The six articles published here are part of an ideological struggle which now has a two-year history. This debate began with the letter of June 9, 1976, distributed by the Detroit Marxist-Leninist Organization, El Comite-MNIP, the Philadelphia Workers Organizing Committee, and the Socialist Union of Baltimore, and included in the Appendix of this pamphlet. Our reply to that letter, dated September 1, 1976, is the first in this collection of articles. It is followed here by the January 31, 1977 cover letter by the Committee of Five and their “Draft Unity Principles for a Marxist-Leninist Conference.” Our article entitled “Bring Home the Struggle Against “Left” Sectarianism: A Further Reply to the ’Committee of Five’” (November 1, 1977) updated our position in light of the Unity Principles” as well as other documents and events of the intervening period. The final article in the main body of the pamphlet is entitled “Dogmatism, the Main Enemy, and ’Left’ Opportunism.” Dated May 22, 1978 and signed by Clay Newlin for the Committee of Five, it responds to a number of arguments advanced in our articles published here as well as several published elsewhere.
By common agreement, our response to this last article is not included here. Entitled On the ’Progressive Role’ of the Soviet Union and Other Dogmas: A Further Reply to the Philadelphia Workers Organizing Committee and the Committee of Five, it has been published separately and cam be obtained through United Labor Press. Also by common agreement, several other documents belong to this debate have been published separately by us in a pamphlet entitled The Ultra-Left Danger and How To Fight It: Three Articles on “Anti-Dogmatism.” Finally, we refer those interested in Clay Newlin’s five-part review of our book, Two, Three, Many Parties of a New Type?: Against the Ultra-Left Line, published in the December 1977, January, February, April and May 1978 issues of The Organizer (newspaper of the PWOC), and to our response to that review, to be published soon in The Organizer.
In addition to the articles by the Committee of Five and ourselves which we publish here, we are including in the Appendix a contribution to this discussion by the Communist Unity Organization.
It is our hope that this exchange of views will help clarify some pressing issues related to the present struggle against ultra-leftism in the communist movement, and thereby prove useful to all interested in that struggle.
In keeping with the spirit of this joint publication we have included advertisements for the literature of the Philadelphia Workers Organizing Committee and of El Comite-MNIP as was as for our own. This is not an endorsement of all the perspectives of these two organizations.
All editing has been done by the author groups, and the articles have been prepared for publication as received.
The Proletarian Unity League
September 1978