Is Comrade Dave Dudley still keeping up the struggle after all?
Judging by this fine letter to the Weekly Worker it seems rumours that the editor of Leninist Vanguard has left political life may be premature.
The article on the PRC congress was quite interesting and informative, but I question a few points – in particular the claim that what you call the “Ferrandoist” current, Progetto Comunista, has declined over the past few years (‘From anti-capitalism to serving capitalism’, March 10).
I would say it has actually grown. Crude percentages can be misleading. Firstly, as the article correctly points out, there has been a large recruitment of paper members over the past few months, which all the oppositions have voiced unease about.
Secondly, the vote in 2001 was artificially high, since at that point PC was the only opposition, whereas now people have a choice. Thirdly, at that time the “Ferrandoist” group was Proposta, the Italian section of the International Trotskyist Opposition, which was simply the largest group inside PC; since then, with the decision of the ITO to dissolve itself into the Coordinating Committee for the Refoundation of the Fourth International, PC has consolidated itself into the Italian section of the CRFI, although this did involve getting rid of Falce Martello, a small group of Grant-Woods supporters who had been a negative presence.
Bear in mind that the “Ferrandoists” arose as a group who were expelled from Bandiera Rosa, the USFI group – now they have more support than Bandiera Rosa, albeit by only two votes. The article did not elaborate on its allegations against this group. However, I hope the Weekly Worker will continue its generally serious coverage of developments in the PRC.
Pat Gallacher
Coordinating Committee for the Refoundation of the Fourth International