African-American Equality

The Communist Party of the United States of America as part of African American History Month honors the life of Paul Robeson. He was an actor, singer, football player, lawyer, and a civil rights activist.

Strategy for a Black Agenda first came out in 1973. The book was and remains a fundamental contribution to the struggle. The issues that Henry Winston raised centered on the unity of the class and national questions.

Reprinted from Political Affairs Magazine, the magazine of the Communist Party USA.

As part of a series of Black History Month conversations, Libero Della Piana, Chair of the New York State Communist Party, speaks about the radical legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Della Piana references King's famous "Beyond Vietnam" Speech made at The Riverside Church in Manhattan on April 4, 1967 where he called for "revolution of values" and an end to the U.S. war in Vietnam. He also refers to King's final book "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?" which called for a guaranteed national income.

February is Black History Month. Communists have always emphasized the importance of the African American people to the struggles for basic social change in this country from Slavery to Civil Rights to today. This series of video interviews and commentaries by leaders of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) reflect on the legacy and power of the Black Freedom Struggle.

First in the series is a brief commentary by CPUSA Executive Vice-Chair Jarvis Tyner on the importance of Black History Month today.

INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION

The economic costs of discrimination against African Americans are many-sided, and are interconnected with the effects of social discrimination and racism. Overt racist discrimination is still significant, but institutional forms of discrimination, which can operate without any conscious racist intent, are equally important.

The Urban League’s State of Black America 2007 measures a number of “indexes” of Black equality. It shows an overall black equality index of 0.73, but the economic index is the lowest at 0.57. [REF15] In other words, of all the areas the Urban League measures (health, education, home ownership, etc.), African Americans face the worst inequality in economic matters. This can be seen most dramatically in the figures on poverty.

Special District Meeting on African American Equality and
Building the Communist Party and Young Communist League
Chicago, IL September 30, 2007

Opening Remarks By John Bachtell, IL District Organizer

First, I want to acknowledge the collective nature of this report and preparation for the meeting. Thanks to everyone who contributed.
Secondly, these remarks will not begin to touch on every question, only a few of the key problems and issues before the district. The rest is up to you.

Comrades, Sisters and Brothers,

Welcome!

Let me start by thanking comrade Sam Webb for proposing this meeting and the National Board for endorsing the idea of this conference which started out as an expanded meeting of the commission but because of the overwhelming response grew into much more.

The last time we held a similar meeting was in the early 90’s before our 25th convention. We must do this more often.

Statement of National Board of the Communist Party USA
Prepared by Jarvis Tyner, Executive Vice Chair

The crude racist/sexist remarks of radio talk show host Don Imus have ignited a firestorm of anti-racist protest from people of all races and nationalities all over the country. This protest has resulted in the show losing several sponsors and MSNBC dropping Imus’s show. CBS radio, after much hesitation, finally decided to drop Imus’s show—which generated $50 million in advertising revenues annually.

February presents us once again with an opportunity to strengthen our basic understanding of the fight for democracy and social progress in our country. One decisive question is the relationship of the struggle of the working class to the struggle of the African American people. The core forces of the forward motion for social progress in our country consist of the working class and its organized form, the labor movement, in association with the movements of the nationally and racially oppressed, the movements of women, and the movements of youth. Decisive is the relationship of the working class and organized labor to the African American people...

The movement of the African American people for full social economic, and political equality has always played a decisive role in the over all struggle for democracy and socialism.

The Republican Party and the right wing are waging a well-financed campaign to weaken and destroy the impact of the African American vote. This campaign is in direct violation of the Voting Rights Act (1965) and the principle of one person, one vote. It is one of the clearest examples of the racist nature of the Bush administration.

We are living through a very dangerous period. The Bush Administration and most Republicans in Congress are using the events of September 11th to push their reactionary agenda: imperialist aggression abroad, racism and austerity at home. We are in the middle of a deepening economic crisis made worse by the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, the great corporate scandals of 2002, and the right-wing policies of the Bush Administration.

This honoring of a hero of the Party with over 70 years of leadership and distinguished service in the struggle for African-American equality, civil rights and Socialism was given by Jarvis Tyner, CPUSA Executive Vice-Chair at the National Committee meeting, Feb 9-10 2002. James Jackson gives a brief acceptance speech.
Click here to hear the full streaming audio of the speech
Coming soon: Click the headline above to read the full speech.

DURBAN, South Africa - An atmosphere of protests, strikes and mass actions surrounded the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discriminiation, Xenophobia and Related Intolerances in Durban, South Africa.