Ideological Struggle

Most Americans are taught either in school or by their parents and families that we communists want to destroy religion and turn everyone into atheists. Well that's a myth, and not surprisingly started by the US ruling class. Listen to the truth about our relationship to religion and churches. You will be quite surprised.

Most Americans remember where they were when airplanes slammed into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Most remember the alarm, anger and sadness they felt when they realized that this was a massive terrorist attack that would change the course of human events. ... But what did the Bush-Cheney administration do?

As the seemingly endless lies and betrayals of the Bush administration come into the light of day, the insidious nature of the right-wing agenda is becoming more widely understood. Many national leaders now speak of the intent of the Bushites to bankrupt government; dismantle every public entity from education to Medicare; destroy union representation, civil rights and civil liberties; appropriate the spoils of the earth and dominate the entire world.

Our country and the world are going through an exceedingly dangerous period. I suppose one could imagine a more ominous time, but I can’t think of one. We have fought two wars in the space of six months and two bloody, costly, and coercive occupations have followed. No exit strategy is under consideration in either Afghanistan or Iraq.

NEW OPPORTUNITES TO DEFEAT THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION AND REACTION
Click to hear the streaming audio of the Opening Report by CPUSA National Chair, Sam Webb.


We do hope that this conference will initiate a process that will empower our clubs to meet present day challenges and, at the same time, to grow. Our future, it is fair to say, depends on how well we do this.

This report will focus on our three-part strategy in this year's election: to defeat the Republican ultra-right; to build political independence; and to make a turn in the Party so that building the clubs is at the center of our work.

The following is an excerpt from a report to the Communist Party's national committee, elected at its convention in July. The national committee met Oct. 20-21 in New York.

More and more, Communists and the left must make the linkage clear and fight for the global integration of struggles to match the global economic integration now dominated by monopoly capital. Some have called it globalizing peace, justice and equality.

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.

We are dealing with the largest working class in our history. Not counting farm labor, figures that I was not able to come up with, there are roughly 130 million workers in the U.S. economy today. If you add in the unemployed, who are very much part of the working class, then the figure is probably closer to 135 million. For comparison, in 1948 there were a little more than 21 million and in 1970 there were about 71 million workers.