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.The collectivewas formed when some members of Asian American Hardcore sought todevelop a politics that went beyond drug issues.53 One interviewee who hadbeen a member of both groups recalled,112 / THE THI RD WORLD LEFTThe group [Hardcore] evolved to the point where they decided theyneeded a political living collective.Some people decided to go with it andothers decided to leave.It was a real commitment.They also invitedsome women to live in this collective.I don t remember what thecriteria [were], but there was a big discussion and you were [voted on]by the whole group.It wasn t like you joined because you were relatedto somebody, but you [had to be] on your own, involved, and committedto some sort of principles.You had to be willing to really, totally, collec-tivize your life, everything you owned.There were thirteen of us at the beginning in this collective in EastL.A.We lived in this two-story house, that interestingly enough, agroup of people in the community collected money to pay our rent.John Saito spearheaded it.So there was a lot of support.There waspeople s work going on out of the JAC s office and people thought that itwas a good thing.Not everybody, but this segment of progressive Niseisupported it.I look back on it and I don t think we appreciated it asmuch as we should have.As a Marxist-Leninist organization, East Wind was highly disciplined,and members lives were filled with meetings, study, and community work.The collective consisted of twenty-five to thirty members, but with a core offifteen.East Wind had two key organizational structures: the CentralCommittee and work units.The Central Committee, which was electedannually, was the primary decision-making body, while the work units werecomposed of those engaged in mass work around labor, community, youth,and so forth.East Wind was different from the BPP in that its community work wasnot limited to its own programs.Although East Wind took the lead in someprojects, including the takeover of the Resthaven mental health facility inChinatown, activists were dispersed throughout the community, working inlabor, the redevelopment of Little Tokyo, Gidra, and the Pioneer SeniorCenter, to name just a few projects.Besides providing necessary services andcreating social change, East Wind supported other minority groups andsought to raise the political consciousness of all Japanese Americans.The living collective was another distinct feature of Japanese Americanactivism.Although both Chicana/o activists and the Panthers had versionsof collective living, the practice was most developed among JapaneseAmericans.In fact, Japanese American living collectives existed before EastWind, whereas Panthers, for example, began living together only after join-ing the party.Besides providing inexpensive housing, living collectivesoffered the opportunity to forge alternative lifestyles as part of a larger rev-olutionary practice.SERVI NG THE PEOPLE AND VANGUARD POLI TI CS / 113When East Wind initially formed it was composed primarily of JapaneseAmerican activists with similar political tendencies.Early on, revolutionarynationalism was the dominant ideology, but in conjunction with largerpolitical shifts it became more Marxist-Leninist and Maoist in the mid-sev-enties.While most members time was spent literally serving the people,some members argued that the cadre required more time for study, theory,and political development.The group agreed to try this approach, but somemembers were frustrated with this shift in emphasis, even leaving becauseof it.Eventually, it was decided to reduce the commitment to study and pri-oritize community work once again.As the seventies progressed, the New Communist movement shiftedtoward party building and consolidation.East Wind spent considerable timeexploring commonalities with other groups before joining the League ofRevolutionary Struggle, a multinational organization that had alreadyincorporated I Wor Kuen and the August Twenty-ninth Movement.Not allmade the move, as some objected to the shift, but the majority made thetransition [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]