QAfter seeing the writing on the wall I would like to participate more in my local club but I’m very busy with my personal life how can I still meaningfully participate
AFirst, do not approach this question with guilt. It is a structural condition of life under capitalism that the working class and mass of the people are systematically drained of time, energy, and capacity for daily, let alone political, life. The system exploiting you at work, burdening you with debt, and atomizing your community wants you to feel that meaningful participation is impossible. To begin, approach your question as a collective question of strategy which has to be solved collectively.
The best answer depends on an honest assessment of your personal situation, and honest conversations with those in your life and your club leadership about what you can meaningfully commit to and have that commitment respected. Meaningful participation takes many forms, and a well-functioning Party club knows how to integrate members at all levels of availability and ability.
A comrade who reliably does one single thing well over time is preferable to a comrade who believes they can do everything, then burns out, or a comrade who believes they can do nothing. Perhaps you cannot make regular meetings, but can manage a discrete, recurring responsibility such as phone banking, distributing literature in a workplace or community where you already have relationships, writing articles for People’s World, even preparing or printing materials at home.
What matters most is that you stay connected, stay in communication to the best of your ability, and stay disciplined. That means attending a single meeting a month if that is all that is possible, reading the Party press and educational materials being studied by your club, and being honest with your comrades when life circumstances get difficult.
Our Party is built by the collective, sustained, organized activity of working people raising children, working multiple jobs, caring for elders, and surviving. Your participation, however limited you may feel at any point, is a major, necessary contribution.
The best answer depends on an honest assessment of your personal situation, and honest conversations with those in your life and your club leadership about what you can meaningfully commit to and have that commitment respected. Meaningful participation takes many forms, and a well-functioning Party club knows how to integrate members at all levels of availability and ability.
A comrade who reliably does one single thing well over time is preferable to a comrade who believes they can do everything, then burns out, or a comrade who believes they can do nothing. Perhaps you cannot make regular meetings, but can manage a discrete, recurring responsibility such as phone banking, distributing literature in a workplace or community where you already have relationships, writing articles for People’s World, even preparing or printing materials at home.
What matters most is that you stay connected, stay in communication to the best of your ability, and stay disciplined. That means attending a single meeting a month if that is all that is possible, reading the Party press and educational materials being studied by your club, and being honest with your comrades when life circumstances get difficult.
Our Party is built by the collective, sustained, organized activity of working people raising children, working multiple jobs, caring for elders, and surviving. Your participation, however limited you may feel at any point, is a major, necessary contribution.
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The Communist Party USA is a revolutionary working-class political party founded in 1919 in Chicago, IL.
The Communist Party stands for the interests of the American working class and the American people. It stands for our interests in both the present and the future. Solidarity with workers of other countries is also part of our work. We work in coalition with the labor movement, the peace movement, the student movement, organizations fighting for equality and social justice, the environmental movement, immigrants rights groups and the health care for all campaign.
But to win a better life for working families, we believe that we must go further. We believe that the American people can replace capitalism with a system that puts people before profit — socialism.
We are rooted in our country's revolutionary history and its struggles for democracy. We call for "Bill of Rights" socialism, guaranteeing full individual freedoms.
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