http://debianws.lexgopc.com/wiki143/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Facing_RealityFacing Reality - Revision history2026-05-15T15:44:34ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.1http://debianws.lexgopc.com/wiki143/index.php?title=Facing_Reality&diff=2362338&oldid=previmported>Omnipaedista at 18:22, 25 May 20252025-05-25T18:22:44Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|1960's Radical Left Group}}<br />
'''Facing Reality''' was a [[Far left|radical left]] group in the United States that existed from about 1962 until 1970.<br />
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==History==<br />
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Facing Reality originated in the [[Johnson–Forest Tendency]] led by [[C. L. R. James]] and [[Raya Dunayevskaya]]. It has its origins in the [[Trotskyist]] left but regarded the [[Soviet Union]] as [[state capitalism|state capitalist]]. By 1951, the Johnson–Forest Tendency had left the Trotskyist left to form its own organization known as [[Correspondence Publishing Committee]]. C. L. R. James was forced to leave the USA in the early 1950s and Correspondence split. The faction that stayed loyal to C .L. R. James retained the name the Correspondence Publishing Committee and continued to receive advice from James from Britain, while a significant number supported [[Raya Dunayevskaya]] and split to form a new group, [[News and Letters Committees]], which publishes a monthly newspaper, ''[[News & Letters]]'', that remains in print today.<br />
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In 1962, there was a further split as [[Grace Lee Boggs]], [[James Boggs (activist)|James Boggs]], [[Freddy Paine]] and [[Lyman Paine]] abandoned the politics of C.L.R. James for an eclectic politics that was [[Third-worldism|third worldist]], while keeping the organization's name. The small number of members that continued to endorse the politics of James took the name Facing Reality, after the 1958 book by James co-written with Grace Lee Boggs and Pierre Chaulieu, a pseudonym for [[Cornelius Castoriadis]], on the Hungarian working class revolt of 1956. Facing Reality was based primarily in [[Detroit]] and published a monthly newsletter, ''Speak Out'', as well as pamphlets by James and other leading Facing Reality figures such as [[Martin Glaberman]]. They include ''Negro Americans Take the Lead: A Statement on the Crisis in American Civilization'' in 1964 and ''[[Mao Zedong|Mao]] as Dialectician'' by [[Martin Glaberman]] as well as James' ''Marxism and the Intellectuals'' in 1963 and ''Lenin, Trotsky, and the Vanguard Party'' in 1964. In 1967, four key leading members — C.L.R. James, Martin Glaberman, William Gorman and [[George Rawick]] — of Facing Reality collaborated to write the pamphlet ''The Gathering Forces'', a document some such as [[Kent Worcester]] have characterized as representing the influence of [[Maoism]] even in Facing Reality. Martin Glaberman, however, has disputed this claim in a review of Worcester's book in ''[[Solidarity (U.S.)|Against the Current]]'' magazine.<br />
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==Political impact==<br />
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Facing Reality had a particular, if small, impact among [[African American]] political activists at [[Wayne State University]] in Detroit and in auto plants in the city. A [[community paper]], ''[[Inner City Voice]]'', published articles by James in the late 1960s. Glaberman taught a class on [[Karl Marx]]'s ''[[Das Kapital|Capital]]'' to many of the staff of the ''Inner City Voice''. Numerous members of this group were also active in the [[Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement]]. In 1970, the group was dissolved at the suggestion of Glaberman over James's objections on the ground that it was too small to have an impact.<br />
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It is important to note, however that the group had a broader international influence as well, including in Italy's burgeoning "[[Autonomism|autonomous]]" communist movement.<br />
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==Sources==<br />
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120503095724/http://www.zcommunications.org/martin-glaberman-1918-2001-by-neil-fettes, ''Martin Glaberman 1918–2001'']<br />
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061206015323/http://auto_sol.tao.ca/node/view/383 Learning from Autonomous Marxism]<br />
* Martin Glaberman, "C.L.R. James: A Recollection", ''[[New Politics (magazine)|New Politics]]'' #8 (Winter 1990): 78–84.<br />
* Kent Worcester, ''C.L.R. James: A Political Biography'' (Albany: State University of New York, 1996).<br />
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==External links==<br />
* [http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001137144 ''Facing reality''], complete book at Hathi Trust<br />
* [http://www.marxists.org/archive/glaberman/1969/xx/blackcats.htm Glaberman 1969 article]<br />
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[[Category:Defunct left-wing parties in the United States]]<br />
[[Category:Political parties established in 1962]]<br />
[[Category:1962 establishments in the United States]]<br />
[[Category:Political parties disestablished in 1970]]<br />
[[Category:1970 disestablishments in the United States]]<br />
[[Category:C. L. R. James]]</div>imported>Omnipaedista