RE: Size of US Left Groups (Re: Level of Debate: SLP

[Louis N Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 6 Dec 1995 wdrb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Committee of Correspondence............
> what are they??
>
> Will Brown
> Bristol
> England

Louis:

I am a member of the CofC. It is not a "vanguardist" formation. Most
people, including myself, see it as a transitional step.

The Committees of Correspondence emerged out of a split
in the CPUSA. The faction that sided with long-time party
boss Gus Hall was uncomfortable with perestroika and
glasnost. The faction opposed to him embraced these
changes. In addition, they thought that the CPUSA was
long overdue for its own version of glasnost.

When Red Army officers launched a coup against
Gorbachev, the two factions took opposing positions on the
move and the group split shortly afterwards.

The co-chairs of Committees of Correspondence are
Manning Marable, the head of the African-American studies
department at Columbia University and Charlene Mitchell,
who was the CPUSA presidential candidate in 1968.

This is an excerpt from "For a Democratic
and Socialist Future", the basic programmatic statement of
the Committees of Correspondence:

"Our fundamental priority must be to become a practical
and powerful force within national political discourse and
public policy debates. To achieve this will require a greater
social vision and political tolerance for all currents and
organizational formations within the left. It means
transcending ideological debates and conflicts of the past,
recognizing the urgent necessity to build broadly-based
unity.

We believe the immediate possiblities for the left are better
than its immediate past. The vast majority of people with
left and socialist convictions do not belong to any group
which expresses their political views. Many, especially
younger people, have been active and developed their
radical, anti-capitalist and socialist views in various social
movements. The left is the natural political home for such
people.

And among some left organizations there is a welcome
tendency to brush aside old barriers, to develop constructive
dialog on strategic issues and to seek agreement on action.
We believe the time is ripe for concrete initiatives to bring
together such forces, based on the best left traditions of
solidarity and mutual respect."



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