First Published: The New Voice, Vol. VII, No. 20, October 2, 1978.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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The so-called Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) has put an end to nearly two years of anti-China gossiping by openly attacking the Communist Party of China and the Chinese people. The way the RCP came into the open shows that it is bankrupt as a political organization.
The RCP chose the 1978 convention of the United States-China Peoples Friendship Association in San Francisco to launch its campaign. Here the RCP released a special issue of its newspaper attacking China, along with tons of leaflets, books and packages of articles. RCP members attempted to disrupt convention activities and bring the Association’s planning and work to a halt.
They failed miserably. Delegates were put off by the RCP’s hypocritical call to re-examine everything afresh when the RCP already has its line fixed against China and is unwilling to hear from visiting residents of China and other useful sources. Delegates also noticed the RCP cadres’ strident repetition of slogans and lack of facts.
Someone liked the RCP–the capitalist press! The San Francisco Chronicle wrote about a 50-50 split at the convention over the RCP’s views. Yes, of the 1000 persons attending, 50% arrived already disgusted with the RCP from local chapter events, and the RCP had at most 50 delegates.
It was a gesture of political suicide for the RCP to make its anti-China position public at this time and place. Such tactical thinking is evidence that RCP leaders either have left their senses or know of good reward from the bourgeoisie for taking the RCP down this path.
A week after the USCPFA convention, the RCP held memorial meetings for the "gang of four," which it advertised in an upside-down way as commemorations of the death of Comrade Mao Tsetung in September 1976. The meetings were publicized by regular commercial billboards in San Francisco, Berkeley and other cities, by radio and television spots, and by tens of thousands of posters. Where did the RCP get the money for all this bourgeois publicity?
The campaign to publicize its anti-China stand is the biggest single project in RCP history. It was given more resources, and more energy by RCP cadres remaining after the split in the group earlier this year, than any constructive effort for friendship and support of China contributed by the RCP in the past. Nevertheless, money and publicity cannot save the RCP. It has yelled its last gasp as a political force on the left. Trotskyites and police agents will filter into its ranks, and those remaining honest members who do not leave the RCP soon will become burned out.