Letter to the South African Communist Party
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From: Scott Marshall
**Letter to the South African Communist Party**
(Reprinted from the July issue of Political Affairs, monthly journal of the Coomunist
Party, USA. For subscription information see below - all rights reserved.)
Dear Comrades,
First, we want to congratulate the South African Communist Party, the African National
Congress and the South African people on the recent election of a government led by Nelson
Mandela and the historic step towards freedom which it represents. The members of the
Communist Party, USA celebrate this development and share with millions of people around
the world the excitement and deep satisfaction brought by your victory in the struggle
against apartheid. The events in South Africa have tremendous significance for the
struggles our Party is engaged in, against U.S. imperialism and racism, and for equality,
economic justice, democracy and socialism.
Our peoples and our Parties have a special history and relationship, marked by close
fraternal ties, particularly between our National Chair Gus Hall and our late National
Chair, Henry Winston, and the leaders of your Party. We were therefore surprised and
dismayed to see that General Secretary Charles Nqakula is due to address an upcoming
meeting sponsored by an anti-Communist group, the Committee of Correspondence (CoC), in
July in Chicago.
Among those listed on the advertisement for Comrade Nqakula's appearance are people who
have denounced and slandered the Communist Party USA - repeatedly, publicly, in the
bourgeois media, here and abroad. The CoC was set up by former members of the CPUSA, who
first organized a faction within the Party and attempted to destroy it, and then quit when
they were defeated at the 25th Convention in 1991. We must assume that your Party is not
aware of the anti-Communist nature of the CoC and its anti-Communist Party origins.
Perhaps at no other moment in the history of the struggle for socialism and the
emancipation of the working class has international solidarity between Communist parties
been as important as it is now. It is up to all of us to refute the bourgeoisie's new Big
Lie - that socialism and Communism are dead - and we can help each other to do that.
Evidence of the CoC's attitude towards this propaganda is that among the questions to be
discussed at the Chicago event is the "worldwide collapse of socialism." We don't put it
that way, nor does your Party, we're quite sure.
Because we believe that these bonds are essential, and because of the special nature of
the relationship between our Party and yours, we are writing to express our deep concern
about Comrade Nqakula's scheduled appearance at this event.
Although we know that no small part of the aim and impact of groupings like the Committee
of Correspondence is to divert us from the struggle in the real world, we feel compelled
to set the record straight, about the CoC and its leading figures. These are the facts.
Since its inception, the CoC has proven incapable of participating in the struggles of the
U.S. working class for jobs, equality, and against racism and the devastating impact of
the economic crisis of capitalism. They have, however, been very busy on the international
level, working mainly to circulate falsehoods about the CPUSA. They have widely
disseminated their distorted version of the events which led to their leaving our Party,
and their own role, past and present, including in a slanderous interview with Charlene
Mitchell which appeared in the African Communist, unfortunately.
One of the worst examples of the anti-Communism of these ex-Communists is a lengthy
article in Crossroads magazine by Michael Meyerson, which was so appreciated by the ruling
class that the ultra-right Washington Times reprinted it in March of 1992. In this
article, he repeats every anti-Communist slander in the book, and then adds a few of his
own: "unspoken, except in embarrassed whispers, was the issue of the love - in party
circles - that dare not speak its name: that of money and power." And "no one deserves the
remnants of the CPUSA. It has simply exhausted its potential; it is a spent force. The
party I will be run by time-servers and the political equivalent of religious
fundamentalists."
We need not point out that such attacks on the CPUSA are, objectively, attacks on
Communist parties everywhere.
The CoC and its spokespersons have been among the most vocal in declaring that the CPUSA
is defunct or at best irrelevant, at times outdoing even the right wing. In fact they
began spreading this lie even before they finally quit, taking their crusade against the
Party and its leadership to the bourgeois media, spreading crude, anti- Communist lies.
One of the most absurd examples - but representative in its viciousness and the fact that
it was written by an ex-Party leader - is the letter by Jay Schaffner (a CoC leader) to
his parents, also former Party members. In this widely circulated letter, which has been
posted for public access on the computer network, Schaffner wrote, "I can only be thankful
that we did not have socialism in the United States I if we did the mockery of the
socialist principle would have been on a par with that of Pol Pot in Kampuchea. Needless
to say, with these bastards [the CPUSA leadership] in power, your son would have long been
dead, and probably also my children and wife, and you too, my parents." Absurd, yes, but
about on the level of the McCarthyite ravings of the 1950s; of the Reagans and Bothas of
this world, and most definitely intended to do damage.
Most of the CoC leadership are former members and leaders of our Party who were followers
of Gorbachev's classless "new thinking," and who wanted to take over the leadership of the
CPUSA and eliminate or thoroughly dilute the Party's Marxist- Leninist ideology and
politics, grounding in the working class, and advocacy of socialism. Under a blatantly
phony cover of a call for democracy and openness, this grouping fought hard for its anti-
working-class, non-Marxist positions, in Party pre- convention discussions and through
secretive, factional and anti-democratic channels which they created at the expense of the
democratically-elected bodies and democratically-arrived at decisions of the Party.
The CoC is a thoroughly petty-bourgeois phenomenon, a fact proven both by its confused
politics and (lack of) organizational approach, as well as the composition of its members
and leaders. It was a fact revealed in the course of the internal struggle in our Party
before the Convention, which centered around the question of the role of the working class
and the class struggle.
The interview with Charlene Mitchell contains the most vicious of the lies the ex-
Communists are pushing: that, as the interviewer put it, "the tensions within the party
[were] related to the race question;" that there were differences between Comrade Winston
and Comrade Hall, and that upon Winston's death, weaknesses surfaced in relation to Party
democracy and the approach to the struggle against racism. Implied is that Winston was
"with" the membership, and Hall was not. This is a complete distortion of the relationship
between these two leaders, who worked together as a working-class team, and the role
played by Winston, a great African American revolutionary, whose legacy is cherished and
studied by our Party.
These are slanders so outrageous that Winston's widow, Fern Winston, who is a member of
our National Board, felt compelled to write a letter of protest to the African Communist.
They are outrageous slanders because the truth about Winston is exactly the opposite: he
was a staunch Communist who always upheld the revolutionary, working-class line of the
Party, and who always stood strongly and spoke clearly against factionalism. He was part
of and helped build the united, Black-white leadership of our Party, and opposed any and
all attempts to damage that precious unity.
What did happen was that Mitchell and the right opportunist grouping in the Party
leadership attempted to use Winston's untimely passing to push the agenda that he had
always fought against.
Much of their campaign against the Party, before and since the 25th Convention, has been
based on the falsehood that the problems represented a "split along racial lines;" that
the Party had abandoned the struggle against racism, and that most of the racially
oppressed members left after the Convention. These are truly despicable falsehoods,
despicable because of the tremendous role played by Communists in fighting racism and for
class unity, which is part of the historic record; despicable because their campaign in
fact hobbled the Party during that period.
It is despicable because it was a main weapon in their efforts to destroy the Communist
Party, USA, whose role in building Black-white-Latino unity, and analysis of the class
roots of racism are absolutely essential to victories in the class struggle in our
country.
Proof of the fact that the differences in the Party were profoundly political and
ideological is the fact that the majority of the African American and other racially and
nationally oppressed membership not only stayed, but stayed and fought, to defend their
revolutionary Party and its Marxist-Leninist line. Furthermore, since the convention, the
largest group of new recruits to the Party, proportionately, are racially and nationally
oppressed people. On the other hand, the CoC, according to an article by one of its own
members "has not been able to attract significant numbers of activists of color,
especially young activists of color."
The factionalists' cynical use of the charge of racism against the Communist Party is
unforgivable - and yet they continue to spread this lie.
The other big difference had to do with the factionalists' claim that they simply wanted
more democracy, and that they were for unity. On this we must say that the leadership of
our Party made many, many efforts, over several years, to find ways to build unity and to
struggle through political differences. Many democratic innovations, both organizational
and political, were proposed and implemented by the leadership in that preconvention
period. And after the convention, there were more efforts to build bridges with those who
had left the Party. These overtures were made because we understand that this has been a
very difficult period for the Communist movement, and disorienting for many honest people,
and because we have kept our "eyes on the prize" of building maximum unity in the fight
against reaction and for a socialist USA.
Probably even the factionalists would agree that this preconvention period was one of the
most hotly debated and discussed in our Party's history, in many different publications,
and at scores of meetings on every level. But they lost this debate when their right
opportunist positions and the individuals who expressed them were voted down by the
working-class membership of our Party at the 25th Convention. This membership, although
angered and saddened by the events in the socialist world, recognized that more than ever,
capitalism is a disaster for working people in our country; that the class struggle goes
on and the Communist Party is necessary to the victory of the working class.
Rather than abandoning socialism, (as did the faint-hearted elements who left the Party,
and have spent the last several years discussing "what went wrong" in the Soviet Union at
a time when conditions are terribly wrong and getting worse for our people), our members
have prepared themselves to be effective fighters for socialism under the new conditions
with which history has presented us.
Meanwhile, the CoC has spent its time attacking the CPUSA and engaging in endless
discussion about what kind of organization they want to become. They have not become
involved in the struggles for the rights of our embattled working class and people.
An organization report given just a few months ago to the CoC's National Organizing
Committee states that, unlike "other organizations, many feel that the CoC is not doing
something, that it is not focused." It goes on, "the CoC [is] in political and
organizational flux at the local level, without a clear national program of activities or
identity" and "we still need to find and clarify our vision and realize that from our
experience and dialogue we will craft this, there is no 'shining path.'"
In addition to the former Party leaders who comprise the CoC, there are others, ranging
from right social democrats to all manner of Trotskyites and other anti- Communists. And
although we're sure that some honest left people have been attracted to the CoC, the low
level of activity and high level of political confusion, not to mention the deadening and
corrosive impact of the anti-Communism of its leaders, have made the organization
completely ineffectual.
Perhaps the most incriminating fact, which exposes a key reason why these individuals
didn't simply leave the Communist Party when they abandoned their Marxist-Leninist
principles, is that some are engaged in outright thievery of Party funds and property.
Since early 1992, we have been involved in numerous lawsuits, involving millions of
dollars, against former Party leaders who are attempting to steal money and property which
belongs to the CPUSA. They have also been pressuring Party veterans to cut the Party out
of their wills.
Our Party has long had the practice of arranging for money to be left to the Party in the
names of trusted Party leaders, due to the remnants of the McCarthyite political
atmosphere and anti-Communist legal barriers. A number of the ex-Communists in the CoC
have kept such money for themselves and for the CoC. Other cases involve property,
including Party buildings and bookstores. They have defended this thievery with everything
from hypocritical, twisted reasoning (e.g., "if the person who left this money to the
Party were alive, they would leave it to the CoC"), to lies and outright anti-Communism.
In one battle over property in California in which the issues were clear-cut (the two
corporations in question were set up by the Party), Charlene Mitchell and others defended
their indefensible dishonesty and thievery by directly playing to anti- Communist myths.
In their court testimony they charged that the Party is totally undemocratic, with a top-
down structure in which the membership has no say. They lied about the substance and
spirit of the 25th Convention, portraying themselves as innocent victims of a dictatorial
clique. Their legal defense included questioning Party leaders about whether they advocate
violence against the government, a charge which has been the ideological centerpiece of
anti-Communism and the persecution of the Party and the left in our country for decades.
Whatever honest individuals might have been attracted to the CoC, in the main, it is an
organization and leadership thoroughly tainted with an anti-Communism based on ideological
collapse, political dishonesty and simple greed.
Finally, just a few words about our Party and its membership. The quantity and viciousness
of the slander levelled against us is inversely related to what is the real truth about
the CPUSA: that ours is a revolutionary working-class Party, Black, Latino, Native
American Indian, Asian and white; composed of men and women who are fighters and leaders
in every arena of struggle. We are a party with a tremendous 75 year history, and a
vibrant, growing present.
The factionalists lost their bid to de-rail our Party because our membership held on to
their Marxist-Leninist principles, which have been confirmed and developed by rich and
varied experience in practical struggle.
Our Party has been involved - even through the bitter and exhausting factional period - on
practically every issue and front of struggle: in strike struggles and strike solidarity;
building the fight against NAFTA; organizing the movement against homelessness; in the
fight against the growing racism of the U.S. ruling class and its attempt to turn back the
clock on civil rights and equality; in the anti-imperialist movements.
Communist Party members and leaders stand out and are respected wherever they are active,
be it in neighborhood organizations, in the labor movement, in coalitions. The Party runs
candidates for public office and is helping initiate and build mass movements for jobs.
Our weekly press and our theoretical journal have published continuously since our
Convention, and make very important contributions, clarifying the issues and helping build
movements of struggle.
Finally, our activity in the anti-apartheid movement has been consistent, beginning with
the outstanding contribution of Henry Winston, who was the initiator of the mandatory,
comprehensive sanctions movement in our country. This work has included building
solidarity between the U.S. and South African trade union movements, and solidarity with
the SACP; most recently, with the speaking tour organized by our paper for the late Chris
Hani in 1990 and for Moses Mahbida in the early 1980s.
The CPUSA and our Young Communist League are extremely active, and we are growing rapidly,
with large numbers of African Americans and Latinos among these mainly working-class new
members. Many of the people who left during and after the factional struggle have been
drawn to the Party by its activity, and are re-joining.
Such renegade groups as the Committee of Correspondence have appeared in many countries,
as a result of internal struggles within the Communist Parties over ideological and other
questions. In many cases - certainly in our own - these factional struggles were sharpened
and even assisted by the enemy.
In your country you have had long experience with those claiming to be true-er
revolutionaries, more democratic democrats, etc. You know as we do that the ruling class
encourages and promotes these developments to sow disunity in the people's movements, and
that they have never ceased to try to strangle the parties of socialism.
The CoC is simply another example of the old phenomenon of small, break-away groups which
have come and gone over the years in every country. Nor are their politics - such as they
exist - anything new or particularly significant.
As one of their main aims is to sow and foster disunity, our Party has publicly declared
that we will not give any kind of support for such groups - anywhere - recognizing the
importance of the solidarity and unity of the Communist movement.
Being apprised of these facts, we believe that you will not put the prestige and honor of
the heroic South African Communist Party at the service of this unprincipled group, and we
are sure that Comrade Nqakula will reconsider and not attend the Chicago meeting. At this
new historical moment, so full of possibilities as well as new challenges, let us take the
opportunity to strengthen our Parties fraternal relations and common cause, the fight
against imperialism and for socialism. With warmest fraternal regards,
For the National Board, CPUSA, Gus Hall, National Chair
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via PNEWS
From: amcgee@netcom.com (Arthur R. McGee)
Subject: [PA] Letter to SACP (fwd)
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Message-ID:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 3 Aug 1994 16:22:15 -0400 (EDT)
From: PNEWS
Subject: [PA] Letter to SACP