January, 2008
Revolutionary
Organization of Labor, USA
is
Born!
[Revised Announcement]
New Year’s Greetings to all comrades and friends in the spirit of proletarian internationalism! We are pleased to publicly announce our decision to change our organization’s name from Ray O. Light Group to Revolutionary Organization of Labor, USA.
The new name makes clear the fact that we constitute a revolutionary organization of working people located in the USA, within the belly of the beast. It should make it easier for those attracted to our theoretical and practical contributions to the proletarian revolutionary cause to draw nearer to us ideologically, politically and organizationally.
In order to politically survive in the heartland of world capitalism at a time when virtually the entire Socialist Camp was developing rapprochement with U.S. imperialism, to be able to carry on ideological, political and organizational struggle in extremely hostile conditions, we believed that we needed to keep the existence of our extremely small organization ambiguous and largely concealed. Hence, our name Ray O. Light conveyed the possibility of either an individual or a group or both. However, such ambiguity not only helped conceal us from the imperialist enemy but made it more difficult for our fellow working class activists and potential comrades to understand how they could and why they should become involved with us in joint mass work, at the vanguard level, etc. Furthermore, this organizational ambiguity made it difficult for those within the organization itself to understand their individual roles in relation to the collective and its leadership.
With the demise of the Socialist Camp, much of the “smoke and mirrors” and pernicious influence of modern revisionism have been blown away. In this context, our small force has been invited to participate in gatherings of revolutionary groups and we have gained a measure of acceptance and respect among serious revolutionary forces around the world. The fact that we have finally been brought into the general movement for revolutionary socialism has underscored the need to remove the ambiguity in our organization’s name.
Finally, in light of the bitter experience of the U.S. proletariat and the oppressed peoples within the U.S. multinational state over the past seven years of the George W. Bush Regime, our theoretical and practical, our mass and vanguard work (against Bush’s war at home and abroad, in defense of the Iraqi Resistance, etc.) have attracted some of the relatively few serious revolutionary forces within the USA itself to join our organization, allowing for some greater division of labor. This, too, has made the name change more appropriate. Hence, we now give birth to the Revolutionary Organization of Labor, USA.
This
decision, however, has raised another question. For approximately four
decades
our small organization has been armed with such distinctive and
unpopular views
within the “left” as the following:
1.)
Ideologically, we have fought for the materialist conception of
history,
including vanguard party-building, that focuses on the working class
and the
toiling masses as the makers of history – a concept at loggerheads with
“the
U.S. new communist movement” which placed itself at the center of
initiative and
importance.
2.) Organizationally, the mass line requires that the vanguard and its
leaders
are ultimately accountable to the class and the masses – hence
we have
insisted that self-proclaimed vanguard forces, including ourselves,
need to
practice criticism and self-criticism, follow-up and a general sense of
collective responsibility.
3.) Politically, the focal contradiction in the post World War II world
has
been the contradiction between the billions of oppressed peoples and
nations
based in Asia, Africa, Arabia, Latin America and Afro-America, on the
one hand,
and imperialism, headed by U.S. imperialism, on the other.
4.) Our decades-long defense of comrade Stalin has been coupled with
our
critical support for comrade Mao Tse-tung as a great revolutionary
leader on
the world stage.
5.) Our early opposition to the so-called Great Proletarian Cultural
Revolution
in China was based upon our steadfast struggle against modern
revisionism
centered in Moscow.
6.) Our timely prediction of the demise of the Socialist Camp was based
on
upholding of the historical experience of the October Revolution in
Russia.
7.) We have fought for recognition of the outstanding positive role of
the
Communist International and the need for such an organization today.
8.) Within the USA, we have upheld the Afro-American National Question
and the
right of the Afro-American people to self determination in their Black
Belt
South homeland and its central importance for victorious proletarian
revolution
in the USA.
9.) We have consistently exposed the role of the imperialist “bribe” of
a large
strata of the U.S. working class with its negative impact on the class
struggle
in the USA and have exposed the parasitic character of U.S. imperialist
society
in relation to the international proletariat and the oppressed peoples.
10.) Above all else, as a proletarian revolutionary organization based
in the
USA, we have consistently raised among the ranks of the international
proletariat and the oppressed peoples the need for all of us to “keep
our eye
on the prize” of battling and defeating the main enemy of mankind in
our time,
imperialism, headed by U.S. imperialism.
We still distribute our forty year-old materials and everything published since, which we believe to be a contribution to scientific socialist theory. (Stalin taught: “Our theory is the experience of the working class movement in all countries taken in its general aspect.”) So how do we maintain a connection with the history, leadership role, work and influence of the Ray O. Light Group and of its principal leader? In this light, publications of the new organization will be issued under the name Ray O. Light, where appropriate, and in circumstances where the Revolutionary Organization of Labor, USA signs the material, “formerly the Ray O. Light Group” will be attached.
We hope that the clarification of our purpose reflected in the name change will help strengthen our contribution to the proletarian revolutionary movement on the road to socialism and communism. Let us hear from you.
Comradely,
Revolutionary Organization of Labor, USA
Formerly
the Ray O. Light Group