The following Twin Cities club report was given on Saturday, April 22, 2023.

Introduction

Welcome and thank you for attending the Twin Cities Communist Party USA 2023 club conference! This is the first time in many years we’ve held a club conference with a political report and an action plan, making this an historic moment in the rebuilding of the Communist Party in the Minneapolis–St. Paul metro area.

Today’s conference is especially important because it demonstrates that our club is back on the correct path. Moving forward, we will host yearly club conferences where we will develop an action plan for our club and district, as well as evaluate if and how we are meeting our goals and the needs of the working class.

We must understand that having this club conference is only the first step in our journey. We are beginning down a road with many twists and turns. It is inevitable that we will make mistakes as we proceed — such is the nature of being human. Nonetheless, if we keep ourselves grounded in the science of Marxism-Leninism and in the working class, we will be able to contribute greatly to the necessary struggles for a better, more equitable, and more just society.

Our club and district have gone through some difficult times recently. We had some individuals in the club that viewed our Communist Party not as a collective organization based on democratic centralism, but instead as a means for achieving their individualistic goals. When these individualist attitudes develop within a club and threaten to undermine the foundations of our collective approach, we can begin to lose our bearings. Individualist thinking injures the strength, unity, and growth that our party’s collective approach helps guarantee.

Another problem that severely affected our club and district recently was a strong tendency towards factionalism and ultra-left bourgeois thought. These trends are at odds with Marxism-Leninism and are disconnected from the working class struggle.

All this individualism, left sectarianism, factionalism, and adventurism that had developed also opened the door to many other issues, including chauvinism, misogyny, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia. In particular, women and transgender comrades were targeted by these extremist elements in our club. All this chauvinism and bigotry kept us from being able to focus on building up our club and the Communist Party.

Our party’s goal is to advance the ideas and demands of the working class. Our party is also dedicated to developing the science of Marxism-Leninism, a science that is constantly in motion and developing out of those working class ideas. To achieve our party’s goals and stay true to our Marxist-Leninist principles, we must take a firm stand against sectarian anti-party tendencies. The growth and success of our club and our party depend on it.

If all of us here today resolve to work diligently to overcome our club’s challenges, we will undoubtedly attract the confidence of the broader working class — particularly workers of color, unemployed workers, women and gender nonconforming workers, LGBTQ+ workers, disabled workers, and many more. If we resolve to speak up on all the issues facing workers and make these issues central to our club’s daily work, we will be able to thrive and make a lasting impact in the Twin Cities and beyond.

Our club has been through some trying times lately, but we are getting our feet squarely back on the ground. It’s not all just gloom and doom! Just in the last year, our club has done incredible work that we should be proud of and demonstrates the great things we can achieve through collective struggle.

Labor support

In the Twin Cities club and Minnesota–Dakotas district, we’ve been involved in many aspects of the labor movement. There has rarely been a picket line that our metro club has not attended or supported in the last year.

Chronologically, here are some of the labor-support actions that have mobilized our club and members:

Minneapolis Teachers’ Strike, March 2022

On International Women’s Day, March 8th, 2022, the Minneapolis teachers and education support professionals went on strike for a month, demanding safe staffing, liveable wages, adequate mental health support staff, and support for recruiting and retaining teachers of color. Picket lines were held every morning at every school throughout the city. Afternoon mass protests were held in front of the Davies District Administration building on West Broadway Avenue in North Minneapolis, in front of the corporate privatization group The Minneapolis Foundation in downtown Minneapolis, and at the state capitol and Governor’s mansion in St. Paul.

Our club comrades participated in all of these rallies, along with picket line participation at the following schools: Olson Middle School, Henry High School, Loring Elementary School, Anishinabe and Anne Sullivan School, Franklin Elementary, and the Adult Education Center. In addition, our club adopted the picket line at the bilingual Anishinabe school where we provided picket line support and treats every morning. Lastly, our comrades participated in the strike solidarity committee, representing community organizations that engaged in strike support actions for the teachers.

At the end of almost three weeks, a deal was reached to end the strike. Union leaders described the agreement as “historic” with “wins for our students and the safe and stable schools they deserve, and major gains made on pay for education support professionals, protections for educators of color, class size caps, and mental health supports.”

Starbucks workers

In April 2022, the first Minnesota Starbucks store was unionized in St. Paul on Snelling Avenue. Throughout the spring of 2022, three other Minneapolis–St. Paul metro area stores unionized: the 47th and Cedar Avenue store, the St. Anthony store, and the Mall of America store.

Starting in August 2022, three months after baristas won an election to be represented by Starbucks Workers United, an affiliate of SEIU, they successfully led the first strike by a unionized Starbucks in Minnesota.

Our club was there to show solidarity with workers at this first strike and at every single other strike action, sip-in, and informational event that Starbucks’ workers have initiated since.

We’ve brought lunch, breakfast, supplies, signs, and more in support of Starbucks workers to both local strikes and strikes that were coordinated on the national level.

This includes the Labor Day Sip-in, the Red Cup Rebellion Strike, the Double Down Strike, and the most recent One Day Longer, One Day Stronger strike.

We have been so successful at showing up that the workers at Starbucks always reach out to the Communist Party to see how we can help.

The reason we do this is because we know that an injury to one is an injury to all.

We as communists deeply understand the importance of worker solidarity.

UAW Case New Holland strike

In May 2022, two UAW locals — Local 180 tractor workers in Racine, Wisconsin and Local 1287 in Burlington, Iowa — were forced to initiate what would be prolonged to an eight-month strike.

In the past, these workers had been forced to accept massive concessionary contracts. They now wanted to have contracts that reflected the value of their work, rescinded the two-tier wage system, and provided fair and affordable health care premiums.

The contract that CNH was offering required workers with families to contribute $25,000 per year, under their corporate healthcare policy, toward their family deductibles and premiums.

Our club members went to Racine to show solidarity and march on the picket line with the workers. We brought supplies to the picket line, provided monetary donations, visited with the local president, local financial secretary, and many members on the picket lines and in the labor hall.

MNA Minnesota Nurses’ Strike and Picket Lines

In the summer and fall and 2022, members of the Minnesota Nurses Association from 15 hospitals in the Twin Cities and Duluth voted overwhelming on August 15 to authorize a strike. The nurses demanded that hospital CEOs put patients before profits and implement safe levels of staffing, solutions to nurse retention and workplace violence, and wage increases that reflected inflation and the escalating cost of living.

The 15,000 nurses that were forced to strike represented the largest such walkout in Minnesota in years, and it was the largest ever strike of private sector nurses in the country.

While on strike, nurses detailed the dangerous levels of workplace violence to which they are routinely subjected. Ninety-seven percent of nurses serving patients within the Hennepin Healthcare hospital system reported witnessing workplace violence. The vast majority indicated the two major risk factors are severe understaffing and lack of response to harassment and violence by hospital management.

Comrades showed up multiple days for picket lines at Fairview Riverside, Children’s Hospital, North Memorial Hospital, and Allina Hospital.

Railway Workers’ Labor Demonstrations

Seven railroads in the nation are deemed Class One Railroads, which are the largest railroads that haul freight across the country. As the union contract was set to expire this year, the railway workers, through their collective unions, (including the Teamsters, United Transportation Union, Machinists, and others) bargained with the Class One Railroads.President Biden, realizing that the negotiations weren’t going well, assigned Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh to work with the unions and the companies to ratify a successful contract.

The railroad companies refused to budge on any issues, particularly scheduling and paid time off (i.e. sick days). Fifty-five percent of the Tier One railroad workers voted to strike, prompting all of the unions that worked in the rails to agree to go on strike together in solidarity. However, the Biden administration collapsed like a house of cards. President Biden, under pressure of blackmail and intimidation by the railroad barons, capitulated and would not allow the railroad workers to go on strike.

Although the House of Representatives passed legislation for seven days’ sick leave for the railway workers, they also voted to mandate the contract, forcing the workers to accept it and return to work. The Senate subsequently voted down the seven days’ sick leave, and also voted to force people back to work. Because of the workers’ determination and unity, in some cases they have been able to force the railroad companies, like CSX, to grant seven days’ paid sick leave and to work with the unions on scheduling issues.

Despite Congress’ and Biden’s actions — and their interference with workers’ right to strike — some U.S. freight railroad workers still do not have a new contract agreement. Specific to the Twin Cities metro area, Canadian Pacific (CP) Railway, the second-largest railroad in Minnesota, has yet to reach a contract with more than half of its U.S. workers who are members of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division (BMWED). BMWED is a union of workers who build, maintain, repair, and inspect the tracks, bridges, buildings, and facilities used by railroads like CP.

Our club participated in labor demonstrations with railway workers in the fall and winter to bring awareness to deteriorating working conditions, including fatigue from long working hours, stagnant wages despite increased workloads and a smaller workforce, and strict schedules with little to no time off.

Minnesota Historical Society workers

In February 2022, Minnesota Historical Society Workers overwhelmingly voted to form a union through AFSCME Council 5 due to unaccountable management, low wages, uncompensated work, lack of transparency and stability, and other issues. Their successful campaign culminated in victory in November when the National Labor Relations Board certified their election.

The union includes about 250 Historical Society workers statewide, including tour guides, archivists and maintenance employees, and our comrade Jon.

After 40 weeks of bargaining, these new AFSCME members ratified their first union contract which included wage increases, paid parental leave, and a longevity-based pay scale.

Union leaders said that Historical Society “workers from across our state, from Moorhead to the North Shore and the Twin Cities area to Montevideo, will live more dignified lives because of this union contract.” Congratulations and solidarity to comrade Jon, who contacted us before the conference since he was working that day.

Amazon and airport workers

Amazon workers have led several walkouts and demonstrations at the company’s facilities in Shakopee and Eagan. This was in response to the company’s plans to shut down a sort center in Shakopee at the end of March, at which point an estimated 680 workers would not have a job. We joined labor rights activists to say Amazon’s plans to shutter a Minnesota facility and terminate hundreds of jobs in retaliation for workers’ organizing efforts is wrong!

The Awood Center, an advocacy group aligned with East African workers, stated that Amazon’s decision is wrong and retaliatory, based on the powerful efforts of workers who have been organizing and demanding better working conditions, particularly through their advocacy for the warehouse safety bill in the Minnesota Legislature.

Local Amazon workers have publicly demanded pay raises while criticizing the company for work quotas and workplace conditions. Workers have also said the company refused to give Muslim workers time off to celebrate the holiday Eid al-Fitr.

We have marched in solidarity with Amazon and airport workers to demand dignity and respect on the job.

SEIU healthcare workers

Mental health workers represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in Minneapolis and Fridley, Minn. initiated a three-day strike in October 2022 after Allina Health bosses refused to negotiate a first contract. They also held informational picket lines again in March to demand a fair contract.

The recently unionized psychological associates, behavioral assistants, and other mental health care workers are caregivers in the highest-risk environments in the hospital system, frequently facing physical assault on the job and repeated exposure to other forms of workplace violence, such as being threatened with weapons and ongoing verbal abuse.

Allina bosses have refused to implement SEIU’s recommended safety measures, such as safeguarding pregnant workers from unstable situations, screening patients for weapons before entering the facility, and increasing safe staffing levels.

Comrades from our club marched in picket lines in the fall and spring to demand that Allina bosses get to the table to negotiate with these essential workers.

School food services workers

Thirty-five school cafeteria workers who are members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 284, were forced out on strike in February.

School board officials routinely stonewalled the lunch workers, offering them a 35 cent raise while offering the superintendent $35,000.

The entry-level wage for a Hastings school food service worker before the strike was $13.80, while surrounding school districts, like Cottage Grove, offer beginning workers $17 to start.

To add insult to injury, the school board voted at a recent March meeting to spend $200,000 on a stone monument using proposed bond money, while union workers were noting that ratifying a fair, dignified contract with them would only cost the district $170,000.

After a six-week strike, Hastings Public Schools food service workers reached a tentative agreement with their employer on Thursday, March 23rd. Workers reviewed details of the plan on March 24th, and the members voted to ratify the agreement, ending the historic strike.

Our club marched with workers on the picket line and also attended the March school board meeting in support of the workers.

Grocery workers

Grocery workers with UFCW 663 settled a historic contract with Cub Foods that had significant pay raises and increased benefits with better contract language. Comrades also joined these picket lines to show support.

Letter carriers labor rally

The National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) and postal workers generally have long struggled with stagnant wages, understaffing, and mandatory overtime, all of which have resulted in unsafe working conditions, mail delays, and myriad health problems due to overwork.

Negotiations between the NALC and USPS began on February 22nd, yet the union says many letter carriers in Minnesota have still been forced to work 12–16 hour days, seven days a week.

Workers also demand that USPS raise wages to keep up with inflation and corporate price gouging. Union leaders described how USPS prioritizes Amazon packages over others, which has also led to delay in regular mail delivery.

Comrade Aaron, a member of NALC and a downtown Minneapolis letter carrier, graciously hosted a tour for comrades of the downtown post office to give us a glimpse into working environments and conditions of these essential workers. This is the same post office where Representative Ilhan Omar’s father worked. She also spoke in support of letter carriers at the rally.

Twin Cities CPUSA will continue to stand in solidarity with letter carriers demanding safe staffing, dignified wage increases, and an end to mandatory overtime. All power to the postal workers and solidarity to our comrade Aaron!

Labor union membership in the club

Club comrades are union members or former and retired union members from the Teamsters, AFSCME Council 5, National Association of Letter Carriers, Machinists, United Food and Commercial Workers, and are Minnesota educators.

In addition, comrades are very active members of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, the Minneapolis Labor Federation, and the Minneapolis Retirees Council of the AFL-CIO, organizations which represent more than 100 affiliate unions and more than 125,000 union members who work and live in metro area counties.

Political work

In the Twin Cities club and Minnesota–Dakotas district, we’ve been involved in promoting progressive legislation, particularly now that we have a trifecta in the state and a $17.6 billion surplus.

Some of the political and legislative work that has mobilized our club and members in the last year is as follows:

Sanford–Fairview merger

We have attended community meetings and stood in opposition to the proposed merger of corporate healthcare giants Sanford and Fairview. We oppose this merger because it would increase prices for patients and lower wages for the essential workers who care directly for families.

We support union members who have laid out how the greedy corporate CEOs that are pushing this deal should instead focus their time on patient care and address the urgent needs of their workers who spent the last two years on the front lines of a global pandemic. The University of Minnesota hospital should be owned by the residents of Minnesota, not an out-of-state corporation like Sanford, which is in South Dakota.

Drivers’ licenses for all

Another important piece of legislation that comrades have participated in is the passing of Drivers’ Licenses for All!

Drivers’ licenses for all is a very important democratic right for everyone. The bill was passed in March, 2023 and goes into effect October 1. It will allow all Minnesotans, regardless of documentation or immigration status, to apply for a driver’s license for the first time in decades.

 

Voting rights for formerly incarcerated people

We’ve also had comrades involved in the recent struggle to restore voting rights for those who had previously been convicted of a felony. This is another important victory for democratic people’s rights. The previous law had prevented more than 50,000 Minnesotans from voting, and disproportionately affected people of color.

The new law restores voting rights for over 55,000 formerly incarcerated people — the largest expansion of voting rights in Minnesota in half a century.

Free school meals

Minnesota just passed free universal school meals for all children in the state! This historically impacts students in our club area, particularly affecting children in low income and poverty families, such as our own.

It removes racism and lunch-shaming from the school system. Lunch-shaming has also been ruled unconstitutional this year in the state of Minnesota.

Fully funding public education

Another important bill that comrades have been working on is money for education to make Minnesota the best state in the country in terms of funding public K-12 education and technical and state colleges. Fully funding schools across the state would allow schools to provide enough counselors, social workers, and other human resources to support every student.

Fully funding our schools allows for schools to provide comprehensive training in anti-racist and culturally responsive teaching. It allows for schools to purchase curriculum and materials that are most impactful for their student body. Fully funded schools have enough staff and teachers to provide class sizes that allow the teacher to provide enough support.

Paid family medical leave

We also have comrades active in the fight for passing paid family medical leave. This bill, once we pass it, will have historical importance for all workers in Minnesota, allowing them the time they deserve to take care of their health, their families, and their communities. This bill is yet another example of the importance of democratic people’s victories. We as Communists realize that these victories are important to our class and our allies to have a more fair and just Minnesota.

Meat-packing safety bill

In Minnesota, there have been companies forcing children as young as 13 to work in the meat-packing factories as laborers and cleaners. The meat packing safety bill will ensure that these kinds of violations of national labor laws will no longer happen in our area!

Housing for all

Another crisis of 21st century capitalism is the mass increase in unhoused individuals. Although Minneapolis Mayor Frey ran on a platform to end homelessness in Minneapolis, he has continued to criminalize unhoused people and communities, leading Minneapolis killer cops to brutally evict encampments of unhoused communities even during the coldest of winter weeks in our city. Shelter beds were almost impossible to come by during the winter months, and even if a person did manage to find a bed at a shelter, they were often required to leave by 6am in the morning, making it impossible to find a safe, dignified place to rest one’s head.

Comrades supported rent control on the ballot initiatives in the last election, which passed both in St. Paul and Minneapolis. However, the rent control initiative that passed in St. Paul was much stronger.

There is proposed legislation to spend $1.7 billion on making sure that affordable housing is built in the state. In addition, there is a bill working its way through the Minnesota legislature that would ban corporations from buying single-family homes. It would also apply to real estate developers and residential building contractors. This important proposal comes as Minneapolis and St. Paul residents struggle to find affordable housing in the Twin Cities metro area. The legislation calls for the Attorney General to enforce the ban.

Comrades have been diligent in supporting legislation that would provide more affordable housing options in the metro area. This has included attending several rallies, participating with grassroots work in the state capitol, working with community and faith-based organizations such as Beacon Interfaith Housing Coalition, and supporting mutual aid efforts.

Comrades have also continued to raise the issue of the city of Minneapolis privatizing its public housing.

Get out the vote

Throughout the late summer and fall months, comrades participated in the AFL-CIO get-out-the-vote initiative by phone calling and door knocking with labor unions and affiliated organizations.

Mass community work

As communists, we try to be present where the working class actually is, and not either stand aloof from the working class because it is not yet revolutionary, or busy ourselves with creating tiny alternative pseudo entities that, because of their small size and sectarian attitudes, have absolutely no chance of leading the workers or influencing events in the real world. For that reason, we try to engage in daily, on-the-ground mass work in our communities.

Protests against racist police terror

Since 2000, there have been almost 230 people murdered by killer cops in the state of Minnesota. People of color, particularly BIPOC men, are disproportionately victims of police violence.

Throughout the last few years, comrades have participated in mass protests against racist MPD killer cops who have taken the lives of our neighbors, including George Floyd, Winston Smith, Amir Locke, Isak Aiden, Daunte Wright, Dolal Idd, Travis Jordan, Tekle Sundberg, and many other victims of police brutality.

Despite the recent mass community opposition to the MPD and Mayor Frey’s attempt to rebuild the old 3rd precinct — to the cost of $14-20 million dollars of the people’s money — the police farce of defunding the people for a killer cop force continues.

The Twin Cities club stands with the Communist Party USA and with the African American Commission of the CPUSA in calling for an immediate end to racist police violence against Black, Brown, Asian, Indigenous, and LGBTQ+ people, against women, and against migrants.

We call for democratic community control of the police, and de-escalating the use of police force in oppressed communities. We demand real justice for all victims of police terror!

Cuba solidarity

Many comrades from our club have been involved in the struggle to end the 60-year unjust and inhumane embargo against Cuba. More recently, Cuba was again put on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list.

The SSOT designation is totally unfounded and steeped in a history of anti-communist propaganda.

Our club members have participated in multiple car caravans, protests, rallies, vigils, call-ins, coffee hours, banner drops, and various action alerts to demand Cuba be removed from the State Sponsor of Terror list, and that our senators and representatives vote NO on the FORCE Act, which would indefinitely codify Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism.”

We also demand an immediate end to the unjust 6-decade embargo against socialist Cuba.

Reproductive rights

The Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is a horrific setback for women, our partners, our families, and society overall.

Today’s right-wing Supreme Court has determined that certain people, in this case women and transgender people, are even less equal than they were before the courts ruling on June 24, 2022.

Our club mobilized and took to the streets throughout the summer to protest this awful setback to democracy and gender equality.

Comrades also helped organize and sponsor an inclusive and militant protest at the state capitol to help build unity to restore women’s right to an abortion.

Peace and solidarity

In the past year, our club has organized in coalition with other peace activists, including MPAC (Minnesota Peace Action Coalition), WAMM (Women Against Military Madness), SCOTA (Solidarity Committee of the Americas) and Veterans for Peace (Local Chapter 27).

We have demanded that funds be moved from the military budget to the infrastructure and human needs of our society. We call for the abolition of all military alliances, the closing of foreign military bases and returning the occupied territories to their respective nations.

We call for the U.S. to end the unilaterally imposed economic sanctions against China and all other countries. We have urged that all social movements in opposition to imperialism and its Cold War join in a broad popular front against war, U.S. militarism, climate crisis, environmental degradation, racism, and white supremacy.

Pride

The LGBTQ community has never known a moment when it wasn’t struggling, and the current period reflects this better than ever. Comrades participated in the June Pride festival and also Take Back Pride.

A welcome antidote to the capitalist co-optation of revolutionary Pride festivals, we focused on the long tradition of Pride as protest, highlighting it as a season of struggle.

Decolonization and land back struggles

Over the years, there has been an ever-growing decolonization and Indigenous people’s movement to reclaim land stolen over the centuries. This struggle has been ongoing for decades but has picked up speed with successes over the past few years.

Club members have participated in this struggle in a variety of ways. Comrades have facilitated panel discussions with students and community members about decolonization and resistance, including at Macalester College.

We have also protested the criminal and inhumane political imprisonment and torture of Leonard Peltier, the U.S.’ longest political prisoner. Peltier has been in a federal maximum security prison for more than 46 years.

Comrades in the Twin Cities club joined AIM (American Indian Movement) activists, peace-loving residents, and all people of goodwill at the federal court house in Minneapolis to denounce his unjust persecution, as well as the settler-colonialism and genocide that swept this land.

We joined other comrades in the greater Minnesota–Dakotas CPUSA district, who also protested at the federal courthouse in Fargo, North Dakota, where Leonard was originally sentenced.

Environmental justice

East Phillips in Minneapolis is a working-class neighborhood and one of the most racially diverse communities in the state. It is also home to the largest First Nations urban population in the country. The East Phillips neighborhood, along with North Minneapolis, experiences some of the worst racial health disparities due to toxic environmental pollution in the state. For eight years, the community has proposed building a new community-owned, state-of-the-art, indoor urban farm and roof depot that would include affordable housing, local production of healthy food, and a job training facility. It would be run on renewable energy such as solar. It is a sustainable, community-driven proposal and would serve the community’s needs.

Corporate-friendly Minneapolis city council members, as well as mayor Jacob Frey, have repeatedly attempted to undermine community efforts to be free of explicit environmental racism. City officials have instead upheld the destruction of the roof depot and insisted that a toxic diesel truck station be located in the neighborhood, exacerbating the already extremely high rates of asthma and other environmental pollutants in the area. Comrades have stood in opposition to the city’s destructive decision and shown up at protests, occupations, and press conferences to demand the city of Minneapolis immediately cease its pollution of an already overburdened community.

Comrades have participated in vigils to halt the expansion of dirty pipelines in Minnesota. We have stood with environmental activists, water protectors, and peace-loving people to demand environmental justice for oppressed communities.

We have also worked in coalition with other unions and community organizations to Shut Down the HERC trash burner in North Minneapolis. One of the biggest polluters in Hennepin County is the HERC trash burner. Its impact zone is located in one of the most exploited and underrepresented neighborhoods in Minneapolis, where comrades live, raise our families, and send our children to school. Now is the time to shut down the dirty, non-renewable, Hennepin County trash burner.

Gender justice

Comrades have participated in actions related to gender justice and gender-based violence. We marched in February with the MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) organization and honored our family members who have been victims of gender-based violence and intimate partner homicide. Native American women make up just under 1% of the population in Minnesota, but represent 8% of the murdered women in the state.

We also honored all of the victims of intimate partner homicide at the state capitol with the clothesline project.

Our difficulty in leaving abusive relationships is connected not only to our economic inability to do so, but also to a society that views us first and foremost as a caregiver and relegates the major site of our oppression — the interpersonal or reproductive sphere — as “private” and “personal.”

We know as comrades that this is why the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) has not been renewed since Trump let it lapse in 2019, and that there is a mass defunding of women’s shelters and health clinics across the United States. Meanwhile, women are forced to survive in private, personal realms of terror in a country where more than half of women who were murdered this year alone were killed by their husbands or boyfriends.

Poor People’s March

In June, members of our club joined hundreds of other comrades and thousands of other activists in Washington D.C. to march in an event that was a “generationally transformative declaration of the power of poor and low-wealth people to say that the system is killing us.”

Our club sent seven comrades to D.C. to stand in solidarity with thousands of others protesting war, global catastrophe, and ruthless exploitation of resources while the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting kicked in the teeth.

Education for socialism

The Twin Cities club has participated in membership education initiatives in the past year, as well as public outreach programs.

Open streets festival

In the summer months in Minneapolis, our club set up a table at the Open Streets Festival on Franklin Avenue with our banner, flags, party literature, candy, and our party signs, highlighting the need for community control of police, reproductive rights, and peace and justice.

Comrades answered questions, chatted with, and passed out literature and flyers to pedestrians.

Many people were interested in party literature, particularly in the Black Lives Matter pamphlet by Jarvis Tyner, and the pamphlet about LGBTQ+ liberation by C. J. Atkins and the Michigan Writers’ Group. Farmers from western Minnesota grabbed Tim Wheeler’s pamphlet about rural comrades in the struggle. By the end of the event, all of the copies of Bill of Rights Socialism were taken by participants. Passers-by added names and contact information to our club list for further contact and follow-up.

Red books day

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto on 21 February 1848. This day has become a celebration of Manifesto’s publication and a time to stand in solidarity with comrades across the world who have also been facing attacks from the right-wing.

Even though we were all snowed in this year on February 21st, we were still able to celebrate and commemorate The Communist Manifesto and the liberatory impact it has had on people’s movements past, present and future.

We also celebrated the joy of reading collectively and sharing revolutionary literature!

Minnesota–Dakotas district school

In December 2022, our club helped host a hybrid in-person and online district school at CTUL focused on the CPUSA Program. We discussed the relevance of our party program to the class and democratic struggles’ changing dynamics.

Classes included topics ranging from strategy and tactics, class struggle and the labor movement, and unity in the struggle against sexism, racism, and homophobia.

Little Red Schoolhouse

The Little Red Schoolhouse was a week-long Marxist school in New York that covered contributions of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, V.I. Lenin, Gus Hall, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Henry Winston, Claudia Jones, and many other party leaders.

The purpose of this school was to update our analysis of the youth question and assist the process of rebuilding the communist current in the youth and student movement, along with refounding a national youth organization.

Comrades Sarah and Rey Luna attended from our Twin Cities club and Minnesota–Dakotas district. We hope to send more comrades this year!

People’s World and CPUSA Party Voices

Our club has worked with the Minnesota–Dakotas district to raise approximately $7,000 for this year’s People’s World fund drive. We have also had comrades participate in phone banking. In addition, our club has published about 12 articles in People’s World and the CPUSA website, highlighting the struggles that we have been involved in locally.

Sudanese Democratic Friendship Alliance

We have members in our club who have family and loved ones in Sudan. Salam returned from Khartoum shortly before the Minneapolis teachers’ strike, and Zaki has recently returned as well. Right now, our Sudanese comrades and friends need our help more than ever. This year at our district school, we raised money for women in Sudan, who are at the forefront of the people’s movement. We hope to continue to raise awareness and money in the coming year.

As we see through this comprehensive report, there are many things that we as Twin Cities metro area Communists can be proud of. Comrades, let’s remember that we must continue to be grounded in the class struggle and in our science of Marxism-Leninism. We will roll up our sleeves and continue to build our party so that we can grow and become even more successful.

Images: Twin Cities, CPUSA

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