First Published: Revolution, Vol. 2, No. 1, October 15, 1976.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
Copyright: This work is in the Public Domain under the Creative Commons Common Deed. You can freely copy, distribute and display this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit the Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line as your source, include the url to this work, and note any of the transcribers, editors & proofreaders above.
What’s going on around the world? Where does the threat of war come from? What is the role of the U.S. and the USSR? Of China? Of Cuba? And what are the duties of the American people in the international struggle against imperialism and oppression?
These are not idle questions confronting only a few. They arise directly from the real events around the world that are shaping the history of the 1970s. And just as those events affect the lives of millions so the actions of the millions affect the course of events.
Debate over these issues is raging. It could not be otherwise. In the pages of newspapers, in the statements and actions of groups and organizations, in the evermore serious discussions among the masses of American people.
These are life and death questions. The world is in great turmoil, the contradictions are sharpening on all continents, in all countries. The very forces who through struggle stood together against the U.S. ruling class’ war in Vietnam in the 1960s now debate, putting forward different analyses, different answers, different directions for action and struggle. And now, just as then, the actions of the people can make a crucial difference in the struggle worldwide.
There is an urgent need to both sharpen and broaden the debate–to put the different views and ideas and trends squarejy and clearly before the greatest number of people.
This conference on the international situation can be a big step in that direction. Through panels, workshops, speeches and debates the struggle can go on in an open and lively manner that will surely attract great numbers of people concerned with these issues, probably thousands. That is how we are building this conference–to clarify and focus questions, to sharpen differences and pose answers and directions for all of us to wrestle with. It is not a conference only of academics or experts or only of Marxist-Leninists or only of veteran activists. It is not a conference that will strive to come up with a “working unity” or to build a permanent coalition.
The Committee for the conference is working to make this conference a success: a conference like this needs to be very well organized, publicized and built for, in order to make the greatest advances.
We call on you to join us in building this conference and debating these burning issues.
In the spirit of active internationalism and lively struggle,
Aijaz Ahmad; James Aronson; Richard J. Barnet, Institute for Policy Studies*; Ella Bone; Blacks in Solidarity with South African Liberation (BISSAL); James Caldwell; Rick Clemmons, People Incorporated*; Professor Nancy Chance; Professor Norman Chance, Anthropology Department, University of Connecticut*; Romir Chatterjee; Charles Coe; Faculty Action; Professor Richard Falk, Center of International Studies, Princeton University*; Faye Glasser; Harold Giasser; David Gordon, New School for Social Research, Economics Department*; Group of Khmer Residents in America; Tom Grunsfeld; William Hinton; Indian Peoples Association of North America (I.P.A.N.A.); Iranian Student Association; Clark Kissinger; League of Revolutionary Black Workers; Bill Livant, Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, Regina*; Linea Roja Movimiento Revolucionario 14 de Junio; Tapson Mawere. Chief North American Representative, Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU); Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR); Professor Seymour Melman, Columbia University*; National Conference of Black Lawyers; National Lawyers Guild, Hofstra Chapter; Professor Sam Noumoff, Associate Director, Centre for East Asian Studies, McGill University*; Revolutionary Communist Party; Revolutionary Student Brigade; Carole Rosen; Sadu Sadanand; Professor and Mrs. E. San Juan; Mark Selden; Bob Snow; Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW); Professor George Wald, Biologist, Harvard University, Nobel Prize winner*; Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU).
* for identification only