Early in 1980, the Revolutionary Communist League (M-L-M) merged into the League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L) or LRS (M-L). That group had been set up in September 1978 by a merger of the August Twenty-ninth Movement, of Chicano origin, and the I Wor Kuen, an “Asian national movement.” The LRS (M-L) had proclaimed that the central task of the League is party building. The League will do its utmost to contribute to developing the conditions for the formation of a single, unified communist party in the U.S.”[83]
The LRS (M-L) absorbed several other radical racial or ethnic groups. These included the Seize the Time Collective, consisting of Chicano and Black elements in the San Francisco area, and the East Wind Collective, mainly made up of Japanese Americans in and around Los Angeles.[84]
At the time of the merger of the Revolutionary Communist League (M-L-M) and the LRS (M-L), their Central Committees issued a joint statement to the effect that “Our unity signals a big advance in this struggle for Marxist-Leninist unity and for a single, unified, vanguard communist party. It represents a strengthening of the communist forces and a blow against revisionism, trotskyism, and opportunism.”[85]
The LRS (M-L) strongly supported the post-Mao Chinese leadership. An editorial in its paper said that “In her domestic policies, China successfully concluded the campaign against the gang of four’ and shifted its attention to focus on building China into a modern, powerful socialist country by the end of the century. This great task is being closely watched and supported by progressive and revolutionary people around the world.”[86]
The League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L) adopted some of the positions of the Communist Party of the United States during the Third Period of the early 1930s. Thus, it called for “self-determination” not only for Blacks, but also for Chicanos.[87]
Another group supporting the post-Mao leadership in China was the Marxist-Leninist League. It was established early in 1980 by a merger between the League for Proletarian Revolution (M-L), based mainly in New York, and the Colorado Organization for Revolutionary Struggle. Upon its establishment, the group proclaimed, “We are committed to the struggle for the overthrow of the U.S. bourgeoisie, the establishment of the dictatorship of the Proletariat and the building of socialism in the U.S. opposition to both superpowers, support for the national liberation struggles of the Third World, upholding of the Three Worlds Theory are some of our guiding principles.”[88]
A group that took a stand in support of the Gang of Four was the Communist Workers Party (CWP). It, too, emerged from groups that had originally been organized along racial or ethnic lines.
An official statement of origins of the CWP, which had originally been called the Workers Viewpoint Organization, stated, “We started out in 1974 as a small study group, and grew rapidly over the next 2 years as the advanced elements from the national and student movements united with our correct line in opposition to various shades of opportunist lines around at the time. … We have entrenched ourselves in basic industries and are the leadership of the Black Liberation Movement, as seen in our historic African Liberation Days.”[89]
An unfriendly source noted that “the Workers Viewpoint Organization (WVO), once a small predominantly Asian-American sect … expanded its influence through a series of fusions in 1976—1977, with local Maoist collectives and, more importantly, with the black Boston-based February First Movement.”[90]
The WVO became the Communist Workers Party in 1979. The official statement of the party, previously cited, noted, “Yes, we support the so-called ‘Gang of Four’ who were condemned after the coup by Hua and Teng, and have written several articles in our newspaper about the concrete steps they are taking towards restoring capitalism in China. This is a great loss to all revolutionaries around the world, and who are now without their ‘Northern Star.’”[91]
The CWP was notable particularly for its apocalyptic view of the imminence of revolution. Thus, its periodical Workers Viewpoint stated, “If we only look at the appearance of things we may think that life seems to be going on routinely as before for most of our neighbors and fellow workers. If you really think that way, then you are being fooled by the appearance and not grasp the essence—that today the U.S. people are disgusted with capitalism and all its lying politicians, that they can’t live in the old way any longer, and that the bourgeoisie can’t rule in the old way either. A most excellent, yet dangerous opportunity is around the comer— a spontaneous revolutionary situation is approaching.”[92]
In November 1979, the CWP gained national attention when a meeting it organized in Greensboro, North Carolina with the slogan “Death to the Ku Klux Klan” was attacked by KKK members, as a result of which several CWP members were killed. Where those who conducted this attack were tried for murder, they were absolved by the jury.
Particularly in its early years, the WVOCWP was also notably for its resort to violence. Thus, the 1980 election campaign, “On hundred fifty CWP’ers tried to storm a Democratic fundraising, event at the New York Plaza Hotel, injuring six police. That nigh there were four attempted firebombs; at each site CWP slogan were found. … In 1976, as Workers Viewpoint Organization, the group broke up rival communist groups’ meetings, throwing chairs on stage and attacking enemies with baseball bats and hammers. … A Southern Regional Party Bulletin urged member: to break the bond of legality and advised that each member should be ‘self-sufficient’; it suggested military training and drilling with guns.”[93]
The CWP disappeared in the late 1980s, after it had supported Jesse Jackson’s bid for the Democratic Party nomination for the presidency.[94]
Finally, note should be taken of the Workers World Part? (WWP), which for some time was attracted to Maoism, but became disillusioned in the 1970s. The WWP had originated as a split in the Trotskyite Socialist Workers Party in 1959. With the Sino-Soviet split, it largely abandoned Trotskyism and supported the Chinese. One of its leaders, Key Martin, explained in 1976 that “We are Leninists, are careful to study the works of all the great revolutionary leaders of our era. … It was our party which in this country first raised and defended the polemics of the Chinese comrades criticizing the revisionism of the Soviet Party in the sixties. We also immediately understood and explained the revolutionary significance of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution as it began and unfolded, not several years after the fact as with many others. … We do not, however, necessarily agree with every aspect of China’s present foreign policy and certainly disagree with their … theory of ‘social imperialism’ which they have propounded in recent years.”[95]
With the death of Mao, the WWP strongly opposed the post-Mao Chinese leadership. Sam Marcy, the party’s principal leader, wrote that “A great mistake was made in the Communist movement … in assessing the significance of the ouster of Chiang Ching, Chang Chun-chiao, Wang Hung-wen and Yao Wen-yuan. … The view … was that a small group of ultra-left Maoists was turned out and that a new, more reasonable grouping … was taking over. … But this was a mistaken view.”
Marcy went on, “The coming to power of Teng and Hua represented the victory of the New Right. … The New Right … has moved from diplomat maneuvering to action. … It has moved headlong towards a Sino-U.S. alliance. The New Right is propelled to do so by its assault on the progressive social achievements of the Chinese Revolution.”[96]
83
Unity, organ of League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L), New York, September 1978, page 15.
87
Unity, April 25, 1980, and Letter to the author from William Gallegos, League of Revolutionary Struggle, July 5, 1980.
93
Harvey Klehr, Far Left of Center: The American Radical Left Today, 1988, op. cit, page 100.