Your Views on Western CP

[Avocado]

I wondered what you views were on English speaking Western Communist Parties and why you hold that line.

My curiosity has been piqued by the comments on the CPGB-ML.

It appears to me that the general consensus on here is that they stink.

I have no views on them myself largely due to my ignorance of them.

However this got me thinking about the CPs of other large western states.

The CP of the US?
The CP of Canada?
The CP of Australia?

etc

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

Yeah, they all stink (including all European ones). "Euro-communist", socialdemocratic, reformist, or some strange incoherent mess of confused nationalists and tankies.

[Avocado]

I viewed a link posted on another thread about a video on the CPUSA - we have around 2000-3000 members 'we are struggling'.

When factoring in the US voting population - that is around one in one hundred thousand who are eligible to vote and who are members of CP in the USA.

I realise that doesn't mean that that is their total support at the ballot box, but it is so small. I imagined they would have more members.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

CPUSA is so irrelevant in the U.S. that it's just sad, so is about every other "communist" group. But yeah they really suck.

[Ostrinski]

all shit

[Workers-Control-Over-Prod]

Look, this guy is cool. Build a Workers Party! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSgTPdxoC6E&context=C4e1ceb3ADvjVQa1PpcFP17HFR4SMCeFf3-TObH0bZzKzCJfhu_PE=). There need to be more people like this guy, this really resonates with americans i believe. Many of you might not know it, but americans are really easily turned into communists, i have even gotten a ron paul fan and more conservative people to understand communism.

[Prometeo liberado]

I viewed a link posted on another thread about a video on the CPUSA - we have around 2000-3000 members 'we are struggling'.

When factoring in the US voting population - that is around one in one hundred thousand who are eligible to vote and who are members of CP in the USA.

I realize that doesn't mean that that is their total support at the ballot box, but it is so small. I imagined they would have more members.

I would be inclined to think that the figure of 2000-3000 is very generous. Most of that number are non-active retirees. There ought be a law that states that in order for one to be name themselves a Communist Party then one must in fact not embrace Capitalism.

[Ostrinski]

I would be inclined to think that the figure of 2000-3000 is very generous. Most of that number are non-active retirees. There ought be a law that states that in order for one to be name themselves a Communist Party then one must in fact not embrace Capitalism.we ought to write letters to our congressmen

[Prometeo liberado]

we ought to write letters to our congressmen

Now you're talkin! As good revolutionaries we should be selling papers filled with info about the need for better clarification as to the nature of the CPUSA. Also we should have petitions. Always the petitions. Brospierre, how do you live with all that wisdom amongst all of us mortals?:thumbup:

[Red Commissar]

I can't speak for the Canadian or Australian one, but CPUSA had been discussed ad nauseam here. Even the worst ilk of reformists, socdems, eurocoms etc. in Europe at least still maintained an independent party of sorts, even if they are small and/or sellouts.

CPUSA doesn't seem to do much beyond what is essentially a "lesser of two evils" support for the Democratic Party. But don't take it from me, here it is straight from them:

http://www.cpusa.org/why-vote/



“What difference does it make?”
“All politicians are alike?”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and many others, died for a most precious human right, the right to vote. Now, the same racists who denied Black voters ballot rights in the 1960s are trying to keep voters from the polls in 2012.

In the old days, they called it a "poll tax." They rode at night and wore white sheets. Today, they wear expensive suits. But they still steal elections by cutting off early voting, by imposing photo ID requirements that poor voters can't afford. It's called "voter suppression."

It will take a fight to defeat these dirty tricks. Voter suppression tactics violate the letter and spirit of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Everything from sit-ins to mass rallies on state capitol steps are called for.

The biggest dirty trick of all is fooling voters into thinking there is no difference. The huge voter surge in 2008 elected President Barack Obama, the first African American president. In the face of non-stop opposition, he pushed through:



Affordable Health Care Act extends coverage to 35 million uninsured people, outlaws denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions and extends until age 26 coverage of children under their parents plans.
Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act for equal pay for women.
Stabilized the economy with $789 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that saved or created 3 million jobs. Invested billions in clean energy jobs, saved the auto industry.
Unemployment benefits for millions of workers despite Republican threats to shut down the government. Obama was forced to yield on Bush-era tax cuts for the rich that he wanted to terminate.
Appointed two women to the U.S. Supreme Court, including the first Latina woman, who support the rights of working people.
Established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and used a recess-appointment to name the director over Republican opposition.
Created a new food safety agency to protect people from food-borne illness.
Ended profit-grab by private banks on students loans, reestablishing Federal control on these loans and used the savings to extend loans to more students.
Doubled the funding for Pell Grants to $32 billion, increasing size of the grant $819 to a maximum of $5,500.
Ended the war in Iraq and moved toward ending the war in Afghanistan.

Many people wanted more. In 2010 they failed to turn out to vote. Tea Party Republicans won a sweep. President Obama — and all the rest of us — have been fighting a defensive battle ever since.

Yet Ohio voters learned a bitter lesson. Tea Party Governor John Kasich rammed SB-5, a union-busting bill through the Republican majority Ohio House. The Ohio labor movement and its allies collected 1.3 million petition signatures to put repeal of SB-5 on the ballot. Last November, the people went to the polls and voted overwhelmingly to repeal this union-busting law.

Similarly, the Wisconsin labor movement and its friends collected over one million signatures to recall Gov. Scott Walker, a union-buster bought and paid for by the billionaire Koch Brothers.

The banks and corporations are spending billions of dollars, anonymously, under the U.S. Supreme Court's outrageous "Citizens United" ruling. It grants corporations the right to flood the airwaves with corporate lies and misinformation. Their aim is to strip away or privatize Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public education, and other federal, state, and local programs that serve all of us. Thousands of classroom teachers and other public employees have been laid off because of misguided austerity policies that threaten the fragile economic recovery.

This is a fight by "We, the people!" against the secret minions of great wealth. The 99% of us are fighting back against the wealthy 1%. Barely over 50% of those eligible actually exercise their right to vote, the lowest rate of voter participation of any nation in the industrialized world. We fight a defensive battle with one hand tied behind our backs.

What if 100% of eligible voters exercised their right to vote? It would be possible to elect officials committed to rebuild the social and physical infrastructure, create millions of good, green jobs that will also reduce federal deficits. The wealthy would have to pay their fair share of taxes. It would generate new revenues to pay liveable Social Security benefits and provide "Medicare for all."

If you are not registered to vote, do it NOW!
If you are registered, VOTE!
Remember, your life may depend on it.
Honestly it's not out of place from what a Democratic Party local chapter would have. I've been told there's a more radical wing of the CPUSA, though I'm not sure of their influence or numbers. Clearly not enough to change the leadership's direction though.

[Rocky Rococo]

The worst part about the CPUSA is that they still retain control of certain crucial nexus points in the American left. That gave them massively undue sway over the fate of the main antiwar coalition of the first decade, United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ). When Obama got in the White House, the CPUSA ops that controlled the key positions in UFPJ deliberately dialed it down to the merest window dressing.

The one other thing I understand about the CPUSA is that as a legacy of its more robust past, it controls certain buildings and other parcels of real estate which are now quite valuable. It may be that a fair number of those associated with the party today are sitting quietly, biding their time until they can grab control of the real estate either for themselves or to sell and take the proceeds. So it may well be that the Communists of the CPUSA are not only capitalists, but rentiers.

[Ned Kelly]

The Australian Party was formed in 1971, they were basically the tankies breaking off from the Eurocommunists. They were called the Socialist Party until the original CP dissolved. They are basically a pack of Brezhnevites. They are quite active in Sydney, not so much elsewhere.

[Prometeo liberado]

I took this quote out of a post of mine some time back on proof as to whether the CPUSA is a lap dog to the Dems:


Maybe this is a reason to rethink that decision:
"This unity will include an ever-growing Left-Center political coalition that includes the Democratic Party" CPUSA on the way to defeat the Right. Boggles the mind!

Ever-growing? Thats right.
http://ts4.mm.bing.net/images/thumbnail.aspx?q=4781145236113067&id=34aed8450141f901ddad3b0b03a09dc5&url=http%3a%2f%2fupload.wikimedia.org%2fwikipedia% 2fen%2fthumb%2f0%2f0a%2fCPO-logo.jpg%2f260px-CPO-logo.jpg Sure it is.

[Avocado]

They are basically a pack of Brezhnevites.

Forgive my ignorance but can you explain what this means.

[Deicide]

Forgive my ignorance but can you explain what this means.

A Brezhnevite is a supporter of Leonid Brezhnev, the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, from 1964 to 1982. In a more broader sense, it refers to people that support the positions of the Soviet Union in general during that period.

Pretty much everyone here, with a functioning brain, uses it as a pejorative term. There's probably a few Breznevites on here though.

[Ned Kelly]

Forgive my ignorance but can you explain what this means.

They single mindedly followed the line of the Soviet Union under Brezhnev, the reason for the split was basically this faction supporting the invasion of Czechoslovakia

[Ostrinski]

A Brezhnevite is a supporter of Leonid Brezhnev, the general secretary of the Communist Part of the Soviet Union, from 1964 to 1982. In a more broader sense, it refers to people that support the positions of the Soviet Union during that period.

Pretty much everyone here, with a functioning brain, uses it as a pejorative term. There's probably a few Breznevites on here though.The PSL is a Brezhnevite party, so I'm sure there's more than a few.

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

the brazilian cp changed its name to socialist peoples' party and they have become literally a right wing party. not like social democrats, eurocommunists, third way or anything like that. actual right-wing shit. not joking. the current party calling itself pcb is a split from the former and one of the lesser presumably leftist parties around right now.

[Mr. Natural]

CPUSA? I'll have the recently deceased radical lawyer, William Kunstler, reply. He was asked at a Canadian college if he was a member of the Communist Party. He replied that he was a registered Democrat, and that was well to the left of the Communist Party.

[blake 3:17]

I'm on friendly terms with a fair number of Canadian CPers and am working on projects with several CPCers.

The Canadian party is well to the left of the CP-USA -- they've been very critical of the CP USA.

I'm part of a local/regional regroupment project and the CPers that are involved have had a positive influence and been positive about working with others in the left socialist/anarchist spectrum.

Edited to add: In recent years there's been a reformation of lefter (leftish?) CPs into some kind of international -- here's a report from 2011: http://www.parti-communiste.ca/?p=198

[Mr. Natural]

blake 3:17, How about keeping us informed of the progress of that local/regional regroupment project? It sounds really interesting, and this is the sort of stuff that needs to happen on the left, imo.

My red-green, "time to get organized" best.