(Remarks to National Committee Meeting June 20, 2009)
I make no attempt to be comprehensive in these remarks. My aim is much more modest, as you will see.
Let me begin with a simple observation: If the last 30 years were an era of reaction, then the coming decade could turn into an era of reform, even radical reform. Six months into the Obama presidency, I would say without hesitation that the landscape, atmosphere, conversation, and agenda have strikingly changed compared to the previous eight years.
In this legislative session, we can envision winning a Medicare-like public option and then going further in the years ahead.
We can visualize passing tough regulatory reforms on the financial industry, which brought the economy to ruin.
We can imagine the troops coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan while U.S. representatives participate in a regional process that brings peace and stability to the entire region.
In the current political climate, the expansion of union rights becomes a real possibility.
Much the same can be said about winning a second stimulus bill, and we sure need one, given the still-rising rate, and likely long term persistence, of unemployment.
Isn’t it possible in the Obama era to create millions of green jobs in manufacturing and other sectors of the economy in tandem with an attack on global warming?
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 – no longer pie-in-the sky, but something that can be done in the foreseeable future?
The Communist Party USA (CPUSA) joins with the world in denouncing the coup d’etat this morning against the legally elected president of the Republic of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, by the Honduran military, in which, according to a statement by the president’s wife, Mr. Zelaya was threatened and beaten before being sent into exile in Costa Rica.
• The CPUSA denounces alarming reports of physical attacks by troops against the ambassadors of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua in Tegucigalpa, and calls for protection of all diplomatic personal; and, if the reports of the attacks are confirmed, punishment of all the responsible parties for this gross violation of Honduran and international law.
The CPUSA further:
• Demands that president Zelaya and other members of his government be returned to power immediately, and that the troops return to their barracks.
• Demands the immediate release of all labor, community and student leaders who have reportedly been rounded up by the army, and the restoration of freedom of the press.
• Recognizes that the Obama administration has repudiated the coup, and insists that President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton hold firm to this position, refusing diplomatic recognition and any military aid to Honduras until President Zelaya is restored to power.
• Calls upon unions and other people’s organizations in the United States to actively support our brothers and sisters in Honduras in resisting this brutal military coup d’etat.
El Partido Comunista de los Estados Unidos (CPUSA) se une con el mundo entero en denunciar al golpe de estado militar que se llevó a cabo esta mañana en contra del presidente legitimo de la Republica de Honduras, Manuel Zelaya por militares hondureños, en que, según dice la Sra. de Zelaya, el presidente fue golpeado y amenazado físicamente, antes de ser exiliado a Costa Rica.
• El Partido Comunista de los Estados expresa su coraje e indignación por las versiones según las cuales tropas hondureñas agredieron a los embajadores de Cuba, Venezuela y Nicaragua en Tegucigalpa, e insiste que, al confirmarse tales reportes, los agresores sean castigados por esta grave infracción de las leyes internacionales y de la Republica de Honduras.
Además, el Partido Comunista de los Estados Unidos:
• Exige de que el presidente Zelaya y otros integrantes de su gobierno sean devuelto a poder en forma inmediatamente, y que todas las tropas regresen a sus cuarteles.
• Exige que todos los dirigentes laborales, comunales y estudiantiles que, según reportes, han sido detenidos por las fuerzas armadas sean puestos en libertad, y que la libertad de la prensa sea restaurada en forma inmediata.
• Reconoce que la administración del presidente estadounidense Barack Obama ha repudiado el golpe de estado, y exige que tanto Obama como la secretaria de asuntos exteriores Hillary Clinton se mantengan firmes en esta actitud, negando el reconocimiento diplomático y cualquier ayuda material hasta que se restaure al Presidente Zelaya a su puesto.
• Hace un llamado a los sindicatos y otras organizaciones populares en nuestro país, a que apoyen en forma activa a nuestras hermanas y hermanos en Honduras que ya están organizando una valiente resistencia en contra del golpe.
National organizing director of the Communist Party Elena Mora talks with CNN's Rick Sanchez about normalizing relations with Cuba. Skip to about 1:06 on this video clip.
CHICAGO — The Communist Party USA has established a new Religion Commission to strengthen its work among religious people and organizations. In its leadership are activists representing various religious traditions from around the country. Tim Yeager, a Chicago trade unionist and a member of the Episcopal Church, serves as its chair.
“We want to reach out to religious people and communities, to find ways of improving our coalition work with them, and to welcome people of faith into the party,” Yeager said. “We invite questions and responses from people who would like to dialogue with us on matters pertaining to religion, Marxism and the struggle for more peaceful, just and secure world.”
There is a common misconception concerning the position of the Communist Party USA about religion, Yeager noted. Many who are unfamiliar with the party wrongly assume that all Communists are atheists, or that the party requires its members to be atheists. Nothing could be farther from the truth, he said. Religious people are welcome to join. The party’s Constitution specifically states that membership is open to “[a]ny person living in the United States, 18 years of age or over, regardless of race, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, or religious belief…”
Yeager acknowledged that relations between some Marxist parties and religious institutions in other parts of the world have been marked by conflict. In tsarist Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church had been an arm of the state, and its leadership was opposed to the Revolution. The Bolsheviks adopted an official atheist position, and for many years waged a struggle against organized religion. Elsewhere, such as in Latin America, Marxist parties and religious progressives have worked together against repressive regimes and imperialist intervention.
“There has been no state church in the United States since shortly after we gained our independence, and we have a tradition of religious diversity,” Yeager said. “The so-called Christian Right in recent years has certainly made progress, but some of the greatest leaders in our history have been men and women of faith, and our party has been proud to work with them. The best known example, of course, would be the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”
The Religion Commission will be producing articles on matters pertaining to religion and social progress, he said. Its goal is to share with the broader people’s movement the party’s thinking on the religious aspects of current struggles, taking up theoretical questions, and discussing the relationships, contradictions and commonalities among science, Marxism and religion. The commission also announced plans to hold a series of gatherings around the country, open to the public, to discuss how people from religious traditions and the party can better work together, building toward a national conference in 2010.
“As Marx said, the goal is not merely to explain the world, but to change it. We hope that the new Religion Commission will help build greater unity toward that end,” Yeager said. “We welcome people from faith communities to join us.”
LANSING, Mich. — The General Motors bankruptcy, announced Monday, was expected, having been predicted for weeks if not months. But the enormity of how far this once mighty giant of U.S. monopoly capitalism has fallen is shocking nevertheless. For many it seems like not so long ago when GM was not only the leader of all auto producers with a commanding 54 percent of the U.S. market, it was also the undisputed dominant corporation in the country’s economy.
In filing for bankruptcy yesterday, GM said it will close 14 plants in the U.S., half of them here in Michigan. It will leave less than 40,000 GM autoworkers nationwide, a tiny fraction of the 395,000 employed by the company in its heyday in the 1970s.
Nowhere is the shock greater than Michigan, GM’s birthplace. Today, the state has an official unemployment rate of almost 13 percent, and because it has seven times the auto jobs of the next highest state, Ohio, people here fear things will only get worse as the job loss in auto ripples through the economy.
At a “Keep the Dream Alive — Reinvest in America” rally that drew several thousand here yesterday, Jim Chapman a steelworker at Great Lakes Works in Ecorse, Mich., which makes steel for auto bodies, said he is a victim of that rippling effect. This father of five has been laid off for six months. “If you’re not selling cars, you’re not making steel,” he said. “It trickles down.”
Lansing, Mich., rally demands, "Keep the Dream Alive — Reinvest in America."
Under a plan announced by President Obama on Monday, the federal government will provide up to another $30 billion to keep GM afloat while it emerges, restructured, out of bankruptcy. That is on top of $19 billion in federal money the company received earlier. The Canadian government will chip in another $9 billion as part of the deal. The downsized company will have 60 percent U.S. government ownership, with smaller portions of its stock held by the United Auto Workers union, bondholders and the Canadian government.
Ron Bloom, who heads Obama’s auto task force, told reporters the government will be a “reluctant shareholder” and will not get involved in day-to-day management. But, he said, with taxpayer money now keeping GM afloat, the government “has to demand something in return for this capital."
In exchange for the new government aid, GM agreed to go through bankruptcy to eliminate more than $27 billion in debt held by bondholders. It also agreed to build a new small car in idled UAW factories and to increase the share of U.S.-based production from 66 percent to 70 percent, the White House said. The union has agreed to a no-strike pledge until 2015.
The White House noted that "the UAW has made important concessions on compensation and retiree health care that, while difficult, will help save jobs for active employees, pensions and health care for retirees."
UAW leaders pointed out in a press statement that "the biggest sacrifices will be made by the tens of thousands of workers who will lose their jobs as a result of the numerous plant closings that GM is announcing in its restructuring plan."
Addressing yesterday’s rally here, Lansing Mayor Verg Bernero said, “D-Day for GM is a sad day.” He said he was “grateful for an administration that is grappling with a problem it did not create, but certainly inherited.”
Many at the rally were angry that GM, while receiving bailout money which may total $50 billion or more, is shutting down 14 plants at home while it increases production outside the country.
“When you offshore jobs, you export the American Dream,” said Bernero.
Bill Parker, president of UAW Local 1700 at Chrysler’s Sterling Heights, Mich., Assembly plant, which is also scheduled to close, said workers are outraged that Chrysler wants to close an additional five plants. His plant employs about 1,400 workers and produces the Sebring sedan and convertible, along with the Dodge Avenger. He asked the crowd of several thousand to join him in calling on the Obama administration to demand that Chrysler reverse its decision.
“Chrysler got the money but they did not get the message,” said Parker, referring to the more than $7 billion in federal bailout money the company has received. The intent of that government assistance was to help people, Parker said. Now, he declared, “our sons and daughters face the prospect of doing worse than we are.”
Referring to GM’s export of jobs to low-wage countries, Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow told the crowd that she is “tired of talking about the race to the bottom. I have been doing it for 10 years. We have to raise others up, and not keep pushing us down.”
The Rev. Jesse Jackson emphasized the effect the bankruptcy and closing of GM plants will have on communities. When you close 14 plants and hundreds of dealers, you also close auto suppliers; you cut off a town’s tax base, you close their schools, and cause their teachers, police and fire departments to also shut down, he said.
As details of the GM bankruptcy plan emerged, some 3,000 labor and progressive activists were meeting at the America’s Future Now conference in Washington.
“Loss of jobs and the economic devastation that has spread across this country results from corporate greed,” Change to Win labor federation chair Anna Burger said there. Economic recovery means “more than just companies making a profit,” she said. Echoing Lansing Mayor Bernero, Burger said, “It means good secure jobs, decent incomes and the prospect of a secure retirement — in short, the American Dream.”
Another labor leader, speaking informally, noted that the auto union was caught “between a rock and a hard place” and was able to come out of the bankruptcy negotiations with a few things including a little less pain for some active workers and retirees. But, he said, “Once again, we have workers making the sacrifices while companies close plants and ship operations overseas. Once again we are doing what the finance industry says we should be doing to make a company 'viable' even if that means more massive job loss and continued de-industrialization.” This is a continuation of an approach that “just doesn't cut it,” he said.
“The problem with doing business this way is that it leads to disaster for workers and in the end it doesn't do much for GM either — by doing it their way they ended up deep in debt,” the labor leader said.
“What we really need,” he said, “is a bold new approach that retools our old plants to build mass transit, light rail, green cars and all the things we need for the future. Globalization is here to stay. We need to make it work for the majority, not just for the few, by creating a real plan to keep good paying manufacturing jobs and green jobs here in America. Let’s use our leverage to fight for this approach.”
John Rummel is the Chair of the Michigan District of the CPUSA.jrummel @ pww.org. Joel Wendland and John Wojcik contributed to this story.
The Communist Party USA is shocked and appalled at North Korea's recent nuclear test, as well as its subsequent test firing of at least two missiles.
We see these acts as incredibly provocative. Even North Korea's most important ally, China, was horrified by, and condemned, the tests.
Of course, North Korea is right to say that it has been, and still is, the victim of imperialist aggression, specifically from the U.S. It is true that the United States has never made reparations for the destruction of the Korean War, has repeatedly threatened North Korea, and encroached upon its right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to peacefully use nuclear power. In addition, the United States has helped to isolate North Korea from the rest of the world, encroaching upon its sovereign rights and hindering its economic development, and therefore providing the basis for the problems afflicting the region. It was the United States that fought the Korean War, and partitioned the nation into two separate states. The line of demarcation between north and south is one of the most militarized in the world. Currently, tens of thousands of U.S. troops remain in South Korea, and the U.S. routinely practices joint military drills with south Korea, simulating a ground invasion of the North.
Nonetheless, we are resolutely opposed to the use or development of any nuclear weapons by any nation.
Nuclear weapons threaten the very existence of humanity itself. The unintended effects of the tests have been to heighten tensions in the region: The sections of Japan's leadership that want to see Japan change its “peace constitution” so that Japan can maintain a standing army have seized upon these provocative tests to push forward the changes they want.
Further, the results of the tests are in direct contradiction to our common aim of battling imperialism. The general direction of the Obama administration's nuclear policy is at odds with that of any administration in the past 30 years, if not longer. While Obama has to navigate the political realities of the U.S., his administration has sought to reduce the nuclear threat, as well as the threat that the U.S. poses to other, oppressed nations. Consequently, powerful sections of the U.S. ruling class have made their aim to derail the Obama administration altogether.
The fight for progressive forces is to make sure that Obama, and the social strata that are part of the Obama movement—the working class, women and the racially and nationally oppressed especially—meets success.
The ultra-right has already seized upon North Korea's nuclear tests to attack Obama, Obama has been forced to respond sharply, and the movement for peace and against imperialism is that much more difficult. We believe peace is possible in today’s world, but this nuclear test, on the contrary, strengthens the ultra-right and imperialism, not the cause of peace.
The Communist Party USA, along with North Korea's neighbors, including socialist China and Vietnam, and many other progressive forces around the world, condemn these tests and urge the North Korean leadership to abandon its policy of brinkmanship.
Further, we urge all parties, including the United States and Japan, to exercise restraint in response. As we have always said, the main way to solve the nuclear issue, as well as the problems of Northeast Asia more generally, is through good-faith dialogue, through the six-party talks or some other mechanism, and not through military saber-rattling and brinkmanship from any quarters.
This is the Communist Party's Ninetieth Anniversary year. Founded in 1919, the Communist Party has had an unparalleled history of struggle for jobs, justice, peace and socialism in this country.
In 2006 the Communist Party donated its archives and the Library of the Reference Center for Marxist Studies to the Tamiment Library in order to preserve our unique history and make the collection available to researchers, students and the public.
Below is slide show of just a small set of images from the collection that was featured in an exhibit in 2007 at the library. Visit our website regularly this year for more photos, images, articles and information about the 90th Anniversary of the Communist Party USA.
No es una cosa estática. El movimiento sindical no “llega” a un lugar especifico que se llama “unidad”. La unidad sindical, como la lucha más amplia para la unidad de la clase trabajadora, es un trayecto constante, que no “termina” en un punto final. Es una marcha continua superando barreras y obstáculos. A veces el camino los lleva por terreno difícil, por lluvia, nieve y otros obstáculos, y en contra de poderosos vientos contrarios. Hablando de tiempos malos, pensemos de los ocho años de George y 30 años de ataques implacables al movimiento sindical.
Tampoco es la unidad sindical una tremenda abstracción. Unidad laboral es moción. Es acción con rumbo y meta. Surge del trabajo duro enfocado en temas y programas. La verdadera unidad sindical surge de las experiencias y estimaciones compartidas.
Lo que estoy tratando de decir es que la actual desunión en el sector laboral estadounidense es más una cuestión de forma que contenido. Sí, todavía existe una división formal entre las dos federaciones, AFL-CIO y Change to Win. Pero al nivel de acción, hay una unidad muy fuerte en las funciones prácticas. A pesar de que no se ha formulado ninguna declaración formal de un programa sindical unido, tal unidad programática surge claramente al nivel de la acción práctica. Todo el movimiento sindical se encuentra unido detrás de un programa que incluye:
• Aprobación del proyecto de ley de libertad de optar por sindicalización (EFCA).
• Una recuperación sustentable que produce empleos e ingresos.
• Una resolución de la crisis de viviendas que mantenga a los trabajadores en sus hogares y provee viviendas a bajo costo para las familias de la clase trabajadora.
• Una reforma autentica, integral y universal de los servicios de salud.
• Desarrollo económico sostenible que produce empleos en la manufactura y otros que sean “verdes” y que protegen y restauran al medio ambiente.
Y apenas la semana pasada vino el anuncio, tremendamente importante de una propuesta conjunta de la AFL-CIO, Change to Win y la Asociación Nacional de Educadores (NEA) al problema de la reforma migratoria. Esto fue más allá de un anuncio de un pacto. También señaló la unidad sindicall y el apoyo al llamado por parte de la administración de Obama para que el Congreso actúe. Aun más, señala la decisión del movimiento labor de trabajar activamente para influenciar al debate y legislación en una manera que no solo protege a los derechos de los obreros inmigrantes, sino que también fomenta una unidad sindical mas amplia.
La experiencia en las elecciones de 2008 ha sido un factor crítico en el camino a la unidad. Nadie cuestiona seriamente que los sindicatos desempeñaron un papel clave en eligir al presidente Obama, en cambiar al balance de fuerza en el Congreso y en dar fin al control férreo de los republicanos sobre el poder. Pero mientras que celebramos al papel increíble desempeñado por los sindicatos en las elecciones, también debemos hacer constar la poderosa influencia que el movimiento pro Obama tuvo con los sindicatos. Trabajando en el contexto de la coalición más amplia que apoyaba a Obama no solo ilustró el poder de la unidad, sino que también ayudó a perfeccionar la sofisticación de la acción laboral independiente, mientras que proporcionó entrenamiento político a miles de activistas nuevos surgidos de la base. La histeria reaccionaria de las corporaciones en contra del EFCA ha sido causada en gran medida por este despertar político en el movimiento laboral.
La unidad laboral surge de todos aspectos de la misma lucha de clases. No es simplemente una cuestión de voluntad fuerte o de pensamiento correcto. La unidad aumenta por razón de la crisis económica. Los ataques a los trabajadores del sector automotriz la fortalecen. La unidad laboral aumenta a causa de las pérdidas de empleos, las luchas de los desocupados, la pérdida de hogares y leyes antisindicales a nivel estatal. Se aumenta a causa de los ataques en contra de los trabajadores inmigrante y sus derechos, por ataques racistas y por ataques y discriminación en contra de las mujeres. Se fortalece por medio de la lucha en contra de deficiencias en el cuidado de salud y en los fondos disponibles para las escuelas. De hecho todos los ataques antidemocráticas promueve como resultado más unidad laboral. Como se va intensificando la lucha de clases, aumenta la presión a favor de la unidad. Es la urgencia de las reivindicaciones inmediatas que actualmente fortalece a la unidad laboral.
Por supuesto existen verdaderos problemas. No podemos hacer caso omiso a los actuales brotes de divisionismos y conflictos dentro del sector sindical. Pero dentro de cada uno de estos conflictos, existe una lucha al nivel de base a favor de la unidad, la democracia sindical y los derechos de las bases. Estos son asuntos que se van a arreglar adentro del movimiento sindical. La tendencia grande hacia la unidad laboral tendrá una influenza poderosa a favor de calmar estos divisionismos.
Tampoco podemos ignorar las cuestiones difíciles de estructura y liderato que todavía impiden la creación de una sola “casa sindical”. Pero podemos estar seguros que las presiones grandes a favor de la unidad también están detrás de las actuales charlas entre la AFL-CIO, Change to Win y la mayoría de los sindicatos independientes.
Como celebramos este Primero de Mayo, debemos y podemos aumentar nuestros esfuerzos de promover la más amplia unidad laboral que sea posible. Esto se va a lograr no por medio de una agitación abstracta, sino por participación seria en la acción en cuanto a los asuntos que mas movilizan al sector sindical y al pueblo. ¡Hay tantas cosas que suceden a nivel de base! Cada manifestación de parte de un concilio central sindical a favor de la EFCA, cada acción conjunta para cualquiera de las luchas laborales, conduce poderosamente hacia la unidad. Cada acción de solidaridad, cada piquete, cada convención o conferencia laboral, cada lazo que construimos entre el movimiento sindical y sus aliados naturales, cada coalición sindical-comunitaria, fortalece y construye la unidad laboral.
Este Primero de Mayo el pronóstico de tiempo es muy positivo. No importa cuan difícil es la lucha por la unidad, por primera vez en muchos años los vientos soplan en nuestro favor.
De acuerdo a una encuesta de Rasmussen Report, solo 53 por ciento de adultos norteamericanos piensan que el capitalismo es mejor que el socialismo.
Y 20 por ciento dicen que el socialismo es mejor que el capitalismo.
Mientras nos alejamos de los años de la Guerra Fría, más gente está dispuesta a considerar el socialismo. Los que están por debajo de 30 años de edad están divididos: 37 por ciento prefieren el capitalismo, 33 por ciento el socialismo y 30 por ciento están indecisos.
Los que están en los 30s apoyan más al sistema actual con 49 por ciento a favor del capitalismo y 26 por el socialismo.
Los que tienen más de 40 años favorecen al capitalismo y solo 13 por ciento de estos favorecen al socialismo.
Como uno se puede imaginar, los que tienen dinero para invertir escogieron al capitalismo 5 a 1. Pero, para el resto de nosotros que no tenemos nada que invertir, un cuarto decimos que el socialismo sería bueno. Solo 40 por ciento de los que no tienen para invertir creen que el capitalismo es mejor.
Estas estadísticas son sorprendentes visto que Rasmussen no definió ni el capitalismo ni el socialismo en el sondeo.
En otra encuesta hecha anterior por la misma empresa, ellos encontraron que 70 por ciento de los norteamericanos prefieren una economía de libre mercado. Cuando usan la frase “economía de libre mercado”, sostuvo Rasmussen, atrae más apoyo que el uso de la palabra “capitalismo”.
“Los datos de nuestros sondeos respalda esa idea. En vez de ver a las grandes corporaciones como estando comprometidas con los mercados libres, dos de cada tres norteamericanos piensan que el gobierno grande y los negocios grandes trabajan juntos de manera que causa daño a los consumidores y los inversionistas”, dicen el resumen de la encuesta.
Imagínese como reaccionarían los estadounidenses si hubiese una verdadera conversación nacional sobre los beneficios del socialismo. Actualmente, la mayoría ve a la economía como una “administrada por el gobierno” y no están convencidos de que el gobierno puede hacerlo mejor que las corporaciones, de acuerdo del sondeo.
Algo que no forma parte de como el pueblo ve al socialismo es la democratización de la economía – donde representantes de todas las comunidades, sindicatos, escuelas, etcétera, tomarían parte en guiar la política económica.
Está claro que la crisis económica profunda en Estados Unidos y el mundo ha afectado la confianza que gente han tenido en el sistema capitalista.
Happy May Day to working people everywhere from the Communist Party USA!
May First is celebrated as International Workers' Day around the globe, but was born here in the United States in the struggle for the eight-hour workday. For many years, May Day was not celebrated in the country of its birth as it was internationally, but in recent years May Day has been reborn.
Larger and larger sections of the labor movement and the immigrant rights movement in the United States have embraced May Day as a day of struggle for workers rights and of celebration of the contribution of all workers: men and women, gay and straight, every race, language, religion or nationality.
We join with all struggling people around the world in celebrating May Day and continuing the fight for a better world.
Below are links to articles on the history and origins of May Day, thoughts on the workers movement today and more.
The new documentary by filmmaker Michal Goldman, "At Home in Utopia" is
a great tribute to the Communist Party, though is not directly about
the Communist Party nor is the assessment of the Party always
favorable.
The film, part of PBS's "Independent Lens series, documents the history
and legacy of the Bronx's United Workers Cooperative Colony, "the
coops." The coops was a collectively owned housing cooperative
developed by Jewish immigrants 80 years ago.
But most of the founders of the coops and many of its residents for
much of the development's history were members of the Communist Party.
"At Home in Utopia" shows a unique glimpse into the lives of communist
activists and members during the Depression, World War II and through
the McCarthy "Red Scare." It documents their ideals, dreams, squabbles,
mistakes and successes. In many ways the trajectory of the coops
mirrored that of the Communist Party itself in that period.
While the documentary ultimately and hastily concludes that adherence
to communism was the the downfall of the coops—which was sold into
private hands after World War II—it reflects a deeper truth: that
membership in the Communist Party never meant unanimity or oppression.
This film helps expose the all-too-common lie that communists were
automatons, unthinking tools who mindlessly carried out Moscow's
orders. In fact, the motivations and actions of the radicals captured
in the film are local and personal.
"At Home in Utopia" shows that communists differ and debate and are
deeply independent and opinionated. Perhaps no better tribute could be
made.
April
28 is International Workers Memorial Day. This is a day for honoring
the loss of workers worldwide who are injured and killed on the job as
well as those who suffer injury or sickness due to unsafe working
conditions, industrial accidents and abusive management practices.
It is also a time to rededicate ourselves to the struggles for
workplace safety and health, for environmental protection, for just
compensation, medical coverage for all and protection for immigrant
workers who often receive the most dangerous and deadly jobs or are
forced to work without even basic safety tools, equipment, and training.
The International Labour Organization,
the international body of the United Nations that addresses issues of
work and workers rights released a report yesterday that reveals key
facts about workers safety and health worldwide:
The ILO estimates that each year about 2.3 million men and women
die from work-related accidents and diseases including close to 360,000
fatal accidents and an estimated 1.95 million fatal work-related
diseases.
This means that by the end of this day nearly 1 million workers
will suffer a workplace accident, and around 5,500 workers will die due
to an accident or disease from their work.
In economic terms it is estimated that roughly four per cent of
the annual global Gross Domestic Product, or US$1.25 trillion, is
siphoned off by direct and indirect costs of occupational accidents and
diseases such as lost working time, workers’ compensation, the
interruption of production and medical expenses.
Hazardous substances cause an estimated 651,000 deaths, mostly in
the developing world. These numbers may be greatly under-estimated due
to inadequate reporting and notification systems in many countries.
Data from a number of industrialized countries show that
construction workers are three to four times more likely than other
workers to die from accidents at work.
Occupational lung disease in mining and related industries
arising from asbestos, coal and silica exposure is still a concern in
developed and developing countries. Asbestos alone claims about 100,000
deaths every year and the figure is rising annually.
The picture is often grim for workers around the world as well as hear
in the United States. This Workers Memorial Day, we take a moment to
remember those who have passed and encourage everyone to fight to make
work safe—for you, for your families, your neighbors and the
environment.
This year the country and the world
celebrates a very special Earth Day.
Earth Day was first celebrated on April 22 in 1970 and is now
commemorated around the world as a day of celebration of and struggle
for the planet. This year, Bolivian President Evo Morales will address
the United Nations, calling on the global body to make "Mother Earth
Day" an official UN holiday and to acknowledge humanity's common
interest in the protection of the planet and its environment.
But what makes this Earth Day especially important is that the policies
of President Barack Obama represent a dramatic turn towards green
policies that have the potential to reshape the economy for the better.
The White House understands what the vast majority of the American
public already knows, that greens jobs and green policies are not just
necessary to turn back the clock on climate change, but are good for
the economy as well.
Right now, we can put millions of unemployed people to work doing the
essential work of building a green infrastructure: building public
transit systems and components, researching and developing sustainable
energy sources, insulating and repairing America's homes and offices,
educating the public about environmental practices, and cleaning up our
streams, bays, forests and fields.
Let us all pledge to work for and support a green job economy, and help
to build a world that puts people and nature before profits.
For
more information on our policies and approach to the planet and
sustainability, read the Environmental Program of the Communist Party, People and Nature
Before Profits.
Earth Day, April 22, is sandwiched between Tax Day, April 15, and Workers Memorial Day, April 28. Just around the corner is May Day, May 1, the international workers day and a day for flower baskets and maypoles. What do they all have in common?
An economy powered by two toxic pollutants: oil and corporate greed. Misplaced priorities that send more than half of our tax dollars to military spending that kills people, ruins lives, pollutes the planet and wrecks our economy. Damaging foreign policy driven by a quest to secure oil. Workers’ lives lost and health destroyed because of corporate greed. A system that puts profit before people and ravages the earth along the way. And the need for workers and people of the world to unite, to love and preserve our planet and to build a better world.
It’s clearer than ever that the present system can’t continue. It’s not sustainable, either economically or environmentally. Vast parts of our country are industrial wastelands —empty factories, mills, warehouses and storefronts testify to jobs gone forever. In too many places, military bases and industries, or prisons, are the best or only jobs around. Toxic “brownfields” and Superfund sites dot urban and rural landscapes. Open green space, family farms, woods and wetlands have been plowed under for wasteful exurban sprawl and industrial “parks” — many now sporting “for lease” and “foreclosure” signs. Industrial agriculture has brought degraded and tainted food, pollution and toxic working conditions.
Turning this around means getting our economic system in sync with Mother Nature — greening our economy. It means a massive national undertaking to invest in sustainable, non-polluting energy, industry and transportation systems; in well-planned, vibrant and sustainable “green” cities, towns and rural communities; in education, health care and culture to produce an informed and involved citizenry. Of course, that means putting people, and nature, before profits. This won’t happen without a fight.
Earth Day and May Day remind us to breathe the beauty of the flowers of spring and the roses of summer and struggle. “Love your mother” — planet Earth, and, in the words of labor organizer Mother Jones, “fight like hell for the living.”
BOULDER, Colorado -– Some may call it Conference-a-palooza. Film critic Roger Ebert calls it “The Conference on Everything Conceivable.” But its more conventional name is "The Conference on World Affairs" and it's hosted by The University of Colorado.
It's a cherished tradition in this Rocky Mountain town. Some 80,000 people are expected to attend 200 panels, plenary sessions, performances, a spectacular jazz concert and “Cinema Interruptus,” an annual event with Ebert.
But one thing this year that won't be traditional. Communist Party Chair Sam Webb is one among the 100-plus panelists. This will be the first time a Communist Party leader is participating in the grand Boulder 61-year tradition.
Webb will be part of nine panels, "ATTENTION: Deficit Disorder!"; "Family Values: Casualties of the Culture War"; "Ethics in Government: LOL"; "Political Candidates: No Room for Non-believers"; "Are We Stimulated Yet?"; "Libertarians, Progressives, Communists: Political Outliers"; "What Makes a Leader" and "We Are All Socialists Now."
Plus he will join other panelists on a live broadcast Wed., April 8 8:30-9:20 on KGNU 88.5 FM/1390 AM discussing "A Public Affair Is Obama's Bipartisanship Sustainable?"
Conference director Jim Palmer said the annual event can only happen because of those enthusiastic volunteers, who every year donate thousands of hours of their time. “There really is nothing like the Conference on World Affairs,” Palmer said. “The Conference on World Affairs is a million-dollar conference that is basically run on a shoestring.”
Journalist Molly Ivins, who was a frequent participant, wrote that the event offers “astonishing, cross-disciplinary insights, whole new ways of looking at old questions and information that can transform the way you look at things.”
Palmer says he believes the increasing audiences are a reaction to today’s easy access to information. “In an age when facts and figures are available almost instantaneously via the Internet, people are craving context, background, experience; they want texture and substance, face-to-face encounters and exchanges, to help them interpret all the detailed information we now have so readily at hand. This is one of the things the conference does best. Also, it is moving, wild, unpredictable, and fun.”
The University of Colorado’s Conference on World Affairs was founded in 1948 as a forum on international affairs. It rapidly expanded to encompass a huge range of fields including but not limited to: music, literature, environment, science, journalism, visual arts, diplomacy, technology, spirituality, film politics, business, medicine, and human rights.
Welcome to everyone in Winston Unity Center and to everybody on line.
We are living in very turbulent times. The world is in transition. An
old era — an era of neoliberalism, financialization and rightwing
extremism — is fading away and a new era is being born.
But no one is quite sure what the new era will look like. It resists
easy prediction. It is safe to say that the future of both our country
and the world is still to be written.
As bad as things have been over the last three decades, few thought
they could get much worse. But they have. Depression economics has
entered our vocabulary not simply as a historical event, but as a lived
experience for millions.
Only a short time ago most economists said the economic cycle had been
tamed. In 2004, in a speech titled “The Great Moderation,” Federal
Reserve Board Chair Ben Bernanke said we live in an era in which
macroeconomic instability has been eliminated.
Fast forward five years and the Great Moderation has turned into the
Great Crisis. That which few thought would ever happen again has
happened again, and without much warning.
The social fabric is rupturing. The terrain on which billions of people
earn a living and raise their families feels foreign, even
unrecognizable. Haven’t you heard more than one person say, “Is this
the country I grew up in?”
"Out of the Crisis: Building a new era of justice and peace" was a speech delivered by Sam Webb, National Chair of the Communist Party USA.
The speech was the opening address to the organization’s National Committee, which includes leading communists from around the country.
Video and text versions of the speech are available at http://www.cpusa.org/
Out of the crisis Building a new era of justice
and peace
a speech by Sam Webb, National Chair
of the Communist Party
Saturday, March 21 9:30 am Eastern
This Saturday, March 21, Sam Webb, the national chairperson of the
Communist Party USA, delivered a speech titled, “Out of the crisis:
Building a new era of justice and peace.” The speech was streamed
live via the web right here on our website www.cpusa.org. You can watch it above.
The speech was the opening address to the organization’s National
Committee, which includes leading communists from around the country.
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