From : lrp [email address removed]
Sent : Friday, April 2, 2004 2:15 PM
To : [email address removed]
Subject : Re: greetings

AL Collective
Boston, Mass.

Dear Comrades,

Thank you for your recent message. We appreciate the renewed opportunity to engage in a discussion of elements of revolutionary program and Marxist methods in the fight against imperialist war.

To first explain a bit what happened from our end, in terms of our previous contact with your group. After our comrades first encountered your group at the February 15, 2003 demonstration and obtained your leaflet from that day, we made a study of it and sent an e-mail, dated February 21, 2003, in response to both your leaflet and some of the verbal discussions we had with you on that day, intended to begin discussion. I checked with our office which is in charge of LRP communications and, according to our records, the email was sent out more than once -- with no response or acknowledgement received. This hardly rules out the possibility of a technical foul up on our end, which, if it happened, we certainly regret.

Rather than rehash further, now that we are back in touch it is agreed that a direct written political discussion between our two groupings would be very good. The text of our e-mail, from Cde. Dave F, is included below for your reference. In terms of re-starting the written discussion, a response, on your part, to our e-mail of last February, would be most welcome and very much appreciated. As part of your response, we would very much like to read more of an explanation for the reasoning behind what you now express as a modification in your political line toward army rebellion. Of course, if you have, or in the future do produce, any more literature or statements which address these questions, or any of your political views, we would very much like to see it. If you are planning to publish future documents, or a regular publication, our office can set up an exchange of materials and thus conduct a broader political discussion.

As you would know, we have a large amount of our material available on our website, www.lrp-cofi.org. In addition to criticizing your material, we are eager to learn of areas of agreement and disagreement between us concerning basic views. Therefore this letter should not be taken as proposing a one-sided discussion but is an invitation for comrades in your group to comment on our political views.

The only other written statement the LRP has from your group is the transcription of your statement at our debate with the SL last May. As we understand it, the centerpiece of that intervention was a call for "anti-imperialists" to wage an election "campaign of class struggle," aimed at encouraging soldiers to rebel against military discipline and the war. Can you explain more as to what you mean by such a campaign, as concretely as possible?

A final question: at the debate, your comrade stated that "one of the distinguishing features of [the AL Collective] is a positive out look towards animal liberation." Does this indicate that you regard a stance and/or activities on this question to be an essential component of revolutionary program today? And if so, why?

Thank you very much for contacting us, once again. We look forward to a fruitful discussion.

Yours in struggle,

Joseph
for the LRP