From the Archives

Much of the work of Viewpoint has revolved around presenting translations of significant texts from international traditions of revolutionary theory. This is not accidental; we are convinced that to meet the challenge of understanding the present we have to look beyond narrowly conceived political or national traditions. However, we have come to realize that this work of expanding the toolbox also has to begin closer to home. Indeed, much of the American radical tradition seems just as foreign and forgotten to us today, and a wealth of material in English has been simply abandoned to the archives. Yet it is impossible to understand the contemporary problems of political practice without revisiting the history of the American Left, in the spirit of critical and non-sectarian reinvention.

Young Patriots at the United Front Against Fascism Conference (1969)

Young Patriots at the United Front Against Fascism Conference (1969)

The YPO was a Chicago-based group of poor, white, and revolutionary southern transplants, who played a crucial role in founding the original 1969 Rainbow Coalition, a groundbreaking alliance initiated by the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party. But on what grounds could the Patriots see themselves as specifically white revolutionary nationalists? 

Greetings to Our Militant Vietnamese Brothers (1964)

Greetings to Our Militant Vietnamese Brothers (1964)

On this Fourth of July 1964 when White America celebrates its Declaration of Independence from foreign domination one hundred and eighty-eight years ago, we of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) congratulate the Vietnamese Front of National Liberation for their inspiring victories against U.S. imperialism in South Vietnam and thereby declare Our Independence from the policies of the U.S. government abroad and at home.