Barack Obama is a true friend of the people. His speech to the NAACP proves this.
Barack Obama would never use this kind of progressive rhetoric if he was a Wall Street stooge.
I don't know what Howard Zinn has in mind when he says we have to "change Obama's mindset."
Then John Nichols says we have to "push Obama."
Obama is the leader we all need to follow.
Step by step, reform after reform Obama will bring us to socialism through increments without us having to struggle.
We no longer need a Communist Party because the Democratic Party has been transformed into a party of all the people under Barack Obama's loving smile.
We are at the end of an era.
Class struggle is a thing of the past best forgotten along with 20th century socialism.
Like all recessions, this one is coming to an end. If we were to get into recession mode the recession would be over before we get ready for it.
I see a new era opening up before us where Wall Street banker and autoworker walk arm in arm in praise of Barack Obama. For a short time the autoworker might have to pay a little more for health insurance than the Wall Street banker under the public option but in time everything will work out well.
Sweet dreams. Sleep tight. Wall Street monsters do not bite.
God bless.
Sam Webb
National Chair, CPUSA
Full text of President Obama speech to the NAACP Centennial Convention
>Archive - Daily Online
Author: Special to the World
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 07/16/09 21:21
As prepared for delivery for July 16.
It is an honor to be here, in the city where the NAACP was formed, to mark its centennial. What we celebrate tonight is not simply the journey the NAACP has traveled, but the journey that we, as Americans, have traveled over the past one hundred years.
It is a journey that takes us back to a time before most of us were born, long before the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, and Brown v. Board of Education; back to an America just a generation past slavery. It was a time when Jim Crow was a way of life; when lynchings were all too common; and when race riots were shaking cities across a segregated land.
It was in this America where an Atlanta scholar named W.E.B. Du Bois, a man of towering intellect and a fierce passion for justice, sparked what became known as the Niagara movement; where reformers united, not by color but cause; and where an association was born that would, as its charter says, promote equality and eradicate prejudice among citizens of the United States.
From the beginning, Du Bois understood how change would come - just as King and all the civil rights giants did later. They understood that unjust laws needed to be overturned; that legislation needed to be passed; and that Presidents needed to be pressured into action. They knew that the stain of slavery and the sin of segregation had to be lifted in the courtroom and in the legislature.
But they also knew that here, in America, change would have to come from the people. It would come from people protesting lynching, rallying against violence, and walking instead of taking the bus. It would come from men and women - of every age and faith, race and region - taking Greyhounds on Freedom Rides; taking seats at Greensboro lunch counters; and registering voters in rural Mississippi, knowing they would be harassed, knowing they would be beaten, knowing that they might never return.
Because of what they did, we are a more perfect union. Because Jim Crow laws were overturned, black CEOs today run Fortune 500 companies. Because civil rights laws were passed, black mayors, governors, and Members of Congress serve in places where they might once have been unable to vote. And because ordinary people made the civil rights movement their own, I made a trip to Springfield a couple years ago - where Lincoln once lived, and race riots once raged - and began the journey that has led me here tonight as the 44th President of the United States of America.
And yet, even as we celebrate the remarkable achievements of the past one hundred years; even as we inherit extraordinary progress that cannot be denied; even as we marvel at the courage and determination of so many plain folks - we know that too many barriers still remain.
We know that even as our economic crisis batters Americans of all races, African Americans are out of work more than just about anyone else - a gap that’s widening here in New York City, as detailed in a report this week by Comptroller Bill Thompson.
We know that even as spiraling health care costs crush families of all races, African Americans are more likely to suffer from a host of diseases but less likely to own health insurance than just about anyone else.
We know that even as we imprison more people of all races than any nation in the world, an African-American child is roughly five times as likely as a white child to see the inside of a jail.
And we know that even as the scourge of HIV/AIDS devastates nations abroad, particularly in Africa, it is devastating the African-American community here at home with disproportionate force.
These are some of the barriers of our time. They’re very different from the barriers faced by earlier generations. They’re very different from the ones faced when fire hoses and dogs were being turned on young marchers; when Charles Hamilton Houston and a group of young Howard lawyers were dismantling segregation.
But what is required to overcome today’s barriers is the same as was needed then. The same commitment. The same sense of urgency. The same sense of sacrifice. The same willingness to do our part for ourselves and one another that has always defined America at its best.
The question, then, is where do we direct our efforts? What steps do we take to overcome these barriers? How do we move forward in the next one hundred years?
The first thing we need to do is make real the words of your charter and eradicate prejudice, bigotry, and discrimination among citizens of the United States. I understand there may be a temptation among some to think that discrimination is no longer a problem in 2009. And I believe that overall, there’s probably never been less discrimination in America than there is today.
But make no mistake: the pain of discrimination is still felt in America. By African-American women paid less for doing the same work as colleagues of a different color and gender. By Latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country. By Muslim Americans viewed with suspicion for simply kneeling down to pray. By our gay brothers and sisters, still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights.
On the 45th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, discrimination must not stand. Not on account of color or gender; how you worship or who you love. Prejudice has no place in the United States of America.
But we also know that prejudice and discrimination are not even the steepest barriers to opportunity today. The most difficult barriers include structural inequalities that our nation’s legacy of discrimination has left behind; inequalities still plaguing too many communities and too often the object of national neglect.
These are barriers we are beginning to tear down by rewarding work with an expanded tax credit; making housing more affordable; and giving ex-offenders a second chance. These are barriers that we are targeting through our White House Office on Urban Affairs, and through Promise Neighborhoods that build on Geoffrey Canada’s success with the Harlem Children’s Zone; and that foster a comprehensive approach to ending poverty by putting all children on a pathway to college, and giving them the schooling and support to get there.
But our task of reducing these structural inequalities has been made more difficult by the state, and structure, of the broader economy; an economy fueled by a cycle of boom and bust; an economy built not on a rock, but sand. That is why my administration is working so hard not only to create and save jobs in the short-term, not only to extend unemployment insurance and help for people who have lost their health care, not only to stem this immediate economic crisis, but to lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity that will put opportunity within reach not just for African Americans, but for all Americans.
One pillar of this new foundation is health insurance reform that cuts costs, makes quality health coverage affordable for all, and closes health care disparities in the process. Another pillar is energy reform that makes clean energy profitable, freeing America from the grip of foreign oil, putting people to work upgrading low-income homes, and creating jobs that cannot be outsourced. And another pillar is financial reform with consumer protections to crack down on mortgage fraud and stop predatory lenders from targeting our poor communities.
All these things will make America stronger and more competitive. They will drive innovation, create jobs, and provide families more security. Still, even if we do it all, the African-American community will fall behind in the United States and the United States will fall behind in the world unless we do a far better job than we have been doing of educating our sons and daughters. In the 21st century - when so many jobs will require a bachelor’s degree or more, when countries that out-educate us today will outcompete us tomorrow - a world-class education is a prerequisite for success.
You know what I’m talking about. There’s a reason the story of the civil rights movement was written in our schools. There’s a reason Thurgood Marshall took up the cause of Linda Brown. There’s a reason the Little Rock Nine defied a governor and a mob. It’s because there is no stronger weapon against inequality and no better path to opportunity than an education that can unlock a child’s God-given potential.
Yet, more than a half century after Brown v. Board of Education, the dream of a world-class education is still being deferred all across this country. African-American students are lagging behind white classmates in reading and math - an achievement gap that is growing in states that once led the way on civil rights. Over half of all African-American students are dropping out of school in some places. There are overcrowded classrooms, crumbling schools, and corridors of shame in America filled with poor children - black, brown, and white alike.
The state of our schools is not an African-American problem; it’s an American problem. And if Al Sharpton, Mike Bloomberg, and Newt Gingrich can agree that we need to solve it, then all of us can agree on that. All of us can agree that we need to offer every child in this country the best education the world has to offer from the cradle through a career.
That is our responsibility as the United States of America. And we, all of us in government, are working to do our part by not only offering more resources, but demanding more reform.
When it comes to higher education, we are making college and advanced training more affordable, and strengthening community colleges that are a gateway to so many with an initiative that will prepare students not only to earn a degree but find a job when they graduate; an initiative that will help us meet the goal I have set of leading the world in college degrees by 2020.
We are creating a Race to the Top Fund that will reward states and public school districts that adopt 21st century standards and assessments. And we are creating incentives for states to promote excellent teachers and replace bad ones - because the job of a teacher is too important for us to accept anything but the best.
We should also explore innovative approaches being pursued here in New York City; innovations like Bard High School Early College and Medgar Evers College Preparatory School that are challenging students to complete high school and earn a free associate’s degree or college credit in just four years.
And we should raise the bar when it comes to early learning programs. Today, some early learning programs are excellent. Some are mediocre. And some are wasting what studies show are - by far - a child’s most formative years.
That’s why I have issued a challenge to America’s governors: if you match the success of states like Pennsylvania and develop an effective model for early learning; if you focus reform on standards and results in early learning programs; if you demonstrate how you will prepare the lowest income children to meet the highest standards of success - you can compete for an Early Learning Challenge Grant that will help prepare all our children to enter kindergarten ready to learn.
So, these are some of the laws we are passing. These are some of the policies we are enacting. These are some of the ways we are doing our part in government to overcome the inequities, injustices, and barriers that exist in our country.
But all these innovative programs and expanded opportunities will not, in and of themselves, make a difference if each of us, as parents and as community leaders, fail to do our part by encouraging excellence in our children. Government programs alone won’t get our children to the Promised Land. We need a new mindset, a new set of attitudes - because one of the most durable and destructive legacies of discrimination is the way that we have internalized a sense of limitation; how so many in our community have come to expect so little of ourselves.
We have to say to our children, Yes, if you’re African American, the odds of growing up amid crime and gangs are higher. Yes, if you live in a poor neighborhood, you will face challenges that someone in a wealthy suburb does not. But that’s not a reason to get bad grades, that’s not a reason to cut class, that’s not a reason to give up on your education and drop out of school. No one has written your destiny for you. Your destiny is in your hands - and don’t you forget that.
To parents, we can’t tell our kids to do well in school and fail to support them when they get home. For our kids to excel, we must accept our own responsibilities. That means putting away the Xbox and putting our kids to bed at a reasonable hour. It means attending those parent-teacher conferences, reading to our kids, and helping them with their homework.
And it means we need to be there for our neighbor’s son or daughter, and return to the day when we parents let each other know if we saw a child acting up. That’s the meaning of community. That’s how we can reclaim the strength, the determination, the hopefulness that helped us come as far as we already have.
It also means pushing our kids to set their sights higher. They might think they’ve got a pretty good jump shot or a pretty good flow, but our kids can’t all aspire to be the next LeBron or Lil Wayne. I want them aspiring to be scientists and engineers, doctors and teachers, not just ballers and rappers. I want them aspiring to be a Supreme Court Justice. I want them aspiring to be President of the United States.
So, yes, government must be a force for opportunity. Yes, government must be a force for equality. But ultimately, if we are to be true to our past, then we also have to seize our own destiny, each and every day.
That is what the NAACP is all about. The NAACP was not founded in search of a handout. The NAACP was not founded in search of favors. The NAACP was founded on a firm notion of justice; to cash the promissory note of America that says all our children, all God’s children, deserve a fair chance in the race of life.
It is a simple dream, and yet one that has been denied - one still being denied - to so many Americans. It’s a painful thing, seeing that dream denied. I remember visiting a Chicago school in a rough neighborhood as a community organizer, and thinking how remarkable it was that all of these children seemed so full of hope, despite being born into poverty, despite being delivered into addiction, despite all the obstacles they were already facing.
And I remember the principal of the school telling me that soon all of that would begin to change; that soon, the laughter in their eyes would begin to fade; that soon, something would shut off inside, as it sunk in that their hopes would not come to pass - not because they weren’t smart enough, not because they weren’t talented enough, but because, by accident of birth, they didn’t have a fair chance in life.
So, I know what can happen to a child who doesn’t have that chance. But I also know what can happen to a child who does. I was raised by a single mother. I don’t come from a lot of wealth. I got into my share of trouble as a kid. My life could easily have taken a turn for the worse. But that mother of mine gave me love; she pushed me, and cared about my education; she took no lip and taught me right from wrong. Because of her, I had a chance to make the most of my abilities. I had the chance to make the most of my opportunities. I had the chance to make the most of life.
The same story holds for Michelle. The same story holds for so many of you. And I want all the other Barack Obamas out there, and all the other Michelle Obamas out there, to have that same chance - the chance that my mother gave me; that my education gave me; that the United States of America gave me. That is how our union will be perfected and our economy rebuilt. That is how America will move forward in the next one hundred years.
And we will move forward. This I know - for I know how far we have come. Last week, in Ghana, Michelle and I took Malia and Sasha to Cape Coast Castle, where captives were once imprisoned before being auctioned; where, across an ocean, so much of the African-American experience began. There, reflecting on the dungeon beneath the castle church, I was reminded of all the pain and all the hardships, all the injustices and all the indignities on the voyage from slavery to freedom.
But I was also reminded of something else. I was reminded that no matter how bitter the rod or how stony the road, we have persevered. We have not faltered, nor have we grown weary. As Americans, we have demanded, strived for, and shaped a better destiny.
That is what we are called to do once more. It will not be easy. It will take time. Doubts may rise and hopes recede.
But if John Lewis could brave Billy clubs to cross a bridge, then I know young people today can do their part to lift up our communities.
If Emmet Till’s uncle Mose Wright could summon the courage to testify against the men who killed his nephew, I know we can be better fathers and brothers, mothers and sisters in our own families.
If three civil rights workers in Mississippi - black and white, Christian and Jew, city-born and country-bred - could lay down their lives in freedom’s cause, I know we can come together to face down the challenges of our own time. We can fix our schools, heal our sick, and rescue our youth from violence and despair.
One hundred years from now, on the 100th anniversary of the NAACP, let it be said that this generation did its part; that we too ran the race; that full of the faith that our dark past has taught us, full of the hope that the present has brought us, we faced, in our own lives and all across this nation, the rising sun of a new day begun. Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
drive the private insurers back onto the straight and narrow
Now Obama and the Democrats are talking in a way we can really get behind them not just the 100% like we were in the elections but 200%.
The Democrats have come up with a great health care plan.
All we ever wanted from health care reform is what Obama and the Democrats are now going to give us. We want to get the insurance companies back on the "straight and narrow." This is all we ask for. This is what the American people should be satisfied with. This is a plan that will protect Barack Obama's political future and that is all that matters for the next eight years.
Sam Webb
National Chair, CPUSA
Senators reveal details of health care public option
Author: John Wojcik
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 07/10/09 12:46
Two of the senators who are writing the health care reform bill are talking now about details of the public option, the part of the plan that, despite support from 70 percent of the public, has drawn the most vehement opposition from the insurance industry.
The senators, Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., are on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which resumed work on the health care overhaul this week, following the congressional holiday recess.
Both senators have been saying that the public option would keep the insurers honest and could lead to lower rates of increase in health care costs. They also have said that individuals who like the health care they have will be able to keep it but that those who don’t and those without insurance should have the choice of a public option.
Describing what the plan would look like, a spokesman for Sen. Whitehouse said today, “The Community Health Insurance Option will be a national, not a state plan and it will be run by the Department of Health and Human Services. It will offer benefits as good as those offered by private insurance, if not better.”
One concern has been whether doctors and hospitals would choose not to participate in such a plan.
“The department will negotiate payment amounts to encourage doctors and hospitals to participate,” the spokesman said.
Another concern has been how the poor who cannot afford any insurance, would be able to participate.
In a jointly written article that appeared in the Huffington Post, this week, the senators wrote that “individuals who need financial help purchasing coverage will receive it.”
The senators also envision a structure that will promote democratic input from consumers. “Local advisory councils will assure the plan receives community input,” they said.
“Your health insurer should be your advocate – not your adversary, and the public option will be that advocate. It will fight for you, not with you, to get you the best possible care with the least possible hassle. It will drive the private insurers back onto the straight and narrow,” Brown and Whitehouse wrote.
Millions have had the experience of having insurance companies deny care because of pre-existing conditions or even because they haven’t followed a particular required set of instructions.
“Your health insurer should never deny you coverage because you’ve had a heart condition. Your insurer should never carve out your diabetes from your coverage. Your insurer should never deny payment for the MRI they didn’t pre-authorize because in the haze of your breast cancer diagnosis, you hadn’t read the fine print,” the senators said.
The senators are also taking on the expensive advertising drive that the insurance companies have mounted against the public option.
“They are trying to scare you into thinking our plan will put the government between you and your doctor, and ration your care. The truth is just the opposite. Private insurance rations care by ability to pay – and puts insurance company bureaucrats between you and your doctor. Our plan rejects this failed system.”
The Democrats have come up with a great health care plan.
All we ever wanted from health care reform is what Obama and the Democrats are now going to give us. We want to get the insurance companies back on the "straight and narrow." This is all we ask for. This is what the American people should be satisfied with. This is a plan that will protect Barack Obama's political future and that is all that matters for the next eight years.
Sam Webb
National Chair, CPUSA
Senators reveal details of health care public option
Author: John Wojcik
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 07/10/09 12:46
Two of the senators who are writing the health care reform bill are talking now about details of the public option, the part of the plan that, despite support from 70 percent of the public, has drawn the most vehement opposition from the insurance industry.
The senators, Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., are on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which resumed work on the health care overhaul this week, following the congressional holiday recess.
Both senators have been saying that the public option would keep the insurers honest and could lead to lower rates of increase in health care costs. They also have said that individuals who like the health care they have will be able to keep it but that those who don’t and those without insurance should have the choice of a public option.
Describing what the plan would look like, a spokesman for Sen. Whitehouse said today, “The Community Health Insurance Option will be a national, not a state plan and it will be run by the Department of Health and Human Services. It will offer benefits as good as those offered by private insurance, if not better.”
One concern has been whether doctors and hospitals would choose not to participate in such a plan.
“The department will negotiate payment amounts to encourage doctors and hospitals to participate,” the spokesman said.
Another concern has been how the poor who cannot afford any insurance, would be able to participate.
In a jointly written article that appeared in the Huffington Post, this week, the senators wrote that “individuals who need financial help purchasing coverage will receive it.”
The senators also envision a structure that will promote democratic input from consumers. “Local advisory councils will assure the plan receives community input,” they said.
“Your health insurer should be your advocate – not your adversary, and the public option will be that advocate. It will fight for you, not with you, to get you the best possible care with the least possible hassle. It will drive the private insurers back onto the straight and narrow,” Brown and Whitehouse wrote.
Millions have had the experience of having insurance companies deny care because of pre-existing conditions or even because they haven’t followed a particular required set of instructions.
“Your health insurer should never deny you coverage because you’ve had a heart condition. Your insurer should never carve out your diabetes from your coverage. Your insurer should never deny payment for the MRI they didn’t pre-authorize because in the haze of your breast cancer diagnosis, you hadn’t read the fine print,” the senators said.
The senators are also taking on the expensive advertising drive that the insurance companies have mounted against the public option.
“They are trying to scare you into thinking our plan will put the government between you and your doctor, and ration your care. The truth is just the opposite. Private insurance rations care by ability to pay – and puts insurance company bureaucrats between you and your doctor. Our plan rejects this failed system.”
Message to Obama: We Need a New Deal
Our old friend Carl Bloice has written an excellent article that I thought should be posted on the Political Affairs web site.
He does a good job evading his support for Obama in writing this and there is no need for us to tell the public any differently.
Carl Bloice used to be the assistant editor of the Daily World a newspaper we try not to talk about anymore because of its association with everything 20th Century Socialism which is all bad stuff that happened we don't want to be associated with.
Carl Bloice is a communist just like me. I want all of you to listen to what he has to say.
Maybe we can get him back into the Party just like we did his friend Danny Rubin so we can finish the liquidating job that is taking us longer than we thought it would.
In my opinion, we shouldn't press Obama hard for a New Deal in his first term because we want him to have a chance for a second term. His opposition is coming up as he seeks his second term will be very formidable especially if Sarah Palin gets Prozac treatments successfully.
Sam Webb
National Chair, CPUSA
Message to Obama: We Need a New Deal
By Carl Bloice
Original source: BlackCommentator.com
Now they are out to nickel and dime us to death. Here in my home town the traffic and parking department has been prevailed upon to “step up” its enforcement activity – and maneuvering to have parking meters work far into the night – in order help cover some of the city’s budget deficit. In Massachusetts, legislators have slapped a tax on candy. The California state legislature recently endorsed a $1.50 tax on a bottle of alcohol and added an additional $15 to the vehicle license fee.
The astonishing thing is that such measures, being undertaken across the country, are being approved and even plotted by some liberals and progressives. It’s high time we all recognize that the people who get hit by traffic fines are the ones without garages and “sin taxes,” by and large, target working people. They are not the ones who got the economy into the current mess but if some people have their way, they will pay through the nose for it. This, at a time when unemployment is soaring, working hours are being cut and paychecks are shrinking.
Nor is there anything good to be said for pitting the budgets for police and fire services against health and welfare services. That’s not the way to nurture the progressive political majority needed to really address the current crisis. Yet, in the absence of measures to bring in new sources of revenue to run our cities and states, well-meaning people are maneuvered into challenging each other for pieces of the shrinking pie.
All across the nation, schools are being shuttered, senior meal programs decimated, community health centers eliminated and legal aid for the poor hammered. We are being told there is no other way and that we should stoically accept this austerity and count what blessings we have left. The problem is that if the sacrifices being forced upon our families and communities are really necessary, then they are not being doled out with anything approaching equity. They’re still living it up big time in some parts of town.
“The mood among financiers is suddenly more cheery,” wrote John Plender in the Financial Times the other day. In London and New York “trading profits are up and bonuses are back” And, rather than being reduced to something more reasonable, executive compensation packages are on the way up. “There is also a growing suspicion on both sides of the Atlantic that bankers, a lethal breed whose activities have pretty much throttled the global economy while causing government deficits to balloon, are going back to business as usual – a frightening prospect for taxpayers everywhere,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, the country’s employment crisis continues to worsen. When wandering in the desert, beware shimmering water on the horizon,” read the Financial Times’ Lex Column, July 2. “If May’s better than expected jobs report offered the dehydrated US labor market hope of succor, June’s miserable effort was a mouthful of sand.” The June jobs data from the Labor Department contained “few signs of life at all,’ it said adding, “Slowing growth in weekly earnings, now at 2.7 per cent year on year, is another serving of angst. And falling hours plus sluggish wages mean a further drag on US consumption – already constrained by debt-laden household balance sheets and tight credit. The mirage, and with it hopes of a speedy recovery, has vanished.”
“The entire growth in jobs over the last nine years has now been wiped out – the economy currently has fewer jobs than it had in May 2000,” says Economic Policy Institute economist Heidi Shierholz. “The labor force, however, has grown by 12.5 million workers since then. “This is the only recession since the Great Depression to wipe out all jobs growth from the previous business cycle, a devastating benchmark for the workers of this country and a testament to both the enormity of the current crisis and to the extreme weakness of jobs growth from 2000-2007.”
As economist Dean Baker notes in his Jobs Byte column, the percentage of the unemployed who have been out of work for more than 26 weeks increased by 2 percentage points to 29.0 percent in June and “Many of these workers will soon be exhausting even their extended unemployment benefits.”
When drawing up the economic stimulus plan, the Obama Administration relied on a projection of an 8 percent jobless rate this year. It became clear a couple of months ago that figure would miss the mark. It now stands at 9.4 percent and the consensus is that it will reach 10 percent by Christmas. Pimco CEO and chief investment officer, Mohamed El-Erian, now suggests that it may go as high as 10.5-11 percent sometime next year. “Economists are currently spreading the word that the recession may end sometime this year, but the unemployment rate will continue to climb,” Bob Herbert wrote in the New York Times last week “That’s not a recovery. That’s mumbo jumbo.”
“There are now more than five unemployed workers for every job opening in the United States,” wrote Herbert. “The ranks of the poor are growing, welfare rolls are rising and young American men on a broad front are falling into an abyss of joblessness.
The “broad front” to which Herbert refers may relate to what I consider some of the worst mumbo jumbo floating around out there: the idea that education guarantees a good job or any job at all. One of the striking aspects of the job stats so far this year is the number of out-of-work college graduates. It keeps on growing. The percentage of unemployed people with some college or an Associate degree was 4.4 percent last June, 7.7 this May and now stands at 8.0 percent. For those under 27 years old with a Bachelors degree or better, it’s 5.9 percent. “Everyone is worse off in the current downturn, and young college grads are no exception,” writes Kathryn Edwards of the Economic Policy Institute. adding, “Although still better off than their peers without a higher education, young college graduates face challenges unique to their age and situation – it is likely that they have considerable debt from financing school, have had no time to build up savings, and, if looking for their first job, are not eligible for unemployment benefits.”
“The tough economy and tight labor market have tarnished the luster of a bachelor’s degree for young college graduates seeking employment, wrote Tony Pugh for the McClatchy newspapers. “New monthly survey data from the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston finds that during the first four months of 2009, less than half of the nation’s 4 million college graduates age 25 and under were working in jobs that required a college degree. That’s down from 54 percent for the same period last year.”
“The problem is most acute in the 25-and-under age group among Asian female graduates and black and Hispanic male graduates,” wrote Pugh. “The survey, of 60,000 households, found less than 30 percent of Asian female grads, 32 percent of Hispanic male grads and just over 35 percent of young black male grads working in jobs that require a bachelor’s degree.”
Of course, a young graduate working at a low-paying job means one less job opening for a kid with no degree.
The figures for unemployment among college graduates are, of course, relatively low percentages; the greatest burden of joblessness is falling on those without a high school diploma (15.5 percent) and high school graduates (9.8 percent) – especially young African Americans (37.9 percent – seasonally adjusted) and Latinos (31 percent in May). The figure for 20-24 year old Latinos was 16.5 percent in May.
“Why this rampant joblessness is not viewed as a crisis and approached with the sense of urgency and commitment that a crisis warrants, is beyond me,’ wrote Herbert, one of the very few mainstream commentators to consistently deal with this crisis in minority communities. “The Obama administration has committed a great deal of money to keep the economy from collapsing entirely, but that is not enough to cope with the scope of the jobless crisis.”
In a clear and hard hitting piece July 2, Nobel Prize winning economist and New York Times Columnist, Paul Krugman, laid out the challenge the worsening jobs picture places before the Obama Administration and the nation. He wrote that “as in the 1930s, the opponents of action are peddling scare stories about inflation even as deflation looms” and “So getting another round of stimulus will be difficult. But it’s essential.”
“Obama administration economists understand the stakes,” wrote Krugman. “Indeed, just a few weeks ago, Christina Romer, the chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers, published an article on the “lessons of 1937” – the year that F.D.R. gave in to the deficit and inflation hawks, with disastrous consequences both for the economy and for his political agenda.
“What I don’t know is whether the administration has faced up to the inadequacy of what it has done so far.”
“So here’s my message to the president: You need to get both your economic team and your political people working on additional stimulus, now. Because if you don’t, you’ll soon be facing your own personal 1937.”
As he prepared to depart on a foreign trip last week, the President issued a Fourth of July Message to the country that contained the words: “as long as some Americans still must struggle, none of us can be fully content.” So true. As the Times put it in an editorial a few days earlier: “The jobs report for June should put a chill on hopes for an economic recovery anytime soon.” And it makes a compelling case for more government stimulus, as unpopular as that idea may be in Washington. Americans all over the country are struggling.”
Petty and punitive taxes falling on working people is not the answer. Nor is robbing Peter to pay Paul. What’s needed to get us out of this mess is a unified message to the people who run our cities, states and those in Washington charged with protecting the general welfare, that we need a new deal.
--BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member Carl Bloice is a writer in San Francisco, a member of the National Coordinating Committee of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism and formerly worked for a healthcare union. Carl Bloice used to be a member of the Communist Party USA until he decided to throw in his lot with the anti-communist revisionists like Erwin Marquit when the working class struggle got too difficult for him. Now he engages solely in electronic journalism which is a lot easier than passing out printed newspapers at plant gates.
He does a good job evading his support for Obama in writing this and there is no need for us to tell the public any differently.
Carl Bloice used to be the assistant editor of the Daily World a newspaper we try not to talk about anymore because of its association with everything 20th Century Socialism which is all bad stuff that happened we don't want to be associated with.
Carl Bloice is a communist just like me. I want all of you to listen to what he has to say.
Maybe we can get him back into the Party just like we did his friend Danny Rubin so we can finish the liquidating job that is taking us longer than we thought it would.
In my opinion, we shouldn't press Obama hard for a New Deal in his first term because we want him to have a chance for a second term. His opposition is coming up as he seeks his second term will be very formidable especially if Sarah Palin gets Prozac treatments successfully.
Sam Webb
National Chair, CPUSA
Message to Obama: We Need a New Deal
By Carl Bloice
Original source: BlackCommentator.com
Now they are out to nickel and dime us to death. Here in my home town the traffic and parking department has been prevailed upon to “step up” its enforcement activity – and maneuvering to have parking meters work far into the night – in order help cover some of the city’s budget deficit. In Massachusetts, legislators have slapped a tax on candy. The California state legislature recently endorsed a $1.50 tax on a bottle of alcohol and added an additional $15 to the vehicle license fee.
The astonishing thing is that such measures, being undertaken across the country, are being approved and even plotted by some liberals and progressives. It’s high time we all recognize that the people who get hit by traffic fines are the ones without garages and “sin taxes,” by and large, target working people. They are not the ones who got the economy into the current mess but if some people have their way, they will pay through the nose for it. This, at a time when unemployment is soaring, working hours are being cut and paychecks are shrinking.
Nor is there anything good to be said for pitting the budgets for police and fire services against health and welfare services. That’s not the way to nurture the progressive political majority needed to really address the current crisis. Yet, in the absence of measures to bring in new sources of revenue to run our cities and states, well-meaning people are maneuvered into challenging each other for pieces of the shrinking pie.
All across the nation, schools are being shuttered, senior meal programs decimated, community health centers eliminated and legal aid for the poor hammered. We are being told there is no other way and that we should stoically accept this austerity and count what blessings we have left. The problem is that if the sacrifices being forced upon our families and communities are really necessary, then they are not being doled out with anything approaching equity. They’re still living it up big time in some parts of town.
“The mood among financiers is suddenly more cheery,” wrote John Plender in the Financial Times the other day. In London and New York “trading profits are up and bonuses are back” And, rather than being reduced to something more reasonable, executive compensation packages are on the way up. “There is also a growing suspicion on both sides of the Atlantic that bankers, a lethal breed whose activities have pretty much throttled the global economy while causing government deficits to balloon, are going back to business as usual – a frightening prospect for taxpayers everywhere,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, the country’s employment crisis continues to worsen. When wandering in the desert, beware shimmering water on the horizon,” read the Financial Times’ Lex Column, July 2. “If May’s better than expected jobs report offered the dehydrated US labor market hope of succor, June’s miserable effort was a mouthful of sand.” The June jobs data from the Labor Department contained “few signs of life at all,’ it said adding, “Slowing growth in weekly earnings, now at 2.7 per cent year on year, is another serving of angst. And falling hours plus sluggish wages mean a further drag on US consumption – already constrained by debt-laden household balance sheets and tight credit. The mirage, and with it hopes of a speedy recovery, has vanished.”
“The entire growth in jobs over the last nine years has now been wiped out – the economy currently has fewer jobs than it had in May 2000,” says Economic Policy Institute economist Heidi Shierholz. “The labor force, however, has grown by 12.5 million workers since then. “This is the only recession since the Great Depression to wipe out all jobs growth from the previous business cycle, a devastating benchmark for the workers of this country and a testament to both the enormity of the current crisis and to the extreme weakness of jobs growth from 2000-2007.”
As economist Dean Baker notes in his Jobs Byte column, the percentage of the unemployed who have been out of work for more than 26 weeks increased by 2 percentage points to 29.0 percent in June and “Many of these workers will soon be exhausting even their extended unemployment benefits.”
When drawing up the economic stimulus plan, the Obama Administration relied on a projection of an 8 percent jobless rate this year. It became clear a couple of months ago that figure would miss the mark. It now stands at 9.4 percent and the consensus is that it will reach 10 percent by Christmas. Pimco CEO and chief investment officer, Mohamed El-Erian, now suggests that it may go as high as 10.5-11 percent sometime next year. “Economists are currently spreading the word that the recession may end sometime this year, but the unemployment rate will continue to climb,” Bob Herbert wrote in the New York Times last week “That’s not a recovery. That’s mumbo jumbo.”
“There are now more than five unemployed workers for every job opening in the United States,” wrote Herbert. “The ranks of the poor are growing, welfare rolls are rising and young American men on a broad front are falling into an abyss of joblessness.
The “broad front” to which Herbert refers may relate to what I consider some of the worst mumbo jumbo floating around out there: the idea that education guarantees a good job or any job at all. One of the striking aspects of the job stats so far this year is the number of out-of-work college graduates. It keeps on growing. The percentage of unemployed people with some college or an Associate degree was 4.4 percent last June, 7.7 this May and now stands at 8.0 percent. For those under 27 years old with a Bachelors degree or better, it’s 5.9 percent. “Everyone is worse off in the current downturn, and young college grads are no exception,” writes Kathryn Edwards of the Economic Policy Institute. adding, “Although still better off than their peers without a higher education, young college graduates face challenges unique to their age and situation – it is likely that they have considerable debt from financing school, have had no time to build up savings, and, if looking for their first job, are not eligible for unemployment benefits.”
“The tough economy and tight labor market have tarnished the luster of a bachelor’s degree for young college graduates seeking employment, wrote Tony Pugh for the McClatchy newspapers. “New monthly survey data from the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston finds that during the first four months of 2009, less than half of the nation’s 4 million college graduates age 25 and under were working in jobs that required a college degree. That’s down from 54 percent for the same period last year.”
“The problem is most acute in the 25-and-under age group among Asian female graduates and black and Hispanic male graduates,” wrote Pugh. “The survey, of 60,000 households, found less than 30 percent of Asian female grads, 32 percent of Hispanic male grads and just over 35 percent of young black male grads working in jobs that require a bachelor’s degree.”
Of course, a young graduate working at a low-paying job means one less job opening for a kid with no degree.
The figures for unemployment among college graduates are, of course, relatively low percentages; the greatest burden of joblessness is falling on those without a high school diploma (15.5 percent) and high school graduates (9.8 percent) – especially young African Americans (37.9 percent – seasonally adjusted) and Latinos (31 percent in May). The figure for 20-24 year old Latinos was 16.5 percent in May.
“Why this rampant joblessness is not viewed as a crisis and approached with the sense of urgency and commitment that a crisis warrants, is beyond me,’ wrote Herbert, one of the very few mainstream commentators to consistently deal with this crisis in minority communities. “The Obama administration has committed a great deal of money to keep the economy from collapsing entirely, but that is not enough to cope with the scope of the jobless crisis.”
In a clear and hard hitting piece July 2, Nobel Prize winning economist and New York Times Columnist, Paul Krugman, laid out the challenge the worsening jobs picture places before the Obama Administration and the nation. He wrote that “as in the 1930s, the opponents of action are peddling scare stories about inflation even as deflation looms” and “So getting another round of stimulus will be difficult. But it’s essential.”
“Obama administration economists understand the stakes,” wrote Krugman. “Indeed, just a few weeks ago, Christina Romer, the chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers, published an article on the “lessons of 1937” – the year that F.D.R. gave in to the deficit and inflation hawks, with disastrous consequences both for the economy and for his political agenda.
“What I don’t know is whether the administration has faced up to the inadequacy of what it has done so far.”
“So here’s my message to the president: You need to get both your economic team and your political people working on additional stimulus, now. Because if you don’t, you’ll soon be facing your own personal 1937.”
As he prepared to depart on a foreign trip last week, the President issued a Fourth of July Message to the country that contained the words: “as long as some Americans still must struggle, none of us can be fully content.” So true. As the Times put it in an editorial a few days earlier: “The jobs report for June should put a chill on hopes for an economic recovery anytime soon.” And it makes a compelling case for more government stimulus, as unpopular as that idea may be in Washington. Americans all over the country are struggling.”
Petty and punitive taxes falling on working people is not the answer. Nor is robbing Peter to pay Paul. What’s needed to get us out of this mess is a unified message to the people who run our cities, states and those in Washington charged with protecting the general welfare, that we need a new deal.
--BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member Carl Bloice is a writer in San Francisco, a member of the National Coordinating Committee of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism and formerly worked for a healthcare union. Carl Bloice used to be a member of the Communist Party USA until he decided to throw in his lot with the anti-communist revisionists like Erwin Marquit when the working class struggle got too difficult for him. Now he engages solely in electronic journalism which is a lot easier than passing out printed newspapers at plant gates.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Report to the June 2009 National Committee Meeting
This is my report to the CPUSA National Committee Meeting in June.
You will note we are not sharing certain discussion papers with the general public. These are the proposals to reconfigure our work.
I am not going into specifics about membership figures or how many clubs we have at present. I will not go into any specifics about what any clubs are doing. Getting specific enables others who are not our friends to insist on accountability. We don't want to get bogged down over accountability. This way we claim credit for any progress while we deny any ownership if things go awry. This is the smart way to operate.
Sam Webb
National Chair, CPUSA
I make no attempt to be comprehensive in these remarks. My aim is much more modest, as you will see.
Let me begin with a simple observation: If the last 30 years were an era of reaction, then the coming decade could turn into an era of reform, even radical reform. Six months into the Obama presidency, I would say without hesitation that the landscape, atmosphere, conversation, and agenda have strikingly changed compared to the previous eight years.
In this legislative session, we can envision winning a Medicare-like public option and then going further in the years ahead.
We can visualize passing tough regulatory reforms on the financial industry, which brought the economy to ruin.
We can imagine the troops coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan while U.S. representatives participate in a regional process that brings peace and stability to the entire region.
In the current political climate, the expansion of union rights becomes a real possibility.
Much the same can be said about winning a second stimulus bill, and we sure need one, given the still-rising rate, and likely long term persistence, of unemployment.
Isn’t it possible in the Obama era to create millions of green jobs in manufacturing and other sectors of the economy in tandem with an attack on global warming?
Can’t we envision taking new strides in the long journey for racial and gender equality in this new era, marked at its beginning by the election of the first African American to the presidency?
And isn’t the overhaul of the criminal justice and prison system – a system steeped in racism – no longer pie-in-the sky, but something that can be done in the foreseeable future?
All these things are within reach now!
I make this observation because in the ebb and flow of the first six months of the Obama presidency, it is easy to lose sight of the overall dynamics and promise of this new era.
Obama’s role
The new conditions of struggle are possible only – and I want to emphasize only – because we elected President Obama and a Congress with pronounced progressive and center currents.
So far Obama’s presidency has both broken from the right-wing extremist policies of the Bush administration and taken steps domestically and internationally that go in a progressive direction.
At the same time, the administration hasn’t gone as far as we would have liked on a number of issues. On economic matters as well as matters of war and occupation we, along with others, advocated bolder actions.
All and all, however, the new President in deeds and words – and words do matter – has created new democratic space for peace, equality, and economic justice struggles. Whether this continues and takes on a consistently progressive, pro-people, radical reform direction depends in large measure on whether the movement that elected him fills and expands this space.
The struggle going forward, much like the New Deal, will be the outcome of a contested and fluid process involving broad class and social constituencies, taking multiple forms, and working out over time.
It will pivot on the expansion of social and economic rights, the reconfiguring of the functions of government to the advantage of working people, and the embedding of a new economic architecture and developmental path into the nation’s political economy.
No less importantly, it will also entail the recasting of the role of the U.S. in the global community along egalitarian and non-imperial lines.
“What’s all this talk about reform?” you may be asking. “Aren’t we radicals? Isn’t socialism our objective?”
Yes, socialism is our objective and, according to recent public opinion polls, it is increasingly attractive to the American people. But clearly it is not on the immediate political agenda. Neither the current balance of forces nor the thinking of millions of Americans – the starting point in any serious discussion of strategy and tactics – has reached that point.
That socialism isn’t on the people’s action agenda, however, doesn’t mean that we should zip our lips. Quite the contrary! We should talk it up and bring our modern, deeply democratic Twenty-First-Century vision of U.S. socialism into coalitions and mass movements. And with the use of the Internet we can reach an exponentially bigger audience than we could in the past.
As for our radicalism, we should be as radical as reality itself. And reality strongly suggests that our main task is to bring the weight of the working class and other democratic forces to bear on the reform process with the aim of deepening its anti-corporate content and direction.
Current phase of struggle
How do we understand the current phase of struggle? On the one hand, our strategic policy of defeating right wing extremism doesn’t quite fit the new correlation of class forces. On the other hand, neither have we arrived at the anti-monopoly stage of struggle – a stage in which corporate class power is confronted on every level of struggle.
In short, we are in transitional phase that contains elements of both.
In the course of this struggle, political conditions – consciousness, organization, unity, and alliances, including temporary and conditional alliances – will hopefully mature to the point where corporate power emerges as the main hindrance to radical democracy and socialism in the minds of tens of millions.
We can conjure up pure forms of struggle and direct and unencumbered paths to socialism in our impatient minds, but they don’t exist in real life. The struggle for a socialist future is complex, contradictory, roundabout, and goes through different phases/stages of struggle.
Propaganda and agitation by themselves won’t bring people to the threshold of socialism. They need their own experience in struggle for their essential (what is essential is variable and expands over time) needs.
The question
People aren’t sitting on their hands. Anger is out there, hardship is widespread, and the fight back is taking shape.
And yet, it is fair to ask: does the level of mobilization of the diverse coalition that elected President Obama match what is necessary to win his administration’s immediate legislative and political agenda – let alone far-reaching reforms, such as military conversion to peacetime and green production, a shorter work week, a “war” on poverty and inequality, democratic ownership of critical economic sectors, and a retreat from empire?
I think the answer is no – not yet. A favorable alignment of forces exists and mass sentiments favor change. But political majorities and popular sentiments are consequential only to the degree that they are an active and organized element in the political process.
And herein lays the role of the Left. Its main task, as it has been throughout our country’s history, is to persistently and patiently assist in reassembling, activating, uniting, educating, and giving a voice to common demands that unite this broad majority.
The Left's political analysis, its solutions to today's pressing crises, and its vision of radical democracy and socialism, rooted in national realities, will receive a fair and favorable hearing from millions of Americans to the degree that Left activists are active participants in the main labor and people’s organizations struggling for vital reforms today — jobs, health care, retirement security, quality public education, equality and fairness, immigration reform, a foreign policy of peace and cooperation, and a livable environment and sustainable economy.
Those who narrow down the role of the Left to simply being a critic of every move of the Obama administration or insist on Left demands as the only ground for broad unity cut down the Left’s capacity to be a growing part of a much larger coalition that could remake America.
Some on the Left dismiss the new President as simply another centrist or a right social democrat, or an unabashed spokesperson of Wall Street. Still others call him the new face of imperialism.
I find it unwise for many reasons to put President Obama into a tightly sealed political category. We should see the President and his administration as a work in progress in an exceptionally fluid situation.
Let’s remember that he is the leader of a diverse multi-class coalition and a party with different currents. Let’s not forget about the balance of forces in Congress that has to enter his – and hopefully our – political calculus.
Let’s not turn any one issue into a litmus test determining our attitude toward the administration and Congress. Let’s be aware that he has to keep a coalition together for his long-term as well as immediate legislative agenda. Let’s give President Obama some space to change and to respond to pressures from below.
Finally, we should resist pressures from some sections of the Left, and a few in our Party, to define the current struggle as one that arrays the people against President Obama. That’s not Marxism; it’s plain stupid.
The American people and their main mass organizations have good reason to be angry and frustrated, but few embrace an approach that turns the Obama administration into the main roadblock to social progress.
That we have spurned such an approach too is to our credit. (Read the outstanding speech of AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka to the national convention of CBTU, in which he speaks of labor’s positive view of the new administration and the new openings for class and democratic struggles that now exist.)
We can help re-bend the arc of history in the direction of justice, equality, and peace. But only if we, and millions like us, pursue a sound strategy that unifies broad sections of the American people and looks for alliances no matter how temporary and conditional. Majorities make history, not militant minorities.
President Obama and progressive Congresspeople can’t be the only change agents and will be change agents only up to a point.
Our responsibility is to support them, prod them, and constructively take issue with them when we have differing views.
But more importantly – and this is the heart of the matter – we have to reach, activate, unite, educate, and turn millions of Americans into “change agents” who can make the political difference in upcoming struggles.
Our parents and grandparents were such bottom-up change agents in the Depression years. Unhappy with the pace and substance of change, they sat down in plants and in the fields, marched for veteran benefits, petitioned local relief agencies, lobbied for a social safety net, established unemployed groups, organized industrial workers into the CIO, opposed discrimination and racism, turned multi-racial unity into an organizing principle, and, we should note, re-elected Roosevelt and a New Deal Congress in a landslide in the 1936 elections.
The American people today would do well to follow their example.
Likewise, communists of our generation should draw from the example of our Depression-era comrades. Because they were guided by a sound strategy that accented struggles for economic and social reforms and because they employed flexible tactics, and because they didn’t conflate their mood with the mass mood, they were a vital part of this process too.
Struggle for health care reform
The mobilization that the labor movement and others carried out tirelessly last year in the elections is exactly what is needed now. How else can health care for all, the Employee Free Choice Act, economic relief, comprehensive immigration reform, a transfer of funds from military spending to massive green job creation, and a tax policy that weighs heavily the wealthiest families and corporations be won?
The Right Wing, the American Medical Association, the pharmaceutical and insurance companies have drawn a line in the sand on health care. They hope to defeat any legislation in the near term and in doing so to fatally weaken the administration’s legislative program in the longer term, much like they did in the Clinton years.
The core of this struggle, whether we like it or not, turns on the inclusion of a public option in a health care bill. President Obama reaffirmed his support for such an option and the Congressional Progressive Caucus recently expressed its full support for a public option that is government run, covers everyone, and goes into effect right away.
Meanwhile, Republicans, with help from some Democrats, are ganging up against any public option, while at the same time introducing measures to weaken health care reform and confuse the American people.
True to form, the right-wing media is the megaphone of this effort.
Mass mobilization is needed
Over the summer this fight will be waged like an election campaign by the labor movement and progressive forces. Across the country activists will be asked to knock on doors and make phone calls to build a massive groundswell for health care reform.
This campaign provides a great opening to strengthen our clubs and build the broader movement. Some of our clubs are in the thick of the fight; some are looking for ways to become engaged.
Each district and club should discuss how to carry this fight forward in a way that results in new friends, new readers of the People’s World, and new members of the Party and Young Communist League. A few ideas:
• speak to neighbors and friends about their health care stories and suggest what they can do.
• share coverage of the Peoples World in either its print or electronic form and ask if they would like the paper every week in one or another form.
• prepare a special agenda for your club meeting with invited guests.
• help build participation in rallies and events of unions and other organizations.
• organize speak-outs and town hall meetings with others.
• collect signatures on petitions, make phone calls, employ the internet, and organize visits to your elected officials.
While we support HR 676 as the most advanced demand in the current debate, it should not be counterpoised to a Medicare-like public option. In the single payer movement and the campaign for a public option, our role isn’t to sharpen differences, but rather to build maximum unity against the health care industrial complex and its supporters (Democratic as well as Republican) in Congress and for meaningful health care reform.
Economic crisis over
Another observation that I want to make is to beware of talk of better economic times around the corner. We may be over the worst of it; we may have avoided a 1930s-type depression; but it’s quite another thing to suggest that we are on the road to recovery.
Yes, there have been some indicators that show improvement in the economy; but we shouldn’t read too much into them (as the business press does).
After all, there are more signs that suggest that we haven’t reached bottom yet, that the recovery is still not in sight; and that more government intervention is necessary.
Unemployment hasn’t peaked, even though the official rate is nearly ten per cent. Poverty is growing, and among the long-term poor, the crisis is dire. Manufacturing is hemorrhaging jobs – none more so than the auto industry. Banks, as quiet as it is kept, hold mountains of toxic assets. Debt is nearly off the charts. Credit markets are far from fluid. Business investment is off. And housing prices fall and foreclosures rise.
On a global level, signs of renewed economic activity are few. Maybe the best we can say is that the decline of the economy is slowing down, thanks to massive government intervention, but hasn’t bottomed out.
If this is so then three questions follow: first, when will the economy hit bottom? Second, when will the economy begin a vigorous and sustained renewal? Third, is the economic crisis reconfiguring the geography of economic power on a global level?
On these questions there is no consensus.
Some say that the economy will bottom out soon to be followed by a recovery early next year. Other economists are more pessimistic. Citing the enormous piling up of debt over the past 20 years, overcrowded world commodity markets, technological displacement, capital flight, downward pressures on profitability, and so forth, they predict little economic bounce for some time to come.
Months ago it was said that the downturn could be “L-shaped” rather than “V-shaped.” In other words, the crisis begins with a steep decline in economic activity followed by long period of economic stagnation.
I suspect that this is what will happen, thus making sustained government and people’s intervention an imperative. In my view this should take at least three forms:
First, more economic stimulus: the economy is underperforming and nearly 30 million workers are unemployed or underemployed and that number hasn’t peaked yet.
Second, restructuring is imperative. The old economic model that rested on bubble economics, cheap labor, financial manipulation and speculation, deregulation, capital outsourcing, environmental degradation, and so forth, has to be replaced by a new model that expands and restructures the productive base and is “people and nature” friendly.
Finally, the economy has to be democratized. The wizards of Wall Street and inside the Beltway failed miserably, in fact, so miserably those economic decisions that affect the welfare of millions shouldn’t rest in their hands.
The resistance to such measures will be massive. It will take a labor-led coalition far bigger than what exists now to drive the process.
Furthermore, even in the event that such a coalition materializes and pushes through such measures, the organically embedded economic contradictions and crisis tendencies of capitalism will erupt in one form or another. There is no such thing as a crisis-free capitalist developmental model. Sooner or later, it exhausts its potential and gives way to sharp and ultimately irresolvable contradictions located at every level of the capitalist economy.
In the meantime, the struggle for immediate public sector jobs and relief should command our attention. We, along with the labor movement, the nationally and racially oppressed, women, youth and others, have to help the unemployed find their voice and forms to express their demands and organize their struggle.
In addition to articulating class wide demands, we have to argue for special measures that address the catastrophic situation in the African American, Latino, Asian American, American Indian, immigrant, and other minority communities. The lack of jobs is at the heart of this dire situation, but it also includes malnutrition and hunger, poor health care, shabby housing, high dropout rates, homelessness, racial profiling, police brutality, criminalization, and so on.
The job crisis requires special discussion and initiatives with our allies. They should be concrete and realistic.
As for the impact of the current crisis of capitalism on the geographical distribution of economic power on a global level, it is enormous and consequential. While the U.S. and European market economies report negative growth rates, the economies of the emerging giants – China, India, and Brazil – are expanding this year and this trend will continue at a faster rate next year. If this trend continues – and there is no reason to think that it won’t – the implications and consequences will be profound and long lasting.
An end to violence
Still another observation that I would like to make is this: against the background of the bloodiest century in human history and this decade of war, genocide, boycotts, and threats and counter threats, thanks in large measure to the Bush administration and our own imperialism, humanity is seeking a new world order in which peace and justice are its organizing principles.
The vast majority of people desire the easing of tensions, an end to violence, and the normalization of relations between states. They want dialogue and negotiation, not war and threats. And they hope that the U.S. government will choose a constructive role in world affairs.
President Obama has captured this sentiment well in several speeches before vast audiences. His emphasis on human solidarity, diplomacy, cooperation, and peaceful settlement of outstanding issues is striking an emotional chord worldwide. In nearly every region of the world, the President has expressed a readiness to engage with countries that during the Bush years were considered mortal enemies – Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, and others. In Latin America, he indicated that the administration would like to put relations between our government and others in the region on a different footing. In a historic speech in Prague, he voiced his desire to reduce and ultimately abolish nuclear weapons. Earlier this month, in an unprecedented address in Cairo he indicated his eagerness to reset relations with the Muslim world, sit down with the Iranian government, and press for a two state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
And only this week, he has been circumspect with regard to the massive social explosion in Iran over the rigged election and right-wing theocratic rule. He has quietly made his allegiances clear, but not in a way that would play in to the hands of the ruling reactionary regime.
While the administration has yet to fully match its words with practical deeds, what it has said and done so far constitutes a qualitative turn compared to the previous administration.
Nevertheless, more needs doing before we are on a distinctly new course.
In Afghanistan and North Korea, a negotiated solution to both conflicts that includes increased economic and humanitarian aid is urgently needed. Military occupation and troop buildup in Afghanistan and the imposition of sanctions against North Korea are extremely dangerous and will postpone any resolution of those crises.
To go further, if one or the other (or both) metastasizes into a bigger conflict, it could be the undoing of this administration. Don’t get me wrong: terrorist activities and nuclear proliferation are both enormous dangers, but the solutions to these have to be sought along other lines and involve regional and international players.
In Iraq, the U.S. withdrawal plan is proceeding, with the first stage being withdrawal from Iraqi cities by July. President Obama has reiterated his intention to stick with the pullout deadlines. Even with the caveats about what U.S. forces might remain, this is a major victory for the peace movement. The struggle over what forces remain will depend in large part on the Iraqi people's democratic and progressive forces, as well as our own peace movement.
In the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Netanyahu, in an about-face, said he could live with a two-state solution. And even with all the caveats and demagogy surrounding the “concession,” I believe that it signifies recognition, albeit forced, on Likud’s part that public opinion is shifting against them in Israel, Europe, and the U.S.
In this country the peace movement has to note particularly the changing dynamics in U.S. opinion, including in the White House and Congress, including Jewish members of Congress. Netanyahu got a different reaction than he expected when he met with Congressional leaders when he was in Washington recently. While he wanted to focus on Iran, they pressed him on the settlements. And, that pressure will only grow if the new Israeli government continues in its actions to pursue its present policy.
As far as Cuba is concerned, we are at a crucial moment in U.S.-Cuba relations. The Obama administration has indicated its readiness to reset relations with Cuba and has taken some very modest steps in words and deeds in that direction. But obviously much more needs to be done to end all travel restrictions, lift the blockade, resume trade, and free the Cuban 5, who languish in maximum security prisons. That said, the good news is that diverse groups have an interest in normalizing the relations between our two countries, including in the Congress.
Finally, we are in a moment when our ability to change our foreign policy will bear directly on our capacity to address economic and social problems at home. Currently, 53 percent of the discretionary spending of the federal budget goes to the military.
Thus, ending wars, closing military bases, and cutting military spending coupled with diplomacy, cooperation, and respect for international law and national sovereignty is good economic as well as good foreign policy.
But there is a hitch. Both Republicans and Democrats are upset at the minimal steps the administration is proposing to cut specific “unnecessary” or useless weapons systems.
So we have a struggle on our hands. And it will be fought out in “the court of public opinion,” at the ballot box, and in the economic trenches.
So far the peace movement has an array of plans to challenge the military appropriations process, including town hall Congressional meetings on foreign policy during the August recess. We should participate and support them.
Bottom line: the country and the Obama administration need a more vocal peace movement in order to reconfigure our role in world affairs and address the economic crisis.
Mentality of marginalization
Another observation that I want to make is that because of McCarthyism, the Cold War, and the long economic expansion following WW II, the Left has been on the edges of politics for more than a half century. During this time, our ability to impact on broader political processes in the country has been narrowly circumscribed – nothing like the 1930s, nothing like the Left in many other countries.
While we stubbornly fought the good fight and made undeniable contributions over the past half-century, we were not a major player; we didn’t set the agenda or frame the debate; we didn’t determine the political direction of the country; we were not a decider.
But this could change. Because of the new political, economic and ideological landscape, the Left has an opportunity to step from the political periphery into the mainstream of U.S. politics. It has a chance to become a player of consequence; a player whose voice is seriously considered in the debates bearing on the future of the country; a player that is able to mobilize and influence the thinking and actions of millions.
Whether we do depends on many factors, one of which is our ability to shake off a “mentality of marginalization” that has become embedded in the Left’s political culture over the last half of the Twentieth Century.
How does this mentality express itself? In a number of ways – in spending too much time agitating the choir; in dismissing new political openings that if taken advantage of could create the conditions for mass struggle; in thinking that partial reforms are at loggerheads with radical reforms; in seeing the glass as always half empty; in conflating our outlook with the outlook of millions; in turning the danger of cooptation into a rationale to keep a distance from reform struggles; in enclosing ourselves in narrow Left forms; and in damning victories with faint praise.
In this peculiar mindset, politics has few complexities. Change is driven only from the ground up. Winning broad majorities is not essential. There are no stages of struggle, no social forces that possess strategic social power, and no divisions worth noting. Finally, alliances with unstable allies and distinctions between the Democratic and Republican parties are either of little consequence or disdainfully dismissed.
Unless the Left – and I include communists – sheds this mentality, it will miss a unique opportunity to grow and leave a distinct imprint on our country’s direction.
A final observation before closing is that I wholeheartedly welcome the proposals to reconfigure our work that you received and that we are going to discuss later today.
I don’t have any of the reservations about this that some have. The upside of this new means of communication, education, organization, and fund raising is that it is nearly limitless.
I think it is going to make a huge difference in our ability to reach, influence, and interact with a mass audience – something that we haven’t ever been able to do in a systematic way so far.
Every aspect of our work will experience new potentials, including grassroots organizing and club building.
I hope we enthusiastically adopt these proposals. Assuming for the moment that we do, it is fair to say that we will have our work cut out for us. But as is often said, we have a world to win! Thank you.
You will note we are not sharing certain discussion papers with the general public. These are the proposals to reconfigure our work.
I am not going into specifics about membership figures or how many clubs we have at present. I will not go into any specifics about what any clubs are doing. Getting specific enables others who are not our friends to insist on accountability. We don't want to get bogged down over accountability. This way we claim credit for any progress while we deny any ownership if things go awry. This is the smart way to operate.
Sam Webb
National Chair, CPUSA
I make no attempt to be comprehensive in these remarks. My aim is much more modest, as you will see.
Let me begin with a simple observation: If the last 30 years were an era of reaction, then the coming decade could turn into an era of reform, even radical reform. Six months into the Obama presidency, I would say without hesitation that the landscape, atmosphere, conversation, and agenda have strikingly changed compared to the previous eight years.
In this legislative session, we can envision winning a Medicare-like public option and then going further in the years ahead.
We can visualize passing tough regulatory reforms on the financial industry, which brought the economy to ruin.
We can imagine the troops coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan while U.S. representatives participate in a regional process that brings peace and stability to the entire region.
In the current political climate, the expansion of union rights becomes a real possibility.
Much the same can be said about winning a second stimulus bill, and we sure need one, given the still-rising rate, and likely long term persistence, of unemployment.
Isn’t it possible in the Obama era to create millions of green jobs in manufacturing and other sectors of the economy in tandem with an attack on global warming?
Can’t we envision taking new strides in the long journey for racial and gender equality in this new era, marked at its beginning by the election of the first African American to the presidency?
And isn’t the overhaul of the criminal justice and prison system – a system steeped in racism – no longer pie-in-the sky, but something that can be done in the foreseeable future?
All these things are within reach now!
I make this observation because in the ebb and flow of the first six months of the Obama presidency, it is easy to lose sight of the overall dynamics and promise of this new era.
Obama’s role
The new conditions of struggle are possible only – and I want to emphasize only – because we elected President Obama and a Congress with pronounced progressive and center currents.
So far Obama’s presidency has both broken from the right-wing extremist policies of the Bush administration and taken steps domestically and internationally that go in a progressive direction.
At the same time, the administration hasn’t gone as far as we would have liked on a number of issues. On economic matters as well as matters of war and occupation we, along with others, advocated bolder actions.
All and all, however, the new President in deeds and words – and words do matter – has created new democratic space for peace, equality, and economic justice struggles. Whether this continues and takes on a consistently progressive, pro-people, radical reform direction depends in large measure on whether the movement that elected him fills and expands this space.
The struggle going forward, much like the New Deal, will be the outcome of a contested and fluid process involving broad class and social constituencies, taking multiple forms, and working out over time.
It will pivot on the expansion of social and economic rights, the reconfiguring of the functions of government to the advantage of working people, and the embedding of a new economic architecture and developmental path into the nation’s political economy.
No less importantly, it will also entail the recasting of the role of the U.S. in the global community along egalitarian and non-imperial lines.
“What’s all this talk about reform?” you may be asking. “Aren’t we radicals? Isn’t socialism our objective?”
Yes, socialism is our objective and, according to recent public opinion polls, it is increasingly attractive to the American people. But clearly it is not on the immediate political agenda. Neither the current balance of forces nor the thinking of millions of Americans – the starting point in any serious discussion of strategy and tactics – has reached that point.
That socialism isn’t on the people’s action agenda, however, doesn’t mean that we should zip our lips. Quite the contrary! We should talk it up and bring our modern, deeply democratic Twenty-First-Century vision of U.S. socialism into coalitions and mass movements. And with the use of the Internet we can reach an exponentially bigger audience than we could in the past.
As for our radicalism, we should be as radical as reality itself. And reality strongly suggests that our main task is to bring the weight of the working class and other democratic forces to bear on the reform process with the aim of deepening its anti-corporate content and direction.
Current phase of struggle
How do we understand the current phase of struggle? On the one hand, our strategic policy of defeating right wing extremism doesn’t quite fit the new correlation of class forces. On the other hand, neither have we arrived at the anti-monopoly stage of struggle – a stage in which corporate class power is confronted on every level of struggle.
In short, we are in transitional phase that contains elements of both.
In the course of this struggle, political conditions – consciousness, organization, unity, and alliances, including temporary and conditional alliances – will hopefully mature to the point where corporate power emerges as the main hindrance to radical democracy and socialism in the minds of tens of millions.
We can conjure up pure forms of struggle and direct and unencumbered paths to socialism in our impatient minds, but they don’t exist in real life. The struggle for a socialist future is complex, contradictory, roundabout, and goes through different phases/stages of struggle.
Propaganda and agitation by themselves won’t bring people to the threshold of socialism. They need their own experience in struggle for their essential (what is essential is variable and expands over time) needs.
The question
People aren’t sitting on their hands. Anger is out there, hardship is widespread, and the fight back is taking shape.
And yet, it is fair to ask: does the level of mobilization of the diverse coalition that elected President Obama match what is necessary to win his administration’s immediate legislative and political agenda – let alone far-reaching reforms, such as military conversion to peacetime and green production, a shorter work week, a “war” on poverty and inequality, democratic ownership of critical economic sectors, and a retreat from empire?
I think the answer is no – not yet. A favorable alignment of forces exists and mass sentiments favor change. But political majorities and popular sentiments are consequential only to the degree that they are an active and organized element in the political process.
And herein lays the role of the Left. Its main task, as it has been throughout our country’s history, is to persistently and patiently assist in reassembling, activating, uniting, educating, and giving a voice to common demands that unite this broad majority.
The Left's political analysis, its solutions to today's pressing crises, and its vision of radical democracy and socialism, rooted in national realities, will receive a fair and favorable hearing from millions of Americans to the degree that Left activists are active participants in the main labor and people’s organizations struggling for vital reforms today — jobs, health care, retirement security, quality public education, equality and fairness, immigration reform, a foreign policy of peace and cooperation, and a livable environment and sustainable economy.
Those who narrow down the role of the Left to simply being a critic of every move of the Obama administration or insist on Left demands as the only ground for broad unity cut down the Left’s capacity to be a growing part of a much larger coalition that could remake America.
Some on the Left dismiss the new President as simply another centrist or a right social democrat, or an unabashed spokesperson of Wall Street. Still others call him the new face of imperialism.
I find it unwise for many reasons to put President Obama into a tightly sealed political category. We should see the President and his administration as a work in progress in an exceptionally fluid situation.
Let’s remember that he is the leader of a diverse multi-class coalition and a party with different currents. Let’s not forget about the balance of forces in Congress that has to enter his – and hopefully our – political calculus.
Let’s not turn any one issue into a litmus test determining our attitude toward the administration and Congress. Let’s be aware that he has to keep a coalition together for his long-term as well as immediate legislative agenda. Let’s give President Obama some space to change and to respond to pressures from below.
Finally, we should resist pressures from some sections of the Left, and a few in our Party, to define the current struggle as one that arrays the people against President Obama. That’s not Marxism; it’s plain stupid.
The American people and their main mass organizations have good reason to be angry and frustrated, but few embrace an approach that turns the Obama administration into the main roadblock to social progress.
That we have spurned such an approach too is to our credit. (Read the outstanding speech of AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka to the national convention of CBTU, in which he speaks of labor’s positive view of the new administration and the new openings for class and democratic struggles that now exist.)
We can help re-bend the arc of history in the direction of justice, equality, and peace. But only if we, and millions like us, pursue a sound strategy that unifies broad sections of the American people and looks for alliances no matter how temporary and conditional. Majorities make history, not militant minorities.
President Obama and progressive Congresspeople can’t be the only change agents and will be change agents only up to a point.
Our responsibility is to support them, prod them, and constructively take issue with them when we have differing views.
But more importantly – and this is the heart of the matter – we have to reach, activate, unite, educate, and turn millions of Americans into “change agents” who can make the political difference in upcoming struggles.
Our parents and grandparents were such bottom-up change agents in the Depression years. Unhappy with the pace and substance of change, they sat down in plants and in the fields, marched for veteran benefits, petitioned local relief agencies, lobbied for a social safety net, established unemployed groups, organized industrial workers into the CIO, opposed discrimination and racism, turned multi-racial unity into an organizing principle, and, we should note, re-elected Roosevelt and a New Deal Congress in a landslide in the 1936 elections.
The American people today would do well to follow their example.
Likewise, communists of our generation should draw from the example of our Depression-era comrades. Because they were guided by a sound strategy that accented struggles for economic and social reforms and because they employed flexible tactics, and because they didn’t conflate their mood with the mass mood, they were a vital part of this process too.
Struggle for health care reform
The mobilization that the labor movement and others carried out tirelessly last year in the elections is exactly what is needed now. How else can health care for all, the Employee Free Choice Act, economic relief, comprehensive immigration reform, a transfer of funds from military spending to massive green job creation, and a tax policy that weighs heavily the wealthiest families and corporations be won?
The Right Wing, the American Medical Association, the pharmaceutical and insurance companies have drawn a line in the sand on health care. They hope to defeat any legislation in the near term and in doing so to fatally weaken the administration’s legislative program in the longer term, much like they did in the Clinton years.
The core of this struggle, whether we like it or not, turns on the inclusion of a public option in a health care bill. President Obama reaffirmed his support for such an option and the Congressional Progressive Caucus recently expressed its full support for a public option that is government run, covers everyone, and goes into effect right away.
Meanwhile, Republicans, with help from some Democrats, are ganging up against any public option, while at the same time introducing measures to weaken health care reform and confuse the American people.
True to form, the right-wing media is the megaphone of this effort.
Mass mobilization is needed
Over the summer this fight will be waged like an election campaign by the labor movement and progressive forces. Across the country activists will be asked to knock on doors and make phone calls to build a massive groundswell for health care reform.
This campaign provides a great opening to strengthen our clubs and build the broader movement. Some of our clubs are in the thick of the fight; some are looking for ways to become engaged.
Each district and club should discuss how to carry this fight forward in a way that results in new friends, new readers of the People’s World, and new members of the Party and Young Communist League. A few ideas:
• speak to neighbors and friends about their health care stories and suggest what they can do.
• share coverage of the Peoples World in either its print or electronic form and ask if they would like the paper every week in one or another form.
• prepare a special agenda for your club meeting with invited guests.
• help build participation in rallies and events of unions and other organizations.
• organize speak-outs and town hall meetings with others.
• collect signatures on petitions, make phone calls, employ the internet, and organize visits to your elected officials.
While we support HR 676 as the most advanced demand in the current debate, it should not be counterpoised to a Medicare-like public option. In the single payer movement and the campaign for a public option, our role isn’t to sharpen differences, but rather to build maximum unity against the health care industrial complex and its supporters (Democratic as well as Republican) in Congress and for meaningful health care reform.
Economic crisis over
Another observation that I want to make is to beware of talk of better economic times around the corner. We may be over the worst of it; we may have avoided a 1930s-type depression; but it’s quite another thing to suggest that we are on the road to recovery.
Yes, there have been some indicators that show improvement in the economy; but we shouldn’t read too much into them (as the business press does).
After all, there are more signs that suggest that we haven’t reached bottom yet, that the recovery is still not in sight; and that more government intervention is necessary.
Unemployment hasn’t peaked, even though the official rate is nearly ten per cent. Poverty is growing, and among the long-term poor, the crisis is dire. Manufacturing is hemorrhaging jobs – none more so than the auto industry. Banks, as quiet as it is kept, hold mountains of toxic assets. Debt is nearly off the charts. Credit markets are far from fluid. Business investment is off. And housing prices fall and foreclosures rise.
On a global level, signs of renewed economic activity are few. Maybe the best we can say is that the decline of the economy is slowing down, thanks to massive government intervention, but hasn’t bottomed out.
If this is so then three questions follow: first, when will the economy hit bottom? Second, when will the economy begin a vigorous and sustained renewal? Third, is the economic crisis reconfiguring the geography of economic power on a global level?
On these questions there is no consensus.
Some say that the economy will bottom out soon to be followed by a recovery early next year. Other economists are more pessimistic. Citing the enormous piling up of debt over the past 20 years, overcrowded world commodity markets, technological displacement, capital flight, downward pressures on profitability, and so forth, they predict little economic bounce for some time to come.
Months ago it was said that the downturn could be “L-shaped” rather than “V-shaped.” In other words, the crisis begins with a steep decline in economic activity followed by long period of economic stagnation.
I suspect that this is what will happen, thus making sustained government and people’s intervention an imperative. In my view this should take at least three forms:
First, more economic stimulus: the economy is underperforming and nearly 30 million workers are unemployed or underemployed and that number hasn’t peaked yet.
Second, restructuring is imperative. The old economic model that rested on bubble economics, cheap labor, financial manipulation and speculation, deregulation, capital outsourcing, environmental degradation, and so forth, has to be replaced by a new model that expands and restructures the productive base and is “people and nature” friendly.
Finally, the economy has to be democratized. The wizards of Wall Street and inside the Beltway failed miserably, in fact, so miserably those economic decisions that affect the welfare of millions shouldn’t rest in their hands.
The resistance to such measures will be massive. It will take a labor-led coalition far bigger than what exists now to drive the process.
Furthermore, even in the event that such a coalition materializes and pushes through such measures, the organically embedded economic contradictions and crisis tendencies of capitalism will erupt in one form or another. There is no such thing as a crisis-free capitalist developmental model. Sooner or later, it exhausts its potential and gives way to sharp and ultimately irresolvable contradictions located at every level of the capitalist economy.
In the meantime, the struggle for immediate public sector jobs and relief should command our attention. We, along with the labor movement, the nationally and racially oppressed, women, youth and others, have to help the unemployed find their voice and forms to express their demands and organize their struggle.
In addition to articulating class wide demands, we have to argue for special measures that address the catastrophic situation in the African American, Latino, Asian American, American Indian, immigrant, and other minority communities. The lack of jobs is at the heart of this dire situation, but it also includes malnutrition and hunger, poor health care, shabby housing, high dropout rates, homelessness, racial profiling, police brutality, criminalization, and so on.
The job crisis requires special discussion and initiatives with our allies. They should be concrete and realistic.
As for the impact of the current crisis of capitalism on the geographical distribution of economic power on a global level, it is enormous and consequential. While the U.S. and European market economies report negative growth rates, the economies of the emerging giants – China, India, and Brazil – are expanding this year and this trend will continue at a faster rate next year. If this trend continues – and there is no reason to think that it won’t – the implications and consequences will be profound and long lasting.
An end to violence
Still another observation that I would like to make is this: against the background of the bloodiest century in human history and this decade of war, genocide, boycotts, and threats and counter threats, thanks in large measure to the Bush administration and our own imperialism, humanity is seeking a new world order in which peace and justice are its organizing principles.
The vast majority of people desire the easing of tensions, an end to violence, and the normalization of relations between states. They want dialogue and negotiation, not war and threats. And they hope that the U.S. government will choose a constructive role in world affairs.
President Obama has captured this sentiment well in several speeches before vast audiences. His emphasis on human solidarity, diplomacy, cooperation, and peaceful settlement of outstanding issues is striking an emotional chord worldwide. In nearly every region of the world, the President has expressed a readiness to engage with countries that during the Bush years were considered mortal enemies – Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, and others. In Latin America, he indicated that the administration would like to put relations between our government and others in the region on a different footing. In a historic speech in Prague, he voiced his desire to reduce and ultimately abolish nuclear weapons. Earlier this month, in an unprecedented address in Cairo he indicated his eagerness to reset relations with the Muslim world, sit down with the Iranian government, and press for a two state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
And only this week, he has been circumspect with regard to the massive social explosion in Iran over the rigged election and right-wing theocratic rule. He has quietly made his allegiances clear, but not in a way that would play in to the hands of the ruling reactionary regime.
While the administration has yet to fully match its words with practical deeds, what it has said and done so far constitutes a qualitative turn compared to the previous administration.
Nevertheless, more needs doing before we are on a distinctly new course.
In Afghanistan and North Korea, a negotiated solution to both conflicts that includes increased economic and humanitarian aid is urgently needed. Military occupation and troop buildup in Afghanistan and the imposition of sanctions against North Korea are extremely dangerous and will postpone any resolution of those crises.
To go further, if one or the other (or both) metastasizes into a bigger conflict, it could be the undoing of this administration. Don’t get me wrong: terrorist activities and nuclear proliferation are both enormous dangers, but the solutions to these have to be sought along other lines and involve regional and international players.
In Iraq, the U.S. withdrawal plan is proceeding, with the first stage being withdrawal from Iraqi cities by July. President Obama has reiterated his intention to stick with the pullout deadlines. Even with the caveats about what U.S. forces might remain, this is a major victory for the peace movement. The struggle over what forces remain will depend in large part on the Iraqi people's democratic and progressive forces, as well as our own peace movement.
In the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Netanyahu, in an about-face, said he could live with a two-state solution. And even with all the caveats and demagogy surrounding the “concession,” I believe that it signifies recognition, albeit forced, on Likud’s part that public opinion is shifting against them in Israel, Europe, and the U.S.
In this country the peace movement has to note particularly the changing dynamics in U.S. opinion, including in the White House and Congress, including Jewish members of Congress. Netanyahu got a different reaction than he expected when he met with Congressional leaders when he was in Washington recently. While he wanted to focus on Iran, they pressed him on the settlements. And, that pressure will only grow if the new Israeli government continues in its actions to pursue its present policy.
As far as Cuba is concerned, we are at a crucial moment in U.S.-Cuba relations. The Obama administration has indicated its readiness to reset relations with Cuba and has taken some very modest steps in words and deeds in that direction. But obviously much more needs to be done to end all travel restrictions, lift the blockade, resume trade, and free the Cuban 5, who languish in maximum security prisons. That said, the good news is that diverse groups have an interest in normalizing the relations between our two countries, including in the Congress.
Finally, we are in a moment when our ability to change our foreign policy will bear directly on our capacity to address economic and social problems at home. Currently, 53 percent of the discretionary spending of the federal budget goes to the military.
Thus, ending wars, closing military bases, and cutting military spending coupled with diplomacy, cooperation, and respect for international law and national sovereignty is good economic as well as good foreign policy.
But there is a hitch. Both Republicans and Democrats are upset at the minimal steps the administration is proposing to cut specific “unnecessary” or useless weapons systems.
So we have a struggle on our hands. And it will be fought out in “the court of public opinion,” at the ballot box, and in the economic trenches.
So far the peace movement has an array of plans to challenge the military appropriations process, including town hall Congressional meetings on foreign policy during the August recess. We should participate and support them.
Bottom line: the country and the Obama administration need a more vocal peace movement in order to reconfigure our role in world affairs and address the economic crisis.
Mentality of marginalization
Another observation that I want to make is that because of McCarthyism, the Cold War, and the long economic expansion following WW II, the Left has been on the edges of politics for more than a half century. During this time, our ability to impact on broader political processes in the country has been narrowly circumscribed – nothing like the 1930s, nothing like the Left in many other countries.
While we stubbornly fought the good fight and made undeniable contributions over the past half-century, we were not a major player; we didn’t set the agenda or frame the debate; we didn’t determine the political direction of the country; we were not a decider.
But this could change. Because of the new political, economic and ideological landscape, the Left has an opportunity to step from the political periphery into the mainstream of U.S. politics. It has a chance to become a player of consequence; a player whose voice is seriously considered in the debates bearing on the future of the country; a player that is able to mobilize and influence the thinking and actions of millions.
Whether we do depends on many factors, one of which is our ability to shake off a “mentality of marginalization” that has become embedded in the Left’s political culture over the last half of the Twentieth Century.
How does this mentality express itself? In a number of ways – in spending too much time agitating the choir; in dismissing new political openings that if taken advantage of could create the conditions for mass struggle; in thinking that partial reforms are at loggerheads with radical reforms; in seeing the glass as always half empty; in conflating our outlook with the outlook of millions; in turning the danger of cooptation into a rationale to keep a distance from reform struggles; in enclosing ourselves in narrow Left forms; and in damning victories with faint praise.
In this peculiar mindset, politics has few complexities. Change is driven only from the ground up. Winning broad majorities is not essential. There are no stages of struggle, no social forces that possess strategic social power, and no divisions worth noting. Finally, alliances with unstable allies and distinctions between the Democratic and Republican parties are either of little consequence or disdainfully dismissed.
Unless the Left – and I include communists – sheds this mentality, it will miss a unique opportunity to grow and leave a distinct imprint on our country’s direction.
A final observation before closing is that I wholeheartedly welcome the proposals to reconfigure our work that you received and that we are going to discuss later today.
I don’t have any of the reservations about this that some have. The upside of this new means of communication, education, organization, and fund raising is that it is nearly limitless.
I think it is going to make a huge difference in our ability to reach, influence, and interact with a mass audience – something that we haven’t ever been able to do in a systematic way so far.
Every aspect of our work will experience new potentials, including grassroots organizing and club building.
I hope we enthusiastically adopt these proposals. Assuming for the moment that we do, it is fair to say that we will have our work cut out for us. But as is often said, we have a world to win! Thank you.
Important Announcement
We support and are participants in this event.
We want to make our position clear. There must be no attacks on Barack Obama or the policies of his administration from the left.
Sam Webb
National Chair, CPUSA
Subject: Carl Davidson on Left Strategy July 21
Join Carl Davidson, Eric Shih and Michelle Foy for a discussion of left strategy July 21...
Friends,
Longtime radical Carl Davidson has played a leading nationwide role in developing the Progressives for Obama project and serves as its webmaster. His articles "The Bumpy Road Ahead: New Tasks of the Left Following Obama's Victory" (URL below) and "What Next for Progressives for Obama" (co-authored with Bill Fletcher, Jr, URL below.), have been central to recent strategic debates on the left. Come hear Carl present his views about the current political moment and effective strategies for building strong progressive movements and a revitalized left.
Crisis in the Left:
MOVING FORWARD IN DIFFICULT TIMES
Tuesday, July 21, 7 pm
Centro Del Pueblo 474 Valencia St San Francisco
(between 15th and 16th/near 16th St. BART)
An extensive discussion period will be kicked off by two Bay Area activists who will comment on Carl's proposals and talk about their implications for the Bay Area left and progressive movements: ERIC SHIH of the School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL) and MICHELLE FOY of Freedom Road Socialist Organization.
We also want to let you know that the texts of several presentations at recent Ad Hoc Committee events are available: Gary Younge's April 30 presentation "Political Highs, Economic Lows: Managing U.S. Decline" and the presentations by Pam Tau Lee and Shaw San Liu on the June 3 "Labor in the Era of Obama" panel. Write adhocleft@earthlink .net and we'll send you copies of any or all of these.
Carl Davidson's "Bumpy Road" and "What's Next" articles can be found here:
http://progressives forobama. net/2008/ 11/19/the- bumpy-road- ahead/
http://progressives forobama. net/discussion- on-our-future/
This program is aimed at fostering dialogue and debate among leftists who see themselves as within the left-wing-of- the Obama motion. If there are people sharing this broad viewpoint who you believe would be interested in participating in this conversation, we encourage you to extend this invitation to them.
Thanks and we hope to see you July 21.
Ad-Hoc Committee: Carl Bloice, Linda Burnham, Max Elbaum, Michelle Foy, Juan Lopez, Calvin Miaw, Giuliana Milanese, Maria Poblet, Tim Thomas, Mei-ying Williams, Steve Williams
The event is free and no one will be turned away for lack of funds, but we will be accepting donations to cover the costs of the event.
--
============ ===
Keep On Keepin' On
'If we do not change direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed.'
- Chinese proverb
'If you don't have a strategy, you're part of someone else's strategy.'
- Alvin Toffler
Carl Davidson
To join our 'Progressives for Obama' Listserv, Send an email with 'Subscribe' in the title to:
mailto:progressivesforobam a-subscribe@ yahoogroups. com
Check out the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism
http://cc-ds. org
http://ccds- discussion. org
http://carldavidson .blogspot. com
http://ussen. org
http://solidarityec onomy.net
http://progressives forobama. net
http://beavercounty blue.org
We want to make our position clear. There must be no attacks on Barack Obama or the policies of his administration from the left.
Sam Webb
National Chair, CPUSA
Subject: Carl Davidson on Left Strategy July 21
Join Carl Davidson, Eric Shih and Michelle Foy for a discussion of left strategy July 21...
Friends,
Longtime radical Carl Davidson has played a leading nationwide role in developing the Progressives for Obama project and serves as its webmaster. His articles "The Bumpy Road Ahead: New Tasks of the Left Following Obama's Victory" (URL below) and "What Next for Progressives for Obama" (co-authored with Bill Fletcher, Jr, URL below.), have been central to recent strategic debates on the left. Come hear Carl present his views about the current political moment and effective strategies for building strong progressive movements and a revitalized left.
Crisis in the Left:
MOVING FORWARD IN DIFFICULT TIMES
Tuesday, July 21, 7 pm
Centro Del Pueblo 474 Valencia St San Francisco
(between 15th and 16th/near 16th St. BART)
An extensive discussion period will be kicked off by two Bay Area activists who will comment on Carl's proposals and talk about their implications for the Bay Area left and progressive movements: ERIC SHIH of the School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL) and MICHELLE FOY of Freedom Road Socialist Organization.
We also want to let you know that the texts of several presentations at recent Ad Hoc Committee events are available: Gary Younge's April 30 presentation "Political Highs, Economic Lows: Managing U.S. Decline" and the presentations by Pam Tau Lee and Shaw San Liu on the June 3 "Labor in the Era of Obama" panel. Write adhocleft@earthlink .net and we'll send you copies of any or all of these.
Carl Davidson's "Bumpy Road" and "What's Next" articles can be found here:
http://progressives forobama. net/2008/ 11/19/the- bumpy-road- ahead/
http://progressives forobama. net/discussion- on-our-future/
This program is aimed at fostering dialogue and debate among leftists who see themselves as within the left-wing-of- the Obama motion. If there are people sharing this broad viewpoint who you believe would be interested in participating in this conversation, we encourage you to extend this invitation to them.
Thanks and we hope to see you July 21.
Ad-Hoc Committee: Carl Bloice, Linda Burnham, Max Elbaum, Michelle Foy, Juan Lopez, Calvin Miaw, Giuliana Milanese, Maria Poblet, Tim Thomas, Mei-ying Williams, Steve Williams
The event is free and no one will be turned away for lack of funds, but we will be accepting donations to cover the costs of the event.
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Keep On Keepin' On
'If we do not change direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed.'
- Chinese proverb
'If you don't have a strategy, you're part of someone else's strategy.'
- Alvin Toffler
Carl Davidson
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Check out the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism
http://cc-ds. org
http://ccds- discussion. org
http://carldavidson .blogspot. com
http://ussen. org
http://solidarityec onomy.net
http://progressives forobama. net
http://beavercounty blue.org
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Flexible and Prepared- Opening Report to YCL Spring NC Meeting April 2009
This is a wonderful report by Erica Smiley, an anti-Stalinist transvestite Trotskyist with anarchist tendencies who leads the Young Communist League. Erica Smiley has made tremendous inroads for our Party including boldly reaching out our hand in friendship to work with the John Birch Society on civil liberties issues. We felt we needed a new image for our YCL in order to break with some past thinking reflected in the writings of Jarvis Tyner back in the 1970's while our Party was held in the throes of 20th Century Socialism. We are very happy Jarvis was able to get beyond his own personal bigotries utilizing long-term therapy and counseling which helped him to free his mind of dogma.We now have a downsized CPUSA and YCL but we have a great mixture of people and politics streamlined to get the job done for "term two" as we blaze the path where no Communist Party in the world has ever gone before. For us this is kind of like a real life "Twilight Zone" experience.
Erica Smiley is giving our Party and the YCL an entirely new image in line with what we want to project 21st Century Socialism to be.
Erica Smiley is a loyal Obama supporter.
I must say, it is nice to be working with a cute intellectual transvestite striving to protect and defend the interests of the middle class.
In so many ways Eric demonstrates great flexibility.
Eric Smiley is the Communist version of Sarah Palin.
Sam Webb
National Chair, CPUSA
Flexible and Prepared- Opening Report to YCL Spring NC Meeting April 2009
Though these opening reports tend to focus more on the current political climate, this one is going to focus much more on tactical and organizational questions regarding how we, as the YCL, should move forward.
We’ve provided copies of Sam Webb’s report to the National Committee of the Communist Party last month to give a more thorough political outlook so that we could spend more time here envisioning how we are going to concretely develop, adjust and above all build the organization in this next period. Sam is also in the room, as well as others from the Party leadership, and I assume they too will participate in our discussion.
Throughout my opening remarks, I outline specific questions I think we should consider today. There are a lot of questions but they are incredibly important, and it’d probably do us good to write them down as we go so we can cover as many as possible throughout the course of the day.
The topic I intend to cover this morning is how we, as young communists, should actually implement our political approach on the ground level. What exactly should we be doing in this political climate?
We are having this conversation in the calm preceding our next national convention. Both the YCL and the Party conventions are coming up in the next year or so, and we should begin discussing the political content of both pre-convention discussions.
This convention will look completely different than the last in both form and content. The political climate of the United States has been turned on its head (for the better), while the crisis in global capitalism continues to worsen. We will have to identify the best ways to strengthen the progressive youth movement in this new period, what type of Action Plan will be most useful in this time and how we will maximize mobilization of our membership given our limited resources.
What are we, as the YCL, pushing youth to do in this political moment? And what is our role as YCLers?
These are the questions we seek to answer throughout the course of this discussion.
POLITICAL SITUATION
We jumped off of the election victory right back into the middle of the global financial crisis. While we have a president that has openly supported workers against corporations and banks, we still have a financial system run amuck where working people foot the bill with our homes, our schools, and our jobs (or lack thereof).
Still, the parameters of what is necessary to turn the country around have been hugely expanded as so-called mainstream economists call for “at-least partial” nationalization of failing banks and companies like Ford and General Motors. Middle America grapples both publicly at town halls and privately at the dinner table about what a “just economy” would look like, all but defining a fetal path to socialism.
Legislation supporting gay rights is passing despite the defeat in California in states such as Iowa and Vermont. And I was just informed that the Presbyterian Church USA approved the ordination of gay ministers.
The air is ripe with change.
The Obama Administration’s current budget proposal includes student aid increases identified by the United States Student Association as one of the “firmest commitments” for students and working families. They point out that Obama’s proposal is better than the adjustments made in both houses of Congress in its increased funds for the Pell Grant and other programs like GEAR UP, TRIO and LEAP.
However, at the same time, the Ultra-Right has not completely bowed out of the fight—offering up simple solutions to address real woes of the working poor. Groups like the new “Tea Party” manipulate the fears of working class people to coerce us into not paying taxes (not that we need schools, roads or hospitals) or to blame immigrants for the economic downturn. The goal of this new right-wing populism is to undermine the Obama Administration so that nothing can get passed without major concessions to the Ultra-Right.
While groups like this demand these backwards policies, I believe we must loudly keep our own solutions on the table. Raising such “radical” notions as public ownership of the institutions in our communities help shift the debate back towards the Center, and give Democrats and the Obama Administration room to continue pushing for progressive policies.
After all, how can the Administration be successful in the partial nationalization of large banks and finance institutions, converting bank bailouts to equity shares, giving the government a large ownership stake in them—as the New York Times reported this past Monday , unless there is a strong, independent political movement supporting nationalization and public ownership on the ground? It is not anti-Obama to have a vision and long-term solutions. In fact separate from the immediate legislative battles, it’s probably the best support we can give.
Our labor movement is grappling with it’s own internal bickering on these issues in order to unite with the Obama Administration and the progressives in Congress to pass real immigration reform. Just recently the AFLCIO and Change to Win unions agreed on a plan that would give nearly 12 million immigrants a path to citizenship.
Outside of simply being the right thing to do for immigrants who have long been super-exploited under unfair guest-worker programs, the passage of Obama’s anticipated immigration reform could arguably strengthen the broad electoral coalition that cleaned out Congress and the White House last November.
Nevertheless, unemployment is staggering, between 14 and 16% for young people . And those who have salvaged jobs are often stuck in the low-wage or informal workforce. Young workers, entering the same jobs/careers as their parents before them, often times cannot aspire to have the same wages or benefits as the previous generation—and in many instances compete with older highly skilled, highly educated workers for the same low wage jobs.
This has made the battle for the Employee Free Choice Act, the federal legislation that would put the desire and process of forming a union in the hands of the workers and increase worker protection against employer intervention, all the more important. But as momentous as the presidential elections were, this fight is an uphill climb as the Obama Administration struggles with fickle senators.
But in battles like this, we have 3 options. We can hold our heads down in despair. We can join the cynics in prematurely pointing fingers and spouting “I told you so” propaganda. Or we can take it as a challenge to fight harder!
We should be reminded that the Employee Free Choice Act has been introduced nearly every year for the past decade, and will be re-introduced over and over again until we win!
Some say, justly so, that the first step in passing this monument of a bill is to work to pass the Obama Administration’s budget with the least amount of concessions—thus pushing waffling senators over the fence for working people and building momentum for the Employee Free Choice Act. Just as a defeat of the budget would strengthen the hand of the anti-worker and right wing forces, passing it would demoralize them and embolden Democrats yet indecisive to take the right stance on other issues such as labor law.
I was on Capital Hill this past week lobbying for the Employee Free Choice Act, and in one of the office while I waited, the poor receptionists kept getting call after call after call from people identifying themselves as being with this Tea Party. This experience alone made it clear that we need more of our own folks calling in to pass the budget and to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
A victory in this initial budget fight could indeed lay the groundwork for passing the Employee Free Choice Act among other bills—let alone what we hope will be a new push to put federal dollars into the creation of quality jobs, expanding transit infrastructure and operating costs and entering into a new era of green manufacturing. And the Employee Free Choice Act is really just one step in many we have to take to improve the protections workers have on the job.
With US manufacturing crumbling like quicksand, global solidarity and, even more, international coordination has never been more necessary. Just as labor in the white skin is not free while labor in the black/brown skin is oppressed, workers in the United States will not thrive while workers in India and Colombia are oppressed. As members of unions and worker organizations, we should be working with Party comrades to build international committees in addition to young worker caucuses in our union locals.
The YCL knows about international solidarity.
We are also mobilizing ourselves to the Venceremos Brigade to Cuba again this year, of which I’m sure we’ll hear about in the course of this meeting. Now that the Obama Administration has loosened restrictions on travel and financial transactions to the island, we are ever closer to not only lifting the travel ban in the short term but defeating the US embargo not long after. Obama’s recent move was an economic action, inserting US dollars into Cuba’s economy. Combine this with the Congressional Black Caucus’ visit to the island earlier this month and we can see why there is hope for a new US policy towards Cuba’s role in the global economy. I don’t think it is naïve to say that it is at least a beginning.
While we are on the topic of international solidarity, we can also mobilize ourselves to the next World Festival of youth and students to build solidarity on key campaigns on trade and/or gain insight into how youth are struggling for peace, jobs and education around the world. Adam will be able to report-back with updates from his trip to the General Council meeting next month.
All this said, here are some questions we must ask ourselves:
1. While the ultra-right is grappling what it means to be a voice of opposition—offering up simple solutions for complex problems to the working class, we must grapple with what it means to be on offense. How should we be pro-active, and in particular, how can we promote broad, unifying demands that will continue to strengthen the center-left coalition that came together pre-election as well as the good proposals of the new Obama Administration?
2. As youth and students in particular, how can we broaden the fight on campus in a way that both supports and mobilizes students to immediate fights, such as passing the federal budget with the highest increases for student financial aid and grants or fighting for the economic recovery of our schools, while also opening up the battleground on tuition roll-backs, student loan forgiveness, and affirmative action?
3. When participating in the remaining mobilized forces, be they “Change for America” groups, housing coalitions, healthcare organizations etc.., what is our value added? What are we as YCLers bringing to the table?
4. How can we mobilize young workers to the immediate struggle of the Employee Free Choice Act while continuing to raise the need for even more protections on the job…paid sick days, paid medical leave, paid vacation?
5. What are we doing to attract those who may already agree with us? Sam has made a couple of references to a survey that claims 20% of those polled prefer some form of socialism to capitalism. We could argue that if we looked only at the youth in that poll, the percentage could be even higher. But it is not enough to revel in the poll results. We need to discuss today, what are we doing to reach out to that 20 plus percent? How are we making ourselves visible, available and accessible to that new and growing socialist minority? What are our clubs doing to attract them? …to let them know that there is an organization where they can learn more, discuss more and be a part of a collective vision for a socialist USA?
6. And most importantly, what is our vision for the YCL? What is our vision for the Communist Party, and how do we fit in to it? How do we really expect to grow in this new era?
MOVING FORWARD
We have to build our organization.
This is worth repeating.
We have to build our organization!
We need more members.
We need more clubs.
We need more schools.
We need more visibility.
We need a stronger Young Communist League! And in order to have that we need a stronger Communist Party.
The Communist Party is our Party just as much if not more than the older generation, and we cannot allow it to be a side issue—especially when the discussions and re-configurations of the Party so directly impact our own.
As leaders of the youth league, we should not limit ourselves to a discussion of our role as youth. Rather we should openly discuss our own vision for the Party and how we fit in it;
our own vision for collective action;
our own vision of Party club activities.
Those of us that belong to the Party do not go to club meetings simply to represent the youth. If you find club meetings boring, define what it is that needs to change and fight for the change!
If we want to see more Party members running openly for public office, like our comrade here in Chicago, we should fight for that.
We don’t have to wait for someone else’s vision and theories of re-organization to be passed down to us. Let’s define it ourselves. Everyone in this room should play an active role in the Party’s pre-convention discussion.
It’s our Party; our YCL; our future.
A stronger YCL and a stronger Party translates into a stronger movement for youth and working people. Period.
In the context of this movement, there is a need for us to be flexible. And I want to take a moment to talk about this flexibility.
The political climate is incredibly fluid right now. In a period where we rarely know what to expect on a day-to-day space, there is a need for us to be flexible. That is true.
However, flexibility should not consistently translate into being ill prepared for these daily fluctuations.
Flexibility does not encourage us to read about and marvel at each and every spontaneous action of the masses.
Flexibility does not incite us to “wait” for the next positive or negative policy to react to.
We are not reactionaries!
What flexibility does require is for us to be engaged in every level of activity, local and nationally.
Flexibility requires our clubs to be a hub for discussion about the strategy and direction of local movements; support for YCL activists; and the on-going study of Marxism.
Flexibility means being active in existing youth-labor solidarity groups, but never waiting on anyone but ourselves to provide support to striking workers in our neighborhoods.
Flexibility requires us to be ready; ready to mobilize for the next pinnacle struggle and ready on a structural level to be a bigger and more active YCL and Communist Party. This is what I mean when I speak of flexibility.
And how should we be prepared, you might ask me. I’ll give my opinion.
While it is attractive to reminisce about a new New Deal, we should be clear that we are fighting for a New Deal …and then some. We don’t simply intend to save capitalism, but rather begin the long and curvy transition to something better.
How should we be prepared?
We should continue participating in struggles that make the contradictions of capitalism, global monopoly capitalism in particular, most apparent. For example, struggling in our states and locally in city councils to ensure that federal recovery money is distributed to our schools, our neighborhoods and for job creation—while continuing to point the finger at the banks and corporations receiving billions in bail out money and spending it on executive bonuses highlights the contradictions.
Right here in Chicago, the victory of the workers at Republic Windows and Doors (now Serious Materials Company) proves another good example of a concrete, local fight that hit so hard at the root of the contradictions in global capitalism that less than 300 workers in solidarity with people around the country brought Bank of America to its knees this past December.
Calling attention to these contradictions does not set us up against the Obama Administration. If we as socialists cannot call out the contradictions of global capitalism in a way that relates to real struggles happening in our daily lives, who will?
YCLers must seek out these kinds of struggles, and mobilize more and more young people to the front lines to witness the potential power of unions and organizations for themselves. How else do we expect youth to struggle for union jobs?
As YCLers, we understand the need for youth-labor solidarity. We need real relationships with workers in our communities in order to garner solidarity in winning summer jobs programs, fighting against two-tier contracts, and winning basic rights for working people on our campuses—just to name a few. Why not take the lead of our Michigan State club which is initiating discussions with area unions to push for union-only labor on campus? Just imagine how such a campaign could not only strengthen and provide jobs for area union workers, but it could be the leverage to help campus workers struggling for a union contract finally win it.
How should we be prepared?
Our clubs should be a place where these struggles are discussed; where challenges are made to various tactics; where unity is strengthened; where talking points are crafted; where the line connecting this seemingly isolated struggle to the global economic crisis and the crisis in capitalism is clearly drawn.
Clubs should be a place where we flush out how to localize national demands. Our Milwaukee club provides a good example of doing this around the DREAM Act—a bill that would make college more accessible to immigrant students. Clubs should flush out partial demands that could build momentum for the eventual passage of this act. Why not get resolutions passed supporting it in student government, or even commitments from campus administrations to change the policy locally? These are struggles that YCL activists can lead on and build coalitions around.
Does this mean clubs do not study? Of course not! But the main focal point must be the action above all else. After all, the YCL is a place for youth to learn about Marxism and socialism through study and struggle.
Regardless of what some say, outside of those playing leading roles, the movement that rose up to elect Obama is in a bit of a lull. This may be controversial to some folks here. But I believe it’s true, and I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing. We are in a massive transition period, an electoral hangover if you will.
The peace movement, peace having been one of our major 3 areas of struggle coming out of the last convention, is in a state of re-organization. With a timeline from the Obama Administration to withdrawal troops from Iraq and a new commitment to diplomacy in the middle east, the peace movement is struggling to identify its role—how it can continue to wage peace in Afghanistan, Palestine and elsewhere, while supporting the positive moves of the new president.
While we in the YCL and in the Party are going through our own internal shifts and transitions, we have the burden of helping to sustain and even build on the momentum of the 2008 elections, continuing to build the broad labor-led movement that awed the country last year.
But to build the movement, we must focus more of our attention on building our organization. This is how we prepare!
And if we’ve only learned one thing in the past 3 years since our last convention, we know that people join when they see us in action, not when they hear us talk about it! …and certainly not when they read our long-winded reports on line.
They join when they meet us in the midst of study and struggle.
And we know this for a fact.
They joined at our schools.
They joined at the Youth Voter Collective camp in St Louis.
They joined when they met us in Cuba.
They joined while we were doing voter registration.
No matter what anyone says, no matter how anyone tries to discredit our work, we know this to be true!
A body in motion stays in motion, and the YCL moves!
We of all people know that the post-election period is not a time to rest. We have to figure out ways to maintain the momentum via concrete, focused fights that can be waged locally—be that at local, state, national or even global targets.
With a smaller national staff, the necessity for our club leaders to play more of a role in this is more apparent. Most of you know we are positioning Ursula to become the next national coordinator of the YCL. But she will not be able to build the YCL alone.
Schools and actions organized by clubs are needed now more than ever. Our clubs cannot wait on the national office to call for action. Clubs need to be taking on more of this responsibility.
How many of you were at the Midwest School in Chicago last month? {show of hands}
This, and the school being organized in St Louis later this summer are prime examples of how successful and imperative club organized action is.
We should continue to use this time to reflect, to be self-critical of everything we’ve done up until now, and identify with a fresh outlook what it will take to build the Young Communist League and the Communist Party in this new period. We have grown exponentially, but we are still tiny.
It is not enough for us to have the correct political outlook. It means absolutely nothing if we do not have the bodies on the ground to back our words and theories up with action.
Further, we cannot isolate ourselves.
It is through relationships that we move people to action. Any good organizer will tell you this. We don’t build relationships by isolating ourselves.
These discussions, discussions about our vision for a better world and for socialism, are happening both within our organization and all around it. That 20% socialist minority isn’t necessarily a silent one.
How are we shoring up our base?
We cannot brush off every group that has a varying viewpoint as ultra-leftist. We have to be a part of these conversations—such as at the Left Forum or the various “Summer School” conferences that are organized. And I hope our new, incoming leadership will play visible roles in such events. If young people at these events are looking for an organization where they can develop their socialist perspective, why should we hide? And even more important, why should we not engage in the ideological battle in this way? Just like we should not isolate ourselves from the broader labor-led movements, we should be a part of the broad discussions shaping the vision for a Socialist USA.
Now there are at least a couple of you that disagree with me on this last point, arguing that we shouldn’t waste our time with the “Left”, but rather focus all our energy on the “broader” movements and organizations. And they aren’t completely wrong, as getting caught up in left politics will only marginalize us to irrelevance.
But this should not be an excuse not to reach out to those who may already agree with us. It is okay, and by all means desirable, to have our eyes focused in front of us in building unity with the forces of the Center. But we should allow those same eyes to see out their peripheral vision—to build and maintain relationships with those closest to us.
I also agree with those on the National Council who argue that the old formulations of what is “Left” and what is “Center” make be inaccurate and not useful. After all, what is Left today may well be Center tomorrow. We should focus more on the specific work youth are doing and identify who to build with on that basis. These often “unaffiliated” youth are left out of our abstract discussions, and yet are a part of the progressive youth movement we need to be mobilizing.
In a nutshell, these two approaches are not contradictory.
We have to be a part of shaping the new vision and strategy of the movement, both in the trenches and in the conference halls.
Again, a strong movement requires a strong, visible and active Communist Party, and an independent Young Communist League.
So to re-visit the questions above:
1. What are the most unifying battles happening in our communities? What struggles are currently mobilizing the most youth? What existing organizations should we relate to? …and where there are none, what types of organizations should we be helping to build?
2. How can we be a voice of reason to the right-wing populism happening today? How can we ensure that working class people are not tricked to act against our own interests by the simple solutions of groups like the Tea Party?
3. What is the “Communist-Plus” given the current progressive movement(s)? What is our value-added as YCLers? Why should we exist right now, …or if you don’t think we should, why shouldn’t we? Let’s be honest and put it all out on the table.
4. And finally, what is the role of the club in this? What should a YCL or even Party club meeting look like in this period? And how do we make clubs more accessible to this budding socialist minority?
I submit these questions to you for discussion.
And welcome, everyone, to our spring meeting of the National Council.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Communist Party Statement on Honduras Crisis
by CPUSA, 06/28/2009
The Communist Party USA (CPUSA) joins with the world in denouncing the coup d’etat this morning against the legally elected president of the Republic of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, by the Honduran military, in which, according to a statement by the president’s wife, Mr. Zelaya was threatened and beaten before being sent into exile in Costa Rica.
• The CPUSA denounces alarming reports of physical attacks by troops against the ambassadors of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua in Tegucigalpa, and calls for protection of all diplomatic personal; and, if the reports of the attacks are confirmed, punishment of all the responsible parties for this gross violation of Honduran and international law.
The CPUSA further:
• Demands that president Zelaya and other members of his government be returned to power immediately, and that the troops return to their barracks.
• Demands the immediate release of all labor, community and student leaders who have reportedly been rounded up by the army, and the restoration of freedom of the press.
• Recognizes that the Obama administration has repudiated the coup, and insists that President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton hold firm to this position, refusing diplomatic recognition and any military aid to Honduras until President Zelaya is restored to power.
• Calls upon unions and other people’s organizations in the United States to actively support our brothers and sisters in Honduras in resisting this brutal military coup d’etat.
The Communist Party USA (CPUSA) joins with the world in denouncing the coup d’etat this morning against the legally elected president of the Republic of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, by the Honduran military, in which, according to a statement by the president’s wife, Mr. Zelaya was threatened and beaten before being sent into exile in Costa Rica.
• The CPUSA denounces alarming reports of physical attacks by troops against the ambassadors of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua in Tegucigalpa, and calls for protection of all diplomatic personal; and, if the reports of the attacks are confirmed, punishment of all the responsible parties for this gross violation of Honduran and international law.
The CPUSA further:
• Demands that president Zelaya and other members of his government be returned to power immediately, and that the troops return to their barracks.
• Demands the immediate release of all labor, community and student leaders who have reportedly been rounded up by the army, and the restoration of freedom of the press.
• Recognizes that the Obama administration has repudiated the coup, and insists that President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton hold firm to this position, refusing diplomatic recognition and any military aid to Honduras until President Zelaya is restored to power.
• Calls upon unions and other people’s organizations in the United States to actively support our brothers and sisters in Honduras in resisting this brutal military coup d’etat.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
PEOPLE BEFORE PROFITS False hope on the economy — unless …
I thought I made it clear no such articles were to appear in the PWW or PA.
This article has three little marks in the title (...)leading me to think that opposition is involved in this article.
There is only one other person that I know of that writes with "..." all the time.
This article is an open challenge to our position of unconditional support for our President, Barack Obama.
I will not tolerate this kind of insubordination in my organization.
This article sounds like something that could be coming out of Minnesota.
I will not tolerate any sowing of doubts. Our support for Barack Obama as a friend of the people will not be challenged from within this organization... not as long as I am in charge!
Sam Webb
National Chair, CPUSA
This article has three little marks in the title (...)leading me to think that opposition is involved in this article.
There is only one other person that I know of that writes with "..." all the time.
This article is an open challenge to our position of unconditional support for our President, Barack Obama.
I will not tolerate this kind of insubordination in my organization.
This article sounds like something that could be coming out of Minnesota.
I will not tolerate any sowing of doubts. Our support for Barack Obama as a friend of the people will not be challenged from within this organization... not as long as I am in charge!
Sam Webb
National Chair, CPUSA
PEOPLE BEFORE PROFITS False hope on the economy — unless …
Author: Art Perlo
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 06/23/09 16:04
In March, Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke saw "green shoots" in the economy. Since then, various economists and government officials have seen signs that the recession may be bottoming out, with hopes that economic growth may start later this year. And many journalists in the business media are joining in, acting like paid touts for the stockbrokers.
This chorus has been fueled by a series of reports. Some banks are showing profits again. The stock market is up. Job losses in May, while horrific by any previous standard, weren't as bad as earlier this year. Housing starts in May were a little higher than in April.
There are more than a few skeptics. Much of the "good" news is really "slightly less bad news" or reflects temporary factors. And even in the most optimistic scenarios, unemployment will continue to rise well into next year.
I am more than skeptical. There are major economic obstacles to even a weak recovery. Without decisive government action, these will continue to depress the economy, pushing unemployment to a post-World-War-II record and devastating more families than 100 years’ worth of hurricanes. Four of the obstacles to recovery:
1) One-third of all home mortgages are under water — the homeowners owe more than the house is worth. We are in for another year of record foreclosures and many years of depressed purchasing power, as the banks try to squeeze every last penny out of working class homeowners. Federal and state initiatives are providing some relief, but the majority of homeowners who are in trouble are headed for eviction, and their communities are headed to further decline.
2) The collapse of the auto industry and its ripple effects are devastating the part of the economy — manufacturing — which actually produces things that people need. The layoffs, plant closings, and loss of tax revenue are just beginning. As suppliers and support services cut back, the effects will be felt far beyond the Midwest. Michigan's unemployment rate of 12.9% (and rising) could be headed to your state, too.
3) State and local government fiscal crises are already causing layoffs and cutbacks, overwhelming the positive effects of February's federal stimulus package. This will only worsen as local revenues continue to decline and governments run out of reserves and accounting tricks.
4) For nearly 30 years, there has been a growing gap between rising productivity and stagnant real wages. This has translated into extra corporate profits and extra income for the super-rich. Part of this wealth has been loaned back to the working class to finance homes, cars, education, medical care and daily expenses. Result: financial crisis for working families, instability for the financial system. Part of the wealth has been invested in the unproductive, speculative financial sector, or in real “development” projects (homes, shopping malls, resorts) that outstrip the demand from cash-strapped consumers. Result: more overcapacity, corporate bankruptcies, layoffs, and instability.
These problems — and others — could result in a new wave of financial and industrial crises, with the economy declining into a full-blown depression. It will require radical action to protect working families, and to reorient the economy, not only for growth, but for meeting the needs of people and the environment.
The stimulus package enacted by the Obama administration in February contains many positive features that are only beginning to kick in. But they are inadequate in the face of the developing global depression.
A people's economic program would have two essential features. 1) Return to the working class a greater portion of the wealth it creates, wealth that now lines the pockets of the very rich. 2) Directly meet real needs of the nation and its working families, instead of relying exclusively on the magic of a broken corporate system.
This means higher taxes on the super-rich, on corporate profits and financial transactions, to ease the burden on the working class, especially at the state and local level. And it requires that government play an active role in developing energy, transportation, health, environment and infrastructure policies. It would take direct measures where necessary to put the millions of unemployed to work meeting these vital needs.
Winning even part of such a program requires challenging the entrenched corporate and financial interests that, until now, have been able to shape and plunder the U.S. and global economies as they will. This will not be an easy fight. The huge movements for a national single-payer health plan (or at least a strong public option) and the Employee Free Choice Act are only the start of what is needed to win the kind of change we really need.
econ4ppl@cpusa.org
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