Communist Party USA

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Communist Party USA is America's oldest and most influential Marxist-Leninist organization. It was founded in 1919 and its constitution was first published in 1987. The constitution states the Communist Party USA is "the party of and for the U.S. working class."

It works to battle capitalism and the drive for maximum profits, because it believes the living standards of workers and the natural environment are under attack.^[1].

Purpose

From the Communist Party USA constitution;^[2]

The Communist Party USA is the party of and for the U.S. working class, a class which is multiracial, multinational, and unites men and women, young and old, employed and unemployed, organized and unorganized, gay and straight, native-born and immigrant, urban and rural, and composed of workers who perform a large range of physical and mental labor—the vast majority of our society. We are the party of the African American, Mexican American, Puerto Rican, all other Latino American, Native American, Asian American, and all racially and nationally oppressed peoples, as well as women, youth, and all other working people..."

"Founded in Chicago in 1919, the Communist Party of the United States has an outstanding history in the struggles for peace, democratic rights, racial and gender equality, economic justice, union organization, and international solidarity. Our Party is organized on the principle of democratic centralism, combining maximum democratic discussion and decision-making with maximum unity of will and action, ensuring our ability to play a strong organizing role in the class struggle. We focus our efforts on increasing our ability to organize millions into struggle, fighting anti-communism as a divisive weapon of the capitalist class. With Marxism-Leninism guiding our actions, the Communist Party strives to build the broadest unity against global capitalist imperialism now headed by U.S. imperialism, for immediate gains and reforms that benefit working people, and for a progressive democratization of the government, the economy, and society of our country on the road to and after winning socialism..."

Work in the South

The party played a leading role in organizations like the Southern Negro Youth Congress, the Southern Conference for Human Welfare, and the Sharecroppers Union and in the organization of the tobacco industry in Virginia and steel in Birmingham, Alabama. The role of the party is well known in defense of the Scottsboro Youths but it was involved in many other struggles too - to register voters, organize unions, defend civil liberties, stop lynching, etc. People like Esther Jackson and James Jackson, Edward Strong and Augusta Strong and Louis Burnham and Dorothy Burnham were in the forefront of the party's work in the South^[3].

CPUSA Printing Shops, Union "Bugs", and Those Who Used the CPUSA Printing Establishment on their Literature

Prompt Press - Allied Printing Trades Union - Bug 209 and its Counterpart Bug 412:

The CPUSA established several unionized printing shops in the Allied Printing Trades Union, and each shop was given a union 'Local' number. The one for the CPUSA's main print shop was "209", representing Prompt Press. This number showed up on the various CPUSA newspapers Daily Worker, Daily World, Peoples Daily World and the Peoples Weekly World. West Coast weekly versions of the old Daily Worker, sometimes called the Peoples World or possibly the Weekly World had a shop number from that region.

Official citations of Prompt Press as a CPUSA print shop were found in The Guide to Subversive Organization ^[4] on p. 142, as follows:

• 1. "A printing union identification symbol described as "Bug 209" appears on many of the (Communist) Party publications including Party membership cards, and pertains to the printing plant of Prompt Press, a Party publishing organization."

Source: Subversive Activities Control Board, Docket No. 108-53, Report and Order with respect to the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, December 21, 1955, p. 8; and Docket No. 111-53, Report and Order with respect to the United May Day Committee, April 27, 1956, p. 65; see also p. 73."

• 2. "Prints the bulk of the literature issued by the Communist Party and its affiliates and is reliably known to be owned by the Communist Party."

Source: Attorney General Francis Biddle, "Congressional Record", September 24, 1942, p. 7685

Several different "bugs" used by the CPUSA include the following:

A fundraiser letter from The Daily World DW dated April, 1972 was sent out to ask "readers" to donate towards A $150,000 fund to keep the newspaper going. Signed by Si Gerson, Executive Editor, and Dorothy Robinson, Administrator, the letter had a printing bug 209. However, the mailing envelope, also from the Daily World, 205 W. 19th Street, New York, New Yorik, 10011, featured a new printing bug, S142 of the Allied Printing Trades Union. This number would be used in tandem with 209 in many of the CPUSA printings/mailings for years. Another bug that was often used with 209 was 412, a parallel CPUSA print shop.

A fundraising letter from the YWLL postmarked May 7, 1980, 235 West 23rd Street - 5th Floor, NY, NY, 10011, featured the union bug number [[209], while its return envelope had a bug numbers S142.

• Long View Publishing Co. Inc. LVPCo at 239 West 23rd Street, New York, New York, 10011, (selected mailings from 1980 and 1982) featured the union printing shop bug [[443]. This was the publishing company of the CPUSA's newspaper Daily World and 443 appeared on its subscription renewal envelopes and notices.

In a mailing postmarked November 6, 1981, from Long View Publishing Co., Inc, same address as above, the "Bug was 209. The letter was a "Holiday Greetings" asking for people to buy holiday greetings and/or to give a gift subscription of the "Daily World" and all the enclosures had 209 on them, including the letter by Pat Barile, Business Manager of LVPCo.

A fundraiser letter dated April 1980 by Daniel Spector, Organizational Secretary of the CPUSA's youth arm, the Young Workers Liberation League, asked for money to support the publication of their bi-monthly newspaper Young Worker (which was later changed to Dynamic. The union bug used on this letter was illegible.

The address of the YWLLwas: 235 W. 23 St., 5 Floor, New York City, New York, 10011. A subscription/donation return envelope was addressed as: Post Office Box 544, Old Chelsea Station, New York, New York, 10011, Bug 209.

A letter "From the desk of Tim Wheeler, Editor of the People's Weekly World, postmarked July 18, 1999, was asking "readers" to donate at least $100,000 of their $400,000 goal to keep the paper going. While there was no printing bug on the letter, the mailing envelope did have an almost illegible bug without any shop number. The return envelope, address to [[LVPCo] did have a union label/bug 490M but the shop name was illegible.

A People's Weekly World subscription renewal letter postmarked Sept. 11, 2000, from the PPW at 235 West 23 Street, New York, New York, 10011, had a printing bug of 318 on the envelope, nothing on the letter, and bug 318 on the return envelope.

The 1972 issues of the CPUSA theoretical journal Political Affairs had the Prompt Press printing ship bug number 209 on it.

Environmental activism

Membership numbers

In 2002, the Communist Party USA claimed 20,000 registered members and groups in 28 of the 50 US states^[5].

Communist Party infiltration of the Democratic Party

Communist Party USA plans to infiltrate and manipulate the Democratic Party can be illustrated by direct quotes from Communist Party literature.

In 1972, Gus Hall, then leader of the Communist Party USA, wrote in his book, "A Lame Duck in Turbulent Waters," describing what had been the long-time party policy:^[6]

Our electoral policy has for 25 years been expressed in the phrase, 'the three legs of a stool'....The stool was constructed at a time when the Party was under sharp attack....a reflection of the Party's response to the difficulties.

The flexibility was contained in the idea that no one leg of the stool was the main leg. Depending on the political pressures, one could choose a particular leg or legs. In fact the concept was built on the idea that when the other two legs, namely, the Communist Party and the forces of political independence, got strong enough, then and only then would the stool sit on three legs. But until that day comes the one operating leg would be the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.

Hall, writing this in 1972, at that time claimed that he had decided the policy was wrong. It is apparent, however, from later quotes and actions of top Communists, including Hall, that the policy was in fact been continued and even augmented.

Gus Hall himself said at the time:

We are going to work towards independence, but I think it is clear we are going to work with people who for some time will be 'riding two horses' in the field of political action.

Mitchell on moving the Democrats left

Charlene Mitchell, then Executive Director of the African-American Commission of the Communist Party USA, wrote in the Peoples Daily World June 9, 1983:

To date, most of the debate has centered on the personalities of potential Black candidates and the pros and cons of such a challenge. The thrust of such a candidacy must be to develop the popular electoral base to prevent the Democratic Party from continuing its shift to the right and force a more progressive platform and program in the 1984 campaign.

Mitchell went further in the March 1989 issue of Political Affairs, the monthly theoretical journal of the Communist Party USA;

We see building political independence based on the alliance of labor with the African-American community as the aim for changing the relationship of forces in elected office. The Party Program maintains the ultimate expression of this would be a mass anti-monopoly people's party...

From the standpoint of process, even if it is currently developing primarily through the Democratic Party, the fact that labor, the Rainbow Coalition, and the African-American community are the main generators of the new developments substantiates our policy and our historic approach of basing the building of political independence on the alliance of the trade union movement and the African-American people...

Should the party strive to play a leading role helping those forces gain and consolidate new positions of strength, even inside the Democratic Party or shouldn't it?, I think it should.

How is our party going to develop its all-sided electoral presence? This cannot and should not repose solely on Communist or Left-independent candidates. Not if there is any intention of emerging as an integral component of the overall progressive coalition. especially in view of the fact that the Jackson-led progressive wing of the Democratic Party is that coalition's major organized. component.

"People's forces"

In the September/October 1988 issue, Political Affairs states:

Beyond the rhetoric, politics in the United States invariably reflects the class struggle. Even as parties of capitalism, the dynamics between and within the Democratic and Republican parties express the interests and demands of competing sections of the ruling class, on the one hand; and cross-purposes of contending class forces vying for control of the Democratic Party, on the

other.

During the Reagan-Bush years the Republican Party has become the party of the ultra-Right. Organized forces of the working class and people are almost totally absent from it.

For the last fifty years the Democratic Party has housed a broad mix of class and social forces that are often in conflict with each other. This has given rise to a sometimes subtle, sometimes sharp struggle over direction.

The status and intensity of this struggle depend on the level and strength of the political independence of the labor movement and other people's forces operating inside the (Democratic) party.

Political Affairs for March 1989 contained the following statement:

Organized mass movements, especially the African American community, the Rainbow Coalition, labor on all levels, SANE-Freeze, and other mass organizations- became more independent of the Democratic Party establishment on policy and political direction. but more organizationally involved in the Democratic Party.

The same issue also contained the following:

This much is clear - the overall movement will grow. So will the role of the Rainbow Coalition and the labor movement. And it will unfold in the 1989-1992 quadrennial cycle primarily, but not exclusively-through the medium of the Democratic Party.^[7]

CPLAN

In the late 1980's Communist Party USA publications also specifically described a party apparatus for directly influencing the votes of Congress and even Congressional and Presidential Elections. This is called CPLAN, or the Communist Party Legislative Action Network.

This network was organized to influence other mass organizations cooperating with the Communists through the "All Peoples Front" to stimulate telephone networks and letter writing campaigns to influence Congress on legislation and even to reach voters regarding election campaigns.

The May 1987 issue of Political Affairs described CPLAN in more detail:

Every party organization should assign a comrade to be in touch with the legislative and political action department of the Central Committee. This could be a key for rapid mobilization.

The aim is to activate within a day or two all party organizations, as well as our mass movements connections, to pressure their Senators and Representatives. . .

Nationally, CPLAN would be ableto generate tens of thousands of letters, telephone calls, mailgrams, etc....There are few questions on which CPLAN cannot make the difference in how at least 5 to 10 Senators or Representatives would vote...

CPLAN is an important means of strengthening the unity of the independent forces, and this could have a great bearing not only on the l00th Congress but on the 1988 electoral struggle.

The same issue of Political Affairs went on to say:

When account is taken of the Party district and club organizations, as well as the thousands of trade unions, coalitions, and mass organizations on the grassroots, citywide, and national levels that Communists belong to, help lead, are active in, have friends, relatives, and contacts in, then the answer as to how to organize a Party legislative apparatus, as well as the Party's potential for influencing the legislative scene, become clear. . .the basis for an extraordinary legislative action network that could impact on the l00th Congress in a major way.

Possibilities under Obama

In a speech given at the Peoples Weekly World ’s Better World Awards banquet in New York City, May 17, 2009, entitled "the impossible becomes possible", Communist Party National Chair Sam Webb, explained the possibilities opened up under the Obama administration.

It came down to a point by point Communist party USA agenda for the Obama administration;

On the heels of the first 100 days of our new President, we heard nearly endless commentary and analysis. Much of it was favorable; and some wasn’t.

I would like to briefly add my two cents

After the first 100 days I would say without hesitation or qualification that the political atmosphere, landscape, conversation and agenda compared to the previous eight years of the Bush administration have changed dramatically.

To borrow an expression of Jarvis Tyner, the executive vice chair of our party, “What was once impossible during the Bush years has become possible, thanks to the election of Barack Obama.”

In this new political climate, we can foresee winning a public option, like Medicare, in the current legislative fight over health care reform.

We can visualize enacting tough regulatory reforms on the financial industry that brought the economy to ruin.

We can imagine bringing the troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan, while being part of a regional process that brings peace and stability to the entire region.

In this new political climate, the expansion of union rights in this legislative session is not only sensible, it’s doable.

Much the same can be said about winning a second stimulus bill, and we sure need one, given the still rising and likely long term persistence of unemployment with the heaviest burden, as usual, falling on communities of color.

Isn’t it possible in the post-Bush era to launch a vigorous attack on global warming and create millions of green jobs in manufacturing and elsewhere?

Can’t we envision taking new strides in the long journey for racial and gender equality in this new era, marked at its beginning by the election of the first African American to the presidency?

And isn’t the overhaul of the criminal justice and prison system – a system steeped in racism and employing punitive treatment as it organizing principle – no longer pie in the sky, but something that can be done in the foreseeable future?

All these --- and many other --- things are within our reach now!

We can dream again, knowing that the gap between our dreams and reality is bridgeable.

We can turn King’s words --- that “justice roll down like a mighty stream” --- into a living reality for every American.

We can re-bend the arc of history in the direction of justice and peace.

But only if we, and millions like us, do our part in these struggles, much like we did last year.

Neither President Obama nor progressive congress people can do it by themselves --- they can’t be the only change agents.

After all, they are up against formidable opposition.

On the one hand the extreme right is badly weakened, but is still a poisonous and reactionary political presence in our nation.

On the other hand, the Obama change coalition includes people and groups that want to cut down on the scope and sweep of the reform agenda.

So both the new president and new congress need our help. Our responsibility is support them as well as prod and constructively take issue with them when we have differing views.

But more importantly – and this is the nub of the problem – we have to reach, activate, unite and turn millions of Americans into change agents who can make the political difference in these struggles.

Changes of a progressive nature, especially major ones--- if history is any guide ---usually combine the bottom up and the top down.

So the challenge facing the discontented of our land is to be the bottom up change agents this year and in the years to come.

Our parents and grandparent did exactly that in the Depression years. Not happy with the pace and substance of change, they sat down in plants and in the fields, marched on Washington, petitioned local relief agencies, lobbied for a social safety net, established unemployed and nationality (immigrant) groups, organized industrial workers, opposed discrimination and racism, elected New Dealers to Congress and re-elected Roosevelt in a landslide in 1936, and turned (not all at once and not perfectly) multi-racial unity into an organizing principle.

I am confident the American people in their millions – reeling under the weight of this terrible economic crisis and yearning for a more decent, equal, peaceful and just world – will follow their example and turn this country into a more perfect union.

Yes we can --- Si se puede!

External links

• Communist Party USA website
• CPUSA Labor Commission blog

References