Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line

U.S. Anti-Revisionism

The New Communist Movement: Collapse and Aftermath

In 1980 the US Left faced a resurgent far right. The election of Ronald Reagan and the emerging New Right moved the national political Center farther Right. Right wing populists and religious fundamentalists targeted progressive taxation, abortion rights and the Equal Rights Amendment. The defeat of the ERA in 1982 marked a decline in the influence of major progressive social movements. The political atmosphere that fostered the NCM’s revolutionary enthusiasm was changing rapidly and dramatically.

Four years after the death of Mao, the New Communist Movement was in a tailspin. Some groups called for revolutionary action in expectation of critical new developments. Street confrontations increased, and violent repression along with it. Others moved from early, all-out sectarianism to consolidating forces around support for the post-Mao line of the Chinese Communist Party. This led to some inter-group dialogue and coalition-building, but very little ground was gained, and only temporarily.

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Of the major mass movements of the early ’80s, most were not Left-led. The NCM played a marginal role in the enormous rally against the arms race in 1982. The South African ANC played a leading role in the anti-apartheid divestment movement, but their longtime ally the age-weary CPUSA failed to muster much outside support.

There was a bump in far left activity in the solidarity movements for the new Sandinista government in Nicaragua, and the FMLN guerrilla movement in El Salvador. The pro-Deng, pro-Gang of Four, or pro-Hoxha groups all kept their distance for the most part, unable to square their hostility toward Cuba and the USSR with the politics of the Central American Left.

In the next few years the NCM declined further. The largest group, the Communist Party (ML), broke out into factions, as their growth and unity efforts stagnated, and key figures began to question Marxism-Leninism in any form. CPML rapidly disintegrated in 1982, despite efforts by the Revolutionary Workers Headquarters to head off the crisis.

In its wake, the League of Revolutionary Struggle emerged as the largest pro-China group. Initially formed as a merger of groups based in various Asian and Latino community-based groups, they merged with the African American community-based Revolutionary Communist League, with roots in the black nationalist movement.

The Communist Workers Party made an unusual double turn away from China, upholding the Cultural Revolution while breaking from the Maoist “Soviet capitalism” position. With this position, and their revival of demands for “peace” and “democracy”(which once would have been dismissed as “revisionist”), they briefly tried to orient toward the anti-dogmatist Trend, but their sectarian history proved too big an obstacle to joining any serious regroupment effort. Harry Haywood, a key figure linking the NCM with the CPUSA in its heyday, also abandoned the “Soviet capitalism” position before his death in 1985.

The Proletarian Unity League tried to regroup both pro-China and Trend groups around a rejection of left sectarianism. They merged with Revolutionary Workers Headquarters in 1985 to form Freedom Road Socialist Organization, which has since incorporated a number of smaller NCM groups, continuing an orientation to the “Black Belt nation” and non-sectarian work in mass movements.

The pro-Albania current was short-lived. By the time of Enver Hoxha’s death in 1985, the remaining group of any size, the Marxist-Leninist Party, had dropped its identification with Albania.

Meanwhile, the Trend saw no peace. The Organizing Committee for an Ideological Center collapsed first, which left Line of March the largest anti-dogmatist group. LOM became more outspoken in its critique of Maoism, first for China’s rapprochement with Washington. Then, following the violent Vietnam-China breakup, LOM took up the Vietnamese CP’s more all-sided critique of the Chinese CP’s class stand, the Sino-Soviet split, and Mao Zedong Thought in its philosophical aspects. With the rise of Gorbachev and glasnost and perestroika in the USSR, LOM actually outdid the CPUSA in its support for the new CPSU leader and direction. MINP-El Comité split, with one group eventually merging with American Workers Party, a small, secretive group on the fringes of the Trend. Both groups quietly disappeared.

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Some of the remaining groups relinquished the “vanguard party” model at the end of the decade. The Communist Labor Party became the National Organizing Committee (which in turn became League of Revolutionaries for a New America in 1993). The CWP became the New Democratic Movement. LOM became Frontline Political Organization (FPO). LRS split, with one group forming the Unity Organizing Committee, and another, the Socialist Organizing Network, which later merged with FRSO.

Several successful mayoral races involving left-leaning African American candidates sparked the Jesse Jackson presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988. For some the NCM groups, including LRS, CLP, CWP, LOM and FRSO, the question of whether or not to support Democratic Party candidates in certain cases was settled by the rallying to Jackson of people of color, peace forces, and some in labor. Other groups continued the 1970s practice of boycotting elections. Two local groups, Democratic Workers Party in northern California and New Jersey Workers Organization, attempted electoral work independent of the two major parties, which generated some attention to their programs.

At the end of the 1980s, China had long since abandoned alliances with tiny parties of loyalists. As Communist governments collapsed, including Albania, national boundaries shifted drastically. The NCM in decline came up against the international crisis of the left. The Guardian closed shop in 1992. FPO (LOM) joined with an ecumenical left group in the Bay Area around the magazine North Star Review, to launch the left unity-oriented CrossRoads magazine, which did not outlive the decade. Theoretical Review folded in 1983, declaring that, with the collapse of the ant-dogmatist wing of the NCM, a sufficient base for rebuilding the US communist movement on new foundations had disappeared.

A few groups from the lineage continue in the 2010s, including the RCP, LRNA, two groups using the name FRSO after a split, and the Kasama Project, formed in part in response to criticisms of the RCP. Revolutionary Organization of Labor is a successor to an early, pre-Cultural Revolution anti-revisionist group, Hammer and Steel.

The experiences of the NCM’s rise and peak are still a reference point for young radicals, and historical studies and political discussions on those experiences have just begun. Positive and negative lessons continue to have weight and meaning for new generations.

Section Index (in alphabetical order)
Bolshevik League of the United States
Class Struggles in Poland: U.S. Marxist-Leninists Take Sides
Committee for a Proletarian Party
Communist Labor Party to the League of Revolutionaries for a New America
Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), Continuing Crisis and Collapse
Communist Party U.S.A./(Marxist-Leninist)
Communist Workers Party, U.S.A./New Democratic Movement
Freedom Road Socialist Organization
League for a Labor Republic
League of Revolutionary Struggle (Marxist-Leninist)
Line of March – Frontline Political Organization
Marxist-Leninist Party
Maoist Internationalist Movement
Organization for Revolutionary Unity
Philadelphia Workers Organizing Committee and the Organizing Committee for an Ideological Center, Continuing Crisis and Collapse
Proletarian Unity League
Ray O. Light – Revolutionary Organization of Labor, USA
Revolutionary Communist Party
Revolutionary Political Organization
Revolutionary Workers’ Headquarters
San Diego Marxist-Leninist Group
Split in El Comité-MINP
Theoretical Review
Tiananmen Square 1989: China’s Crackdown on the Student Movement
Unification Discussions and Initiatives of Pro-China Groups

General Surveys

Tirana Builds an Internationale Part One: The Struggle Against Modern Revisionism; Part Two: The Albanian Intervention; Part Three: Rally for Enver; Part Four: After Enver by woodsmokeblog

Critical Reflections and Postmortems

What Went wrong? Articles and letters on the U.S. communist Left in the 1970’s Edited and introduced by Charles Sarkis

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A Twenty-Year Legacy of Ultra-Leftism by the Bay Area Socialist Organizing Committee

Ex-Maoists on the Road to Moscow: Where is the “Trend” Going? from the Workers Vanguard

The New Communist Movement: An Obituary by The Movement for a Revolutionary Left, Eugene, Oregon

Confronting Reality/Learning from the History of Our Movement by the Bay Area Socialist Organizing Committee

Avakian Flees, Klonsky Deposed: End of the Line for American Maoism from the Workers Vanguard

Big upheavals in U.S. communist movement by In Struggle!

Personal Reflections on the Asian National Movements by Philip Vera Cruz, Lillian Nakano, Happy Lim, Lori Leong, May Chen, Alan Nishio and Wes Senzaki

China and Its Supporters Were Wrong about USSR by Harry Haywood

The Ghettoization of the U.S. Left: Living in the Material World of the 1980s by Charles Kaften

Where have all the party-builders gone? by John Trinkl

Amid partybuilding’s ruins: What went wrong? by John Trinkl

Not the time for a Leninist party? by John Trinkl

Who Do You Mean When You Say ’Maoist ’? by Mae Ngai

Maoism in the United States by Max Elbaum

Some Lessons from the Family Tree of the New Communist Movement by Dennis O’Neil

Response to Dennis O’Neil by Max Elbaum

Response to Max Elbaum by Dennis O’Neil

Second Response to Dennis O’Neil by Max Elbaum

Toward a Critical Reassessment of Maoism by Khalil Hassan

What Maoism Actually Stood For by Max Elbaum

Khalil Hassan Responds to Max Elbaum

Freedom Road Editors Respond to Max Elbaum

Two Veterans of the New Communist Movement Look Back

They Wanted to Serve the People: Chicanos and the Fight against National Oppression in the New Communist Movement by Bill Gallegos

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Continuing Crisis and Collapse of the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist)

Background Materials

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Summing Up the CPML’s Experiences in Trade Union Work by Charles Costigan

What is happening to the Communist Party (ML) of the USA? by the Workers Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) [Canada]

Lessons from the Collapse of the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) by Carl Davidson

Dogmatism, social-democracy and the destruction of the CPML by J.R. Hammond and D. Wayne

The CPML and the tasks of Marxist-Leninists today by Carl Davidson

Once as Tragedy: A Critical History of the October League (Marxist-Leninist) by redweldor

Primary Materials

The Call goes monthly: Why and what now? by Anita Fecht

CPML holds special meeting to rebuild organization: New leadership reports on Emergency Delegates Conference

A Message to the Movement by Jim Hamilton

Readers Critique Hamilton ’Message to Movement’: ’What do we discard and what do we keep?’ by D. Wane

Readers Critique Hamilton ’Message to Movement’: ’Views are road to further disintegration’ by Susan K.

’CPML’ on the Verge of Dissolution by the Marxist-Leninist Party

More on Hamilton debate by An RWH member, Chicago, Ill.

Jim Hamilton replies

’CPML’ Debates How to Liquidate by the Marxist-Leninist Party

Once More On Hamilton by A former Seattle comrade

Criticize errors, uphold Mao by E.B. (Chicago)

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Southern Reader on Debate in CPML by Delta Dawn

Responses from SCEF: ’Without an organization there is no hope’ by Eva McMillan, President of SCEF

Responses from SCEF: ’SCEF has made mistakes but does valuable work’ by SCEF Staff

What Is the Way Forward? Opinions from the Ranks: We need a party structure by S.C. Hammond

What Is the Way Forward? Opinions from the Ranks: Sink roots, build bases

Letter: Don’t talk half socialism by J.V., San Francisco

Letter: Problem not ultra-leftism [and Call response]

A Marxist-Leninist looks at social democracy by Robert W. Hanson (Revolutionary Workers Headquarters)

Letter: Don’t sock Social Democrats so hard [and Call response]

The CPML Second Congress, May 23, 24, 25, 1981

Letter from The Call Editor

The CPML Congress–The struggle for unity by W. Jean-Pierre

Reformist work or Revolutionary work – Harry Haywood Remarks prepared for the Second Congress, May 23, 1981

From the Second CPML Congress: Building Black United Fronts by Komozi

From the Second CPML Congress: The Chicano question by Babu, For the Afro-American commission

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’What the “right” [in the CPML] is calling for’: Which way for our movement? by Barry Litt

A Defense of Leninism

USSR: Capitalist or Socialist? by Ben Phillips

Letter from the Editor: Where is The Call going? by Michael Moran, Call Editor and RWH member

Letter to Call Subscribers

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Unification Discussions and Initiatives of Pro-China Groups

Primary Documents and Polemics

League Interview on Party Building by the League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L)

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A Message to the Movement by Jim Hamilton

Readers Critique Hamilton ’Message to Movement’: ’What do we discard and what do we keep?’ by D. Wane

Readers Critique Hamilton ’Message to Movement’: ’Views are road to further disintegration’ by Susan K.

More on Hamilton debate by An RWH member, Chicago, Ill.

Jim Hamilton replies

Response to Jim Hamilton of the CPML by Robert Morgan [League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L)]

Once More On Hamilton by A former Seattle comrade

Criticize errors, uphold Mao by E.B. (Chicago)

The Crisis in Marxism and M-L Unity by John Martin, Member of the CPML Interim Political Committee

Fight on Two Fronts: Don’t exclude the LRS by S.M., Boston

What path to Marxist Leninist unity? A response to John Martin of the CPML by Mae Ngai [League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L)]

Martin responds to LRS: Joint practice and discussion key to M-L unity

LRS misquoted, The Call apologizes

Build the Black Liberation Movement by the Revolutionary Workers Headquarters

RWH position on national question. Black liberation: a just struggle in its own right by Harry Quinn

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Black Liberation in the ’80s: Black Marxists meet in Detroit by W. Jean-Pierre

Statement by the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), League of Revolutionary Struggle (Marxist-Leninist) and Revolutionary Workers Headquarters Calling for Public Political Debate in the U.S. Marxist-Leninist Movement

The Debate on Period and Tasks

Repression, Reaganomics, War and Revolution. The Present Situation and the Tasks of U.S. Marxist-Leninists by the League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L)

Realignment, Reagan and Our Tasks by the Revolutionary Workers Headquarters

A Critique of RWH’s “Realignment, Reagan and Our Tasks” by Jane Fong [LRS]

The anti-Reagan front and the tasks of our Trend by J.R.H., a CPML Central Committee member

Interview with RWH leader: The struggle for M-L unity

The debate on period and tasks: A review by an RWH member by Wes Harding

A response to Wes Harding of the Revolutionary Workers Headquarters by Jane Fong, for the League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L)

Letter to the Editor: Where should communists concentrate?

UNITY Supplement on Responses to the Debate on Period and Tasks

The Debate on the African-American National Question

Build the Black Liberation Movement

RWH position on national question. Black liberation: a just struggle in its own right by Harry Quinn

RWH on the Black Liberation Movement: Wrong Again! by Amiri Baraka (Including “Notes on Baraka's ’RWH on the BLM: Wrong Again’ From a White Communist” By Jim Woods)

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Introducing the O.R.U. The merger statement of the Committee for a Proletarian Party (CPP) and the Communist Organization, Bay Area (COBA), March 1983

Successful Left Unity by the Freedom Road Socialist Organization

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Class Struggles in Poland: U.S. Marxist-Leninists Take Sides

PRIMARY MATERIALS

Upheaval in Poland: Workers Struggles Exposes Capitalism in Soviet Satellite [Revolutionary Communist Party]

Strike wave shakes Polish regime by the League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L)

Fight On, Polish Workers! by the Communist Workers Party

Polish Strike Scores Advance for Working Class by Dave Brand [Communist Party USA/Marxist-Leninist)]

Poland: ’A Bitter Cup Overflows’ by Anna Schultz [Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist)]

A Lesson from Poland [Proletarian Unity League]

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Polish Workers’ Strike ... More Meat and Democracy by Ron Whitehorne [Philadelphia Workers Organizing Committee]

The Polish Working Class Stands up by Dennis Strawn [Revolutionary Political Organization (M-L)]

Polish Strikers Jolted World by the Revolutionary Communist Party

Poland’s historic strikes: an indictment of Soviet-style socialism by the League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L)

The Polish Workers Uprising and the Question of the Main Enemy [Ray O. Light]

New Polish showdown in the making by the League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L)

First-Hand Account from Poland: In the Eye of the Storm by the Revolutionary Communist Party

Class Struggles in Poland by Paul Costello [Theoretical Review]

New Upsurge in Poland by the Revolutionary Communist Party

Poland: The Struggle Continues [Proletarian Unity League]

Kremlin hard pressed by protracted Polish struggle [League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L)]

UNITY Editorial: Soviet Union – Hands off Poland! [League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L)]

The Polish Workers’ Movement and “Red” Imperialism [Bolshevik League of the United States]

Which Way Out for Poland? Polish Workers Fight Revisionist Line, Part I, by Dennis T. Torigoe [Communist Workers Party]

Which Way Out for Poland? Part II, by Dennis T. Torigoe [Communist Workers Party]

Extraordinary Party Congress Ends: Polish United Workers Party Takes Step Toward Cleansing Itself by Dennis Torigoe [Communist Workers Party]

Which Way Out for Socialist Poland? Workers Struggle Against Polish Party’s Revisionist Line by Dennis T. Torigoe [Communist Workers Party]

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The capitalist-revisionist system has brought disaster to the Polish people [Marxist-Leninist Party]

Poland: Clampdown that May Blow Up by the Revolutionary Communist Party

Support the Rebels in Poland, Forward with the World Revolution by the Revolutionary Communist Party

Polish workers to generals: “You haven’t won yet!” [League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L)]

Polish People Can Win [New Voice]

Poland and the Politics of the Two Superpowers [New Voice]

Editorial Statement on the Crisis in Poland [Theoretical Review]

Turning Point in Poland [Line of March Editorial Board]

Polish People Can Win by the League for a Labor Republic [The New Voice, Vol. X, No 13, February 15, 1982]

Poland and the Politics of the Two Superpowers by the League for a Labor Republic [The New Voice, Vol. X, No 13, February 15, 1982]

Poland and the struggle for power by Ralph Beitel [Line of March]

Poland is Socialism? [Committee for a Proletarian Party]

Line of March: Apologist for “Martial-Law Socialism” [Committee for a Proletarian Party]

Poland and the World Crisis of Revisionism [Marxist-Leninist Party]

Poland and the “Military Road to Socialism” [Theoretical Review]

On Poland: A Reply Against the Current, Vol. 2, No. 1 Winter 1982

Class Struggles in Poland, 1945-1956 by J. Kremenski [Theoretical Review, January 1983]

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U.S. League of Revolutionary Struggle (Marxist-Leninist)

PRIMARY MATERIALS

Party Building

UNITY New Year editorial: Our tasks in 1981

League Interview on Party Building

Learning from the life of Harry Wong

New study series to start: Study Marxism-Leninism Mao Zedong Thought!

Marxist-Leninist Study Series

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Response to Jim Hamilton of the CPML by Robert Morgan

What path to Marxist Leninist unity? A response to John Martin of the CPML by Mae Ngai

Martin responds to LRS: Joint practice and discussion key to M-L unity

LRS misquoted, The Call apologizes

Repression, Reaganomics, War and Revolution. The Present Situation and the Tasks of U.S. Marxist-Leninists

RWH on the Black Liberation Movement: Wrong Again! by Amiri Baraka (Including “Notes on Baraka's ’RWH on the BLM: Wrong Again’ From a White Communist” By Jim Woods)

Opinion: Why I became a communist

Marxist-Leninist Study: Questions and answers from UNITY

Nationalism, Self-Determination and Socialist Revolution by Amiri Baraka

Marxist-Leninist Revolutionary Theory: Its Relation and Application to the Third World and African Americans by Amiri Baraka

CWP on Vincent Chin case: An ugly act of self-exposure

Editorial: UNITY’s new design

Second Congress, April 1984

Editorial: Significance of League Congress

League of Revolutionary Struggle (Marxist-Leninist) Holds Second Congress

Peace Justice Equality and Socialism: From the Second Congress of the U.S. League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L) April 1984

“Delegates to LRS Second Congress speak”

Party Building and the Left Today: An Interview with William Gallegos of the U.S. League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L)

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Lessons from the Collapse of the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) by Carl Davidson

Editorial: Unity makes some changes

Who Do You Mean When You Say ’Maoist ’? by Mae Ngai

Dogmatism, social-democracy and the destruction of the CPML by J.R. Hammond and D. Wayne

The CPML and the tasks of Marxist-Leninists today by Carl Davidson

Domestic Issues

Dr. King’s birthday and the Black struggle for democracy by Amiri Baraka

Interview with a Chicano communist: ’Chicanos must unify to meet the challenges of the 80’s’

Building the UAW: How the CPUSA won the battle and lost the war by Peter Shapiro

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Malcolm X and Black leadership today by Michael (Pili) Simanga

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival: The Search for Jewish identity

Letter to the Editor: Are Jews a nationality?

UNITY Editorial: Support Barbaro in the New York City elections

Weather Underground: Driving down a dead end street by George Tyler

Interview with the LRS (M-L): Asian Americans struggle for full equality and political power

A communist perspective on the Asian student movement by M.W.

“Education and Unity to Serve Aztlan”

Letter to the Editor: Bad jacket for Communist Workers Party

Editorial: Stop the superpowers’ arms race

Part of our revolutionary history: Los Siete de la Raza

Interview with the U.S. League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L): Chicano students – an important revolutionary force

What direction for the National Black United Front? by Kalimu Endesha

A communist view – Workers under attack: The struggle to close ranks by Tom O’Neil

Chicano liberation and 1984 by Bill Flores and Bill Gallegos

A program for Chicano Liberation

The Right to Earn a Living: A program for the unemployed movement

1984 Jesse Jackson Campaign
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Run Jesse Run! by Amiri Baraka

On the Jesse Jackson campaign to date by Amiri Baraka

The Jackson Campaign, Nationalism and Self-Determination by Amiri Baraka

The Need for a Rainbow Agenda. Force the Democrats to Negotiate by Amiri Baraka

The Jackson Campaign Prepares for the Democratic Convention by Jean Yonemura

The left, the Jesse Jackson campaign and the 1984 election by Anne Adams

Moving Toward Higher Ground: The Politics of Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow Coalition by Shelly Ross

What did the revisionists conclude from their fiasco in the elections? by the Marxist-Leninist Party

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Mondale campaign tries to get off the ground by John Ota and Anne Adams

Editorial: Get Out The Vote November 6! Defeat Reagan, Vote Mondale/Ferraro

Reagan’s electoral landslide forces Democrats to regroup by John Ota

Editorial: Strengthen the anti-Reagan front

Book Review: What Can We Learn from the CPUSA’s History? by Peter Shapiro

A response to another Frontline attack: Who is “unreliable” in the U.S. anti-intervention movement? by Sarah Johnston

The anti-war movement reassessed. Drawing lessons from the anti-Viet Nam war movement to build a strong anti-intervention movement today by Anne Adams

The Watsonville Strike

The dam bursts in Watsonville. 2,000 Mexicano and Chicano workers take the lead by Bill Flores

Lessons of Watsonville by Peter Shapiro

The Watsonville Canning Strike, 1985-1987 by Peter Shapiro

he Necessity of Organization: The League of Revolutionary Struggle and the Watsonville Canning Strike by Peter Shapiro

Opposition to the League of Revolutionary Struggle in the Chicano Liberation Movement

Letter from the League of Revolutionary Struggle to Unión del Barrio

Position Statement: Self-Determination for the Chicano Movement: A Critique of the League of Revolutionary Struggle by Unión del Barrio

A Response to Unión del Barrio by Gilbert Sanchez, Jr. for the League of Revolutionary Struggle

Organizational Tenets of Aztlan: Contrasting MEChA and the League of Revolutionary Struggle by Stephanie A. López

Position Paper on the League of Revolutionary Struggle by San Diego County Central MEChA

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Fighting sectarianism in the U.S. anti-apartheid movement by Karega Hart

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What lies ahead for the nuclear freeze campaign? by Carl Davidson

A Future to Win: The Student Movement and the 1980s

Editorial: The state of our United States. What has five years of Reaganism meant for the people of this country?

Hormel, labor unity and the role of the left by Peter Shapiro

A personal history of the Chicano student movement by Bill Flores

Battling for unity at National Chicano Student Conference: Cultural nationalists disrupt conference by Rosa Vega

The “Sunbelt Strategy” and Chicano Liberation by William Gallegos

Reagan and Salt II: Administration united on goal of nuclear superiority by Carl Davidson

Black Power Twenty Years Later by Amiri Baraka

Internationalism vs. LOM’s left-wing chauvinism by Sarah Johnston

Labor in Reagan’s U.S.A: Interview with Roberto Flores of the League of Revolutionary Struggle

Iran-contra scandal and the “Reagan revolution” by Carl Davidson

African Americans and The African Revolution by Amiri Baraka

1988 Jesse Jackson Campaign
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Jesse Jackson calls for justice and economic revival by Fahamisha Brooks

Jackson front-runner in all regions by Jane Barth

Jesse Jackson surges to the top by Amy Weber

Super Tuesday and the African American National Question by Amiri Baraka

Hope Grows Nationwide as Jackson Leads by Jamala Rogers

Jesse 88 by Amiri Baraka [Forward, Vol. 8, Nop. 1, Spring 1988]

Chicanos and Jesse Jackson by Bill Gallegos

’We the People Can Win!’ Jackson campaign forging new democratic majority by Jamala Rogers

Special Unity Supplement: Elections ’88

Jackson emerges from DNC stronger for the future by Mae Ngai and Karega Hart

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Editorial: Defeat Bush/Quayle! Vote for Dukakis and the the Democratic ticket

Left lukewarm about Dukakis by John Trinkl

How do we build opposition to Bush? by William Gallegos

Moving ahead to liberation: Learning from the past by Tim Thomas

Challenges for the Left in Electoral Politics: Looking to the 1990s by Mae Ngai

International Issues

Kremlin hard pressed by protracted Polish struggle

China readjusts her industry Contributed by Jack Leonard

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UNITY interviews Ranjbaran Party member: Changing situation in Iran

Soviet imperialism: A ’paper bear’? by Belle Anders

Polish mass movement pushes party toward reform

New stage in Kampuchean people’s war

Internationalism, China and communists in the U.S.

Polish workers to generals: “You haven’t won yet!”

Afghanistan: 2 years of occupation, 2 years of resistance

Soviets back genocide in Eritrea

Letter to the Editor: A reader asks about Poland and socialist democracy

The League of Revolutionary Struggle talks about: The Salvadoran struggle and support in the U.S.

China’s foreign policy: The fight against hegemonism

Opinion: How Should Revolutionaries look at the nuclear freeze? by Carl Davidson

Commentary: Cuba: What Went Wrong? by Lorenzo Canizares

United States in the World Today: Special Series on U.S. Foreign Policy

Letter to the Editor: Is the USSR the main danger? [And Unity response]

The U.S.S.R. is not socialist

Soviet economy – a system of exploitation by Bill Silverstone

Saluting the 90th anniversary of Mao’s birth by Michael Lee

China’s one-child policy helps liberate women by Amy Bailey

Aims of Reagan’s China visit thwarted by John Ota

Kampuchea: Viet Nam launches major attack by Cathy Cartright

Huber Matos and the Maoist Dilemma by Irwin Silber [Line of March]

Changes in China’s socialist system by Michael Lee

The Revolution in China’s Countryside by Tak Matsusaka

20,000 youth build ties of peace and friendship: 12th World Festival of Youth in Moscow by John Ota

Shakeup in China’s top leadership by Kenji Kobayashi

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U.S. foreign policy and the world today: Interview with Mae Ngai of the League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L)

Mao Zedong – Great Chinese revolutionary by Oscar Rios

Students and socialism in China by Michael Lee

Winds of change in China and Soviet Union by Shelly Ross

Will Gorbachev succeed in his reforms? by Michael Lee

Lenin’s Conception of Socialism: Learning from the early experiences of the world’s first socialist revolution by Richard Fleming

Tienanmen Square Protests and Massacre, 1989

Exclusive on-the-spot report: From Tiananmen Square by Karen Engst

Students rally in China marking an era of change by Michael Lee

Only capitalism can produce “hackers” by Mark Rudd

Socialism must improve the lives of the people by John Marienthal

On the mass line tradition of the Chinese Communist Party by Karen Engst

Commentary: A great tragedy for the Chinese people and socialism by Michael Lee

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Unity Editorial: The October revolutions

The Controversy Over the League of Revolutionary Struggle at Stanford University, May 1990

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Poster attacks alleged political ties of Chang

Nationwide organization active here, students say

Story stigmatized communities, lacked substantiation

Editorial: Appalling fliers

Article insinuates action, intentions without evidence

Daily staff members of color feel discrimination

League has played little-known role in campus politics

Letter: League’s members are not secretive about their identity

Creator of Chang flier comes forward in letter

Letter: League’s tactics have damaged MEChA, community

League recruitment deterred many. Secretive process alienated dozens who were approached

Letter: League’s tactics include threats

Letter: League has always been well-known

Viewpoint: Accusations were made without investigating complete story

Letter: League information was given out of concern for multiculturalism

Viewpoint: McCarthyite labels strip individuals of their humanity

Letter: Only when disease is diagnosed will healing begin

Letter: Citizens should not be forced to reveal their affiliations

Viewpoint: League members, unwilling to share power, malign opponents

Unity ’bridges gaps’ through broader goals

Final (Dissolution) LRS Congress, September 1990

Why We Should Remain an M-L Organization by PS, East Bay [Peter Shapiro]

Congress Papers #2

Congress Papers #3

Congress Papers #4

Statement on the Dissolution of the League of Revolutionary Struggle

Socialist Organizing Network Unity Statement

Periodicals

Unity

Forward

The Black Nation

East Wind

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Revolutionary Workers Headquarters

Primary Documents and Polemics

Marxists on Campus: Shedding Ultra-leftism to Build Student Movement

A Marxist-Leninist looks at social democracy by Robert W. Hanson (Revolutionary Workers Headquarters)

Build the Black Liberation Movement

RWH position on national question. Black liberation: a just struggle in its own right by Harry Quinn

RWH on the Black Liberation Movement: Wrong Again! by Amiri Baraka (Including “Notes on Baraka's ’RWH on the BLM: Wrong Again’ From a White Communist” By Jim Woods)

Wisconsin Shop Papers

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Fighting Times, December 1980

Fighting Times, February 1981

Fighting Times, Rank & File Cartoons

UAW Convention Report by Fightback

Running Hot, August 1980

Running Hot, December

Running Hot, January

Briggs Worker, March 1981

Briggs Worker, June 1981

Downtime, Vol. 1, No. 1, August 1981

Downtime, Vol. 1, No. 2, September 1981

Downtime, Vol. 1, No. 3, October 1981

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Communist Workers Party/New Democratic Movement

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The Communist Workers Party underwent a dramatic evolution in the 1980s. It began in 1980 with the publication of CWP General Secretary Jerry Tung’s book The Socialist Road. Having previously been stridently Maoist, Tung now announced that both the Soviet Union and China were socialist countries. This theoretical shift also resulted in the CWP’s re-alignment within the New Communist Movement. As a CWP spokesperson explained it to representatives of Line of March, “The CWP is now squarely in the center of the anti-revisionist, anti-’left’ opportunist trend.”

This shift caused the CWP to reassess its activities, particularly in relation to electoral politics. In 1984 the party endorsed Jesse Jackson for president, and its members were extremely active in the Rainbow Coalition and the Jackson campaign nationally.

In July 1984, as part of its continuing evolution, the CWP stopped publishing its newspaper, Workers Viewpoint. At a convention in mid-1985, the CWP formally dissolved itself, subsequently creating in its place a new, non-Marxist-Leininist organization, the New Democratic Movement, devoted to establishing “local power bases.” The New Democratic Movement lasted only a few years before dissolving.

Polemics and Reviews

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The NASSCO Workers Struggle: For a Fighting Union–A Communist Perspective by the Committee for a Proletarian Party

Why CWP Flip-flopped on Russia from the Workers Vanguard

Letter on the CWP’s Change of Line by the Line of March Editorial Board

On Jerry Tung’s Book ’The Socialist Road’. Maoist ’Three-Worlders’ Embrace Soviet Revisionism by the Marxist-Leninist Party

Communist Workers Party analyzes the history of socialism: Right questions, wrong answers by the Secretary for international affairs, Political Bureau, In Struggle [Canada]

Letter to the Editor: Bad jacket for Communist Workers Party from Unity newspaper

CWP on Vincent Chin case: An ugly act of self-exposure by the League of Revolutionary Struggle

Donkey Work for the Democrats: CWP Caboose on the Jesse Jackson Train from the Workers Vanguard

CWP: From Workers Viewpoint to Jesse’s Viewpoint from the Workers Vanguard

Maoism’s Latest Farce: The CWP Goes Shopping for American Express by Max Elbaum [Line of March]

PRIMARY DOCUMENTS

Party Building
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Workers Viewpoint Editorial: The Socialist Road

Letter to the CWP: Material Incentives Needed Under Socialism

The Socialist Road. Character of Revolution in the U.S. and Problems of Socialism in the Soviet Union and China by Jerry Tung

Questions and Answers by Jerry Tung

Line of March’s United Front Against War and Racism – Strategy for What? by Phil Thompson

Excerpts from Political Report To the Fourth Plenary of the CWP Central Committee by Jerry Tung, General Secretary of the CWP

Line of March’s White Chauvinist, Anti-Worker Line on the African-American National Question by Phil Thompson [The 80’s, Vol. II, No. 2, Sept.-Oct. 1981

An Urgent Appeal

CWP Statement by Jerry Tung Concerning Albany Arrests [Workers Viewpoint, Vol. 6, No. 36, September 30-October 13, 1981]

Study Marxism: The Revolutionary Situation

Foundations of the Party

Long Live the Communist Workers Party Five by the Central Committee, CWP

Help Keep the Workers Viewpoint Weekly by Robert Goldstein, editor

Study Marxism: Lenin on Party Building

The Communist Workers Party Stands For: [Workers Viewpoint, Vol. 8, No. 34, November 2-8, 1983]

Post-Industrial Society by Jerry Tung

Domestic Issues
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U.S. Labor Party Wallows Deeper by Gary Madison

Two Roads for Chicano Movement by a student

The Origins of the McCarthy Era Part I, Part II by Mary Quan

Letter to the CWP: Guerrilla Warfare Now?

Chomsky Promotes Anti-Semitism by Jerry Gladstone [Workers Viewpoint, Vol. 6, No. 32, September 2-8, 1981]

Capitalism Destabilized – Our Task by Phil Thompson and Dennis T. Torigoe

The Afro-American National Question Volume II

Line of March’s White Chauvinist, Anti-Worker Line on the African-American National Question by Phil Thompson [The 80’s, Vol. II, No. 2, Sept.-Oct. 1981 (theoretical journal of the Communist Workers Party]

AAFE Endorses Barbaro, Ross and Friedlander

Barbaro: The People’s Alternative to Koch by Jim Davis

Letter to the CWP: NY Elections, Barbaro and United Front Work

Reagan: The Second Time As Farce by Tom Whelan [The 80’s, Vol. II, No. 2, Sept.-Oct. 1981]

Editorial: Reaganomics Stalls, War Danger Delayed

U.S. Scrambling in 80s World Alignment. Part I by George Owens

The State of the Black Liberation Movement by Douglas Layne and Don Murphy

Water and Chicano Self-Determination

Foreign Issues
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The French Elections And The Fight for Socialism by Robert Goldstein

Which Way Out for Poland? Polish Workers Fight Revisionist Line, Part I, by Dennis T. Torigoe

Which Way Out for Poland? Part II, by Dennis T. Torigoe

China: What Went Wrong at Boshan Steel by Cynthia Lai

“Labor to Power with Socialist Policies”: British Labor Party Tilts Left by William Nishimura

Retiring in Dignity: Miami or Moscow? by Jim Davis

What the Progressive Press is saying... Mao, China and Class Struggle [reprinted from the Guardian newspaper]

CPC Reverses Verdict on Soviet Revisionism – by Following Its Footsteps by Cynthia Lai

Line of March – Mouthpiece of Soviet Revisionism on the Cultural Revolution by Cynthia Lai

Extraordinary Party Congress Ends: Polish United Workers Party Takes Step Toward Cleansing Itself by Dennis Torigoe

Iran at the Crossroads by Robert Goldstein

Prospects Excellent for Iran’s Left by Robert Goldstein

Which Way Out for Socialist Poland? Workers Struggle Against Polish Party’s Revisionist Line by Dennis T. Torigoe

Support for the NCR: Statement of the Communist Workers Party, USA

Historic Lessons of China’s Cultural Revolution by Cynthia Lai

Periodicals

Workers Viewpoint [newspaper]

The 80’s

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Continuing Crisis and Collapse of the Philadelphia Workers Organizing Committee and the Organizing Committee for an Ideological Center

The crisis which paralyzed the OCIC as a result of the campaign against white chauvinism, launched in 1980 showed no signs of abating as members began to leave in droves. In October, an Open Letter to the Party Building Movement was published, signed by former OCIC members from around the country. The OCIC national leadership was unrepentant, accelerating the campaign while denouncing opponents as “racists” and “petty bourgeois chauvinists.”

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Ex-OCIC members were unable to agree on the causes of this crisis. Some, including Line of March and the Theoretical Review, argued that the OCIC was a crisis of the fusion party-building line. Others argued that the fusion line was sound, but that the OCIC had never applied it to building the organization.

During 1981 every OCIC activity except the campaign ground to a halt and PWOC’s Organizer newspaper had to admit that the OCIC was “near-collapse” with “functioning local areas reduced from 18 to 6 and 80% of the membership resigned.”

PWOC itself was also in shambles, torn apart by internal witch hunts and charges of “ultra-leftism” against the leadership by angry former members. 80% of its membership resigned as well.

By the spring of 1982, both PWOC and the OCIC were defunct.

Primary Documents

The White Chauvinism Campaign and Political Line by Bob K., the Boston Political Collective (Marxist-Leninist)

An Open Letter To The Party Building Movement by former members of the OCIC

Speech on the Degeneration of the OCIC by Charles Kaften

The White Chauvinism Campaign and the Crisis of the Fusion Line by the Boston and Tucson Theoretical Review Editorial Boards

Letter of Resignation, Baltimore/Washington OCIC

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The Second Crisis of U.S. Anti-Revisionism by Clay Newlin

Split in the Atlanta Local Center, OCIC

Racism, White Chauvinism and the FBI: A Critique of Petty Bourgeois Moralism by The Movement for a Revolutionary Left, Eugene, Oregon

“The OCIC’s White Chauvinism Campaign and its Lessons for U.S. Marxist-Leninists” by Jim Jacobs

The OCIC’s Phoney Campaign: Ultra-“Leftism” in Command Once Again by former members of the OCIC Boston Local Center

PWOC: Leading the left-sexist pack by Constance Scott

The OCIC’s Phony War Against White Chauvinism and the Demise of the Fusion Line by the Line of March Editorial Board

More on the Campaign against White Chauvinism by John Ziv

Open Letter to White Petit Bourgeois Comrades by John Haagland

What Happened to the OCIC? Part 1: A Critique of the OC’s Campaign Against White and Petit bourgeois Chauvinism by Dave F.

Accommodation to racism in the communist movement: Is Communism the Property of White Petit Bourgeois Intellectuals? by Michael Simmons

PWOC – “The New Dogmatists”? by J.B. and C.B.

The ORGANIZER Responds

Racism and the Decline of the OC by Clay Newlin

SNCC Re-evaluated: Racism in the Civil Rights Movement by Michael Simmons

The PWOC: Degeneration into Ultra-Leftism by former PWOC members

Letter to the Party Building Movement [on resigning from the OCIC] by the Southern California Local Center/OCIC

PWOC’s Ultra-Leftism by ex-PWOC members

Letter to Paul Costello by Dave Forrest

Proposal to Organize Trend-Wide Conferences on the Demise of the OCIC

Early Draft of a “Call for Trend-Wide Conferences to Summarize the Demise of the Organizing Committee for an Ideological Center”

Cover letter to the “Call for Trend-Wide Conferences to Summarize the Demise of the Organizing Committee for an Ideological Center”

Call for Trend-Wide Conferences to Summarize the Demise of the Organizing Committee for an Ideological Center

Invitation to the Tucson Marxist-Leninist Collective to participate in the national committee to organize regional conferences by Dave Forrest and Max Elbaum

Invitation to the Tucson Marxist-Leninist Collective to participate in the planning committee for regional conferences by Max Elbaum and Melinda Paras

Letter to the Tucson Marxist-Leninist Collective urging it to participate in the planning committee for regional conferences by Dave Forrest

Letter of resignation from the planning committee for regional conferences by Dave Forrest

Letter on the collapse of the initiative to organize conferences to summarize the demise of the OCIC by Max Elbaum, Melinda Paras and Sharon Rose

Periodical

The Organizer

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Theoretical Review

Polemics

Letter to Paul Costello by Dave Forrest

Letter from the Line of March Editorial Board to the Theoretical Review on LOM-TR Relations

Reply of the Theoretical Review Editorial Board to Line of March

Capitalism Destabilized – Our Task by Phil Thompson and Dennis T. Torigoe [Communist Workers Party]

Letter criticizing the Theoretical Review for having published the article, “Dirty Linen: The Struggle in the Bay Area MLEP“ by the Line of March Editorial Board

Primary Documents

Capitalism, the State and Crises by Paul Costello

Toward a Contemporary Strategy: Lessons of the 1930s by Paul Costello

Communist Party Theory and Practice Among the Unemployed, 1930-1938 by Irene North

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Bruce Springsteen: Reading Rock and Roll by Neil Eriksen [Neal Ullestad]

The Communist Party and the CIO by Ben Rose

Letter from Dave Marsh

Women’s Oppression in Capitalist Society: An Introduction

The Material Basis of Women’s Oppression in Capitalist Society by Jean Tepperman

Capitalist Restoration or Transition to Socialism? By Ira Gerstein

TR Editorial Statement on the Crisis in Poland

Letter from Solidarity’s Peter Drucker to the Theoretical Review Collective [on possible unity discussions]

On Poland: A Reply Against the Current, Vol. 2, No. 1 Winter 1982

Reaping the Whirlwind: Soviet Economics and Politics, 1928-32 by Paul Costello

Poland and the “Military Road to Socialism”

A Deafening Silence: Sexuality and the Leninist Left by Jeff Goldthorpe

The Concepts of Ideology, Hegemony, and Organic Intellectuals in Gramsci’s Marxism by Valeriano Ramos, Jr.

Antonio Gramsci and the Recasting of Marxist Strategy by Paul Costello

Glasnost must seek origins of present crisis in Soviet history by Paul Costello

Celebrating Native American Indian Lives – Indigenous Reggae Music in the United States by Neal Ullestad [Red Ink, Vol. 16, No. 1, Fall 2010]

Notes on Identity and Politics in the Native American Indian Hip Hop Community by Neal Ullestad

Periodical

Theoretical Review

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Revolutionary Communist Party

Polemics

Cover

The Decline of the RCP: A Polemic by the Organization for Revolutionary Unity

Third Draft of Criticism of the RCP by the Maoist Internationalist Movement

Positive trends in the RCP? [from MIM Theory, No. 6, 1987]

RCP and “Refuse & Resist” are silent about NOW’s attacks on the movement [from the Workers’ Advocate Supplement, published by the Marxist-Leninist Party]

NAFTA Stand Clarifies RCP’s Differences with MIM [from the Maoist Internationalist Movement]

The Revolutionary Communist Party-USA And Trotsky: A Literal Comparison [from the Maoist Internationalist Movement]

Book Review: Avakian’s Democracy Can’t We Do Better Than That? [from the Maoist Internationalist Movement]

Revolutionary Communist Party “On the Question of Homosexuality and the Emancipation of Women” [from the Maoist Internationalist Movement]

What's Wrong with the RCP-USA by Majdur Travail

The RCP-USA, Maoism, and the Three Worlds Theory by Joseph Green

The RCP, the Theoretical Struggle and the Working Class by Frank, CVO

The Maoist cultism of the RCP is anti-Marxist by Eric Gordon

Nine Letters to Our Comrades. Getting Beyond Avakian’s New Synthesis by Mike Ely

Letter to the RCP on its document On the Position on Homosexuality in the New Draft Program by Dennis O’Neil

Our Summation of the Politics and Practice of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA by the Organization of Communist Revolutionaries

Primary Documents

Bob Avakian Speaks on the Mao Tsetung Defendants’ Railroad and the Historic Battles Ahead

Basic Principles for the Unity of Marxist-Leninists and For the Line of the International Communist Movement A Draft Position Paper for Discussion Prepared by the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA and the Revolutionary Communist Party of Chile

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Why the U.S. Imperialists Are Watching the China Trial

Chiang Ching’s Defiant Declaration: It’s Right to Rebel! Making Revolution is No Crime!”

Charting the Uncharted Course. Proletarian Revolution in the U.S.!

New Programme and New Constitution of the Revolutionary Communist Party

On the Class Struggle in China [from A World To Win, Preliminary Issue, May 1981]

Outline of Views on the Historical Experience of the International Communist Movement and the Lessons for Today [from Revolution, Issue #49, June 1981]

On the Question of So-Called “National Nihilism”: You Can’t Beat the Enemy While Raising His Flag

Conquer the World? The International Proletariat Must and Will by Bob Avakian

Imperialist Economism, or the European Disease [from A World To Win, Preliminary Issue #2, May 1982]

If There Is To Be Revolution, There Must Be A Revolutionary Party by Bob Avakian

The Nature of the Soviet Union – An Urgent and Decisive Question

The Soviet Union: Socialist or Social Imperialist? Essays Toward the Debate on the Nature of Soviet Society

The Soviet Union: Socialist or Social Imperialist? Part II: Raymond Lotta vs. Albert Szymanski (Full Text of New York City Debate, May 1983)

The Science of Revolution: An Introduction by Lenny Wolff

U.S. Get Your Bloody Hands Off Grenada and Lebanon! [flyer]

U.S. Get Your Bloody Hands Off Grenada and Lebanon! [another flyer]

Notes Toward an Analysis of the Soviet Bourgeoisie by Lenny Wolff and Aaron Davis

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Jesse Jackson: The “Right Stuff” for U.S. Imperialism by Carl Dix

The Political Economy of Apartheid [from A World To Win, #3, 1985]

The ’60s-’70s Shift by Bob Avakian

Guevara, Debray and Armed Revisionism by Lenny Wolf

RCP,USA Celebrates 10th Anniversary [from A World To Win, #5, 1986]

Revolution in Imperialist Countries Requires Mao Tsetung Thought [from A World To Win, #7, 1986]

Commemorating a Major Struggle in the RCP, US. Upholding Mao’s Revolutionary Line: A Turning Point [from Revolution, #56, Spring 1988]

On the Question of Homosexuality and the Emancipation of Women [from Revolution, #56, Spring 1988]

Who’s Behind Iran/Contragate? A Conversation with Raymond Lotta [from Revolution, #56, Spring 1988]

When John Wayne Went Out of Focus: GI Rebellion and Military Disintegration in Vietnam by Nick Jackson [from Revolution, #56, Spring 1988]

The United States and Mexico: Anatomy of Domination by David Nova [from Revolution, #56, Spring 1988]

New Document from RCP, USA: Marxism-Leninism-Maoism [from A World To Win, #12, 1988]

Revolt in China: The Crisis of Revisionism, or...Why Mao Tsetung Was Right by Raymond Lotta

On the International Situation: New Twist in the Imperialist Knot [from A World To Win, #15, 1990]

Two Talks by Bob Avakian [Revolution, Fall 1990]

Snapshots: 25 Years in the Vanguard (part 1) [on the 25th anniversary of the founding of the RCP]

The Chicano Struggle and Proletarian Revolution in the U.S.: A Paper for Discussion

On the Position on Homosexuality in the New Draft Programme

Periodical

Revolutionary Worker

Revolution magazine

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Tiananmen Square 1989: China’s Crackdown on the Student Movement

Primary Documents

Cover

Message from Tiananmen Revolutionary Communist Party

Revolt in China: The Crisis of Revisionism, or...Why Mao Tsetung Was Right by Raymond Lotta, Revolutionary Communist Party

Exclusive on-the-spot report: From Tiananmen Square by Karen Engst [from Unity, League of Revolutionary Struggle]

Students rally in China marking an era of change by Michael Lee [from Unity, League of Revolutionary Struggle]

Only capitalism can produce “hackers” by Mark Rudd [from Unity, League of Revolutionary Struggle]

Down with the Blood-Soaked Capitalist Regime in China! Statement by the Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM)

RIM Press Conference Condemns Deng Regime

Frontline Editorial: Bloody China Crackdown a Setback for Socialism [Line of March]

Commentary: A great tragedy for the Chinese people and socialism by Michael Lee [from Unity, League of Revolutionary Struggle]

Socialism must improve the lives of the people by John Marienthal [from Unity, League of Revolutionary Struggle]

On the mass line tradition of the Chinese Communist Party by Karen Engst [from Unity, League of Revolutionary Struggle]

Condemn the brutal capitalist rulers of China! by the Marxist-Leninist Party

’No Mercy’ for China’s Democracy Movement by Max Elbaum [Line of March]

China Crackdown Sparks Diverse Response in World Communist Mv’t by Max Elbaum [Line of March]

Tiananmen: How Should The U.S. Left Respond? by Stan Woods [Line of March]

Chinese Fascism: The Deng Hits the Fan Progressive Labor Party [The Communist, No. 1, Fall 1989]

Tiananmen Square: What the Media Suppressed A World To Win, #14, November 1989.

Looking Back at Tianamen Square. The Defeat of Counter-Revolution in China by Mick Kelly [Freedom Road Socialist Organization]

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Maoist Internationalist Movement

Primary Documents

Bound Volume: Founding Documents of MIM, MIM Notes l-34, MIM Theory 1-13

Third Draft of Criticism of the RCP

Positive trends in the RCP? [from MIM Theory, No. 6, 1987]

Gender and Revolutionary Feminism [MIM Theory, Nos. 2-3, 1992]

NAFTA Stand Clarifies RCP’s Differences with MIM [from the Maoist Internationalist Movement]

The Revolutionary Communist Party-USA And Trotsky: A Literal Comparison [from the Maoist Internationalist Movement]

Book Review: Avakian’s Democracy Can’t We Do Better Than That? [from the Maoist Internationalist Movement]

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Marxist-Leninist Party

At the time of its founding in 1980, the Marxist-Leninist Party was in the process of breaking with its long-time mentor in Canada, the Communist Party of Canada (M-L) (CPC(ML)).

The break with the CPC (M-L) led the MLP to begin a reassessment of its own politics, partially in an attempt to draw other anti-revisionists towards it, partially in order to discover the roots of the deepening crisis of the international communist movement. Initially, the MLP’s line closely followed that of the Party of Labor of Albania. By the late 1980s, however, the MLP came to the conclusion that anti-revisionism meant that it had to reject the traditional support of the communist movement’s positions from the time of the 1935 Congress of the Comintern onwards.

This decision, however, led to an ideological impasse in the MLP, and at its fifth Congress in November 1993 the Party voted to dissolve itself. Among its successor organizations were the Chicago Workers’ Voice group, the Detroit Communist Voice group, and the Los Angeles Workers’ Voice group.

Background Materials

What Was the Marxist-Leninist Party? by Jake (Chicago)

Being Disliked by the “Major Players” Was to the MLP’s Credit! by Ben (Seattle)

Organizing in the Work Place, Part I: [MLP] Work in the Unions by Jake (Chicago)

Distortions in a history of the Marxist-Leninist Party, USA by Frank (Seattle)

Debate with the Revolutionary Communist Party

On the Question of So-Called “National Nihilism”: You Can’t Beat the Enemy While Raising His Flag by the Revolutionary Communist Party

Against the National Nihilism of the “RCP,USA” by the Marxist-Leninist Party

“You Can’t Beat The Enemy While Raising His Flag”: MLPUSA Tries It by the Revolutionary Communist Party

Primary Documents

Communique of the Founding Congress of the Marxist-Leninist Party of the USA

Documents of the Founding Congress of the Marxist-Leninist Party of the USA [Workers’ Advocate, Vol. 10, No. 1, January 1, 1980]

* * *

Condemn Soviet social-imperialism’s fascist aggression against Afghanistan! Down with U.S. imperialism, Soviet and Chinese social-imperialism and all reaction!

Chinese revisionists are die-hard opponents of the liberation struggle of the Salvadorean People

’CPML’ on the Verge of Dissolution

’CPML’ Debates How to Liquidate

First National Conference, Summer 1981

Conference Resolutions

* * *

On the 20th anniversary of the Internationalists: The Myth of the Glorious Past–CPC(M-L)’s Pretext for International Factionalism

On Jerry Tung’s Book ’The Socialist Road’. Maoist ’Three-Worlders’ Embrace Soviet Revisionism

Introducing the Correspondence Between the MLP,USA and the RCP of Britain (ML)

Second Congress, Fall 1983

Cover

Documents of the Second Congress of the Marxist-Leninist Party, USA

Additional Congress resolutions [including On the Role of the PLA in the World Marxist-Leninist Movement]

Three additional Congress resolutions: On Problems in the Orientation of the International Communist Movement in the Period from the End of World War II to the Death of Stalin; On the Marxist-Leninist Classics; and Against Trotskyism [plus pre-Congress discussion materials]

* * *

Barry Weisberg’s ’CPUSA/ML’ denounces Marxism-Leninism and dissolves

Our Differences with the Party of Labor of Albania

Against the Maoist critique of the PLA: How the Maoist RCP,USA defends the basic ideas of ’three worldism’

* * *

Second National Conference, Fall 1984

Speech: Carry Forward the Struggle against Racism and National Oppression – Work for Proletarian Leadership

Speech: On the Black National Question and the Right to Self-determination

Speech: On Nationality Organization

Speech: On the Black Panther Party

Speech: On the League of Revolutionary Black Workers

Speech: The struggle against national oppression and black bourgeois politics at Roswell Park Hospital

Conference Resolutions

* * *

What did the revisionists conclude from their fiasco in the elections?

The lesson of the Kampuchean tragedy: The peasant revolutionary movement needs the leadership of the proletariat

Revisionist CPUSA holds fast to the mistakes of the 7th Congress of the CI

Revisionist CPUSA holds to the mistakes of the 7th Congress of the CI. Abandoning the struggle against the trade union bureaucrats

Resolution on the black national question

* * *

Third National Conference, Fall 1986

Cover

Underneath the stagnation, the stage is being set for renewed struggle [opening speech to the conference]

Speech: Drawing the working class into the political movement

Speeches: Trends in the strike movement; Our work in the 1985 Chrysler strike

Speech: The CPUSA’s work in auto and the change in line of the mid-1930’s

Speech: Building an in-plant distribution network at Great Lakes Steel

Speech: The defense of John Smith

Conference Resolutions

* * *

Ninth Congress of the Party of Labor Of Albania–A Disappointment for Marxist-Leninists Around the World

Third Congress, Fall 1988

Cover

Following this path, the working class will construct a new world [opening speech to the Congress]

Speeches: The Degeneration of Soviet Socialism and the Turn in the Mid-1930’s; On the Party-wide Study of the Marxist-Leninist Conception of Socialism

Partial summary of the Congress discussion following the speech on the stage of the Party’s work on socialism; Study Plan on the Marxist-Leninist Idea of Socialism (Part One)

Summary of the Congress discussion on the speech on the principles of socialism; Summary of the Congress discussion on the speech on the degeneration of Soviet socialism; excerpts from a speech on the work among postal workers

Congress Resolutions

* * *

Chinese working people will rise again! Condemn the brutal capitalist rulers of China!

What’s going on in Albania?

6,000 Albanians seek asylum in foreign embassies

Debate With Swedish ’Red Dawn’ on Capitalist Restoration in the USSR

Two articles from Swedish ’Red Dawn’ on the degeneration of the Soviet Union

A comment on the Swedish comrades’ articles: How to approach the study of capitalist restoration in the Soviet Union

Swedish comrades reply on the question of Soviet history: What is state capitalism and why has it arisen?

We need facts and communist theory, not phrases: Our views on the Swedish article on the method for studying Soviet history

We need facts and communist theory, not phrases: Our views on the Swedish article on the method for studying Soviet history (conclusion)

Fourth National Conference, Fall 1990

Cover

4th National Conference of the MLP,USA

Speeches: The Old Class Struggle Will Arise in Modern Clothes [opening remarks to the Conference]; The Clinic Defense Movement and the Working Class Trend; The Women’s Movement in the 1960s and 70s

Speech: On the Collapse of Revisionism

Speech: Some Questions of Soviet History: From the October Revolution to the First Five Year Plan

Speech: Some Theoretical Questions Concerning Soviet History

* * *

Gus Hall supports coup. CPUSA in crisis

The pretense is over: Riots in Albania

A split among reformists: CPUSA breaks apart

Fourth Congress, Fall 1992

Marxist-Leninist Party Holds 4th Congress

Fifth Congress, November 20-21, 1993

Fifth Congress Votes to Disband the MLP, USA

* * *

Materials on the History of the World Communist Movement

Cover

United front tactics are an essential tool of the proletarian party. ’To the Masses!’–The Call of the Third Congress of the CI

United front tactics are an essential tool of the proletarian party. The Third Congress of the CI on the Relationship of the Party and the Masses

United front tactics are an essential tool of the proletarian party. The Third Congress of the CI on the Reformist Parties as Diehard Defenders of Capitalism

United front tactics are an essential tool of the proletarian party. The Third World Congress of the CI Opposed Rightist Interpretations of United Front Tactics

On the Seventh Congress of the Comintern

Between the Sixth and the Seventh Congresses [of the Communist International]

In Defense of the Leninist United Front Tactics

Against the Trotskyist critique of the Seventh Congress

Against Stalinist Revisionism. In Defense of Marxism-Leninism

The CPUSA’s Liberal-Labor Approach to the Critique of Browder

Why the CPUSA didn’t resist Khrushchovite revisionism

On the history of the CPUSA and the CI on the Right to Self-Determination

The CPUSA and the unemployed movement of the 1930’s

The CPUSA’s work in auto and the change in line of the mid-1930’s

The Degeneration of Soviet Socialism and the Turn of the Mid-1930’s

From Baba to Tovarishch. The Bolsehvik Revolution and Soviet Women’s Struggle for Liberation by Barbara Ranes

Periodicals

Workers’ Advocate

The Workers’ Advocate Supplement

Chicago Workers’ Voice Theoretical Journal

West Indian Voice No. 23, November 1983

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Communist Party U.S.A./(Marxist-Leninist)

Primary Documents

Cover

UNITE! Marks 5th Birthday

Counter-Revolution is Official Policy of Chinese State by Emily Keppler

Report from the 6th Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party U.S.A. (Marxist-Leninist)

The Illegal Party and Its Legal Work by Emily Keppler

The Fascist Menace in the United States and How to Fight It by Barry Weisberg

Build the Democratic Front Against Fascism and War! Unite!, Vol. 7, No. 8, May 1, 1981

To Build the Party: Sharpen the Class Struggle on Organizational Front

Statement from the CPUSA/ML on the Organization of the “U.S. Delegation” to the 5th International Youth Camp

To Build the Party: Forge the Right Relationship Between the Party and the People

Revisionism: The Trojan Horse of World Imperialism by Barry Weisberg

To Build the Party: Build the Party Press

Why the CPUSA/ML Supports the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania as a Great Ideological and Political Force for Socialism

To Build the Party: Strengthen Its Proletarian Internationalist Spirit and Activity

Little Progressive about the Federation for Progress

To Build the Party: Every Factory a Fortress!

Resolution of the Second Congress of the Communist Party USA/Marxist-Leninist –June 1983 [on the dissolution of the Party]

Barry Weisberg’s ’CPUSA/ML’ denounces Marxism-Leninism and dissolves by the Marxist-Leninist Party

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Revolutionary Political Organization (Marxist-Leninist)

Primary Documents

Cover

Introduction: Objectives of Workers’ Herald

RPO(ML) Resolution on Mao Zedong Thought

The Polish Working Class Stands up by Dennis Strawn

Drive Spies and Provocateurs Out of the Communist Movement by Harriet Parsons

Defeat Pacifism in the Anti-war Movement by Anne Fletcher

Capitalism: the Inevitable Product of Mao Tse-Tung’s “Decentralized Socialism” by Dennis Strawn

Against Opportunist Tactics in the Labor Movement by Louie Scrapper

Mao Zedong Thought Defends Bourgeois Nationalism

Cover

For a Revolutionary Struggle Against Fascism by Mark Evans

Lessons of Capitalist Restoration in the U.S.S.R. by Mark Evans

Let’s Go Forward, Not Backwards: Defeat Bourgeois Feminism in the Women’s Movement by Rosie O’Connell and Roosevelt Washington, Jr.

In Defense of the Right of Political Succession for the Afro-American Nation. Papers and Resolutions from the School on the Afro-American National Question, September 1982 by the Revolutionary Political Organization (M-L), Amilcar Cabral/Paul Robeson Collective and with the participation of the Red Dawn Collective

Social Classes in the United States

Self-Determination, the Right to Secession for the Diné (Navajo) Nation by Mark Evans and Charles Davis

The Cardinal Task of Marxist-Leninists Today: Forge a Genuine Marxist-Leninist Party and Turn the Spontaneous Movement of the Workers into a Conscious Struggle of the Whole working Class

Workers – Don’t Follow the CPUSA into the Arms of the Democratic Party

March 8: International Working Women's Day, March 1987

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San Diego Marxist-Leninist Group

Primary Documents

Constitution of the San Diego Marxist-Leninist Group

The 10 Burning Questions & the Stand of the Marxist-Leninists; The First 5 Being the Necessary & Sufficient Basis for Founding the New US Marxist-Leninist Communist Party

The Road to Founding the New U.S. Marxist-Leninist Communist Party

A Schematic Look At, A Partial History of, The US Revolutionary Movement of the Last 25 Years [from Red Flag, Vol. II, No. 6, April 1985]

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Committee for a Proletarian Party

The Committee for a Proletarian Party (CPP) was a local San Diego collective which formed in the Spring of 1977.  It was active in a number of local struggles and participated in the New Communist Movement nationally by publishing a number of pamphlets on issues of strategy and party building.

In 1978 it drew close to the Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee and joined with it to create the Communist Party U.S.A./(Marxist-Leninist) that same year. However, a number of members soon left the CPUSA (M-L) over its pro-Albania positions and rejection of Mao Zedong’s contribution to Marxism-Leninism and reformed the CPP. Pre-1980 documents of earlier CPP can be found here.

In 1980 the CPP merged with the Chicagon Committee for a Communist Party, which had also come out of the CPUSA(M-L). In 1983 the CPP merged with the Communist Organization, Bay Area (COBA) to form the Organization of Revolutionary Unity (ORU).

Primary Documents

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Party-Building Statement of Committee for a Proletarian Party

The NASSCO Workers Struggle: For a Fighting Union–A Communist Perspective

Communist Work in the Trade Unions

Line of March: Apologist for “Martial-Law Socialism”

Poland is Socialism?

The Cultural Revolution in China: Lessons from Class Struggle Under Socialism

The Nature of Soviet Society: Joint Presentation by the Committee for a Proletarian Party and the Communist Organization, Bay Area given June 10, 1982 in the Debate with the Line of March on Whether the USSR is Capitalist or Socialist

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Organization for Revolutionary Unity

The Organization for Revolutionary Unity has its origins in The Communist Organization, Bay Area and the Committee for a Proletarian Party.

The Communist Organization, Bay Area (COBA) was formed in 1981 from a merger of two groups: (1) XMLC (ex-members of the Marxist-Leninist Collective) and (2) A. Green/BR Johnson. The Marxist-Leninist Collective (MLC) (1975-1978) was a relatively large collective in the Bay Area which worked in local shipyards and other sites. XMLC, which included most of the original leadership, resigned from MLC in 1978 over differences on party building line, citing the need for serious study in order to form a principled basis for unity. A. Green/BRJ was a small collective; 2 members had been in the GI support movement and 2 were coauthors of the book, On the Roots of Revisionism, which arose out of a study group on the history of the communist movement from 1917.

A. Green and XMLC felt that serious study of the communist movement and its history was essential to avoid the pitfalls of groups which were rushing to form parties (chiefly, CLP, RU, OL, and WVO). After a period of study and joint work, COBA was formed in 1981. COBA then entered joint work and study with the Committee for a Proletarian Party (CPP), which was based in San Diego. COBA and CPP merged to form the Organization of Revolutionary Unity (ORU) in 1983. ORU underwent yet another detailed merger process with the Proletarian Unity League (PUL) and in 1986 joined the newly formed PUL/RWH organization Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO).

Polemics

ORU Dissolves [from MIM Theory, Nos. 5-6, 1987]

Primary Documents

Introducing the O.R.U. The merger statement of the Committee for a Proletarian Party (CPP) and the Communist Organization, Bay Area (COBA), March 1983

The Nature of Soviet Society [published version with questions and answers]

Notes on the Establishment of State Capitalism in China Post-1976

Working Women and the Struggle for Women’s Liberation

The Decline of the RCP: A Polemic by the Organization for Revolutionary Unity

ORU Merges into Freedom Road Socialist Organization

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Proletarian Unity League

Primary Documents

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Preliminary Views on Revolutionary Work in the Afro-American People's Liberation Movement by the PUL Nationalities Commission

Kampuchea, Self-Determination and the “Boat People”: The Challenge for Socialism

Facing Facts in Iran

1980 Elections: Labor Locked Out

El Salvador: U.S. On Wrong Side

A Lesson from Poland

Exchange with the Marxist-Leninist League on the Trade Union Question

The Draft: Part of the Problem–Not the Solution

Poland: The Struggle Continues

The Proletarian Unity League: Where We Came From, What We Look Like, What We Do by the PUL Unity Work Team

The tax attack in Boston: Lessons of the battle against Proposition 2 1/2

How To Think About The Soviet Union by Ben P.

Sum-Up of a Strike in a Municipal Hospital: Getting Out From Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Nadine M. and Wilma C.

A Response [to the Sum-Up of a Strike in a Municipal Hospital] by the Revolutionary Workers Headquarters

Nuclear Blackmail

Building The Black United Front

Electoral Politics and the Left Today: Fighting the Defensive Battle by Jonathan H.

Political Action in the Labor Movement: Beyond “Trench Warfare” by David S. for the Trade Union Commission, PUL

Opposing Nuclear Arms: Notes From a Marxist Perspective by Nadine P.

Labor’s Survival/Labor’s Revival. Working Papers on the Trade Unions Edited by Susan Cummings & Jonathan Hoffman for the Trade Union Commission of the Proletarian Unity League

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Freedom Road Socialist Organization

Historical and Background Materials

Socialist Organizing Network Unity Statement

Freedom Road Socialist Organization – An Introduction

Polemics

“Maoists” to our right: FRSO’s “Principles of Unity, 1985” [from MIM Theory, Nos. 9-10, 1987]

Freedom Road Socialist Organization: Democrats’ Loyal Maoists from Workers Vanguard

Primary Documents

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Founding Unity Documents

The Left and Jesse Jackson by Freedom Road Socialist Organization, National Executive

Stop the War

Some Points on the Mass Line

Challenging Eurocentrism by Juliet Ucelli and Dennis O’Neil

A step toward unity: Freedom Road Socialist Organization & Socialist Organizing Network Join Forces

Freedom Road Socialist Organization – Unity Statement

ORU Merges into Freedom Road Socialist Organization

Freedom Road Socialist Organization – Unity Statement on National Oppression, National Liberation and Socialist Revolution

On The Crisis of Socialism

1999 Split Documents

Meeting the Challenge of Crisis and Opportunity: Left Refoundation and Party Building

NEC Response to Left Refoundationist Proposal

Freedom Road Socialist Organization Loses Two Districts in Split

Public Statement on the Future of FRSO

Freedom Road Socialist Organization (Left Refoundation)

Brick by Brick: Building a Movement to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal

FRSO’s Strategy for a New Historical Period Adopted at the Freedom Road Socialist Organization’s 2003 Congress

The Crisis within the Left: Theory, Program, Organization by Badili Jones

Which Way is Left? Theory, Politics, Organization and 21st Century Socialism

The Life of the Party: Thoughts on What We Are Trying To Build by Khalil Hassan

Freedom Road Socialist Organization (Fightback)

Unity Statement of Freedom Road Socialist Organization

Freedom Road Socialist Organization: 20 Years of Struggle

Congresses

FRSO’s 4th Congress: Building on Success, Preparing for the Future [2004]

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FRSO’s 4th Congress: Main Political Report

Unity Statement on National Oppression, National Liberation and Socialist Revolution

Fifth Congress of Freedom Road Socialist Organization: “Advance in a new period of struggle” [2007]

Fifth Congress of Freedom Road Socialist Organization: Main Political Report

FRSO Program: Class in the U.S. and Our Strategy for Revolution

6th Congress of Freedom Road Socialist Organization: “We are advancing in the struggle, and building the people’s fight backs. This is a congress of victory.” [2010]

6th Congress of Freedom Road Socialist Organization: Main Political Report

* * *

The Third International and the struggle for a correct line on the African American National Question

Build a Fighting Workers Movement

On the Student Movement in the U.S. by Josh Sykes

Looking Back at Tianamen Square. The Defeat of Counter-Revolution in China by Mick Kelly

Periodical

Freedom Road

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Line of March – Frontline Political Organization

The consolidation of Line of March coincided with the general decline of the New Communist Movement. In 1980, it was positioned firmly in the “antirevisionist, antidogmatist trend” of the NCM. It was already turning its critique of the NCM’s “dogmatism” and “left opportunism” to the nominal influence of Maoism in the trend and the broader left. Its identification with Cuba, Vietnam, and the successful Marxist-led liberation movements in Africa and Latin America (and the Pathet Lao in Laos and the Vietnamese overthrow of the Khmer Rouge in Kampuchea) was leading to a reassessment of the question of Soviet “revisionism.”

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LOM was one group among many in the Bay Area, but its influence and numbers there were growing. They had stable and effective units in Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, Boston and Washington DC. New recruits and transferred cadres were laying down roots in the Midwest. The start of the decade saw the collapse of the OCIC and its flagship group PWOC, which had been the key focus of LOM’s party building work for years. Some of the most experienced members of OCIC joined LOM. The group’s influence was felt in solidarity work nationally, and the Bay Area women’s movement in particular. Ties between LOM and KDP tightened.

In short order, LOM’s Oedipal attack on Maoism, and its antagonism with the “fusion” proponents in the trend, were no longer strategic concerns. China had ceased to even try to act as a rallying point for revolutionaries, while the revolutions in Nicaragua, Grenada and Iran were divorced from the world views that had hardened among the three conflicting strains of the NCM – followers of Deng, Hoxha, and the Gang of Four. LOM, by contrast, energetically supported the new revolutions; had skills in coalition-building gained from the experience of KDP, the International Hotel struggle in San Francisco, and the National Coalition to Overturn the Bakke Decision, and was not plagued by the internal breakdown that characterized some of the larger, seemingly similar non-NCM groups in the early 80s, such as SWP and DWP.

By the end of 1983, LOM had a biweekly newspaper; an established theoretical journal; several years’ experience developing and teaching political education curricula and systematically training cadres; and contacts with like-minded parties internationally. The paper, Frontline, while no competition for the Guardian – which it resembled, since editor Irwin Silber had been a strong presence at both papers – enjoyed a relatively broad readership for a party organ. LOM’s various “transmission belt” groups (“revolutionary mass organizations”) were guided by the central group’s United Front Against War and Racism strategic framework, though they did not promote it.

In the years that followed, LOM’s orientation shifted. Since the struggle over “party building line” had been settled by default, and some progress had been made in elaborating the contours of a “rectified general political line,” LOM more and more acted as a self-defined party (in far left terms), despite its tiny numbers and unstable footing in mass arenas.

LOM turned its attention to debate with the CPUSA and the social democratic-leaning left, the two key actors in their hypothetical United Front framework. Their goal was to shape the orientation of the broader left, while refocusing CP and DSA towards the viability of a permanent front which would include LOM.

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LOM targeted the CP’s “official optimism” – the tendency to view every development as a win, or a potential win. They also challenged the CP’s longtime conviction that “Labor (specifically the AFL-CIO) must lead” the general progressive movement. On questions regarding the Soviet Union, LOM began to stake out positions more openly and fiercely pro-Moscow than even the CP was prepared to take, from martial law in Poland to the Chernobyl disaster. Debates with the DSA/Dissent journal tendency focused on anti-Sovietism, which was most pronounced among veterans of the 1960s Socialist Party milieu.

LOM, unlike CP and DSA, saw the development of the Black Liberation Movement into local struggles for black political empowerment as the cutting edge of progressive politics in the 80s. All three groups supported the successful mayoral campaigns of Harold Washington in Chicago and Coleman Young in Detroit, along with those of many other progressive black Democrats for local and federal office. LOM, however, saw in them the principal battlegrounds against racism and Reaganism. A popular front orientation emerged, including viewing the Democratic Party itself as an arena of struggle, and LOM readily joined Jesse Jackson’s presidential primary campaign in 1984, along with various other left groups. CP and DSA were reticent, leading to further debate over the centrality of white supremacy and black oppression, and political motion in the black community, in the progressive agenda.

After the 1984 Democratic primary, LOM made its first call for support of a “lesser evil” – the disastrous campaign of Walter Mondale. LOM based its decision on the bitter toll of Reaganism on progressive constituencies, not on any newfound sympathy for center-right Democrats. This was repeated in 1988, when LOM rallied to Jackson (this time joined by CP and DSA), then worked for Michael Dukakis against George H.W. Bush.

In the presidential campaigns, the group bloced with other socialist groups in the left wing of the Jackson campaign, most of whom shared aspects of LOM’s anti-racist orientation. But it did not enter the Democratic Party in any ongoing way between 1984 and 1988. It tried to develop its influence in the black community, in the struggle to confront the AIDS crisis, and in unions, but without notable success.

In the midst of this turn, LOM began its fatal decline. Members dropped away, with a particular attrition of people of color. KDP was jolted by the 1983 uprising in the Philippines, only to break with the CPP over the latter’s decision to boycott the “snap election” that ended the Marcos dictatorship. Theoretical production went by the wayside. Supervision of day to day work became more and more bureaucratized.

After Jackson’s second run in 1988, he folded his campaign, leaving his activist supporters confused and demoralized. The rise of Glasnost and Perestroika brought a new wave of hopefulness, and LOM became Gorbachev’s most vocal advocate in the US left – a seemingly unlikely turn given their previous promotion of left-of-Moscow orthodoxy, yet characteristic of the LOM leadership’s history of grappling with doctrinal contradictions in changed circumstances. But it soon became apparent that 20th century socialism was imploding, from the crackdown at Tiananmen to the failed coup that ended the Soviet Union.

A personal crisis incapacitated LOM’s most influential leader, Bruce Occeña, and a split followed. The majority of the group took up an internal campaign of “Re-examination, Redirection and Democratization,” during which most of LOM’s integral premises were questioned, and often found wanting – most significantly, the Marxist-Leninist party model. In 1989 LOM transformed itself into a looser group, Frontline Political Organization, but it was unsustainable. FPO disbanded, merging Frontline with another Bay Area-based publication, North Star Review, to launch CrossRoads, a magazine sponsored by a wide range of left activists from formerly warring tendencies. It ran from 1990 to 1996.

Primary Documents

The Myth of Capitalism Reborn: A Marxist Critique of Theories of Capitalist Restoration in the USSR by Michael Goldfield and Melvin Rothenberg

Struggle in the Bay Area Marxist-Leninist Education Project (MLEP)

The Marxist-Leninist Education Project: An Introduction

On Ideological Struggle by Gabriel, Mark and Marc [Rafael, Scott and Norton]

Letter on the Expulsion of Gabriel and Marc from the Bay Area MLEP

Letter from the National MLEP to the Guardian and Theoretical Review urging them to not publicize the struggle in the Bay Area MLEP

Dirty Linen: The Struggle in the Bay Area MLEP by Rafael, Scott and Norton (Theoretical Review, Number 25, November-December 1981]

Letter criticizing the Theoretical Review for having published the article, “Dirty Linen: The Struggle in the Bay Area MLEP“ by the Line of March Editorial Board

MLEP Response to MGM Paper

Letter to Gabriel, Marc and Mark from the National MLEP on the publication of their article in the Theoretical Review

Response of Gabriel, Marc and Mark to the letter from the National MLEP on the publication of their article in the Theoretical Review

Line of March and the Anti-revisionist, Anti-“left” Opportunist Trend by Rafael, Scott and Norton

Line of March Conferences on Racism and National Oppression

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Call for a Conference on Racism and National Oppression

Theoretical Review Editorial Board Statement on Line of March’s Conference on Racism and National Oppression

Mailgram from Bruce Occena to the Theoretical Review Editorial Board

Line of March’s Response to the Statement of the Theoretical Review Editorial Board Statement Concerning the Conference on Racism and National Oppression

Racial Oppression and National Oppression: Their Particuliarities and their Intersection Working Paper I, Parts I and II

The Communist Movement’s Relationship to the Struggle Against Racism Working Paper 2, Section I: Overall Theoretical Framework

The Communist Movement’s Relationship to the Struggle Against Racism Working Paper 2, Section II: The History of the Communist Movement and the Struggle Against Racism and Section III: The Trend and the Struggle Against Racism

Outline for Presentation on Filipino National Question

Outline for Presentation on the Hawaii National Question

Outline for Panel Presentation on the Black Nation Thesis

Outline for Panel Presentation #2: Critique of the Black Nation Thesis

Critique of the National Conference on Racism and National Oppression held in the S.F. Bay Area May 1981 by comrades in the Bay Area

Letter of invitation to a Bay Area Regional Conference on Racism and National Oppression and why certain groups are not being allowed to participate by the LOM Planning Committee

Why We Were Excluded from the Bay Area Regional Conference on Racism and National Oppression

Invitation to a Midwest Conference on Racism and National Oppression

Debate Over LOM’s United Front Against War and Racism

Letter to the Theoretical Review on forthcoming article, “A Communist Proposal for a United Front Against War and Racism” by Bruce Occeana for the Line of March Editorial Board

A Communist Proposal for a United Front Against War and Racism by the Line of March Editorial Board

United Front Against War & Racism: Strategy for Resistance by the Line of March Editorial Board

Toward a Contemporary Strategy: Lessons of the 1930s by Paul Costello, Theoretical Review

Response to LOM’s Call for a “United Front Against War and Racism” [submitted for publication in the Guardian] by the Boston Theoretical Review Editorial Board

A Beginning Critique of the United Front Against War and Racism by Individuals from Bay Area Socialist Organizing Committee and the Crisis in Marxism Study Group

Line of March’s United Front Against War and Racism – Strategy for What? by Phil Thompson, Communist Workers Party

Line of March’s Strategy for resistance...A Critical Response by Ron Whitehorne, Philadephia Workers Organizing Committee

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Exchange of Correspondence with the Theoretical Review

Letter from the Line of March Editorial Board to the Theoretical Review on LOM-TR Relations

Reply of the Theoretical Review Editorial Board to Line of March

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Toward a Critique of the General Line of the CPUSA by Ralph Beitel and Bruce Occena

Which Way Out for Poland? Polish Workers Fight Revisionist Line, Part I, by Dennis T. Torigoe [Communist Workers Party]

Letter from the Line of March Editorial Board to the Party Building Movement on the Communist Workers Party’s Change of Line

Political Report to the Line of March Labor Commission First National Conference

Imperialism and Opportunism in the Labor Movement: The Labor Aristocracy in the United States Working Paper for the Line of March Labor Commission’s First National Conference

Racism – The Cutting Edge of the Bourgeois Offensive by the Line of March Editorial Board

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Line of March – Mouthpiece of Soviet Revisionism on the Cultural Revolution by Cynthia Lai [Communist Workers Party]

Line of March’s White Chauvinist, Anti-Worker Line on the African-American National Question by Phil Thompson [The 80’s, Vol. II, No. 2, Sept.-Oct. 1981 (theoretical journal of the Communist Workers Party]

Toward a Communist Analysis of Black Oppression and Black Liberation, Part I: Critique of the Black Nation Thesis; Part II: Theoretical and Historical Framework; Part III: Strategy by Linda Burnham and Bob Wing

The Defense of Women’s Rights in the U.S. Today by the Line of March Editorial Board

The International Communist Movement: A Reappraisal by the Line of March Editorial Board

Statement on the Situation in Iran by the Line of March Editorial Board

Turning Point in Poland by the Line of March Editorial Board

Poland and the struggle for power by Ralph Beitel, Line of March

Editorial Statement on Poland by the Theoretical Review

Line of March: Apologist for “Martial-Law Socialism” by the Committee for a Proletarian Party

The Nature of Soviet Society: Joint Presentation by the Committee for a Proletarian Party and the Communist Organization, Bay Area given June 10, 1982 in the Debate with the Line of March on Whether the USSR is Capitalist or Socialist

The Politics of Nuclear War and Nuclear Disarmament by the Line of March Editorial Board

LOM Conferences on the State of the Anti-Revisionist, Anti-“Left” Opportunist Trend

Letter on LOM’s decision to “go-it-alone” on these conferences by Max Elbaum, Melinda Paras and Sharon Rose

Conference Call

LOM Conference Position Paper #1: The Trend’s Break with “Left” Opportunism

LOM Conference Position Paper #2: The Struggle Against Revisionism

LOM Conference Position Paper #3: The Trend’s Party Building Task

LOM Study Questions for Workshop #1: The Class Nature of the Soviet Union and its Role in the World Today

LOM Study Questions for Workshop #2: The Final Degeneration of Maoism

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The Labor Aristocracy: The Material Basis for Opportunism in the Labor Movement, Part I: The Theory of the Labor Aristocracy; Part II: The U.S. Labor Movement Since World War II; Part III: The Polemic Within the Communist Movement by Max Elbaum and Robert Seltzer

See You on the Frontline... Every Two Weeks, Starting in June

The Soviet Economy. A Closer Look at the Debate and the Reality by Victor Uno

Fan the Flames: The Perils of “Official Optimism” by Irwin Silber

Spanish Communists Criticize Eurocommunism by Margie Rosden [Frontline, Vol. 1, No. 10, November 14, 1983]

CPUSA Convention: ’Dump Reagan, Build a Mass Party of Action’ by Bruce Sato and Robert Sellers

CPUSA’s Official Optimism Rooted in Its Political Line by Max Elbaum [Frontline, November 28, 1983]

Frontline Debate with the Guardian on the USSR and the downing of South Korean Air Lines Flight 007

Washington’s Offensive: Out of the Talking Stage by Irwin Silber and Victor Uno

Frontline Debate with the CPUSA on Reagan and the Vietnam Antiwar Consensus

Daily World vs. Frontline: White Racial Privilege: Bourgeois Myth Or Material Basis for Opportunism?

Frontline Editorial: Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov

Left Social Democracy Searches for a Program by Jack Fletcher and Ethan Young

Deng Xiaoping’s Dilemma by Doug Ward

Exchange on the CWP and Greensboro in Frontline

Frontline Editorial: One Year Down, As Long As It Takes To Go

The 1984 Jesse Jackson Campaign

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A Black Presidential Candidate? by Frances M. Beal

Jackson’s ’Rainbow’ Politics Move Center Stage by Frances M. Beal

The Jesse Jackson Candidacy: A New Political Force in the Electoral Arena by Frances M. Beal

Frontline Editorial: The Challenge to the Left in the 1984 U.S. Election

What Kind of Demonstrations This Election Summer? by Melinda Paras

Frontline Editorial: Hounding of Jackson Tests the Rainbow

The New Motion in Black Politics and the Electoral Arena by the Line of March Editorial Board

Rainbow Readies for San Francisco and Beyond by Frances M. Beal

After the Convention Storms... the Rainbow Comes Out Fighting by Frances M. Beal

1984: It's Not Just Another Election Frontline Special Supplement, August 20, 1984

The 1984 Elections and the Black Community by Linda Burnham and Phil Gardiner

Interview with Jack O’Dell: Reflections on the Rainbow – Past, Present and Future

What did the revisionists conclude from their fiasco in the elections? by the Marxist-Leninist Party

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Frontline Editorial: What Will Revitalize the Labor Movement?

China Goes to Market by John Jackson

’Black Bolshevik’ Harry Haywood Dies at 87 by Frances M. Beal

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Huber Matos and the Maoist Dilemma by Irwin Silber

A response to another Frontline attack: Who is “unreliable” in the U.S. anti-intervention movement? by Sarah Johnston [Unity newspaper]

CPUSA’s Platitudes Won’t Win the Fight Against Racism by Linda Burnham

How Secure Is China’s Socialism? by Irwin Silber

Maoism’s Latest Farce: The CWP Goes Shopping for American Express by Max Elbaum

Frontline Editorial: Some Straight Talk on Terrorism

Polish Elections: Solidarity Boycott Fails by Tom Angotti

Ten Years of Building a Marxist-Leninist Trend by Max Elbaum

Social Democracy’s Dilemma: DSA Stalled As Democrats Veer Right by Tim Patterson

Fighting sectarianism in the U.S. anti-apartheid movement by Karega Hart [Unity newspaper]

U.S. Maoists Desperate to Undermine Solidarity with ANC by Phil Gardiner

Fighting for Working Class Politics In the Women’s Movement: Alliance Against Women’s Oppression Holds Second Congress by Linda Kahn

Kampuchea: The Revolution Rescued by Irwin Silber

Frontline Editorial: Rainbow’s Promise and Challenge

Frontline Editorial: The Rainbow, ’New Directions’ and the Democratic Party

The Rainbow and Electoral Activism by Linda Burnham

CPUSA Launches People’s Daily World by Max Elbaum

A Disappointing Performance [on the CP’s response to his previous column] by Max Elbaum

Notes on the class struggle and communist practice [Issue #3 of the Activists’ Bulletin of Line of March]

Poland’s Prisoner Release Signifies ’Solidarity’ Decline by Tom Angotti

’Marxism in China Today’ – You’d Better Be Sitting Down by Max Elbaum

Guardian’s Out-of-Date Nostalgia for Mao by Max Elbaum

Internationalism vs. LOM’s left-wing chauvinism by Sarah Johnston [Unity newspaper]

What’s New – And What Isn’t – in China, Part One, Part Two by James Irons

Party Shakeup Underway in China by James Irons [Frontline, Vol. 4, No. 15, February 2, 1987]

CPUSA Prepares for 24th Convention by Max Elbaum

CPUSA’s Sectarian View of the U.S. Left by Max Elbaum

The Case of Bernhard Goetz by Linda Burnham and Letisha Wadsworth

Toward Revolutionary Caricature [on the Spartacist League] by Max Elbaum

On the DWP’s Demise: What Leninism Is and Is Not by Max Elbaum

Latest Issue of Activists’ Bulletin Focuses on CPUSA-Line of March Contention by Max Elbaum

Perestroika and Glasnost in the USSR

U.S. Left Responds to Gorbachev Reforms by Max Elbaum

Perestroika: ’Historic Impulse Flowing Out of Socialist System’ by Irwin Silber

Glasnost must seek origins of present crisis in Soviet history by Paul Costello

Revolution Within Socialism – The Economics of ’Perestroika’ by Irwin Silber

The Democratization of Socialism: ’Glasnost’ by Irwin Silber

’Perestroika’ and the Challenge of Democracy by Irwin Silber

Impact of Perestroika on the U.S. Left by Irwin Silber

Reassessing Stalin

The Need to Confront History [review of the Soviet film ’Repentance’] by Tom Angotti

Letter to Frontline on “Repentance” Review and Stalin

Angotti Response to letter on “Repentance” Review and Stalin

Letters to Frontline on Stalin

The 1988 Jesse Jackson Campaign and the Subsequent Decline of the Rainbow Coalition

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DSA Debates Position on the Rainbow by Max Elbaum

Democratic Socialists Debate Jackson Candidacy by Max Elbaum

Winning Jesse’s Way Frontline Special Supplement [April 11, 1988]

New Alliance Cult Trying to Appropriate Rainbow Banner by Max Elbaum

NAP’s Two Roads Are Not Better Than One by Max Elbaum

Rainbow Restructures by Gerald Lenoir [Frontline, Vol. 6, No. 19, March 27, 1989]

Despite New Rules, Build the Rainbow by Gerald Lenoir

Consolidating an Activist Rainbow by Linda Burnham

* * *

Strikes in Poland: Resistance to Reform by Tom Angotti

Frontline: Backing Dukakis Comes with the Territory

Letter to Frontline on its Dukakis endorsement

Left lukewarm about Dukakis by John Trinkl

The Left and the Election by Max Elbaum

CPUSA 24th National Convention: CPUSA General Secretary Questions Relevance of Left-Center Alliance by Max Elbaum

It’s an Emergency! [Fund Appeal] [Frontline, Vol. 6, No. 23, May 22, 1989]

Mark Rudd’s Self-Criticism by Max Elbaum

’No Mercy’ for China’s Democracy Movement by Max Elbaum

China Crackdown Sparks Diverse Response in World Communist Mv’t by Max Elbaum

Tiananmen: How Should The U.S. Left Respond? by Stan Woods

Huey: Black Community Has the Final Word [on the death of Huey P. Newton] by Frances M. Beal [Frontline, Vol. 7, No. 6, September 25, 1989]

Linda Burnham Letter to Frontline on Huey Newton

Crisis and Collapse of the USSR and its Allies in Eastern Europe

Poland Vote: Chapter One in Socialist Pluralism by Tom Angotti

Letter to Frontline on Eastern Europe coverage

Soviet Nationalities in Turmoil by Fred Weir

Facing Worker Mistrust, Polish Government Resigns by Tom Angotti

Democracy Demonstrations Crash GDR Party by Stephen Castor

GDR Demonstrators: ’We Want Socialism, But a Different One’ by Stephen Castor

Ten Days that Shook the Wall [on the fall of the Berlin Wall] by Stephen Castor

’I Didn’t Think We’d See This in Our Lifetime’ [on the fall of the Berlin Wall]

Line of March/Frontline – Crisis and Collapse

Line of March Reviews Its Line and Practice by the Line of March National Executive Committee

Sweeping ’ultra leftism’ out of the Line of March by John Trinkl

Line of March’s Debate Over Ultra-Leftism and Party Building

Frontline Editorial: Line of March Sums Up and Transforms

The Transformation of Line of March

The Left in a Changing World by the Frontline Political Organization

Frontline Editorial: Toward a Better Frontline

Frontline Editorial: See You in January [Frontline, Vol. 7, No. 10, November 27, 1989]

Frontline Editorial: Sorting Things Out

* * *

Introducing Crossroads [Crossroads, No. 1, June 1990]

Socialist Upheaval and Its Meaning for the U.S. Left [Presentations at the July 7, 1990 Conference, Berkeley, California]

Does disaster loom for Soviet economy? by Irwin Silber

U.S. leftists feel winds from East and reflect... by John Trinkl

Socialism: What Went Wrong? by Irwin Silber

Tallying the Balance Sheet, Max Elbaum reflects on Crossroads’ journey to see what can be learned from the experience [Crossroads, No. 62, August 1996]

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Split in MINP-El Comité

Statement on the Division in M.I.N.P.-El Comité

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From the Communist Labor Party to the League of Revolutionaries for a New America

The Communist Labor Party continued to soldier on through the 1980s, but its failure to grow in size or influence led it to reconsider the Marxist-Leninist form of organization as suitable for revolution in the United States on the eve of the 21st Century. As a result, in January 1993, the Communist Labor Party was disbanded. The National Organizing Committee (NOC) was formed in its place, which subsequently became the League of Revolutionaries for a New American (LRNA). This organization still exists.

Polemics

The Centrality of the Black Worker by Jim Haughton and Joe Carnegie [Appeal to Reason, Vol. 5, No. 3, Autumn 1979]

The Centrality of the Black Worker [Reply] by Sheridan Talbott [Appeal to Reason, Vol. 6, No. 1, Summer 1980]

CLP Primary Documents

The Strategy and Tactics of the CPUSA and the CLP in the Trade Unions: A Comparison by Anna Magnani [Appeal to Reason, Vol. 5, No. 3, Autumn 1979]

Communist Work as a Trade Union Official by Lynn Morrison [Appeal to Reason, Vol. 5, No. 3, Autumn 1979]

The State of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat in China by Steven Miller [from Appeal to Reason, Vol. 5, No. 4, Winter 1979-1980]

The Dialectics of Chicano Political Development: A Political Economy Perspective by Richard Santillan [from Appeal to Reason, Vol. 5, No. 4, Winter 1979-1980]

A Critique of the Communist Party USA’s “Struggle for Afro-American Liberation” by Willie Baptist [Appeal to Reason, Vol. 6, No. 1, Summer 1980]

The Road to Socialism: Documents, Third Party Congress, Communist Labor Party, November 1980

Documents of the Fourth Congress of the Communist Labor Party (November 1986)

African American Liberation and Revolution in the United States by Nelson Peery

Entering an Epoch of Social Revolution by Nelson Peery

National Organizing Committee Primary Documents

Cover

Call to Form Organizing Committees...

A Program of Action and Education [founding convention]

When Economic Change is the Foundation For Social Injustice, A Revolution is Inevitable by Nelson Peery [founding convention]

Join the NOC

The NOC Needs a Permanent Name!

Editorial: NOC Celebrates One Year of Struggle

“Why I Joined the NOC”

Call for a Second Convention of the National Organizing Committee

Draft Program of the NOC for Its Second Convention

Draft Political Resolution [for the Second Convention]

’Changing with the Times’: Draft Resolution on Organization [for the Second Convention]

Revolutionaries for a New America

LRNA Primary Documents

A Convention to Reclaim America [from the founding convention]

What is the League of Revolutionaries for a New America?

Cover

Political Report of the Steering Committee (1995)

On Being ’History’s Ruby’: How and Why We Must Build an Organization of Revolutionaries by Brooke Heagerty

Political Report of the Steering Committee (1996)

Revolutionary Change in America by Nelson Peery

Political Resolution [of the 3rd League Convention (1998)]

Organizational Resolution [of the 3rd League Convention (1998)]

The Program of the League [of the 3rd League Convention (1998)]

Political Report of the Steering Committee (July 1999)

Political Report of the Steering Committee (November 1999)

The Future is Up to Us. A Revolutionary Talking Politics With the American People by Nelson Peery

Program of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America [From the 8th Convention of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America, June 2014]

Political Resolution [From the 8th Convention of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America, June 2014]

The Future is Up to Us. A Revolutionary Talking Politics With the American People by Nelson Peery [second edition]

The most revolutionary weapon: An interview with Nelson Peery

Obituaries

General G. Baker, Jr. September 6, 1941-May 18, 2014, [Rally, Comrades!, July-August 2014]

General Gordon Baker, Jr.: Evolution of a Revolutionary, [Rally, Comrades!, September-October 2014]

Nelson Peery: American Revolutionary. June 22, 1923-September 6, 2015, [Rally, Comrades!, November-December 2015]

Periodical

Rally, Comrades!

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Cover

Bolshevik League of the United States

The Road to Working Women’s Emancipation

The Polish Workers’ Movement and “Red” Imperialism

The Collapse of the American Workers’ Movement [Workers’ Tribune, No. 2, April-May 1981]

Cuba: The Second Revisionist Congress of the “Communist” Party [Workers’ Tribune, No. 2, April-May 1981]

Interview: “Chiang Ching is a Racist!”

El Salvador and Imperialism

Special Workers’ Tribune Supplement: War and the Tasks of Labor

The Importance of the Black National Question and the Struggle Against National Chauvinism

Support the Right of Self-Determination of the Black Nation!

Periodicals

Bolshevik Revolution

Workers’ Tribune

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Ray O. Light – Revolutionary Organization of Labor, USA

Primary Documents

In Support of the Struggle of the Party of Labor of Albania Against Revisionism

The U.S.-China Alliance and the Question of the Main Enemy

Once Again in Support of the Struggle of the Party of Labor of Albania against Revisionism

The Polish Workers Uprising and the Question of the Main Enemy

Toward a New Leninist Party

Revolutionary Organization of Labor, USA is Born!

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League for a Labor Republic

In the early 1980s, the New Voice group, which had long published a periodical called The New Voice, changed its name to the League for a Labor Republic (LLR), while continuing to publish The New Voice.

Primary Documents

About the LLR [The New Voice, Vol. X, No 13, February 15, 1982]

Letters Ask about LLR Changes [The New Voice, Vol. X, No 13, February 15, 1982]

Polish People Can Win [The New Voice, Vol. X, No 13, February 15, 1982]

Poland and the Politics of the Two Superpowers [The New Voice, Vol. X, No 13, February 15, 1982]