Maoism in the Developed World

The first major figure in the Progressive Labor leadership to defect was Phillip Abbott Luce. He had helped organize and participated in the parry’s 1963 trip to Cuba, and upon joining the party had quickly become editor of Progressive Labor. When called before the House Unamerican Activities Committee, he defied them, and was subsequently indicted for his role in the Cuban trips. However, early in 1965 he decided to resign from the PLM.

When the PLM announced the “expulsion” of Luce, it blamed his defection on fears of imprisonment. It wrote that “Luce first tried to escape from his fears of imprisonment by smoking marijuana. When this didn’t work, he turned to heroin. This led him to steal money and eventually bare (sic) false witness against his former friends in order to support his habit.”[37]

More serious were the expulsions of 1969-1970. In November 1969, the PLP decided to “reorganize” its leadership. As a consequence, Jared Israel, PLP Boston organizer; Jake Rosen, New York City Organizer; and William Epton, Vice Chairman of the PLP and head of its Harlem branch, were removed from the eight-member National Committee. They were subsequently expelled from the party. Later, Juan and Helena Farinas, editors of Desafio, were expelled also, and Charles Rosen was forced to resign. So was Steve Martinot, one of the leading figures in the Party since its inception. The Farinas’ successor as editor of Desafio, Jay Agostini, submitted his resignation from that post in mid-1970 and was promptly expelled from the Party.

There is no evidence available concerning the points of disagreement that most of these people had with the rest of the PLP leadership. However, it is known that Epton had serious criticisms of the Party’s position on Black Nationalism.[38]

PLP Support For China

Until 1971, the Progressive Labor Party strongly supported the Chinese in their quarrel with the CPSU and the Soviet regime. A typical expression of this support appeared in “Road to Revolution—II,” a document adopted by the National Committee of the PLP in December 1966. The burden of this 26-page document was an attack on “revisionism” within International Communism. Most sections attacked the Soviet Union, including one subtitled, “The Soviet Revisionists Have Already Restored Capitalism in the Soviet Union,” and another entitled “Soviet ‘Aid’ Is a Trojan Horse Used by Imperialism.”

Another part of the National Committee’s document proclaimed that “Success for China’s Cultural Revolution Is a Defeat for Imperialism.” It said that “The Chinese communists are making a thorough-going effort to transform the thinking and develop the ideology of hundreds of millions of people. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, led by Mao Tse-tung, the Chinese people are demonstrating that people determine the course of history.”[39]

The document also claimed that “the current struggle against modern revisionism led by the Communist Party of China, has raised Marxist thought to new heights. The thought of Mao Tse-tung is proving invaluable to revolutionaries all over the world. In this debate revisionism is being challenged to a degree that it was never challenged before. A far more fundamental approach is being taken by millions, not just a few. And backing up this titanic struggle is the powerful Chinese Communist Party which gives the revolutionary government a courageous example.”[40]

On various occasions the PLP sent messages of support to the Chinese leadership. Thus, at the time of border conflicts between Chinese and Soviet troops in 1969, the PLP wrote a letter to Mao Tse-tung and Lin Pao [sic] that began, The Progressive Labor Party (PLP) vigorously condemns Soviet aggression against China. U.S.-Soviet collusion is trying to encircle and smash Socialist China.”[41]

A year and a half later, on the occasion of the twenty-first anniversary of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the PLP again wrote Mao and Lin Piao (this time spelled correctly). It noted that “The great Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and the Chinese people’s revolution are the two historic milestones in the struggle to smash imperialist exploitation and oppression and to establish a new world of socialism. Marxist-Leninists throughout the world and in the U.S. study the thoughts of the great leaders of these revolutions, V. I. Lenin and Mao Tse-tung, to grasp their revolutionary essence in order to guide and develop further the world revolution.”[42]

The PLP Break With The Chinese