December 19, 1977
Dear Friends of the Tucson Marxist-Leninist Collective,
Enclosed is a rough copy of our “Draft Points of Unity” of the San Diego Revolutionary Anti-imperialist Collective. We decided to send it to you in the spirit of comradely unity-struggle-unity for your feedback, comments and criticisms. A few of us have read your latest work on fusion and criticisms of the new anti-dogmatist and anti-sectarian “trend” of the U.S. Marxist-Leninist movement, and are interested in beginning dialogue and correspondence on basic issues facing the U.S. revolutionary movement and the “party building” movement.
In general, we agree wholeheartedly in your stance that the U.S. is our main enemy. And we begin to agree with your developing critique of the dogmatist, revisionist neo-maoist sects. But as our draft (and I must emphasis they are just that) points of unity display, we believe that much of the opportunism, revisionism and the dogmatism of the U.S. left, particularly the white Anglo-European sectors, is tied into the effects of Empire, influenced by the “blinding” affects of white supremacy and male supremacy. We believe very strongly that the U.S. white left must deal with the oppression of nations right here within the borders of the U.S. in a revolutionary manner.
Us communists in the southwest are faced with the task of unifying in solidarity with the national liberation struggles of Mexicanos/Chicanos and Native Americans; our proximity to the border and to land occupied by oppressed nationalities forces us as revolutionaries to overthrow bourgeois ideology within our own ranks and to take an internationalist stance. This key internationalism is a weakness, we feel, of the new trend in the Marxist-Leninist movement.
We’re encouraged about your willingness to view the sorry state of affairs amongst the potentially revolutionary forces as one needing developed communist theory. The experience of the third world in national liberation and socialist construction are lessons to us. We must add to the dominant spirit of the European left of the 1920’s the imagination and strength of the praxis of the peoples of China, Vietnam, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, etc.
We look forward to hearing criticisms of our points, plus in the future, perhaps we can share lessons from the late ’60s and early ’70s. Most of us have our origins in the anti-war student movement, the community organizing movement of Ocean Beach, an Anglo, mostly working class neighborhood of San Diego.
En Lucha,
F.G. for the collective