RAY O. LIGHT GROUP (USA)

Introduction

On June 14, 1963,  the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in opposition to Krushchev revisionism issued the outstanding principled Marxist-Leninist polemic "A Proposal Concerning the General Line of the International Communist Movement". In its "Open Letter of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to All Party Organisations to All Communists of the Soviet Union" dated July 14, 1963, Nikita Krushchev and his revisionist ilk issued their unprincipled response. There the Krushchevites attacked not only the Communist Party of China but also other Marxist-Leninist forces around the world who were rallying under CPC and Albanian Party leadership. The group singled out in the USA for attack was called "Hammer and Steel". The Ray O. Light Group stands on the shoulders of Hammer and Steel .

What did the Krushchevites accuse Hammer and Steel of doing? Of making "battle against the CPUSA its main aim." (p. 578, FLP Peking, 1965) In 1960, the CPUSA revisionists had supported John F. Kennedy for US President and they had liquidated the Afro-American national question in the USA. The political approach of the CPUSA to the revolution in the USA was not very different then, from the approach taken by the CPUSA about 15 years earlier when under the leadership of Earl Browder it had liquidated the Party turning it into an association, and had promoted "American Exceptionalism". This right revisionist conception alleged that the United States was an "exception" to the teachings of comrade Lenin-it proposed that United States imperialism was not developing and operating on the basis of the economic system of the highest and last dying stage of capitalism, ie "imperialism".

In opposition to Lenin's teachings, according to the Browderites, a strategic alliance could exist between the socialist world and US imperialism over a long, historical period of "class peace". Since US imperialism was emerging from WWII as the hegemonic imperialist power, Browder's "American Exceptionalism" meant that the international proletariat (including the proletariat in the US oppressor nation itself) and the oppressed peoples could all coexist with international capitalism led by US imperialism whether in the oppressed nations, the weakened imperialist and the dependent countries, or in the socialist countries themselves. Thus, "American Exceptionalism" meant renunciation of the revolution everywhere.

It was only through the intervention of the international communist movement, expressed in a letter signed by French Party leader Jacques Duclos, that the open liquidation of the CPUSA and its line was temporarily reversed. For the seeds of Browderism were generated from the soil of the United States, the only relatively unscathed imperialist power in the aftermath of WWII. It was the United States whose economic engine had gone into overdrive making the weapons of war for much of the world. And it was the United States that was in the strong position to replace its defeated and exhausted imperialist rivals, both "friend" and "foe", as the chief colonial power as well.

In his brief but profoundly important work, "Imperialism and the Split in Socialism" (1916) , Lenin asks the question, "Is there any connection between imperialism and the monstrous and disgusting victory opportunism (in the form of social-chauvinism) has gained over the labor movement in Europe?" Lenin answers:Yes, indeed! He goes on to discuss the ability of England even before the advent of monopoly capitalism and imperialism "to bribe and corrupt the working class of one country for decades", owing to its vast colonies and its monopoly profits based on its monopoly position in the world market. Marx and Engels had been clear on this. Monopoly yields superprofits. Out of these superprofits the capitalists devote a portion "to bribe their own workers, to create something like an alliance...between the workers of the given nation and their capitalists against the other countries."(p114, Collected Works Vol. 23 ) Lenin saw this phenomenon as pre cursor and explanation of the way the great imperialist powers were now relating to their own working classes. With the betrayal of the social-democratic, social-chauvinist leadership, the workers of the imperialist countries were fighting on behalf of and in alliance with their own imperialists and against their fellow workers in the WW I tragedy. .

In the post WWII period, when US imperialism occupied a monopoly position both in relation to the neo-colonies and to industrial production, US imperialist hegemony yielded superprofits out of which the US proletariat could be largely won to alliance with US imperialism. Browderism not only represented a right opportunist deviation (to which the entire international communist movement was vulnerable) in the aftermath of the WWII victory achieved with the brilliant united front strategy that had emanated from the 7th Congress of the Third International. It was mainly a reflection of the surviving imperialist power's short run economic, political, diplomatic, and military strength, a portion of which could bribe a large strata of the US proletariat. Browder and the CPUSA, as the representatives of the vanguard of the US proletariat succumbed to the bribery of US imperialism. Hence, Browderism and the CPUSA became a transmission belt for opportunist treachery within the entire international communist and workers movement and specifically treachery in the form of collaboration with US imperialism.

In words, the 81 Parties gathered in Moscow in 1960 all agreed that "imperialism, headed by US imperialism was the main enemy of the international proletariat and the oppressed peoples. However, in practice, not only the Tito led Yugoslav Party in power but much of the socialist camp , under the leadership of the Soviet revisionists headed by Nikita Krushchev, had fallen under the influence of Browderite "American Exceptionalism". At precisely this juncture it was important for the world's proletarian vanguard to understand the nature of US imperialism, including the nature of US society and the US people. Herein lay the significance of Hammer and Steel, which exposed the revisionist CPUSA as a servant of US imperialism within the international communist movement. The CPUSA' s support for John F. Kennedy in the US Presidential Election of 1960 created the illusion that peaceful transition and peaceful coexistence were possible in relation to the USA.The CPUSA' s liquidation of the Afro-American national question blurred over the distinction between the chief oppressor nation in the world and its internal colonies which could be an "achilles heel" of US imperialism.

For those that believe this is an academic question-let us refer you to the writings of the great Vietnamese communist Truong Chinh whose strategy for Vietnamese Revolution took into account the "democratic prejudices" of the French people after WWII. Such democratic prejudices in the USA were virtually non-existent during the decade of 1965-75 when the Vietnamese revolution was being suppressed by US imperialism which had replaced the defeated French in 1954. Yet, illusions about the so-called "Great American People" undermined the revolutionary strategy of the Vietnamese comrades as well as the rest of the communist movement which failed to isolate and defeat US imperialism world wide while the Vietnamese cadre and people carried the world revolution on their shoulders during that period. Che Guevara, imbued with an anti-imperialist revolutionary internationalist spirit (if not a proletarian internationalist one) was quite correct when in 1967 he called for and tried to help develop "two, three many Vietnams".

By then, however, the two leading communist parties in the world, not only the CPSU but now also the CP of China, imbued with the "American Exceptionalist", Browder-Tito line on US imperialism and dominated by their national bourgeoisie, used the heroic struggle and sacrifice of the Vietnamese people to establish rapprochements with US imperialism! This allowed the US imperialists to escape their political isolation and to instead split China and the USSR from each other and from the world anti imperialist movement. Indeed, within weeks of the US-China formal rapprochement, in January 1979, China invaded Vietnam!

Bourgeois nationalist collaboration with United States imperialism in particular became the main trend in the parties in state power who dominated the international communist movement. From Browder to Tito to Krushchev to Teng. During this period, from Hammer and Steel to Ray O. Light, our forces have remained small and marginal even within the so-called "left" in the USA. For example, in the late 1960's, all of a sudden, in the USA, thousands of white privileged petty bourgeois college students proclaimed their support for China and Chairman Mao. They raised up little red books and pointed to the Soviet Union as the main enemy. In the US context, they justified the anti-communism of the US imperialist ruling class "from the left". And internationally, they helped bury the essence of imperialism, as Lenin had taught, the fundamental distinction between the oppressing and the oppressed nations. Given their class position, a privileged class in the chief oppressor nation in the world, it is no wonder that they became a key component in the US imperialist carrot of "American Exceptionalism" offered to the Chinese CP which helped result in Ping Pong Diplomacy.

But our line remained consistent with the line of the Chinese Communist Party of China and the Albanian Party of Labor of the early 1960's, the period of the "Great Debates" with Russian Revisionism. A line that not only upheld Mao but also Lenin and Stalin as great leaders of the proletarian revolution. One of the main features of that line, in that time, place and condition was that imperialism, headed by US imperialism was the main bulwark of world reaction, the main enemy of the international proletariat and the oppressed peoples of the world.

Armed with this line, we warned in 1979 that "it is clearly only a matter of time before the 'Soviet bloc' will be only a memory." (p7, "US-China Alliance and the Question of the Main Enemy",  June 1979). In the same newsletter, in opposition to virtually all the so-called pro Chinese groups in the USA, we exposed the fact that Sino-US Normalization of relations was not a victory for Peoples China and the international proletariat but the opposite. "For US imperialism, normalization of relations with China not only means re-penetration of the vast Chinese market for goods and cheap labor but also re-strengthening of its hegemonic position in the present world economy." (p4, ibid) Needless to say, we were isolated and ostracized within the left in the USA as well as by both "left" and right opportunist forces internationally.

However, with the dissolution of the socialist camp and the overthrow of almost all "communist" parties in state power, serious revolutionary forces including some developed Marxist-Leninist Parties, including the exemplary Communist Party of the Philippines, have begun to pursue the rebuilding of a genuine international communist movement in earnest. Such forces recognize the truth of Mao's position-ever since the monster of imperialism came into being, every revolutionary struggle needs international support.

We are extremely pleased to be invited to this and other multilateral gatherings of communists from around the world. We welcome the opportunity to help shed light on the truth about the concrete situation in the USA, as we live and struggle there, and to share our vantage point as a representative of the US branch of the international proletariat.

We believe that "imperialism, headed by US imperialism" continues to be the main enemy of the international proletariat and the oppressed peoples of the world. Its empire needs to be ripped apart limb by limb-nation by nation, including the internal colonies in the USA. This proposition and conclusion is in conformity with the Chinese and Albanian Party led polemics of the early 1960's, including the outstanding CPC document, "A PROPOSAL CONCERNING THE GENERAL LINE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNIST MOVEMENT", which we believe is a good starting point for the development of a General Line for the International Communist Movement as we approach the new millenium. We have reprinted the 1963 document and offer it to you for your consideration.