First Published: The Communist, Vol. V, No. 12, May 14, 1979.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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Late last summer THE COMMUNIST carried a series of articles summing up local strike work written by the California Bay Area Collectives, the Revolutionary Workers Collective (RWC) and the Pacific Collective (PC) (see Vol. IV, nos. 17, 18, 19) Accompanying each of the articles in the series was a critical analysis of these sum-ups by the Workers Congress (Marxist-Leninist).
We think that exchange of views was an example of how different organizations can use a common newspaper as a tactic in the. struggle to build unity in our movement. In the spirit of continuing their effort to build principled unity through struggle the PC submitted a response to our analysis of their sum-up in January of this year.
The WC(M-L) is self-critical for the delay in publishing this response and we will begin printing it in our next issue. This four month delay is a product of the very sectarianism and small circle outlook of our movement that we are trying to help overcome in the way we use THE COMMUNIST. Our effort to build unity by opening up our columns to other organizations is undermined when we put the narrow and temporary interests of our own small circle above those of our movement and its central task of party building. It was this error of political narrowness that caused the delay.
When the PC submitted their response we wrote and expressed to them our genuine appreciation about receiving their article. But, we also informed them that we had just begun an internal rectification campaign that had the highest priority and would delay indefinitely our ability to respond. For this reason we held off printing their article Last month the PC wrote back and criticized our decision. They wrote,
...we must disagree strongly with your decision to withhold our article until your reply is prepared. When we submitted our original piece to you last summer we knew it would probably be accompanied by sharp criticism when you printed it; but we did not ask you to hold up the whole works until we could examine your criticism and print an immediate rebuttal along with it. It is not pleasant, of course, to watch months go by while sharp criticism of one’s organization goes unanswered. It seems to us, however, that in each case the burden should fall on whichever polemicizing party is responsible for the particular delay, rather than have it automatically avoided by those who happen to have editorial control over the publication, that has, after all, offered its columns for polemics.
We accept this criticism and think that the general point that the PC makes is correct.
In the next issue of THE COMMUNIST we will begin publishing the PC’s response. Because of its length we will carry it as a two part series in succeeding issues. We encourage comrades to review the initial PC-RWC articles in preparation for the coming series. Back issues containing that series can be obtained by writing to WC(M-L). We hope that comrades will be stimulated to submit comments, criticism, and their own sum-ups.