Tricontinental Institute

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The Tricontinental Information Center (TIC) or Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, was formed in 1967 after a worldwide Soviet/Communist conference known as the Tricontinental Conference was held in Havana, Cuba in 1966 to promote the worldwide "socialist revolution".

The TIC was the U.S. affiliate of the Tricontinental organization, and was founded mainly by key members of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), including Michael Myerson and John Gallo.

Vijay Prashad is the Executive Director.

About

Excerpt from the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research website:[1]

"At Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, our work is about building knowledge from the experience of social and cultural transformations wrought by popular struggles. The main epistemological basis for such an approach to knowledge is derived from Karl Marx’s ‘11th Thesis on Feuerbach’: ‘philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it’. Our understanding of this axiom is that those who are trying to change the world have a sharp assessment of its contradictions, vulnerabilities, and possibilities. The movements and struggles for social transformation teach immense lessons about the character of power, privilege, and property and about the possibility of building a different kind of world.
One of our key concepts, derived from Antonio Gramsci, is that of the ‘new intellectual’, which refers to organic intellectuals of working people who observe the conditions of their class, interpret them against the ruling ideas, and produce a radical understanding of the world. Their views emerge but might dissipate unless they are rooted in a social or political movement, preferably in a political party of some kind. Gramsci calls these intellectuals the new intellectuals: those who throw themselves into ‘active participation in practical life, as constructor, organiser, “permanent persuader”’. The ‘permanent persuader’, or new intellectual, Gramsci notes, is the person who is devoted to working to alleviate the grievances of the people, elaborate popular consciousness, push the suffocating narrowness of thought outwards, and make more and more space for popular struggles to sustain themselves and win. Our intellectual production aspires to meet Gramsci’s standard.

[...]

Tricontinental Institute for Social Research is a network of research institutes in the Global South. We have institutes in Argentina, Brazil, India, and South Africa, as well as an inter-regional office with members in many parts of the world. Tricontinental Institute for Social Research is part of an international process of creating a network of dozens of research institutes, whose first fruit is A Plan to Save the Planet. We are also part of the International Union of Left Publishers, made up of more forty publishers from over twenty countries to advance left ideas, produce collective books, and initiate the annual Red Books Day.
The name of our institute draws upon two sources: the Tricontinental Conference held in Cuba in January 1966 and the Institute for Social Research set up in Frankfurt in 1923.
The Tricontinental Conference brought together a range of revolutionary movements from across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. They brought with them the orientation of national liberation, non-alignment, and socialism. It is this tradition – national liberation Marxism – which anchors the work of our institute.
The Institute for Social Research, also known as the Frankfurt School, developed during the Weimar Republic in Germany to understand the European working class’s failure to take advantage of the revolutionary situation on the continent at the time. The institute’s scholars studied the crisis of capitalism, the limitations of working-class struggle and ideology, and the rise of fascism.
We seek to further their legacy.

'McCarthyism is back'

In an article titled "McCarthyism is back, and it’s coming for the peace movement" dated August 10, 2023,[2] Defending Rights & Dissent defended Code Pink and The People's Forum after the New York Times cited them in an article about Chinese Communist Party infiltration of leftist activist groups in America.[3] The Tricontinental Institute[4] also published a statement titled "McCarthyism Is Back: Together We Can Stop It" criticizing the New York Times article.[5]

The initial signers:

Individuals

Teams

From the Tricontinental Institute website as of August 14, 2023:[6],[7],[8],[9],[10],[11],[12],[13],[14],[15]

International Advisory Board

Sponsors of the Tri-Continental Information Center

1967 list:

  • Michael Myerson - Director: Longtime identified member of the CPUSA and on one occasion, a publicly announced member of the Party

Sponsors:

See: "Extent of Subversion in Campus Disorders: Testimony of Ernesto E. Blanco", Part 1, hearings, Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS), Sen. Judiciary Committee, June 19, 1969, pp. 19, and 55-60.

References

  1. ↑ What We Do (accessed August 14, 2023)
  2. ↑ McCarthyism is back, and it’s coming for the peace movement (accessed August 14, 2023)
  3. ↑ A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a U.S. Tech Mogul (accessed August 13, 2023)
  4. ↑ A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a U.S. Tech Mogul (accessed August 14, 2023)
  5. ↑ McCarthyism Is Back: Together We Can Stop It (accessed August 14, 2023)
  6. ↑ Publications (accessed August 14, 2023)
  7. ↑ Art (accessed August 14, 2023)
  8. ↑ Communications (accessed August 14, 2023)
  9. ↑ Operations (accessed August 14, 2023)
  10. ↑ Technology (accessed August 14, 2023)
  11. ↑ Senior Fellows (accessed August 14, 2023)
  12. ↑ Researchers (accessed August 14, 2023)
  13. ↑ Special Projects (accessed August 14, 2023)
  14. ↑ War on Drugs (accessed August 14, 2023)
  15. ↑ International Advisory Board (accessed August 14, 2023)
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