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3 COPPORTUNISH — ttn broth=r sf posta .: 7 fpr 4 Tho Progrossivo Labor Party, ‘protending toMtpnola tho Gultural Rovolul Ee kee tion end tho Thought of Meo, has com forth with a sorics of positions and 3 " earriod thom out in practico, which in fact min counter to ell tho wain lessons _ Of tho Chinese and Viotnamesc rovelutions as woll as the struggle for Black liberation in Amorica, “Superficially it socms absurd to contend that a group whose rnotoric sounds so militent and whose practice often tnvalvos considerable porsonal sacrifice on tho part of its xcmbors and who, in vords, oppose the countcerrevelutionary revisionist trond in the vorld revoluticniry movement and uphold the world-historic Groat Prolotaptan Cultural Rovolvtion, could, itsolf, he bocume £h obstacle to revolution, . Tho dotorior2tion of tho Progressive Labor Party is a groat disappoint- mont to all gonuino rovolutionarios. In tho oarly stages of tho Party's develop. vont it mado a number of significant contri butions: it took « principlod stand -« before the Howso Unamorican Committeo; it raised anti- imperialist consciousnoss through its support of the Cuben pooplo!s struggle against tho United Statos! ruling class; it supported tho Bleck Liberation movement znd contributed totho defoat ofpacifist tdoas in that strugglo.and in tho anti-war novensnt; it played 2 key rolo in the anti-var movoment, through tho organizetion of tho Hhy 2 ’ ~ movement which it launched and helpod practically and idoologically, Its most - important contribution during thet peried was its soperatjcn from und opposi- + tion to tho revisionistCommunist Party and the whole intornational revisicnist trond, . vat Thoso promising oarly beginnings have turned into thoir opposite, = Today tho Icadership of the PLP nas has complotely ombraced "loft" opportunisn, vs. * ; both theoretically and practically. Tho chiof chareetcristicof "eft" oppor- : tunisn (and why "left" is onclosed in quotos) is tho uso of revolutionary phraso-~ olegy and rhetoric in order to oppose in przctico tho strugsios of tho fooplo. © In other vords, bocauso a "loft" linc undcrmines the struggic, an objoctive vnity is created with right revisionists who sock to water down tho struggle and stripit of its revolutionary soul, In so doing, "loft" onportunists scivo tie inpericlists objoctively, accomplishing for thou within the ranks of the say people vhat open supporters of inporialism aro unable to accomplish, Honco . while "loft" an forn thoy aro rightin ossenco, It is for this reason thet wo refer to At as rovisionism's tin brother, , . "loft" opportunisa manifests itself in a varioty of ways and, es Jenin _.. S8¥$, crops up in tho mest unexpectod plecos. It cften takos tho form of ad- * vonturism,or "fighting vhon you cannot win." (It wey becontrasted with conser- vatisn, or "not fighting -shon you can wins") In the important sphoro of revoly- tionary stratcey, At ipholds a misteken viow of the necessary ctego ef struggle, that tho rovolution must go through, "Left" cpportunists put forvard tho slogans - for a mero advanced stage of stragglo in orde> to oppose struggiss at tho promt “. sbage, attempting thoreby to"skip" necessary stagos. In contrast "loft" oprer. turism assumes the posture of "ali strugglo and no allianco,” whereas right . opportunism upholds ‘ali allianccand no strngglo,® thoroby sutmorging itsolf “undor tho loadorship of anothor class and abandoning its inderendent rolo. Poth tronds havo no real confidence in the missos and feil to apply thf icass Lins. ..- .“Joft™ opportunism rofusos to losrn from the people, systematize thoir ideas, meot their immodiate noads and point the wy forward, Organizsticnally it sub~ :, stitutes "sofving the organization” for"sorving tho peopse." 4 : _ . Ko party or revolutionary movement ean evor bo froo from thoso errors, In fact it is the struggle against these errors within the revolutionary ranks - .and within the mass movomort that steols our forees and onablos us to advanec. As Mao says, without such ideological struggle our ranks will bo swanped “sith < Uiboralism and ¥@ vill accomplish nothing, Navertholess, theso orrors ariso “4n varying degreos of soriousnoss. hon thoysystomatizc thomselvos, and erys- talliza organizationally into a dofinite trond, they beccmo probloms of a dit- foront stripe. For oxemple,vben Ienin polomicized against “left-wing commnisn, an infantils disordor," he racognizod that this "loftist™ discase which ecropred up id tho nowly formed partics ef the Third Iatomation=l ws a yroblem of . ~ youth, of honest mistakes arising from ignoranec, excossivo zeal, or undcre devolopcd thoery. . Tho important thing was not that poopie wore making se errors butthat thoso errors could be cormectod through timely and skarp c cia. Tho riso of Trotskyism presented the opposite proplon. Trotskyisn with « sorios of "loft" crrors byt persisted in thom, systomatizedthon, pl itself in opposition to overy horlthy trend in tho jnternati rl communis’ '"ovomont,- opposed socialism wherovor it was osiablished and finely to right cgcnts of the ruling class. me, 2 : i” class roots of these vievsere in the rotit bourgeioste and tha aristocats within tho working class. iis o et dsm, tho cysteutic fostoring of the idoclogy of raci =a,’ 4