Presentation by CPUSA National Board member, Shelby Richardson, to the 18th International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties in Hanoi, Vietnam.

On behalf of the Communist Party USA, I thank the Communist Party of Vietnam for hosting this important meeting of communist and workers parties. I also bring greetings to the heroic Vietnamese people who have demonstrated that the difficult obstacles to their winning national liberation could be overcome and who confidently work towards building a country worthy of human beings. While nothing can make amends for the horrific harm done to your country and beautiful people, by the brutal war imposed on you for imperialist ends, by my country, substantial reparations need to be paid to aid in your reconstruction. My party is committed to help make that a reality.

My party sees its task as overcoming obstacles in our country that prevent it from reaching heights that are worthy of human beings in our country and contribute to that goal on a world scale. These obstacles broadly speaking are an imperialist appetite fostered by corporate greed and exploitation. In my country the big corporations, big banks and mainstream media coupled with hired political agents primarily in the Republican Party and to a lesser degree in the Democratic Party foment divisions among our nation’s peoples. Their historical tool of choice is anti-Black racism but in today’s heightened electoral atmosphere they have increased efforts to establish an anti-immigrant hysteria especially towards Mexicans and other Latin Americans, to compliment their consistent anti-woman and homophobic positions.

For the last 30 years, to one degree or another, these obstacles have been cultivated by the Republican Party. They have been intensified for the near eight years of the Obama presidency. Every progressive policy advanced by President Obama that would benefit working class and poor people have been blocked.

This present election cycle, which will likely determine the course the country will take for the next four years and possibly longer, has heightened areas of contention around: war and peace, jobs, poverty, police brutality, immigration, questions of taxation, women’s right to have control of their bodies and other social issues.

Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party nominee for president had a tough primary battle with her opponent Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont.  He is the only socialist in the U.S. Senate but chose to run as a Democrat, he realized the progressive constituents: labor, African-Americans, women and increasingly young people are presently in the Democratic Party. It is where the levers to power rest. The forging of greater unity among this constituency will lead to greater working-class power. Sanders made advancements in that direction.  His run was successful beyond expectation, he won 23 primaries and caucuses resulting in a progressive platform coming out of the Democratic convention and with his political organization “Our Revolution” remaining intact. Its goal is to field candidates for local, state and national offices. The platform among other things call for a $15.00 an hour federal minimum wage, it is presently $7.25; tuition free public college for family incomes under $125, 000; a clean energy summit in the first 100 days and a massive infrastructure project. Organized labor, Black and Latino organizations and progressive movements are in support of the platform and are working for the election of Hillary Clinton.

The GOP platform calls more U.S. intervention in Ukraine and an even more confrontational attitude towards Russia and China.

Donald Trump won the Republican Party nomination over other establishment Republican candidates, including Jed Bush, former Governor of Florida and brother of former president George W. Bush. Trump (considered an outsider within the Republican Party) represents the most extreme positions within the party. His base is composed of open racists, such as David Duke a leader of the Ku Klux Klan, who has said Trump is “rehabilitating” Hitler’s image and other xenophobic, homophobic and misogynistic elements. The Republican platform that came out of its National Convention called in part for a massive military buildup. It blamed U.S. economic woes on other countries with U.S. corporations sharing none of the blame. It calls for more U.S. intervention in Ukraine and an even more confrontational attitude towards Russia and China. It repudiates the Iran nuclear deal and an open U.S. policy of “regime change” in Syria. It denounces Vietnam and revives the canard that POW’s remain in Vietnam.

If based solely on both parties platforms it is clear the working class, the labor movement, African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, women, youth and the Communist Party must go all out to defeat Donald Trump and the Republican Party with a landslide victory to retain the presidency, regain control of the Senate and maintain control of the House of Representatives. The Communist Party calls for a unity vote to elect Clinton and not risk the danger of a Republican Party victory. Beyond the platform itself Trump is working towards legitimizing the strong leader model, which in this case means negating the democratic voice. He decides what’s good for America: building a wall to keep out Mexicans, not paying workers for work done, mass incarceration of African American and poor people and a license for police to be judge, jury and executioner. Such open sentiments in the U.S. were thought to be long past history. The danger is too great!

To that end my Party supports the efforts of Labor 2016 to reach union members and explain why a Trump presidency is dangerous and why the Trans Pacific Partnership (TTP) “free trade” agreement is bad for workers.

Along with labor and environmentalist, small farmers object to their not being involved in the TPP negotiations. Elected officials were also left out of the negotiations. The negotiations for practical purposes were secret. It has since been learned its Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism undermines national sovereignty that allow multinational corporations to take greater profits. A similar situation exist around the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), designed for free trade between the U.S. and the European Union. It is projected these treaties would result in multi-national corporations controlling more than eighty percent of world trade.

The Trans Pacific Partnership is bad for workers

We support and march with the Our Walmart campaign to win the $15.00  an hour minimum wage for fast food workers

We support and march with the Black Lives Matter movement to end police killing of especially young African-American men.

We support and stand with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe who are putting their lives on the line to stop the laying of a $ 3.8 billion pipeline project across their sacred lands in North Dakota.

Dear comrades the Communist Party USA fights to achieve world peace which entails improving relationships with countries where hostilities are or have been the norm. We support efforts to strengthen the reestablished diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba. It is high time Gitmo, the Guantanamo prison be closed and Guantanamo Bay be returned to the Cuban people.

We oppose the meddling in the affairs of the Venezuelan people; their destiny should be determined by them and not by U.S. intervention, which economic sanctions represent.  Obama set the stage by issuing an executive order in March 2015, declaring Venezuela to be a threat to U.S. national security. This turns the matter on its head, it is clear who is the threat. We call for the sanctions to be cancelled and for the CIA and National Endowment for Democracy activities to end.

The U.S. failed to denounce the impeachment and removal of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff by its Senate, which amounts to a coup. The people elected her president, she was removed by 61 votes. U.S recognition of new president Michel Temer is a clear refutation of governance through democracy which the U.S. claims to champion.

We applaud President Obama’s $90 million pledge to clear unexploded bombs in Laos dropped during the Vietnam War over the next three years in addition to the $100 million given over the past 20 years at the ASEAN summit in Laos. The coverage of the extent of the secret bombing was positive and can be used to further educate Americans of the barbaric nature of these modern wars.

The civil war in Syria continues; the humanitarian crisis deepens as civilians are caught in the cross fire.   The U.S. should utilize its abilities to bring the combatants to the negotiation table without conditions.  Only then can the Islamic State be defeated and the rebuilding begun.

There are increasing tensions between the U.S., Russia and China. These tensions between nations with nuclear weapons present an existential threat to humanity. We oppose the increasing militarization of the South China Sea and Pacific Ocean. We urge the nations of the region to resolve outstanding issues diplomatically. We continue to see the eastern push by NATO as a threat to peace. NATO’s presence close to the Russian borders invites further militarization of the region.

We oppose the increasing militarization of the South China Sea and Pacific Ocean.

Unfortunately efforts to make progress towards an Israeli-Palestinian peace have been unsuccessful. There is no other choice but to work to that end, using diplomatic means. We support the two state solution with Palestine being a sovereign nation.

Many social advances have been won in my country as shown with the election twice of an African American man, Barack Obama as president. The rabid opposition of the Republican Party has forced us to mount a defensive struggle. We think it is necessary to devote more attention to upgrading our understanding and the understanding of our working-class masses of modern imperialism and how it works against our interest and the relationship of imperialism to continuous wars and U.S. aggression around the world. The corporate ruling class and media present a false narrative and sows confusion. The good news however is that our media capabilities have greatly improved giving us the ability to correct that false narrative. We have been able to share the struggles and aspirations of the Cuban, Venezuelan, Brazilian and Vietnamese peoples in this recent period.

The challenge that confronts my Party is great; we constantly try to learn from the American people, win its confidence and increase its understanding of imperialism that brings about war, corporate greed and deny the fragility of our planet.  Thank you.

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