degeneration of the pseudo-left. The speech situates this moral renewal within a Marxist-Leninist framework, emphasizing the dialectical relationship between personal discipline and revolutionary freedom: only through self-mastery can one become capable of transforming society. By fusing theoretical study, physical fitness, and revolutionary praxis, Smith envisions the ACP as a new type of communist organization — one capable of rekindling the moral and intellectual vigor necessary to challenge U.S. imperialism and rebuild the reputation of socialism among the American working class.
Keywords
Marxism–Leninism, revolutionary ethics, communist discipline, moral character, American Communist Party, Edward Liger Smith
