tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77582053282620645362024-03-21T15:06:42.622-04:00Official Site of the National Board of the Communist Party, USAThis site has been established by the National Board of the CPUSA for the express purpose of informing the public about important decisions... Profits Before People--- Right on!CPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.comBlogger140125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-50286577245797585382011-07-06T11:23:00.002-04:002011-07-06T11:27:56.910-04:00Our friend Barack Obama is being attacked; please rise to help me defend him<span style="font-size:130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: left; "><span style="font-size:100%;">This has been posted in places for people to read:<br /><br /></span><blockquote><span style="font-size:100%;">"Obama is the full and complete embodiment of state monopoly capitalism in an era dominated by Wall Street's imperialism."</span></blockquote><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br />The name of a very good man is being besmirched.<br /><br />We must rise to defend the President from these kinds of slanderous attacks.<br /><br />All rise until I give the command to be seated.<br /><br />Sam Webb<br />National Chair, CPUSA<br /></span></span></span></span>CPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-87383594578349344832011-06-13T13:10:00.002-04:002011-06-13T13:16:23.908-04:00Please call Bruce BostickWe had to have Bruce Bostick committed to Bellevue, again. We caught him looking at inappropriate information.<br /><br />Please call Bruce. He continues to be confused and depressed.<br /><br />Let's help out this poor depressed guy.<br /><br />Give him a call; call Bruce often: 614-313-6145<br /><br />Sam Webb, your confused national leaderCPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-81379928652844429612011-06-12T21:11:00.004-04:002011-06-12T21:19:23.509-04:00Open letter to corporate America<div id="headline" class="span-16 last"><h1 class="pageTitle span-12">Open letter to corporate America</h1></div><div id="content" class="span-12 divider"><div id="innerContent"><div class="metaData"> <div class="author">by: <a href="http://peoplesworld.org/new-biography-8" class="s-serif">Harold Wallace</a> a pseudonym</div><div class="author"><br /></div> <span class="date">June 8 2011</span> </div> <div id="article"> <div class="articleContent"><p>Dear capitalists and friends of capital,</p> <p>You threw the world into financial collapse in 2008. In the intervening years, through "too big to fail" excuses, austerity programs, union busting and deficit fear mongering, you've managed to burden workers with the task of mopping up your sorry mess. By dint of extraordinary sacrifice, despite the demoralizing anxiety of massive unemployment, we have met most of your demands, mostly peaceably. Your profits are safe and the stock market has rebounded, even if our retirement savings, job security, and benefits packages haven't.</p> <p>Fair is fair, after all, so here are our demands. Here are the rudimentary protections that workers expect from the employers they enrich with their labor and the government they empower with their votes:</p> <p> 1.) Tax the rich. The more you own, the more you owe. The more you benefit from "market-oriented" policies, the more you should pay to help those whom the same policies force into conditions of poverty and precarity. We demand a progressive income tax that progresses all the way to the top, with commensurate increases in estate and capital gains taxes, the revenue to be allocated to public education, job creation programs, and the social safety net.</p> <p> 2.) Jobs for all. Everyone who can work-regardless of race, immigration status, gender, sexual orientation, or disability status-has a right to a job with fair pay, security, and the right to organize and bargain collectively. No more using high labor costs to justify exporting oppressive labor practices; no more passing off part-time, low-wage jobs as a solution to the unemployment crisis; no more blaming workers and their unions for your unwillingness to create jobs. No more scabs, no more lock-outs, no more intimidation. We demand that wages and hours be determined on a sliding scale: wages increasing with prices, and hours varying (without reductions in compensation) to ensure full employment.</p> <p> 3.) People before profits. Food, water, energy, shelter, education, and health care are basic human rights whose distribution cannot be governed by market considerations. We demand that these sectors be re-organized on a worker-owned or state-run basis. Furthermore, we demand an end to the privatization of national security, military operations, and the prison system: areas where for-profit firms are guilty of shameful abuses of human rights and civil liberties.</p> <p>If these needs can be met under the current economic organization of the United States, we encourage you to meet them. Our program is not only just, it is eminently rational. It will curb dangerous financial speculation, level out the income inequality that makes real democracy impossible, and build a healthy, prosperous, and highly innovative nation of workers who will make American industry the marvel of the world-not only for its productivity, but for its fairness and sustainability.</p> <p>If these needs cannot be met within the current mode of production-as I suspect they cannot-then they are revolutionary demands for a new economy, and a different mode of production. In that case, we welcome your collaboration in building a better world, but we do not require it. The working class will see to it that these needs are met, one way or another, at the ballot box, on the picket line, and in the street.</p> <p>In the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels claim that "[the capitalist class] is unfit to rule because it is incompetent to assure an existence to the slave within his slavery, because it cannot help letting him sink into such a state, that it has to feed him rather than being fed by him... [The existence of this class] is no longer compatible with society." Prove Marx and Engels wrong, or the workers will prove them right.</p> <p>Here's hoping, and working, for the latter!</p><p>Harold Wallace</p><p><br /></p><p>Harold Wallace might one of the many names used by Bruce Bostick as he writes for us from his special room at Bellevue. </p><p>We are reprinting this letter here because it doesn't mention any of the messy embarrassing stuff about wars and military spending. </p><p>Approved by Sam Webb, Chair, National Board of the combined CoC and CPUSA.</p></div></div></div></div>CPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-66682682766103658312011-05-27T16:59:00.003-04:002011-05-27T17:08:23.368-04:00Can someone help me?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJdzi_BViOy1Nwl60EWGs12GZwiItzuUb-JkubbNx-U47DJ38eleCp9J8OizqZvR8uRXi2aIdULOqP4_NRBE3DYXmC1HpotZLixaMOxFuqfnI1rCATFhYIT4Uz3Ai30WCPFRnvCOMK5J6K/s1600/7775_A_Place_in_History_Jigsaw_Puzzle_md.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW1FYUFaGt1ljYCLiT5Y0yFDHkViSY01LKZ-aNQdJYYKFlRrkBUe0heb6ZkvM9vuxbeSv5NRrf6AozEQ99fFnJ0rmZSftmAbHI0wWjxiHZDrQ_OM2N1oVTRCMq4uuxVRgqH-Dw7SvMfKfP/s1600/webb++suit.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 271px; height: 186px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW1FYUFaGt1ljYCLiT5Y0yFDHkViSY01LKZ-aNQdJYYKFlRrkBUe0heb6ZkvM9vuxbeSv5NRrf6AozEQ99fFnJ0rmZSftmAbHI0wWjxiHZDrQ_OM2N1oVTRCMq4uuxVRgqH-Dw7SvMfKfP/s400/webb++suit.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5611504030236031858" /></a>Please, help me.<br /><br /><div>I'm lost.</div><div><br /></div><div>I was on my way to Maine and now the sign says Minneapolis 20 miles. Did I go the wrong way?<br /><br />Help!!!!!! Get me out of here.<br /><div><br /></div><div>Sam Webb<br />National Chair, CPUSA </div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>CPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-18843713437082016842011-05-21T00:37:00.002-04:002011-05-21T00:44:02.738-04:00This very dangerous e-mail came to my desk todayI want to make it clear this point of view does not reflect my thinking or the thinking of our Party since I have put us on the road to an important partnership with Barack Obama and the Democratic Party. I will not stand for ideas like this to break the partnership bonds I have forged. We are now partners with some of the largest and most farsighted big-business interests so I must distance myself completely from these Marxist-Leninist thoughts.<br /><br />I have issued an order not to tolerate any consideration for this kind of dangerous viewpoint.<br /><br />Sam Webb<br />National Chair, CPUSA<br /><br /><div><h2 class="uiHeaderTitle">Some thoughts on Richard Trumka's heavily publicized speech to the National Press Club</h2></div><div class="clearfix"><div class="mbs uiHeaderSubTitle lfloat fsm fwn fcg">by <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=703206336">Alan L. Maki</a> on Friday, May 20, 2011<br /></div></div><div class="mbl notesBlogText clearfix"><div><p>A lot of people are ecstatic over Richard Trumka's speech to the National Press Club today. I have been following Trumka's speech, and his comments afterwards, very closely.</p><p> </p><p>Some thoughts...</p><p> </p><p>I would note something Trumka stated later, after his presentation, which I think needs to be stressed because it demonstrates just how two-faced and hypocritical he is. He has only repackaged and re-worded the longstanding positions of the AFL-CIO going back many decades to its conception and further back to when it was the AFL--- for about a decade or so the CIO had a real pro-worker stance on elections, supporting candidates and voting, and even running worker candidates.</p><p> </p><p>But here is the most important point Trumka made TODAY which was not included in his remarks--- he had to be pressed knowing this was not going to be popular among working people after delivering a militant sounding speech:</p><p> </p><p>"Later, Trumka said that President Obama was working for workers and that the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor group, would continue to support the president."</p><p>Link to statement- <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/20/news/economy/afl_cio_washington/?section=money_latest" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/20/news/economy/afl_cio_washington/?section=money_latest</a></p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Here are some other links to the National Press Club Luncheon:</p><p> </p><p><a href="http://press.org/events/npc-luncheon-richard-trumka" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://press.org/events/npc-luncheon-richard-trumka</a></p><p> </p><p><a href="http://press.org/news-multimedia/news/union-leader-promises-fight-states-over-worker-rights" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://press.org/news-multimedia/news/union-leader-promises-fight-states-over-worker-rights</a></p><p> </p><p><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/20/977808/-Trumka-denounces-Republicans,-declares-labor-independence" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/20/977808/-Trumka-denounces-Republicans,-declares-labor-independence</a></p><p> </p><p>Here is a link to the official AFL-CIO website:</p><p> </p><p> <a href="http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/05/20/trumka-working-people-want-a-strong-independent-labor-movement/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/05/20/trumka-working-people-want-a-strong-independent-labor-movement/</a></p><p> </p><p>I would note that Richard Trumka does understand what working people want: political independence.<em> But, when pressed as to whom the AFL-CIO will endorse for president Trumka says: Barack Obama</em>--- this is not political independence from Wall Street in any way, shape or form. Nor has Barack Obama done a damn thing for working people justifying this endorsement; quite to the contrary, Obama has hurt working people and his wars are making us all poor.</p><p> </p><p>Trumka has failed to grasp the very simple and basic understanding of these budget battles as articulated by my friend, Virg Bernero in Michigan: "Budgets are a reflection of our true priorities."</p><p> </p><p>Trumka, at this late date, refuses to recognize what both liberal Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton has articulated along with Virg Bernero: We can't continue to squander our Nation's resources on wars and expect to have the resources to take care of the needs of the people. Again, a recognition of this Wall Street government's priorities when it comes to these budget battles. Why does Trumka refuse to ask the all important question of the working women and men whose dues pay has big, fat salary: How is Obama's Wall Street war economy working for you?</p><p> </p><p>Check out Richard Trumka's complete speech. We need to ask: How is it that Trumka can make a speech like this and not one single mention of these dirty imperialist wars killing working people abroad and our own youth while working people and being forced into funding these wars abroad through austerity measures here at home as Wall Street coupon clippers fatten their bank accounts from profits derived from these wars as well as profiting directly from the austerity measures being imposed creating so much poverty resulting in untold misery; we need answers from Trumka as to why he is not properly formulating a response and call to action.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Also, I am sharing with all of you a website for what might be the beginnings of a national movement for a progressive political movement that has the potential to help us free ourselves from the <strong>two-party trap</strong> <em>set for us by our Wall Street enemies</em>.</p><p> </p><p>I would encourage all of you to consider getting involved in any way you can. Please feel free to contact Anthony Noel--- his email is next to Mike's in the "To" line. Here is the link to the website: <a href="http://newprogs.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://newprogs.org/</a></p><p> </p><p>Also, I would like to make you aware of what is the most important book on progressive politics that you could possibly read--- bar none. The book is, "Keep True, a life in politics" by Howard Pawley who was elected and re-elected for almost twenty years to the Manitoba Provincial Legislature, having served about ten of those years as Manitoba's Premier (kind of like a state governor). The New Democratic Party government of Howard Pawley (during the 1980's) remains an example of the most progressive government in North America--- of course, with the exception of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party socialist governments of governors Floyd Olson and Elmer Benson. All joking aside, Pawley's government was a majority government a distinction the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party governments never quite achieved since capturing majority control of the Senate was never achieved.</p><p> </p><p>Here is a link to ordering Pawley's book: <a href="http://msupress.msu.edu/bookTemplate.php?bookID=4250" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://msupress.msu.edu/bookTemplate.php?bookID=4250</a></p><p> </p><p>All too often U.S. progressives think there is nothing to learn from our northern neighbors. I can assure you we have much to learn from our northern neighbors when it comes to politics and if you read this book by Howard Pawley you will quickly find out a lot of what we have missed. Personally, I lived in Manitoba as the Pawley government fell because of a traitor inside of the NDP and I saw and experienced the sharp contrast in quality of life going from the most progressive government in North America to what was most definitely one of the most reactionary governments in North America. What we do in politics most definitely determines the quality of life working people have. Please, do yourself a favor and those you are politically engaged with a favor, by reading this most important book, "Keep True." For any political activist the purchase of this book will be the best money you have ever spent.</p><p> </p><p>I also want to share with you an alternative to Obama's Wall Street agenda. This comes from my meetings and conversations with working people across Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan--- dozens of discussions in union halls, hundreds of meeting around kitchen tables and in living rooms and from conversations I have had with people after speaking at demonstrations, vigils and on picket-lines and at various protests...</p><p> </p><p>The most important question, in my opinion, that we need to be asking people is:</p><p> </p><p><strong>"How is Barack Obama's Wall Street war economy working for you?"</strong></p><p> </p><p>After asking this question, we need to offer up some real alternatives like this:</p><p> </p><p>A program for real change...</p><p> </p><p>* Peace--- end the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya and shutdown the 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil.</p><p> </p><p>* A National Public Health Care System - ten million new jobs.</p><p> </p><p>* A National Public Child Care System - three to five million new jobs.</p><p> </p><p>* WPA - three million new jobs.</p><p> </p><p>* CCC - two million new jobs.</p><p> </p><p>* Tax the hell out of the rich and cut the military budget by ending the wars to pay for it all which will create full employment.</p><p> </p><p>* Enforce Affirmative Action; end discrimination.</p><p> </p><p>* Raise the minimum wage to a real living wage</p><p> </p><p>* What tax-payers subsidize in the way of businesses, tax-payers should own and reap the profits from.</p><p> </p><p>* Moratorium on home foreclosures and evictions.</p><p> </p><p>* Defend democracy by defending workers' rights including the right to collective bargaining for improving the lives and livelihoods of working people.</p><p> </p><p>* Roll-back and freeze the price of food, electricity, gas and heating fuels; not wages, benefits or pensions.</p><p> </p><p>* Wall Street is our enemy.</p><p> </p><p><strong><em>Let's talk about the politics and economics of livelihood for a real change</em>.</strong></p><p> </p><p>Don't forget, Cindy Sheehan talks in the Twin Cities this weekend (tomorrow) and there is a Fighting Bob festival in Wisconsin.</p><p> </p><p>Yours in solidarity and struggle,</p><p> </p><p>Alan L. Maki</p><p>(contact info at very bottom)</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>On Fri, May 20, 2011 at 6:45 PM, greenpartymike <ollamhfaery@earthlink.net> wrote:</ollamhfaery@earthlink.net></p><blockquote><p>President of the AFL-CIO warns Democrats, says workers want a more ‘independent’ labor movement</p>May 20th, 2011 · No Comments<p> </p>From the Hill (H/T to Third Party and Independent Daily):<p> </p> AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Friday that workers want an “independent” labor movement designed to help the working class, not a specific party or candidate…<p> </p> “Our role is not to build the power of a political party or a candidate. It’s to improve the lives of working families and strengthen our economy, our country…”<p> </p> In a question-and-answer session after his speech, the labor leader elaborated on how unions plan to change their political operations for the 2012 election cycle.<p> </p> “We are actually redoing our entire political program and the way we do things,” Trumka said. “We will change the way we spend … the way we function in a way that creates power for workers.”<p> </p> The AFL-CIO, which spends most of its funds on member education and get-out-the-vote efforts, wants to better coordinate with their affiliated unions that tend to make direct campaign contributions to candidates. In addition, the labor federation wants to mobilize its members year-round to campaign on issues dear to labor, instead of dismantling its political program after every election, which makes it harder to motivate workers when the next election comes around in two years, Trumka said.<p> </p> Asked if labor will campaign against Democrats, Trumka responded, “Ask Blanche Lincoln.”<p> </p></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p>--</p><p><strong>Alan L. Maki</strong></p><p>Director of Organizing,</p><p>Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council</p><p> </p><p>58891 County Road 13</p><p>Warroad, Minnesota 56763</p><p> </p><p>Phone: 218-386-2432</p><p>Cell: 651-587-5541</p><p> </p><p>Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net</p><p>E-mail: alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com</p><p> </p><p>Blog: <a href="http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/</a></p></div></div>CPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-39073403921180019462011-05-12T08:17:00.000-04:002011-05-13T16:25:31.432-04:00The challenge before us<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-85t37_qEBTjwFCn1Ogtk96aug39PNJRkJAuveMF48V3MOQTZVDLTi1-60wrywrHykIw4kGxhgBHtJFKGoVEapdFWDvDYpKagQ3AFKxeyzfR_BlGrN1Nl9H1Up4tf5701-GHr78RP-UpQ/s1600/JarvisTyner450x316.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 281px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-85t37_qEBTjwFCn1Ogtk96aug39PNJRkJAuveMF48V3MOQTZVDLTi1-60wrywrHykIw4kGxhgBHtJFKGoVEapdFWDvDYpKagQ3AFKxeyzfR_BlGrN1Nl9H1Up4tf5701-GHr78RP-UpQ/s400/JarvisTyner450x316.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5605805282018818802" border="0" /></a><br />We have a big challenge before us.<br /><br />President Obama is in deep doo-doo.<br /><br />Our task is to pull the President out of trouble. There are wars and more wars to be fought. There are more homes to be foreclosed on. There are still many workers waiting to be unemployed. Gas prices need to be raised. The price of food is still too low.<br /><br />We supported President Obama. We have to help him complete the mission embarked on by the high-road capitalists who need to accumulate more wealth so they can overcome the extreme right-wing low-road capitalists. We need to get behind the President so the better capitalists win this struggle to defeat their right-wing rivals.<br /><br />I have been hearing some grumblings that we in the leadership of the CPUSA say one thing at closed meetings and we say another thing publicly through our public speeches, the PW and PA. What is not understood is that this is the new normal of American politics. We want to fit in.<br /><br />Tears come to my eyes every time I see President Obama standing in front of the Stars and Stripes.<br /><br />We are in a new era.<br /><br />This is a new day.<br /><br />Forward, comrades, to another Obama victory.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijfUwf-2SrUUG3Mj9nHjs0v7m7Gsn2q8tk4sk6fnfQCk8SqZvsuxE9-_Sa5Cf_F33h5YPUkx6IUNBhzkoZllRhadKpQ1dBFjYFGGWtwikbdoo7ddxsAjDzKcGt33xMVBFSmfDRdmgkmHh6/s1600/CroppedImage520300-obama10.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 231px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijfUwf-2SrUUG3Mj9nHjs0v7m7Gsn2q8tk4sk6fnfQCk8SqZvsuxE9-_Sa5Cf_F33h5YPUkx6IUNBhzkoZllRhadKpQ1dBFjYFGGWtwikbdoo7ddxsAjDzKcGt33xMVBFSmfDRdmgkmHh6/s400/CroppedImage520300-obama10.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5605805533726132290" border="0" /></a>CPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-34216963198864526262011-05-11T16:24:00.000-04:002011-05-13T16:25:31.381-04:00New allies in old enemiesI want to thank the Trotskyist <span style="font-style: italic;">Socialist Workers Party</span> for standing up for me and my new thinking.<br /><br />Louis Proyect is providing very insightful leadership to the new left. Right on Louis!<br /><br />Thanks to our friend Mark Lause too.<br /><br />I knew we would eventually begin building new alliances and coalitions.<br /><br />I'm glad we have taken on Trotskyists like Joel Wendland.<br /><br /><a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/swp_usa/message/14642">http://groups.yahoo.com/group/swp_usa/message/14642</a><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; text-align: left; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; text-align: left; "><div class="subject root grey" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia !important; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); padding-left: 4px; background-image: none !important; ">Is CP spawning LaRouche like spin-off?</div><br /><div class="msgarea entry-content" style="clear: both; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 4px; ">I was recently startled to see a sophomoric sectarian redbaiting rant on FB<br />against Carl Davidson railing against him for being being a stooge of<br />imperialism because of his alleged adoption of that "imperialist ideology",<br />pragmatism. I was even more startled when I learned that this rant came not from<br />a Healyite sectarian but from an ostensible member of the CPUSA. Davidson<br />informs us they are from a "mini-faction" of the CP. Nonetheless they seem like<br />provacateurs headed down the road of NCLC. Below is a link to the FB page<br />referenced above together with a link to a faux CP page they have put up which<br />just reeks of paper overed Glen Beck.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes/sally-robbins/carl-davidsons-pragmatism-from-pol-pot-to-barack-obama/180569418657890" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(36, 124, 212); ">http://www.facebook.com/notes/sally-robbins/carl-davidsons-pragmatism-from-pol-p\<br />ot-to-barack-obama/180569418657890</a><br /><br /><a href="http://cpusanationalboard.blogspot.com/2010/03/cpusa-national-committee-member-mark.html" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(36, 124, 212); ">http://cpusanationalboard.blogspot.com/2010/03/cpusa-national-committee-member-m\<br />ark.html</a></div></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; text-align: left; "><div class="subject root grey" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia !important; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); padding-left: 4px; background-image: none !important; ">Re: [swp_usa] Is CP spawning LaRouche like spin-off?</div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; text-align: left; "><div class="subject root grey" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia !important; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); padding-left: 4px; background-image: none !important; "><br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; text-align: left; "><div class="msgarea entry-content" style="clear: both; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 4px; ">Nothing works for everyone. But, admittedly, there is a lot of dross and trivia<br />mixed in with useful material. And Louis is absolutely correct about the format<br />being one in which a serious debate cannot flower. On the other hand, it is a<br />very good place to find out where the debates are and to track down those that<br />seem worthwhile. I would never recommend it as anyone's sole discussion forum or<br />place to lurk.<br /><br />Arthur<br /><br />--- In<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/swp_usa/post?postID=uq2r9gd3vFGkrLYI3r7UvLkuGX2T8qG5pJWKmfjQhuWJT_sCWviTtcU6B0iWKyuLpQKKheZBATDQjN5rylQGXgE" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(36, 124, 212); ">swp_usa@yahoogroups.com</a>, Louis Proyect <lnp3@...> wrote:<br />></lnp3@...></div></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />Most of these Trotskyists are members of our Special Agents' Club.<br /><br />Me and Louis Proyect have shared Special Agent status for years.<br /><br />Once we get the LaRouchies on board with us we will be all set.<br /><br />Sam Webb<br />Chair, National Board CPUSACPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-64925469260095556502011-05-07T13:17:00.002-04:002011-05-07T13:23:51.226-04:00Barack Obama chooses CPUSA National Committee member Mark Froemke!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA6Og4nkPvqAnqZQnOwrCJdRu2PGiyfL3eWCbCOy-yfTN4eMUvDQOk8PDH_hKxXHh9aZvdxS5x388fGEMbsEohi0DMmP8ihLThjnUfHebbNZ9r21rFVWYElLXYTTWeO09laBJNEj6dx0FN/s1600/23139_1228126874_9090_n.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 180px; height: 212px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA6Og4nkPvqAnqZQnOwrCJdRu2PGiyfL3eWCbCOy-yfTN4eMUvDQOk8PDH_hKxXHh9aZvdxS5x388fGEMbsEohi0DMmP8ihLThjnUfHebbNZ9r21rFVWYElLXYTTWeO09laBJNEj6dx0FN/s400/23139_1228126874_9090_n.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604024602999669714" border="0" /></a><br />Mark Froemke, an important leader in the U.S. labor movement and a member of the National Committee of the Communist Party USA, has been chosen as the poster boy for Barack Obama's 2012 campaign.<br /><br />Congratulations to Mark Froemke!<br /><br />Nifty hat, by the way.<br /><br />Sam Webb, National Chair, CPUSACPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-51234998754236868982011-05-04T09:18:00.002-04:002011-05-04T09:44:03.095-04:00Truth and HonestyI want to bring the National Board up-to-date on Party growth and our mass activities.<br /><br />Some people say I am a liar when I say our Party is growing. I want to tell you that you can trust me as much as you can trust President Obama. My word is as good as gold, too. I'm not real good with figures so some other time I will have someone provide the figures on membership. Numbers were never my strong point. I never set empty beer bottles up in front of me to count. To me, new members as far as numbers go are just like beer bottles. Each and every recruit is number 1.<br /><br />I have received some little amount of criticism for promoting mass action by using the example of the Royal Wedding. What we want is people in the streets, do we not? Well, the Royal Wedding provides us a good example of how to bring people out into the streets as we wait for celebrations of Barack Obama being re-elected; the second term is going to be one big mass mobilization. We Communists will be right there celebrating the accomplishments of Obama's first term. The celebrations are going to be huge. Everyone is tickled pink with Obama's wonderful new world.<br /><br />We are preparing plans for a national fundraising drive. We are calling it "Project Geronimo." We have reserved space at the World Trade Center site for the Fourth of July.<br /><br />Its been one hell-uv-a-week full of mass mobilizations. First we get the Royal Wedding; then we get Osama bin Laden which brought out hundreds of people at the White House. We promised to mobilize the people. Let's take a little time off to pat ourselves on the back for a job well done.<br /><br />Our campaign for incremental reforms is moving along very nicely. No one can tell we are leading the way to socialism.<br /><br />Sam Webb <br />Chair, National Board<br />Communist Party USACPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-62791602388539411012011-04-29T10:30:00.001-04:002011-04-29T10:34:18.239-04:00It may be time for another district purge<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19px; "><p class="comment" id="PageComment_12977" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">I will be commenting on these remarks in the near future. Expulsions and a purge of this entire District might be in order. I will let everyone know what I decide to do about these misfits.</p><p class="comment" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The Minnesota Problem continues to drag on. I must continue to put my foot down.<br /></p><p class="comment" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Sam Webb</p><p class="comment" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">National Chair, CPUSA<br /></p><p class="comment" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p><p class="comment" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">This comment results from discussion in the Connecticut State Committee of "A Party of Socialism in the 21st Century"by Sam Webb.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="comment" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; "><br />The 25 points are wide ranging and it is difficult to address all of them. We agreed on the relationship between democracy and socialism. However, a number of the projections in the article run counter to the successful methods we have used and continue to use successfully in building the Communist Party and YCL in Connecticut.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /><br />Our Connecticut district enjoys a good relationship with the mass movement in Connecticut and continues to increase its influence in both the trade union movement and other democratic movements at high levels of recognition. We are aware that developmental growth of a district can be influenced by the nature of mass movement development in districts, the particular nature of economic and social crisis in different districts, different strengths and weaknesses in personnel in districts and many other factors that make it important that our national party has adopted a “no one size fits all” approach to the growth of districts. But we bring up our particular method of growth because it has led to a high level of confidence amidst our district membership on how to grow, how we confidently expect to grow both in the size of our Party and our Party’s influence in the mass movement.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /><br />What is discomforting about the article is that some of the basics we have used to make this growth are what is being called into question. To begin with our district follows the “bill of rights socialism” strategy with its all people’s front component and core forces analysis as we all do. The dialectical and supportive relationship between democracy and working class advancement is constant and always integrated. We do not sacrifice one for the other. However, we have found that this dialectical relationship between democracy and working class advancement is not spontaneously adopted by our allies in the mass movement especially in the nitty gritty of adopting specific tactics in specific crises. Gramsci has a great insight here that has been borne out by present conditions. He says that not even an advanced union can always avoid the temptation to pursue its own advantage over what might be a class position. For instance, we are all aware of militant unions that will support a candidate who will do right by their union but will not do right by other unions or other components of the working class. Even the most advanced electoral formations with great positions on working class needs and demands will be tempted to choose a candidate for office that can win even if their position on a particular trade union struggle is poor. We have seen that in our district. It takes a Communist Party to always see the relationship between working class advancement and democracy. Of course, we do not reduce ourselves to rhetorical demands that lead to lecturing rather than implementing in a specific and persuasive way a class position in a particular crisis and to do this with discussion with our allies in the mass movement. It is always done with keeping our eyes on the true class enemy and not on allies we are gently criticizing and persuading to do otherwise. These are not tactics easily developed by many allies in the mass movement. We have a constructive role to play here.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /><br />There have been moments when our state committee was able to suggest certain ideas based on our analysis that have been critical to the mass movement. For example, when even progressive forces were dismissing the idea of tax the rich, we devised a child poverty bill in our state committee that state legislators who we had worked for and knew our party through attending our club meetings, and campaigning on our PW routes introduced in the state legislature. Even those progressive legislators most discouraged by tax the rich initiatives felt morally compelled to campaign for this bill and its tax the rich components in order to protect these children in poverty. It led to actions by the legislature that involved the first steps in resurrecting tax the rich initiatives in our legislature. Another example: When two unions were involved in a raiding situation leading to a bitter standoff, we were able to bring them together after some negotiation as both wanted to appear at our Communist Awards event. In the midst of the present economic crisis we were able to draft “A Modest Proposal” that included specific tax actions that could be taken that was added gratefully by members of various unions to their analysis. We are talking here about another concept missing from the article's analysis i.e., the Communist Plus. It is the result of applying “bill of rights socialism” and it is the result of our working class outlook, particularly our bedrock principles of class struggle and class unity. that our Party is most consistently able to do.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br />It is our clubs that are the basic implementors of these tactics and policies. Our district has found the neighborhood and workplace clubs that seek to meet every two weeks as tremendous sources of strength. By meeting together club members understand each others capabilities, personalities and enjoy the socializing that goes beyond the agenda of the meeting. These clubs are tremendous recruiters to the Party and rapidly put new members at ease and adjust their language to the most comfortable levels without losing the essence of our tactics and strategy. The sustainability of membership is extremely high and has led to now four generations in some families that have taken on major responsibilities in the Party and YCL organization in our district. The fact that they were built in particular neighborhoods and workplaces over many years has strengthened the racial and ethnic composition of our Party. That racial and ethnic composition of our party has been one of the factors most admired by other members of the mass movement in Connecticut. These are concepts of Party building that have proven themselves and continue to prove themselves. These are not old formulas with no relevance to the present.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br />There was discomfort at our state committee on the handling of the Soviet Union and Leninism. The Soviet Union continued to be a source of international working class solidarity and advancement despite the criminal acts of Stalin. Lenin, as the article says, will be admired in time to come. To put more criticism on the Soviet Union then was already put forward in Sam Webb’s "Reflections on Socialism" seems unnecessary. Or to drop Leninism because it sounds foreign, when we agree with Sam that the future will acknowledge Lenin, is not only to hurt our history but to hurt history in general.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br />Finally, while analysis of new conditions and theory is always in order, our state committee finds the publication of this article at this moment in time as unfortunate. It has led to internal discussion and debate at a time when our focus must be outward on the mass movement, building the upsurge and combating the horrible successes of the tea baggers. We felt that this was not the time for this discussion<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p class="info" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em; "><span style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Posted by Joelle and Brian, Connecticut, 03/24/2011 1:46pm</span></p></span></span>CPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-29466378612356351822011-04-26T13:56:00.005-04:002011-04-26T14:14:57.754-04:00Carl Davidson is wrong<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT9W59EMwSO8Zun4DgHsCp9QWhC0-h_Ui_M8MttnUYXMgwjEOgkMmodF7Up2hw4Tg2-K3cnPWWhfHVoUBbj5eYqvv-OHrGzvJ0g7GitCRf4yD8UeEJSH9ug3q9Bo1fSMXPeSqZsZvanj38/s1600/images+%25281%2529.jpgdavidson.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 229px; height: 220px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT9W59EMwSO8Zun4DgHsCp9QWhC0-h_Ui_M8MttnUYXMgwjEOgkMmodF7Up2hw4Tg2-K3cnPWWhfHVoUBbj5eYqvv-OHrGzvJ0g7GitCRf4yD8UeEJSH9ug3q9Bo1fSMXPeSqZsZvanj38/s400/images+%25281%2529.jpgdavidson.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5599955441531850626" border="0" /></a><br />"You don't mention the wars, Sam. That's the 'elephant in the Dems room,' so to speak. It's going to be very difficult to mobilize for a candidate for more wars and a little less austerity. That's the huge wedge driven into the progressive forces, especially among the young, and it wasn't put there by us. Few want to stay home, especially where they can elect an antiwar Member of Congress. But unless something changes, they don't have anyone antiwar at the top of the ticket."<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:16px;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px;font-family:Georgia,'Times New Roman';font-size:12px;" ><p class="info" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em;font-family:inherit;font-size:12px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:inherit;font-size:12px;" ><span style="font-size:100%;">Posted by</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://solidarityeconomy.net/" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Carl Davidson</a>, 04/23/2011</span><br /></span></p><p class="info" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em;">I di<span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:16px;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px;font-family:Georgia,'Times New Roman';font-size:12px;" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4UNmOoX5f8Qd7DAsNZ2ckgZMKkCQwi6trWrWgq7w6IpVf3pO2mG10bsnv87egd3H5BB3cgsH7dX8BWHQkIqCy0QdN-DNuFKPsQcxMuvZJE9GH8DO60CHqI-LaSiH35WdSYVUzoPKuFiZg/s1600/CroppedImage6060-sam.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 60px; height: 60px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4UNmOoX5f8Qd7DAsNZ2ckgZMKkCQwi6trWrWgq7w6IpVf3pO2mG10bsnv87egd3H5BB3cgsH7dX8BWHQkIqCy0QdN-DNuFKPsQcxMuvZJE9GH8DO60CHqI-LaSiH35WdSYVUzoPKuFiZg/s400/CroppedImage6060-sam.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5599955162503726418" border="0" /></a></span></span></span></span>d mention the wars. I did mention the wars very delicately so as not to offend the President.</p><p class="info" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em;">Here is what I wrote:</p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;font-family:Georgia,'Times New Roman';font-size:14px;" ><span style="font-size:100%;">"When the broader movement takes part in the battle of ideas, people respond positively. Some of the ideas that already resonate with millions include: tax the rich, racism chains working people of all colors, economic crises hit racially and nationally oppressed people harder, wealth comes from labor and nature, </span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >working people have no stake in wars of occupation</span><span style="font-size:100%;">, and the country is not broke."<br /><br />We should be more careful who we give our awards to.<br /><br /></span></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTPSwvujb04b2mQ_TPUl7Q-mbj0x-Jn23nxQozOHR57OuzPlrMjqghGhFx3xXclsMDda85pt2-FxwNjgNWXov93qQmCy7eF009FtrzfsOKIiPZ2QwZ9gGKFrzkKJbqMNSj5Vsny4BvhIvp/s1600/iraq_speech_image.jpgobama.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 163px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTPSwvujb04b2mQ_TPUl7Q-mbj0x-Jn23nxQozOHR57OuzPlrMjqghGhFx3xXclsMDda85pt2-FxwNjgNWXov93qQmCy7eF009FtrzfsOKIiPZ2QwZ9gGKFrzkKJbqMNSj5Vsny4BvhIvp/s400/iraq_speech_image.jpgobama.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5599956018896902642" border="0" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:16px;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 21px;font-family:Georgia,'Times New Roman';font-size:14px;" ><span style="font-size:100%;">Here is a candidate at the top of the ticket for peace right here. Look. President Obama is speaking at a peace demonstration. What better peace candidate could we have? This is Barack Obama on the "Progressives for Obama" website. Doesn't Davidson read the website he created?<br /><br />Sam Webb<br />National Chair, CPUSA</span><br /></span></span>CPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-12415826393142567242011-04-13T16:33:00.002-04:002011-04-13T18:00:58.429-04:00Position of KKE on the Webb's platform and the developments in the CPUSAThis is what I wanted to see; a discussion.<br /><br />I shall respond in due time.<br /><br />Sam Webb<br />National Chair, CPUSA<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://inter.kke.gr/News/news2011/2011-04-13-kke-to-cpusa">http://inter.kke.gr/News/news2011/2011-04-13-kke-to-cpusa</a><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow'; font-size: 14px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "><h1 class="documentFirstHeading" style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Arial Narrow'; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 3em; margin-left: 0.2em; color: rgb(96, 96, 96); padding-top: 0.5em; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(178, 34, 34); text-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0.2em 0.2em 3px; padding-bottom: 1.2em; ">Position of KKE on the Webb's platform and the developments in the CPUSA</h1><div class="documentActions" style="margin-top: -4.58em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 6em; margin-left: 0px; "><ul style="line-height: 1.5em; list-style-type: none; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.3em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; list-style-image: none; float: right; clear: right; display: inline; list-style-position: initial; "><li style="margin-bottom: 0.2em; display: inline; list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: none; "><a href="http://inter.kke.gr/News/news2011/2011-04-13-kke-to-cpusa/sendto_form" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 105, 118); background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow'; font-size: 14px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "></span></span></a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.2em; display: inline; list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: none; "><a style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 105, 118); background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; "><br /></a></li><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><li style="margin-bottom: 0.2em; display: inline; list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: none; "><br /></li></ul></div><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">Athens, 13 April 2011</b></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">To the members and cadre of the CPUSA,<br />To the workers that struggle in the USA<br />To the communist and workers parties</b></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><br /><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">Dear comrades,</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">In February 2011 the chairperson of the CPUSA, Sam Webb, published an article in Political Affairs, the electronic publication of the CPUSA, entitled “<b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); "><i>A Party of Socialism in the 21st Century: What It Looks Like, What It Says, and What It Does”</i></b>. Even if the specific article is accompanied by an editorial note which claims that “<i>The following article represents the views of its author alone. It doesn't necessarily reflect the official views of any organization or collective.”,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>it is obvious to us that the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">public position of the head of a Communist Party concerning such an important issue requires special attention.</b></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">On the 16<sup>th</sup><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>of February we received a letter from the editorial team of Political Affairs<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">which invited us to send in our opinion.</b></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">Our party, after studying this article and the reactions it has provoked within the ranks of communists both in the USA and internationally, considers it necessary to take a public position through this letter, as is required by its responsibility as a part of the international communist movement.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">Our assessment is that we are dealing with a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">comprehensive liquidationist platform</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>of 29 theses which has been placed before the international communist movement and proposes the total revision of the principles and revolutionary traditions of the communist movement.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">The KKE</b>, as a section of the international communist movement,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">considers as its duty the refutation of this platform, which questions the need for the existence of a party of the working class in the USA, and in general is directed against the revolutionary and anti-imperialist movement internationally.</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The 18<sup>th</sup><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Congress of our party stressed that “<i>The battle against social-democratisation tendencies in Communist Parties – through the intervention of imperialist mechanisms, anti-communism and the bourgeois media – must be fought firmly and consistently by defending the historic role of the working class and its organised vanguard, the principles of Marxism-Leninism and of socialism. This task takes on even greater significance in face of the growing anti-communist offensive in the EU and internationally.”</i></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">Dear comrades,</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">The platform that has been presented today, through the article of the chairperson of the CPUSA, constitutes the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">culmination</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>of a course of “adjustment” in the last decade as the author himself points out. There have already been developments in this intervening period which communists in Greece, as well as in the USA and other countries have monitored with concern, such as:</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><ul style="line-height: 1.5em; list-style-type: square; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.5em; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; list-style-image: url(http://inter.kke.gr/bullet.gif); " type="DISC"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.2em; "><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">The handing over of the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">Party’s archives</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to the imperialists, the bourgeois state of the USA in 2007.</span></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.2em; "><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">The<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">closure</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>of the print publication of the newspaper (People’s Weekly World) and the journal Political Affairs, with the simultaneous alteration of its character.</span></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.2em; "><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">The<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">organizational shrinkage<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b>and dislocation of the party.</span></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.2em; "><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">The<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">political “tailing”,</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>behind one of the two pillars of the bourgeois political system of the USA, that is to say behind the Democratic Party.</span></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.2em; "><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">The<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">stance</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in relation to the ambitions of US imperialism ( e.g. rejection of the demand for the immediate withdrawal from Iraq)</span></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.2em; "><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">The<b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); "><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>blocking</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>of the Joint Statement of the Emergency Meeting of the Communist and Workers’ Parties in Damascus, because in the final text there was the position for the withdrawal of the imperialist occupation forces from Iraq.</span></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.2em; "><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">These elements intensified after the 29<sup>th</sup><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Congress of the CPUSA. It was not by chance that immediately after the congress, an<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">article</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>was published in Political Affairs which called into question not only the need to maintain the name of the party, but the possibility and even the necessity of a Communist Party’s existence in the USA today.</span></li></ul><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">Today the Webb platform comes as the culmination of this course and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">openly propagandises the abandonment of the Marxist-Leninist worldview, the abolition of democratic centralism, and the undermining of the principles of the party of a new type</b>.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">We would like to draw your attention to the following basic aspects of this platform:</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><ul style="line-height: 1.5em; list-style-type: square; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.5em; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; list-style-image: url(http://inter.kke.gr/bullet.gif); " type="DISC"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.2em; "><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">ON THE QUESTION OF THE THEORY OF THE PARTY</span></li></ul><br /><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">It proposes the replacement of our theory by an eclectic hotchpotch which does not go beyond the limits of liberal bourgeois ideology</b>. It attacks Marxism-Leninism directly, which constitutes one of the central laws of the existence and activity of the party of the new type, as V.I.Lenin pointed out “Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement… role of vanguard fighter can be fulfilled only by a party that is guided by the most advanced theory<i>.</i>” In this specific platform various extremely old opportunist positions are promoted as new (e.g. Marxism-Leninism is foreign, anti-democratic, it is a distortion of Marxism by Stalin etc.), these are positions which disarm the labour movement and surrender it, without theoretical tools, to the claws of the exploitative system.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><ul style="line-height: 1.5em; list-style-type: square; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.5em; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; list-style-image: url(http://inter.kke.gr/bullet.gif); " type="DISC"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.2em; "><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">ON THE QUESTION OF THE POLITICAL PROPOSAL OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY:</span></li></ul><br /><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">It promotes the view that there can be solutions in favour of the working class within the framework of capitalism.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b>In this way, it promotes as an alternative solution the line of the so-called “green” capitalist restructurings. In addition, the Webb platform considers the characterisation of the crisis as a capitalist crisis of overproduction insufficient. It distorts the essence of the over-accumulation of capital as it associates it with…. A lack of investment opportunities. It states characteristically: “<i>Short of a new New Green Deal on a global level, it is hard to see where the dynamism for a sustained upswing, let alone a long boom, is going to come from.</i>”</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">These views recycle social-democratic and opportunist theories on economic recession and development which whitewash capitalism and conceal its class essence, leading the Communist Party to give up on its strategic goal and support political proposals, which have as their goal the acquisition of new super-profits by the capitalists, in the name of “ecology”, at the same time when they are turning nature and natural wealth into commodities, and destroying the planet in various ways.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><ul style="line-height: 1.5em; list-style-type: square; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.5em; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; list-style-image: url(http://inter.kke.gr/bullet.gif); " type="DISC"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.2em; "><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">THE QUESTION OF THE SOCIALIST PERSPECTIVE:</span></li></ul><br /><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">It renounces the struggle for socialism.</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The notion of revolution is entirely absent. It proposes an endless process of successive stages, in which the alliances will be formed not on the basis of the criterion of the era and the class interests of the working class. Webb proposes working for “-<i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>the balance of forces is to shift in a progressive direction</i>”. This view condemns the party to submit itself to the temporary circumstances and not to work with a strategy for the overthrow of capitalism through the concentration of forces.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">Nevertheless, it is obvious to us, that the tactics of a Communist Party must serve its strategy, which is the overthrow of capitalism and the construction of a socialist-communist society. The position of Webb in practice abolishes the strategic goal of the Communist Party, and finally aims to shake the very character of the Communist Party. Socialism is in any case on the agenda, from the moment that we live in the era of imperialism, the highest and final stage of capitalism. The timeliness and necessity of socialism-communism is projected by the impasses of capitalism, the imperialist wars, the economic crises, the huge social, economic, environmental, ecological and other problems which capitalist society gives rise to. A Communist Party must form tactics and alliances which facilitate the concentration of forces, the class unity of the working class and the social alliance with the popular strata, with the aim of maturing the subjective factor for the acquisition of power by the working class, and not to be trapped in alliances and stages, which will lead it to struggle under a “foreign flag” in the logic of managing capitalism.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">-ON THE QUESTION OF THE FORMATION OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">The Webb platform proposes moving beyond the Communist Parties.</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It says that “<i>A party of socialism in the 21st century embraces Marxism, understood as a broad theoretical tradition that reaches beyond the communist movement</i>.” A party that does not struggle for the interests of the working class but “<i>fights for the interests of the entire nation</i>.”</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">This position denies the necessity of the existence of the Communist Party in the USA and indeed in the entire world. The KKE successfully dealt with similar views, when they emerged in our party 20 years ago under the influence of “Gorbachevist” theories. The communists of Greece fought hard to repel these opportunist views, for the preservation of the KKE, for the preservation and strengthening of its revolutionary, class and internationalist character. Today, 20 years later, the communists not only in Greece but all over the world can judge the positive results that the outcome of this battle had for the KKE. The KKE was able to stand on its feet, to elaborate serious theoretical and political issues, without deviating from the principles of Marxism-Leninism. It approved its new programme and came to important conclusions concerning the causes of the overthrow of socialism, enriching its conception of socialism. It has taken significant initiatives for the unity of the communist movement at a regional and international level. It strengthened its bonds with the working class and the other popular strata. The influence of its positions and its prestige has been strengthened as it plays the leading role in the regrouping and development of the class-oriented labour-trade union movement and in the tough strike mobilizations of the workers in our country.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">None of the above would have been achieved, if opportunism had prevailed 20 years ago in the KKE. The KKE would have gone down the road of dissolution and the labour-popular movement would have lost its basic pillar of support.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">-ON IDEOLOGICAL STRUGGLE</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">The Webb platform renounces the struggle against bourgeois ideology and opportunism.</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The party which Webb describes surrenders from the ideological struggle. He writes “<i>A party of socialism in the 21st century doesn’t turn – liberals, advocates of identity politics, single issue movements, centrist and progressive leaders of major social organizations, social democrats, community based non-profits, NGOs, unreliable allies, and the “people” (according to some, a classless category concealing class, racial, and gender oppression) – into enemies</i>.”</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">But can a Communist Party enlighten the working class, the other popular strata, if it does not have an ideological front against views which present capitalism as the only way, which simply promote different types of management of the exploitative system? The answer of the KKE to this is that it is impossible for the struggle of the people to develop without a firm and consistent ideological front against unscientific bourgeois and opportunist theories. This is especially true in today’s conditions, when the role of the various NGOs has become obvious, which are connected financially and in other ways with the imperialist organizations. In conditions when social-democracy has been in government and has demonstrated in practice that is a pillar of support for the bourgeois political system. In these conditions the communists not only must not give up on ideological work and struggle, but they must intensify the struggle even further against these forces.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">-ORGANIZATIONAL OPPORTUNISM</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">Webb rejects the Leninist organization, the organization of the vanguard of the working class which corresponds to the needs of the class struggle for the abolition of exploitation. He rejects the Leninist organization because he rejects the struggle for socialism and has taken sides with the bourgeois class for the perpetuation of capitalism.</b></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">And so, a state machine which is both experienced and powerful will be opposed by a “party”, according to him, based on the Internet, with an open door policy for new members as an organizational principle: “<i>Joining should be no more difficult than joining other social organizations”.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">Thus we can see that not only does he reject the tried and tested organizational principles of the Communist Party of a new type, which were established in the era of Lenin, but he promotes the idea of a party of an NGO type, which corresponds to the content which he himself proposes and is in the direction of a “Communist Party” assimilated into the bourgeois system, which will work for the salvation and “correction” of capitalism and not for its overthrow.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">-A PARTY OF REVOLUTION OR REFORM?</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">Reform is the answer given by Webb to this fundamental question, which was posed a hundred years ago. His view denies that the party is the vanguard of the working class</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and subordinates its activity to the lowest level of class consciousness (“<i>A party of socialism in the 21st century takes as its point of departure the issues that masses (relative term) are ready to fight for</i>”). Of course a reformist line is proposed as well as<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">the prioritization of the intervention in the institutions</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>of the bourgeois state. The struggle for reforms within imperialism is acclaimed not only as a “means” buts an end for this “new” party.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">In reality, when has the path of reforming the capitalist system ever led to the abolition of the exploitation of man by man and the vindication of the workers’ desires? The “recipe” of reforms has been tested by the peoples through various social-democratic and centre-left governments, which in practice have been proved to be the main vehicles for the imposition of anti-people and anti-worker measures, and as pillars of support for the imperialist organizations and wars.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">-“MARXISM”…WITHOUT MARX</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">Webb calls<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">the class nature of bourgeois democracy into question</b>. As he writes: “<i>What I’m challenging is the notion that everything is subordinate to class and class struggle no matter what the circumstances.</i>” He questions the class nature of the bourgeois state, that is to say the dictatorship of the US monopolies and claims that “<i>Thus the nature of the struggle isn’t simply the people against the state, but the people winning positions and influence in the state and then utilizing them to make changes (within and outside of the state)”</i>.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">This is an old opportunist position which Marx had already rejected in his era, and was revived by the bankrupt eurocommunist current. And this alone would be enough for us to come to the conclusion that the “Marxism”, which is mentioned as being the theoretical basis of the “party of the 21<sup>st</sup><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>century”, has nothing to do with Marx and his theoretical contribution but aims at its vulgar distortion, the burying of revolutionary theory, and the deception of the workers.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><ul style="line-height: 1.5em; list-style-type: square; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.5em; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; list-style-image: url(http://inter.kke.gr/bullet.gif); " type="DISC"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.2em; "><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">ILLUSIONS CONCERNING THE ROLE OF THE US GOVERNMENT AND THE MONOPOLIES:</span></li></ul><br /><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">The Webb platform fosters illusions and works for the submission of the people to the government of the USA</b>, that is to say the world’s leading imperialist power:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>“The point isn’t for the U.S. government to simply to crawl into a national shell, but to reinsert itself into world affairs on the basis of cooperation, peace, equality, and mutual benefits…”</i></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">At the same time he<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">fosters illusions concerning a “ humanized” version of the monopolies</b>: “<i>big sections of the transnational corporate class have pulled the plug on the American people, economy, and state…the commitment of major sections of the transnational elite to a people-friendly public sector, a vibrant domestic economy and a modern society has waned…”</i></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">As the Chairperson of the CPUSA has given up on a class approach to society, the abovementioned positions are to be expected. These are positions which not only have nothing to do with the history and struggles of the party he represents, but they bear no relation to reality either. The continuing occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, the new imperialist war in Libya demonstrate what kind of activity the US government has developed outside its “national shell”. And it conducts similar anti-people activity for the defence of the interests of the monopolies inside its own country.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><ul style="line-height: 1.5em; list-style-type: square; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.5em; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; list-style-image: url(http://inter.kke.gr/bullet.gif); " type="DISC"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.2em; "><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">ESCALATING THE LINE OF “TAILING” CAPITAL AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.</span></li></ul><br /><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">The strengthening of political reaction which is intrinsic to imperialism and is intensifying in the conditions of crisis is interpreted as “ultra-right extremism”. This leads to conclusions which violate the truth and reality, such as “<i>we say too definitively that the independent forces stand no chance whatsoever of taking over the Democratic Party. That still may be the case, but it is a mistake to rule it out completely at this point.</i>” The equation of the working class and its movement with the trade union bureaucracy of the AFL-CIO is consistent with the political line of alliance with sections of capital.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><ul style="line-height: 1.5em; list-style-type: square; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.5em; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; list-style-image: url(http://inter.kke.gr/bullet.gif); " type="DISC"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.2em; "><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">TURNING TO ANTICOMMUNISM</span></li></ul><br /><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">Webb’s article marks an overt siding with the class enemy and a complete alignment with contemporary state-level anticommunism.</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It calls for “<i>an unequivocal break with Stalin</i>” and lines up with the slanderous assault on socialist construction which offered so much to the Soviet peoples and played the decisive role in the anti-fascist victory of the peoples. In essence, these positions attempt to conceal the reality, the complex problems of the class struggle in the USSR and the tough confrontation of working class power with the bourgeois class in the countryside, the kulaks.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">It adopts, in essence, every kind of slanderous simplification of complex problems, such as the sharpening of the class struggle in the USSR. The article goes a step further and joins up with Havel, Walesa and all the reactionary anticommunists of the EU who talk of “crimes against humanity”. It lines up with the tendency that attempts to criminalise the Communist Parties and the defence of socialism: “<i>τo describe these atrocities as a mistake is a mistake – criminal</i><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">”.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b></span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">As is well known the opportunist current in Europe that forms the so called Party of the European Left (ELP) holds a similar anti-historical position.</b></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">Dear comrades of the CPUSA,</b></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">Members, friends and cadre of the CPUSA,</b></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">Conscious Workers of the US,</b></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">At this very critical moment for your party the KKE calls on you to take into account that the ideological attack against the Party of a New Type focusing on its identity, its character and its organisational principles was unleashed from the very first moment of its existence.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b>The revisionists have always supported the dissolution of the party of the working class; they have always been a pillar of support for the bourgeoisie. The bourgeois class and its supporters understood from the very first moment the role of the party in the political emancipation of the working class and its movement. The ideological attack which was unleashed continues up to the present day as is demonstrated by Webb’s article.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">We call on you to take into account the fact that the party can only fulfil the role of the proletarian vanguard</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>on the condition that it is equipped with unity of will, unity of action, and unity of strict discipline. Its internationalist character stems from its nature; it constitutes an integral part of the world communist movement.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">Experience confirms and practice which is the yardstick of truth proves that the revolutionary line of struggle not only does not restrict mass work but it reinforces it.</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It strengthens the expectations of the working people, it provides a way-out and a perspective, it contributes to the change of the correlation of forces. The independent action of the party is a prerequisite for the formation of a policy of alliances that will be subordinated to and serve the strategy for the overthrow of capitalism.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">In addition, we consider it necessary to take into account that the necessity of the socialist revolution and the construction of the new communist socio-economic formation</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>is not determined by the correlation of forces, which is shaped at the various historical junctures, but by the historical need to resolve the basic contradiction between capital and labour. The counterrevolutions in the USSR and the other socialist countries have not altered the character of our era which is an era of transition from capitalism to socialism which is timely and necessary as shown by the tragedy of the millions of workers and unemployed who suffer from exploitation and the intensification of the problems that the exploitative system causes.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">We believe that the replacement of the principles of Marxism Leninism</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>by revisionist approaches in the name of national peculiarities caused a great deal of damage to the communist movement and continues to do so. No national peculiarity can negate the necessity for the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism, the necessity for the conquest of political power by the working class, for the socialisation of production and central planning. The economic crisis that broke out in the capitalist world and the intensification of the inter-imperialist contradictions further highlight the timeliness of socialism. Under these conditions the driving back of the new wave of state anticommunism, the defence of the socialism we knew, of its great contribution to the world working class, of the identity and the revolutionary traditions of the communist movement acquire a special importance.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">Dear comrades,</b></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">Historical experience, the developments themselves have refuted the views that spoke of “the end of history”, the “obsolescence of Marxism-Leninism” and the “end of the Communist Parties”. On the contrary, today there is a stronger need for the existence of Communist Parties that have roots in the working class and the workplaces, which believe in Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. The labour movement must consciously act and rise to the challenge to ensure the existence of a revolutionary party of the working class. This is a crucial duty and a challenge for the most advanced workers and for communists in all the countries of the world and of course above all in the USA.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">The consistent confrontation with and rejection of this opportunist-liquidationist platform is a requirement which springs from the historical traditions the labour and communist movement in the USA, it is a condition for the revival of revolutionary communist ideals in the US labour movement and society.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; line-height: 1.5em; " align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"><b style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); ">The International Relations Section of the CC of KKE</b></span></p></span></span>CPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-24605519990544038632011-04-07T10:57:00.002-04:002011-04-07T11:20:08.704-04:00All aboard the Obama express. Next stop socialism.<div id="headline" class="span-12 last"><h1 class="pageTitle span-9">From Crisis to Socialism</h1></div><div id="content" class="span-9 divider"><div id="innerContent"><div class="metaData"><div class="author">by: <a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class="s-serif" href="sam-webb">Sam Webb</a><br /><br /></div><span class="date">April 4 2011</span></div><div id="article"><div class="articleContent"><p><em>Speech delivered at the Salt of the Earth Labor College in Tucson, Arizona, March 12, 2011.</em><br /><br />We live in trying and changing times. No one is sure what tomorrow will bring. The U.S. is becoming increasingly dysfunctional. Everywhere we look we run into crises. <br /><br />There is a jobs crisis; despite some improvement in the official unemployment rate, nearly 25 million workers are unemployed or underemployed. And in the communities of color the impact is especially severe.<br /><br />Then there is the crisis in public education. The efforts to undermine this democratic treasure that is admittedly in crisis, are as they are as insidious as they are massive.<br /><br />Housing is in crisis too. Millions have lost their home thanks to Wall Street Bankers, or should I say gangsters, and many more are sitting in homes that are underwater. Meanwhile public housing is being defunded and cooperative housing privatized.<br /><br />Then there is the equality crisis. No one with any sense would argue that we are in a post civil rights, post gender era. A quick glance at the impact of a stagnating economy gives plenty of evidence to the lie of that claim. And all this takes place in the context of a fierce counteroffensive in ideological and practical terms against people of color and women.<br /><br />There is also a food crisis. In the South Bronx, for example, more than one in three residents could not afford enough food, while in Central Brooklyn, 30.8 percent faced food hardship. Moreover, every congressional district in the city faced significant food hardships. Similar data could be cited for other urban areas.<br /><br />To this we can add the energy crisis that is sending the cost of fuel skyrocketing, thereby leaving working families with less for other essentials.<br /><br />Then there is the poverty crisis. Nearly 50 million people live below the poverty line in the wealthiest country in the world. Nothing but scandalous, and the trend line is upward.<br /><br />And let’s not forget the environmental crisis that worsens with each passing day and, unless checked, could cause a civilizational crisis.<br /><br />Then there is the infrastructure crisis that is further aggravated by the refusal of congressional Republicans to support a modest bill to repair our crumbling country.<br /><br />Finally, democracy is in crisis. Coursing through the veins of our democracy is a flood of corporate money, all of which is designed to fatten the pockets of the wealthiest families and corporations and frustrate the people’s will. <br /><br />At the same time – and it’s the other side of this undemocratic coin – the corporate class is attempting to not simply weaken, but destroy the labor movement which has been the most consistent force against right wing domination and corporate policies. <br /><br />On a world scale the crises signs are even of a more pronounced character. To cite a few statistics:<br /><br /> * 2.5 billion people, nearly half of the world’s population, survive on less than two dollars a day.<br /> * Over 850 million people are chronically undernourished and three times that many frequently go hungry.<br /> * Every hour of every day, 180 children die of hunger and 1200 die of preventable diseases.<br /> * Over half a million women die every year from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. 99% of them are in the global south.<br /> * Over a billion people live in vast urban slums, without sanitation, sufficient living space, or durable housing.<br /> * 1.3 billion people have no safe water. 3 million die of water-related diseases every year.<br /><br />To make matters worse, climate change will lock the world’s poorest countries and their poorest citizens in a downward spiral.<br /><br /><a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2007-2008/" target="_blank">UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervi’s writes</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">:</span></p><blockquote><p> … climate change is a threat to humanity as a whole. But it is the poor, a constituency with no responsibility for the ecological debt we are running up, who face the immediate and most severe human costs.</p></blockquote><p>The UN Human Development Report cites some immediate consequences of climate change in the global south:<br /><br /> * The breakdown of agricultural systems as a result of increased exposure to drought, rising temperatures, and more erratic rainfall, leaving up to 600 million more people facing malnutrition.<br /> * An additional 1.8 billion people facing water stress by 2080, with large areas of South Asia and northern China facing a grave ecological crisis as a result of glacial retreat and changed rainfall patterns.<br /> * Displacement through flooding and tropical storm activity of up to 332 million people in coastal and low-lying areas. Over 70 million Bangladeshis, 22 million Vietnamese, and six million Egyptians could be affected by global warming-related flooding.<br /> * Expanding health risks, including up to 400 million more people facing the risk of malaria.<br /><br />To these we can add that at least 100 million people will join the permanently hungry this year as food prices spike.<br /><br />What can we conclude from all this?<br /><br />One conclusion is that capitalism isn’t working for working people; its get up and go has got up and went; it’s exhausted its potential; it’s a threat to human civilization, as we know it.<br /><br />The other is that socialism has acquired a new urgency. A socialist future is not simply a good idea, but rather a necessary requirement for humankind’s future.<br /><br />Since its earliest days, capitalism has inflicted incalculable harm (more than any other social system) on the inhabitants of the earth. Primitive accumulation, world wars, slavery, various forms of labor servitude, ruthless wage exploitation, territorial annexation, colonialism, racist, gender, and other forms of oppression – all this and more occupy prominent places in the historical mapping of U.S. and world capitalism since its emergence roughly four centuries ago. <br /><br />And yet as ghastly a history as this is, the future could be even worse for a simple reason: capitalism’s destructive power, driven by its inner logic to pump surplus value out of its primary producers and dominate global space, has grown exponentially. Unless restrained and eventually dismantled, this power is capable of doing irreversible damage (nuclear war, global warming, ecological collapse) to life in all its forms. <br /><br />But – and this is a big “but” – the replacement of capitalism by a society that no longer is the slave of the logic of profit making (or should I say taking) isn’t inevitable within the time frame necessary to avert the global dangers facing humankind.</p><p>Recently, Hugo Chavez had this to say:</p><blockquote><p>I believe it is time that we take up with courage and clarity a political, social, collective and ideological offensive across the world – a real offensive that permits us to move progressively, over the next years, the next decades, leaving behind the perverse, destructive, destroyer, capitalist model and go forward in constructing the socialist model to avoid barbarism and beyond that the annihilation of life on this planet.<br /><br />I believe this idea has a strong connection with reality. I don’t think we have much time. Fidel Castro said in one of his speeches I read not so long ago, “tomorrow could be too late, let’s do now what we need to do.” I don’t believe that this is an exaggeration. The environment is suffering damage that could be irreversible — global warming, the greenhouse effect, the melting of the polar ice caps, the rising sea level, hurricanes — with terrible social occurrences that will shake life on this planet.</p></blockquote><p>So the situation is dire, but what do we so about it? What will it take to leave capitalism behind, to consign it to the history books?<br /><br />It will take many things, but the main thing is a broad, united people’s movement possessing a fighting spirit, hope, and vision, much like we see in Wisconsin today, but nationwide and on a far bigger scale. <br /><br />The journey to socialism – and it is a journey – will also take a laser like focus on issues that are agitating tens of millions, and none loom larger than the economic rights and livelihood of our multi-racial, multi-ethnic working class.<br /><br />It is hard to imagine how the necessary forces can be assembled and unified at each stage of struggle including the socialist stage if the working class and peoples movements are not fully engaged in such struggles.<br /><br />It will take a big tent strategy as well. Such a strategy will welcome allies, combine radical and gradual change, avoid unnecessary fights, and operate on the assumption that “only a movement of the immense majority in the interests of the immense majority” has the power capacity to turn socialism from a dream to a reality. <br /><br />It will also attach special importance to the struggle for racial and gender equality. Both are of strategic importance insofar as working class and people’s unity is concerned. No advance in radical and socialist terms is possible without a sustained struggle against racism and sexism.<br /><br />Anyone who devalues the struggle for racial and gender equality limits the sweep of any victory at best; at worst, it provides an opening to the most backward sections of our ruling class and their constituency to gain ascendancy ideologically and politically.<br /><br />A movement for socialism will place a high priority on independent political action and the formation of a party independent of corporate capital too. Currently, the main social forces and organizations of political independence work within the Democratic Party.<br /><br />No less importantly, any transition to socialism will require a far bigger left and Communist Party. We don’t yet cause a “big wave in the big pond.” But for socialism to become a reality, our ripple has to turn into a wave that has the strength to lead the people to a better future.<br /><br />Finally, it will take a modern vision of socialism that is at once deeply democratic, economically just, egalitarian, ecological, and peaceful as well as organically embedded in the American experience.<br /></p><p>Our main objective must be to lead all the stragglers loitering around the outskirts of "the Big Tent" provided by the Democratic Party into the tent so Barack can lay out our plans for socialism in the 22nd Century.</p><p>I would like to thank the two of you for showing up for my talk here today.</p><p><br /></p><p>A comment about my speech from a friend:</p><p id="PageComment_13152" class="comment">Sam Sez: 'Currently, the main social forces and organizations of political independence work within the Democratic Party.'<br /><br />That's true, fortunately or unfortunately, for the leadership and institutions of labor, civil rights and so on.<br /><br />But what about the 'critical force' of young people under 30? The critical force can overlap with the main force, but they are not the same.<br /><br />All revolutions and even major structural reforms are made by the young of various classes, and especially the working classes. Lenin was 29 when he wrote 'One Step Forward...' The average age of the Cuban CC was 26 on their victory, with Fidel the old man of 35. The average age of China's PLA was 19. We know that the youth were dynamic in our civil rights movement and in the early IWW and other labor forces in their first upsurge.<br /><br />Today I'd guess most young progressive, radical and socialist-minded youth do NOT see themselves as part of the Democratic Party, and the youth who worked for Obama are rather alienated from the White House today.<br /><br />In short, this position is a little one-sided, and need to more seriously engage a critical inter-generational problem we face. </p><p class="info"><span>Posted by <a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" href="http://solidarityeconomy.net/">Carl Davidson</a>, 03/28/2011<br /></span></p><p class="info"><br /><span></span></p><p class="info"><span>My response: Ah, yes; the youth. The alienated youth. What a pathetic lot they are. We can't depend on them to rally around our leader, President Obama. The youth are obsessed with peace. They don't understand the need for humanitarian wars. They lack patience and civility while unemployed. They fret over being marched off to war. We might better forget about the youth, they just want to protest.</span></p><p class="info"><span>A post speech thought: I have been explaining the need for us to get involved in the Democratic Party for about 15 years. I'm thinking of getting involved myself in the Democratic Party very soon.<br /></span></p></div></div></div></div>CPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-81719205867650943022011-03-22T19:00:00.003-04:002011-03-22T19:09:23.755-04:00Great article. Protects our President by not commenting on the cost of the wars<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19px;"><div id="headline" class="span-12 last" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 940px; float: left;"><h1 class="pageTitle span-9" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: inherit; font-size: 3.45em; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; width: 700px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.06em; text-decoration: none; text-transform: none;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Notice how Joel doesn't ask the obnoxious question: How is Obama's war economy working for you?</span></h1><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >It's okay to talk about taxing the rich because Wall Street understands we aren't serious.</span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >We want to avoid embarrassing President Obama so we follow the lead of our Democratic Party coalition partners. When it comes to war and military spending, "mums" the word. We will just pretend military spending has nothing to to with the budgets.</span><br /><br /><h1 class="pageTitle span-9" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: inherit; font-size: 3.45em; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; width: 700px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.06em; text-decoration: none; text-transform: none;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Special Agent Sam Webb, National Chair CPUSA</span></h1><br /><br /><h1 class="pageTitle span-9" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: inherit; font-size: 3.45em; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; width: 700px; color: rgb(29, 62, 79); line-height: 1.06em; text-decoration: none; text-transform: none;">Tax the Rich: Democrats Introduce Deficit-cutting Bill</h1></div><div id="content" class="span-9 divider" style="padding: 0px 0px 40px; margin: 0px 20px 0px 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 700px; float: left;"><div id="innerContent" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="metaData" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; border-width: 1px 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.1em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-top: 1px solid rgb(230, 230, 230); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(230, 230, 230); height: 80px;"><span id="sharethis_0" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><img src="http://www.politicalaffairs.net/assets/Uploads/_resampled/CroppedImage6060-joel3.jpg" alt="assets/Uploads/_resampled/CroppedImage6060-joel3.jpg" style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 20px 10px 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: none; float: left;" /><div class="author" style="padding: 4px 0px 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: italic; font-size: 1.05em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(133, 132, 132);">by:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.politicalaffairs.net/joel-wendland" class="s-serif" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-size: 0.9em; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 133, 161); text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase;">JOEL WENDLAND</a></div><span class="date" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-size: 0.95em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(92, 92, 92); text-transform: lowercase;">march 17 2011</span><p class="tags" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"></span></p></div><div id="article" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="boxedPhoto" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 20px 10px 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block; float: left;"><img src="http://www.politicalaffairs.net/assets/Uploads/taxrich.jpg" alt="taxrich" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 5px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" /></div><div class="articleContent" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);"><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">According to recent public opinion polls, more than eight in 10 Americans want the rich to pay a fair share to cut the deficit. With Republicans poised to cut everything from Social Security benefits for seniors, to education and food safety inspections, congressional Democrats have introduced a bill that would cut the deficit by $78 billion by creating a new tax on millionaires and billionaires.<br /><br />In introducing the measure, its author, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., a member of the president's fiscal commission, said, “In the United States today, the richest one percent owns 34 percent of our nation’s wealth – that’s more than the entire bottom 90 percent, who own just 29 percent of the country’s wealth.”<br /><br />This vast wealth and income inequality needs to be addressed, she said. "It’s time for millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share, which is why I introduced the Fairness in Taxation Act."<br /><br />"It’s about fairness," she added. "It’s about avoiding budget cuts that harm middle class families and those who aspire to it. We can choose to cut education, job creation and health care, or we can choose to ask those who can contribute more to do so.”<br /><br />According to United for a Fair Economy, the current top tax bracket begins at $373,000 in income and fails to distinguish between the “well off” and billionaires – like the top 20 hedge fund managers whose average income last year was over $1 billion.<br /><br />According to analysis of the bill, the proposal would create several new tax brackets for income earners between $1 million and $1 billion ranging from 45 percent to 49 percent. The bill would also restore capital gains tax provisions for incomes over $1 million annually.<br /><br />Aside from 80 percent of Americans, the proposal is getting support from some unlikely sources. Katharine Myers, a millionaire from Pennsylvania whose income comes from royalties from a company her mother started, praised the measure. “I think very wealthy people like me should pay substantially higher taxes, since we have done exceedingly well in the last few decades,” she said. “Our taxpayer-funded government contributed to my success.”<br /><br />The bill has been cosponsored by both progressive and fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, D-Ariz., who co-chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said, “It’s time we treated multi-millionaires the same way we treat working families – by creating a tax bracket to match their income."<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /><br />“There’s no reason to treat the wealthiest one percent of the country any more specially than anyone else," Grijalva added. "And right now that’s exactly what our tax system is doing."<br /><br />Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told reporters, “The middle class is shrinking and deficits are rising because Republicans are giving a pass to special interests who aren’t paying their fair share. This bill is part of a plan to level the playing field.”<br /><br />United for a Fair Economy, Citizens for Tax Justice, Citizen Action Illinois, U.S. Action, Campaign for America’s Future, Wealth for the Common Good, and The Agenda Project have all endorsed Schakowsky's bill.<br /> <br />Steve Wamhoff, tax expert from Citizens for Tax Justice, praised the tax bill's progressive character. “Millionaires have benefited disproportionately from the tax cuts enacted over the past decade, so it seems entirely reasonable that they share in the sacrifices needed to get our fiscal house in order.”<br /><br />“The budget cuts being debated in Washington shamefully require middle class families to pay the price for the recklessness of the Wall Street bankers and hedge fund managers who broke our economy,” said Brian Miller, Executive Director of United for a Fair Economy. “Instead of punishing middle class families and de-funding America, the Fairness in Taxation Act asks those who have benefitted so heavily from the economic bounce of Wall Street to share responsibility for getting our nation's finances on track.”<br /><br />For their part, Republicans have fought to protect tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires above all other priorities.</p></div></div></div></div></span></span>CPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-14332816749715640792011-03-16T11:54:00.002-04:002011-03-16T11:59:41.609-04:00Proud to announce the birth of our newest Club<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; text-align: left;">For more information about joining the<span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);"> Pink Pansy Pantie Club of the CPUSA</span> contact:<br /><br />Daniel Frontino Elash<br /><br />Special Agent Sam Webb<br />National Chair, CPUSA<br /><a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1272385322" gt="{"engagement":{"eng_type":1,"eng_src":2,"eng_tid":1272385322,"eng_data":[]}}" style="cursor: pointer; color: rgb(59, 89, 152); text-decoration: underline;"><br /></a></span></span>CPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-56772660915923618652011-03-14T14:13:00.003-04:002011-03-14T17:46:50.430-04:00My new policies and new thinking are making tremendous headway<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:16px;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(92, 92, 92); line-height: 18px;font-family:Georgia,'Times New Roman';font-size:12px;" ><div id="headline" class="span-16 last" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 940px; float: left;font-family:inherit;font-size:12px;"><h1 class="pageTitle span-12" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 700px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.06em; text-decoration: none; text-transform: none;font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:3.45em;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Who would have thunk the son of a Stalinist would ever have written an article like this without mentioning the billions of dollars going for wars.<br /></span></h1><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><br />My new thinking and ideas are paying off. Of course, with the good editors we have even if the funding for these wars had been mentioned in order to embarrass President Barack Obama we could have taken care of that. But, my training is working well.</span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">I'm not all that keen about calling our Wall Street friends, "parasites;" sounds a little to Marxist-Leninist for me.</span></span> <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >I know one guy, Daniel Elash, who might get his panties in a knot over the use of this term and another who might have to get stronger meds, I just take an Aspirin.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Sam Webb,</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Special Agent in charge of the million dollar glass offices</span><br /><br /><h1 class="pageTitle span-12" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: inherit; font-size: 3.45em; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; width: 700px; color: rgb(29, 62, 79); line-height: 1.06em; text-decoration: none; text-transform: none;"><br /></h1><h1 class="pageTitle span-12" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: inherit; font-size: 3.45em; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; width: 700px; color: rgb(29, 62, 79); line-height: 1.06em; text-decoration: none; text-transform: none;">Make Wall Street Pay</h1></div><div id="content" class="span-12 divider" style="padding: 0px 0px 40px; margin: 0px 20px 0px 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 700px; float: left;"><div id="innerContent" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="metaData" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; border-width: 1px 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.1em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-top: 1px solid rgb(230, 230, 230); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(230, 230, 230); height: 80px;"><img src="http://peoplesworld.org/assets/Uploads/_resampled/CroppedImage6060-ArtPerlo.jpg" alt="assets/Uploads/_resampled/CroppedImage6060-ArtPerlo.jpg" style="padding: 0px; margin: 10px 20px 10px 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: none; float: left;" /><div class="author" style="padding: 4px 0px 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(133, 132, 132);font-family:inherit;font-size:1.05em;">by:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://peoplesworld.org/art-perlo" class="s-serif" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-size: 0.9em; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(145, 171, 58); text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase;">ART PERLO</a></div><span class="date" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(92, 92, 92); text-transform: lowercase;font-family:inherit;font-size:0.95em;" >march 14 2011</span><p class="tags" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:inherit;font-size:13px;">tags:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://peoplesworld.org/analysis/tag/banks" title="View all posts tagged 'banks'" rel="tag" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(129, 154, 53); text-decoration: none;">banks</a>,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://peoplesworld.org/analysis/tag/economy" title="View all posts tagged 'economy'" rel="tag" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(129, 154, 53); text-decoration: none;">economy</a>,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://peoplesworld.org/analysis/tag/Wall+Steet" title="View all posts tagged 'Wall Steet'" rel="tag" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(129, 154, 53); text-decoration: none;">Wall Steet</a>,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://peoplesworld.org/analysis/tag/activism" title="View all posts tagged 'activism'" rel="tag" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(129, 154, 53); text-decoration: none;">activism</a>,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://peoplesworld.org/analysis/tag/GOP" title="View all posts tagged 'GOP'" rel="tag" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(129, 154, 53); text-decoration: none;">GOP</a>,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://peoplesworld.org/analysis/tag/state+budgets" title="View all posts tagged 'state budgets'" rel="tag" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(129, 154, 53); text-decoration: none;">state budgets</a>,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://peoplesworld.org/analysis/tag/jobs" title="View all posts tagged 'jobs'" rel="tag" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(129, 154, 53); text-decoration: none;">jobs</a>,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://peoplesworld.org/analysis/tag/workers" title="View all posts tagged 'workers'" rel="tag" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(129, 154, 53); text-decoration: none;">workers</a></p></div><div id="article" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="articleContent" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);"><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">With Connecticut facing a record deficit, a statewide coalition of union and community groups has formed to demand that Bank of America (BOA) contribute its fair share to the state's economy. BOA is the largest bank in Connecticut, but has avoided paying taxes to the state, and has a poor record on small business loans and foreclosures.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em;">On March 11, protests were held at BOA branches in five towns. In New Haven, 40 union members and community residents marched into the bank and presented a bill for $2.9 billion owed to the people of Connecticut. One hundred participated in a similar action in Middletown.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em;">Last year, the Wall Street banks paid out $120 billion in total compensation, nearly equal to the record loot they scored two years ago. This is double the amount the Republicans are trying to cut from children, nutrition programs, unemployed, community health centers, heating assistance and other essential programs for the remainder of this year.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em;">A big share of Wall Street loot comes domes from the huge gambling operation run by the financial establishment, where high rollers speculate in stocks, derivatives, mortgage-backed-securities, commodities futures, credit-default-swaps and other high-tech and exotic forms of roulette. A very small tax on these financial transactions would have no effect on legitimate activity, but would help dampen the speculation that played a big part in the financial crisis that is still with us. Such a tax could, conservatively, bring in at least<a href="http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/ftt-revenue-2009-12.pdf" style="padding: 2px 2px 2px 20px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: underline; background-image: url("http://peoplesworld.org/themes/pbp-pw/images/icons/page_white_acrobat.png"); background-position: 0% 50%;">$150 billion per year</a>. </p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em;">This coming year, every state is facing huge deficits. In Connecticut, we see the results in a wave of layoffs in cities and towns, cuts in state services, tax increases on middle-income working families, and huge sacrifices demanded of state workers. The combined deficits from all the states come to about $120 billion. In Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and other states, deficits are being used as an excuse for an all-out attack on workers' rights.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em;">Michael Moore nailed it when he told workers in Madison, Wisconsin that we are not broke. It's just that the money is in the wrong place. The $150 billion that could easily come from a tax on Wall Street gambling -- a tax that would fall entirely on the big banks and the super-rich -- would erase every state deficit, with money left over to help cities and towns. So which will it be -- the students, teachers, homeowners, children, and elderly -- or Bank of America and the rest of Wall Street parasites? Which side are we on?</p></div></div></div></div></span></span>CPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-64615644197251663042011-03-13T23:33:00.002-04:002011-03-13T23:38:30.671-04:00Dispose of Lenin and bring on John Case<h1 class="articleTitle span-9">Analysis of imperialism needs to be brought up to date</h1><div id="innerContent" class="span-9"><div class="metaData"><span class="date">March 2011</span><p class="tags">By John Case; lead economist and theorist for Sam Webb<br /><a title="View all posts tagged 'Afghanistan'" href="http://www.blogger.com/editors-blog/tag/Afghanistan" rel="tag"></a></p></div><div id="article"><div class="articleContent"><p>I disagree with much of Emile's article <strong><a href="http://www.blogger.com/imperialism-2011-steps-going-forward">Imperialism 2011: Steps Going Forward</a></strong>.</p><div>First, because I do not see what it clarifies about any aspect of the current challenges in bringing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to a close. I do not see how it helps guide our thinking about the implications of the uprisings in North Africa and the Mid-east. I don't see how it helps frame the main questions in addressing the many-sided challenges of globalization. The references to Lenin's pamphlet on Imperialism are entirely uncritical and unhistorical, despite the passage of a century. It's as if time has not passed at all except to make the scripture of Lenin's words more sanctified.</div><div><br /></div><div>We need a new, 'sacred'-phrase-free, popular understanding of the global democratic revolution, and the strong underlying technological, financial and social transformations of globalization that are fueling its fires. As objective global relationships extend and mature, as both labor AND capital make their journeys to all corners of the earth, so too does global citizenship become an idea that begins to descend from the world of vapors to those of solid ground. Immigration battles can only be peaceably managed by international law, founded on a system of international rights and obligations extending to persons regardless of national origin.</div><div><br /></div><div>What does Lenin's text on Imperialism say about ending the Afghan war? Is there any practical future of any kind available to the Afghan people that does not include gigantic sums of aid and investment? What is our responsibility for or to the failed states now littering the post-USSR world, many of them relics of cold-war dictatorships, or anti-cold-war-dictatorships? What is meant by "international responsibility"? Is there not some truth to the charge by General Powell that "If you break it, you own it!"? Perhaps "Out Now" is all some need to hear. But this is a "political sidelines" position if you do not have a sober estimate of the consequences of your actions. Even with countries as backward as Afghanistan, there are now links of every description that make it NOT possible for it to remain isolated and lawless, as perhaps it could have in 1916.</div><div><br /></div><div>It used to be the case that many on the left had grave doubts that arose from anti-democratic allegations against the USSR, but forgave the latter out of recognition of that country's material assistance to anti-colonial and anti-imperial struggles throughout the post-war world. But the political and economic collapse of the USSR meant that there would be NO exceptions, no skipping of capitalist, market-oriented institutions if you want to pursue industrialization, commodity production, and economic growth.</div><div><br /></div><div>Today, China is the biggest lender to the United States. It seeks the ability to rapidly increase the export of not only its manufactured goods, but also its reserves to investments IN the US. Ultimately, it will succeed in this effort as the force of its accumulated surpluses will be impossible to resist. Who, then, will be the imperialist? I submit many formerly 'imperialist subjects HAVE managed to accumulate substantial surpluses, have ignored IMF "Washington Consensus" policies against strategic industrial policy (an incremental socialism), and now have no interest in undermining the acquisition of new capital assets from virtually any source is they expand the social surplus, nor any destination market. I am not saying there do not remain imperial relations in many aspects of US and Western European foreign policy. But I AM saying its a lot more complicated than it was in 1916, and that the solutions now, must have a more global character than they did in 1916, meaning the content of "anti-imperial" policy is much more dependent on emerging international institutions, and their reflection of the democratic will of affected peoples, than was ever true before.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">I want to make it clear John Case speaks for me. </span>This is brilliant. I will pass it on to the designated leader of the democratic people's front our best friend President Barack Obama.<br /><br />Special Agent Sam Webb<br /></div></div></div></div>CPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-83054818099735177542011-03-09T12:01:00.003-05:002011-03-09T12:08:59.969-05:00Let's not get carried away but let's note a problem...<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:16px;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(92, 92, 92); line-height: 18px;font-family:Georgia,'Times New Roman';font-size:12px;" ><div id="headline" class="span-16 last" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 940px; float: left;font-family:inherit;font-size:12px;"><h1 class="pageTitle span-12" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 700px; color: rgb(29, 62, 79); line-height: 1.06em; text-decoration: none; text-transform: none;font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:3.45em;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Barack Obama is taking some heat for not enforcing affirmative action. I am taking some heat for not mentioning affirmative action.</span></h1>Affirmative action is a political liability for President Obama. It's even a political liability we must avoid lest we get too far out in front of the masses. It's good enough to mention racism as I have done. Advocating the enforcement of affirmative action from our president would cause him an electoral defeat and then we would lose this great leader of the democratic people's front against racism for peace and social justice.<br /><br />Please read and study my article for the Party Line.<br /><br />Special Agent Sam Webb<br /><br /><h1 class="pageTitle span-12" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: inherit; font-size: 3.45em; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; width: 700px; color: rgb(29, 62, 79); line-height: 1.06em; text-decoration: none; text-transform: none;"><br /></h1><h1 class="pageTitle span-12" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: inherit; font-size: 3.45em; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; width: 700px; color: rgb(29, 62, 79); line-height: 1.06em; text-decoration: none; text-transform: none;">Black unemployment, working class unity</h1></div><div id="content" class="span-12 divider" style="padding: 0px 0px 40px; margin: 0px 20px 0px 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 700px; float: left;font-family:inherit;font-size:12px;"><div id="innerContent" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:inherit;font-size:12px;"><div class="metaData" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; border-width: 1px 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-top: 1px solid rgb(230, 230, 230); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(230, 230, 230); height: 80px;font-family:inherit;font-size:1.1em;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.peoplesworld.org/sam-webb" class="s-serif" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-size: 0.9em; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(145, 171, 58); text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase;">SAM WEBB</a><span class="date" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(92, 92, 92); text-transform: lowercase;font-family:inherit;font-size:0.95em;" >february 17 2011</span><p class="tags" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:inherit;font-size:13px;"><br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"></span></p></div><div id="article" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="boxedPhoto" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 20px 10px 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block; float: left;"><img src="http://www.peoplesworld.org/assets/Uploads/Blackandwhite2.jpg" alt="Blackandwhite2" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 5px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" /></div><div class="articleContent" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);"><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">It is obvious to anyone with eyes to see that the economic crisis has a nationwide reach. Except for the upscale urban neighborhoods and suburbs where the moneyed elite live, nearly everyone and every community is showing the effects.</p><p face="inherit" size="1.2em" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em;">Unemployment is high officially and still higher unofficially. Factories are shuttered. Infrastructure is in disrepair. Streets and highways are studded with potholes. Community hospitals and clinics are closing their doors. Houses are empty.</p><p face="inherit" size="1.2em" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em;">If you are a wage or salary earner, tough times are here, and they could get a lot worse if the Republican right in Congress and their corporate boosters have their way.</p><p face="inherit" size="1.2em" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em;">What isn't so obvious is the uneven impact of the crisis on various sections of the population and country. Nonetheless, it's real.</p><p face="inherit" size="1.2em" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em;">Take, for instance, the economic conditions of the African American people. According to a recent study by the Economic Policy Institute, Black unemployment rates are uniformly higher than the unemployment rate of white working people.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em;">In St. Louis it is twice as high, in Memphis three times as high, in Los Angeles and Philadelphia 1.7 times as high, in New York and Atlanta metropolitan areas 2.1 times as high, in Baltimore and metropolitan Miami 1.9 times as high and so on.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em;">Interestingly, of the 18 metropolitan areas from which data was gathered the lowest ratio of Black to white unemployment was Detroit where misery has plenty of company. There, Black unemployment was 20.9 percent - the highest of any metropolitan region - and their white counterparts topped off at 13.8 percent.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em;">Overall, the average Black unemployment rate in the study of 18 metropolitan areas was 14.3 percent, while white unemployment was 7.4 percent.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em;">In other words, as bad as the crisis is for the American people of every nationality and race - and it's terrible - it is at the same time exacting extra pain from the African American and other communities of color that are segregated and seem hidden from general view.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em;">Thus general appeals for jobs and relief, for public works jobs programs and for full employment legislative measures have to be combined, as the EPI suggests, with targeted job creation in those communities where the hardship is the most severe.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em;">Such measures are not divisive, as the ideologues of racist division and oppression claim. They are, in fact, at the core of racial justice and working class unity - both of which are<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.peoplesworld.org/a-united-fight-on-jobs/" target="_blank" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: underline;">cornerstones of any successful struggle against the economic crisis</a>. In the 1930s, it was no accident that the slogan of the unemployed movement, "Black and White, Unite and Fight," was heard where working people gathered to press their demands for jobs and relief.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em;">Millions at that time, locked into a seemingly intractable economic crisis,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.peoplesworld.org/black-history-labor-history-intertwined-in-detroit/" target="_blank" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: underline;">came to the realization</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>that it was only in their unity that they could win some measure of economic reform.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em;">Isn't that the case today too? Our enemies on the other side of the class divide understand this quite well. It's why the vitriolic racist ideological offensive that came in the wake of the election of Barak Obama shows no sign of subsiding. In fact, the ideological offensive has been accompanied by a coordinated effort to reboot segregationist and discriminatory measures, shamelessly designed to roll back civil rights and cause tensions along racial lines.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em;">But I'm confident that the purveyors of racism and division will be no more successful than our enemies were in the Depression years. More to the point, the election of an African American president two years ago is proof positive that the possibilities of building a united, multi-racial, multi-ethnic movement are enormous.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em;">Carpe diem! The time is now!</p></div></div></div></div></span></span>CPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-10983665692845569192011-02-25T01:59:00.002-05:002011-02-25T02:19:15.541-05:00Will you help me form the Barack Obama, Richard Trumka, Leo Gerard Adulation Society?Do you adore Barack Obama, Richard Trumka and Leo Gerard as much as I do?<br /><br />I and the National Board of the Communist Party USA recognize Barack Obama as the heroic and great leader of the democratic people's front leading the American people to a new era of progressivism where we all will rise with the expanding fortunes of Wall Street.<br /><br />Richard Trumka and Leo Gerard have covered our great leader's back faithfully and diligently in a way that has earned them our adoration.<br /><br />As you are aware, in our efforts to scale back our activities, we have rented out our Henry Winston Auditorium and we would like to rename this room the "Barack Obama People's Room for Hope and Change."<br /><br />We need funds for two new unisex restrooms which will be named "The Richard Trumka Room of Non-Struggle" and the "Leo Gerard Reading Room."<br /><br />I am asking each and everyone of our many working class contributors to open their wallets to help us meet our very modest goals for our new remodeling and building efforts. I am no accountant but I estimate the costs will be around $3,000,000.00.<br /><br />All contributions over $50,000.00 will be accepted and much larger contributions will not be turned away.<br /><br />Special Agent Sam Webb,<br />National Chair, CPUSA<br />Coordinator of the Special Projects Unit for the CPUSACPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-38626694781401096502011-02-24T08:01:00.005-05:002011-02-24T08:22:23.106-05:00Obama remains the leader we follow of the progressive Democratic front. Hip, Hip Hooray! Ahead with Obama yesterday, today and tomorrow!After being medicated back up we are happy to announce Bruce Bostick is back on the Obama team.<div><br /></div><div>Bruce is quite a treasure for us to retain. In spite of being severely handicapped with mental disorders he can achieve marvelous thinking skills with some help and guidance from me. </div><div><br /></div><div>Here is what Bruce and I have concocted together. It doesn't matter that it is not completely true:</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; ">"The Obama administration has corporate influences within its own ranks along with more progressive influences, and is facing heavily financed pressure from the ultra-right. Without pressure from an organized people's movement, the only push will be from the corporate side."</span><br /><div><br /></div><div>Read on! Read on!</div><div><br /></div><div>The PW and our writers like Bruce Bostick lead the way for bright and clear thinking using modern medications.</div><div><br /></div><div>Bruce Bostick is as clear and lucid in his thinking as Leo Gerard. I want to thank Bruce for not muddying the waters with ultra-leftist talk of "imperialist wars."</div><div><br /></div><div>At this time I want to thank Daniel Frontino Elash for his astute understanding of problematic people of the anarchist bent as he tries to straighten his personal life. </div><div><br /></div><div>Special Agent Sam Webb</div><div>Working on special assignment as National Chair, CPUSA</div><div><br /></div><div><div id="headline" class="span-16 last" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; width: 940px; float: left; color: rgb(92, 92, 92); line-height: 18px; "><h1 class="pageTitle span-12" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: normal; font-style: inherit; font-size: 3.45em; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; width: 700px; color: rgb(29, 62, 79); line-height: 1.06em; text-decoration: none; text-transform: none; ">Social Security victory shows organizing is the way</h1></div><div id="content" class="span-12 divider" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 40px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; width: 700px; float: left; color: rgb(92, 92, 92); line-height: 18px; "><div id="innerContent" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; "><div class="metaData" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.1em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(230, 230, 230); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(230, 230, 230); height: 80px; "><br /><div class="author" style="padding-top: 4px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: italic; font-size: 1.05em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; color: rgb(133, 132, 132); ">by: <a href="http://peoplesworld.org/bruce-bostick" class="s-serif" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-size: 0.9em; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; color: rgb(145, 171, 58); text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; ">BRUCE BOSTICK</a></div><span class="date" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-size: 0.95em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; color: rgb(92, 92, 92); text-transform: lowercase; ">february 14 2011</span><p class="tags" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: normal; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; "><br /></p></div><div id="article" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; "><div class="boxedPhoto" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; display: block; float: left; "><img src="http://peoplesworld.org/assets/Uploads/ARACalifornia2.jpg" alt="ARACalifornia2" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 5px; border-right-width: 5px; border-bottom-width: 5px; border-left-width: 5px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); " /></div><div class="articleContent" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">The developing struggle to protect Social Security from the Republicans and the federal Fiscal Reform Commission won a victory recently in President Obama's State of the Union address. There's an important lesson for us here.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; text-indent: 0em; ">In his speech, Obama said:</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; text-indent: 0em; ">"To put us on solid ground, we should also find a bipartisan solution to strengthen Social Security for future generations. And we must do it without putting at risk current retirees, the most vulnerable, or people with disabilities, without slashing benefits for future retirees, and without subjecting American's guaranteed income to the whims of the stock market."</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; text-indent: 0em; ">This is a solid statement that won praise from activists fighting to defend Social Security. Obama took a position in opposition to the findings of the Fiscal Reform Commission that he appointed. His statement, further, is in opposition to the divisive push by corporate forces to split young folks from retirees, central to their drive to destroy Social Security. <br /><br />Leaders of retiree groups had been told, right up until game time, that Obama might include language supporting the Fiscal Commission. However, retirees organized a grassroots campaign that built the ground beneath Obama, giving him room to fully support this essential program in his speech.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; text-indent: 0em; ">There has been a growing crescendo of deficit-cutting calls directed at Social Security and other programs aiding working folks. Obama, in a move that many saw as a dangerous concession to right-wing forces, set up the Fiscal Responsibility and Reform Commission. Its marching orders were to develop a "bipartisan approach" toward cutting spending.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; text-indent: 0em; ">Even though Social Security is funded by working people and has nothing to do with the nation's deficit, it immediately became the focus of the commission.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; text-indent: 0em; ">Commission co-chair Alan Simpson, the right-wing former Wyoming senator, called Social Security a "giant cow with 32 million tits." He went on to say he was "tired of people on Social Security sitting around in their gated communities, waiting to get in their Lexus to drive to the local Perkins to get their senior discount."</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; text-indent: 0em; ">Worse than his arrogance, was the program that Simpson and the commission put forward to attack Social Security. They called for:</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; text-indent: 0em; ">* raising the Social Security eligibility age from the present 62 to 70.<br />* cutting benefits for future recipients. <br />* introducing "means testing" for eligibility.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; text-indent: 0em; ">This was greeted with alarm by retirees and many others. Raising the eligibility age to 70 would be a death sentence for people working in hard physical jobs. The introduction of means testing for Social Security would make it more of a "welfare program" for only the poorest Americans, instead of the income base for all that it was enacted to be. This would make it an easier target for cuts. The commission said benefits wouldn't be cut for current retirees, only future retirees - trying to split youth from present retirees.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; text-indent: 0em; ">The anger at those extremist proposals made it impossible for the commission chairs to get the votes needed to officially send its plan to Congress. However, a majority on the commission did vote for the proposals. It helped create a poisonous atmosphere as the American people went to the polls last November.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; text-indent: 0em; ">The Alliance for Retired Americans and coalitions across the nation launched a fight. Many thousands signed a petition demanding that Social Security be strengthened, not cut. Mass meetings were organized. Delegations demanded their representatives NOT support the Fiscal Commission proposals. ARA leaders from every state co-signed a strongly worded letter to President Obama, urging him to oppose the commission proposals. Right up to the State of the Union, discussions continued in Washington.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; text-indent: 0em; ">A study titled "Social Security and the Future of the Democratic Party" was sent to activists. It was presented at union halls, churches and retiree centers and was given to Democratic elected officials. The study, backed up by polls and research, showed that when Democrats back Social Security, their support goes up strongly. It also showed that when they are associated with attacks on Social Security, their support plummets. It cited recent polls showing Democrats were now below Republicans in response to the question, "Which party is best at protecting Social Security?"</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; text-indent: 0em; ">Clearly, the organizing bore fruit with President Obama's speech.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; text-indent: 0em; ">There has been an ongoing debate on what relationship the people's movement should have to the president and Democrats. Some have taken a "plague on both your houses" approach, saying there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans. Others have supported the administration but without doing enough to organize an independent fight for the people's agenda.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; text-indent: 0em; ">The Obama administration has corporate influences within its own ranks along with more progressive influences, and is facing heavily financed pressure from the ultra-right. Without pressure from an organized people's movement, the only push will be from the corporate side.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; text-indent: 0em; ">The ARA-led movement took a positive approach. They did not, even faced with real anger, break with Obama over the Fiscal Commission's plan. However, they were not going to sit on the sidelines and wait. What they did was mobilize and fight. This organized fight let all elected officials know that they attack Social Security at their own political peril. As a result, a victory was won, and retiree coalitions are stronger. With Obama's positive statement, support for him has also significantly improved.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; text-indent: 0em; "><em style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: italic; font-size: 14px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">Photo: California Alliance for Retired Americans responds to the State of the Union speech, Jan. 26. Alliance for Retired Americans / indybay.org / "More Jobs Now! Save Social Security!"</em></p></div></div></div></div></div></div>CPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-54939260047745739442011-02-19T16:52:00.003-05:002011-02-19T17:07:43.468-05:00A period of transition and fluidity.<b><span class="Apple-style-span" >President Obama is leading our Nation through a <span class="Apple-style-span" >tran</span>sition period of <span class="Apple-style-span" >flu</span>idity.</span></b><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(103, 80, 59); font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" >The problems and contradictions may appear to be enormous. There is no need to worry.These contradictions reflect the <span class="Apple-style-span" >flu</span>idity of a <span class="Apple-style-span" >tran</span>sition period.</span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" >Rest assured my new ideology will help guide our leader, President Obama.</span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" >I call our new ideology replacing Marxism-Leninism: <span class="Apple-style-span" >Tran</span>-<span class="Apple-style-span" >Flu</span>. </span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" >It has been difficult finding 100% American words to name our new ideology. My severest critics will no doubt start attacking the name as foreign because of its Latin derivative. But, I have an answer for these Stalinists; I always do even if I have to make something new up.</span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" >Sam Webb</span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" >National Chair, Communist Party CPUSA</span></b></span></div>CPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-738172793857351512011-02-04T11:26:00.002-05:002011-02-04T11:53:51.369-05:00From the Special Agent man...<div>Introduction from Robert S Mueller (the 3rd):</div><div><br /></div><div>We have assigned Special Agent Sam Webb the task of turning the CPUSA into the laughing stock of the left as part of the Agency's commitment to non-violent disruption through the remaining legal aspects of our COINTELLPRO project which has had the long-running goal of creating problems in the CPUSA. </div><div><br /></div><div>Special Agent Man Sam Webb has proven to be one of our most able Special Agents. I am proud to endorse this masterful work. </div><div><br /></div><div>Through excellent work like this we can continue our President's commitment to non-violence in disrupting revolutionary movements all over the world.</div><div><br /></div><div>Through statements like this which encourage docility on the part of the victims of imperialism we can avoid the need to engage in methods like waterboarding because there will be fewer activists.</div><div><br /></div><div>When there are fewer people concerned about building movements there is less work for the Agency.</div><div><br /></div><div>I view this work by Special Agent Man Sam Webb as part of our contribution to fiscal responsibility. The smaller the membership of the CPUSA the fewer Agents we need in the field. This frees up funding for more wars.</div><div><br /></div><div>Robert S. Mueller (the 3rd), </div><div>Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation </div><div>Co-creator of Special Oops</div><div><br /></div><div>Trever Loudon, </div><div>Special Assistant to the Director</div><div>Privately funded by XXXXXXXXXXX</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://www.politicalaffairs.net/a-party-of-socialism-in-the-21st-century-what-it-looks-like-what-it-says-and-what-it-does/">http://www.politicalaffairs.net/a-party-of-socialism-in-the-21st-century-what-it-looks-like-what-it-says-and-what-it-does/</a><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.politicalaffairs.net/a-party-of-socialism-in-the-21st-century-what-it-looks-like-what-it-says-and-what-it-does/"></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 19px; "><h1 class="pageTitle span-9" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: normal; font-style: inherit; font-size: 3.45em; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; width: 700px; color: rgb(29, 62, 79); line-height: 1.06em; text-decoration: none; text-transform: none; ">A Party of Socialism in the 21st Century: What It Looks Like, What It Says, and What It Does</h1><div style="font-size: 12px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); "><br /></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" >By: Sam Webb, Special Agent Man on special assignment (Special Assignment: Chair, Communist Party USA</span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" >(Note: President Barack Obama has created the Jay Lovestone "Freedom Medal" and Sam Webb will be the first recipient.)</span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></b></div></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman'; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 12px; line-height: 19px; "><blockquote style="padding-top: 1.5em; padding-right: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 1.5em; margin-top: 20px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: italic; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(244, 245, 241); border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(229, 230, 226); border-right-color: rgb(229, 230, 226); border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 230, 226); border-left-color: rgb(229, 230, 226); color: rgb(68, 68, 68); background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; ">"When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" -- Martin Luther King Jr. <br /><br />"Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. <br /><br />"I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.” -- Eugene Debs <br /><br />“The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls.” -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton <br /><br />“The time of surprise attacks, of revolutions carried through by small conscious minorities at the head of unconscious masses, is past. Where it is a question of the complete transformation of the social organization, the masses themselves must also be in it, must themselves already have grasped what is at stake, what they are going for, body and soul. But … long, persistent work is required.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: 0em; ">“In France, whose soil has for more than a hundred years absorbed revolution upon revolution ... and where the conditions for an insurrectional coup de main are far more favorable than in Germany – even in France socialists increasingly understand that no lasting victory is possible for them, without first winning over the great majority of the people ... The long work of propaganda and parliamentary activity are also recognized here as the first task of the party.” -- Frederick Engels</p></blockquote><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; "><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">Introduction </strong><br /> <br />These are trying and changing times. No one knows what the morrow will bring. What will it take for the Communist Party and the left in general to become more effective fighters for social justice and socialism? <br /><br />Before attempting to answer that question, an autobiographical note is in order. I write from the standpoint of someone who has been a part of the communist movement for four decades. During that time, I felt very comfortable politically and ideologically. I didn’t have “big differences.” For most of that time, I was in one or another leadership position. I took sides in an internal struggle in 1991, although I see that experience differently now. <br /><br />So a dissident I wasn’t. But when the Berlin Wall came crashing down in 1989 and the first land of socialism went belly up two years later, it raised some doubts and questions in my mind – enough to take a fresh look our conventional wisdom and practice.<br /><br />I re-read Marx, Engels (especially his introduction to Class Struggles in France and his last letters), Lenin (especially Two Tactics of Social Democracy, Left Wing Communism, Tax in Kind, his speeches to the Communist International, and his final articles), Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci (I was reading Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks for the first time), Georgi Dimitrov (United Front against War and Fascism), Rosa Luxemburg, Palmiro Togliatti, and others. Meanwhile, I was reading many more contemporary authors (too numerous to mention) writing mainly, but not exclusively, in the Marxist tradition.<br /><br />In doing so, I began to see our theory, methodology, politics, practice, history, and future in new hues and colors. <br /><br />If I were asked to sum up what conclusions I reached it would be this: our theoretical structure – Marxism-Leninism – was too rigid and formulaic, our analysis too loaded with questionable assumptions, our methodology too undialectical, our structure too centralized, and our politics drifting from political realities. <br /><br />Not for a minute did I lose sight of the wonderful comrades who graced our party at one time or another, nor the many, sometimes singular, contributions to theory and practice that communists have left in the footprint of the 20th century. <br /><br />The Scottsboro Boys, the Great Sit-Down Strike, the Little Steel strike, the formation of the CIO, the Lincoln Brigade, the fight against Hitler fascism, the resistance to McCarthyism, the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement in the 1960s, and the fight against right-wing extremism, stretching from Reagan’s election in 1980 to the present – in all these and other struggles communists made contributions, sometimes history-making. <br /><br />No other organization on the left can claim the same consistency of outlook and effort, accomplished in many instances in the face of fierce repression and irrational anti-communism, to borrow a phrase from Martin Luther King. <br /><br />But I also realized that the future of our party isn’t in the past, but in the world of the 21st century, which presents its own unique challenges to humankind’s future. <br /><br />Thus, standing still wasn’t a viable option. And to our credit, a decade ago we chose change. In the article that follows I continue this process of inquiry and adjustment. <br /><br />Much of I write is exploratory. In other words, this is a work in progress, an unfinished manuscript. Readers will surely note inconsistencies, contradictions, silences and unfinished ideas. <br /><br />These limitations might discourage me from publishing this paper, but I am mindful of two things that mitigate my hesitations. First, no one has a full answer to the daunting challenges of the present and future. Second, each of us has something to contribute to the renewal of the left of which the Communist Party is an integral part. <br /><br />It is against this background that I offer my thoughts. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">1.</strong> A party of socialism in the 21st century elaborates its theory and practice in a world defined by the following:<br /><br />• a social system in which the reproduction of the conditions for exploitation of labor and nature appears to be reaching its limits;<br /><br />• a hegemonic shift in power in a crowded and highly competitive world, albeit in its early stages, that could easily throw the world into fierce inter-state rivalries, generalized war, and chaos;<br /><br />• a series of processes (global warming, nuclear proliferation and war, global poverty, pandemic diseases, population pressures, and the exhaustion of natural resources) are unfolding that could have catastrophic consequences, threatening the existence of most living species;<br /><br />• the irruption and diffusion of new (communication especially) technologies that are reshaping the economic, occupational, class, racial, and gender structures, production methods, consumption habits, class and democratic politics, forms of social interaction and leisure time, the power of instruments of mass destruction and the nature of war, and conceptions of time and space. <br /><br />Realistically speaking, a resolution of these challenges must begin well before the arrival of socialism on a global level. If we wait till then, both socialism and humanity are doomed. There is a “fierce urgency of now” that can be ignored only at a perilous price. <br /><br />But here is the paradox: the “fierce urgency of now” is not yet matched by popular movements at the state and global level that possess the vision and capacity to resolve these daunting and interconnected challenges. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">2.</strong> A party of socialism in the 21st century embraces Marxism, understood as a broad theoretical tradition that reaches beyond the communist movement. At the same time, it critically assimilates the American radical/democratic inheritance and the insights of other intellectual and political traditions. <br /><br />As for “Marxism-Leninism,” the term should be retired in favor of simply “Marxism.” For one thing, it has a negative connotation among ordinary Americans, even in left and progressive circles. Depending on whom you ask, it either sounds foreign or dogmatic or undemocratic or all of these together. <br /><br />For another thing, Marxism-Leninism isn’t identical to classical Marxism. The ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and other earlier Marxists retain incredible analytical power, if studied and creatively applied to current realities. <br /><br />But the same cannot be said about Marxism-Leninism. It took formal shape during the Stalin period during which Soviet scholars, under Stalin’s guidance, systematized and simplified earlier Marxist writings – not to mention adapted ideology to the needs of the Soviet state and party. <br /><br />This simplification of Marxism, coupled with the enshrinement of a single party to the status of “official interpreter” of Marxism, came with a price tag. Theoretically and practically, it hemmed in and negatively impacted our party’s work. <br /><br />To what extent will be debated for years to come. But one thing is clear: Marxism, if it is going to be a robust theory of socialist transformation, has to be historical, ecological, dialectical, comprehensive and independently elaborated – without shortcuts, simplifications or official boundaries. It can’t be the sole franchise of one party or school or tradition. <br /><br />Its point of departure is the real needs, struggles and interests of the working class and people – the real movement. Its focus is on social (especially class) processes, relations, contradictions, dislocations, negations, and ruptures, not neat definitions and tidy formulas. <br /><br />Marxism never confuses slogans and militancy (both of which are needed) for analysis. It employs principles, generalities and abstractions (the state is nothing but the political instrument of the ruling class, the two main parties are parties of capitalism, etc.), but it also insists on a concrete presentation of every question. And it is understandably wary of the inevitable (socialism), the uninterrupted (constant radicalization of the working class and intensification of crises), and the irreversible (the world revolutionary process).<br /><br />Marxism is revolutionary in theory and practice, but it doesn’t consider “gradual” and “reform” to be dirty words nor does it believe that every political moment at the level of concrete reality is actually or potentially radical and revolutionary. The status quo is a stubborn and reoccurring phenomenon that too needs explanation. Nor does it buy the notion that social change rests solely on political will (“any fortress can be stormed”) or adheres to someone’s timetable. <br /><br />In short, Marxism is a scientifically grounded mode of analysis, compass of struggle, and legitimate (and necessary) current within the working class and people’s movement. <br /><br />If I had to grade our party’s analytical efforts over the decades, I would say that our critical eye was at times constricted. Some matters were off limits (Soviet foreign policy and development); there were blank spaces (gender and sexual relations), too many simplifications (trajectory of the economy – “boomless era of decline and contraction”), broad claims based on anecdotal evidence (progressive radicalization of working class and a party of hundreds of thousands around the corner). And dismissive attitudes toward other Marxist, radical and social democratic currents were too frequent in our discussions.<br /><br />But to leave matters here would be one-sided and wrong. Our analysis of the national question of the African American and Mexican American (Chicano) peoples, the fight against racism and the special role of white workers, African American history, monopoly capitalism and the role of the state, the imperialist nature of war, capitalist economics, “fresh winds” in the labor movement, the role of the working class and its strategic alliances, the role of democracy and democratic struggle, the growth of right-wing extremism, Marxist ecology, the possibility of a peaceful transition, Bill of Rights socialism, and so forth – all this was notable. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">3.</strong> The feet of a party of socialism in the 21st century are planted on the soil of the economic crisis – and for the long term. <br /><br />The world economy and the triad of the U.S., Western Europe and Japan have yet to find a developmental path and structure of economic governance that brings sustainable economic growth and near full employment. <br /><br />This is not to say that the economy is entering a “stationary state.” It is far more likely that the economy will oscillate around low levels of growth and high levels of unemployment for the foreseeable future. <br /><br />As corporate profits climb to record levels, there is no commensurate increase in growth and employment rates. In fact, what we observe is a decoupling of corporate profits from economic growth and especially employment. <br /><br />In the short term, there is little reason to be optimistic. And in the longer term the economic and ecological barriers impeding the process of capital accumulation, economic growth and job growth are formidable. Short of a new New Green Deal on a global level, it is hard to see where the dynamism for a sustained upswing, let alone a long boom, is going to come from. <br /><br />The still unfolding crisis isn’t simply a crisis of regulation and the neoliberal model. But there is little doubt that the breakdown of regulation, together with neoliberal policies, greased the skids for the rise of finance three decades ago, the growth of unprecedented inequality, the explosion of debt, the bursting of bubbles, the over-accumulation of capital (too much capital and too few investible sinks) and, alas, the generalized crisis two years ago with still no end in sight. <br /><br />Not to see this, not to take note of financialization, not to give adequate weight to the role of neoliberalism, to be content to characterize the current crisis as a crisis of overproduction, is to miss something profoundly important about the concrete dynamics and movement of the U.S. and global economy over the past three decades. <br /><br />For now the capitalist class, and especially its top tiers, are sitting on massive amounts of surplus capital. <br /><br />Moreover, it is in no rush to do anything different. Its main push is to create the best conditions to exploit labor economically and crush it politically. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">4.</strong> A party of socialism in the 21st century fights for the interests of the entire nation. Since the 1980s, we have seen the deterioration of infrastructure, the destruction of the social safety net, the undermining of the public school system, the decay of urban and rural communities, the privatization of public assets, the growth of poverty and inequality, the hollowing out of manufacturing and cities, the lowering of workers' wages, and a faltering – now stagnant – domestic economy. <br /><br />In a real sense, big sections of the transnational corporate class have pulled the plug on the American people, economy, and state. <br /><br />Their operational strategy is worldwide in scope. It goes far beyond our borders. The evolution, dynamics and profit imperatives of the capitalism in recent decades have turned the world economy into the main unit of analysis for the U.S. transnational corporate class. <br /><br />Markets, supplies of exploitable labor, and investment strategies of U.S. transnational corporations are worldwide in scope now. Their production sites stretch across regions and time zones, thanks to new technologies and available labor. <br /><br />That doesn't mean that domestic production sites, consumption markets and workforces are of no consequence, the transnational masters of the world headquartered in the U.S. are less and less tethered to the national economy. This being so, the commitment of major sections of the transnational elite to a people-friendly public sector, a vibrant domestic economy and a modern society has waned. In fact, this elite is turning the state into its personal ATM machine and a military juggernaut to enforce its will at home and abroad. It's not an exaggeration to say that this social grouping has become a parasite sucking the life out of our government, economy and society, while living in bubbles of luxury, racial exclusion and class privilege. <br /><br />This new reality has ominous implications for the future of the American people. It doesn't alter the strategic necessity of defeating right-wing extremists, whose plan is to regain complete control of the federal government in 2012 and shove this new reality down people’s throats. <br /><br />What it does do is extend the ground for broadening and deepening a people’s fightback for the country’s future. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">5.</strong> A party of socialism in the 21st century elaborates a strategic policy at each stage of struggle. After all, there is no direct or inevitable path to socialism. Nor is the working class isn’t going to simply “rise up” at some appointed time and fight for a society of justice. The struggle for socialism goes through phases and stages, probably more than we allow for in our current writings and program. <br /><br />Thus, a strategic policy that traverses in broad outline the terrain of struggle from here to socialism is necessary. It rests on an estimate of the alignment of political and social forces at each stage of struggle along the road to socialism. On this basis, a specific strategic and tactical policy emerges that brings into bold relief the contending array of class and social forces, the main democratic and class tasks at any given moment, and the political coalition that has to be assembled if the balance of forces is to shift in a progressive direction. <br /><br />The historical landscape of our country is marked by periods during which such transformations occurred: 1765-1790, 1840-1876, 1890-1915, 1932-1948, 1954-1965. <br /><br />In each period the contending forces and the nature of the struggle were different in content. But in each instance, the boundaries of democracy were qualitatively enlarged, a new alignment of forces took shape, and new democratic tasks came to the fore. <br /><br />The election victory in 2008 cracked opened the door for another “burst of freedom.” <br /><br />But the realization of this possibility has been blocked so far by right wing extremism – the political grouping that dominates the Republican Party and does the bidding for the most reactionary sections of the transnational capitalist class. It is not simply an, or the only obstacle to social change and transformation. <br /><br />What is it is the main obstacle to social progress at this stage of struggle. And only broad people’s unity has the wherewithal to decisively defeat the deeply entrenched power of right-wing extremism, which would, in turn, weaken the corporate class and its allied bloc as a whole. <br /><br />It makes little sense to take on the entire capitalist class when it is not necessary. Similarly, it is boneheaded to artificially “hurry” the political process along when pursuing such an option would likely result in defeat. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">6.</strong> A party of socialism understands that in any broad coalition of social change, competing views are inevitable. The role of the left is to express its views candidly, but in a way that strengthens rather than fractures broad unity, which is a prerequisite for social progress. <br /><br />The main social forces in this coalition, as we see it, are the working class, people of color, women, youth and seniors. And the overarching challenge is to transform these social forces (a category of analysis whose interests are conditioned by the place they occupy in a social structure) into social movements (a category of struggle), distinguished by their differing degrees of unity, organizational capacity, mobilization, alliance relationships, and not least, depth and consistency of political outlook. <br /><br />The most dramatic illustration of this transformation of social forces into social movements was evidenced in the 2008 election campaign. Unfortunately, the “movement” of these broad social forces was not sustained in the post-election period. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">7.</strong> A party of socialism in the 21st century takes as its point of departure the issues that masses (relative term) are ready to fight for. <br /><br />This seems like a no-brainer. And yet, the pressures to make left demands, or anti-reform reforms (the new buzz word) the point of broad unity are constant. Too many on the left still think that the role of the left is to up the ante, to double the bet, to sets its demands against the demands of the broader movement. <br /><br />No one doubts that left demands have a place in class and people’s struggles; only a fool would suggest otherwise. But they are neither the takeoff point for united action nor the singular thing that the left brings to mass struggles. <br /><br />More important is a strategic approach, capacity building skills, an alternative analysis, vision and values, and a sustained commitment to uniting a broad people’s movement. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">8.</strong> A party of socialism in the 21st century steers clear of false oppositions between partial and more advanced demands, between gradual and radical change, between electoral forms of action and direct action, between mass action and nonviolent civil disobedience, between patriotism and anti-imperialism, between struggle against the state and struggle within the state, between anti-capitalism and sensitivity to rifts in the capitalist class, and between general (say jobs) and particular demands (say affirmative action). <br /><br />I could go on, but I think my point is clear: a party of socialism in the 21st century has to appreciate that seeming opposites interpenetrate and where properly utilized, enhance class and democratic struggles.<br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">9.</strong> A party of socialism in the 21st century doesn’t turn – liberals, advocates of identity politics, single issue movements, centrist and progressive leaders of major social organizations, social democrats, community based non-profits, NGOs, unreliable allies, and the “people” (according to some, a classless category concealing class, racial, and gender oppression) – into enemies. <br /><br />Nor does it withdraw from participation in capitalist democratic institutions. Rather than participating reluctantly and intermittently and rather than seeing such participation as a lower order task, a party of socialism will elevate electoral and political struggle to a primary arena of struggle; it will see such participation as absolutely essential at every phase of struggle. <br /><br />Struggle within the state is no less important than struggle against the state. The two are dialectically connected, but at various moments, one side of the dialectic may take priority over the other. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">10.</strong> A party of socialism in the 21st century is steeped in concepts of class and class struggle. Our overriding aim is a society in which class divisions disappear over time. Class divisions, after all, are at the core of capitalism and its production relations, politics, and culture. <br /> <br />This material reality explains why the capitalist class and its far-flung ideological apparatus attempt to hide class divisions. We hear of, and of course, there exist other divisions that to one degree or another shape and reshape capitalism’s political economy, politics, and culture. But you have to look long and hard for any mention of class divisions and, heaven forbid, class antagonisms and class struggle. <br /> <br />Furthermore, the erasure of class and class struggle in popular discourse receives an assist from some left, progressive, and academic circles that are busy cutting the class question down to size. It is done in the name of resisting class reductionism and economic determinism on the one hand, and allowing for multiple determinations on the other. <br /> <br />While we should avoid class reductionism, economic determinism, and simplified explanations of the historical process, we get no closer to the truth by back benching historical materialism and the analytical and struggle categories of class and class struggle. <br /> <br />In fact, as the working class in the course of struggle comes forward as a leader of the broader movement (which is now happening), and as the questions of power come to the fore more sharply, don’t be surprised to see a movement back to class concepts and historical materialism – not to mention a new interest in the theoretical contributions and political biography of Lenin. No one in this or the last century can match his body of work on questions of class, democracy, alliance policy, nationality, power, and socialist revolution.<br /><br />More to the point, any thought of achieving socialism USA, is pure fantasy if it doesn’t include as a cornerstone an active, united, class conscious, and numerically large majority of the working class in the leadership of a larger people’s coalition. <br /><br />Therefore a primary task of a party of socialism in the 21st century is to focus on the working class and the issues it confronts in daily life. Not since the 1930s has the working class faced such dire circumstances and felt such profound insecurity. Stalled wages, massive job losses, collapsing health care and pensions, job competition on a hitherto unheard of scale, and other factors are putting great downward pressure on living standards and working conditions. Were it not for two wage-earner households, overtime, second and even third jobs, and astronomical consumer debt, the working class would be in even worse straights. <br /><br />In the bull’s-eye of our working class focus is the organized sector of the working class – the labor movement. This sector, with its political understanding, experience, organization, know-how, tactical acumen, and resources is at the core of any revitalized working class and people’s coalition. <br /><br />But here is a problem: the working class’ associational power (the power that comes from organizing into trade unions and political parties) has declined significantly; roughly 12 percent of the working class is organized into trade unions. At the same time (and connected) labor’s structural power (the strategic power that comes from labor’s location at the core of the strategic sectors of the economy) that it leverages in its own interests has also been greatly weakened with the precipitous decline of mass 20th century production industries. <br /><br />How to change this, how to strengthen labor’s bargaining power in the workplace and its social power in the community and state, how to build up its political and organizational capacity are compelling challenges. As long as the number of organized workers is near single digits, labor’s impact no matter how good its initiatives will be limited. <br /><br />Thus, an overriding strategic task of labor, and every democratic-minded organization and person for that matter, is to enlarge the organized section of the working class. The country’s future depends on it. <br /><br />Two things would greatly facilitate this: first, the defeat of right-wing extremism, thereby creating the possibility of a more labor-friendly organizing environment, and second, the continued evolution of labor into a social movement, that is, an acknowledged champion and tribune of the broader people’s movement. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">11.</strong> A party of socialism in the 21st century attaches overriding importance to democratic (reform) struggles (right to a job, health care, housing, equality, education, clear air, peace, vote, speech, etc.) They are a core element in the struggle for class advance, social progress and socialism. <br /><br />Anyone who demeans the struggle for democracy goes directly against the grain and experience of the great democratic reform movements and leaders (Tom Paine, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Eugene Debs, W.E.B. Du Bois, Fanny Lou Hamer, Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez) who fought for the expansion of rights/reforms and every inch – no matter how small – of democratic space. <br /><br />That these struggles unfolded in a capitalist democratic shell doesn’t negate their significance. In fact, in each instance the protagonist took advantage of the existing space and rights available to organize for his or her cause.<br /><br />A party of socialism in the 21st century should do likewise.<br /><br />Indeed, the struggle for democracy/reforms is every bit as important in the 21st century as it was earlier. It is both a means and an end. It empowers people and people empower democracy. It not only brings relief from capitalist exploitation and oppression, it is also the main road to radical change. <br /><br />In fact, it is hard to imagine how the necessary forces can be assembled and unified at each stage of struggle, including the socialist stage, if the working class and people’s movements are not fully engaged in democratic/reform struggles – first and foremost the right to a job at a living wage and other economic rights.<br /><br />In saying this, it could be argued that I’m privileging the democratic struggle over the class struggle? Not in the least, changes in the balance of class power can and do either open up new vistas for democratic and socialist transformation or narrow them down, depending upon which class and its allies have the upper hand politically and ideologically at any given moment. <br /><br />What I’m challenging is the notion that everything is subordinate to class and class struggle no matter what the circumstances. <br /><br />Analytically and practically, I would strongly argue that the relationship between the two – class and democracy – is dialectical. Each interpenetrates and influences the other. Neither one can be fully realized apart from the other. And both interact in the context of a social process of capital accummulation.<br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">12.</strong> A party of socialism in the 21st century doesn’t irrevocably lock social forces, organizations and political personalities into tightly enclosed social categories that allow no space for these same forces, organizations, and personalities to change under the impact of issues, events and changing correlations of power. <br /><br />As one keen observer, for example, wrote, <br /><br />“Given how things have turned out so far, it's comfortable for some on the left to pass off the Obama phenomenon as all myth and illusion from the very beginning. The ‘neo-liberal’ label is pinned on him, he’s ‘always been a conservative', 'he's really pro Wall Street'. Such stereotyping and assignment of an individual to a closed political box runs counter to much historical experience. Movements and the flow of events can change how individuals see things and how they act. All things considered, there can be little doubt that Obama views himself as on the side of struggling Americans – nor is there any doubt that defeating him and ‘taking back the country’ is the prime objective of the neo-fascist mob.” <br /><br />This is mature advice. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">13.</strong> A party of socialism in the 21st century extends a welcoming hand to intellectuals; it should tease out of its political culture any anti-intellectual biases. A party that has transformative aspirations in a very complex world requires a growing group of Marxist intellectuals. <br /><br />By the same token, Marxist intellectuals found on university campuses would gain greatly from connections to labor and other social movements. In too many instances, they come up empty in a strategic and tactical sense. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">14. </strong> A party of socialism in the 21st century searches for rifts and fissures within the ruling class and other social forces and shows no hesitation to take advantage of these differences. A successful struggle against a united ruling class is tough sledding. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">15.</strong> A party of socialism squeezes every possible concession from its opponents, but it doesn’t blink an eye to compromise when the balance of forces dictates that course of action; the compromise may only make an inch of difference, but it is likely a lot of people live on that inch.<br /><br />For sure, small-bore victories can dull the urgency of change and create illusions, but they can also raise hopes and expectations, deepen understanding and unity, and set the stage for struggle on higher ground. A people’s victory, even a minimal one, can teach more lessons than the most eloquent speeches by the best of us.<br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">16.</strong> A party of socialism in the 21st century believes that majoritarian political movements are the midwives of reforms, radical and otherwise, and eco-socialist transformations. Militant minorities of comprised of progressive and left forces make a big difference are difference makers, but they can’t and shouldn’t try to substitute for broader masses of people. The cause may be righteous and the agitation compelling, but only when righteousness nor righteous rhetoric are joined by a material force does change happen. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">17.</strong> The task of a party of socialism in the 21st century is to give leadership to the movement as a whole, to be a force for broad working class and people’s unity, to interconnect the particular and general demands of a multilayered social movement, to articulate a socialist vision and values – a challenge to be sure. <br /><br />We have no illusions that we can meet this challenge through our efforts alone nor do we think any other organization or social movement on the left can either. The highway to radical democracy and socialism hinges on a far bigger, broad-based, and mature left than presently exists. <br /><br />At the same time, we strongly believe the Communist Party, USA fills a uniquely necessary space on the continuum of the radical movement. <br /><br />Our experience, our broad and flexible strategic and tactical concepts of struggle, our keen appreciation of the imperative of broad unity, our class, internationalist, and dialectical approach, our willingness to embrace new forms of organization, communication, and united action, and our vision allow us to make a vital contribution to the project of the left and to the struggle for human emancipation. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">18.</strong> A party of 21st century socialism will give special importance to the struggle for racial and gender equality. <br /><br />In recent decades vast political, economic, social and demographic transformations have occurred. Nevertheless, the fight for full racial and gender equality retains its overarching importance in its own and strategic terms. <br /><br />Anyone who devalues the struggle for racial and gender equality (which are better understood as internal and organic to one another rather than intersecting; much the same could be said about class and its connection to race and gender) limits the sweep of any victory at best; at worst, it provides an opening to the most backward sections of our ruling class and their constituency to gain ascendancy ideologically and politically. Indeed, for three decades racist, misogynistic and homophobic appeals were the grease that smoothed the passage to power of the extreme right. <br /><br />And no ebbing of this filth has happened since the election of Barack Obama two years ago. Actually, a ramped up right-wing-driven ideological counteroffensive has occurred. <br /><br />A firm rebuff to this counteroffensive is imperative, and a special responsibility falls on the shoulders of white people and workers in this regard. Neither racism nor sexism is a special product of the working-class movement, as some suggest. <br /><br />Saying this doesn’t imply that the working class has no hand at all in reproducing either form of inequality and oppression. To think so would be naïve. <br /><br />But it would be more naïve to think that white and male workers have no interest in the fight for racial and gender equality and against racism and male supremacy. They do, and it is moral as well as material. Racism and sexism spiritually dehumanize as well as materially impoverish the entire working class. <br /><br />Despite the deep embedding of unequal relations in the structures and political economy of capitalism, and the unceasing propagation by right wing extremism especially, the struggle against racism and sexism is winnable – but only on the basis a broad, united, multiracial, class-based movement. Anything less in today’s conditions will not stand a ghost’s chance of success, and, will, in turn, forestall progressive and socialist advance. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">19.</strong> A party of socialism in the 21st century will vigorously combat nativism and xenophobia. <br /><br />Immigrants bring to our country their cultures, labor power, and their traditions of struggle. <br /><br />No one who has been involved in struggles on the contemporary scene can help but note the role of immigrant workers in fighting for democracy, workers’ rights, quality education, community empowerment, cultural heritage, and immigration laws that are humane and just. Their spirit is militant and anti-capitalist. <br /><br />No wonder that the right wing demonizes them. Immigrant-bashing and denial of rights combines with racism and other backward ideologies and practices to divide the developing people’s movement. A party of socialism in the 21st century will elevate this struggle and combat this assault on the immigrant community across the country. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">20.</strong> A party of socialism in the 21st century will give proper political importance to the struggle for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered rights – something that it didn’t do in the past. <br /><br />Socialist society should not privilege one sexual orientation over another; instead it should celebrate sex, diverse sexual orientations, and marriage arrangements. Sexual longing is a deeply individual matter and love and marital partners shouldn’t be a matter of state concern. <br /><br />More immediately, the movement for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered rights has emerged over the past four decades into a powerful and broad social movement that occupies an important position in the people’s movement. Through its efforts victories have been won and sensibilities of society changed. <br /><br />Nevertheless, right-wing extremism continues to contest this movement’s legitimacy and aims. It continues to paint gay people as despised and immoral. Homophobia remains for this backward political grouping a wedge issue to be employed to mobilize its constituency. However, right-wing extremism isn’t winning this struggle, and while much still needs to be done, there is no reason to think that this will change. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">21. </strong> A party of socialism in the 21st century will place a high priority on independent political action and the formation of a party independent of corporate capital. <br /><br />Two contradictory trends are observable. On the one hand, millions are registering to vote as independents; still more feel alienated from the political process; and new independent parties and forms are cropping up at the local level. <br /><br />On the other hand, the main social forces and organizations of political independence and the necessary base of an independent political party continue to work within the Democratic Party. <br /><br />But with this twist: they operate independently of the organizational structures of that party. And that is likely to continue; in fact, as their dissatisfaction grows they will attempt to enlarge their voice and power. <br /><br />In other words, the main and necessary forces of an independent political party will likely exhaust all or nearly all of the possibilities to reform the Democratic Party, including attempts to take it over, before looking for an exit. Our tactics should take this into account. <br /><br />One final observation: we say too definitively that the independent forces stand no chance whatsoever of taking over the Democratic Party. That still may be the case, but it is a mistake to rule it out completely at this point. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">22.</strong> A party of socialism in the 21st century is internationalist in outlook and practice. And well it should be. <br /><br />Though we are barely a decade into the 21st century we have a good glimpse of what the lay of the land will look like decades ahead. <br /><br />What is most striking is the growing imperative to address and resolve global problems in a timely way – global warming and environmental degradation, nuclear weapons buildup and proliferation, unceasing wars, resource conflicts, immense poverty, uneven development, health epidemics, etc. <br /><br />What is the upshot of all this? These trends unless arrested could make the world unlivable. <br /><br />In this dark cloud there is a silver lining however: hundreds of millions worldwide are becoming aware of the fraught situation and conscious of the need to take action. Self-interest and internationalism are merging, but it is fast enough? <br /><br />Standing in the way is U.S. imperialism, which remains the main obstacle to a peaceful, livable, and sustainable planet. Both wings of the ruling class are determined to maintain U.S. primacy in the global system, notwithstanding employing different methods of rule – one by force and the other with a mix of diplomacy, multilateralism, soft power and force, but employed more judiciously. <br /><br />While the differences between one and the other method of rule are important and should not be ignored, the overarching desire for top dog status worldwide remains regardless of who is in command of U.S. foreign policy, <br /><br />Thus only a popular movement at home and abroad will compel U.S. imperialism to make a strategic retreat in every region of the world beginning with Central Asia and the Middle East, to end the occupation of Afghanistan, to complete the withdrawal of U.S. military presence from Iraq, to settle the long-standing conflict between the Palestinians and the Israeli government, to lift sanction regimes against Iran and other states and end the blockade on Cuba, to reduce and eliminate nuclear weapons, to close up military bases around the world and dissolve NATO, and so forth. <br /><br />A big challenge for sure, and crucial to winning the American people to engage in such a movement, is re-envisioning our role in the world community. The point isn’t for the U.S. government to simply to crawl into a national shell, but to reinsert itself into world affairs on the basis of cooperation, peace, equality, and mutual benefits. But as long as the notion of Manifest Destiny, of an “indispensable nation” lingers, the fight for a new democratic foreign policy will be immensely difficult. <br /><br />It follows that the role of a party of socialism in the 21st century is to assist this process, to fight for international unity and peace, and against its own imperialism, and to articulate an alternative vision of the place of the U.S. in the world community. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">23.</strong> A party of socialism in the 21st century will note and draw lessons from the enormous achievements of socialist societies. Social problems (such as unemployment and the burden and inadequacy of child care, for instance) that persist in capitalist societies were, if not solved, greatly alleviated in many of the countries of socialism. Nor can we forget the solidarity that the Soviet Union and other socialist countries provided to countries fighting to break out of the web of colonialism and neocolonialism, nor the decisive role of the Red Army in crushing Nazi Germany, nor the Soviet Union’s sustained opposition to nuclear war. <br /><br />That said, a party of socialism should make an unequivocal break with Stalin and his associates, not to please the enemies or critics of socialism, but to acknowledge to millions that the forced and violent collectivization of agriculture, the purges and executions of hundreds of thousands of communists and other patriots, the labor camps that incarcerated, exploited and sent untold numbers of Soviet people to early deaths, and the removal of whole peoples from their homelands can’t be justified on the grounds of historical necessity or in the name of defending socialism. They were crimes against humanity. <br /><br />To describe these atrocities as a mistake is a mistake – criminal: yes, a horror: yes, a terrible stain on the values and ideals of socialism: definitely. <br /><br />To make matters worse, the practices of the Stalin regime set in place theoretical notions, structures and relations of governance, laws of socialist economy, justifications for concentrated power, and a great-leader syndrome that in the end weakened socialism in the USSR and other socialist countries. <br /><br />I can’t speak for other parties, and have no desire to, but our party should be unequivocal in its condemnation of the Stalin regime. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">24.</strong> A party of socialism in the 21st century is well aware that the transition to socialism is complex and contingent on many factors, both intended and unintended, foreseen and unforeseen, on conscious actions of contending forces and on factors largely beyond its control (imperialist wars, economic crises, global warming, resource wars, natural disasters, terrorist actions, etc.). <br /><br />There are pauses as well as surges; incremental changes give way to ruptural tears in the social fabric; positions are won in the state, economy and civil society, but setbacks and shifts in momentum are part of the package too. Dress rehearsals happen more than once. <br /><br />Changes in the realm of thinking interface with changes in the realm of action. Far more than social transformations of the past, socialist transformation rests on a deep-going change in values and thinking; the working people are fully into it, mind as well as soul. <br /><br />Contrary to our customary understanding that one ruptural – insurrectionary – event defines the transition process, a series of turning points, as I see it, map the transition over a protracted period of time. In other words, more than one constitutive moment defines the transition period to socialism, and in their totality creates the conditions for a flourishing socialist society. <br /><br />As crucial as control over and the democratization of the state is, it is still only a piece, albeit a necessary facilitating piece, of a larger transitional and interactive process that decentralizes and diffuses people’s power throughout society. <br /><br />The state in other words is one, but not the only institution to be transformed by forces within and outside of it. <br /><br />Which comes first – the transforming of the state or civil society – is a question that bears little analytical fruit. The relationship between the two is dialectical and thus the two interact constantly and in complicated ways. <br /><br />All this is premised on deepening and broadening of socialist consciousness, on building up the political and organizational capacity of the working class and its allies, on sustained mobilization on a scale never before seen, and on an ability to resist and block attempts to illegally and unconstitutionally reverse democratic gains. <br /><br />It also rests on an organized, flexible, strategically insightful, united, and tested leadership (of parties and movements) that fights for breadth of alliances, takes advantage of the slightest differences among its adversaries, and above all, fights for broad unity and sustained mass action. <br /><br />In recent years, radical social transformations have occurred in relatively peaceful (peaceful is not passive) circumstances in Latin America. There an active, organized, and overwhelming majority of the working people led by left coalitions (in which communists are a part) and its allies have democratically won political positions in state structures and then utilized them to isolate elites, dislodge neoliberal governments, and clear the ground for democratic, social, socialist transformations. <br /><br />A party of socialism in the 21st century should study this experience closely. Broadly speaking, the transition to socialism in the U.S., I suspect, will follow a similar path, differences notwithstanding. <br /><br />The traditional imagery of the revolutionary process – economic breakdown, insurrection, dual power, violence and bloody clashes, smash the state, and the quick rollout of socialism – provides few insights. In fact, I would argue that it is an analytical deadweight; it favors simplicity over complexity; it dulls and dumbs down the socialist imagination; and it’s disabling strategically and tactically. <br /><br />Underlying much of the above is that the state isn’t simply the instrument of the ruling class – a monolithic and tightly integrated class bloc and weapon. While the capitalist class is dominant, the state is filled with internal contradictions and is a site of class and democratic struggles – not just any site though, but a crucial and decisive site. <br /><br />Thus the nature of the struggle isn’t simply the people against the state, but the people winning positions and influence in the state and then utilizing them to make changes (within and outside of the state) in a highly contested political environment – an environment of sharp clashes, uncertain outcomes, and an engaged people. <br /><br />Now some will say that this is highly unlikely, even utopian. But one has to ask: is the seizure of power and the quick dismantlement of the existing state in favor of a new “out of the ashes” socialist state any less utopian? The latter model has been ascendant for nearly a century and still socialism is only a wish among communists in the advanced capitalist world. <br /><br />Of course, the reasons for this are many, but I don’t believe the insurrectionary model of revolution makes the road any easier or is any more realistic as a reading of the future. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">25.</strong> For a party of socialism in the 21st century, its vision of socialism is a work in progress. <br /><br />It will have distinctive features and characteristics, springing from our own history and experience. It will complete the unfinished democratic tasks left over from capitalism, while preserving and deepening existing democratic freedoms and civil liberties. It will breathe new life into representative democracy and uphold the rule of law. It will recognize the people as sovereign as well as register support for a multi-party system of governance and alternations of parties in power if the people so decide. <br /><br />Our socialism will bring an end to exploitation of wage labor, not in one fell swoop, but over time. It will expand collective/democratic rights, while at the same time giving pride of place to human fulfillment and creativity. Bureaucratic collectivism and a command economy that reduce people to cogs, social relations into things, and culture to a dull gray will be resisted by a 21st century party of socialism. <br /><br />Our socialism will be anything but drab. It will have a modern and dynamic feel to it. It will dance to the beat of our people, our cultural diversity, and our many rhythms. It will celebrate the best traditions of our nation and give “love of country” a new democratic content. <br /><br />Our socialism will embrace a new humanist ethos and value system as we overcome divisions of class, gender and race. A community of caring, kindness, equality, and solidarity will become the dominant realities of daily life. <br /><br />Our socialism will encourage mass participation in every sphere of life. To do so, the workday and workweek will be reduced and a social wage will be legislated. But these measures alone are inadequate for at least half the population. The workload for women has increased in recent decades as women have entered the workplace and as the modern requirements of daily life (longer life expectancy for the elderly, for example) have fallen disproportionately on them.<br /><br />Thus new social arrangements to care for the very young (free quality child care for all) and the very old as well as collective alternatives to what is still “women’s work” – cooking, cleaning, and laundry – are necessary. Women combine paid work and unpaid household labor into a pre-dawn to post-dusk workday. <br /><br />Our socialism will insist on the separation of church and state, but it will also assume that people of faith will be active participants in society. <br /><br />During the transition period, at socialism’s dawn in our country as in others, and then long into the day, I expect that a mixed economy, operating in a regulated socialist market and combining different forms of socialist, cooperative and private property, will prevail, albeit with tensions, contradictions and dangers. <br /><br />What the exact mix is, how it changes, and the particular forms of democratic control will change as conditions – objective and subjective – change. Such ownership relations and market mechanisms do not preclude economic planning or a national investment strategy. <br /><br />In fact, given that the longer term task of a socialist state and society is to shift the logic of production from wealth for the few, militarism and limitless growth to production for human need and economic sustainability, it is hard to imagine how such an enormous transformation can be successfully tackled without planning and a society-wide investment strategy, albeit based on broad consultation with and democratic control by working people and their representatives. <br /><br />Unlike capitalist apologists who say that private ownership by the few is the material basis of freedom and economic security, proponents of socialism will rebut such a claim with the propaganda of the deed: they will show in practice that socialist forms of property and economic organization are the ground on which freedom can flower. <br /><br />The charge of socialism’s builders is to bring the social and democratic into the main sites of socialization – the state, economy, media, and culture; socialism in this century should be every mindful of the difficult, yet necessary task of subordinating the state to social power. <br /><br />In other words, the state in socialist society shouldn’t hover above and control every aspect of society. Such socialism becomes distant, alien and bureaucratic. Instead, the builders of socialism should put into place a dense network of worker and community organizations that are politically and financially empowered to govern in various institutional settings. <br /><br />Contrary to some on the left, socialism essence isn’t reducible to property/ownership relations and class power in the abstract. Although both are structural foundations of socialist society, they don't by themselves constitute socialism. <br /><br />What they do is create the possibility for a socialist society, but socialism becomes real, becomes socialism only to the degree that working people exchange alienation and powerlessness for engagement, empowerment and full democratic participation, only to the degree that power, decision-making and planning are diffused to the wider community. Otherwise, they become mystifying shells that conceal unsocialist structures and practices. <br /><br />Working class initiative and a sense of real ownership of social property are the sinew and ligaments, of socialism, while legal relations, public ownership and structures of class power are facilitating mechanisms. <br /><br />In short, a party of socialism in the 21st century will measure the degree of socialist development by real relations, not formal ones. <br /><br />Socialism gives priority to sustainability and sufficiency, not growth without limits, not endless consumption. Socialist production can't be narrowly focused on inputs and outputs, nor employ purely and narrowly constructed quantitative criteria to measure efficiency and determine economic goals. Nor can status and the fulfillment of human needs be reduced to the constant expansion of consumer goods. Socialism isn’t simply a “provision and rights society.” <br /><br />That said, we cannot wait for socialism to address the dangers of climate change and environmental degradation. That must be done now. We are approaching tipping points which if reached will give global warming a momentum that human actions will have little or no control over. <br /><br />Finally, in order for a socialist society to flourish, the process of change has to occur on several levels almost simultaneously. Just as the emergence of capitalism rested on the coincidence of several processes interacting together, the same is the case with a socialist society. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">26.</strong> A party of socialism in the 21st century will construct its own organizational model in line with its own material conditions and needs. It shouldn’t be hatched out of thin air or imported from another country. The size of the membership, the concentration and location of members, the breadth of leadership, the scope and intensity of the class struggle, and its aims are the main determinants of the organizational character of a 21st century party – its structures, forms and rules of organization. <br /><br />The structures, forms and rules also depend on the organizational and cultural traditions of our country. <br /><br />Organizing club meetings every two weeks, insisting that every member belong to a club and pay monthly dues, agitating clubs to focus on a shop or neighborhood, and expecting every member to support the entire party program, circulate the press, and abide by the decisions of the majority is one way to structure a communist party. But it is not the only way. We need much more flexibility as far as structures of organization and membership expectations are concerned. <br /><br />We are a small party with a committed but thin layer of leaders that hopes to become a much bigger party in a non-revolutionary situation, in a far-flung country, and in the age of the Internet. <br /><br />In this era defined in many ways by the internet, we shouldn’t attempt to replicate in every, or even most, details the old model of communist organization. A party with a high degree of discipline and centralized structure of organization doesn’t fit the present status of our party or the zeitgeist of our times. This isn’t 1917 – our society is exceedingly complex, the mentality of the Cold War is receding, people are busy as hell, a good number of boomers are tired, and young party members are juggling careers, debt, and activism. <br /><br />These realities require new forms of interaction, communication, education , decision-making, organization and messaging. And, not least, they require new standards for party membership and a new style of leadership that politically engages the membership and leads by force of argument. <br /><br />So where does this leave democratic centralism? I’m for dropping the term. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m for collective discussion, broad interaction, democratic decisions, testing decisions in life, and the struggle for unity in action. <br /><br />But the rule that every member is obligated to carry out party decisions no longer fits our circumstances. The truth is that we never enforced it. If someone chose not to carry out a decision, nothing was done in most instances. If we can’t win members and leaders to a position politically then administrative action is unlikely to help. <br /><br />The main way to mobilize and unite the party is through political discussions, education, transparency of decisions, persuasion, and sound political decisions. <br /><br />For similar reasons I suggest we drop the term “unity of will.” Among other reasons, it’s a term, or really a concept, that can easily be abused, and it has in our past. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">27.</strong> A party of the 21st century must be Internet-based. To believe otherwise is to turn one’s back on recent experience, especially President Obama’s 2008 campaign. The argument that Internet work is at war with on-ground organizing should be retired. <br /><br />The Internet gives us a tool to organize people far beyond our organized spaces; it allows us to grow faster in old and new places; it provides a menu of programs and services that any member or club can easily access; it allows us to compensate for our thinness of leadership; it makes possible a new division of labor; it gives us the ability to communicate regularly with the whole membership in a timely way; it makes it possible for the People’s World and Political Affairs to reach an infinitely bigger audience; it makes it possible for us to organize meetings in cyber space across thousands of miles, and to expand our visibility and presence. <br /><br />So far our experience has been positive, but we have only scratched the surface of the Internet’s potential. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">28.</strong> A party of socialism in the 21st century should open the door to new members. Joining should be no more difficult than joining other social organizations; going through political hoops and close vetting aren’t necessary. That is for White House appointees, not people who take a liking to us. <br /><br />What is needed is not more stringent standards, but a range of ways that new members can become familiar with our program, policies and activities. The Internet is critical in this regard, but I would also add that we need an on-the-ground team to travel into organized and unorganized areas to meet and greet new members, to acquaint them with our party and its positions, and to hear what they are thinking. <br /><br /><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; ">29.</strong> A party of socialism in the 21st century will examine its history with a critical eye. To do otherwise is to cut severe today’s party from our. No party of social movement on the left can claim as rich a history as we can. But that treasure-trove becomes valuable only to the degree that we see it in all of its complexity. <br /><br />Sometimes we act as if the only mistake we made was our failure to rein in Earl Browder; other times we mechanically transport forms of organization and struggle from one era to another as if nothing has happened in the meantime. <br /><br />At still other times we resist shedding old ideas, schemes dogmas, symbols and practices that time has passed by or cast a negative judgment on. <br /><br />No party, including ours, is mistake-free; we make mistakes and we make them in the present as well as the past. Politics is complex and fluid, and mistakes in theory, assessments and practices are inevitable. <br /><br />We do no favors to past or future generations of communists when we keep the lid on our mistakes. If we could conjure up our deceased comrades, I’m sure that they would insist that we look at our past with a critical and mature eye; they would tell us not to worry about their feelings or legacy, which I would add stands on its own quite well. <br /><br />A party of the 21st century takes inspiration from our past but shouldn’t be imprisoned by it. The past should only be a general guide to the future, but no a blueprint for the future. <br /><br />As mentioned at the outset of this article the effective forces and coalitions to meet the challenges of the 21st century are not yet gathered together. But we are quietly confident that they will be as we go deeper into the 21st century. We are also confident that the Communist Party will meet history’s challenge as well, that is, we will change, grow, and provide leadership to people searching for a better life and more just society. </p></span></div><div><br /></div></div>CPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-15298271609606719672010-09-28T17:34:00.001-04:002010-09-28T17:36:19.477-04:00Special Agent of the week<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfIqO9Y7BQBb3DDyLly-1MfozJEez_OVGbR8Awtzlq8Uzo5A-OHvULnNhXZVY0oSRR3pVJyfM4zxMPBnIQmEU1ep34R4BoFiRRu0ey2m91kewXxw8fsHfJlfG6XsKR7tlXNSiNxvvqPiq1/s1600/jordan.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 390px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfIqO9Y7BQBb3DDyLly-1MfozJEez_OVGbR8Awtzlq8Uzo5A-OHvULnNhXZVY0oSRR3pVJyfM4zxMPBnIQmEU1ep34R4BoFiRRu0ey2m91kewXxw8fsHfJlfG6XsKR7tlXNSiNxvvqPiq1/s400/jordan.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5522081343887368562" border="0" /></a>CPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-57552015622474736892010-09-25T16:33:00.003-04:002010-09-25T16:43:19.116-04:00On the FBI raids across the countryAs many of you know I am the Chair of the Special Agents Club #1. We will be releasing a statement in the distant future. We are pledging full support for these raids. Carry on comrades.<br /><br />Special Agent Jordan will be in charge of coordinating our activities across the country. Most of the Special Agents are young.<br /><br />We will be looking to recruit Special Agents in keeping with our goal of initiating mass activity. These raids are sparking interest in our movement.<br /><br />Now that we have so many Special Agents in our Party we will begin to influence the politics of our country in many unique ways.<br /><br />I have ordered no publication on any information in the PW.<br /><br />The Educational Director of the Special Agents Club #1 is Joel Wendland.<br /><br />Sam Webb<br />National Chair, CPUSACPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7758205328262064536.post-3157882903110416212010-09-15T21:27:00.003-04:002010-09-15T21:35:37.183-04:00Please I beg you to stop attacking me and the CPUSAI have just about had it. I am at my wits end. The Minnesota Problem has gone viral.<br /><br />I am going bonkers.<br /><br />I have now engaged in debate with a pseudonym. Now I am thinking Thomas Kenny might be my own daughter.<br /><br />Someone, anyone, please help me put an end to the Minnesota Problem.<br /><br />Please. I am begging for your help.<br /><br />The PW website has been taken over by Minnesotanites.<br /><br />Can someone go out and bring Bruce Bostick back? I need more Prozac.<br /><br />Damn I wish we would have changed the name of this Party.<br /><br />I feel like giving this Party back to the Communists.<br /><br />Will someone have my back covered in Washington?<br /><br />Sam Webb<br />Chair, National Board, CPUSACPUSA National Boardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347836364467487042noreply@blogger.com0