Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO)

September 25 2008

We need to update the picture on the FRSO--the one at www.frso.org. MIM has a greater unity with www.freedomroad.org, because that organization is willing to stand with the minority of oppressed nations inside u.$. borders without fear of taking on Amerikan nationalism.

On the whole, the www.frso.org FRSO still shows a remarkable ability to avoid larger questions and theoretical coherence. The links the website boasts are to the least clear organizations in the world--Workers Party of Belgium, the FARC and the PFLP. A photograph points to the right-wing splinter Proletarian Unity League.

Nonetheless, we have noticed that FRSO has moved into a certain political space a tad left of where it used to be. Now it is a real mystery what the difference among FRSO, Kasama and "RCP" is.

FRSO and Kasama now seem to be friendly to some of the same international organizations. Likewise, both FRSOs endorse Obama.

Will this lurch to the right by some meet with a lurch to the left from others? Will a new organization taking in splinters from Workers World form?

Amerikan organizations do split and some have argued that Amerikan so-called socialists are more ideological than in other countries, which if the reference point is Labour in England or the Socialist Party in France, then the reference point is wrong. The real problem is that organizations split, but usually over mundane points, not based on new analyses of conditions or coherent historical positions.

If we were to put words in Kasama's mouth, perhaps they would be that Avakian is not a cardinal question and religion is not a candidate for principal contradiction. On the whole though, Kasama is still in "RCP" orbit.

On Kasama's website it nonetheless seems that FRSO (Fight Back) is not able to spit out its thoughts on Mao. The low level of the organization speaks for itself since it does not spell "principal contradiction" correctly, and this in a document they choose to reproduce/mirror.(1) Another web page for the organization upholds Hua Guofeng still.(2) At the same time, the web page is promoting organizations that see Hua as counterrevolutionary. That's what we find as unprincipled/opportunist. Such should only be done with an explanation of how the group arrived at its decisions. Otherwise, FRSO is just another unaccountable, non-transparent organization.

The appearance of various splinters without terribly worked out lines is an example of democracy in action in the negative sense. The problem is exacerbated by PLP and "RCP"'s wrong or Trotskyist teachings on the united front. When the united front is missing it seems to people that no one knows how to speak to "normal people" and good militants get left behind. The problem is that the solution is not to water down the party, but to correct the line on the united front. There should be organizations where good militants stay unless they are interested in all the scientific questions of the party.

The party must do its job to get all the way into scientific issues and form a coherent, non-contradictory and non-racist line. That is not as easy as it sounds and the process is maximally alienating, but while we have that alienating struggle we should also have united front with those who recognize that they are not party material. The problem is that "PLP" does not believe in united front at all. So they set a bad example. Then "RCP" half-way imitates PLP, so then confusion arises over where unity and a soft approach belongs and where there is a duty to shirk no question of theoretical coherence or methodological chauvinism. Those claiming to be Marxist are supposed to have horns.

The FRSO (frso.org) still does not say anything about the Cultural Revolution that we can see. Likewise, the other FRSO still adopts a line similar to the Workers Party of Belgium. We would ask that the www.freedomroad.org take a look at our article on the Three Worlds Theory. Where they are going to fight from a minority inside a minority we agree with. If they back our line on the super-profits question, then the www.freedomroad.org people should be able to look at the Three Worlds Theory in a different light and see that there is some material there that is crucial to uphold. What appears to be true is that www.freedomroad.org does not back us on the super-profits question, but both versions of FRSO are closer to MIM on the national question than they are to "RCP."

United front work is not the same thing as speaking politely among alphabet soup organizations. United front is MIM leadership of other classes. The scientific space of the party has to be protected against those who in effect liquidate the party as if it were just one huge united front. There is no room for politeness with regard to the bourgeois line inside the party and the focus on party-building by speaking among "left" orgs as mentioned by www.freedomroad.org is inward-looking. It's neither good for party-building nor united front work. The party has to be rude, while the united front has to be polite. The rudeness of the party also attracts united front forces that want to know where the party stands, contrary to those party-builders who are always hoping that basic differences will go away among organizations claiming Marx.

Although www.freedomroad.org appears to be the more radical organization, it too accepts electoral politics, going so far as to quote well-known social-democrats of the DSA favorably. MIM will only mention that winning is not the only goal of politics, so picking Obama does not necessarily follow proletarian politics. There will be times when one supports a third party candidate to divide the bourgeoisie. It is not necessarily symbolic to do so.

We have learned that Cheney is out there paying for anti-Iran dissent and the Democrats are out there paying to hook Maoists to Black candidates. To believe that these parties will disappear is silly, because they have underlying material sponsors. That is not to mention that these parties generally do not have the capability to address their differences. We urge people not become dizzy with the alphabet soup, but to continue with their studies and struggles.

Notes:
1. http://mikeely.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/frso-fight-back-responds-to-red-baiting-in-sds/
2. http://marxistleninist.wordpress.com/2008/08/20/continue-the-revolution-under-the-dictatorship-of-the-proletariat-to-the-end/