The Sojourner Truth Organization: Notes Toward a History

I recently received the following document, a lengthy critique of the political philosophy of Louis Althusser, from Don Hamerquist, founding and long-time member of STO.  Hamerquist was inspired by some recent threads at the Kasama website to rework some old notes on the Althusser collection For Marx, notes that he had originally produced in the process of preparing the Dialectics curriculum and other political education classes put together by STO, beginning in the late 1970s.  The primary thrust of Hamerquist’s critique, it seems to me after an initial reading, is that Althusser’s analysis of Marxist philosophy is fatally compromised by his attachment to A) an enforced distinction between the "ideological" and "scientific" periods of Marx’s writings, and B) a party-based model of revolutionary theory built around an ahistorical understanding of Lenin’s What is to be Done as Communist gospel.  Hamerquist offers alternative readings of both Marx and Lenin on the relevant points, and overall encourages contemporary revolutionaries to rethink our traditional conceptions of theory and practice.  Additionally (and what initially made the piece appropriate for this blog), Hamerquist offers substantial insight into the origins and development of some key themes in STO’s intellectual outlook, especially relating to the theory of dual consciousness and the analysis of contradictions and crisis within capitalism.  (It is also worth noting that Hamerquist published a much earlier piece on Althusser in issue #4 (1978) of Urgent Tasks, STO’s political journal.)  While Hamerquist’s analysis emerges from within the Leninist framework, I believe there is much here that will benefit 21st century revolutionary anarchism as well.  I am happy to post this contribution to a needed discussion, and both Hamerquist and I encourage discussion of this piece here and elsewhere, in both the virtual and the real world.  Please let us know what you think.

*               *               *

Althusser Comments

Don Hamerquist

One skeptical participant commented on the recent Kasama website discussion of Althusser’s impact on Avakian’s theoretical posture as follows:

“Althusser and Avakian do not matter much.”

To the contrary, I think that both “matter” a good deal, although in different ways. However, in the case of Althusser, my appreciation has some different content than what I’ve seen expressed in these discussions.

One of the defining characteristics of STO was its consistent opposition to Stalinism, but for the most part the group didn’t write extensively on this subject.  However, during a brief period in the mid-seventies, STO participated in something called the Federation of Independent Marxist-Leninist Collectives.  Another participant in this short-lived group was a then-nameless grouping from Boston, which eventually became the core of the Proletarian Unity League, which in turn was one of the founding elements of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization in the mid-1980s.  Whether rightly or wrongly, STO identified the Boston group as a proponent of what STO sometimes referred to as the "Stalin-model" of party-building.  In the course of a series of polemics with the Boston group in 1975, STO produced (from the pen of Don Hamerquist) two of the better articulations of anti-Stalinist Leninism that I have encountered.  (more…)