Black, Brown, Yellow, & Left: Radical Activism in Los Angeles (review)

Laura Pulido, Professor of Geography, American Studies, and Ethnicity, describes the evolution of the Third World Left in Los Angeles between 1968 and 1978 by examining three organizations representing African American, Chicano/a, and Japanese American radical activists: The Black Panther Party (BPP), the Center for Autonomous Social Action (CASA), and East Wind, respectively. By situating place and race at the center of this study of political revolutionaries, Pulido finds an effective lens through which to explore parallels and tensions of the Third World Left. Drawing from a diverse pool of secondary literature and organizational records such as meeting minutes, pamphlets, and newspapers, as well as dozens of ethnographic interviews, Pulido reconstructs narratives of each group and attempts to situate them in their broader geographic, demographic, and chronological contexts. In offering a comparison of Third World Leftist organizations, this monograph both informs scholars' understandings of these short-lived, yet ideologically pivotal movements, and at the same time offers a new framework for understanding this branch of the Left.

Pulido argues that the BPP, CASA, and East Wind emerged as Third World Leftist organizations in opposition to Black/Chicano/Yellow Power or cultural nationalist movements because they "explicitly identified as revolutionary nationalist, Marxist, Leninist, or Maoist and had a membership of at least half people of color." (5) Furthermore, she argues that the Third World Left's focus on class consciousness articulated in racial terms plus its identification with colonized peoples of the Third World set it apart from the New Left, epitomized by groups like Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). To press these distinctions, she divides her book into two main parts. The first part examines the unique circumstances of Los Angeles that contributed to the radicalization of people of color. Specific events—such as the Watts Riot in the case of the BPP—crystallized for activists the class and racial inequities they faced on a daily basis within a city that was marked by de facto residential segregation. The second part credits the BPP for inspiring the entire Third World Left, yet proves that a more nuanced understanding of the Left is gained through a comparison of the multiple organizations that composed it.

One way that Pulido illuminates the distinctions among Third World Leftist organizations is by comparing them with nonrevolutionary, counterpart groups within the same racial, ethnic, and geographic community. For example, in Chapter Five she contrasts CASA, an organization that viewed all ethnic Mexicans as part of one international working class, to the August Twenty-ninth Movement, an organization that focused on organizing Chicano workers as their own nation. (125) Pulido thus emphasizes the unique internationalism that characterized CASA's attempts to link to a worldwide-oppressed working class. Members agreed that "imperialism was the culprit and racism was its tool." (127)

Another chapter highlighting variations within the Third World Left centers on gender relations within the organizations. While this information might have been better integrated within a broader discussion of the organizations themselves, it still underscores the inherent struggles in a movement that meant different things to different activists. For instance, although women like Ericka Huggins and Elaine Brown rose to prominence within the leadership of the BPP, and although their work earned recognition from men and women alike within the organization, Pulido shows that a central tension still existed over gender and gender roles. For example, a gendered division of labor often dictated that women work in community service programs such as health services while men work in defense positions. (190–91) Furthermore, Pulido effectively demonstrates how ethnic, religious, and class differences frequently determined the extent to which gender equality was dealt with on official and private levels.

While the monograph establishes the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist theoretical devotion of each organization, it could convey a broader context by emphasizing alignments within the Left. Pulido rightly differentiates between the Old Left—the Communist Party of the United States of...