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VOL. V NO. 6 25 CENTS POLITICA L ORGAN OF THE REVO LUTIONARY COMMUNIST LEAGU E (M-L- M) JUNE EDITION 1976 A Summation and A Beginning FROMCONGRESS OFAFRIKAN PEOPLE TO REVOLUTIONARYCOMMUNIST LEAGUE (M-L-M)

Such leader s as H. Rap Brown , Maulana Karenga, Amiri Baraka, and Floyd RCL (M~L-M) is convinced that the clearest way for us to dra w the line of demar­ Mc Kissick were at the '67 Bla ck Power Conference. The early history of CAP's cation between genuine - and modern today is to use developmen t involved the Rebellions of 1967 and the Black Power Conference in the suffix (M-L-M) and in our practice continously uphold and defend the ba nner of Newark , N.J ., which represented the diversity of the Black Liberation Movement in Mao Tse Tung Thought, which is, "the acme of Marxism-Lenin ism in the prese nt 1967, bu t also the eclecticism that characterized BLM in the absence of a genuine era". communi st party in the U.S.A. And still today we need a revolutionary Marxist­ Lenini st part y, guided by the science of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse Tung Thought to lead the and oppressed nationalities to smash with Revolutionary socialist revoluti on. Party building is the central task of Marxist-Leninist and ad­ vanced forces in the U.S. toda y. Communist League History of CAP (M-L-M) STAGE ONE reference to such backwardness) . WORLD SITUATION Social-imperialism on the other , these . .. In 1966, Am iri Baraka and a group Even with Malcolm , the Black The changing of the Congress of Af­ superpowers represent the danger of of people who had been active in New Liberation Movement suffered from rikan People's name to Revolutionary new world war , and the threat of this York at the Black Arts Repertory eclecticism , but Malcolm was a steady­ Communist League (Marxist-Leninist­ war comes mainly from the Soviet Theater , and local people from Newark , ing focus , a revolutionary nationalist Mao Tse Tung Thought) , is being done Union . The fourth of these con­ New Jersey began to work together put ­ and anti-imperialist whose articulation in the context of the world situation . Ac­ tradictions is imperialism vs. the ting on "black theater " in Newark at a that Black people were an oppressed cording to Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse socialist countries . Of these fou r ba sic contradictions , two are the sharpest in frame building on Stirling Street. The nation with the right of self deter­ Tung Thought, there are four fun­ the world today, they are imperialism general direction of the theater was mination , self respect, self defense, ex­ damental contradictions that exist in the vs. ihe third world and the contradiction similar to that of the Black Arts , in that posed the shallowness of the Black world today , which give shape and force between the superpowers . the work s to be performed were all ' s conciliatory line. It is im­ to the present international situation, "It is also necessary to adhere to the Black Na tionalist , some revolutionary portant to understand that the main whose road is marked by many twists theory of two points in analysing the nationalist , others reactionary reason that the Black bourgeoisie had and turns but ultimately favora hie for world situation . In his solemn statement nationalist. moved into leadership of the Black the broad masses who are the makers of People of the World, lJnite and Defeat During '66, the rise of the Car­ Liberation Movement again was history, as our Chinese comrades state . the U.S. Aggressors and All Their Run­ michael popularized cry of "Black because of the traitorous opportunism These contradictions are, labor vs. ning Dogs! issued on May 20, 1970, Power" was picked up by many of the CPUSA, who had liquidated the , this means the contradiction Chairman Mao pointed out : 'The danger independent nationalists , as the most AfroAmerican National Question say­ between the proletariat and the of new world war still exists, and the penetrating line since Malcolm's death a ing that Black people had already bourgeoisie in the "advanced" capitalist people of all countries must get year earlier. The fact that Malcolm's line achieved Self Determination and had countries; second is the contradiction was the voice of the Black ,opted for Integration under Imperial­ between imperialism and the third (Con1i11ued 011page 6) reasserting itself into leadership of the ism. This was a long step by these bour­ world, this represents the struggle of the Black Liberation Movement is sig­ geois tackies to the complete peoples of Asia, Afrika, and Latin nificant, because after his murder, the degeneration of the CPUSA to America against imperialism, neo­ TABLEOF CONTENTS petty bourgeois leadership moved into revisionism which was completed by the colonialism, hegemonism and the super­ that vacuum. And in some cases the 50's. powers, these struggles have borne great victories for the people of these coun­ CAP HISTORY...... Pl Black National Bourgeois hegemony The plunge into revisionism first of all REVOLUTIONARYCOMMUNIST was partially reasserted, articulated by disoriented all progressive workers tries fighting for national liberation. LEAGUE{M-L-M) ...... Pl Dr. King, and later, comprador struggles in the United States, and cast These struggles are the motive force of NEW LOGOFOR polit~cians. Even the Panth_er line_ was the Black Liberation Movement directly revolution in the world today. Next is UNITY& STRUGGLE•..• •..• P2 twisted by a petty bourgeois glorifica­ into the hands of the Black bourgeoisie. · the contradiction between imperialism vs. imperialism the most intense being, SUMMING UP tion of the Lumpen as revolutionaries The CPUSA even began to push the & BEO.NNING...... Pll (by a lumpen who had been glorified by comprador wing of the Black bour­ the struggle of the two superpowers for the petty bourgeoiseven beingequipped geoisie. the NAACP. &c., as "leaders of world domination with U.S. with Bakunin as "legitimatized" (Continued on pa~ 2) imperialism on the one hand and Soviet PAGE 2 UNITY & STRUGGLE JUNE EDITION Project , plays were performed up and quotation marks) as well as Abb a Eban CAP HISTORY down the West Coast , with the Black (who was quoted and named and read Arts Alliance (The Black Student s from at length) Gracian , Sun Tzu, Gib­ (Con llnu ed f rom page I) man y pett y bour geois element s in the Union of San Francisco State and Black ran and The Lion In Winter . Karenga the freedom movement." The lack of a leadership , especially of any "arts" Arts West, with Ed Bullins, Marvin X, had organized the eclecticism _of the vanguard communist party to give movement , the fact that even Malcolm and others .) Rehearsals were held at The Black Liberation Movement mto a leadership to all the workers struggles earlier condemned Whites generally , Black House, which was also the "doctrine" of eclecticism. and the struggles of oppres sed national­ and that the Black Liberation Move­ residence of Marvin X and Eldridge It was the experience of watching the ities, to gather all those struggles ment in opposing national oppression, Cleaver . The group did benefits for the Panthers rise, the spring ~f '67_wa s t~e together in their strategic relationship White supremacy and_chauvinism and Panthers in San Francisco (with Huey time they went into the Caltfon :ua Legis­ and make revolution , in itself was the racism, has long had a general reaction Newton, Rap Brown, Stokely Car­ lature with guns to draw attention tot he main cause of the eclecticism of anti­ to this oppression which made relation­ michael and LeRoi Jones on one pro­ idea that Black people must have the imperialist student struggles , and the ships with any Whites strained . The gram-this was before Cleaver had rose right of armed self defense : of being ex­ movement of the oppressed weakness of most of the abolitionists , up in the organization). Later a split posed and impressed by the bald­ nationalities . the chauvinism of early socialist move­ developed between the artists who were headed, buba wearing , gun _beanng , The Black Arts Movement from ments in the U.S.A., the comprador heavily influenced by cultural swahili speaking , doctrine quoting, tight whence developed the Spirit House was bourgeoisie's cry of bourgeois inte­ nationalism , e.g., Islam and later organization of Karenga's US , that eclecticism personified, combined with gration , as the road to liberation , Kawaida and the Cleaver faction . suggested to us the need to _more tigh_tly some aspects of bourgeois aesthetic, cul­ pushed by the bourge oisie and the Cleaver at the time, just returned from and more politically organize the Spmt tural nationalism /though not vet into so degenerate CPU SA, all, by the early 50's interviewing Stokely Carmichael in House. The disorganized , / undis­ called "neo traditionali sm"). subjec­ had set up a trend of reaction which Alabama , was making speeches for the ciplined character of the Spirit House tivism, mysticism, idealism, individ~al­ pushed all the way over to narrow SWP. This baffled those of us from the we now saw as backward. And almost as ism. Malcolm was the key figure for the nationalism. But narrow nationalism is East, since the movement there had been soon as we returned to Newark , the Black Arts Movement and the Spirit 1st and foremost a reaction , amo ng the distinctly narrow nationalist by that rebellion which had been building npt House , but there were also the in­ Black Liberation Movement, to time , and it was partially in reaction to only in Newark , but across the country , fluences of the Nation of Islam national oppression and racism . And just such groups as the scum trots, and in the violent reaction to the nonac­ (especially as reflected in Malcolm's even the fact of the credibility of cultural the revisionist s of the CPUSA as well, complishment of the civil right s move­ earlier speeches). There was also, not in­ nationalism, as bankrupt as it ultimately that a narrow nationalism had gained ment and its bourgeois dominati _on, substantially so, rising influence of must be seen to be, is only possible hegemony over one part of the move­ July '67 a week of rebellion jumped off, Sunni Islam, because Malcolm had em­ because of the peculiar circumstance of ment. The CPUSA's classic line that which came to its end at the beginning of braced orthodox Islam in his last year, national oppression and racism, and "the nationalism of Malcolm X was the the Black Power Conference. A 1967 and also the Yoruba influence, which their attendant cultural aggression same as the Nationalism of the Ku Klux photo of a press conference calling for emanated out of New York from the which had historically been one method Klan", their calling Malcolm , a police United Nations intervention in Newark , various groups' put together by Baba of Black subjugation and what seemed agent seemed simply to justify the anti­ at which a petition was submitted con­ Oserjeman. It is significant that the dive the obvious goal (despised by the White feelings, especially toward the taining names, which included , Huey into the most reactionary cultural masses) of the compradors . political types. The bogus integr ation of Newton , LeRoi Jones , nationalism came only after Malcolm's The Spirit House in producing plays the civil rights movement, the shallow­ Rap Brown, Stokely Car­ death, and the concept of what was in Newark, including an AfroAmerican ness of the Black bourgeoi sie's leader­ michael , Imari Obadele , which put for­ "B!ack" moved, in some groups to the festival of the arts (which included Car­ ship, the tradition of petty bourgeois ward concretely Malcolm 's line that we extreme right , via the feudalistic ele­ michael, Oserjeman, Harold Cruse as separatism and Back to Afrika move­ should take our oppression before the ments contained in Yoruba and Islam, speakers) and opening a small theater , ments that were "more militant" than United Nations . The people sitting at removed from the fire sermons of Mal­ also began to get involved with organiz­ the Black bourgeoisie's leadership, e.g., the table in the photograph are Rap colm's Revolutionary Nationalism and ing the immediate neighbor­ Garvey &c. which could be drawn from, Brown, Maulana Karenga, LeRoi anti-imperialism, and without the hood-with block association, a youth all reinforced separatism . The petty Jones, McKissick (Jones had just gotten proletarian leadership of a produced newspaper, propaganda and bourgeois had seized leadership of the released from Prison, after he was revolutionary Marxist-Leninist Party. agitation around the education Black Liberation Movement in the 20's beaten and arrested during the The Motion of "Blackness" from its struggles . after the depression contracted the rebellion.) It is at about this point that revolutionary connotation to the back­ Early 1967 Amiri Baraka and others Black bourgeoisie's ability to lead the the people in the Spirit House began to wardness of cultural nationalism, is the went to San Francisco State-Baraka as movement. Classically the Black wear dashiki's and Afrikan clothes . It is key to later directions and misdirec­ visiting professor -helped set up the first bourgeoisie had been before that the also the period at which the dramatic tions of the Black Liberation Move­ Black Studies Program with the lead­ leadership of the "freedom movement," work of the Spirit House begins to be ment , and particularly movements like ing efforts of Jimmy Garrett . Under the but after the failure of the Garvey move­ superseded by purely political work. CFUN and CAP . The combination of heading ' The Black Communications ment, with its petty bourgeois idealism. In summing up it seems key that separatism , , and philosophical idealism , subjectivi sm, anti-<:ommunism, a distinct working metaphysics , narrow nationalism were Why Unity & Struggle class trend had arisen characterized by the bottom of the basis of the ideo­ groups like the Afrikan Blood Brother- · logical, political and overall organ­ hood, which began as a Left opposition izational eclecticism of the Spirit House, Changed Its Logos inside the Garvey movement, and which as well as the whole Black Liberation had representatives at the 3rd Inter­ Movement , and central to this was the The old Congress of Afrik an People struggle of Afrikan people throughout national (Harry Haywood, &c.), also absence of a genuine Marxist-Leninists logos, which showed the continent of the world against imperialism and for magazines like the Crusader, the Party. Even though a revolutionary Afrika, and the Western Hemisphere . Messenger, and the entrance of thou­ concept of Black Power was put , for­ was based on the views of Pan-Af­ Proletarian internationalism, i.e., sands of Blacks into the CPUSA, once ward, there was no scientific or com­ rikan;sm. And since our views have "workers and oppressed nations of the they had taken the correct position on plete method or theory understood or changed radicall y since we have em­ world , unite!" is the principle upheld by the AfroAmerican National Question. accepted as the basis of struggle of the braced the science of revolution , Marx­ all genuine Marxist-Leninists. Marx It should be clear how tragic was the movement. There was no systematic ism-Leninism-Mao Tse Tung Thought, said , we have a world to win, and noth­ collapse into revisionism of the study or real analysis, nor no real under­ the logos must change also. We have ing to lose but our chains! So as Marx­ CPUS A, and how it led to the seizure of standing of the essentially one sided changed the logos to reflect the ist-Leninists guided by the theory of the leadership of the Black Liberation nature of our perceptions of the move­ development of our views from Pan-Af­ Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse Tung Movement by the Black bourgeoisie . ment, which is what made Karenga's rikanism to Proletarian Inter­ Thought, the Revolutionary Com­ After Malcolm's death , the petty bour­ doctrin e seem so profound. It was a nationalism . In fact, even the 6th PAC munist League (M-L-M) is annou ncing geois trend rearo se. "Neo Traditionalists" Quaran , of in Dar Es Salaam put forward that the change of our logos to reflect During the ejection of the Black ar­ systematized eclecticism . revolutionary Pan-Afrikanism is the proletarian internatio nalism. tists influenced by Islam and cultural Gains nationalism from the Black Hou se, by In terms of gains during this period, Cleaver and the Panthers , Amiri Baraka first there was an attempt to put into was in Los Angeles where he was invited concrete political use Malcolm X's mes­ to attend what was called "The First sage, even to circulating and trying to go AfroAmerican Wedding", put on by to the United Nations with the petition. Ron Karenga's US Organization. The putting forth of a revolutionary Karenga had shown up one night in aspect of the Black Power message, in­ Newark some months earlier where he cluding the need for revolutionary was helping to plan the '67 Black Power violence. The spreading nation ally of a Conference, which was to be held in revolutionary Black Arts Movement. July . It was the first exposure of the And finally the move , after the 1967 Newark Spirit House forces to Karenga , rebellion, to emphasize politi cs and and the kind of cultural nationali sm he organization within the Spirit House. advocated. Highly organized, armed Errors with a "doctrine" of his teaching s which Negatively, the subjectivi sm philo­ were systematized for easy memori­ sop hical idealism and metaphysics ofan zation and recitation , and a closeknit earlier period was continued, and with Frederick Engels, the great champion group of loyal followers , Karenga dur­ the advent of a more conscious trend of and teacher of the proletariat was the After the death of Lenin, Stalin was ing this period was impressive to us. cultural nationalism, deepened . And great comrade of , and always the central figure of the world Talking about the importance of Cul­ with the deepening of the cultural together Marx and Engels expounded communist movement until his own ture for revolution, Karenga spoke nationalism more negative aspects of the main principles of scientific death. In a "comprehensive and classical lengthily about the need for Revolu­ the eclecticism began to dominate , some socialism. They wrote the Communist manner" Stalin developed Marxist­ tionary AfroAmerican Art . And his pos1ttve aspects to be more and more Manifesto as the program for the Com­ Leninist theory and

(Cont111ued.from pa/{e I I) on Mao Tse Tu ng, and their elderly and as part of the Black Liberation "Negro Natio n" mindlessness. a nd Movement we felt an urgency on this weird "leftism" we have put down from question, but all the major questions the sta rt. Now . we have had a rela tion­ were taken up at the same time by ship with OL. we are opp ortuni st. bu t all different committees and the results the rest of the self-accla imed "co rrects" were as we stated. But overemp hasis on suffer no damage fro m the ir being this question can be ascribe d to the fact hoo ked up with folks as odious as R U of our havi ng moved from natio nalism and C L! We have alwa ys had pro blems to communi sm perha ps inco mpletely. with aspects of WYO 's line. from their Even though AT M. a member of the weird line on the Boston Busing. though "Revo lutionary Wing", at leas t at last we have not completel y summed up our rea ding, says, "Co mrades, the main con­ views on WYO . but last month they tradiction in the world today is the were am ong the supercorrect s. now they National Qu estion . It is the oppre ssed have passed amidst profa nity a nd cur­ nat ions and peoples of the world in sing (in the May Da y Forum that struggle aga inst U.S. imperialism and reminded one of unski lled pett y Soviet Soc ial Imp eriali sm which is mov­ bourgeois ac tors trying out for the ing forward the entire stru ggle against Negro Ensemb le Compan y's rendition world wide reaction. Wheth er it be in of "G hetto Life As the Pett y Bourgeois South Afrik a, Southeast Asia . the Mid­ Sees It ") on out of the corrects and can dle East, or the UN - the T hird World is even be pun ched and kicked as "gar­ every single day weake ning the strength bage". Even the Resis tencia , who we feel of the two supe rpo wers. In our own has been a mon g the most principled and As the people's struggle intensifie s again st monopol y capitali sm, the need for a count ry the stru ggle of the Af­ correct as far as overall line. self­ bolshe vik party, what Lenin called a part y of the new type, it become s dearer and roAmerica n people (who constitut e an criticism a nd criticism. when the y put clearer to Marxist-Leninist s and advanced workers this is our central task in this oppresse d nation in the Black Belt forth tha t they did not ho ld that ther e period. The struggle to build a revolutionar y Marxi st-Lenini st Co mmun ist Part y in Sout h) has been in the forefro nt of all was a Revo lutionary Win g. only some this country is-part of the irre sistable trend of revolution in the world . the struggles agains t the U.S . rulin g Revo lutio nary Orga nizations. was at ­ class. As comrade Mao has said . the tac ked as "menshevik", and "h olding of the subjectivist coin, Dog mat ism, a st raight line, "there are twists and strugg le of AfroAmericans is 'a storm op portun ist lines" and not a llowed to And it is easy to see how they have flip turn s, but the futur e is bright". CAP has such as has never taken place before speak at the May Day Fo rum . but sup- flopped from one side of it to the other. become the Revo lutionary Commu nist You cann ot, for instance. ju mp into Leag ue (M -L- M ), and we intend to work ing peop les faces a nd cu rse them . beco me that not only in name. but in that is a petty bourgeois illusion. We do essence. And as such, we intend to be an ..f - ;I not play that. We are for open an d even more ac tive a nd dynamic part of above boar d strugg le, serious vigoro us the hi storic mot ion to build the party struggle, but the "demo lishing peop le that will make Socialist Revolution in with one blow" by trying to intimidate the U.S.A .! This is our commitment. for them with of all things profanity. is many of us, already in the struggle at stupid. and if ever, in the ir trave ls. they least a decade. reflecting only a small run into people who are not also petty part of the cent uries old struggle of the bourgeo is types, dangerous. worki ng peop le and oppressed nationa lities in the U.S.A., and the age T he struggle to build a Revol utio nary old stru ggle of the Working Class and Marx ist-Leninist Co mmuni st Par ty in opp ressed peop le all over the world. We thi s countr y, a "U.S. Bolshevik Party". say, "Cast Away Illusions, Prepare For is part of the irresistible ,rend of Struggle ". That is exac tly what we are revolution in the world . Thou gh it is not trying to do.

SUPPORT UNITY & STRUGGLE Afrikan Liberation Support Com mittee brought together 50,000 people all over the U.S. to march against colonialism and imperialism in Afrika. But by 1975 much of the leadership of ALSC (R WL) began to "aband on ship" and very little was Make whatever don ation s you ca n to supp ort U nity & Strug gle. being done by ALSC. Ho wever, they were unable to dismantle the ALSC due to Due to the cri sis of capit alism on its deathb ed, th e prices for resistance put forward by CAP and other Marxist-Leninists in unity with other pat- , riotic forces. everything are rising fast ! We do not want to raise the pr ice of Unity & Struggle again due to the risin g cost of produ ction a nd d is­ (our emphasi s) in the history of that posed to get five minu tes from the floo r, tribution . So , please contribute whatever yo u ca n to susta in Unity country ." (Revolutionary Cause , p. 3, as if the " R W" 's were holding court. Vol. I No . 2) But still we believe that And now there are wires that some & Struggle. party building is the central task , and others might leave the "Wing", amidst Thank you for what ever way yo u can to help Unity & Struggl e to must address itself to the four inter­ their furious purgi ng of themselves, and reach the mas ses of people to un ite our stru ggles to smash national contradictions , including the their cadre s and whole sections in a two sharpest trends, revolution and war , frenzied attempt to be righter than imperiali sm!!! though revolutio n, which is principal, is reality. Send all respon ses to: Unity & Struggle, P .O. Box 118 1. "an irresistible trend" in the world The sectar ianism will lead them NewArk , N .J. 07101. today . nowhere bu t sectsville. T here may even We are looking for ways of increasin g the distributi on of U nity & Our relations hip with OL we have be some tota lly incorrect types inside criticized ourselves for, and will aga in. these groups stirring th is infantile sec­ Struggle. But there are certain peop le, PR R WO. taria nism up , in the same of Bolshevism . CAN YOU DISTRIBUTE UNITY & STRUGGLE RWL, for instance, who have had cut­ The cursing, fist fights, fur ious condem­ IN YOUR AREA?? buddy relationships with RU a nd CL, nations of everybody is the results of dubious distinctions we cannot claim. idealism, subjectivism, and the reverse We are looking for · Political Activi sts. Or ganizations. We have always seen RU, exce pt in the side of the empiricism (which they are Bookstor es, Stores . Newsstands . etc . to distribut e Unit y & 1st instances when hearing them des­ still guilty of). dogmatism. Empir icism, Struggle. Can you take I 0-25 or more papers and see th at vo ur cribed as posi tive by peop le in R WL, as (Bolshevik Vol. 1) which they criticized friend s or people you encounter where ever you go . get Unity & chauvinists and subjectivists. Cl's line themselves for. is merely the reverse side Struggle regularly? ? If you are not able to do thi s. plea se send us ••• some suggestions to increase distribution in your a rea . UNITY : ~ STRUC:GLE Also , we have been hara ssed by the U.S. Po st Office - not receiv­ • • ing mail, delays , mail never received from us to other people . etc. Please let us know when this Happens to you . If you are a subscriber Political Organ of the R•••evolut iona ry Commun ist League (M -L-M ) with vital informat ion and analyses of the or distributor ; please notif y us immediately if your addres s chan ges stru ggles of the working class and oppre ssed nationalities because this will cause a delay in your receiving Unity & Struggle or again st imperiali sm & monopoly capitalism & nati onal op­ you not receiving it at all. We do not discontinue sendin g papers pression. Box 1181 without notification - so beware if you don't receive your pa per. 12 Issues 12.40 N•wuk . N.J . 67162 Publlahed Once A Month

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