On November 3rd, 1979, I was attending an internal meeting of the Communist Workers Party (CWP) in Pittsburgh, PA. That evening we repaired to the the funky living room of our Oakland district headquarters and learned from television broadcast that several anti-kkk activists had been killed or wounded during the course of a demonstration in Greensboro, North Carolina. A few minutes later, we received a call confirming our fears: four of our comrades had already died and several others were in serious condition after having been shot in cold-blood by a caravan of Klan/Nazi members who had attacked the anti-Klan march organized by the CWP.
In her newly released, "Love and Revolution", Signe Waller, the widow of Jim Waller, one of the five to die as a result of that November tragedy, provides us
with a "political memoir" that spans several genres. It is at once a biography of the victims of the Greensboro massacre, autobiography of the author, reportage, chapter in American history, political analysis and activist handbook. Ms. Waller writes in two voices: the first is that of the young Signe Waller, leftist militant circa 1979; the other voice is that of Signe Waller, year 2002. Combining these two perspectives, Ms. Waller allows us access to the passionate thought processes of a young revolutionary as well as the sobre reasoning of a seasoned activist culling the wisdom of her experience.
Who were the five slain? Dr. James Waller, age 36; Dr. Michael Nathan, 32; William Sampson, 31; Sandra Smith, 28; Cesare Cauce, 25. These were extraordinary individuals. Collectively, they were collegiate student body presidents, Phi Beta Kappa members,graduates of the University of Chicago, Duke, and Harvard Divinity and accomplished physicians. Poised for professional success and the material comfort and bourgeois respectability that would have afforded, they chose instead to live, work and struggle among the poor and working classes of North Carolina. To this end, four members of the CWP5 took low-paying and dangerous jobs in the textile mills of North Carolina and arm-in-arm with other workers fought for better working conditions and
pay.
Co-workers recognized the dedication and skill of these openly-radical CWP member, electing them as local Presidents and shop stewards. In addition to their trade-union activities, the "5" also participated in the anti-apartheid movement, struggles for better education, and anti-racist actions. After a long day's work at the mill, Dr. Waller gave gratis medical treatment to the workers and their families, even paying for the pharmaceuticals when his patients were too poor.
In the Summer of 1979, the CWP along with other townfolk confronted and routed the Ku Klux Klan in China Grove, North Carolina, where the racist organization had been terrorizing african-americans and inter-racial couples. Emboldened by this victory, CWP leadership in North Carolina called for an anti-klan rally and march to be held in the predominantly black neighborhood of Morningside in Greensboro. The CWP publicly dared the Ku Klux Klan to show up at the rally and even sent the white supremacists a letter to that effect.
The Klan did show up on November 3rd, accompanied by Nazis with whom they had recently forged an alliance.
On-the-scene television crews recorded the fatal shootings. The CWP, complying with police orders, were not armed and, therefore, could not mount a defense. As one Klansmen noted, it was a "turkey shoot".
In the wake of November 3rd, evidence came forward that proved this was more
than a brutal assault by the KKK/Nazis. Sure those groups pulled the trigger but it was later brought to light that the Greensboro police and even the FBI
had been in complicity and even helped organize the attack. Given the amount of conspiracy theory we encounter on the Internet, the sceptic should certainly be wary of such a statement. To this I can only reply, "Read the book!"
In the last pages of "Love and Revolution", we learn that today Waller still believes in the ideals of her youth: an egalitarian society and no war. She does not berate her years in the now defunct CWP as youthful folly. Mistakes were made from which she has learned and evolved.
She criticizes the rhetoric of the CWP. The CWP talked tough but was in no position for a military confrontation. This fact in no way justifies the argument of some at the time : that the CWP "got what it deserved" or provoked. The fact is that the CWP was leading a peaceful "unarmed" demonstration. Nonetheless, the groups aggressive rhetoric did make it possible for their enemies to portray them as violent.
She also criticizes the Leninist party structure, democratic centralism. It was according to her "long on centralism and short on democracy".
I couldn't agree more. As a one-time member of the CWP, I found rhetoric and democratic centralism perniciously fed into one another. On the one hand, rhetoric alienated me, divided me from myself. Often I could not distinguish my true thoughts and feelings from Party rhetoric. When one did offer an
unpopular opinion, there was always the threat that it would not be fairly judged but simply rejected as a symptom of "petit-bourgeois" orientation or my youth(I was only 19 at the time). Due to this censorship by others, or even self-censorship, there was NO chance that a regular cadre could influence party policy. In my opinion, not only democratic centralism but the party model, which aspires to mediate the desires of so many under a united platform, deserves to be tossed in the trash bin.
I hope that this book will be studied by many activists. I also hope that it will serve as a call to reawaken all those ex-members of the Communist Workers party who have fallen into the slumber of middle-age. A better world is possible and, as Signe informs us, we are being "convened by martyrs".
-Thomas Seay entheogens at yahoo.com
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