Gary Leupp: I know what you mean, Bill

Outside the RCP: a beautiful blue planet

 

Gary Leupp is Professor of History at Tufts University, and Adjunct Professor of Religion. He has written analysis on topics including the revolution in Nepal and the U.S. attacks on countries like Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. He is the author of Servants, Shophands and Laborers in in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan; Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan; and Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900.

By Gary Leupp

Bill Martin wrote:

“I am also feeling the weight of the dissipation of a relationship that, though quite often difficult, problematic, troubled, and filled with turmoil, was also at key junctures enlivening and inspiring.”

I know what you mean, Bill. And there might be a weighty sense of regret when a relationship that complicated ends with those you’ve seen as friends and comrades shunning you—because you’ve gone too far in questioning articles of faith they themselves cannot explain or defend.

You start to see those visits to your office, those long conversations, those meals together in a different light.

My own friendly relationship with the RCP of over 30 years was largely based on a common opposition to imperialist war and feeling of solidarity with Maoist movements abroad.

I have to say that on this matter of solidarity with Maoists internationally — involving Peru, India, the Philippines and Nepal — my work was largely independent of the RCP. The lack of internationalism or even deep interest in foreign Maoist movements in the RCP sometimes puzzled me.

Anyway, my relationship with the party soured when I refused to sign the New York Review of Books advertisement for Bob Avakian in the summer of 2007.

The irony is, my respect for the RCP was at an all-time high at precisely that point. I saw the party making apparent breakthroughs in working with a new range of forces, including even people like Gen. Karpinski. While critical of Raymond Lotta’s version of 20th century history I was impressed by the party’s ability to arrange the “Set the Record Straight” presentations at Harvard and other universities.

Then I was asked, by a couple of party people who seemed to assume I’d leap at the opportunity, to defend Bob Avakian by signing the statement.

My natural inclination was to ask, “Is he under some legal threat?” No, I was told, he’s not. Well, then, I reasoned, the point of this exercise is basically to get me to affix my name to promotional material for Bob. I wasn’t interested in doing that, for reasons I explained to at least one party person at the national level. More than that, I thought the Engage! Campaign was virtually suicidal, leading anyone paying attention to suspect a personality cult within the organization. (I was so naïve at the time about the actual extent of that cult!) The very thought that Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky would sign on (they both refused) struck me as hopelessly delusional.

I didn’t just dismiss the campaign with contempt but immediately expressed my alarm. I told the RCP person to whom I was closest that I thought this could either produce some breakthrough in projecting Avakian into the public view (which I didn’t think likely) or expose the party to ridicule and drive away people like myself. But in conversations with that person and others I came to understand the magnitude of the cult.

In subsequent long talks with my friend I questioned BA’s specialness, the novelty and insight of the “New Synthesis,” receiving so little counter-argument and producing so much apparent consternation that I almost felt badly. But the conversations always ended cordially. So I was disappointed when an invitation to dinner was rejected in terms that clearly reflected a party decision to cut ties. I guess I had gone from being a public intellectual whose cooperation had been solicited by Raymond Lotta, Li Onesto, Sunsara Taylor, Michael Slate etc. to someone more than useless to the RCP—an enemy of the Culture of Appreciation, Promotion and Popularization. So much for “engaging” intellectuals.

I too feel the “weight of the dissipation of a relationship.” But I feel a weight lifted. There’s a beautiful world out there, post-RCP, even a beautiful capitalist crisis unprecedented since 1929. Lots of grounds for optimism for revolutionary change that can be led by aware, creative people who aren’t still trapped in a depressing dogmatic box.

I hope your testimonial, Bill, will encourage those in the RCP who’ve admired your work to break with what’s now plainly a dead-end project.