The Proletarian Unity League was a Boston-based Maoist organization formed in 1975. Its founders were ex-Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) members who had been associated with the Revolutionary Youth Movement II: one of three factions (the others being Progressive Labor and the Weathermen) to emerge from the split in SDS that occurred at its June 1969 National Convention.
History The Proletarian Unity League (PUL) arose as part of the New Communist Movement (NCM) in the early 1970s. The PUL members rejected the Communist Party USA for its alleged revisionism; they also rejected the Socialist Workers Party and other Trotskyist sects for their opposition to Maoism and Chinese foreign policy.: "the conundrum facing U.S. leftists: the CPUSA was 'Moscow's mouthpiece', with financial backing from the Soviets; the PLP and other 'Trotskyist' groups opposed China's new foreign policy".
In surveying the proliferation of "self-proclaimed 'communist parties'" in the U.S., the PUL criticized what it saw as a tendency toward ultra-leftism, a critique articulated in its 1977 book Two, Three, Many Parties of a New Type? Against the Ultra-Left Line. "In the U.S., building unity means criticizing the 'Left-Wing' deviation, particularly 'left' opportunism.... The bankruptcy of the 'left' line has emerged more and more clearly in the past two years. The multiplication of 'Left-Wing Communist' parties, the accelerated fragmentation of a broad section of the Marxist-Leninist movement, and the failure to make significant advances among the working class have driven home to increasing numbers of communists the need for an all-out struggle against the ultra-left trend. A new tendency is emerging in opposition to 'left' sectarianism, adventurism, revolutionary phrase-mongering, and other 'left' errors." As Max Elbaum writes:
Throughout its ten-year span, the PUL differentiated itself from most other Maoist organizations by: Battling what it characterized as white supremacy in the American labor movement and its damaging effects on the development of class consciousness.: "the nature of white supremacy and its crippling role within the labor movement bears on the practical problems of bringing about socialism in this country." Advocating an anti-sectarian approach and arguing that there is not "one true party". Supporting gays and lesbians,. This pamphlet analyzes what it terms "gay-baiting" by the New Right at the start of the Reagan administration, and offers some possible defenses. in contrast to the homophobia found in some NCM groups.: In this retrospective essay, Leary says the PUL distinguished itself within the NCM by arguing that "'Queer' is not a bourgeois deviation."
In February 1979, the PUL was one of six U.S. Maoist organizationsThe other five groups in the 1979 delegation to China were the Bay Area Communist Union, Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), League of Revolutionary Struggle (Marxist-Leninist), Revolutionary Workers Headquarters, and Portland Red Star Unity Collective. to send a representative in a delegation to China. The visit's stated purpose was to "strengthen the unity between the U.S. Marxist-Leninists and the Communist Party of China" and to "promote the prospects for unity among the U.S. Marxist-Leninists." The delegation held a series of meetings with Chinese Communist Party leaders, including Vice-Premier Geng Biao.
In 1985 the PUL merged with the Revolutionary Workers Headquarters (RWH) to form the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO). The FRSO vowed to avoid the dogmatism that had been a defining feature of Maoism in the U.S. Over the next decade, several more groups joined the FRSO, which split in 1999.
Publications In addition to its Forward Motion newsletter—started in 1982 and published 4-6 times a year—the PUL's publications included:
First delivered as a speech at the National Lawyers Guild convention in Boston, August 1980.
The book's back matter includes "A Comment by Harry Haywood" and the authors' response.
References
External links PUL documents in the Special Collections Research Center at George Washington University