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Towards
a Marxist-Leninist Viewpoint, 2003
Kye
Leung
July 26, 2003
Part 1 in a series of articles on my experience in learning
and applying Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought.
Part
2, August 22
In April 2001 when I was offered an organizing position for a Chinatown-based
community agency, I jumped on the opportunity immediately. While I had
already done some organizing before, the potential to broaden my experiences
and skills was exciting and in addition I was going to get paid full-time
to do organizing.
At the time I had read texts on Marxism, Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought
but I had never applied the ideas in my organizing work or had been involved
with a mass movement. The organizing work I had done, primarily with youth
of color, was sporadic and spontaneous and never lasted long enough to
make significant contributions towards the goals we had envisioned.
So I was full of enthusiasm when I started at the Chinese Progressive
Association (CPA) in Boston, MA. My enthusiasm was also fueled in part
by CPA's role in the Chinese community in Boston and its history with
Asian American Movement. Some of the original members of CPA traced their
roots to the I Wor Kuen (IWK) that began in NYC and later merged with
the Red Guard Party in the Bay Area, and later still in another merge
to form the League of Revolutionary Struggle (LRS). For the most part,
these groups considered themselves Marxist-Leninist (ML) with periods
of revolutionary nationalism during their evolution.
But I didn't gravitate towards a grassroots organization like CPA because
of its Marxist-Leninist theories on organizing. In fact, CPA is not an
organization you would consider Marxist because it is a community organization
that whose membership includes a vast array of community people, from
moderates to progressives, radicals, Asians and non-Asians and even a
handful of conservatives. I first became aware of CPA through a classmate
of mine in middle school. In 1993, a hospital had proposed to build a
parking garage on land that had been promised for a community center.
That classmate's family lived directly across from this land and they
were very much involved in fighting to stop the project with help from
CPA organizers. Through my classmate, I helped slipped flyers under people's
homes and volunteered wherever I could.
At home though, my parents were very much against me helping at CPA because
it had gained a reputation in the community for being communists. My mother
was so alarmed that she called my old 5th grade teacher who then called
me and advised me not to volunteer at CPA because they were too political.
Instead he advised me to volunteer at a Chinatown merchants association,
which I found out later to be one of the most conservative sectors of
the community. While I didn't listen to the teacher's advice, it did affect
my attitude towards CPA and I stopped going there after a while.
It was through other experiences that led me back to organizing in Chinatown.
I grew up living in the projects of a working-class Irish American neighborhood
known for its racism and violence towards people of color. The neighborhood
had high rates of drug overdose and a reputation for bank robberies. In
other words, it was a tough neighborhood. (See All Souls, by author Michael
MacDonald for a glimpse of what life was like, highly recommended.)
By the time I was in high school I had already adopted a cynical view
of the world through the experiences of racism and violence I had encountered.
In 9th grade I passed an exam and entered the most prestigious public
high school in Boston. We were all put in this system where individuality
became numbers measured in A's, B's, C's, D's and F's and where we all
had to learn Latin. At the time I couldn't understand it but I felt something
was deeply wrong about the culture and how the system operated, and also
a general critique of my life in the projects.
I rebelled against the system (the Matrix) largely because I wanted to
retain my own individuality in face of oppressive conditions. I was tired
of being pushed around and told by other people what to do. Where I lived,
it was very possible that if you walked on the street anytime of the day
you could be chased, beaten, stoned, or cursed. This anger directed my
attitudes towards the white administrators of my school and I felt that
if they couldn't offer solutions that could help me in life, why should
I listen to them? I wanted to seek my own path.
To
be continued next week (I promise)…
