The YCLSA-GP is inspired by pro-communism writings. The purpose is to take on the distortions, misrepresentations, and supporting scholarship that hold such sway in academia about the first wave of socialist revolutions, in the Soviet Union in 1917–1956, China in 1949–1976 and other parts of the world. Against the facile verdicts that socialism has been a nightmare, or at best a terribly failed ex
periment, we are bringing forth the real and historic accomplishments of these revolutions, especially the lessons of the Cultural Revolution which we are inspired by for our Campaign, while digging into and drawing lessons for the future from the mistakes and shortcomings. The idea is to stir debate and discussion as to why these stand as vital, if initial, experiences at building liberating societies. At the same time, we are bringing forth what party leadership has been pointing to, in terms of where we have to do better and what it means to take the communist project to a whole other level of understanding and practice if it is to be viable and desirable in the 21st century. In short, communism is alive, but also developing. We are undertaking a wide range of activities: fact sheets, articles, mass leafleting, forums, etc.; and we are networking with progressive scholars and want to learn from the diverse insights of others. We are seeking to influence both students and professors, and scholars; general members of society and people from other walks of life. We want to contribute to creating an Ideological, Political and intellectual current that challenges the slanders and superficial summations, that insists on truthful examination of what these revolutions were actually striving to accomplish, the difficulties they faced, and what they were able to achieve, and that sees the relevance of all this to the deeply felt desire of so many for a radically different world. The NDR is not cast on stone, but it remains our cornerstone.
