First Published: Unity, December 15, 1978.
Reprinted: The Communist, Vol. V, No. 4, January 8, 1979.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
Copyright: This work is in the Public Domain under the Creative Commons Common Deed. You can freely copy, distribute and display this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit the Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line as your source, include the url to this work, and note any of the transcribers, editors & proofreaders above.
In the October 9, 1978 issue of THE COMMUNIST (the newspaper of Workers Congress) the East Wind Collective was identified (without confirming it with us) as having taken a position opposed to the expulsion of Workers Congress (WC) from the Anti-Bakke Decision Coalition (ABDC) local in Los Angeles. This report is a complete distortion of facts.
First, although our organization had contacts in ABDC (whose views and practice we accept responsibility for), East Wind is not directly represented. The abstention on the vote to expel WC was the result of our organization not providing adequate guidance to our contacts. And this error is one for which East Wind accepts responsibility. We had insufficient awareness of the content and ramifications of the series of WC articles and the practice of WC in ABDC locals throughout the country. And secondarily, we were not informed of the topic of discussion in the local chapter until shortly before the meeting. Through this experience, we feel that we have been able to deepen our understanding of the role and contributions of various forces involved in the anti-Bakke movement. We want to make clear that the East Wind organization supports and agrees with the expulsion of Workers Congress.
We have learned from this example that Workers Congress deliberately distorts facts to support its own ends. And far from being principled, WC uses metaphysics and subjectivism to idealize its own role in ABDC. In the August 2 8 issue of THE COMMUNIST, WC writes that ABDC work is limited to California, in order to justify their criticism of “ATM’s and IWK’s narrowness”. Tell that to the ABDC chapters in Atlanta, on the East Coast, and especially in Chicago, where WC itself says it has so much influence. WC also wrote that they are the “only ones in Los Angeles who have done door-to-door work”, completely ignoring work done by other organizations and individuals, including our contacts and those of the League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L. And lastly, our contacts in Los Angeles have taken particular leadership in the struggles of the workers at National Blank Book Company, and were greatly surprised to see WC attempt to take personal credit for ABDC efforts in that area.
While we recognize that there are, in fact, some weaknesses within ABDC that need to be corrected, it is difficult to take seriously WC’s analysis of ABDC when such analysis is based on distortions and unprincipled attacks Our view is to strengthen and improve the work of ABDC in the future, but it is also our view that there have been many accomplishments already made which far outweigh its weaknesses. Examples include the formation of ABDC as a nationwide organization to fight national oppression, the building of a mass movement that has involved literally thousands across the country, and the development of political points of unity that have objectively helped to advance the struggle, and which have not limited it as WC asserts abstractly. In our view, WC has deliberately distorted Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought by distorting truth and making subjective, one-sided assessments. In this way, WC has consciously practiced a line of disrupting and undermining the ABDC and the anti-Bakke movement.
We in East Wind hail the continued development of ABDC as a revolutionary mass organization. Its creation as a nationwide organization arising out of concrete mass struggle is truly a significant development in the fight against the intensifying national oppression and all forces of reaction.
We acknowledge and applaud the major roles that ATM and IWK (and now the League of Revolutionary Struggle) have taken in providing leadership to its development. East Wind looks forward to further developing the work in ABDC by building off of our past accomplishments, and to continue working together with the League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L) in the spirit of unity-struggle-unity.
East Wind Collective Los Angeles, Calif.