Dear comrades and friends, The question of the ideological heritage of the Workers World Party in the U.S.A. has come up more than once on this list. I would like to quote a short paragraph from the editorial in the Nov. 2, 2000 issue of WW's newspaper, an obituary on Gus Hall, the former leader of the revisionist CPUSA who died a few weeks ago. "Workers World Party has had many, many differences with the Communist Party over the years. Some have to do with the degeneration of the great Bolshevik Party that began soon after Lenin's death." As anyone should be able to tell without any difficulty, this is the familiar Trotskyite slander of Stalin and the whole period of socialist construction in the Soviet Union that he led. For more on WW's Trotskyite background, see for example the article by the group ML Organizer, at: http://www.geocities.com/acero.rm/US/MLO1_1.htm, which contains a section on WWP's Trotskyite history (including a picture from their original editorial page with photos of Lenin and Trotsky), or go to the site at http://www.geocities.com/acero.rm and check out the US section for more articles on both WWP and the CPUSA. The editorial also gives an exaggerated view of the differences between WWP and the CPUSA on the support for the Democratic Party. While it is true that the CP has supported almost every Democratic Party candidate in the last 50 years, WWP has still supported its share, particularly African-American liberal Democrats such as former NY City Mayor David Dinkins and former Democratic Party presidential candidate Jesse Jackson. They claim that this is part of the fight against white chauvinism (racism) in the U.S., but while this can be done by running progressive African-American candidates (or those from other oppressed nations and nationalities), this does not justify supporting liberal bourgeois candidates. In actuality, it says to the African-Americans that they can ignore class distinctions among their own nationality, which seems to me to be rather chauvinist in itself. WWP certainly does a great deal of mass work (insofar as any group on the US left can be said to do mass work) against particular manifestations of U.S. imperialism, and I certainly have no problem with uniting with them on practical questions, but one can never forget their ideological background. Marx said that one can certainly unite on practical questions, but one should not compromise on questions of principle. Comradely, George _______________________________________________ Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/marxist-leninist-list
