ON ACCOUNTABILITY WITHIN REVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATIONS (2025) by Kevin “Rashid” Johnson

In a recent political education (PE) class, I asked participants, “What motivated your involvement in revolutionary or social justice work?” The idea for this question came from one of my favorite books, FANSHEN: A DOCUMENTARY OF REVOLUTION IN A CHINESE VILLAGE. More on this book in a moment.

It’s common in our PE classes, for discussions to relate to actual work that we’re involved in. For us the personal is indeed the political. This being true, conducting this PE led me into a deeper examination of things I had been struggling with for some time, related to contradictions and struggles between various people within my own circles and groups, including between myself and others, and how those contradictions were or were not resolved.

A number of those contradictions became antagonistic and demoralized numerous Comrades and ended with splits in organizations that I had cofounded and led, like the New Afrikan Black Panther Party (NABPP) and the Revolutionary Intercommunal Black Panther Party (RIBPP), also in many people being played against each other, and becoming estranged, alienated from and pushed out of this work by elements that would prove to be wreckers, thorough reactionaries, opportunists, movement hustlers and quite possibly enemy agents. These were people with hidden agendas and limited commitment to this work which surfaced time and again. Some of which could have been revealed through earlier critical examinations of their motives and patterns.

For me this PE brought these questions to the surface and prompted me to critically examine whether they were addressed in a revolutionary manner or a reactionary one, and what class values influenced those responses.

Looking back now, a single thread could be seen weaving its way through influencing how people perceived and reacted to these contradictions and the air of antagonism that persisted throughout. That thread centered in a single person, deeply rooted in petty bourgeois values and practice, who had attached themself to a key leader in these circles and groups, and who used this relationship and resultant political credibility to gain a preferential role and influence in these circles. Constant division, disruption and the needless escalation of non-antagonistic contradictions into antagonistic ones followed in the wake.

Recognizing this has prompted me to revisit those situations and contradictions with an eye to resolving them by applying a correct ideological and political line.

FANSHEN AT A GLANCE

FANSHEN is THE go-to book for anyone interested in studying what a Communist-led revolution looks like on the ground, in real time, and on a day-by-day basis. This documentary was written by William Hinton, an Amerikan farmer who traveled to and lived in a Chinese village, Long Bow, during the period of China’s revolutionary Civil War led by Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) against the Western imperialist-backed Nationalists or Guomindang. It documents the reversals of oppressive conditions and the wealth and power that was taken away from the entrenched semi-feudal landlords and gentry and given to the poor, exploited peasants. It maps the ebbs and flows, advances and retreats, and huge gains that were achieved by this struggle and the role of the CCP in giving correct leadership to the fight against the semi-feudal and semi-colonial conditions suffered by China’s millions of peasants.

Consistent with Mao’s mass line, members of the local branch of the CCP opened themselves up to public criticism and accountability to the entire village. [1] The charges and questions brought by the village against the local CCP cadre fell into four categories: (1) bad working style; (2) personal selfishness and corrupt practices; (3) “rascal behavior,” loose morals, philandering; and (4) forgetting one’s class. This was the context in which my PE question arose, concerning what had motivated the participants’ involvement in revolutionary work.

The public examination of the local CCP members under these four categories revealed that EVERY member of the Party had committed errors to a greater or lesser degree, for which they and the Party we’re held accountable to the village. The act that the Party opened itself up to public accountability and rectification, welded it more soundly to the people and enhanced public trust and confidence in its leadership.

REFLECTING ON THE CCP’S ACCOUNTING

Looking at not just the process but the errors for which the local cadre in Long Bow were held to account, it became evident to me that members of the NABPP and RIBPP had engaged in many of the EXACT SAME BEHAVIORS charged and found against CCP cadre in Long Bow. The major difference was how we handled those errors in our groups.

Although we did expose and confront these errors in our groups, it was not done in the spirit or manner that had occurred in Long Bow. In fact we didn’t approach these errors with the aim of public accountability, rectification and correction, or in the Communist spirit of Unity-Struggle-Unity, but rather we raised them to the level of antagonistic contradictions that didn’t strengthen our organizations and members, but rather split and divided us. WE TREATED THE PEOPLE IN OUR GROUPS LIKE THE ENEMY.

As said, there were particular influences driven by particular individuals that produced this result. These individuals in their practice were not problem solvers nor did they ever vest trust in the masses nor even engage in mass work. They were thoroughly petty bourgeois in their practice and thinking, and steeped in not just gossip and instigating contradictions and distrust between people, but raising those and other contradictions to the level of antagonism and division. At every turn these people cast aspersions and doubt on people’s characters and motives, they even spread pig and informant-generated gossip, slander and rumors against Comrades, and sought to create circles of loyalists around themselves instead of developing cadre loyal to the people, to the Party and to its work and development.

Looking back on these errors and the reactionary elements and class lines that drove them, prompted me to open the door for further examination and possible reconciliation of the past struggles and issues that prompted these splits and divisions. Which means these past struggles STILL MUST BE RESOLVED, and to this end they must be revisited and rectified in a correct manner, not just glossed over because not handled correctly in the past.

Dare to Struggle Dare to Win!

All Power to the People!
___________________
Endnotes:

1. I talk in depth about this sort of public criticism as a common practice in Afrikan communal societies and correctly led vanguard Parties in my article/interview, “On the Vanguard Party, Once Again” (2012) http://rashidmod.com/?p=353