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Minutes of Membership Discussion of “U.S. Politics at a Transition Point”

The Comrades of the EPA and Delaware District deeply appreciate the opportunity to contribute to the preconvention discussion and to participate in the rich and high level on line dialogue.

We have had some heartening successes in the recent period which give us reasons for optimism. In December we had a well attended banquet for the People’s World which featured a large contingent from United Steelworkers Local 404, some of whose members have been readers of the paper for some years. In February we held a well attended lecture/forum for African American History Month which featured Dr. Anthony Monteiro, professor of African American Studies at Temple University. We appreciate the work done by comrades in bringing us to our present level of electronic media capability and are excited about the unprecedented possibilities presented by our Party’s strides in this area. We have a few tech expert members in our district, and we are taking steps to bring more members of our district up to speed in the use of the new tools.

We believe that, given our Party’s experience, and the experience that comrades have gained across the country in the recent period working in the mass arena-in the Obama campaign, the labor movement, the peace and solidarity movements, the health care struggle, the senior movement to name a few, have positioned our Party well to play a Communist role in the coming period, as complex and challenging as it will be. We strongly agree that we need to be in the mix, that we need to be in struggle shoulder to shoulder with workers and their allies who are in motion, brining our unique strategic outlook to the struggle, gaining experience as we go.

We also have concerns. Playing a Communist role and adding the Communist plus has to mean more than being the best activists struggling for the programs of mass organizations in which we work and in which we are proud members. Most comrades felt that the list of contributions that Communists can make was not unique and still did not reflect the communist plus.  One comrade felt that his mass organization had the same strategy and therefore the Party had no particular appeal.

On the all important fight for jobs: While we need to give total and enthusiastic support to the jobs program of the AFL-CIO, NAACP, LaRaza, our Party needs to find ways to project our more advanced demands.  On page 10 of our Main Discussion Document, we say “only a radical democratic government intervention to stimulate and radically restructure the economy can lift the working class and nation out of the … persistent economic morass.” The document goes on to mention the need for “massive public works jobs for infrastructure development, environmental cleanup… [reducing] the workday with no cut in pay and [applying] robust affirmative action hiring guidelines” and other urgent, progressive demands. Our Convention needs to discuss how we work to move this advanced program forward.

In the health care struggle: we need to give a respectful hearing to varying points of view, including the backers of “single payer”. Arguing that, since the public option is the only progressive demand with a chance to pass, is no excuse to allow health care advocates or conservative senators to leave single payer off the table. Again, our Main Document states (p. 11) “the likelihood of passage of [these] measures has little to do with their practicality, but instead hinges on the ability of working people and their allies to frame the national conversation and win active popular majorities for them.” This needs to be our attitude toward the health care struggle as well. There is evidence that single payer (or a different slogan such as “Medicare for All” which was originated by our Party) had, and continues to have, wide popular support.  If single payer were brought to the floor of Congress, then the CBO would have to cost it out and its advantages would be made clear to the nation. Our Convention needs to give attention to our work in the health care field with this in mind. Reducing support of a struggle to a “chance to pass” tails the mass movement and creates a dependency on spontaneity.

On the urgent issue of our Party’s press and print material: We need to find the ways to publish print material as well as online. While we absolutely agree with the need to speak to millions by electronic media, a Party lacking any regular print publication is in danger of becoming invisible and irrelevant to millions of people who lack either the means or the desire to spend time in front of a computer screen. Our outreach to the steel workers who attended our dinner would not have been possible without the Paper-in print. It was agreed that there was an imbalance between the electronic and print media. Even in this technological period, there is no substitute for the use of printed material in order to have the maximum influence in both a mass and personal setting. We have produced virtually no printed material in several years.

On the political line of our Party: our District comrades believe the present period is one of enormous opportunity and also one of urgency and danger. It is certainly true that the balance of forces in our country has shifted and that the events of the past two years-the presidential campaign and the “earth shaking” and game changing election results of 2008-have opened up opportunities for struggle as never before. But we agree with the assessment that the main task at this stage is still to defeat the ultra right and that we have not yet moved from that stage to the next. Therefore our Party and our Program, must project both our confidence in the future and our sense of urgency about the present. As many in and out of our Party have warned, if we do not see millions of people being put back to work, if we do not see an end of the tunnel in Afghanistan and Iraq, and if the program of our Party does not become more visible, then we could see deeper trouble ahead. If, on the other hand we and the American people make significant progress on these issues in the months ahead, then we could see real progress in the 2010 elections and in the country.

However, it was felt that within the context of defeating the ultra right, the Party was reducing its role to simply a participant and not giving revolutionary leadership, that we are not talking to the 20% who favor socialism and the even larger number who see the “system” as the enemy.

Of concern to all participants was the formulation of the value of the internet for recruiting and the downplaying of cadre.  These combined with dropping the term “Leninism” and the public utterances of leading comrades that perhaps “Communist” should be dropped from our title raised questions about our ideological footing and the very existence of the CPUSA.  Specifically:

Reducing the meaning of cadre to a time commitment (page 23) is both incorrect and will eventually make the Party indistinguishable from other left organizations.  Cadre has never meant being on the job 24/7.  Cadres are those who have a basic understanding of Marxism-Leninism and then can analyze from that perspective.  This does not suggest that we recruit only Marxist-Leninists, but that there is a constant ideological effort to develop cadre.  Being a cadre organization has never precluded mass recruiting.  But it does require an educational program that moves comrades from A to B, just as we would move non-communists in their mass organizations.  The Party has not had an ongoing educational program for years.

There was no question about the value of the internet and its potential for the Party to reach out to millions.  However, if it is seen as the main tool for recruiting, combined with minimizing the concept of cadre, the Party will lack ideological clarity and is suffering from that now.

Finally, most felt that the failure to recruit in numbers commensurate with the times stems from political line, strategy, tactics, and how the Party positions itself in the mass arena.  What is our message and how do we add Communist Plus to our work?

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