The following greetings were presented by CPUSA Co-Chair Rossana Cambron to the CPC and World Political Parties Summit held on July 6, 2021. A video of her remarks can be viewed here.

Good evening comrades,

Thank you for inviting us to participate in this summit, and on behalf of the National Committee of the Communist Party USA I want to congratulate the many successes the Chinese Communist Party has had these past 100 years. And we wish you 100 more.

I think it is important and illuminating to compare how two very different political systems responded to the same international crisis.

We witnessed that countries establishing socialism put their best scientists and doctors to take the lead in organizing the national response. We were amazed at how quickly community hospitals were constructed and resources made available to people to ensure they had what they needed to stay at home.

The response from our country was quite different and exposed the many shortcomings of a capitalist system that is profit driven and where the quality of one’s medical care is directly related to one’s ability to pay.

The first thing Trump said is that it was a conspiracy by the Democrats to make him look bad. Then he got upset saying that the positive case numbers were high because too much testing was being conducted.

For many months the U.S. was the epicenter of the pandemic, with over 33 million infected. Trump’s incompetence, arrogance, and ego, plus a system that denied medical attention to millions were the reasons over 600,000 lives were lost, among them some of our comrades.

The pandemic has given many people around the world a clearer view of which countries have put the well-being of their people before anything else.

Science, technology, and our productive forces have evolved to the point where we have the capacity to solve all the world’s problems; hunger, sickness, poverty, war, and pollution can be solved. The only thing preventing this is capitalism.

But can we change that? For the sake of future generations, we must change that.

Unity in action internationally and in our individual countries is key.

For us, in the Communist Party USA, we address our responsibility for the well-being of our people by engaging in the different arenas of struggle.

First, we fight for reforms that can bring immediate relief to those that are most in need.

We call for raising the minimum wage, a universal health care program, implement immigration reform, stop police brutality, build affordable housing, transition to renewable energy, and definitely a cut in the military budget, and many others.

But we must be clear and remind everyone that these are only Band-Aid solutions that do not address the root causes of these problems. Capitalism can only exist by continuing the exploitation of people’s labor. Socialism is the real solution.

Second, we engage in the battle of ideas.

In many countries, including our own, as world capitalism enters its new crisis cycle, we see the rise of the forces of reaction, right-wing fascists who try to confuse workers with information that is misleading or half-truths. The right plays on people’s fears of losing their jobs, that of not being able to provide a home or health care for their families.

They spread ideas that other races/nationalities are to blame in an effort to divert the focus away from the real culprits.

If we look at history, we see there are special moments in time that are turning points. I believe that we are in one of those moments and therefore, the direction and character of what the future will look like will depend on how we engage in the battle of ideas today.

This is truly a huge task, but lucky for us, we are not alone, Today, millions of people are supporting socialist solutions to capitalist problems. This is especially true among young people, many of whom prefer socialism over capitalism. The growth in our Party is an indication of this fact.

Our responsibility for the people’s well-being goes beyond our own country. We understand the damage that U.S. imperialism has caused and continues to cause throughout the world, and thus growing our Party and building a movement in the U.S. that calls for a socialist USA is also looking out for the well-being of the world.

Once again, thank you so much for inviting us here today.

It is an honor and a privilege to be with so many people from so many places, all coming together with the same passion and the same goal of building a better world for everyone.

Image:  Xinhuanet.com.

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