The National Committee of the Communist Party USA, that organization’s top leadership, met in New York over the weekend with a declaration that the nationwide party organization is putting its full force behind a movement it expects will inflict a strategic defeat upon the MAGA right and its leader, “the fascist Donald Trump” as the ex-president was described by a top party leader Saturday morning.

The striking thing about the gathering of CPUSA leaders and activists at the Henry Winston Unity Hall is the diversity it represents when compared to any other political party in the nation. The hall was filled with activists, young and old, Black, white, Latino, Native American, Asian, LGBTQ people and straight people, trade unionists, civil rights leaders, leaders in the fight for housing, medical care, and peace, and people who are religious and others who are not. The participants here and in the party they represent are active in almost every struggle for justice in the U.S. Notably missing from the diverse lineup, however, is anyone even remotely connected to the billionaire or corporate capitalist class.

They are the same party that, since its founding early in the 20th century, led the struggles for peace in the early 1900s, the resistance to the racist frameup of the Scottsboro boys, the fight against fascism in the 1930s and 40s, and the struggles for civil rights and against the war in Vietnam later in the 1950s and the 1960s and ’70s.

They are the same party that advocated for Social Security and unemployment insurance when those things did not exist and they are the same party the ruling class tried to extinguish with the McCarthyite terror unleashed in the 1940s and ’50s. Communist Party and Daily World leaders and editors were arrested and jailed in the unconstitutional terror campaigns.

People like the late Sen. Joe McCarthy and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover might turn over in their graves today if they looked at the gathering in Winston Hall. The Communists are still here, a testimony to the durability of the causes they have championed throughout their history.

But the party’s co-chairs, Joe Sims and Rossana Cambron, kicked off the proceedings by declaring that the crisis facing the nation is too important to spend too much time taking a stroll down memory lane, and they urged the entire party to double down on the business of fighting to save the U.S. people from the new fascist threat raging across the land.

“The stakes could not be higher,” Sims declared in his opening remarks. “The threat of fascism is not remote: it’s in the Florida book bans now spreading across red states; it’s in the goon squad attacks on drag shows and trans events. It’s in the threats of violence coming from GOP elected officials after Trump’s indictments. And it’s in acceptance of open, raw racism in the U.S. Senate.”

In a discussion of that latter matter, Sims mentioned the Republican Sen. Tuberville of Alabama, who openly defended white supremacists in the military. “When asked if white nationalists should be allowed to serve, the senator replied, ‘Well they call them that. I call them Americans.’ While Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer condemned the remarks, the Republicans just shrugged. In other words, no penalty. Contrast this to what happened to Steven King of Iowa who, a few years ago, was stripped of committee assignments after such obscene remarks,” Sims said. “That’s what happens when a deadly combination of right-wing nationalism and white supremacy becomes normalized.”

Giving an example of that normalization, he reminded the gathering that “Tucker Carlson and his ilk are championing the Great Replacement Theory, resulting in 7 out of 10 Republicans believing that the changing composition of the country is some left-wing conspiracy, but also that it is the cause of and excuses the hate-crazed attacks by violent right-wingers.”

The CPUSA delegates at the National Committee meeting today see the fight for abortion rights as a critical part of the fight to stop the growth of fascism. “On the heels of the Dobbs decision, some on the far right are now calling for a national ban on abortion. Today, abortion is totally banned in 14 states,“ Cambron said. “Georgia and Florida have 6-week bans. This means that over 22 million women now live in states where abortion is very limited or completely inaccessible.”

The party leaders also are warning that the fascist threat is clear in the attacks on trans people, with Republicans having introduced some 497 anti-trans bills in 49 states. In Florida, it’s the “Don’t Say Gay” campaign making it illegal to use the term in the classroom.

Sims derisively dubbed the right-wing Republicans as the “let’s-go-whole-hog caucus” and warned that “they also set their eyes on voting rights. So far 18 bills in 10 states have been signed into law that will add new restrictions on voting.”

The CPUSA leaders also noted this morning, although it’s a year and one-half away, the 2024 election campaign is already upon us and that at the moment a rematch between Biden and Trump and their respective coalitions seems all but certain.

Big business and the fascist cabal around Trump

The party’s assessment is that coalescing around Trump is a big business–led multi-class mass movement of the most vicious reactionaries in the country. “However,” Sims said, “while still maintaining much of the GOP base, Trump’s coalition has shattered at the top. Weakened by the insurrection, indictments in New York and Florida, and facing possible charges in Georgia and D.C., the ex-president is now damaged goods. Misgivings have grown particularly sharp since the publication of the Florida indictment, revealing how Trump grossly mishandled national security documents and obstructed their return to the national archives. Ruling class factions are looking for more electable alternatives, many of whom are in substance not that different from Trump himself. Among them are Pence, Haley, DeSantis, Christy, Scott, and Ramaswamey. There’s blood in the water and the barracudas are circling.”

The CPUSA sees Biden as almost certainly having the Democratic nomination, despite challenges from Marianne Williamson and Robert Kennedy Jr. Biden’s campaign, Sims and Cambron note, has been shored up by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s early backing of him and has been given additional heft by the AFL-CIO’s endorsement and rally last week, and the endorsement of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, and others.

“While important components of the coalition fighting to prevent a fascist victory on the presidential and other levels are taking shape, the mass movement dimensions have yet to be realized,” Sims said.

Sims also discussed the independent candidacy of Cornel West. “Apparently,” he said, “Cornell West has now jumped ship and is seeking the blessing of the Green Party. But how will the good professor conduct his campaign? Viable campaigns are born of grassroots responses to issues and the movements. This includes protest campaigns, many of which are shaped by understandable frustrations with the two-party system and a desire not to be associated with its corruption and concessions. But given the U.S.’ winner-take-all set up, a decision to run must take care not to inadvertently contribute to electing fascists and other right-wing extremists. Directing fire at the fascist danger is one thing — a plague-on-all-your-houses approach is quite another. In a close contest, even small numbers of votes can have a big impact. A spoiler campaign would be a disaster. The ball is now in West’s court.”

Sims summed up the CPUSA assessment of the 2024 election as follows: “It’s the issues that matter. This is not a campaign about West, Biden, or even Trump as individuals. And it’s certainly not about age as the mainstream pundits in the bourgeois media would have us believe. Rather, it’s about the central issues of the day and who is best able to build a winning coalition.”

“Jobs, housing, health care, abortion rights, police killings, gun violence, student debt, and the environment are key issues that will drive election turnout. The Canadian wildfires and the apocalyptic-looking skies along with the poisonous air we were forced to breathe these last weeks are major items of public concern. We’re reaching a turning point moment where the country can either go off a cliff or forward together into the future. Our tactics will be determined by assessing what are the key issues that will take us in one direction or another.

“This pertains to issues of war and peace as well. Bringing an end to Russia’s invasion and removing their troops, along with stopping NATO’s expansion, remain key issues. So too with Ukraine’s right to independence.

“However, the Biden administration’s foreign policy remains a major negative. It’s anything but of benefit to working-class families as its advocates assert. In fact, this liberal left framing of the fight against “authoritarianism” is extremely dangerous. It’s an attempt to get domestic working class buy-in for U.S. imperialist policy abroad. Well, we’re not buying it. Cuba and China are not Turkey and Hungary. Do you want democracy abroad? Let other countries have the freedom to determine their own foreign policy and stop interfering in their internal affairs. South Africa, for example, strongly objected to recent State Department bullying in an attempt to get the ANC government to support the U.S. position on Ukraine. And they’re not alone.”

Sims noted that what will benefit working-class families is a cut in the $1 trillion military budget. And reinstatement of the child tax credit along with the cancellation of the student loans that have started up again.

End the cold war with China

“End the Cold War with China,“ he declared “ and at least cooperate on ending climate change. And how about regulating artificial intelligence? Once again, in the opinion of scientists, the planet is reaching a turning point with AI which, if not addressed, could spell the end of human civilization.”

The CPUSA is stressing once again this weekend its long-held insistence on the need for working-class leadership. “And that’s because our party continues to uphold the working class as the leading force in the fight for a new society. And therefore our role is to fight for workers’ leadership wherever we find ourselves, not only in the peace movement but in all movements, the people’s front included, maybe especially the people’s front. Why? Because under pressure, liberals always move to the right. The people’s front, therefore, needs working-class backbone, vision, guidance, and organization.

That working class leadership, Sims noted, has been producing victories already.

“Steelworkers in rural Georgia won a union vote at the Bluebird electric bus plant. In another victory in April, Amazon drivers and dispatchers voted to join the Teamsters in Palmdale California. They are on strike as we speak. At Starbucks, some 300 stores have now been organized and the Amazon Labor Union is keeping the pressure on.

“This year, petitions for union representation have continued to rise. Last year, they were up 53 percent over the year before. And results this year are equaling that rate.

“It looks like decisive class battles will be fought this summer and fall. Last week, the Teamsters passed a strike vote by 97 percent. UPS look out! The workers are fired up and ready to go: you’ve got five weeks to settle or face the largest strike in U.S. history.

“Then to top it off, in September the UAW is getting ready to throw down with the “Big Three.” The major issue for autoworkers is the two-tier wage structure. If there’s no agreement at the bargaining table, the next stop is on the picket line.

“Election results so far this year have been promising. MAGA right and other big business candidates have gone down to defeat in several places around the country. In Wisconsin, Janet Protasiewicz handily defeated her MAGA opponent by 11 points, winning her bid for the state’s Supreme Court.

“Hope triumphed over fear in Chicago with Brandon Johnson’s defeat of the corporate Paul Vallas law and order campaign. In Jacksonville, Donna Deegan defeated MAGA right-winger Daniel Davis.

“In Pennsylvania, Heather Boyd’s election to the state house flipped the chamber back into Democratic control. In Colorado Springs, independent moderate Yemi Mobolade blew his MAGA opponent out of the box by 15 points. And we should not fail to mention that in Philadelphia, Seth Oberman’s first-time run for City Council created quite a stir and nearly defeated his big business–backed opponent.”

It was clear from the kickoff of CPUSA National Committee deliberations Saturday morning that the party expects that the people can and must win the fight against fascism in the U.S. and that it will do everything in its power to make sure of that outcome.

Images: CPUSA

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