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In Memoriam, Richard S. Fraser: Structure of Communist Parties, on the an Appreciation and Selection Methods and Content of Their Work of His Work

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Prometheus Research Series 3 In Memoriam Richard S. Fraser An Appreciation and Selection of His Work $6.00 ^egy? Prometheus Research Library August 1990 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/inmemoriamricharOOkirk In Memoriam Richard S. Fraser An Appreciation and Selection of His Work Prometheus Research Library New York, New York August 1990 Prometheus graphic from a woodcut by Fritz Brosius ISBN 0-9633828-5-3 Second Printing, March 1994 Prometheus Research Series is published by Spartacist Publishing Co., Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116 Table of Contents I. Introductory Materials Richard S. Fraser 1913-1988 3 Memorial Meeting for Richard S. Fraser, 8 January 1989 5 Revolutionary Integration: Program for Black Liberation, Introductory Note by the Prometheus Research Library 19 Fraser and American Scholarship on the Black Question, by David Dreiser 20 II. Documents by Richard S. Fraser San Diego Farm Strike Is Crushed, 20 February 1937 23 New NMU Hall—Facade to Hide Union Retreat, 8 July 1944 25 Soldiers Cheer Striking Workers, 15 December 1945 27 The Negro Struggle and the Proletarian Revolution: Two Lectures given at the Friday Night Forum, Los Angeles, November 1953 29 Contribution to the Discussion on the Slogan "Send Federal Troops to Mississippi," 10 March 1956 51 Communist Party Internal Discussion: Report to the District Negro Commission, 1956 56 Resolution on the Negro Struggle, 25 May 1957 61 Summary Remarks on Negro Discussion, June 1957 68 On Federal Troops in Little Rock, 10 October 1957 71 On the SWP and the Vietnam Antiwar Movement, 13 December 1965 72 Why We Left the Socialist Workers Party, June 1966 78 A Letter to American Trotskyists: Too Little, Too Late (Memorandum on the Problems of Building a Revolutionary Party), 1974/75 83 On Transitional Organizations, 29 May 1983 93 To the Democratic Socialists of America, 18 June 1983 95 On "Color Caste," 15 January 1984 102 On Libya, 21 March 1986 105 III. Appendix Bibliography of Works by Richard S. Fraser 106 This bulletin is dedicated to Dave Dreiser, good friend and long-time collaborator of Dick Fraser Richard S. Fraser 1913-1988 Richard S. Fraser, a veteran Trotskyist and member of the SWP's National Committee. In the tenacious fighter for black freedom, died in his Pacific Northwest Fraser won several members of sleep on November 27 at the age of 75. For the the Communist Party in Seattle to Trotskyism last several years Dick fought to overcome many following the 1 956 Hungarian Revolution and the painful and debilitating illnesses, mustering the Khrushchev revelations. That Seattle was the courage to face endless operations, so that he place where the SWP had its most significant suc- could continue his research and literary work on cess in cracking the Stalinists is a testament to the question of the revolutionary struggle for the persistence and political capabilities of black liberation in America. Comrade Fraser was Richard Fraser. not only a cherished friend but a theoretical men- Through his involvement in black freedom tor of the Spartacist League. struggles and experience in SL National Chairman Jim the recruitment and subse- Robertson has acknowledged quent loss of hundreds of his considerable personal po- black workers from the SWP litical debt to comrade Fraser. following World War II, Dick Dick Fraser was a co-re- came to believe that the porter on the black question American communist move- at our founding conference in ment had failed to come to 1966. His work was pub- grips with the question of lished as part of our Marxist black liberation in this coun- Bulletin No. 5, "What Strategy try. Although lacking much for Black Liberation? Trot- formal education, he dedi- skyism vs. Black National- cated himself to the study of ism," and he was a close col- the black question. Criticizing laborator in our work to the SWP for underestimating establish organizations of the revolutionary challenge labor/black defense. As the to American capitalism posed Labor Black League for Social by the integrationist strug- Defense in the Bay Area gles for black equality, in wrote in memoriam: "Richard 1955 he submitted his docu- Fraser was our teacher, the ment "For the Materialist author of 'For the Materialist Conception of the Negro Conception of the Negro Question." Here Fraser coun- Question' that lights the road terposed revolutionary inte- to black freedom through the gration to the SWP's turn to- program of revolutionary integration, the assimila- ward a separatist "self-determination" ideology tion of black people into an egalitarian socialist (associated particularly with George Breitman), society." which would become a theoretical cover for its Fraser joined the Trotskyist movement in abstention from the mass civil rights movement in 1 934, recruited on a cross-country Greyhound bus the early 1960s and subsequent full-blown trip by a member of the newly formed Workers capitulation to black nationalism. Party—the product of a fusion between the Dick came into disfavor with the SWP leader- Trotskyist Communist League of America and A.J. ship when he opposed the party's adoption of the Muste's American Workers Party. For close to 30 call for federal troops to protect Southern blacks. years he was an organizer of the Socialist In his "Resolution on the Little Rock Crisis" Workers Party on the West Coast in Los Angeles Fraser tore apart the SWP's support to Eisen- and Seattle; for at least 20 years he was a hower's introduction of federal troops in Little Rock in 1957, powerfully pointing out that the working papers. In turn Dick's collaboration was end result had been the crushing of local black invaluable in elaborating a perspective for self-defense efforts. In the 1960s Fraser along rooting the SL among militant black workers and with other SWP spokesmen was propelled out of youth. Fraser's formal membership in other or- the party as it plunged from centrism to refor- ganizations obviously stood in contradiction to mism. As he wrote in a letter to his son: "It was his fervent political beliefs, a contradiction which I who initiated the split from the SWP by publicly was resolved in his last years. Sharing our out- attacking its Personal Representative, my old rage over the U.S. bombing of Libya, he distanced friend Asher Harer, whom I had recruited in himself from the DSA. 1935, for the SWP stand on the Vietnam War, and Addressing the SL/U.S. Seventh National proclaiming that the way to 'BRING THE TROOPS Conference (1983) on the question of the organi- HOME' was for the Viet Cong to drive them into zation of labor/black leagues, Dick spoke the South China Sea." movingly: Fraser went on to found the Seattle-based "I've had some discussions with many comrades, Freedom Socialist Party. Cut off by a split in the which have been very gratifying, and I am humbled FSP, Dick went into the New American Movement by the knowledge that things that I wrote 30 years hoping that he could influence and educate some ago, which were so scorned by the old party, have of these young New Leftists in the old Leninist had some important impact, finally." school. With the fusion of NAM and the Demo- Dick's last political act before his death was his cratic Socialist Organizing Committee Fraser was endorsement of the November 5 Mobilization that subsequently carried into the Democratic Social- stopped the Klan in Philadelphia. That satisfying ists of America. mobilization of the power of integrated labor was Over the years we had our disagreements a testament to our comrade Richard Fraser who with Dick. Neither of u r *ned to hide these, but in endorsing identified himself as a "historic we were always happy to bend the stick in favor American Trotskyist." That he was, and his loss of the areas of profound political agreement will be keenly felt. between us. In his later years Fraser was handi- capped by the loss of his Marxist library, which Adapted from Workers Vanguard the SL sought to replenish, and of his personal No. 466, 2 December 1988 Memorial Meeting for Richard S. Fraser On 8 January 1989 the Spartacist League held a memorial meeting in Los Angeles to honor the life and work of Richard S. Fraser. Some 85 people came out to pay tribute to Fraser, from old comrades and friends going back over 50 years when Dick joined the Trotskyist movement to a younger generation which included many mem- bers of the Spartacist League. Also present was his son Jonny, whom Dick cherished. A beautiful display of photographs and other materials illustrating Dick's life was assembled by comrades from the West Coast, many of whom had worked with and cared for Dick during his last years as he courageously fought many painful and debilitating illnesses to carry on his life's work. The speeches and messages to the memorial meeting were as rich and diverse as the man they remembered. The International Communist League is fortunate to be the heir to an unbroken revolutionary tradition which goes back to Lenin and Trotsky's Communist Interna- tional. Dick Fraser was an important part of that continuity and it is in this spirit that we are reprinting in full the speeches and messages to his memorial meeting, originally serialized in Workers Vanguard Nos. 469-471 (20 January, 3 February and 17 February 1989). Trotskyist, who died today, 27 November 1988. Karen Wyatt Richard Fraser was our teacher, the author of Los Angeles Spartacist League "For the Materialist Conception of the Negro We're here today to honor the life of Richard Question" that lights the road to black freedom Fraser.
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