First Published: The Call, Vol. 5, No. 20, September 20, 1976.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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The largest convention in the three-year history of the U.S.-China Peoples Friendship Association, (USCPFA) took, place in Philadelphia on September, 4 and 5. Six hundred and fifteen delegates and almost 200 observers took part in charting the course for expanding people-to-people friendship between the Chinese and American people.
The months prior to the convention had been filled with important debate over how best to carry out friendship work. The most important issues in this debate were brought to the convention floor –including the question of outreach priorities, China’s foreign policy and a mass campaign for normalization of relations between the U.S. and Chinese governments. On all of these major issues, the views that sought to isolate the Association from the millions of working-class and minority people and to turn it into a support group for bourgeois interests in the U.S. were soundly defeated.
The most heated debate at the convention centered on the issue of outreach. While outreach to working-class and minority people had already been established as a priority at the Association’s 1975Convention, the implementation of the Outreach Resolution had been hampered by the opposition of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) and some members of the Association’s National Steering Committee (NSC), including USCPFA’s former chairman, William Hinton.
At the recent convention, members of the East Coast Region proposed a resolution that would deepen the established outreach priority. The East Coast resolution hit hard at the RCP’s view that political issues and friendship work were of no interest to working-class and minority people. It stated, “Our practice overall has shown limited involvement of minority people in all areas of USCPFA work. This may lead people to think minority people are not interested in all aspects of USCPFA work. We know this is not true.”
Following from this, the resolution set concrete goals for involvement of workers and minorities in the Association-sponsored China trips, their inclusion in the organization’s leadership and special sessions on racism for all Association tour orientations.
This resolution became the focus for the RCP’s opposition to the policy of building the Association by relying on the broad majority of American people. In a position paper representing RCP’s views, the concrete measures proposed by the East Coast resolution were attacked for “pitting certain sections of American people against others” and “creating divisions where none need exist.” The resolution was also accused of “smacking of tokenism.”
RCP spokesmen took the floor and condemned the resolution’s supporters for taking a “Noah’s Ark” approach to involvement of minorities because the resolution called for specific numbers of workers and minorities to be included in Association activities such as China trips.
But the vast majority of delegates saw through this white chauvinist and anti-working-class line and were determined to take positive action to broaden the composition of the Friendship Association. They voted almost 2 to 1 in favor of the East Coast resolution and the resolution against racism submitted by Boston.
The victory won in the out-reach debate was summed up in a unity statement read on, the Convention floor by members of the newly established National Minority Caucus, which said in part:
We firmly believe that this work: (outreach to workers, national minorities – ed.) can and must be carried out by the Association as a whole. We believe that this work must be supported by the Association as a whole at every level. We believe that any and every member can become capable of doing this work. We feel that working-class and minority people can help to develop our work because of their particular experiences. We know they cannot do it alone. Unity and unity alone will bring a truly broad base to our Association.
Another major issue for strugg1e emerged in the convention’s foreign policy workshop. A resolution promoting “friendly criticism” of China’s policies – particularly on questions dealing with foreign policy – had been circulated prior to the convention. This “friendly criticism” position was intended to provide a cover for certain anti-China slanders and attacks led by centrists and other phony China friends like the Guardian, who are both within and outside the friendship movement.
Opposition to this resolution was widespread and, by the end of the foreign policy workshop, it was clear that the overwhelming sentiment of the Association membership was that the Association should not be turned into a debating society for the pro’s and con’s of China’s foreign policy and that the Association needed to deepen its understanding to better explain and popularize this important aspect of socialist China. The delegates firmly opposed opening up the publications and programs of the Association to anti-China propaganda, whether disguised under the mantle of “friendship” or not The “friendly criticism” resolution was withdrawn and never even put to a vote.
The unity of the convention delegates was also high in support for a mass campaign for normalization of relations between the U.S. and China. The convention discussion centered around the proposal for a national leadership conference on U.S.-China relations, In the resolutions workshop, an amendment was proposed to expand the outreach of the conference beyond just government and business-oriented groups to include more mass peoples’ organizations. This amendment was unanimously accepted.
A delegate raised the proposal from the floor to change the conference’s main slogan from “The time has come to establish full diplomatic relations with China” to “Implement the Shanghai Communique! Full Diplomatic Relations with China Now!” This proposal stemmed from pre-convention discussion that had raised criticisms of this theme on the basis that it promoted the outlook on normalization from the interests of U.S. ruling circles – not from the point of view of the vast majority of American people. The majority of Americans have always had a positive stake in the normalization of relations in the interests of promoting genuine peaceful relations among the countries of the world and, most importantly, promoting increased exchange and contact between the peoples of the U.S. and socialist China. This proposal was tabled, and no clear mandate was given by the convention.
Finally, a number of amendments strengthening the Normalization Resolution submitted by the Western Region were accepted which called for each local to make the normalization campaign a part of all their activities and for the new Steering Committee to promote nationwide activities when an event occurs that pushes normalization to the fore, such as the recent Nixon visit.
By the conclusion of the convention, the goals of broadening the Association’s work through mass outreach, achieving a clear mandate to pursue the campaign for normalization and setting clear guidelines for the Association’s stand on Chinese foreign policy had been well-achieved. The defeat of several of the policies that had run counter to these goals was reflected in the elections of the new National Steering Committee, with the removal of all the people who had been associated with the views of the RCP. Many new activists were elected, including several from among the working class and minorities. In addition, a new chair- man, Frank Pestana, was elected.
The Third National Convention has set the stage for expanding friendship to vast numbers of people in the U.S. Pointing to these bright prospects, newly elected NSC member Roy Johnson, a Black worker, told The Call, “The people do have an interest in friendship. This was evidenced at the convention itself. The USCPFA is an organization devoted to the people and now we have the mandate to bring that message to working-class, minority, and all people throughout the country.”