Editorial Board
Some months ago, “New York Revolutionary Youth” (NYRY), the New York City chapter of Revolutionary Student Union (RSU), began a slander campaign against a volunteer associated with The Worker. Most of the rumors and innuendo being spread have been pulled from the website of the Politically Degenerate Right Liquidationists, run by a small gang who have largely discredited themselves, however they maintain some connection to the Right Opportunists still active in various organizations embracing the denomination of Maoism. While, in the aftermath of NYRY’s attempts to discredit the volunteer, they have claimed to desire to “strive for unity” with other volunteers of The Worker, NYRY has now taken to discrediting The Worker and its volunteers altogether, telling student activists that they are “Red Guards” nefariously “infiltrating” organizations, without providing any clear reasoning or evidence as to what this means or toward what end.
As the campaign to unite under Maoism gains momentum and support, as the struggles for unity become more promising and real, the Right Opportunists become increasingly desperate and reach out for the dirty weapons of reaction: Red Baiting and police work, to provoke splits and cement disunity wherever they can.
The Worker first established contact with NYRY through the leader of the latter reaching out to our email on Sep 2nd of last year (2023), inquiring about print issues of our newspaper. We offered to provide these and did so. Exchange commenced for several months in a positive and comradely manner. Importantly, around this time, in an email dated September 6th, 2023, the individual expressed support to The Worker for hosting the article “Statement on the Situation of the Maoists in the US”, written by comrades internationally denouncing the methods of police work employed by the liquidationists. In the email, the individual referred to the statement as objectively correct, and denounced the “cult” claims in circulation among the Right Liquidationists.
The individual in question complemented our work and stated that he hoped that great advances were made from it. Having expressed this to us, we offered to connect him with volunteers in his area, an offer he expressed excitement about and showed interest in getting involved. The individual identified himself as being a representative of NYRY, expressing that he hoped The Worker and the organization he represented could continue to form close connections and pursue unity. An admin with The Worker responded that we hoped the meeting with our volunteer would take place soon and go well. This email is dated November 3rd, 2023.
A meeting was established around this time, in which the volunteer with The Worker and the “representative” of NYRY discussed their activist work, the situation of communists internationally, and other matters. After this meeting, our volunteer was invited to attend NYRY meetings and study groups.
In the same month, November of 2023, the “representative” of NYRY requested material from The Worker to distribute among members of their national affiliation, RSU. Books and print materials were provided at a discounted rate. Soon after, the “representative” contacted our volunteer, saying that people in RSU loved the material. They briefly discussed which articles were agreed with and which had some secondary disagreements.
On occasion, the recent history of the US proletarian movement was discussed, informally. We have accessed screenshots and emails of these exchanges and we find it necessary to summarize them without releasing this material to the public. On November 4th, in an email, the “representative” of NYRY/RSU informed the volunteer with The Worker that he had been contacted by one of the main figures of the Politically Degenerate Right Liquidationists, who he called “disgusting people”. He encouraged not taking this agent of liquidation too seriously and continue doing the “good work” that we do. He referred to the PDRL as “rats” and indicated that they should be “crushed.” He provided screenshots from their correspondence with RSU, which began with the typical slanders and infamy directed against our volunteer—rhetoric now spread almost verbatim by this “representative” of NYRY/RSU. A few months later, the website of the PDRL hosted fabrications and slanderous police work, in which they denounced the RSU and even went so far as to claim our volunteer started their NYC chapter, a false speculation especially considering the fact that contact was established by them and not us. The “representative” of NYRY/RSU immediately brought this to the attention of the volunteer and expressed support for the volunteer, aware that the claims being made were false.
At no time did our volunteer conceal his role with The Worker, in fact this was the basis of the relationships formed with NYRY. Our other volunteers began attending other events and actions throughout the fall and winter, offering constructive criticism and helping with the work. The “representative” of NYRY/RSU expressed interest in formalizing his relationship and becoming a volunteer with The Worker, showing interest in reporting, printing and distributing our material within his sphere of activity. At demonstrations and events, the “representative” would occasionally pass out pamphlets and distribute print editions of The Worker. Volunteers with The Worker and NYRY/RSU discussed joint actions around International Working Women’s Day, the Election Boycott, and international solidarity.
Around this same time, in January of 2024, based on the contacts we had established with the RSU, The Worker’s Editorial Board engaged with the RSU document “Why the US Needs a Revolutionary Student Movement.” Our letter stated this:
“The Editorial Board of The Worker newspaper greets you with optimism and enthusiasm. Revolutionary Student Union has emerged in difficult and complex conditions to assume the post a revolutionary student formation in the US. We believe in the correctness of Chairman Mao’s statement that the youth are like the rising sun. We hope to do as the Chairman said, to give full play to the revolutionary youth, based on the criteria of their integration with the masses, and in the context of agreements reached.”
This is how we prefaced our criticism of their document, in the interests of struggling to unite under Maoism and improve our mutual work by establishing agreements and disagreements. From this another email exchange took place between The Worker and RSU. The Worker expressed that we were not interested in publishing our letter, that we issued it with the intention of struggling for unity, adding that “we favor unity and want to at all costs undermine the efforts of those seeking to make friends into enemies by blowing up secondary matters.”
In the letter we criticized a few points of divergence between our organizations pertaining to the ideology we uphold, defend, and apply. These pertained to the importance of identifying Maoism, and being clear on it, not defaulting to lower stages of denomination in order to avoid controversy; the role of the third world as the storm center of world proletarian revolution; the role of bureaucratic capitalism; the type of revolution applicable to the US; and other matters. The comrades insisted that they did not mind us being thorough on these topics after our expressed concern of causing a delay in the issuance of their article. In this exchange, both organizations expressed the view that it was beneficial, and numerous points of our critique were united around and applied to the finalized version of the RSU document.
This honest and above-board approach to the two-line struggle would soon give way to NYRY promoting intrigue, rumor-spreading and splittist work, today culminating in the spreading of the false claim that they were infiltrated by The Worker, a claim which they know is false since it was them who contacted us to begin with.
Late March of this year was the last time the “representative” of NYRY/RSU met with our volunteer whom he had been in contact with. The meeting was normal and the “representative” asked for the usual practical advice. After this, the individual stopped responding to messages and broke off contact. NYRY began repeating the false claims against our volunteer made by the PDRL and their website and even taking things further by embellishing the claims while removing the plainly obvious panderings to postmodernism, for example removing the word “cult” from the same story in an attempt to spin it in Maoist language.
Upon being made aware of the rumor-mongering, The Worker reached out to the comrades of RSU nationally and NYRY asking for evidence of their claims and for their assistance in investigation. At this time we had not taken a position on it, being unsure of what exactly was being claimed and wanted to understand what they were talking about. They did not respond to our email. In conversations with other volunteers with The Worker, the “representative” promised to share his “investigation”, which we eventually received. He indicated that he wanted to “strive for unity” with the volunteers before responding to The Worker. This proved to be nothing more than an attempt at counter-recruitment and splitting: the “representative” repeatedly invited the volunteers to NYRY events but refused to address the allegations and The Worker’s findings—resulting from its own internal investigation that was sent to RSU and NYRY—either ignoring messages to meet to discuss the allegations or scheduling meetings only to cancel at the last minute. This happened on several occasions throughout the summer of 2024. In early September, a volunteer with The Worker ran into a different member of NYRY at a protest who said he would get the volunteer to have a meeting with the “representative”. On September 7, two volunteers with The Worker met with NYRY and other members of RSU and asked about their thoughts on The Worker investigation. The “representative” claimed he hadn’t had time to review it (it had been sent around 4 months ago by that point) because it was so long and he was too busy doing mass work. He said to give them 2 weeks to reply, and claimed they did not have the capacity to respond to The Worker directly because the internal investigation they were sent—which investigated and responded to every point NYRY raised—was too long. During this meeting, several members of NYRY and other representatives of RSU who were present praised the work of the The Worker, asked for practical advice, and joked about the allegations of the “Red Guards” infiltrating NYRY that was being spread by the PDRL. After the meeting, a volunteer with The Worker continued to follow up with the “representative” and to this day still has not received a response to the investigation.
Upon failing to diminish the solidarity among our volunteers, NYRY along with a few others are now engaged in the tactic of Red Baiting, particularly among the Palestine solidarity movement, which they claim “Red Guards” are infiltrating. For ten years it has been common to be pejoratively called a Red Guard when anyone who upholds, defends and applies Maoism engages in mass struggles to bring the movement further than what is permitted by the imperialist ruling class; in this respect, it is a good thing to receive such an “insult.” On the other hand, the former Red Guards faced a lot of state repression, with numerous activists receiving this label in court to increase sentencing and bond. When this label is used in avoidance of political struggle, it is textbook Red Baiting, with the intent of isolating individuals based on alleged affiliation to clandestine movements in order to make them a target for reaction and sever their contacts with the masses. NYRY is now spreading the rumor that their organization was “infiltrated by Red Guards” and that the volunteers with The Worker are part of this.
The Worker has been above-board in all of our dealings with the comrades in NYRY, who have sadly rejected the political two-line struggle to become a miserable clone of the PDRL, venturing over into anti-communist Red Baiting in attempts to split and cause distrust among those who work closely together on various fronts. For lack of a clean, principled weapon, they too snatch at a dirty one, agreeing with the PDRL in essence and only altering its form to suite another audience—which coincidentally conforms to the plans of the PDRL, something we have published on our site. It seems that the logic of NYRY is, “if you can’t beat them, join them”; this is not a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist principle, but a pathetic lack of principle, a crossing over, and it stinks of the most wretched and miserable opportunism.
This specific type of desperate opportunism goes like this: NYRY claims that their more extreme version of events is based on the so-called “testimony” of “honest comrades” and they do no more investigating than to take this source as fact while in reality smuggling in more outright lies that even the PDRL does not claim. They reject the detailed investigation we have provided them and others, they sideline and avoid direct and principled struggle and collaboration, and resort to Red Baiting instead of sober self-criticism for their mistakes.
It is well known to us that the PDRL, as disorganized and as pathetic as it is, has its agents in various organizations which call themselves Maoists, and that these have continued trying to cause liquidation wherever they can. We assumed it was due to their amateurishness and inexperience that allowed the NYRY to fall for some of the slanders, but it has become increasingly clear that their “representative” lacks common principles and grasps for the same filthy rhetoric as liquidationists when convenient. He is but a temporary asset to the PDRL, used by them to disrupt the process of unity which all Maoists must pass through.
The Worker stands by our volunteers and calls on all genuine revolutionaries to reject police work and Red Baiting, to deepen the two-line struggle to unite under Maoism, to hold fast to our principles and seek to establish the truth through direct internal channels. We denounce all plotting and intrigue as the filthy tactics of revisionism and opportunism. We continue to support the overwhelming majorities of the Maoist movement, including the Revolutionary Student Union. Our optimism is not going anywhere, it is only the conditions created by NYRY which force us to publicly address these matters.
