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* discredited Sct @ levied in the eyes of many hong) poopie. ‘The Oskland “tion, Basabuilding as a strategy was used as a club to beat down an important “action, In short, they have proven again and again that they oppose in’ practice the Draft Week Demobvtrations went @ long way toward! ‘eating the open pacifist: trend within the "overent thereby providing a basis of respect between the Mack Liberation struggles andthe anti-war struggles. PL took an essentially conservative position in that demonstration refraining from real participation and finally sharply criticizing the action the night before on the grounds that. the students movement's main fight was on campus - getting rid of ROTC etc, © PL did-participate in Stop the Draft Week through the Black Anti-Draft Union. They argued that the pigs might chase.the students into the ghetto which was adjacent to the site of demonstrations, thereby provoking @ massacre in the es : black community. Their line was supported by a group from the now defunct Northern =; * California Black Panther Party. It should be noted that. these Black Panthers : have nothing in common with the Black Panther Party of Huey Nexton and Bobby Seale, This little group wes a notorious band of cultural nationalists and renogades, Considering PLP’s line on “nationalism",this 1s a curious “alliance” indeed. ¥hen the Oakland 7 were acquitted and the announcement was made at the Harch SDS IC, PLP and many of its supporters sat silently while the rest of the Convention —..... cheered the victory, One finial example. On the occasion of the massive and militant — Pentagon dexonstration, they opposed mass marches resulting in "futile" gon- . frontations to long term base building as if these were necessarily in contradic- mobilizing broad, militant, united action against imperialism. How is-it that the PLP 4s able to put forth this pernicious and.false line and ok gain a’certain amount of sympathy? There are a number of reasons: First, there is a general worldwide struggle against revisionism led by the Chinese and Mao Tse Tung. The restoration of capitalism in a number of formerly socialist countries, the betrayal of the struggles of the peoples of the world, has outraged many people and has underscored the importance of vigilance in preventing the _ strengthening end tenporary victory of revisionism in the struggle between two '“foads.. It 4s somewhat natural that in the struggle against right opportunism ~ eccul that one would be prone to “left" opportunist errors, Second, there is a ten- dency, which stems from superficial radicalism, radicalism not steeled in the struggle of the masses, to establish one's revolutionary credentials through vhetoric, Third, as we have observed, there is within the imperialist homeland, particularly among those belonging to the white national majority, a powerful aisposition toward national chauvinism manifesting itself in arrogance, feelings of of superiority, subtle racism, condescension, etc, Fourth, the peculiarities of the the Arerican moveuent--the triumph of dogmatism and revisionism in the U.S, Communist Party, the "generation gap" induced by the repression of the fifties, . the slanderous attack. by Khrushchev on Stalin and the dictatorship of the proletar-~ dat, as well‘as the errors of the Marxist-Leninists--have #11 bred a distrust for the teachings of the leaders of the worldwide proletarian movenent, Despite the new worldwide triucphs of Marxism-Leninism a general ignorance prevails within the U.Si en therst elerentsry principles of scientific socielism which is only just beginning to be overcoms, It is our view that many of the errors of the membership of the PLP fall into the category of infantile leftisn, va reflecting the newness of their participation in the movement and the sincerity of their convictions, in contrast to the matufe neo-Trotskyism of the leader- ship nurtured over a long period, . ~ 7. eleF od But the, key to’ the confusion on a theoretical level has to do with the peculiarities of the world situation, he are faced with an entirely new situation as a result of the restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union, The Chinese party has taken the Russian revisienists to task and exposed then for e211 the world to see. The Vietnamese party has not scen fit to join in this attack nor have the . Vietnamese leunched a cultural revolution. It is also truc that the Vietnamese 4n the north have accepted "aid" from the Soviet Union, It is certainly our view that every nation building socialism mst. undergo a cultural revolution, 5 @sed they will undoubtedly go through ¢ series of cultural revolutions, but it would be idealism in the extreme for us to become grand strategists of . everyone else's culture] revolution especielly when we have not yet ourselves plished the preliminary socialist revclution. The difficulty stems partly, 8S we have S48, frou an idealist, ahistoricc] methot-of onalybic.. By judking all events merely, from the vantage point of the most advariced developrants, d.ev,the cultpral, revolution, all other events seem pale beside it, Why doosn't everrsne see What we see? Why have they not done what needs to be done? We ~ heve witnessed this error before in the utopian socielism of tho 19th. century. But this ‘cnlightermant' werld outlook has gained new vitality because in this instance we are dealing with stato power in the hands of the proletariat, Hence 4t seems es if enything can be accomplished, . : an