Category: Movement Critique

  • With Friends Like These (Workers International)

    Just as a football coach knows that one cannot repeatedly plow through the middle of the line, that sometimes one has to run to the right, sometimes a little to the left, and sometimes far to the left in order to keep the opposition off balance, so those who wield political power understand the need…

  • Two Lines of Thought on the Middle East Peace Process

    The debate around the peace process essentially rages around two lines of thought. The first line, pragmatic, considers that it is basing itself on realities, very harsh and painful realities. They see that the US has won a huge victory in the Gulf War, that the war has had disastrous economic effects on the Palestinians,…

  • By Their Deeds Ye Shall Know Them

    The news of the collapse of Communist governments in Eastern Europe and now the Soviet Union has been received with almost universal enthusiasm across the political spectrum. That the Bushes and Thatchers of the world are pleased at the collapse of socialism is quite natural. But that people calling themselves progressive and even socialist find…

  • The Movement’s Requirements

    There is no need to lay out all the components of today’s growing social and economic crises nor detail the symptoms of growing racism and repression. We are all aware of the problems. What we need to do is to develop a vision of how we can not only strengthen our fight against the continued…

  • The Role of Black Activists in the General Movement

    It is vital to all like-minded African-American activists to discuss the building of a Left Pole in the again-revived National Liberation movement, with a focus on these functions:

  • Pressure Politics

    Context – Critique of an interview given by Jim Haughton on 99.5 WBAI, September 1990. Haughton said the main task was to be able to bring to bear sufficient pressure from the African-American community on Mayor Dinkins to counter the enormous pressure he faces from the powerful interests, that Dinkins wanted to do the right…

  • Our Socialist Trauma

    Remarks originally prepared for the Berkshire Forum, 1990. I would just offer some random observations concerning the dramatic events of the past few years, hoping to put them in proper historical perspective. It is not enough to criticize a number of aspects of socialist construction and to condemn its shortcomings. Criticism that confines itself to…

  • Open Letter to Joe Slovo & The South African Communist Party

    In these times when socialism has suffered such tragic defeats, when a petty-bourgeois tidal wave has swept over many Communist Parties of the world, particularly the parties formerly presiding over socialist construction. In these times when the dominant political motion Jiaild Wide is capitulation to the might of the trans-   nationals, the banks and…

  • A Word About the Liberals – Letter Excerpt, October 1988

    A word about the liberals. WE need to wage an all-out ideological war against them. We need to expose every vacillation, every instance of cowardice, opportunism, etc. But this does not preclude entering into agreements with them around specific issues or actions. There are times when tangible benefits for the masses and better conditions for…

  • National Liberation and Class Struggle

    The success of national-liberation movements is intimately linked to its social content. The more the national revolution adopts a social program that embraces the burning needs of the masses, the more the masses become part of that movement, the stronger that movement, the more rapid its victory and the greater the assurance against national betrayal…