First Published: The Call, Vol. I, No. 2, November 1972.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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A significant development in the rapidly growing Communist movement in the South was marked by the Southern Educational Conference held in Atlanta on September 23 and 24th. At this conference, sponsored by the Regional Editorial Board of the Marxist-Leninist Mao Tsetung Thought Journal, “Proletarian Cause”, over 50 representatives from various revolutionary groupings and organizations met to discuss practical and theoretical questions facing them in their work.
This was the first such conference held in the South in recent years to deal specifically with the important tasks of building a new communist party and its relationship to building the anti-imperialist united front in the U.S. The theoretical validity of these concepts was discussed, as well as their application to the work done by the various conference participants in the factories, communities and schools all over the South. Through analysis of struggles such as the Mead strike in Atlanta, people were able to see the principals of “uniting all who can be united” and “exercising communist independence and initiative” applied in practice.
The current international situation was also discussed by the conference. Members of the Trotskyist National Caucus of Labor Committees, who had attended the conference without invitation, attacked the People's Republic of China for its foreign policy, especially its defense of the small and medium-sized countries in their struggle for independence from the big imperialists powers, the U.S. and Soviet Union. Through the debate, these “geniuses” were exposed for attempting to divert the direction of the conference from discussion of the concrete realities of the world situation to “more-revolutionary-than-thou” phrase-mongering. Expressing broad support for Socialist China and all genuine anti-imperialist forces in the world, the conference voted unanimously to expel the Labor Committee from the meeting.
In summing up the weekend, the widespread feeling among the participants was one of having taken a step forward. All of the organizations participating in the conference, recognized the importance of meetings such as this. Such an exchange of ideas, based on practical experiences in the mass movements of the people, plays a significant role in strengthening the unity of the communist movement. Especially in the South, we welcomed this trend towards unity and hoped to continue to participate in its future development.