The Red Comet
5th March 2013, 06:23
To All Genuine Communists in Membership with the Communist Party of the United States of America
Comrades, Friends, Brothers and Sisters,
There is an internal struggle within the Communist Party of the United States of America, the roots of which can be traced back many decades. However, now more than ever, it has become clear for all to see that the CPUSA has been torn into two distinct factions: Communists, genuinely revolutionary and most of whom youthful, and the reformist-revisionist faction at the Party center under the present leadership of Samuel Webb. How Marxist-Leninists were pushed to the fringes of the Party and replaced by petty bourgeois reformists who are married to the Democratic Party is a tale all its own, but what matters now is the fact itself. Those who adhere to the founding principles of the CPUSA, the principles of Marxism and Leninism, are now considered to be deviants, considered “too far left” by the Party leadership. These reformist-revisionists have flagrantly violated the Party constitution and monopolized central control of the party using fraudulent methods- control which they have used to energetically cheerlead for the Obama administration, content to leave the anti-war movement in shambles since the administration put butchery back in fashion for the liberal “left”.
These tendencies have been recognized by broad sections of the Party who have begun to resist; large groupings have scathingly denounced the Webb faction, whose reaction has been a wave of bureaucratic attacks amounting to memberships being casually revoked for individual comrades and whole groups, with no regard for the laws set down in the Party Constitution. On March 4th 2013, for example, comrade Daniel Lee, representing the Communist Party of Oklahoma, released a video denouncing the Webb faction and calling on all true Communists in the Party to rally together in order to resurrect Marxism-Leninism in the CPUSA. He was summarily excommunicated by Esther Moroze, co-chair of the Party Membership Committee. Ms. Moroze's statement (and through her, the Party center's statement) was as follows:
“Dear Mr. Lee,
Your views are clearly at odds with those of the Communist Party USA. There
really is no place for you in this organization either as a member or
spokesperson. Kindly refrain from representing yourself as such.”
Thus spake Pope Webb's loyal Cardinal! What was forgotten was Article VII of the Party Constitution, most importantly thus:
“SECTION 4. All accused persons concerned in disciplinary cases, except publicly self-admitted informers and provocateurs, must be notified of the charges against them, shall have the right to appear, to bring witnesses, including non-members if agreed to by the trial committee, and to testify. The burden of proof shall be on the accusers.
SECTION 5. After hearing the report of the trial committee, the club or leading committee having jurisdiction shall have the right to
decide by a two-thirds vote upon any disciplinary measure, including expulsion. Disciplinary measures taken by leading committees shall be reported to the club of each accused member. Higher bodies must be informed of all disciplinary actions above a reprimand. There shall be an automatic review of all expulsions by the next higher body.”
This flippant disregard for democratic and judicial process as demanded by the Party Constitution applies not by any stretch of the imagination to individuals such as Comrade Lee but to entire Party branches which, as Comrade Lee pointed out in the COMPOK statement, have been purged by the Webb faction without any semblance of due process. This means that by the provisions of the Party Constitution, none of these comrades have actually lost membership status, having not received a hearing by jury of peers. Instead, they have received half a paragraph which amounts to, “Go away, we don't like you!” Underneath this child-like behavior lies the more sinister core of coercion and bureaucratic dogma being used by the Webb faction in an attempt to transform the CPUSA into little more than a left-of-center extension of the Democratic Party. Can we expect anything else of a man who claims that “socialism isn't yet on the agenda”, or from his lackeys? To a revolutionary, socialism is always on the agenda! Whether in activism, revolution, national liberation struggles or day-to-day activity, the first and foremost thought on every revolutionary's mind should be, “How can we advance the struggle for socialism?” And so to borrow a phrase from Lenin, “What is to be done?”
The dissident members of the CPUSA must struggle more actively against the Webb faction, defend their rights as provided by the Party Constitution and act independently. Those supposedly stripped of membership outside of the terms of these provisions must be contacted and informed that their ouster is illegitimate by the Party laws. Actions must be undertaken regardless of consent or condemnation by the Party center, lines of communication must be strengthened among the dissident elements through all available forms of social media and meetings of these elements must be called to organize the resistance to the Webb reformist-revisionists. Ties to Marxist-Leninist groupings outside of the Party must be forged. In that spirit, the author of this document calls upon CPUSA members to distribute it to members of other parties, most notably the Workers World Party, Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. While the leadership of some of these parties may not heed the call, there will be those among the rank-and-file who heed the call to support their Marxist-Leninist comrades who make up the left faction of the CPUSA. This author himself is not a member, has never been a member of the CPUSA and is in fact a member of the Workers World Party, formerly of the Detroit branch and now with the Rockford, Illinois branch. It is in the interests of all Marxist-Leninists regardless of party affiliation to support their brothers and sisters in the struggle against the puppets of the Democratic Party who seek to co-opt the CPUSA for their own purposes. In this author's opinion, it would be beneficial to aim for the organization of an All-Marxist-Leninist National Convention open to all students of Marx and Lenin so that ties can be made between them on common ground in order to open dialogue between those parties (and, in the case of the CPUSA, the revolutionary faction of that party) in the spirit of mutual cooperation and deeper collaboration in revolutionary activism. This will also serve to erode the control and influence of the Webb faction which prefers sitting on its hands to taking to the streets.
Comrades, Friends, Brothers and Sisters,
The world cannot wait for revolution- humanity and the Earth itself simply cannot afford to. The struggle to reclaim the CPUSA for Communists is just one part of this mass struggle. It is not the way of revolutionaries to hedge our bets on bourgeois elections, waiting for some benevolent slave-master to hand liberation and equality down to the working class out of raw kindness. A Communist, always a revolutionary if they are worthy of the title, knows that the world cannot afford to wait or rely on the mercy of the killers and exploiters of billions; it is their duty to fight for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, to seize power away from those same exploiters and liquidate them. By the teachings of Marx, Engels and Lenin, struggle to reclaim your Party and unite with your fellow Marxist-Leninists to fight for our future!
Workers and oppressed peoples of the world, unite! Brotherhood and Unity! Burn the old world and build the New!
-Derek J. Thacker, Workers World Party of Rockford, Illinois
The developments of the dissidents inside the CPUSA could prove interesting.
Comrades, Friends, Brothers and Sisters,
There is an internal struggle within the Communist Party of the United States of America, the roots of which can be traced back many decades. However, now more than ever, it has become clear for all to see that the CPUSA has been torn into two distinct factions: Communists, genuinely revolutionary and most of whom youthful, and the reformist-revisionist faction at the Party center under the present leadership of Samuel Webb. How Marxist-Leninists were pushed to the fringes of the Party and replaced by petty bourgeois reformists who are married to the Democratic Party is a tale all its own, but what matters now is the fact itself. Those who adhere to the founding principles of the CPUSA, the principles of Marxism and Leninism, are now considered to be deviants, considered “too far left” by the Party leadership. These reformist-revisionists have flagrantly violated the Party constitution and monopolized central control of the party using fraudulent methods- control which they have used to energetically cheerlead for the Obama administration, content to leave the anti-war movement in shambles since the administration put butchery back in fashion for the liberal “left”.
These tendencies have been recognized by broad sections of the Party who have begun to resist; large groupings have scathingly denounced the Webb faction, whose reaction has been a wave of bureaucratic attacks amounting to memberships being casually revoked for individual comrades and whole groups, with no regard for the laws set down in the Party Constitution. On March 4th 2013, for example, comrade Daniel Lee, representing the Communist Party of Oklahoma, released a video denouncing the Webb faction and calling on all true Communists in the Party to rally together in order to resurrect Marxism-Leninism in the CPUSA. He was summarily excommunicated by Esther Moroze, co-chair of the Party Membership Committee. Ms. Moroze's statement (and through her, the Party center's statement) was as follows:
“Dear Mr. Lee,
Your views are clearly at odds with those of the Communist Party USA. There
really is no place for you in this organization either as a member or
spokesperson. Kindly refrain from representing yourself as such.”
Thus spake Pope Webb's loyal Cardinal! What was forgotten was Article VII of the Party Constitution, most importantly thus:
“SECTION 4. All accused persons concerned in disciplinary cases, except publicly self-admitted informers and provocateurs, must be notified of the charges against them, shall have the right to appear, to bring witnesses, including non-members if agreed to by the trial committee, and to testify. The burden of proof shall be on the accusers.
SECTION 5. After hearing the report of the trial committee, the club or leading committee having jurisdiction shall have the right to
decide by a two-thirds vote upon any disciplinary measure, including expulsion. Disciplinary measures taken by leading committees shall be reported to the club of each accused member. Higher bodies must be informed of all disciplinary actions above a reprimand. There shall be an automatic review of all expulsions by the next higher body.”
This flippant disregard for democratic and judicial process as demanded by the Party Constitution applies not by any stretch of the imagination to individuals such as Comrade Lee but to entire Party branches which, as Comrade Lee pointed out in the COMPOK statement, have been purged by the Webb faction without any semblance of due process. This means that by the provisions of the Party Constitution, none of these comrades have actually lost membership status, having not received a hearing by jury of peers. Instead, they have received half a paragraph which amounts to, “Go away, we don't like you!” Underneath this child-like behavior lies the more sinister core of coercion and bureaucratic dogma being used by the Webb faction in an attempt to transform the CPUSA into little more than a left-of-center extension of the Democratic Party. Can we expect anything else of a man who claims that “socialism isn't yet on the agenda”, or from his lackeys? To a revolutionary, socialism is always on the agenda! Whether in activism, revolution, national liberation struggles or day-to-day activity, the first and foremost thought on every revolutionary's mind should be, “How can we advance the struggle for socialism?” And so to borrow a phrase from Lenin, “What is to be done?”
The dissident members of the CPUSA must struggle more actively against the Webb faction, defend their rights as provided by the Party Constitution and act independently. Those supposedly stripped of membership outside of the terms of these provisions must be contacted and informed that their ouster is illegitimate by the Party laws. Actions must be undertaken regardless of consent or condemnation by the Party center, lines of communication must be strengthened among the dissident elements through all available forms of social media and meetings of these elements must be called to organize the resistance to the Webb reformist-revisionists. Ties to Marxist-Leninist groupings outside of the Party must be forged. In that spirit, the author of this document calls upon CPUSA members to distribute it to members of other parties, most notably the Workers World Party, Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. While the leadership of some of these parties may not heed the call, there will be those among the rank-and-file who heed the call to support their Marxist-Leninist comrades who make up the left faction of the CPUSA. This author himself is not a member, has never been a member of the CPUSA and is in fact a member of the Workers World Party, formerly of the Detroit branch and now with the Rockford, Illinois branch. It is in the interests of all Marxist-Leninists regardless of party affiliation to support their brothers and sisters in the struggle against the puppets of the Democratic Party who seek to co-opt the CPUSA for their own purposes. In this author's opinion, it would be beneficial to aim for the organization of an All-Marxist-Leninist National Convention open to all students of Marx and Lenin so that ties can be made between them on common ground in order to open dialogue between those parties (and, in the case of the CPUSA, the revolutionary faction of that party) in the spirit of mutual cooperation and deeper collaboration in revolutionary activism. This will also serve to erode the control and influence of the Webb faction which prefers sitting on its hands to taking to the streets.
Comrades, Friends, Brothers and Sisters,
The world cannot wait for revolution- humanity and the Earth itself simply cannot afford to. The struggle to reclaim the CPUSA for Communists is just one part of this mass struggle. It is not the way of revolutionaries to hedge our bets on bourgeois elections, waiting for some benevolent slave-master to hand liberation and equality down to the working class out of raw kindness. A Communist, always a revolutionary if they are worthy of the title, knows that the world cannot afford to wait or rely on the mercy of the killers and exploiters of billions; it is their duty to fight for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, to seize power away from those same exploiters and liquidate them. By the teachings of Marx, Engels and Lenin, struggle to reclaim your Party and unite with your fellow Marxist-Leninists to fight for our future!
Workers and oppressed peoples of the world, unite! Brotherhood and Unity! Burn the old world and build the New!
-Derek J. Thacker, Workers World Party of Rockford, Illinois
The developments of the dissidents inside the CPUSA could prove interesting.