Pre-Convention Discussion

The struggle for political independence is interconnected with, and in opposition to, the ruthless drive for increased profits by transnational corporations. It is part and parcel of the striving of working class families for survival, to realize hopes and dreams and to determine their own destiny.

Convening a seminar of district organizers and leaders made uncommonly good sense because you are the key link in the leadership chain of our Party even if we don't always acknowledge and act on that basis. Nevertheless, it is true. You make the Party go. You enable the Party
to make sound assessments of and tactical adjustments to new conditions of struggle. Your initiative is crucial to the on-going process of building the Party and the People's Weekly World.

We are looking at many things anew, afresh, and in particular, we are striving to transform the Party, to work so that we are "in the mix." It is very important to discuss our approach Party building in that context, because the kind of Party we want to become in terms of style, the way we work, political emphasis, coalition relationships, has bearing on how we go about adding to our ranks.

I think we should look at this session as an exchange on what Districts need to be in this new period. We won't come up with all the answers this weekend but I want to continue to pose questions that stir up the pot of our thinking about our future work.

The National Convention is the highest decision making body in the Communist Party. It has both the important tasks of setting policy and electing a new National Committee (NC). These are interrelated parts of the same democratic process.

At the beginning of our work, the Committee was not given any guidelines, or charged with any particular mission, other than to review the Constitution and to recommend changes, if any. We struggled with one another about emphasis, formulation, or finding the right word, but early on we found ourselves in general agreement as to the direction in which we wanted to go. I think this points to the correctness of some of the changes the Party has made in the recent period toward openness and a mass style.

The political framework of the 27th Convention is shaped by the struggle against the right danger. It is an inescapable political reality that casts a long shadow over every aspect of our nation's life - politics, economics, and culture. It touches and affects nearly everything, both here and worldwide.

Most comrades have responded really well to changes and have been responsive to the idea that we need to take a fresh look at how we do things. So our committee was not starting from scratch. Our work is part of an ongoing discussion that has been in motion with the transition for over a year now. The process should and will continue even after the National Convention.

The bond between the Communist Party USA and the Communist Party of Vietnam is enduring, especially as a result of the movement against the U.S. imperialist war. Yet, that bond continues to grow and flourish with time. The comradeship for our Party at the Congress was overwhelming.

The last election created a center-left electoral majority. The majority of the left worked to defeat Bush. This majority is likely to grow in the future. At the same time, unity of action has to be built with that section of the left that voted for Nader. The imperative of all-peoples unity and creating the broadest possible anti-Bush front demands this as the election fiasco clearly demonstrated.

The Party Program is not a legislative program or an immediate projection for what we're doing this year. It is a longer range document, and should be more of an overview - addressing the stage of struggle at present, yet linked to more advanced stages including Bill of Rights socialism.

Throughout the weekend, in many different reports, the word and subject of cadre has come up. The ability or inability to head key areas of work or build key collectives for the Party has a material impact on the role of the Party as well as our collective ability to make the contribution that history is calling upon us to make.

Our general approach to pre-convention discussion fits with the needs of the Party and the movements: 1) the need for galvanizing the left, and left center unity, 2) the goal of deepening political ties with others, and 3) the need to emphasize the dialectical relationship between ideological struggle and organizing both the Party and the movements.

Vermont is a major dairy state and all those dairymen up there are plenty P.O.'ed at George W. Bush's arrogant greed for profit, and more specifically, Dubya's threat to pull the plug on the Northeast Dairy Compact. The fact that a Republican Senator from a rural state inflicted such a huge blow on the ultra right is a very good reason for the Communist Party USA to be paying more attention to the farm question.

After the crisis in the socialist world and the disillusionment in the student movement following the Gulf War, campus and high school movements went through a deep recession. The election of Clinton to the White House also made many organizations complacent. Cynicism ruled the youth movements during the 90s.

The media and the class struggle have changed dramatically since the days of [John] Reed and so the purpose of this article is to take a look at whether or not we are measuring up to today's challenges. The following is intended to get ideas flowing on building the communist press in the present-day working class and people's battles.

For now all of us should bear in mind the following: our party has always adjusted its concepts of struggle - strategic and tactical - to the shifting contours of political and economic developments. We in this room are not pioneers in this sense.

I hope to make a case against stiff and rigid concepts of class. In my experience, stiffly constructed concepts of class are never appropriate. And particularly now when political, economic, and ideological life is so fluid, when new opportunities exist to strengthen working class, multi-racial, and all people's unity.

George W. Bush's covert connection to the California energy crisis is unraveling as Republicans are about to introduce a 250-page-plus bill on energy. While all the specifics have not been revealed yet, what is clear is that the GOP is putting forward an unprecedented pro US oil corporation bill in the name of securing our energy. This bill is on their front burner for passage and they will be exploiting the California crisis every step of the way.

This important observation is timely in many ways for today. As we discuss the crisis at home we have to remember that in today's world, even more than in Marx's day,"poverty and restricted consumption," is a worldwide capitalist system of global proportions. Truly, global capital does now develop "as if only the absolute power of consumption of the entire society (or planet) would be their limit."