In a message dated 1/17/2005 1:01:00 PM Central Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>>The League of Black Revolutionaries and Communist
League was led by Nelson Perry into (League of
Revolutionaries" [or something like that, that still
put out People's Tribune which appears regularly
on laborpartypraxis postings by Mike] not to
the PLP.
Being a Black person and member of the Black
movement in the 60s does not mean you understood it,
any more than being Black validate your ideologies
regarding either nationalism; or having been raise
in the Church constitute and understanding of
Christianity. And, you are wrong about Trotsky
and the SWP, what he had were discussions with
CLR James, James Cannon and others regarding
the Negro question, and made suggestions to them.
BTW - my criticism of Aristide and the Church
has nothing to do with the crude atheism of
Stalinists masquerading as "Bolsheviks".<<<
Reply
Lil Joe . . . you left of the word "Worker" in describing what you believe to
be aspects of the formation of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers.
Then you delibrately twist things to read "The League of Black Revolutionaries"
(this is what you wrote, not I) to present a different political concept and
obscure our conscious understanding of the polarity we gave shape to during the
transition from one phase of the working class movement and its industrial
sector as it intersected with the industrial sectors of the African American
Liberation Movement.
You go to far. Perhaps it is wrong to call this being dishonest but I do not
know what else to call matters. Where did I speak of "The League of Black
Revolutionaries," which you attribute to me in your response? You of course lie
about Nelson Peery and his role in "The League of Black Revolutionaries," which
you invented in your mind for reasons known only to you.
Fine.
Would it not be prudent to deal with matters one is familiar with and can
authenticate? Nelson Peery was never a member or leader of the League of
Revolutionary Black Workers LRBW). Where did you get this information and what
is your
source? Herein resides the dishonesty of presentation. The League of
Revolutionary Black Workers is converted into the "League of Black
Revolutionaries" -
something invented in your mind Lil Joe, and then an outright lie takes place.
The Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM) came into existence as the
result of the May 3, 1968 wildcat strike at Hamtramck Assembly plant. This was
the
catalyst that made DRUM into a viable in-plant Black workers' organization.
Organization and structured didn't come into existence until two months after
DRUM's development. The LRBW came later as a federated form of organization.
The concept of a "League of Revolutionary Black Workers" had been in the
minds of activists General Baker, John Watson, John Williams and Luke Tripp for
many years. In 1964 and 1965 they had put out a theoretical journal called
"Black Vanguard" which called for a "League of Revolutionary Black Workers."
Between December 1968 and Spring 1969, meetings were held with the "cadre
collective" (a loose coalition of activists who had worked together since the
days of
UHURU) to discuss the formation of the "League of Revolutionary Black Workers."
The book on the League, "Detroit: I Do Mind Dying" by Dan Georgakas and
Marvin Surkian, somewhat distorts the history and development of the LRBW. I
was
also a founding member of the League. "The LRBW legally incorporated in June
1969 and opened its headquarters at 179 Courtland Street in October. I had "run
away from home" to join the movement and lived in the office of the LRBW at the
time.
The League began public projection In July 1969 with the Inner City Voice as
its official organ. For the most part, a city-wide Black student movement
developed in the high schools and colleges and affiliated themselves with the
League. The high school groups, led by the students at Northern High School,
put
out a newsletter called Black Student Voice. While in Detroit, Glanton Dowdell
- (who would later flee to Sweden), was the students' mentor.
I state categorically, that Nelson Peery was on the West Coast at the time
and involved in the California Communist League and had nothing what so ever to
do with the League of Revolutionary Black Workers. Why would you state the
opposite, which cannot be authenticated by anyone and understood by everyone
involved in this activity to be an outright lie?
As far as the need to validate ones ideology (you state: Being a Black person
and member of the Black movement in the 60s does not mean you understood it,
any more than being Black validate your ideologies regarding either
nationalism) . . . I have no need to validate anything to anyone and most
certainly the
Black Intellegenica has never needed to validate its precepts and the various
ideologies within the African American Liberation Movement.
Further, I am familiar with every major writing by CLR James (the Trinidad
intellectual) on the Negro Question. I am familiar with much of Trotsky's
writings and utterances on the Negro Question. CLR James was the leading spirit
of
the "Changing Reality Group" in Detroit. James Boggs (Notes from a Negro
Workers Notebook) left the groups and was one of several mentors of the LRBW.
The
LRBW was formed in June 1969 - legally incorporated and as I understand it the
League of Revolutionaries for a New America came into existence almost 30
years later. My point is that you go to far and simply do not know the
historically confirmed facts.
You state I am wrong on Trotsky and the SWP and I assume that you have
already read the series of articles I wrote dealing with CLR James writings and
Trotsky's criticism of his American comrade on the Negro Question, which to
call
"the black movement" and which I call African American Liberation and the
African American peoples movement. These writings appeared on the A-List.
Others
appeared on Marxmail and Pen-L.
The problem is that you will not quote where I am incorrect in dissecting CLR
James articles on the Negro Question and this seems to me to be dishonet.
Specifically, I wrote about the following articles of CLR James, which is old
hat
for many of us:
"The Right of Self-Determination and the Negro in the US SWP," New York
Convention Resolutions, July 1939: The SWP and Negro Work SWP New York
Convention
Resolutions 1939: "Revolution and the Negro" New International, December 1939.
"Socialism and the National Question" New International, October 1943:
"Negroes in the Civil War" New International, December 1943 and of course the
mockery
of history called "The Historical Development of the Negro in the United
States," Workers Party document, 1943.
The last article by James, "The Historical Development . . ." is an affront
to anyone with a basic common sense history of the American Union. I did try to
place CLR James in a historical context and generally used the 1928 document
of the Comintern as the turning point in the Leninist presentation of the
Negro Question.
The words "historical development" means to me the path of evolution and or
formation of that, which is being discussed. Mr. James traces this historical
development of the Negro to the Revolutionary War, while I choose to trace the
formation of the Negro people as a people within the framework of slavery and
the completion of the evolution under the pressures and violence of the whites
and the system of Jim Crow and segregation and Black Belt fascism. CLR James
makes the same basic mistakes of most immigrant intellectuals relocating to
America and gravitating to Marxism . . . although there are exceptions like
Claudia Jones.
In one article for Marxmail I directly quote the writings of Leon Trotsky on
the Negro Question and his criticism of how his comrades approached matters.
This can be validated and authenticated by a quick search of the index.
The issue is not ones membership in a group of people - what ever that means:
("Being a Black person and member of the Black movement in the 60s"). Ac
tually, my parents were active during the period of the 1960s and in 1969 I was
seventeen (17) years old. My activity in the union and election to union
position
occupies the time frame of the 1970s to the year 2001, when I retired from
Chrysler Motors. Specifically I occupied the position of Committeeman and for a
moment was Chairman of the Shop Committee, the highest elected positions in a
Chrysler facility. I did not consider this work the "Black Movement" -
whatever that means, but revolutionaries in American have strange individual
logic.
I was also an Executive Board member of the American Writers Congress and
never considered this the "Black Movement" but everyone has their opinion. As
Editor of the Southern Advocate, which was part of the old Equal Rights
Congress,
I did not consider this the Black Movement and most of the Chicano's and
Mexican Nationals did not consider the ERC as such but what the hell do I know.
Even as an Executive Board member of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists
Metropolitan Detroit, none of us considered this activity to be the "Black
Movement" but rather the trade union movement par excellence, and the impact of
the African American Peoples Movement on its structures. There of course was
the
Vote Communist Campaigns in Detroit - 1976 and 1978, and one can call this
the "Black Movement" if they wish but the participants and organizers was
majority Anglo American. I headed the "Labor for Baker Committee."
This is not to say I understood anything I was involved in, which you
apparently understand better. What it is to say is that the basis of my
politics is
rooted in an authenticity of activity. I simply will not discuss whether to
work amongst the member of the trade unions or the Church.
I am always amazed and grateful at the efforts of individuals to aid the
battered lowest sector of the proletariat and old sharecropping class in
understanding their historic battering of the state. I am such that if these
segments
of the population knew such help and understanding was forthcoming they would
have baked a cake.
Lil Joe - you go to far and bite off more than you can chew. If you desire to
speak of the old League of Revolutionary Black Workers and this history,
would it not be more prudent to get the basic facts available to anyone? If you
desire to speak of the specific features of what you call the "black Movement"
you are of course going to be challenged on the basis of authenticity (what is
ones history of activity in a distinct sphere) and run into the African
American intelligencia and not simply face conflict within the Marxist
intelligencia.
This thing about Nelson Peery being a leader of the League of Revolutionary
Black Workers and/or the existence of a group called "The League of Black
Revolutionaries" . . . where did you get this source of information from? Or
did
you invent this?
Waistline
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