Greetings from the International Department (ID) to members of the National Committee CPUSA and guests here today. The International Department continues to monitor our world communist movement and we are happy to report today on some new developments. As you might know, the ID has a dual-mandate to both facilitate contact with our fraternal communist parties and to provide our party’s analysis on important international issues to our larger communist movement.

Our most recent analysis has largely focused on the decline of U.S. influence worldwide and its effects. This does not mean the U.S. is no longer the largest and most powerful imperial power. It certainly is, and the gap in GDP between the U.S. and others continues to be wide. The decline of U.S. influence means more aggressive tactics for imperialist extraction. The U.S. not only exports capital to developing nations to offshore production and gain access to raw materials, but now also gathers additional capital from foreign nations through tariffs — a pay-to-play tactic that extorts the Global South in order to participate in the global economy. Whereas traditional models of imperialism sought value by expropriating labor and materials, the Trump tariffs act as a bullying mechanism demanding largely former colonies pay up to enter U.S. markets.

In turn, competing imperialist nations, and some emerging economies, have increased their foreign direct investment, creating a volatile global environment with increased imperialist competition and potential for war worldwide. As the ideological hegemony of the U.S. wanes, its willingness to use military power grows. The U.S., with its ongoing threats of war against Venezuela and Iran, and its funding of U.S. interests in conflicts in both Ukraine and Palestine, appears eager to use its military in furtherance of its heightened imperialist ambitions. It is the job of all Communist Party members to fight against imperialism and to support the peace movement against imperialist war. In particular, as CPUSA members, our role in communist internationalism is to focus on domestic struggle against capitalism and imperialism.

International Department projects

The ID is happy to report on our two independent projects: the Hello Comrade Project and International Department Research Collective. These two projects support our dual mandate by providing a tool for interaction with our fraternal parties and by creating a forum for the analysis of international events. The Hello Comrade project continues to deepen connections between CPUSA and our sister parties. Most recently, the Hello Comrade trip to Cyprus to meet with AKEL provided the opportunity to have a bilateral meeting with the Secretary of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU). This meeting in Cyprus led to our Labor Committee being invited to the 80th anniversary of WFTU in Paris. Our delegate attended and we will continue to provide a bridge between the U.S. Labor Movement and WFTU.

The atmosphere in Paris at the 80th Anniversary of the WFTU was more than just pride in celebrating its militant history as the longest-living international trade union federation. It was evident that the WFTU was driven by a pressing need to develop a militant workers’ organization to address the ongoing threats to democracy, peace, and workers’ rights around the world.

The WFTU is committed to fulfilling this role for the international working class. They have taken concrete action, including solidarity strikes in Italy with the Gaza Sumud Flotilla, strike actions in the ports of Greece, and a general strike in France. Let’s continue to build on this momentum any way we can here in the U.S.

As class struggle heats up globally, our world communist movement continues to grow in membership and influence. Our Research Collective informs the International Department on the many important developments within this movement. Some recent highlights include the following: in Chile, Jeanette Jara, the presidential candidate from the Communist Party of Chile, leads polls heading into the first round of elections. Some polls have had Comrade Jara above 40%.

Many sister parties in Europe are deeply involved in labor struggle in defense of Palestine. Dock workers in Italy, Belgium, France, and Greece continue to show their solidarity with Palestine by disrupting weapons shipments to Israel. “We will not unload a single inch of this murderous cargo,” Enedep, the union of dock workers at Athens’s port city, said in July. The workers have inspired other mass actions across Europe, which forced the governments of Spain and Italy to send ships to protect the flotilla humanitarian convoy in international waters.

The International Department will continue to build our committee’s scope of work and continue to grow solidarity in our world movement.

Images: WFTU leaders march through the streets of Paris for WFTU’s 80th Anniversary by WFTU (Facebook)