1. In the context of our tendency, federationism is concretely and inherently racist. Federationism views this process of uniting the tendency as the coming together of existing circles. However, many national minority comrades are outside of these circles due to the circles’ history of racism. Underlying this federationist view is the white chauvinism of thinking white comrades are the existing stock of Marxist-Leninists; exaggerating the contributions of white comrades, and not seeing the abilities of national minority comrades to not only be a part of the process but provide strong leadership to it.
2. Since the beginning of the OC, even before local centers got off the ground, serious federationist and racist errors have been made. They have served to:
a. hold back the leadership of national minorities in existing circles that could be brought to the OC; and
b. promote the “whites only” policy of keeping national minorities and their contributions out of the OC and out of leadership.
3. Blatant federationism, racism, and petty-bourgeois chauvinism is displayed wherever there are circles that have not taken the necessary steps to start a local center in their city. This is racist in both keeping out of the OC national minorities and working class people in the tendency in that city, and holding back the leadership to the tendency of national minority and working class comrades in those circles.
4. There have been and still are three main federationist and racist errors made in relation to starting and building local centers. In all of these errors there have been underlying white chauvinist attitudes manifested of paternalism and overt racism that have to be examined. For example, underlying all of these errors has been the attitude that national minorities are incapable of really taking up party-building and ideological struggle, let alone lead it.
a. Many local centers have been and still are started on a federationist and racist basis in that planning committee members are made up of just representatives of local circles. Therefore, national minorities, in many cases some of the most advanced forces in a city, have not been in the initial leadership body. In many instances these errors, based on white chauvinist attitudes, have held back the development of local centers.
b. Many local centers have been federationist and racist in making the planning committee become a circle in itself–delaying starting the local center and thus restricting the ideological struggle to the planning committee rather than taking it to the local center and the tendency at large. Not only has this held back the ideological struggle in general, but it also has been racist in denying the role national minorities in existing circles and in the tendency have to bring to that ideological struggle.
c. Once local centers have been started, many individuals from existing circles still approach the center from a federationist basis, putting the interests of the circles first in one or more of the following ways:
1. Failing to do outreach to national minorities either (a) virtually at all–overt racism–assuming the members of the circle comprise the tendency in the city, or (b) doing the outreach to national minorities in a paternalistic way, i.e. mainly by (1) non-struggle with particular national minorities around their differences or weaknesses, or sometimes by (2) tokenistically bringing in national minorities with clear differences.
2. Not thinking about the fact that there are people in the center who are not members of a circle and therefore don’t have certain information or experience. This is federationist in general, but in the concrete it is racist, since many of the forces not from circ les are national minorities.
3. Promoting circle warfare in the local center. In some instances, comrades see the local center as the place to battle out political line differences between the different existing circles and protect and promote their organization. This leads to comrades being unwilling to put out differences with the line of their organization or sharply criticize comrades from their own circle within the local center. This blatant federationism seriously holds back genuine ideological struggle, and is blatantly racist in preventing most national minorities – who are not in those circles – from participating in and often leading the ideological struggle in the local center.