Pre-Convention Discussion: Let's Give 'Em Something to Talk About!

Report given to the National Committee

To prepare for the convention, we set the goal of a discussion in the Party and of the Party with the left and our coalition partners.

We projected an approach that would utilize the Party's experiences in coalition building and communist and mass media. Our goal is to organize a broad discussion of ideas that will shape how the Party goes and grows.

Two months remain before the convention. This meeting is not the end of pre-convention discussion. There is still a heck of a lot to talk about!!! So let's take a look at the high points of experience at the local level as well as the national initiatives so far.

The Pre-convention Discussion Committee includes representatives from the communist media, labor commission, Internet department, Mexican American, African-American Equality Commissions and state/district activists. We've been working like a well-oiled machine until the last three weeks when health, travel, schedules and stepped up district/state work have tripped us up. So committee members, beware; we have to get back on track for the last phase of the discussion!!

Did we bite off too much to chew or do? Yes, but we also have made real headway in pointing up the direction to upgrade the ideological life of the Party and to stir up new thinking in the coalition organizing that is underway by the labor and people's movements.

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.

Also the approach is geared to a convention of transition. Transition in the sense of placing our growth, our relationships and ourselves with others on a new footing in the fight vs. the right in the boardrooms and in political power.

The pre-convention discussion in a modest way is taking the CP from where it has been to an awareness of where we need to go. The process is uneven, but it is a way to get a fix on the ideological work needed in the Party, on the left and in the movements.

We haven't given organized attention to ideological education work for quite a long time. The need for that organized collective attention really stood out in both positive and negative ways in the last few months. To start with the negative: There have been very few collectively-prepared written contributions from clubs and not enough planning on the district/state level. And from the positive angle there has been a tremendous response to the initiatives taken to spur on discussion.

Right now our Party is an activist Party, a talkative Party but not a writing Party. We need to change that! Less than thirty written responses have trickled in. One four- page pre-convention bulletin has been published and now a second eight-page edition is about to hit the presses.

So let's take a look at the high points so far. We have two months and still quite a lot to discuss before we go to Milwaukee!

The six areas that have been pre-convention discussion high points are:

1) Draft Labor Program
You heard Scotty's report on the experiences with the draft labor program. The commission's process for drafting it, the exchanges with coalition partners and the impetus it has given us to reexamine the left in labor and our connection to the growth of the left is the prototype for post convention initiatives. We should take the same approach to the discussion of the new draft Party program after the convention.

2) The Women's Equality Conference was an attempt to reestablish our political connections to this movement through examining the political and ideological questions confronting the movement in the fight against the right agenda and inviting others to participate in the discussion. Elena spoke of the impact of the conference in her opening and the clubs received the keynote by Denise Myles. Organizing this type of meeting will be needed in the post convention follow-up to reestablish commissions and strengthen coalition ties.

Chicago was the right place to have this conference. Denise Myles and the Illinois district did a great job. They had gotten the ball rolling on pre-convention discussions with a forum on the left and the 2000 elections involving the Greens, DSA, Socialist Action and labor activists. Bruce Bostick's speech to that roundtable is the lead article in the second pre-convention bulletin.

3) The organizing of public forums in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois and New York have helped to highlight the coalition ties and the necessity for the Party to exchange ideas and estimates even if we do not totally agree with others but share a commitment to movement building. To carry on the ship analogy from Sam's report, in a sense it is an example of Communists in the stream with a paddle, but not necessarily owning the title to the boat.

These forums, as well as private meetings with leaders, have been valuable in gauging where the movements and the Party must go to meet the political moment. Forums and roundtables with other leaders should be standard operating practice for our Party.

4) The National Board has been conducting pre-convention discussions to help stimulate discussions in the districts/states and clubs and to elaborate on specific areas the convention should focus on. The openings thus far have been on strategy and tactics, the energy crisis, the economic crisis, African American equality, globalization, the youth movement and the Party. More are scheduled.

Sam's opening on strategy and tactics sparked quite a bit of discussion. Sam participated in organized discussions in the Midwest states and New York, which brought out issues that in some ways will be the determining factors in mobilizing the broad united anti-right movement. The estimate of the right danger and the 2000 elections and the tactics of independent political action were debated. The sessions provided a lot of food for assessment of our work.

Not only did Sam's opening spark discussion in the real world but also in cyberspace in the Yahoo! discussion group on the Internet. Why? Because the strategy and tactics of electoral struggle are basic for a revolutionary, working-class party. More on that later!!

The preparation of the openings and the rapid circulation in the Party and posting on the Party's web page are key elements to a 21st century CP leadership!

5) We have begun to organize working groups in areas in which there are no commissions now. They have just begun to percolate. Peace and solidarity, culture, academics and the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, trans-sexual groups are getting together via E-mail and phone conferences. The religious community and Asian Pacific Islanders working groups have conveners and will be getting off the ground soon. We still need to reorganize the women's equality working group and find conveners for the seniors/retirees and Jewish working groups. There's great interest and response by the activists in these movements to help prepare for the convention.

The goal of these groups is to prepare discussion articles and help plan the workshops and panels for the convention. The working groups will help organize the invitations to coalition partners to be on panels and be with us in Milwaukee.

6) Now I'd like to spend some time on the most innovative element of the pre-convention discussion: the Internet. Of course, we have beefed up the staff by creating an Internet Department with Noel and Heather at the helm and the addition of Pete. Our web pages are liable to have something new every day now. There are long-term plans to make them even more exciting. The web pages are the portal to our revolutionary ideas.

This is also the collective that is hoping to help every level of the Party to get connected to the Internet. The Internet gives clubs the opportunity to give input and find out about new CP developments: a CP of action connected to the grassroots.

For the first time, National Board, National Committee and commission reports are available so that all Party members and others interested in our discussions can read them from the Internet.

Through the efforts of Henry in Connecticut and the Internet Department, the pre-convention discussion bulletins are also available both in text and on a PDF file from our web page.

The second element to the Internet pre-convention discussion is the Communist Party discussion group on Yahoo! initiated by the pre-convention discussion committee in mid-February. Prasad from Michigan heads the collective that is guiding this exciting new development. It is a collectively-moderated discussion for contributions to the thinking that will shape the decisions of the convention. You may have read some posts in the PWW.

The Yahoo! discussion group is a taste of the impact of ideological struggle on a mass scale. The response to this initiative on the web flows directly from the analysis of the new growth of a broad left in the labor and people's movements, which Joey discussed in his remarks. Many out there on the net are searching for left alternatives.

There has been a debate among us about the Internet recruiting, who's on the Internet and the relative importance it has in the class struggle. Labor and all the people's movements are utilizing it to break out from the corporate media control of the flow of information. And so should we!

So let us consider the Yahoo! discussion group from this angle: if the PWW and PA had gotten 600 letters to the editor since February, we'd be in an uproar. We've had over 600 written contributions to the discussion group. The discussion group has over 400 members and we estimate that about 1/3 are Party members. Every day it grows. Among left-wing, political, moderated discussion groups we are the gorilla on the block!! Why? Name recognition and our longevity as a political party. If you want to discuss class struggle, Marxist ideas, where else do you go?

The pre-convention discussion committee established the Yahoo! Communist Party discussion based on the idea of soliciting input into the program - strategy and tactics for the national convention. A moderated group that would give not only input but also examine, in light of new developments, philosophy and practice.

Wel, mates, to keep the ship analogy going, we've thrown the net way out into the ideological water; we're paddling; we own the title to this boat and we're on one hell of a tidal wave.

It's impossible to have a total estimate of the class, race, and gender of the discussion group members, but we do get a picture from the posts: professors, workers, labor activists, union organizers, students, cultural workers, musicians, one elected official, the religious, atheists, young and older, communists, big C and little c, socialists, marxists, leftists and Democratic and Green Party activists.

Many E-mails have slogans as their signatures, like revolutionary quotations from the bible, or "Man is by nature a political animal" - Aristotle.

In the exchanges, there's a strong effort to understand practical political struggles and reconcile their outcomes within a marxist framework. We've gotten some posts asking to be convinced to join the Party or just posing general questions about the Party's thinking on issues such as socialism and the role played by a revolutionary party. Communists, big c and little c, responded. In some ways those have been some of the most interesting exchanges.

The debates reflect questions on the minds of Party members as well as the broader left. The debates are part of the process of dialogue and ideological struggle with others that needs to go on all levels of the Party: from cyberspace to neighborhood and workplace.

Let's get a picture of the discussion. It opened on women's quality, based on a post by Denise Myles on the Women's Equality Conference and a debate on the definition of a revolutionary party in the class struggle today.

We went into a multi-layered debate on the Democrats, Greens and third party developments, and the strategy and tactics of the CP, which floundered about like an injured sea lion. There wasn't enough participation of CP activists and only a few that discussed the broad, flexible approach needed to defeat the right danger.

Another area of strategy and tactics was a debate on the character and necessity of labor-community coalitions and the role of the left. Differences centered on the estimates of labor as a leading force for social change from some with a leftist critique, which unfolded into a struggle to define the working class in this stage of capitalism.

By far the most heated debate was over the 2000 elections from the point of view of 20-20 hindsight of what the CP should have done and the correct role of a revolutionary CP in coalition and its impact on left efforts at political independence. At the center of the debate were differences on the estimate of the right danger in the elections.

Internet discussion groups, much like soap operas, turn to other subjects in just a twist of a phrase. We then went into comparisons between the US scene and the international experiences on defining the left and issues of left unity.

There have been very interesting responses by CP members and others describing experiences that point to the breadth of the left in the movements and its significance for winning struggles today, and socialism tomorrow. This spun off into discussion on armed struggle, which later reappeared as a debate on gun ownership.

We did go through a rather lengthy discussion on the legacies of Stalin and Trotsky and their impact on revolutionary theory and strategy and tactics.

Needless to say the collective moderators of the group drew that to a close to refocus on the issues of immediate concern for the Party convention and the movements to defeat the right.

We got into a discussion on Party membership, the constitution and two working groups, culture and GLBT, put out appeals for input, which received a vigorous response.

Last week a fascinating discussion began on the Christian-Marxist dialogue, historically and currently, the relationship between a materialist framework and a religious outlook and whether membership in the CP is feasible.

Why are there over 400 members in the discussion group? The broader left is attracted to the name recognition and our history! They are curious about what the Party is today. They have complex questions. They have developed their analysis outside of collectives and have tuned in to the CP's cyber-club. But we do not have enough CP participation. Only a few from the NC and district/state organizers are members. Those who do participate present opportunities for the over 400 members to get pithy, practical, popular answers to a diverse array of questions.

Some in our leadership have admitted they are addicted to it, a daily dose of the ideology generated by the class struggle, the reactions to the rightwing, the struggle to find a path to defend democracy and the prospects for socialism here and abroad. It's not an opiate but it sure gives television a run for its money!!

Hopefully the addicts will turn their habit into producing pithy, popular pamphlets and op-ed articles for the PWW!!

It's relatively unusual for a political party to solicit input for convention preparations on the Internet, but this is the 21st century CP and it's quite a victory for us and for the movements defending democracy. Talk about demystifying and breaking out of stereotyping! It's an opportunity for the Party to interact, and hopefully influence, new levels of activism

Some who have been following the discussion have suggested that the Party should do a daily news analysis digest. The plans to have a daily PWW online is just in time to get into the mainstream ideological struggle.

In the next two months we still have a lot to talk about:

1) Working groups will begin to plan workshops/panels for the convention and prepare discussion articles for PWW and the pre-convention discussion bulletin.

2) And, of course, there is much to discuss on the proposed changes in structure and organization and the Constitution.

3) The second pre-convention bulletin is available on the Party's web page now and will be mailed to the clubs in the next week. We are planning two more issues of the pre-convention discussion bulletin: one with a focus on the women's equality conference and the second on discussion about the draft labor program.

4) We also should invite participation of others on the left and from coalition work in district/state conventions.

Another key feature to the national convention preparation is inviting leaders of labor and community movements as guests and for participation in the panels and workshops in Milwaukee.

5) On the Yahoo! discussion group, we urge you all to join. You can do so by going to the Party's web page. We are hoping to have live chats with Party leaders. Watch for the announcements in the PWW.

Working group and commission leaders should post to Yahoo! to solicit input into your work.

So in the next two months we have much to do!!! Our modest experiences thus far show that the left and our coalition partners can help us make this convention deeply connected to the thinking and mood of the working people. We are well on our way to a great convention!