Whereas, The Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and Young Communist League USA (YCL) are necessary and indispensable organizations to the US working class and people, for their economic and social advancement and attainment of socialism;
Whereas, Also indispensable to the working class and people’s movement is the People’s World/Mundo Popular, which celebrates 86 years as a ground-breaking bilingual Marxist news and opinion source, and Political Affairs, builder of a broad community of Marxist ideas online;
Whereas, The process of growing the democratic movements includes simultaneously growing the Communist Party and Young Communist League;
Whereas, Our challenge is to build a modern 21st century revolutionary working class party, an outlook based on scientific socialism and rooted in the multi-racial class and core forces reflecting the best of the US democratic and revolutionary traditions; that utilizes modern means of communication and organizing;
Whereas, Our challenge is to root the Party and YCL in the struggle on the immediate fight against the economic crisis;
Whereas, Our challenge is to engage in the “battle of ideas” and with the growing interest in socialism, left and progressive ideas;
Whereas, The “battle of ideas” is now a multimedia, 24 hours a day, seven days a week battle that challenges us to provide our membership and also the public with a deep understanding of Marxism, capitalism and socialism, and Communist strategy and tactics, in order to counter right-wing/corporate ideology, make sense of developments and see how to fight the good fight for progress and ultimately socialism;
Whereas, The revolution in mass communications, the Internet and social networking is transforming all organizations, political and electoral campaigns and movements and their ability to share their ideas, mobilize people and raise money, including at the grass roots;
Whereas, The new mass communications allow us to speak and interact with millions. The means of communication are being democratized in a way that makes it possible to communicate with large numbers relatively inexpensively;
Whereas, The Internet unites the work of the Party and Peoplesworld.org (PW) / Mundopopular.org (MP) with the broad democratic movement and the fight against the economic crisis. The new web tools help us influence and engage at the grassroots on a daily basis in the “battle of ideas”; and
Whereas, The online PW/MP is our primary relationship builder, the central mobilizing, organizing and educating tool, updating Lenin’s idea in the age of the Internet revolution’; therefore, be it
Resolved, That every member and club should join in the effort to change our culture and master the new forms of mass communication;
That, districts and clubs should organize workshops or training sessions to help each member understand how to use the new mass communication tools;
That, every club should develop a grassroots constituency by assembling email lists, develop community rooted web, Facebook and MySpace pages, Spanish-language social media pages, Twitter accounts, online radio shows, etc. that will lead to greater face to face interaction;
That, every member and club should participate in the campaign to make the PW/MP the most widely accessed news source for labor and community activists, by gaining thousands of new recipients of the PW/MP twice weekly alerts and regularly sending articles to family, friends, co-workers and fellow activists;
That, clubs should utilize and build Mundo Popular by developing special lists of Spanish language readers and regularly sending out articles, and by utilizing Spanish language social media;
That, where possible, districts should establish bureaus, or groups of party and non-party writers and videographers to cover local political, cultural and social developments in both English and Spanish for the PW/MP;
That, where possible and appropriate, districts and clubs should utilize the weekly print downloadable version which includes articles in English and Spanish, create local templates borrowing from successful experiences around the country, and/or distribute selected articles in print format. In addition, the party at national, state and local levels should develop printable materials as needed and practical, in English and Spanish, utilizing our websites and downloadable formats to facilitate wide access and distribution.
That in the future, as funds and other resources allow, and taking into account developments in media and mass communications, consideration be given to expanding our print media in both English and Spanish.
That the Party at all levels should utilize the new media – including video, teleconferencing, podcasts and other online tools – as well as traditional forms to provide members and the broad public with lively, appealing and profound education on Marxism, socialism, Communist strategy and tactics, and their application to the political, social and economic reality of the United States.
Resolution adopted by the 29th National Convention of the Communist Party USA, New York, NY May 21-23, 2010.