Introduction
1 Constance Ashton Myers, The Prophet's Army: Trotskyists in America, 1928-1941 (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1977), p. xi.
2 Jim O'Brien, "American Leninism in the 1970s," Radical America, special double issue, 11, no. 6 and 12, no. 1 (Winter 1977-78), pp. 27-62.
3 Robert J. Alexander, Trotskyism in Latin America (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1973) and Myers, Prophet's Army.
4 Particularly noteworthy are the books by Yvan Craipeau: Le Mouvement Trotskyste en France (Paris: Syros, 1971), Contre Vents et marées: les révolutionnaires pendant la deuxième guerre mondiale (Paris: Savelli, 1977), and La Libération confisquée (Paris: Savelli/Syros, 1978). The French Lambertist Trotskyists have established a documentation center, Le Centre d 'Etudes et de Recherche sur les Mouvements Trotskystes et Revolutionnaires Internationaux, to aid in the study of the history of international Trotskyism.
5 Mario D. Fenyo, "Trotsky and His Heirs: The American Perspective," Studies in Comparative Communism 10, nos. 1 and 2 (Spring/Summer 1977), p. 210.
6 That impression preceded but was fortified by this author's experience in presenting a paper on Trotskyism and Maoism at the University of Moscow as part of the proceedings of the Eleventh World Congress of the International Political Science Association held in August 1979.
7 While the author was in Moscow as a participant in the Congress of the International Political Science Association, he was asked for an interview by a correspondent for Radio Moscow. The correspondent was particularly interested in the phenomenon of Maoism. After the responses to some very directive questions about Maoists were not suitably derogatory, he very politely thanked the author, told him that he personally had learned a great deal from it, but said that he doubted very much that his superiors would put it on the air.
8 For a scholarly treatment of Chinese Trotskyism, see Joseph T. Miller, "The Politics of Chinese Trotskyism: The Role of a Permanent Opposition in Chinese Communism" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 1979).
Chapter Three: Maoism in France
1 Bernaid Kouchner and Michel-Antoine Burnier, La France sauvage (Paris: Editions Publications Premieres, 1970), p. 174.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid., pp. 174-175.
4 "'La candidature Mitterrand,' extrait de 'Comment est née l'Union des Jeunesses (Marxistes-Léninistes)!,' supplement du no. 8 de Servir le Peuple, 15 octobre 1967, (Troisième Partie)," in Patrick Kessel, ea., Le Mouvement "Maoïste" en France, I: textes et documents, 1963-1968 (Paris: Union Generale d'Éditions, 1972), pp. 143-144.
5 It would be most convenient just to use the initials UJC. However, this would not distinguish between the UJCML and the UJCF, another group of the Communist Party. So the initials unfortunately become long.
6 Kouchner and Burnier, France sauvage, p. 176.
7 Ibid., p. 177.
8 Ibid.
9 "'Arborer le drapeau rouge pour lutter contre le drapeau rouge' (juin 1967), texte interne du MCF," in Kessel, Le Mouvement, p. 269.
10 "'E'difions en France un Parti communiste de l'epoque de la Revolution Culturelle,' Garde Rouge, no. 6, mai 1967," in Kessel, Le Mouvement, pp. 250-257.
11 Quoted from the minutes of the Central Committee of the MCF. See "La creation du Parti Communiste Marxiste-Leniniste de France," in Kessel, Le Mouvement, pp. 315-316.
12 Jacques Jurquet in a political report presented to the first Congress of the PCMLF in 1968. See "'Créons le Parti Communiste de France, Parti authentiquement marxiste-léniniste, Parti de l'époque de la pensée de Mao Tsé-toung,' extrait du 'Rapport politique du camarade Jacques Jurquet presenté au 1er Congrès du PCMLF,' I'Humanité Nouvelle, no. 88, 8 février 1968 et no. 89, 15 février 1968," in Kessel, Le Mouvement, p. 328.
13 It is interesting that U.S. decision-makers made allusions to Munich and the Second World War in an attempt to sell their Vietnam war policies to the U.S. public. The younger generations of Americans could relate to this about as well as French youth could relate to the slogan of the PCMLF. Both sides could have benefitted from a lesson in Mannheim's distinction between appropriated and personally acquired memory. See Karl Mannheim, "The Problem of Generations," in his Essays on the Sociological Problem of Knowledge (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952), pp. 276-320.
14 "'Pour la grande alliance avec le PCMLF,' extrait de Contre l'anarchisme petit-bourgeois, édifions dans notre pays un Parti de l'époque de Mao Tsé-toung, Lyon, printemps 1968," in Kessel, Le Mouvement, p. 423.
15 Ibid., p. 426.
16 The role of the PCMLF is a matter of some dispute. Roland Biard writes that "During the 'events,' the PCMLF did not involve itself much. The student movement is analyzed [by the PCMLF] as a petit-bourgeois self-interested movement and, as such, only ancillary to the workers' struggles." Roland Biard, Dictionnaire de l'Éxtrême Gauche de 1945 à nos jours (Paris: Belfond, 1978), p. 270. Richard Johnson lumps the attitudes of the UJCML and the PCMLF together. "The official Maoist party, the PCMLF was equally displeased with the spontaneous tactics of the students....The UJCML and the PCMLF refused to enter the student struggle because (1) petit-bourgeois revolts were inevitably 'pseudo-revolutionary;' (2) insurrectionary activity was inappropriate at that particular strategic stage; and (3) when violence is used, it has to be conscious, controlled, and directed." Richard Johnson, The French Communist Party versus the Students (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1972), pp. 165-166. While no one would argue that the PCMLF was as integral to the fight on the barricades as JCR students, the PCMLF supported the students before and after that night. On May 6, the PCMLF's Central Committee stated that "the student revolutionaries must resolutely rejoin the combat of the working class and place themselves under its political direction. The students struggling against the monopolies will only be able to win under that condition. That is why the militants of the Parti Communiste Marxiste-Léniniste de France are participating elbow to elbow in the student demonstrations and why they are fighting resolutely at the students' sides against the government of the monopolies." The day after the Night of the Barricades, on May 11, the Central Committee issued a supportive statement which contained the following: "The heroic struggle of the students which unfurled with a violent force demands the admiration of the French people. In the night of the 10th to the 11th of May 1968 in particular, Parisian students joined by numerous workers fought back against the violent repression of the reactionary forces with courage and determination....The Marxists-Leninists of the Parti Communiste Marxiste-Léniniste de France have confidence in the youth and are participating in all its revolutionary actions." Jacques Jurquet, ea., Arracher la Classe ouvrière au révisionnisme (Paris: Centenaire, 1976), pp. 273-275. A leader of the PCMLF whom I interviewed told me that, although it was before he had become a formal member, he was on the barricades and there were others that he knew of The evidence is that while the PCMLF certainly felt that spontaneous activity had its limitations, it did not take the negative attitude toward the students taken by the Communist Party, the Lambertist Trotskyists of the OCI, or the Maoist UJCML.
17 One Maoist group has come up with a count of 21 hierarchical and non-hierarchical Maoist organizations in France as of the summer of 1977. Not all were national groups, some were confined to one city or region, most were tiny. "Les Marxistes-Léninistes en France aujourd'hui," Le Marxiste-Léniniste, double issue, no. 18/19 (juillet-aôut 1977), p. 19. This is a publication of the UCFML which will be discussed shortly.
18 Precise numbers are difficult to come by in the case of the Maoists since they have not divulged current membership figures the way some Trotskyist organizations have. The PCR (m-l), the PCMLF's major hierarchical Maoist rival, which will be discussed shortly, claimed to have brought together 3,000 people at the meetings in which it prepared the transition to a party. Alain Jauber et al., Guide de la France des luttes (Paris: Stock, 1974), p. 294. In 1970, Kouchner and Burnier contended that l'Humanité Rouge "grouped several thousand sympathizers" (p. 182). Since the party had been banned, there were technically no members--at least none that could be admitted to. Biard places the number at between 2,000 and 3,000 in 1970 and, after the 1971-76 decline, thought that the party regained its 1970 membership level by 1978 (p. 272).
19 The PCMLF's daily was l'Humanité Rouge and the PCR(m-l)'s was Le Quotidien du Peuple (The People's Daily). They were both much thinner and less substantial efforts than the Ligue's Rouge. They were also not distributed on newsstands as was Rouge. Only approximately 2,000 of the 15,000 l'Humanité Rouge run off each day were actually sold.
20 The self-criticism only became "official" at the Third Congress of the PCMLF which was held just before the legislative elections of 1978.
21 This is the position of the French Trotskyist OCI.
22 "Resolutions du 3e congrès du Parti Communiste Marxiste-Léniniste de France: autocritique du PCMLF concernant son 2e congrès," I'Humanite' Rouge, no. 25 (16 fevrier-2 mars 1978), pp. 13-14. This is a special supplementary issue to the daily paper.
23 A Maoist group based in Brittany, the Organisation Communiste Française (marxiste-léniniste), ran candidates in Rennes during the 1977 municipal elections.
24 "Les voix de l'UOPDP: un potentiel pour l'action," I'Humanité Rouge, no. 27 (16 mars-13 avril 1978), p 8. This is also a special supplementary issue to the daily paper.
25 PCR(m-l), "A propos de la Théorie des 3 Mondes," Front Rouge, n.s., no. 2 (novembre-décembre 1977), pp. 7-8. Very interestingly, this article terminates with a summary defense of the theory, "up to the point that we have examined it" (p. 10). More was promised on the theory, particularly its meaning for the First and Second Worlds. Six months later, as of the end of May 1978, the next number of their theoretical journal, Front Rouge, with the promised continuation of the discussion, had not appeared.
26 See PCR(m-l), Programme et statute (Paris:PCR(m-l), 1976), pp. 37-38 and Biard, Dictionnaire, pp. 273-274.
27 Interview with a PCMLF leader, June 8, 1978.
28 Ibid.
29 "Les Marxistes-Léninistes en France anjourd'hui," p. 20.
30 Its own account of this year is in UCFML, Premiere Année d'existence d'une organisation maoïst (Paris: Maspero, 1972).
31 UCFML, Une Étude Maoïste: la situation on Chine et le mouvement dit de "critique de la bande des Quatre," (Paris: Editions Potemkine, 1977).
32 Kouchner and Burnier, France sauvage, pp. 187 and 159.
33 Ibid., p. 187.
34 Remi Hess, Les Maoïstes Français (Paris: Anthropos, 1974), p. 151. See Henri Lefebvre, Everyday Life in the Modern World, trans. Sacha Rabinovitch (New York: Harper and Row, 1971).
35 Tout was usually printed at the rate of 50,000 copies per issue. One issue was run off at 80,000. Hess, Maoïstes, p. 160.
36 Hess, Maoïstes, pp. 163-167. Sartre would later agree to serve as nominal editior of La Cause du Peuple and Liberation as well.
37 Hess, Maoïstes, p. 167.
38 Michèle Manceaux, Les Maos en France (Paris: Gallimard, 1972), p. 201.
39 Ibid., p. 203.
40 Ibid.
41 Minutes du procès d'Alain Geismar (Paris: Editions Hallier, n.d.), p. 24.
42 See my Student Politics in France (New York: Basic Books, 1970), chapter 3.
43 Minutes du procès d'Alain Geismar, p. 149.
44 Ibid., p. 150.
45 For much supporting data for this argument in the U.S. experience, see Sidney Lens, Radicalism in America (New York: Apollo Editions, 1966).
46 Manceaux, Les Maos, pp. 211-212.
47 Ibid., p. 65-66.
48 Kenneth Keniston, Young Radicals (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1968), p. 217.
49 Manceaux, Les Maos, p. 94.
50 Julia Lesage, "Tout Va Bien and Coup pour Coup: Radical French Cinema in Context," Cinéaste 5, no. 3 (Summer 1972), p. 45. Tout Va Bien stars Jane Fonda and Yvès Montand. Paramount, which had originally contracted for the film, refused to distribute it for obviously political reasons. The attraction which this brand of Maoism held for people involved with the cinema is also attested to by the fact that two French journals of film criticism, Cahiers du Cinéma and Cinéthique, adopted Maoist perspectives, with Cahiers turning itself into a Maoist writing collective (Lesage, p. 43).
51 The number of disputes in industrial settings increased from 2,942 in 1970 to 4,318 in 1971 and the number of working days lost due to industrial conflict increased from 1,742,175 to 4,387,781. Yearbook of Labour Statistics (Geneva: Intemational Labor Organization, 1976), p. 831.
52 Pour l'Union des comités de lutte d'atelier, Renault-Billancourt: 25 regles de travail (Paris: Editions Liberté-Presse, supplement a La Cause du Peuple, no. 11, 1971), p. 31.
53 UCFML, A Propos du Meurtre de Pierre Overney (Paris: Maspero, 1972), pp. 13 and 18.
54 Signoret apparently brought some other prominent people along with her on some of her visits. Someone whom she did not bring was her husband, Yves Montand. At the time Montand was occupied making the Godard and Gorin film Tout Va Bien with Jane Fonda. See Jean-Pierre Le Dantec (the former CDP editor who made contact with Signoret), Les Dangers du soleil (Paris: Les Presses d'Aujourd'hui, 1978), pp. 239-240.
55 La Cause du Peuple, no. 20 (11 mars 1972), p. 4. Only a small portion of the workers who worked near windows which overlooked the gate knew what had happened. The word spread to a limited extent right after the event and the CDP claimed that between 1,000 and 1,500 workers participated in a demonstration of sorrow within the plant.
56 The first demonstration in response to the killing was held on February 28. Le Monde estimated the number of participants at 30,000. The same paper estimated that approximately 120,000 people participated in Overney's funeral procession on March 4. Le Monde, 7 mars 1972, p. 8. La Cause du Peuple estimated the latter at 250,000. I witnessed all of the major demonstrations in Paris between July 1963 and January 1965 and the second wave of demonstrations from June 10 to July 10 in 1968. The funeral procession was the largest demonstration that I have seen in Paris.
57 La Cause du Peuple, no. 20 (11 mars 1972), p. 10.
58 For more on that rent strike, see my "The Battle of SONACOTRA: A Study of an Immigrant Worker Struggle in France," New Political Science 3, no. 1/2 (Summer/Pall 1982), pp. 93-112.
59 Centre d'Action Paysarme, Où En Sont les Paysans? (Paris: Editions Liberté-Presse, 1971), pp. 20-21.
60 "Occitanie: 'des luttes paysannes a la révolte d'un peuple,"' Les Temps Modernes, no. 310 Bis (1972), p. 169.
61 Centre d'Action Paysanne, Où En Sont les Paysans?, pp. 6-7. (Italics in the text).
62 The figures are from Le Monde, 21 mars 1972, p. 32.
63 Les Prisonniers politiques parlent: le combat des détenus politiques (Paris: Maspero, 1970), pp. 28-29.
64 Geismar told this author that he spent five of his eighteen months in prison in solitary confinement.
65 Les Prisonniers politiques parlent, pp. 12-13.
66 The December 9, 1971 and January 15, 1972 issues of La Cause du Peuple carried informational and supportive articles on revolts in the prisons of Toul, Nancy, Nîmes, Amiens, Loos, Fleury, and Ré..
67 Hess, Maoïstes, p. 219. Hess reports that the CDP was not as straightforward as VLR's paper Tout was in its attack on this policy, and sometimes even tried to justify it. This conforms to Sartre's reflections on his relations with the GP Maoists in 1972. After criticizing Chinese foreign policy in Ceylon, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, as well as China's reception of President Nixon, Sartre remarked that the GP Maoists "would not like what I say about China's foreign policy." See Pierre Bénichou, "What's Jean-Paul Sartre Thinking Lately? An Interview," Esquire 68, no. 6 (December 1972), pp. 208 and 280.
68 Interview of May 27,1975.
69 In fact, Mendes-France did indeed give every appearance that he was available to assume the reins of power by appearing before a massive crowd at the Charléty Stadium on the evening of May 27.
70 At the time, the student group of the Lambertist Trotskyists in the OCI was attempting to take over UNEF, something which it subsequently succeeded in doing. PSU students controlled the national offices and the JCR allied with them to prevent the Lambertists, who had opposed the barricades in May for the same reasons as the UJCML, from taking control in 1968. It is also interesting to note that Pierre Victor, in a disagreement with Sartre, attempted to defend Geismar's participation in the attempt to convince Lip strike leader Piaget to run as a candidate for the Presidency in 1974 by arguing that it was a farce since Piaget would have had no chance of winning. It was thus presumably still within the realm of liberté-révolte rather than liberté-pouvoir. See Philippe Gavi, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Pierre Victor, On a Raison de se révolter (Paris: Gallimard, 1974), Conclusion.
71 Alain Geismar, Serge July, and Erlyn Morane, Vers la Guerre civile (Paris: Editions et Publications Premieres, 1969), p. 371.
72 For a retrospective self-criticism of this shortcoming by a former male leader, see Le Dantec, Dangers pp. 213 and 234-235.
73 It is true that in The German Ideology Marx and Engels write: "Division of labor becomes truly such only from the moment when a division of material and mental labor appears." Lewis S. Feuer, ea., Marx and Engels: Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy (Garden City: Anchor Books,1959), p. 252. However, Engels was prompted to push further into a detailed analysis of the sexual dimension in The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.
74 Geismar, July, and Morane, Guerre civile, p. 379.
75 Philippe Olivier, "Après la Bataille de Renault," Les Temps Modernes no. 310 Bis (1972) p. 29.
76 Philippe Olivier, "Syndicate, comité de lutte, comités de chaine," Les Temps Modernes, no. 310 Bis (1972), p. 46.
77 See Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society, trans. John Wilkinson (New York: Vintage, 1964) and Theodore Roszak, The Making of a Counter Culture (Garden City: Anchor, 1968).
78 Gavi, Sartre, and Victor, On a Raison de se revolter, chapters 14, 15, and 16.
79 La Cause du Peuple, no. 15 (mai-juin 1977), p. 3.
80 Former CDP editor Dantec does, however, think that the GP through its writings and actions in the earlier part of the decade had an unfortunate influence upon later German and Italian terrorist groups. He also criticized the killing of Tramoni and the new group of people putting out La Cause du Peuple for supporting the act. Le Dantec, Dangers, pp. 246-248.
81 In 1971, the year prior to the appearance of Libération, ex-GP Maoists worked with others in the production of a publication called J'Accuse! Libération grew out of that experiment.
82 Hess, Maoïstes, pp. 177-181.
83 See Andre Glucksmann, Les Maîtres Penseurs (Paris: Grasset, 1977) and La Cuisinière et le mangeur d'hommes (Paris: Seuil, 1975) and Michel Le Bris, L'Homme aux semelles de vent (Paris: Grasset, 1977). Both writers have been heavily influenced by the late French thinker Michel Foucault.
Chapter Five: Maoism in the United States
1 Kirkpatrick Sale, sds (New York: Vintage Books, 1974), p. 64.
2 For an SWP criticism of Progressive Labor, see Mary-Alice Waters, Maoism in the U.S..: A Critical History of the Progressive Labor Party (New York: Young Socialist Publications, 1969).
3 Sale, sds, pp. 218-219.
4 Ibid., p. 292.
5 After this was written, Davidson confided to the author that he had gotten the idea from the Quebec student movement.
6 Both this and the revised "Road to Revolution-II" have been published in Progressive Labor Party, Revolution Today: U.S.A., A Look at the Progressive Labor Movement and the Progressive Labor Party (New York: Exposition Press, 1970).
7 Sale, sds, p. 332.
8 "Improve Our Base Building," cited in Revolution Today, p. 72.
9 "Black Workers: Key Revolutionary Force, February 1969," in Revolution Today, pp. 268-278 and "U.S. Workers: Key to Revolution, August 1969," Ibid., pp. 322-325 and 343.
10 "The Future is Bright, June 1970," in Revolution Today, p. 347.
11 The breakdown given by the PLP of purchasers of a single issue of Challenge-Desafio in 1970 is as follows: "workers on the job"--53,000; "in working-class neighborhoods"--14,000; "students"--12,000; "Gl's"-- 2,000; "high schools"--3,000; "professionals"--2,000; "subscriptions"-- 1,000; "at rallies"--4,000; "in Puerto Rico"--5,000; "Canada and other foreign"--4,000. Total: 100,000. Printed on the last page of Revolution Today. If these figures are correct, they must represent the world record for a Far Left publication. A 20,000 to 30,000 circulation is quite good.
12 Sale, sds, p. 358.
13 Ibid., p. 397.
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid., p. 465.
16 Ibid pp 450451.
17 Ibid., pp. 475-476.
18 The NCLC was extremely anti-Soviet; it denounced the Black Panthers; and it supported Albert Shanker's New York chapter of the American Federation of Teachers against community control of the schools. In 1973, it announced a campaign to physically annihilate the Communist Party of the United States. In fact, it conducted violent raids against other groups on the Left as well, including the SWP. At this point suspicion began to develop on the Left that it was a government or business-supported group. After a couple of months, it announced that it had succeeded in annihilating the American Communist Party and it attempted to make contact with groups in Europe (including the French OCI) to accomplish the same there. On August 15, 1973, it held a meeting of the "International Caucus of Labor Committees" in Stockholm. In 1976, it created an electoral arm, the U.S. Labor Party. It was able to afford prime national television time for its presidential candidate, Lyndon LaRouche. It has also been able to afford to publish its newspaper, New Solidarity, in nine different languages and to distribute it abroad. It is scientific and technological in orientation and is a staunch opponent of the anti-nuclear power movement. The SWP has accused its members of acting as police informants and provocateurs against that movement.
19 Sale, sds, p. 486.
20 "Report Opening the PLP Pre-Convention Discussion, March 1968," in Revolution Today, pp. 18-19.
21 "Program for Black Liberation, February 1969," in Revolution Today, p. 265.
22 "Revolutionaries Must Eight Nationalism, August 1969," in Revolution Today, pp. 288-289.
23 Ibid. pp. 293-294.
24 Sale, sds, pp. 508-510.
25 The best source known to this writer on the 1969 convention is Sale's sds. All of the material on the convention prior to RYM's walking out is based on chapter 24 of Sale's book. This writer got to the convention only after the walk-out had taken place. It should also be noted that Carl Davidson is now in the process of writing a book on the SDS experience which will differ in some important respects from Sale's interpretation.
26 Sale, sds, p. 567.
27 Cited in Sale, sds, pp. 568-569.
28 Sale, sds, p. 570.
29 Ibid.
30 See Chapter 4, on the International Socialists.
31 Sale, sds, pp. 571-572.
32 Ibid.
33 Cited in Sale, sds, p. 573.
34 Pauline Mak, "Some Maoist Groups in America: Experiences of the First Decade," unpublished paper written at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, December 1973.
35 This phenomenon is absent in Trotskyism both because of its highly theoretical nature and the absence of any regimes and living or recently living who could capture the imagination of people in a variety of decentralized contexts.
36 D.B., "Marxism, Nationalism and the Task of Party Building: History and Lessons of the National Liaison Committee," The Communist 2, no. 1 (Fall/ Winter 1977), p. 124.
37 Ibid.
38 Amiri Baraka, "Radical Forum," Guardian 27, no. 21 (March 5, 1975), p. 17.
39 Sherman Miller, "'Revolutionary Wing or Anti-Party Bloc?," Class Struggle, nos. 4-5 (Spring/Summer 1976), p. 7.
40 Ibid.
41 See I Wor Kuen, "Criticisms of Workers Viewpoint Organization on Party Building," I.W.K. Journal, no. 3 (January 1976), pp. 38-78. Workers Viewpoint Organization later changed its name to the Communist Workers Party. It conducted a militant anti-Ku Klux Klan campaign in the South. On November 3, 1979 national attention was focused on the organization when five of its members were shot to death during an anti-Klan rally in a low income housing project in Greensboro, North Carolina. A number of Klansmen and U.S. Nazis were arrested and charged with the crime.
42 The Next 25: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow," Guardian 26, no. 7 (November 28, 1973), p. 10.
43 Ibid.
44 Irwin Silber, " 'Revolution' Polemic Deceives No One," Guardian 27, no. 23 (March 10, 1975), p. 9.
45 See pp. 218-22.
46 Guardian Staff, "On Building a New Communist Party," Guardian, special supplement, 29, no. 34 (June 1, 1977), pp. 51-8.
47 Jim O'Brien, "American Leninism in the 1970s," Radical America, special double issue, 11, no. 6 and 12, no. I (Winter 1977-78), p. 55.
48 Ibid.
49 From October 1976 through October 1977, the Guardian printed an average of 21,712 copies of each issue and actually distributed an average of 20,562. "Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation," Guardian 30, no. 1 (October 12, 1977), p. 20.
50 On the history of the National Liaison Committee from the RCP's point of view, see D.B., "Marxism."
51 The Red Papers #6 attempts to analyze and self-critique RU's agitation and creation of a counter-workers organization to discredit the union in the new bulk mailing centers in New York City. See RU, The Red Papers #6: Build the Leadership of the Proletariat and Its Party (Chicago: Revolutionary Union, 1974), pp. 122-126.
52 Ben Bendell, "'Revolutionary Student Brigade' Formed in Iowa," Guardian 26, no. 38 (July 3, 1974), p. 7.
53 "Attica Brigade Seizes Statue of Liberty," Revolution 2, no. 4 (May 1974), p. 1.
54 Ibid.
55 The name proved to be divisive. A faction within the RCP and RSB objected to the word "Communist" in the title, arguing that this was not the party and that the word would drive away young people whom they hoped to recruit. They argued that the name should simply be the RYB on the order of the RSB. The majority of the RCP's leadership, including Avakian, charged the dissidents with insulting American youth and with reraising a question on which they had been defeated before and during the November convention. See "Arrogant Clique Suffers Defeat: RCYB Consolidates on Correct Line," Revolution 3, no. 5 (February 1978), pp. 1, 18-19.
56 Ruth Gifford, "Waging Class Struggle in the Trade Unions," Class Struggle, no. 8 (Fall 1977), p. 65.
57 "The October League (M-L): A Cover for Revisionism," Revolution 2, no. 7 (August 1974), p. 12.
58 O'Brien, "American Leninism," pp. 44-45.
59 CP(ML), Documents from the Founding Congress of the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) (Chicago: CP(ML), 1977), p. 156 and RCP, Programme and Constitution of the Revolutionary Communist Party USA (Chicago: RCP, 1975), p. 169.
60 CP(ML), Documents, p. 142.
61 Ibid.
62 O'Brien estimated the RCP's membership to be "probably around 600" (p. 56) and the Workers Vanguard estimated it to be from 600 to 700 (Workers Vanguard, January 27, 1978, p. 1). The latter estimate, however, could have been based upon the former, which strikes this writer as a bit low. It should also be kept in mind that these estimates did not include militant members of student, worker, youth, or veteran's affiliates who were not party members. The fact is that the RCP has been one of the most successful organizations on the American Left, if not the most successful, in turning people out at a national level for its own demonstrations or founding conferences. O'Brien estimated that around 3,000 people attended the RSB national demonstration in Philadelphia in July of 1976 (p. 57), that 1,428 people attended the founding of the United Workers Organization and that approximately 650 attended the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade conference the following year. This, coupled with the publication of The Worker in approximately twenty cities, is an impressive demonstration of capability for a group on the American Left.
63 "Narrow Nationalism: Main Deviation in the Movement on the National Question," Revolution 2, no. 10 (November 1974), p. 22.
64 A more precise break-down of that committee is four Black males, three White males, one Asian-American woman, one Puerto Rican woman, and one White woman. One member of the RCP reported to me that at most of its functions there have been approximately one-third non Whites.
65 In the late 1970s, the CP(ML) began to open its own bookstores in several cities.
66 "The China-Albania Split," Guardian 29, no. 42 (July 27, 1977), p. 16.
67 Irwin Silber, "China's View of the Superpowers," Guardian 30, no. 10 (February 15, 1978), p. 21.
68 "The China-Albania Split," p. 16.
69 Ibid.
70 Silber, "China's View," p. 21.
71 The Albanian position was that there was "the direct danger that mankind will be hurled into a third world war." Reprint of "The Theory and Practice of Revolution," an editorial appearing in Zeri i Popullit, organ of the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania, July 7, 1977, p. 9. The Guardian's position was that "While imperialism's drive for war is inexorable . . . it is possible in today's world to transform the liberation struggles of oppressed peoples and the peace sentiments of the masses into a powerful material force capable of preventing war." "On Building a New Communist Party," p. 5-6. The RCP was not as direct as Silber in the Guardian, but in its publication War and Revolution (Chicago: RCP, 1976) such a war was always referred to in a conditional verb tense.
72 CP(ML), Documents, p. 103. "The contention and uneven development between the two superpowers is bound to lead to a new world war. . . it is inevitable that there will be a war."
73 "Two Superpowers: Equally Enemies of World's People," Revolution, 2, no. 10 (August 1977), p. 5.
74 "The October League (M-L)," p. 22.
75 "On the Three Worlds and the International Situation," Revolution 2, no. 9 (July 1977), p. 10.
76 RCP, War and Revolution, pp. 17-22.
77 Eileen Klehr, "How RCP's 'Theory of Equality' Serves Soviet Social-lmperialism," Class Struggle, no. 8 (Fall 1977), p. 50.
78 Joseph Stalin, Marxism and the National Question (New York: International Publishers, 1942), p. 72.
79 Ibid., p. 12.
80 Ibid., p. 25.
81 Ibid., p. 24.
82 Joseph Stalin, The National Question and Leninism (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1952), p.35.
83 Ibid., pp. 27-29.
84 Irwin Silber, ". . . Fan the Flames," Guardian 27, no. 36 (June 18, 1975), p. 8. For a reprint of Silber's entire series of articles on the issue and Davidson's criticism of Silber's position, see Carl Davidson, In Defense of the Right to Self-Determination (Chicago: Liberator Press, 1976).
85 Irwin Silber, "On the National Question," reprinted from the Guardian in Davidson, In Defense, pp. 70-85.
86 Documents on the conflict between the BWC and RU can be found in RU's The Red Papers #6.
87 Quoted in "The October League (M-L)," p. 16.
88 CP(ML), Documents, p. 129.
89 Ibid., pp. 129-130.
90 Ibid., p. 129.
91 RU, The Red Papers #6, p. 11.
92 Ibid., p. 110.
93 Ibid.
94 RCP, Programme and Constitution, p. 122.
95 Ibid., p. 123.
96 Ibid.
97 Ibid., p. 129.
98 Ibid., p. 133.
99 Ibid., p. 138.
100 D. B., "Marxism," p. 157.
101 Ibid., p. 158.
102 Ibid., pp. 127-169.
103 See Leon Trotsky, On Black Nationalism and Self-Determination (New York: Pathfinder Press, 1972).
104 Neither the CP(ML) nor the RCP has been as open to alliances with other groups as have Trotskyists or French Maoist groups, such as the GP or the PCR(m-l). Both CP(ML) and the RCP took part in demonstrations to stop the construction of the gym at Kent State University. But both participated "separately" without acknowledging the participation of the other. The same is true of their work in the U.S-China Friendship Association.
105 "People Must Unite to Smash Boston Busing Plan," Revolution 2, no. 9 (October 1974), p. 1. See also "Boston Busing Struggle Sharpens," Revolution 2, no. 10 (November 1974), pp. 1, 20-22, and "Narrow Nationalism," Ibid., pp. 14-15, 22. The latter article is primarily an attack on the CP(ML)'s predecessor, the October League. It will be recalled that the Black and Puerto Rican affiliates of the Revolutionary Wing opposed busing while the Mexican-American ATM supported it.
106 The Communist Party made a major investment in the creation of a women's organization, Women for Racial and Economic Equality (WREE). It did not, however, have enough control or influence over WREE to prevent the organization from supporting ERA. It was therefore presented with the hard choice of pulling out of WREE, opposing WREE on a major issue, or following the lead of WREE. It chose the latter.
107 RCP, Programme and Constitution, p. 141.
108 Ibid.
109 Ibid.
110 "The October League (M-L)," p. 18.
111 It will be recalled that the positions of the Black and Puerto Rican affiliates of the Revolutionary Wing were identical to those of the RCP, with which they had a previous relationship, while the Mexican-American ATM, which was not involved with the National Liaison Committee, took the pro-ERA position of the CP(ML) and the Guardian.
112 The Young Communist 5, no. 3 (March 1978), p. 2.
Chapter Six: Conclusion
1 Baruch Knei-Paz, The Social and Political Thought of Leon Trotsky (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), p. 186.
2 Ibid., pp. 228-233.
3 It is interesting that the press of the American SWP has published a large anthology of Luxemburg's works and that they are also available in the Ligue's Paris bookstore.
4 Trotsky, The Revolution Betrayed, p. 96.
5 Baruch Knei-Paz's ignoring of the Transitional Program on this question of the role of the party is curious. In the index of his book there are three page references to that document. However, this writer is able to locate only one actual reference to the Transitional Program in the text, a footnote on page 598. Perhaps one explanation for the lack of consideration of this work is Isaac Deutscher's dismissal of its theoretical importance. Whatever its intrinsic theoretical merit, it is certainly of importance in understanding the operation of contemporary Trotskyist movements.
6 Trotsky, The Transitional Program, pp. 81-82.
7 Ibid., p. 91.
8 V. I. Lenin, What Is To Be Done? (New York: International Publishers, 1929), p. 117.
9 Ibid., p. 122. Italics in the original.
10 After this was written a Sinologist colleague, Professor Richard Kraus,
brought to my attention a similar interpretation of Mao's thought by Maurice
Meisner. See particularly Meisner's "Leninism and Maoism: Some Populist
Perspectives on Maoism," The China Quarterly, no. 45 (January-March
1971), pp. 2-36.
Epilogue
1 Liliane Delwasse, "L'Extreme Gauche aux enfers," Le Monde Dimanche, 23 mai 1982, p. iii, and interview with Alain Krivine, June 26, 1986.
2 Steve Clark, "1979: Year of Crisis for World Imperialism," The Militant 44, no. 1 (January 18, 1980), p.19.
3 On the history of this factional dispute within the United Secretariat, see Intercontinental Press/lnprecor 17, no. 47 (December 24, 1979), pp. 1275-1281.
4 The United Secretariat's statement on the Simon Bolivar Brigade can be found in Intercontinental Press/lnprecor 17, no. 38 (October 22, 1979), p. 1023.
5 Will Reisner, "France: Alain Krivine Fights for Presidential Ballot Slot," Intercontinental Press/lnprecor 19, no. 12 (April 6, 1981), p. 344.
It should be pointed out that at this point in time there was a serious concern on the Left that no candidate of the Left would make it to the second ballot and that the electorate would be faced with a choice between two right-wing candidates, President Giscard d'Estaing and Jacques Chirac, the Gaullist mayor of Paris. There was, therefore, tremendous pressure on the major parties of the Left, especially the Socialist Party, to go for every potential vote. The prior presidential election had been won by approximately one per cent of the vote. The minor party candidates were thus troublesome.
6 Will Reisner, "LCR Calls for Vote for Workers Parties," Intercontinental Press/lnprecor 19, no. 16 (May 4, 1981), p. 429.
7 Pierre Sylvain, "French Voters Give Giscard a Stinging Rebuff," Intercontinental Press/lnprecor 19, no. 16 (May 4, 1981), p. 428.
8 "Interview with Alain Krivine: Mitterrand's First Six Months in Power," Intercontinental Press/lnprecor 10, no. 46 (December 14, 1981), p. 1212.
9 Les Elections législatives de juin 1981 (Paris: Le Monde Dossiers et Documents, 1081), p. 12.
10 L'Election presidentielle 26 avril-10 mai 1981 (Paris: Le Monde Dossier et Documents, 1081), p. 98.
11 "Mitterrand's First Six Months in Power," p. 1215.
12 Patrick Jarreau, "La campagne de l'Extreme Gauche: le refus de Le Monde, 4 mars 1983, p. 10.
Actually, not all of the Trotskyist candidates were eliminated. All of them together, i.e. the candidates of the Ligue-LO slate and those of the PCI, received almost five per cent of the vote.
Due to the new modified proportional representational system, the Ligue was able to elect two of its members to municipal council seats while the PCI was able to elect four of its members. See "The Lessons of the Municipal Elections: Socialist and Communist Parties Get Warning at Polls," Intercontinental Press/lnprecor 21, no. 7 (April 18, 1983), pp. 212-214.
13 I am grateful to François de Massot of the PCI for an interview on June 27 1986, and for documentation on the MPPT's electoral efforts.
14 "Mitterrand's First Six Months in Power," pp. 1212-1215.
15 Alain Krivine, "For a Government of the Workers Parties in France," Intercontinental Press/lnprecor 19, no. 20 (June 1, 1981), pp. 582-583.
16 For LO's 1986 vote totals and electoral materials see its monthly publication Lutte de Classe, no. 121 (avril 1986). This is also the best source for an overview of the votes and electoral materials of the entire Far Left in the 1986 elections.
17 Delwasse, "L'Extrême Gauche," p. iii, and "Some Figures on the LCR," Intercontinental/lnprecor 20, no. 2 (January 25, 1982), p. 45.
18 Delwasse, "L'Extrême Gauche," p. iii.
19 Les Elections législatives de juin 1981, p. 12.
20 Ibid.
21 "Une delegation du PCML a séjourné en Chine," PCML Flash, no. 20 (6 janvier 1983), p. 2.
22 "Préparons la fete pour la paix du 19 juin," PCML Flash, no. 35 (21 avril 1983), p. 1.
23 "Parlons-ensemble . . . des choix gouvemmentaux depuis le 10 mai," Travailleurs, no. 9 (mad 1983), pp. 26-29.
24 Delwasse, "L'Extrême Gauche," p. iv.
25 Ibid.
26 "Municipales 83 . .," Travailleurs, no. 6 (février 1983), pp. 8-10 and Jarreau, "La campagne," p. 10.
27 "Résolution adoptée par le Congrès du Parti Pour une Alternative Communiste," fin decembre 1985, and "Les Ex-maoîstes français se convertissent a l'autogestion," Le Monde, 21 juin 1986, p. 7.
28 I am grateful to Alain Sentier of Presse d''Aujourd'hui, associated with PAC, for information on the present state of the organization and French Maoism in general. Interview of June 26, 1986.
29 Jacques-Marie Bourget, "La Guerre jamais finie du dernier des mao," Paris Match, no. 1926 (25 avril 1986), unpaged.
30 "Editorial," The Militant 47, no. 16 (May 6, 1983), p. 14.
31 "Defend Nicaragua, Complete the Revolution," Workers Vanguard, no. 329 (May 6, 1983), pp. 1, 6-8.
32 "Why the White House Fears Negotiations in El Salvador," The Militant 47, no. 7 (March 4, 1983), p. 10.
33 "Salvador Leftists on to Victory," Workers Vanguard, no. 330 (May 20, 1983), p. 1.
34 David Frankel, "Imperialism and the Khomeini Government," Intercontinental Press/lnprecor 19, no. 42 (November 16, 1981), p. 1120.
35 Ernest Harsch, "Iranian Workers Struggle to Rebuild Economy, Defend Democratic Rights," The Militant 47, no. 12 (April 8, 1983), pp. 10-11.
36 "SWP Bows to Holy Man Khomeini," Workers Vanguard, no. 219 (November 17, 1978), p. 10.
37 Ibid.
38 "Down with the Shah! Down with the Mullahs!," Workers Vanguard, no. 219 (November 17, 1978), p. 11.
39 Steve Bride, "What Poland's Workers Want," The Militant 45, no. 28 (July 24, 1981), p. 19.
40 Ibid.
41 "Reagan Weeps for Counterrevolutionary Solidarnosc," Workers Vanguard, no. 298 (February 5, 1982), p. 6.
42 Pedro Camejo, Against Sectarianism: The Evolution of the Socialist Workers Party, 1978-83 (Berkeley, 1983).
43 Peter Camejo, "Problems of Vanguardism: In Defense of Leninism," Discussion Articles #1, North Star Network Conference, San Francisco, December 7-8, 1984, pp. 3-7.
44 Jack Barnes, "Their Trotsky and Ours," New International, 1, no. 1, (Fall 1983), pp. 9-89.
45 Les Evans, "Lenin and the Theory of Democratic Dictatorship," Socialist Action Information Bulletin, 1, no. 5, (July 1984), pp. 1-12.
46 "Australian SWP Quits Fourth International," Intercontinental Press 23, no. 18 (September 23, 1985), pp. 569-70.
47 Interview with Alain Krivine, June 26, 1986.
48 Tom Boot, "Revolutionary Integration Yesterday and Today," The Freedom Socialist 8, no. 2 (Spri ng 1983), p. 14.
49 Ibid.
50 I am grateful to women of the Freedom Socialist Party who attended the conference on "Common Differences: Third World Women and Feminist Perspectives," held at the University of Illinois in Urbana from April 9 to 13, 1983, for their willingness to talk about their organization with this author.
51 An article on the split appeared in the party's newspaper right after Klonsky's resignation. See The Call 10, no. 2 (March 1981), p. 2.
52 "Battle Sharpens around Bob Avakian's Demand for Refugee Status," Revolutionary Worker, no. 157 (May 28, 1982), p. 12.
53 Avakian would have some reason to take death threats seriously. He, of course, knew Black Panther members Mark Clark and Fred Hampton, who were killed in their Chicago apartment by Illinois States Attorney's police. On November 3, 1979, close to the time that Avakian terminated his speaking tour, five members of the Maoist Communist Workers Party were shot to death at an anti-Klan rally in Greensboro, North Carolina. Members of the Klan and the American Nazi Party were brought to trial and acquitted by a state and then a federal court. It was no secret to people on the Left that the FBI had infiltrators and paid informers in these right-wing organizations. The Liuzzo case has established for the public record that people in the pay of the FBI were not above participating in the literally murderous activities of the Klan.
54 A World to Win: International Marxist-Leninist Journal, no. 2 (May 1982), p. 18.
55 Ibid.
56 "Advance through Criticism of Past Errors: Busing and the Fight Against National Oppression and For Revolution," Revolution 4, no. 6 (June 1979), pp. 9-15.
57 See RCP, Charting the Uncharted Course (Chicago: RCP Publications, n.d.) and "Report from the Central Committee," Revolutionary Worker, no. 194 (February 25, 1983), p. 10.
58 "Report from the Central Committee," p. 8.
59 RCP, Programme and Constitution of the Revolutionary Communist Party USA (Chicago: RCP Publications, 1975), p. 141.
60 Bob Avakian, Conquer the World?, special issue of Revolution, no. 50 (December 1981), pp. 30-34.
61 Ibid., p. 34.
62 "Report from the Central Committee," p. 9. See also RCP, Create Public Opinion . . . Seize Power! (Chicago: RCP Publications, 1979).
63 RCP, New Programme and New Constitution of the Revolutionary Communist Party USA (Chicago: RCP Publications, 1981), p. 44.
64 For a succinct overview of the League's positions see "U.S. Foreign Policy and the World Today: Interview with Mae Ngai of the League of Revolutionary Struggle (ML)," Forward, no. 5 (Spring 1986), pp. 65-79.
65 Unity 6 no. 3 (February 25-March 10, 1983), p. 2.
66 Cynthia Lai, "China Charts Independent Course: Major Shift in Foreign Policy," Workers Viewpoint 8 no. 3 (February 9-15, 1983), p. 10.
67 William Nishimura, "Arousing a Socialist Giant," Workers Viewpoint 8 no. 4 (February 16-22, 1983), pp. 7,15.
68 Editorial Board, "The Trial of the Gang of Four and the Crisis of Maoism," Line of March 1, no. 6 (May-June 1981), pp. 7-65.