Du Bois resolution signatures keep coming in

Since MIM published the "Call to the international communist 
movement to regarding the birthday of W.E.B. Du Bois" on the 
15 February 2001, fifty-three other organizations and 
individuals have signed. The current list of signatories is:

1. Russian Maoist Party (RMP)
2. RAIL-France
3. Ghetto Liberation Political Party (GLPP)
4. Studies for the Liberation of Aztlan and Latin America(SLALA)
5. RAIL-Santa Barbara
6. Thomas Wayburn, Executive Director of the American Policy Institute, Inc.
7. Barry Stoller
8. RAIL-Boston
9. RAIL-New Orleans
10. Pacific Politics Organization
11. Ascending Dragon
12. Lord Grim, Marxist-Leninist Maoist/Latin King
13. A Colombian comrade
14. An Illinois prisoner
15. A Norwegian anti-imperialist
16. Songhay Commune of Nubia
17. A New York prisoner
18. The CAU$E, Missouri
19. Meia Dawn
20. A.C., Boston
21. Shakir Muhammad
22. NC prisoner.
23-65. Forty-three Texas prisoners

We are still accepting signatories. You can review the statement at http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/dubois.html or write to the PO Box on p. 2 to request a hard copy.
Some of the signatories sent in solidarity statements with their endorsement, which we reprint here.

Forty-two Texas prisoners sign W.E.B. Du Bois "Call"

Revolutionary greetings from the Texas Gulag Archipelago. We, the undersigned Texas state prisoners, gladly take this opportunity to commemorate the birthday of the great intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois.
Du Bois' keen intellect and acute observations allowed him to correctly analyze and assess capitalist class-based society on a par with Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao. Arguably, Du Bois' greatest achievement was to advance Lenin's theory of the hypertrophied stages of international capitalism by succinctly illustrating that the united snakes' empire subjugated to colonization those nations unfortunate enough to have been trapped within the belly of the beast. For this scientific revelation, among others, the international proletariat owes W.E.B. Du Bois a debt of gratitude. 
It is with revolutionary fervor that we ourselves, trapped within the belly of the beast, proclaim this day a historic monument to a great hero of the people. Long live the memory of W.E.B. Du Bois!
-- Forty-two Texas prisoners

MIM adds: One other prisoner from Texas endorsed in a separate letter.

CAU$E signs DuBois resolution, engages MIM on relations with revisionists

The Committee Against the U$ Empire (formerly RAIL -
Missouri) hereby endorses MIM's resolution in commemoration 
of the birthday of W. E. B. DuBois. The CAU$E has learned, 
through theoretical study and actual practice, the futility 
of accepting leadership from revisionist parties and 
organizations ("revisionist" defined by the CAU$E as those 
who do not recognize the significance of the development of 
a labor aristocracy within the imperialist nations' working 
class and a bourgeoisie within the party under dictatorship 
of the proletariat) when it comes to the struggle against 
capitalism and imperialism. Imperialist nations so-called 
Marxist parties, though they may rhetorically oppose 
imperialism, fundamentally reinforce it - whether 
consciously or unwittingly - through their primary emphasis 
on getting the labor aristocracy a greater slice of 
superprofit from the neocolonies. Through their primary 
efforts, these parties reinforce white chauvinism and 
reactionary nationalism as much as they may talk against it. 
While the CAU$E (and "the cause" more generally) benefits 
from MIM's further exposition on the idea of the labor 
aristocracy, we have seen the value in working in coalition 
with (MIM-defined) revisionist groups in single or even 
multi-issue campaigns (debt relief, militarism, the criminal 
injustice system). When these groups are willing to work 
against imperialism, it is important to take that 
opportunity to focus people's energy and attention on the 
principle contradiction between oppressed and oppressor 
nations and to challenge the notion that all workers around 
the world have the same qualitative relationship with 
capital. The CAU$E believes that its relationship in 
coalition with such groups has been principled and 
constructive. MIM is correct when it says that the 
revisionists are isolated: they are isolated from the lived 
experience and revolutionary potential of the oppressed 
world's masses. But MIM isolates itself by refusing to 
struggle with (as opposed to against) those groups whose 
theoretical line is unclear or someway in error. By being 
destructively critical (instead of constructively engaging) 
towards Islam, the new youth anti-globalization movement, 
the AAPRP, RCP, Greens, anarchists and others, MIM hinders 
the growth of a united anti-imperialist movement within the 
United Snakes. The CAU$E sees the DuBois resolution as an 
opportunity for unity-struggle-unity between MIM and all 
true enemies of imperialism. It is one of the reasons why, 
while we no longer accept MIM's leadership as a RAIL 
chapter, we have a respect for MIM, read, and disseminate 
(as individuals some of) its literature.

MIM responds: Thank you comrades, for your endorsement. We 
are especially happy to note unity on this question with 
organizations like CAU$E, Pacific Politics Organization, 
Ascending Dragon, and others -- organizations which do not 
accept formal MIM leadership (like RAIL and SLALA), yet with 
which we have accumulated much partial unity over the years. 
We hope that agreement on this high-level question will lay 
the basis for future work on practical agitational campaigns 
as well. We also recognize that although the CAU$E no longer 
accepts formal leadership as a RAIL chapter, there is a 
basis for working together which includes literature 
dissemination -- but should reach far beyond that, to work 
together on immediate issues, partial demands that can be 
won under capitalism. MIM takes responsibility for the fact 
that we have not been working together on such issues when 
the basis for such unity clearly exists. In fact, MIM 
recently issued a self-criticism for this failure -- which 
did not simply affect the CAU$E but many other, similar 
groups. This was printed in MIM Notes 228 and we encourage 
feedback from our readers. The process of rectification is 
just underway. We still need to put our finger on concrete 
errors. However, we do disagree on how to relate to 
revisionism. (When we talk about revisionism, we don't just 
speak of those who disagree with our three cardinal 
principles -- plenty of petty-bourgeois liberals and pro-
imperialist hacks disagree with them yet we don't call them 
revisionist. The important thing is that revisionists claim 
to be revolutionary Marxists yet in fact revise the essence 
of Marxism and represent the bourgeoisie.) Because the 
struggle against revisionism is so important, we always seek 
to preserve our independence and initiative. It is important 
that the masses can distinguish between MIM and those who 
claim to be Marxists while robbing Marxism of its 
revolutionary essence. That is why for example MIM places 
restrictions on placing its name on flyers and other forms 
of publicity. That forum does not allow MIM to clarify its 
position or rebut that of the revisionists. In many ways, 
our line on revisionists today is similar to the communists' 
line on "social-fascism" in the 1920s and 1930s. (See the 
article on Dimitrov and Stalin in this issue, or R. Palme 
Dutt's book "Fascism and Social Democracy.") By appealing to 
the demands of the imperialism-dependent middle forces, the 
social-democrats pave the way for fascism and counter-
revolution. If it is true that the revisionists are isolated 
because of their ties to the labor aristocracy, then 
revolutionary forces can only gain by clearly demarcating 
themselves from them. Indeed, many of the gains made by the 
communists in Germany in the early 1930s came about because 
of the break with the social-democrats. That said, MIM's 
official policy has never involved a total ban on relations 
with revisionists. See e.g. the story denouncing the legal 
harassment of C. Clark Kissinger on the front page of the 
Feb 1st MIM Notes. We unite against the  state's attack on 
activists of whatever understanding or intentions in the 
causes of the international proletariat. Just as  2+2 =4 no 
matter who says it, attacking the state on Mumia Abu- Jamal 
is right no matter who does it. It is this scientific 
approach which makes anti-sectarian unity of the class 
possible. Furthermore, our policies towards revisionists (on 
things like public endorsements) are very different from our 
policies towards progressive non-proletarian forces which do 
not claim to be revolutionary Marxists. It should have been 
clear to you that our position towards Greens, anarchists, 
anti-globalization groups and other mass organizations has 
always been one of constructive engagement. See e.g. the 
section "MIM's sense of alliance" in our review of Hardt and 
Negri's "Empire" (MIM Notes 229).

Shakir Muhammed endorses the "Call"

I would like to express solidarity and show support for MIM 
effort to honor the work of Pan-African-Scholar W.E.B. 
DuBois by becoming a signatory to the declaration "A Call to 
the International Communist Movement Regarding the Birthday 
of W.E.B. DuBois". Although DuBois invested a lot of time 
and energy in a vain attempt to force revolutionary change 
in society through the NAACP before ending his illustrious 
career in the socialist camp, he worked even harder to put a 
human face on socialism to help advance the struggle of 
Third World people with zeal and dedication that deserve the 
kind of respect that MIM call for. Certainly DuBois' 
activism made communism more attractive to more Third World 
people than any of his contemporaries. 

--Shakir Muhammad