Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line

October League (Marxist-Leninist)

Splits and Purges as ’Wing’ Grows More Isolated


First Published: The Call, Vol. 5, No. 11, July 12, 1976.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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The unprincipled, “left”-opportunist anti-party coalition that calls itself the “Revolutionary Wing” has sunk deeper into disintegration and isolation.

The most recent round of splits and purges, as reported in the respective organizations’ journals, has resulted in the separation from the “Wing” of Resistencia Puertorriquena and the expulsion of several leading cadre and members of the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers’ Organization (PRRWO) and the Revolutionary Workers’ League (RWL).

Palante officially announced the “purge” of leading RWL cadre Mark Smith, Ron Washington and Nelson Johnson on charges of “Menshevism.” The paper referred to Resistencia, I Wor Kuen (IWK) and Congress of Afrikan People (CAP) as “Menshevik fruit flies.”

It is difficult to tell from the shrill, frenzied and contentless “polemics” of Palante what, concretely, brought about these divisions. It appears, however, that the purged cadre were “guilty” of opposing one or all of the aspects of PRRWO-RWL’s ultra-”leftist” line on party building.

In its own polemic, Resistencia aptly calls this a line of eight “onlys”: only party building, only propaganda (rejecting agitation), only line struggle, only political line, only theory, only the proletariat, only the “genuine wing,” and eventually only PRRWO-RWL. Judging by Resistencia’s own super-sectarian practice, however, the only “only” on this list they have heartfelt differences with is the last one: Resistencia wants “only Resistencia.”

Thus, the “Wing,” which as recently as February counted as its members or as “honest” sympathizers PRRWO, RWL, ATM, WVO, Resistencia, El Comite and the non-existent “Revolutionary Bloc,” has now reduced itself to PRRWO and RWL, with ATM’s status unclear. Both PRRWO and RWL have shrunk to a handful in the process.

These divisions have been carried out in every case by the revisionist methods of conspiracy and intrigue, of hysterical screaming and shouting, and even (as in the PRRWO expulsions reported in The Call May 24) by goon (and police) tactics of intimidation and beatings.

The further degeneration of the “Wing” proves two main things. One, it shows the truth of Lenin’s statement in regard to a similar opportunist anti-party bloc in his time, namely that such a bloc is “foredoomed to a scandalous downfall because it was built on a lack of principles, on hypocrisy and empty phrases.”

Two, it shows more than ever the correctness of the path taken by the unity trend in the Marxist-Leninist movement, as exemplified in the recent formation of the Organizing Committee for a Marxist-Leninist Party, of which the October League is a member.

Those who do not wish to share the “Wing’s” accelerating scandalous downfall, and who do not wish to remain in the absurd position of trying to prettify the ultra-“leftists’ ” decomposition, should boldly step forward to join the unity trend and participate in the principled struggle to unite and to found a Marxist-Leninist party.