In a note in the first issue of Urgent Tasks, the editors wrote, "In our opinion, no existing national communist organization embodies a workable revolutionary strategy. . . . The ideas and individuals which might make up such an organization exist, but only as a general trend, not as a clear political tendency."

We did not exclude the Sojourner Truth Organization from the above calculation. Consequently, from the beginning we have conceived Urgent Tasks not simply (or even mainly) as the voice of our "line" but as a vehicle to break new ground and advance the debate among revolutionaries which must lead to the emergence of a comprehensive strategy.

Toward this end, we are publishing in this issue a number of critiques of articles that have been published by STO, in Urgent Tasks and elsewhere. (Paradoxically, this commitment to open, public debate is an important part of our line.)

The article by Joel Jordan, a member of Workers Power, a group of comrades who have recently left the International Socialists, is a basic challenge to the prevailing positions of STO as they have been expressed in Urgent Tasks numbers one and two and in "White Supremacy and the Afro-American National Question" by Don Hamerquist, published as a pamphlet.

The article by Linda Phelps, a member of STO, is a critical response to a two-part article by Alison Edwards, also a member of STO, which was entitled "Women and Modern Capitalism" and which was published in numbers five and six of this journal.

The speech by Ashraf Dehghani is the viewpoint of an important sector of the armed revolutionary movement of Iran that contrasts sharply with views presented in the documents from Iran translated and published in our last issue. It is also implicitly critical of our last editorial, "In Defense of Iran," though we would not sharply counterpose our line to either fedayee position without further study of a political debate that is not yet available in English translation.

The article by Martin Glaberman and the response by Ken Lawrence carry forward a debate on the character of U.S. slavery and the slaves which began with the publication by STO of Lawrence's pamphlet "Marx on American Slavery" in 1976, and which was continued in numbers one and six of Urgent Tasks.

In addition, we are publishing three letters from readers, one a criticism of Edwards' article mentioned above, the others critical of a review of theories of armed struggle, written by STO member Beth rienson and published in issue number five.

Rounding out the issue are STO member [name withheld at author’s request] analysis of events in Afghanistan and a "guest editorial" on nuclear issues from Fight Back that we are pleased to present to our readers.

We have been criticized by several readers for the tone of Urgent Tasks, which has been described as "clubby" and accessible only to those on the inside, as well as for occasional lapses into snottiness toward our opponents. We think there is some validity to these criticisms. We recognize that to continue these errors will undermine our ability to carry out serious, reasoned debate among revolutionaries. In the future we shall try to avoid a style which opens us to such criticism.