Re: CoC, factions and CPUSA

["Marcus Strom" <MSTROM@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I don't know whether everyone got this from Kevin. It was addressed
to me with no cc to the list. I reply to his post below...

I used the word crap. Not a good choice. What I mean is that people
copped out of a fight in the CPUSA. Yes, I know people had been
fighting for years etc, etc, but to leave the party was a big part of
its liquidationary process - a process which stumbles along, despite all the
claims of the Halls and Marshalls of this world. Just 'cause a party
momentarily increases members doesn't mean it isn't on a
liquidationary course. It is the *programatic direction* which is
important. The CPA, which was thoroughly New Left and euro communist
by the 1970s had a big spurt of growth in the mid 70s period. It
didn't stop its liquidation in 1990, but in many ways, helped bring
it on.

People such as yourself, Louis, Angela should have developed a
concerted, honest, resolute *factional* fight against the *centrist*
leadership of Hall for a genuine mass communist party. The CPUSA is
really the only mass revolutionary party workers in the US have ever
created, despite its centrism, Bowderism (sp?) and capitulation to
'stalinsim' (for want of a better term).

Backing out and forming CoC is a backward step, a navel gaze, an
admission of defeat, a *desertion of the communist party*.

You (Kevin) write that the CoC is something you belong to on paper.
This is the problem. CoC is "not waving, drowning". It is barely even
a stop gap measure.

You then write this:
>       Explain what you mean by class-conscious workers tribune, as right
> now the COC along with much of the socialist left is still stuck in the
> doldrums of strength.

A tribune to class conscious workers is the communist *party*. Not
sect, not 'paper organisation', but an organisation of the most far
sighted, resolute working class activists. The 'concrete embodiment
of class consciousness' as Lukacs called it.

And what are "the doldrums of strength"?

There is no substitute for organisation. And at the same time,
organisation can never substitute for the workers movement. This
latter part of the dialectic is what most trotskyists suffer from -
substitutionism. Defunct, social democratised, centrist burnt out new
left ex-stalinist types are usually guilty of tailing the mass
movements. Of course there is plenty going on, there always is, that
is life. The question is, how are we reforging mass genuine communist
parties? This is the central question at the moment. Our movement is
liquidated, how are we going to crawl out of the swamp?

Lowest common denominator get togethers will not work either.
Temporary alliances (electoral perhaps) are fine and positive. But
communists struggle for unity at the highest possible level and do
not engage in 'ideological diplomacy', but resolute open polemic and
unity in action.

No one has a monopoly on the truth (about the only decent quote that
was attributed to Gorbechev). Yet, as communists, we do not take an
agnostic position. We collectively fight for the best relative truth
we can get to..



> Date:          Tue, 20 Feb 1996 16:14:33 -0500 (EST)
> From:          Kevin Cabral <kcabral@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject:       Re: CoC, factions and CPUSA
> To:            Marcus Strom <MSTROM@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

> On Tue, 20 Feb 1996, Marcus Strom wrote:
>
> > If the CPUSA was *really* a mass communist party, it wouldn't be
> > necessary for genuine marxists to have left and joined the CoC. I
> > actually think there are some pretty crap people in CoC - similar to
> > the burnout newLeft types who killed off the CPs in many countries
> >
> > The CoC, at best, is a way for people to stop going too far
> > backwards. It will not (nor to my knowledge does it intend) become
> > the class conscious workers tribune. That will be the communist party
> > (not the Communist Party).
>
>       The COC is currently a rather slow organization, but I have'nt met
> these pretty crap people you talk about. Who? Louis Proyect, Angela Davis,
> Kevin Cabral?
>
>       The COC is something I belong to on paper, the biggest thing I do
> now is work with people from most every group, with the exception of
> perhaps PLP, MIM, etc. to try and do more inreach and outreach programs.
>
>       Explain what you mean by class-conscious workers tribune, as right
> now the COC along with much of the socialist left is still stuck in the
> doldrums of strength. There are positive things going on, and great
> discussion but of course the COC is not a mass party.
>
>       Nor is the CPUSA a mass party. But I hope within the next year or
> two communists can get together to form a coordinated socialist party. The
> important thing now is to try and make this happen by building strategies
> to deal with average people about socialism.
>
>       We're a long way away from having a socialist party with 15
> million members, a nationally distributed paper, and a powerful force on
> the political scene. But I'm interested to hear from you how you think
> this can be built, and what is wrong with all the parties today.
>
> Kevin
> Cols, Oh
>
>       
>                       
>                       
>
>
>


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