Issued: n.d. [July 1980].
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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Whereas
The OCIC has made a step forward in identifying the centrality of the struggle against racism within the working class, in the communist movement and within the ranks of the OCIC itself,. We must persistently push forward the recognition, analysis and rectification of our own racist errors as they occur in our practice. We must struggle to clarify to the whole of the OCIC and the rest of our movement the ideological roots of these errors.
The struggle at the Second National Conference of the OCIC around the NMMLC Resolution, and subsequent debates throughout the country over it provide us with multiple instances of racist errors and bourgeois thinking. These instances must be taken up and can serve to further the break with these ideas which still divide our movement and maintain it as primarily white, and which objectively serve to deny the movement the leading contributions of many national minority MLs.
Furthermore, it is important that the region be consolidated around the Resolution. Although the vote in favor of the Resolution at the National Conference was almost unanimous, there continues to be a widespread failure in our region to grasp the correctness of the Resolution. This in itself is racist and further erodes the multi-national unity of the OCIC. Failing to take up this and other racist occurrences critically weakens our task of building a leading ideological center and a party.
Although it is not the intention of this particular discussion to study the content of the speeches or the resolutions passed at the NMMLC, it would be nonetheless incorrect for us to take up this discussion again without reading those documents which are now available.
It is recognized that the racist errors surrounding the NMMLC Resolution took place in the context of serious political and organizational errors (of a variety of kinds)on the part of the NSC, as well as errors by the NMMLC Planning Committee itself. (These errors have for the most part been addressed, and self-criticisms done, with rectifications begun.) However, it is important to recognize that these errors are secondary to the central error in this process, which is racism. The criticisms of the racist errors should not be confused or deflected by allowing secondary errors to become the focus of debate.
Therefore, it is resolved that the Western Regional Conference shall include on its agenda July 4-6, 1980, the following item: “Racist Errors Surrounding the NMM-LC Resolution Passed at the OCIC National Conference.” (See agenda for Saturday evening.)
The Planning Committee for this Conference takes the initiative of placing this subject on the WRC agenda, taking as its mandate the priority given to the struggle against racism by the OCIC at its National Conference. The PC members, and especially JD and DF, are self-critical for not having proposed this item for the WRC agenda at the March Regional Meeting. Their failure to do so represents a failure to fully grasp the importance of the anti-racist struggle in our ranks.
The PC thinks that any error made in terms of “over-stepping” the mandate of the Regional Meeting is far outweighed by the benefits to be gained. It would be a much greater error for us to fail to take up the struggle over these errors at the Regional level.
submitted by Terry M. for the Pl. Ctte.