What is to be done?

Millennial leftists in NYC can now exist in an ever increasing and dizzying array and calendar of Socialist events, educationals, talks, teach ins, speeches, social events and parties.

What the Communist Party USA has that no other organization on the left in the US has today is the organization, the knowhow, and the history to translate these absolutely radical and revolutionary generational trends in real revolutionary action.

But to do that, we first have to break into the already fully fleshed out radical socialist scene in NYC.

Millennials and their proclivities are often imagined as only relating to white perpetually adolescent liberal arts graduates.  The good and the bad news is this couldn’t be further from the truth.  White, black, and brown millennials of what ever actual class background have all learned to front a certain kind of bourgeoise affect in order to survive.  Since most “jobs” we work are unpaid or severely underpaid essentially under-the-table side hustles, internships, service industry jobs, or work in illegal or underground economies the affect of these permanent part time workers with no benefits, the precariat, has to be fluid in order to pass in multiple different job situations.  This makes it harder to culturally delineate who comes from what background, also why it winds up being as it always was, ultimately a question of politics.

When it comes down to real history and real politics, the Communist Party USA is ultimately the only game in town and we should act like it.  We should be more proud and vocal about our history and our heritage.  We should defend our history and legacy on every level as we seek to rebirth it and expand it.

We have to be out and proud and open about being communists.  In left wing circles there is no longer any stigma attached to being a communist.  Most members of the DSA have already read Lenin.  They have no doctrinal problems with our positions, the only bad rep we have on the left is that we are too close to the Democratic party, a rep which is unfortunately somewhat deserved.

If we start running a series of compelling social events like every other left group in the city we will soon attract the hundreds (and this is no exaggeration) and probably thousands of people currently living in NYC who are interested in us but who don’t yet know that we still exist.

We have to show that we are alive and kicking and people will soon come thru the doors.  We have to open things up and defend ourselves proudly on the merits of our history, and our work.

To that end I propose, as a means of rebuilding the party:

Plan of Work

Building up concentrations in these movements and areas:

Anti-Police Brutality/Black Lives Matter/Black Liberation movements

Anti-War/Anti-Imperialist movement

Tenants Unions/Anti-Gentrification/Rent Control

Unions/Working Class Movements

Prepare the infrastructure for influx of youth:

1. Procedure will include targeting demonstrations for mass presence of the Party for at least one demonstration within each category. Recruit people at demo with immediate follow up, debrief after demo at nearby location/meeting back at the building.  Giving assignments to people to follow up at the meeting of the coalition that put on said demo, with an eye to both recruitment and consistent work within coalition but while attempting to interest people in joining our party.

2. Attempt to define Party goals for each of these movements, increased power, militancy, political awareness along with input from youth leaders and rank and file on these issues.

3. Build up capacity for exciting PoliEd for new recruits, immediately set up courses, etc.

4. In order to do this we must compile a full assessment of all of our academic and cultural resources and use them to the fullest in defense of 20^th century communism, Marxism, and Maxism-Leninism.

5. Use new found issue based enthusiasm as a basis for growth of clubs, working groups that focus on the issues, etc. Use as foundational basis for more socializing, build diversity, focus on diversity of leadership and cultural events.

6. Build Socialism Generally/Make left cultural spaces that directly compete with the Trot/Anarchistic Social Democratic social spaces and try to direct people towards communism, the Communist movement, and our Party.

The clubs as they currently exist are basically what should be the Exec of any healthy functioning club.  They should act like the exec and seek to recruit, develop, and learn from young people who are communists and aim to build up at least 20 new cadre by this time next year.

1. Have the clubs act as a kind of steering committee of new recruits, responding to their interest, connecting people to the right networks to get involved in the areas of work that they are most interested in, give them tasks, and monitor their work.
2. Develop areas of work based off of the skills and interested brought to us by the people who consistently come and have them recruit people on the basis of that work.
3. Maintain a parallel track of work within the clubs itself to track what works and what doesn’t within these efforts.
4. Aim for between 10 and 20 new members by next year.

It is spring again for Socialism.  But only with the history and models, the theory and practice of the Communist Party USA can this Spring reach full bloom in our country.  Without the youth left and working class we won’t survive and don’t deserve to if we can’t attract them.  But without us, the left won’t survive let alone go on to seize its world historical task to end banish capitalism from the earth and build a socialist order that is the only way by which humanity itself will survive the current ecological capitalist assault on all of our lives.  Socialism or Barbarism is no mere slogan, but a statement of truth that everyone under thirty has some inherent sense of, let us seize the moment and understand the stakes.  Conquer or die.

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