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Resolution of the National Committee, CPUSA, adopted November 15, 2009

As the historic fight for health care reform passes to the Senate next week, and then to conference committee before final vote, a continued and expanded push is needed to prevent blockage of this key legislation, to insure a strong public option with no taxation of health benefits, inclusion of immigrants, and to eliminate measures that restrict coverage for women's reproductive rights. Messages to the Senate are needed in favor of health care reform that is affordable, accessible, portable and universal.

The outcome of the monumental battle for health care reform will affect every other issue on the labor and people's agenda. As the extreme right-wing teamed up with the medical industrial complex to stop passage at all costs, they drew a line in the sand, threatening to bring down the Obama Administration on the issue of health care.

To date, a huge mobilization has taken hold with labor at the center, involving African American, Latino, women, senior and youth organizations, small business, the faith community and many others, complimenting the role of the Progressive, Black, Hispanic and Asian Pacific Congressional Caucuses working together. The key to passage of positive health reform is phone calls, letters, rallies and public expressions of support to every member of the US Senate. Several members of the House who were undecided stated publicly that they voted in favor because of the huge volume of calls and messages from constituents.

The union workplace sticker and call-in day, giant rallies in California, sit-ins and vigils in Connecticut, and protests at insurance companies in Chicago are great examples of the creativity that this movement has sparked. The pressure cannot be let up if health care with a public option is to become law. Passage will give millions of people coverage they do not have, and will save countless lives. But passage will not be an end. It will create forward motion toward the single-payer national health service our country needs. It will provide new experience in organizing and mobilizing at the grass roots. It will open the door to the fight for the right to form a union and many other key battles that lie ahead coming into the 2010 elections.

National Committee
Communist Party USA

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ragesoss/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Excerpted from the Columbia Missourian

COLUMBIA — Jarvis Tyner, executive vice chairman of the Communist Party USA, spoke at MU on Thursday and said the election of President Barack Obama opens the door for the left wing, which he feels has allowed itself to be pushed to the sidelines and overcome with progress-impeding cynicism, to mobilize.

"He's only the beginning," Tyner said. "I think he's a transitional president. I think somebody else is going to come in and take it even further." The Communist Party USA

MU students protest the speech of Jarvis Tyner, executive vice chair of the Communist Party USA, with a mock gulag labor camp set up in Speaker's Circle at MU on Thursday.

Tyner spoke to an audience of about 70 people at MU's Ellis Auditorium. He focused on the transitional phase he feels the United States is in because of Obama's election.

Although the president is neither a communist nor socialist, his administration marks the country's movement away from the right-wing governments that have been dominant in the U.S. since the Reagan administration, Tyner said.

He said that while the Democratic Party is not without blame, the Republican leadership has been the source of the nation's problems that include an increase in poverty, a ruined economy, the continuation of global warming, impeded scientific research and the destruction of public schools by No Child Left Behind.

Tyner said he and his party are not completely satisfied with the work Obama has done since taking office, listing the need to withdraw troops more quickly from Iraq, for initiatives to end nuclear weapons and to re-establish trading relations with Cuba...

Read the full article at the Columbia Missourian

We are proud and excited to announce the launching of the new website for the People's World. This accomplishment truly represents the 21st Century Marxist press. Below is a message from the Editor of the People's World. Check out the site, and keep your eye out for the new Communist Party site in coming weeks.

Labor candidate in Cleveland city council race featured on CNN this morning

Reprinted form the People's World.

On the year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, filmmaker and slacker hero Michael Moore gave a gift to working America: an explanation of what happened.

In short, capitalism happened.

Moore was invited by the California Nurses Association and AFL-CIO to show his newest movie, "Capitalism: A Love Story," and lead a march for single-payer health care at the convention here. He accepted and re-arranged his schedule to do it, delaying the planned Los Angeles premiere to Wednesday. But that may give him more press for the LA premiere, because Jay Leno invited him to be on his second show of the new series tonight, after viewing the movie.

Instead of stars parading down the red carpet waving to the paparazzi like with other movie premieres, mineworkers, steelworkers, nurses and lots of other workers and professionals marched with the Academy Award winner demanding health care for all. It was a celebration of, by and for ordinary hard-working people who have odds stacked against them.

It was a movie premiere like no other, for a movie like no other. Moore masterfully splices together the absurdities of free market propaganda with the real life stories of what happens when a whole system is just about "maximizing profit."

The audience exploded into clapping, or booing and hissing, depending on who was on the screen through out the feature.

The next day Moore sent out this e-mail: "But it wasn't till last night, at the annual convention of the AFL-CIO in downtown Pittsburgh, PA, that a packed house of rank-and-file union members -- plumbers and nurses and steelworkers and 73 other trades -- watched the U.S. premiere of our film and, I kid you not, the roof practically came off the place as the credits rolled. I've never witnessed, in my 20 years as a filmmaker, such a response to one of my movies. I'm sure the theater management must have been thinking a riot was going to break out. After years of having the crap kicked out of working people of this country, the crowd in Pittsburgh was ready to rumble after watching two hours of cinema that laid it all out about how Corporate America has gotten away with murder. I was profoundly moved by this overwhelming and enthusiastic response. I simply can't wait to bring this movie to your town and for you to see it! I know you will be shocked and surprised by a lot of what you will see in it. Once again, I've set out to show you things the nightly news doesn't dare show you. There will be some very wealthy men who will not be happy about this film's release. So be it. It's a free country, but more importantly, it's OUR country. It doesn't belong to the richest 1% who now -- are you ready for this -- have more financial wealth than the entire bottom 95% of the country combined!! "

Moore chooses to delve into the last 30 years after the rise of Ronald Reagan and the far-right, corporate crowd which went to town privatizing, deregulating and cutting taxes for the super-wealthy. Moore shows production and profits skyrocketing, while jobs are cut and wages are frozen.

Cutting away to his 1989 Roger and Me, he has GM executive saying they will cut all the jobs for the company's health. Guess that strategy didn't work too good.

But it's the irresponsible Bush administration and the inevitable global financial and housing collapse in September last year that is at the heart of the movie. The rush for a $700 billion bailout for the largest banks and financial institutions in the country is rightly portrayed as a well-planned heist by these liars, thieves and vultures.

Moore doesn't hold back in implicating the Congressional Democratic leadership in enabling the grand theft. Ninety-five percent of the movie places the blame for the current crisis on Republican policies and their marriage with major corporate and Wall Street interests in government.

But Moore reserves the rest of the criticism for Robert Rubin of Citigroup and the Clinton administration push for privatization and deregulation under the name of free trade. Rubin along with his acolytes, economic adviser Larry Summers and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, both Obama appointees, are all implicated in the economic meltdown.

This is a major point of unease for those on the left and progressive movement. But as socialist and Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson points out, FDR had some pro-Wall Street advisers around him as well. And like Moore, Meyerson emphasizes the importance of a mobilized progressive grassroots movement. "Where are we?" Moore asked the crowd.

Yet Moore has a dramatic scene about how the election of President Barack Obama has ushered in a whole new era for working people.

Moore does some excellent expose journalism. Bringing to life some of the stories that don't make national news night after night. Like Blue Chip corporations taking out life insurance policies on employees to enrich themselves when they die, but not the family. In teary-eyed segments, Moore interview families who lost loved ones while Wal-Mart or other corporations collect on their deaths. (And judges being paid to send teenagers to a private, for-profit juvenile detention center.) That's capitalism!

On the other end are the struggles of ordinary people to fight back. From fighting foreclosures in Miami and in Congress to the sit-in at Republic Windows and Doors and the election of Barack Obama, the movie points to a way for working America to win dignity and economic democracy. Seeing on the big screen real life examples of workers in Wisconsin and California running businesses as cooperatives impresses the point: the dog eat dog model of corporate and casino capitalism isn't the only way to run an economy.

Moore has a way of Americanizing radical and socialist ideas, something that corporate America and anti-worker forces propagandize as "foreign" and "alien" to the U.S. experience. Yet, as Moore shows, the ideas of cooperation and solidarity, or the distrust of banks are as American as apple pie. Moore weaves together key pillars in American life, religion and patriotism, and reclaims them from the far-right and other hypocrites who proclaim the holiness of the free enterprise system. By looking at American history and its institutions, the film and exposes that radical pro-people and socialist ideals are throughout the fabric of America.

There is a major omission in the film. As Moore sets up the glory days of U.S. capitalism in the 1950s and 1960s, showing home movies of family vacations and narrating about workers who entered the middle class, there was no mention of what was going on at the same time. That millions of Americans were locked into poverty and racial apartheid throughout the South and northern cities. This was a perfect opportunity to show the underbelly of an economic, social and political system that still had deep flaws even when parts of the working class did enter the "middle class."

Plus, U.S. slavery and taking of lands from Native Americans and Mexico -- and the racial theories and policies that ensued to justify it -- are central to, as Karl Marx and W.E.B. Du Bois put it, "the rosy dawn of capitalism."

It was surprising since Moore had gone into some of this in Bowling For Columbine. Moore does include stories of African American and Latino families along with white families, which leave the viewers with the notion that we are all in the same boat. And towards the end of the film, Moore shows clips of the Civil Rights movement, the huge crowds for Obama during the elections and the multi-racial workforce at Republic Doors and Window who heroically stood up to their employer and Bank of America in December 2008.

For history buffs and serious students of American politics, Moore offers a newly discovered gem. His crew found never before seen footage of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt outlining a second Bill of Rights which would include a right to a job, right to health care, housing and education, the right of businesses to operate without the constraints of big monopoly and bank pressures.

Moore said FDR, after giving his last speech to the American people on the radio, called in the film crew to shoot him outlining such a far-reaching plan. FDR was ill at the time and died soon after. Moore's crew tracked down the film sitting in some unmarked box in South Carolina, Moore said.

At the rally before the march to the Byham Theater, California Nurses Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro, Mineworkers President Cecil Roberts, Steelworkers President Leo Gerard and Professional and Technical Engineers President Greg Junemann fired up the crowd.

To the cheers of the packed ballroom at the David Lawrence Convention Center, Roberts, a sixth-generation coal miner and orator in the West Virginia-style of rousing speeches, asked the crowd: When George Bush or Joe Wilson gets sick, who pays? When ugly Dick Cheney gets sick, who pays? The crowd shouted: We do! The American people want the same deal, Roberts said.

An extended standing ovation greeted Moore after the movie showing. He took questions from the audience. One was on the distribution of the film. Something, he said, he is always worried about his movies getting picked up. But judging the reception it got by this working class audience, there may be money to be made by exposing capitalism, a good motivation for distributors to pick up this movie.

But for Moore, this movie is certainly a love story -- a love affair with the power and strength of ordinary American people to make positive change in our country and world.

Reprinted from the People's Weekly World

COMMENTARY

President Obama’s speech to Congress last night reset the debate and struggle for real health care reform. No one thought that the reform of our nation’s health care system would be easy to begin with, but what transpired recently – the fierce counter attack by the right-wing extremists, the letting loose of the demagogues of hatred, fear, racism, and division, and the digging in of private insurance companies and other sections of corporate America – proved to be a sobering reminder that the political terrain and initiative can shift in the direction of one’s foes, as it did this summer.

But it also can shift back as happened last night, thanks to the president’s intervention in this bitter and bruising struggle.

By the speech’s end, supporters of health care reform were re-energized, its opponent dispirited, the public much better informed, the case for a governmental role well articulated, and the moral high ground regained by the president and the coalition that elected him.

What the president’s speech didn’t and couldn’t do was seal the deal on the language and details of that bill. In other words, there will be a health care bill on the president’s desk later this fall, but what is still to be decided is its precise content and scope.

So the struggle goes on.

The opponents of health care reform may have lost ground last night, but don’t expect either them or the advocates in both parties of “health care lite” to fold up their tent. In its editorial today, the Wall Street Journal appealed for “popular mobilization” to oppose the bill and John McCain showed little interest in giving ground on the Today show this morning.

As for the supporters of health care reform, we have to be every bit as tenacious as right-wing reaction. Justice, morality, and truth are on our side, but they are not enough. Only when combined with persistence, united action, and struggle over the bill’s content, including a public option, will real health care reform see the light of day.

Last week the mayor of Hiroshima, Japan chose to commemorate the 64th year since the atom bomb destroyed his city by praising President Obama's call for abolition of nuclear weapons. He referred to the "Obamajority" in the world which supports this cause.

 

Within our country, the Obamajority is needed to take to the streets in support of health care with a public option paid for by reversing the obscene tax giveaways to the super rich during the Bush years. If health care reform fails, it will be a giant step backwards for the Obama administration and for working people, the labor movement, African American, Latino, Asian-Pacific Island communities, women and youth on every issue including the economy, peace and democracy.

 

August is key. Members of Congress are home for summer recess. They will be seeking out the opinions of their constituents. The right wing is actively trying to shut down expression of opinion. They are using strong-arm tactics to disrupt town hall meetings, oppose any public option and push for taxing the health benefits of working people. Along with some centrists, they want to slow the process down. This would only benefit the medical-pharmaceutical corporate quest to further increase their profits.

continued...

McKinleyville, Calif. — Behind the Redwood Curtain up in Humboldt County, Calif., the Communist Party is on the run. By on the run, I mean we’re not being chased—we’re doing the chasing for the common people.

Daily, I and other comrades and associates work at providing for, advocating and representing the common folks. Sometimes the work is light, but most times the labor is long. Example of people and projects are many.

For instance, on Tuesday, I meet a pregnant woman in a conversation at the local soup kitchen. Rain is falling outside. Her pickup camper residence is leaking. I ask the soup kitchen’s minister for some cold-patch to use on her roof. In the parking lot, I and a few of my “irregulars” successfully mend her roof. She thanks us all, and the opportunity arises to tell her about my involvement in the CPUSA. I tell her that many of us in the Mother Jones Club find great satisfaction in helping out others within the community. I tell her we are working for equality, labor, human rights – that’s what the party is founded on. She smiles and tells me, let’s have soup more often, Michael. She is now very interested.

(Continued)

( CPUSA_work_in_progress.pdf 101.59 KB )

Report in PDF format

A presentation to the Chautauqua Institution’s Heritage Lecture Series, July 21, 2009

No organization or institution can long exist in a condition of stasis; organizations in general and political parties and social movements in particular have to adjust to new conditions.

And the reason is simple: change is constant and organizations and institutions must, if they want to remain relevant, change in the face of changing conditions.

Since the beginning of this decade, the Communist Party has been reconfiguring its theory, politics, structures of organization, and, not least, finances to the turbulent times in which we live. We did so because we had no other choice. Necessity was the mother of invention.

To be sure, not everything turned out as we hoped and many things still have to be attended to.

On the whole, however, we challenged outdated notions and practices, adjusted our policies and style of work to new conditions, and gained experience.

(continued)

Manuel Zelaya, the legitimate president of Honduras, has made a specific request to the Obama administration to increase pressure on the illegal regime of Roberto Micheletti, which was installed after a coup d’etat on the morning of June 28 of this year. Zelaya has asked the Obama administration to increase diplomatic and economic pressure on the illegitimate regime by taking actions targeting the main culprits. This happens at a critical moment when the talks mediated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias have not progressed due to the intransigence of the coup regime, and when mass protest in Honduras has reached a peak with a general strike and with a growing mass movement in the streets to restore Mr. Zelaya, who is encamped on the Honduras-Nicaragua border, to the presidency.

The coup regime is isolated worldwide, but hangs on because it expects to be able to draw on material resources from the US, in spite of President Obama’s strong statement against the coup. The US ultra-right, led by figures such as Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Congressman Connie Mack (R-FL), and supported by strong business, political media and military networks in the United States, are doing all they can to throw a lifeline to the illegal Micheletti regime. Their hope seems to be to keep the regime in power long enough that the scheduled November elections in Honduras (which Micheletti may move up) can take place under repressive conditions in which supporters of Zelaya’s program of progressive social and labor reforms can not openly campaign without risking jail or violence, and thus can not possibly win. Meanwhile, Micheletti’s de-facto government is increasing repression against labor, peasant, student and other opponents, with reports of several new deaths in the last two days.

The CPUSA agrees that it is necessary to ratchet up the pressure on the de-facto regime, and calls for the following actions:

We should contact the White House and the State Department to demand that the US government respond to President Zelaya’s request by taking the following immediate steps:

*Cancel US visas for the top military and political leaders of the coup.

*Freeze bank accounts in the US belonging to coup leaders as requested by Zelaya.

*Remove US personnel from the military base at Soto Cano, cease all coordination with the coup government’s armed forces, and expel Honduran officers currently being trained at the School of the Americas in Fort Benning Georgia.

*We should demand an end to the activities in support of the coup government by the International Republican Institute and other governmental and non-governmental organizations in the United States who have a heavy responsibility for the current situation.

Further, we should be contacting our members of Congress to ask that they sign on as co sponsors and work for the passage of House Resolution 630, which denounces the coup d’etat and asks the government to take measures to restore the constitutional order in Honduras. This resolution, introduced by Congressman Bill DeLaHunt (D-MA) has 40 cosponsors; this number has to be greatly increased.

Finally, the AFL-CIO, US Steelworkers and Local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union have led the way in calling for the restoral of Zelaya and the constitutional order in Honduras. We should build on these initiatives by getting statements and actions in support from other unions, faith based organizations, and civic and community organizations of every description so as to build a massive solidarity movement with the Honduran people here in the United States.


Here is the contact information:

Congressional Switchboard: 202-224-3121

White House: 202-456-1111

State Department: 202-647-4000

To follow the progress of HR 630, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/ and type “HR630” in the webpage search engine. Choose "Bill Number" as the search option.

APPENDED:

La Jornada coverage of letter from Zelaya to Obama (translation into English)

ZELAYA ASKS THE UNTIED STATES [TO TAKE] CONCRETE MEASURES TO RE-ESTABLISH ORDER IN HONDURAS (La Jornada online, July 26 2009, translation by Emile Schepers)

Rights violations and killings, reasons to increase pressure, says the head of state.

FROM THE EDITORIAL [BOARD]

The President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, today asked the US head of state, Barack Obama, to adopt concrete measures to restore the constitutional order in the Central American country. The leader, who was expelled by a coup d’etat, asked that the United States prohibit bank transactions and cancel US visas of those “directly responsible for my kidnapping and the interruption of the legal order in my country”.

On Friday, the US State Department criticized the brief return of Zelaya to Honduras by calling it “reckless and premature”.

Zelaya sent Obama a list of names of individuals to whom he asked the United States to apply such restrictions. They are: General Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, head of the armed forces; Miguel Angel Garcia Padget, commander in chief of the army, and Juan Pablo Rodriguez, commander of the navy. Also included are the de facto president and former president of the Congress, Roberto Micheletti, the attorney general Luis Alberto Rubi and the chief prosecutor Rosa America Miranda.

Zelaya claims that those persons had key roles in planning and execution of the coup d’etat of June 28 and later ignored the calls of the international community for the constitutional head of state to be restored to office.

The letter to Obama indicates that the deterioration of human rights in Honduras, which has resulted in the extrajudicial murder of several leaders of people’s movements who were opposed to the coup, is a reason for the United States and other countries to increase pressure on the de-facto regime.

“We believe that the measures we are asking for from the US administration will exercise direct pressure on the executors of the coup without having a negative impact on the people of Honduras” said Enrique Reina, Minister of Communications in Zelaya’s government and the new ambassador to the United States designated by the constitutional president.


Statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney on the Coup in Honduras

June 30, 2009

The AFL-CIO stands in solidarity with our sister organizations of Honduras, the national trade union centrals -- the Unitary Central of Honduran Workers (CUTH), the Confederation of Honduran Workers (CTH) and the General Workers Central (CGT) -- as well as with the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA), representing over 45 million workers of this hemisphere, in condemning the military coup that resulted in the illegal ouster of democratically-elected President Manuel Zelaya.

The AFL-CIO denounces this unconscionable attack on the fundamental rights and liberties of the Honduran people. The recent internal conflict relating to the proposed constitutional referendum cannot in any way justify the extra-constitutional measures undertaken by the armed forces, which were later ratified by the Honduran congress when it voted to depose President Zelaya and install Congressman Roberto Micheletti immediately following the coup. These measures are a flagrant violation of the most basic democratic principles and of the rule of law.

The AFL-CIO calls on the United States government and the international community, particularly the Organization of American States and the United Nations, not only to condemn the coup and withhold recognition of the current government, but to make every effort to help achieve the restitution of constitutional order and the reinstatement of the democratically elected president.

We have already received eyewitness reports that the thousands of people from civil society organizations, including trade unions, who assembled to demand that democratic order be restored and the president returned, have been tear-gassed by the armed forces. Several have been injured and dozens have been arrested. We call on the United States Government to also take all measures within its diplomatic powers to ensure that all Honduran civilians, and particularly trade unionists and social activists denouncing the coup, are safe and secure and will not be victimized by violence and repression.


Statement of WORKERS UNITING on Honduras

Workers Uniting Statement Condemning Coup in Honduras

Workers Uniting, representing 3.5 million workers in North America, the UK and Ireland, unequivocally condemns the military coup and kidnapping of the democratically elected President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya. President Zelaya was working to free his country from decades of hunger and poverty until he was abruptly thwarted in these efforts by the Honduran military.
This military coup is an illegal attempt to use armed force to overturn the course of democracy and social progress chosen by the Honduran people at the polls, and we call upon the nations of the world, and especially the U.S., UK and Canada, to officially declare the seizure of power by the military in Honduras a “military coup” and to act accordingly. In the case of the U.S., this means withholding all military assistance unless and until President Zelaya is returned to power.

Meanwhile, the military and coup conspirators are trying to suppress popular demonstrations by unions and other social groups by violence and arrests; are illegally shutting down critical news outlets; establishing a blanket military presence and setting illegal curfews. We condemn these acts as well, and call upon the Honduran military to respect the human rights of all, including those demonstrating for a peaceful return to civilian and constitutional rule.
We join the OAS and UN in condemning the military seizure of power in Honduras as a giant step backward for the Western Hemisphere, and an act which simply cannot be tolerated. We therefore call upon our respective governments to take all peaceful, diplomatic measures to ensure the return of President Zelaya to his rightful place as President of Honduras. We further support the efforts of the OAS, UN and other Latin American leaders to accompany President Zelaya back to Honduras on Thursday, July 2, 2009, and call upon others to join them in this effort.

Leo W. Gerard, USW International President
Ken Neumann, USW Canadian National Director
Derek Simpson, Unite the Union Joint General Secretary
Tony Woodley, United the Union Joint General Secretary


Statements of Latin American Working Group, Washington Office on Latin America and School of the Americas Watch on Honduras can be found at their websites at:

Lawg.org
Wola.org
Soaw.org

Statement in Spanish

Dear Friends,
 
The ultra-right on Capitol Hill, hand-in-hand with members of the Honduran oligarchy and military, have been besieging Congress with demands that the U.S. back off its stated support for the restoration of Manuel Zelaya to the presidency of Honduras. This needs to be aggressively countered.

Congressmen Bill DeLaHunt (D-MA) and James McGovern (D-MA) have taken the initiative with a resolution described below in a message from the Alliance for Global Justice.

Please follow up the DeLaHunt-McGovern initiative with your letters, faxes, phone calls, e-mails and visits to your own congressperson.

Also contact your senators to ask them to pass a similar resolution. Finally, ask your union, church or community organization to mobilize support for this effort.

Below is an action alert from the Alliance for Global Justice with the text of the resolution and other details:

___________________________

Support House Resolution on Honduras!
Urge your Representative to become an original co-sponsor of House Resolution demanding reinstatement of President Manuel Zelaya in Honduras!

[This action alert comes to you from the Alliance for Global Justice and its member projects, the Nicaragua Network, the Campaign for Labor Rights, the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign, and the Respect for Democracy Campaign.]

Representatives James McGovern (D-MA) and Bill Delahunt (D-MA) have sent out a Dear Colleague letter to the other members of the House of Representatives asking them to sign on as original co- sponsors to a House resolution calling for the reinstatement of Manuel Zelaya as president of Honduras. See text of the letter and of the House resolution below.

Call your Representative and ask him or her to sign on! The Capitol Switchboard number is: 202-224- 3121. All original co-sponsors need to be added before 5pm today. Here is some suggested language for your call:

"Please tell Representative _________________ that I urge him to be an original co-sponsor of the McGovern/Delahunt resolution to oppose the military led coup in Honduras. The resolution calls for the reinstatement of democracy in that country. Please contact Cliff Stammerman or Ben Dailey in Delahunt's office before close of business today as that will be the closing of original cosponsors."

******************

Become an original co-sponsor of a resolution opposing the coup d'état in Honduras
Deadline is close of business Thursday, July 9, 2009

Dear Colleague:

We ask you to join us in co-sponsoring the resolution below condemning the coup d'état in Honduras, demanding that Honduran President Manuel Zelaya be returned to office, and welcoming the mediation efforts of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.

As you are no doubt aware, an internal political dispute in Honduras degenerated into a coup d'état on June 28, 2009, in which the democratically-elected President of Honduras was seized by the Honduran military and sent into exile. This move was swiftly condemned by the United States, the Organization of American States, the European Union, and the United Nations, all of whom have demanded that President Zelaya be reinstated to office.

It is critical that Congress be crystal clear that coups are unacceptable. This is particularly important in Latin America, a region which has suffered greatly in the past from military interference in politics but over the last 30 years has generally moved towards democracy. To accept the overthrow of a democratically-elected government is to wipe away the progress that has been made - progress that has been supported by both Democratic and Republican Presidents and Congresses.

To sign on, please contact Cliff Stammerman or Ben Dailey in Congressman Delahunt's office at (202) 226- 6434 or at cliff.stammerman@mail.house.gov or ben.dailey@mail.house.gov.

Sincerely,

Bill Delahunt
James P. McGovern

The Resolution:

Condemning the June 28, 2009 coup d'état in Honduras, calling for the reinstatement of President Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales, and for other purposes.

Whereas Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales was elected President of Honduras in November 2005 in elections that were deemed free and fair by international observers;

Whereas President Zelaya and other political actors in Honduras became embroiled in a political dispute over whether to hold a non-binding referendum asking Honduran voters whether they wanted a constituent assembly to be established to amend the Constitution;

Whereas on June 28, 2009, the day that the non- binding referendum was to take place, Honduran military forces stormed President Zelaya's residence, apprehended him, sent him out of the country, and seized the materials for the referendum;

Whereas the Honduran Congress named Roberto Micheletti, the head of the Congress, as President and subsequently suspended a number of constitutional rights, including the freedom of association and of movement;

Whereas the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has expressed its concerns regarding human rights abuses by the de facto Micheletti government, including the arbitrary detention of Zelaya supporters;

Whereas the Organization of American States, the United Nations, and the European Union - representing governments from across the political spectrum - have condemned the coup d'état, refused to recognize the de facto Micheletti government, and demanded the unconditional return of President Zelaya to office;

Whereas on July 1, 2009, the Organization of American States voted unanimously to suspend Honduras from participation in the OAS unless President Zelaya was returned to office within three days;

Whereas, on July 4, 2009, the OAS unanimously voted to suspend Honduras;

Whereas the Administration of President Barack Obama has condemned President Zelaya's removal, supported the OAS resolutions regarding Honduras, and demanded that he be returned to office;

Whereas the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank have suspended aid and loans to Honduras;

Whereas national elections are scheduled in Honduras for November 29, 2009;

Whereas President Zelaya has said that he will only serve until his term ends in January 2010;

Whereas it is critical for the stability of Honduras that the November 2009 elections be free, fair, and transparent; and

Whereas U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced on July 7, 2009, that Costa Rican President Oscar Arias would seek to negotiate a solution to the crisis, and President Zelaya and the de facto Micheletti government have agreed to the mediation of President Arias.

Therefore, the House of Representatives:

1) Condemns the June 28, 2009 coup d'état in Honduras and refuses to recognize the de facto Micheletti government installed by that coup d'état;

2) Calls on the Obama Administration to continue to refuse to recognize the de facto Micheletti government;

3) Calls for the reinstatement of President Zelaya as President of Honduras;

4) Urges the Obama Administration to suspend non-humanitarian assistance to the de facto Micheletti government as required by U.S. law and as it deems necessary to compel the return of President Zelaya to office;

5) Calls for extensive international observation of the November 2009 elections once President Zelaya is returned to office to ensure that his successor is elected freely, fairly, and transparently; and

6) Welcomes the mediation of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and encourages the Obama Administration to provide any assistance President Arias requests in his efforts.

Here is a great video developed and produced by some participants in the recent National Marxist School of the Communist Party.

Today is our nation's birthday. It commemorates the great struggle that severed our colonial dependence on Britain and gave a fresh impulse to the unending struggle for freedom.

Revolutions are never complete. While expanding the boundaries and possibilities of freedom, our revolution also had its limitations: the abominable institution of slavery remained; political rights were limited to white male property holders; the new nation was formed on lands unlawfully and violently expropriated from Native American peoples; and the revolution unfolded in a nascent bourgeois society, which over time widened many of the inequalities that were embedded in colonial life.

Nonetheless, the American Revolution constituted a landmark in human history. For the first time sovereignty and consent rested, not with a king, not with an aristocratic order, not with a church, but with the people. Freedom was proclaimed a universal right of humankind. And many old modes of deference and hierarchy melted away.

The revolution of 1776 set the stage for the second American Revolution in 1865—culminating in the abolition of slavery—and subsequent struggles to expand boundaries and impart new content to freedom.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the greatest leader in our land in the 20th Century, was well aware of the limitations of our revolution. Yet he heralded its achievements and ideals and challenged the nation to live up to full meaning of its creed.

That challenge has yet to be fulfilled, although in electing President Barak Obama our nation took another step down freedom road.

Let's celebrate this Independence Day with family and friends, while recommitting ourselves to complete that journey in the years ahead.

(Remarks to National Committee Meeting June 20, 2009)

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!

(Continued)

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.

Statement in Spanish

El Partido Comunista de los Estados Unidos (CPUSA) se une con el mundo entero en denunciar al golpe de estado militar que se llevó a cabo esta mañana en contra del presidente legitimo de la Republica de Honduras, Manuel Zelaya por militares hondureños, en que, según dice la Sra. de Zelaya, el presidente fue golpeado y amenazado físicamente, antes de ser exiliado a Costa Rica.

• El Partido Comunista de los Estados expresa su coraje e indignación por las versiones según las cuales tropas hondureñas agredieron a los embajadores de Cuba, Venezuela y Nicaragua en Tegucigalpa, e insiste que, al confirmarse tales reportes, los agresores sean castigados por esta grave infracción de las leyes internacionales y de la Republica de Honduras.

Además, el Partido Comunista de los Estados Unidos:

• Exige de que el presidente Zelaya y otros integrantes de su gobierno sean devuelto a poder en forma inmediatamente, y que todas las tropas regresen a sus cuarteles.

• Exige que todos los dirigentes laborales, comunales y estudiantiles que, según reportes, han sido detenidos por las fuerzas armadas sean puestos en libertad, y que la libertad de la prensa sea restaurada en forma inmediata.

• Reconoce que la administración del presidente estadounidense Barack Obama ha repudiado el golpe de estado, y exige que tanto Obama como la secretaria de asuntos exteriores Hillary Clinton se mantengan firmes en esta actitud, negando el reconocimiento diplomático y cualquier ayuda material hasta que se restaure al Presidente Zelaya a su puesto.

• Hace un llamado a los sindicatos y otras organizaciones populares en nuestro país, a que apoyen en forma activa a nuestras hermanas y hermanos en Honduras que ya están organizando una valiente resistencia en contra del golpe.

Declaración en íngles

National organizing director of the Communist Party Elena Mora talks with CNN's Rick Sanchez about normalizing relations with Cuba. Skip to about 1:06 on this video clip.

Reprinted from the People's Weekly World

CHICAGO — The Communist Party USA has established a new Religion Commission to strengthen its work among religious people and organizations. In its leadership are activists representing various religious traditions from around the country. Tim Yeager, a Chicago trade unionist and a member of the Episcopal Church, serves as its chair.

“We want to reach out to religious people and communities, to find ways of improving our coalition work with them, and to welcome people of faith into the party,” Yeager said. “We invite questions and responses from people who would like to dialogue with us on matters pertaining to religion, Marxism and the struggle for more peaceful, just and secure world.”

There is a common misconception concerning the position of the Communist Party USA about religion, Yeager noted. Many who are unfamiliar with the party wrongly assume that all Communists are atheists, or that the party requires its members to be atheists. Nothing could be farther from the truth, he said. Religious people are welcome to join. The party’s Constitution specifically states that membership is open to “[a]ny person living in the United States, 18 years of age or over, regardless of race, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, or religious belief…”

Yeager acknowledged that relations between some Marxist parties and religious institutions in other parts of the world have been marked by conflict. In tsarist Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church had been an arm of the state, and its leadership was opposed to the Revolution. The Bolsheviks adopted an official atheist position, and for many years waged a struggle against organized religion. Elsewhere, such as in Latin America, Marxist parties and religious progressives have worked together against repressive regimes and imperialist intervention.

“There has been no state church in the United States since shortly after we gained our independence, and we have a tradition of religious diversity,” Yeager said. “The so-called Christian Right in recent years has certainly made progress, but some of the greatest leaders in our history have been men and women of faith, and our party has been proud to work with them. The best known example, of course, would be the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”

The Religion Commission will be producing articles on matters pertaining to religion and social progress, he said. Its goal is to share with the broader people’s movement the party’s thinking on the religious aspects of current struggles, taking up theoretical questions, and discussing the relationships, contradictions and commonalities among science, Marxism and religion. The commission also announced plans to hold a series of gatherings around the country, open to the public, to discuss how people from religious traditions and the party can better work together, building toward a national conference in 2010.

“As Marx said, the goal is not merely to explain the world, but to change it. We hope that the new Religion Commission will help build greater unity toward that end,” Yeager said. “We welcome people from faith communities to join us.”

For more information, contact Tim Yeager at rtyeager @ gmail.com

Reprinted form the People's Weekly World

LANSING, Mich. — The General Motors bankruptcy, announced Monday, was expected, having been predicted for weeks if not months. But the enormity of how far this once mighty giant of U.S. monopoly capitalism has fallen is shocking nevertheless. For many it seems like not so long ago when GM was not only the leader of all auto producers with a commanding 54 percent of the U.S. market, it was also the undisputed dominant corporation in the country’s economy.

In filing for bankruptcy yesterday, GM said it will close 14 plants in the U.S., half of them here in Michigan. It will leave less than 40,000 GM autoworkers nationwide, a tiny fraction of the 395,000 employed by the company in its heyday in the 1970s.

Nowhere is the shock greater than Michigan, GM’s birthplace. Today, the state has an official unemployment rate of almost 13 percent, and because it has seven times the auto jobs of the next highest state, Ohio, people here fear things will only get worse as the job loss in auto ripples through the economy.

At a “Keep the Dream Alive — Reinvest in America” rally that drew several thousand here yesterday, Jim Chapman a steelworker at Great Lakes Works in Ecorse, Mich., which makes steel for auto bodies, said he is a victim of that rippling effect. This father of five has been laid off for six months. “If you’re not selling cars, you’re not making steel,” he said. “It trickles down.”
Lansing, Mich., rally demands, "Keep the Dream Alive — Reinvest in America."

Under a plan announced by President Obama on Monday, the federal government will provide up to another $30 billion to keep GM afloat while it emerges, restructured, out of bankruptcy. That is on top of $19 billion in federal money the company received earlier. The Canadian government will chip in another $9 billion as part of the deal. The downsized company will have 60 percent U.S. government ownership, with smaller portions of its stock held by the United Auto Workers union, bondholders and the Canadian government.

Ron Bloom, who heads Obama’s auto task force, told reporters the government will be a “reluctant shareholder” and will not get involved in day-to-day management. But, he said, with taxpayer money now keeping GM afloat, the government “has to demand something in return for this capital."

In exchange for the new government aid, GM agreed to go through bankruptcy to eliminate more than $27 billion in debt held by bondholders. It also agreed to build a new small car in idled UAW factories and to increase the share of U.S.-based production from 66 percent to 70 percent, the White House said. The union has agreed to a no-strike pledge until 2015.

The White House noted that "the UAW has made important concessions on compensation and retiree health care that, while difficult, will help save jobs for active employees, pensions and health care for retirees."

UAW leaders pointed out in a press statement that "the biggest sacrifices will be made by the tens of thousands of workers who will lose their jobs as a result of the numerous plant closings that GM is announcing in its restructuring plan."

Addressing yesterday’s rally here, Lansing Mayor Verg Bernero said, “D-Day for GM is a sad day.” He said he was “grateful for an administration that is grappling with a problem it did not create, but certainly inherited.”

Many at the rally were angry that GM, while receiving bailout money which may total $50 billion or more, is shutting down 14 plants at home while it increases production outside the country.

“When you offshore jobs, you export the American Dream,” said Bernero.

Bill Parker, president of UAW Local 1700 at Chrysler’s Sterling Heights, Mich., Assembly plant, which is also scheduled to close, said workers are outraged that Chrysler wants to close an additional five plants. His plant employs about 1,400 workers and produces the Sebring sedan and convertible, along with the Dodge Avenger. He asked the crowd of several thousand to join him in calling on the Obama administration to demand that Chrysler reverse its decision.

“Chrysler got the money but they did not get the message,” said Parker, referring to the more than $7 billion in federal bailout money the company has received. The intent of that government assistance was to help people, Parker said. Now, he declared, “our sons and daughters face the prospect of doing worse than we are.”

Referring to GM’s export of jobs to low-wage countries, Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow told the crowd that she is “tired of talking about the race to the bottom. I have been doing it for 10 years. We have to raise others up, and not keep pushing us down.”

The Rev. Jesse Jackson emphasized the effect the bankruptcy and closing of GM plants will have on communities. When you close 14 plants and hundreds of dealers, you also close auto suppliers; you cut off a town’s tax base, you close their schools, and cause their teachers, police and fire departments to also shut down, he said.

As details of the GM bankruptcy plan emerged, some 3,000 labor and progressive activists were meeting at the America’s Future Now conference in Washington.

“Loss of jobs and the economic devastation that has spread across this country results from corporate greed,” Change to Win labor federation chair Anna Burger said there. Economic recovery means “more than just companies making a profit,” she said. Echoing Lansing Mayor Bernero, Burger said, “It means good secure jobs, decent incomes and the prospect of a secure retirement — in short, the American Dream.”

Another labor leader, speaking informally, noted that the auto union was caught “between a rock and a hard place” and was able to come out of the bankruptcy negotiations with a few things including a little less pain for some active workers and retirees. But, he said, “Once again, we have workers making the sacrifices while companies close plants and ship operations overseas. Once again we are doing what the finance industry says we should be doing to make a company 'viable' even if that means more massive job loss and continued de-industrialization.” This is a continuation of an approach that “just doesn't cut it,” he said.

“The problem with doing business this way is that it leads to disaster for workers and in the end it doesn't do much for GM either — by doing it their way they ended up deep in debt,” the labor leader said.

“What we really need,” he said, “is a bold new approach that retools our old plants to build mass transit, light rail, green cars and all the things we need for the future. Globalization is here to stay. We need to make it work for the majority, not just for the few, by creating a real plan to keep good paying manufacturing jobs and green jobs here in America. Let’s use our leverage to fight for this approach.”

John Rummel is the Chair of the Michigan District of the CPUSA. jrummel @ pww.org. Joel Wendland and John Wojcik contributed to this story.

The Communist Party USA is shocked and appalled at North Korea's recent nuclear test, as well as its subsequent test firing of at least two missiles.

We see these acts as incredibly provocative. Even North Korea's most important ally, China, was horrified by, and condemned, the tests.

Of course, North Korea is right to say that it has been, and still is, the victim of imperialist aggression, specifically from the U.S. It is true that the United States has never made reparations for the destruction of the Korean War, has repeatedly threatened North Korea, and encroached upon its right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to peacefully use nuclear power. In addition, the United States has helped to isolate North Korea from the rest of the world, encroaching upon its sovereign rights and hindering its economic development, and therefore providing the basis for the problems afflicting the region. It was the United States that fought the Korean War, and partitioned the nation into two separate states. The line of demarcation between north and south is one of the most militarized in the world. Currently, tens of thousands of U.S. troops remain in South Korea, and the U.S. routinely practices joint military drills with south Korea, simulating a ground invasion of the North.

Nonetheless, we are resolutely opposed to the use or development of any nuclear weapons by any nation.

Nuclear weapons threaten the very existence of humanity itself. The unintended effects of the tests have been to heighten tensions in the region: The sections of Japan's leadership that want to see Japan change its “peace constitution” so that Japan can maintain a standing army have seized upon these provocative tests to push forward the changes they want.

Further, the results of the tests are in direct contradiction to our common aim of battling imperialism. The general direction of the Obama administration's nuclear policy is at odds with that of any administration in the past 30 years, if not longer. While Obama has to navigate the political realities of the U.S., his administration has sought to reduce the nuclear threat, as well as the threat that the U.S. poses to other, oppressed nations. Consequently, powerful sections of the U.S. ruling class have made their aim to derail the Obama administration altogether.

The fight for progressive forces is to make sure that Obama, and the social strata that are part of the Obama movement—the working class, women and the racially and nationally oppressed especially—meets success.

The ultra-right has already seized upon North Korea's nuclear tests to attack Obama, Obama has been forced to respond sharply, and the movement for peace and against imperialism is that much more difficult. We believe peace is possible in today’s world, but this nuclear test, on the contrary, strengthens the ultra-right and imperialism, not the cause of peace.

The Communist Party USA, along with North Korea's neighbors, including socialist China and Vietnam, and many other progressive forces around the world, condemn these tests and urge the North Korean leadership to abandon its policy of brinkmanship.

Further, we urge all parties, including the United States and Japan, to exercise restraint in response. As we have always said, the main way to solve the nuclear issue, as well as the problems of Northeast Asia more generally, is through good-faith dialogue, through the six-party talks or some other mechanism, and not through military saber-rattling and brinkmanship from any quarters.