Oh for fucks' sake, CPUSA....

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

The Chairman of the 'Communist' Party USA endorses Hillary Clinton. (http://www.cpusa.org/taking-a-sober-look-at-the-2016-election/)

OK, technically he's endorsing whoever the Democratic Party's nominee is, but if you read between the lines you can tell its a tacit support for Clinton.

[Dazhao]

You are surprised? They do this all the time. I distinctly remember the leader of the CPUSA shaking hands with Obama in 2008. They are controlled opposition.

[Synergy]

They've endorsed the democratic nominee for the last 30 years so I'm not surprised they'd support Hillary or Bernie.

[LionofTepelenë]

You know, it would've been predictable if they supported Bernie. BUT HILLARY CLINTON, Where did this come from? CPUSA is an embarrassment the movement, seriously, Hillary Clinton of all people?

[OGG]

They should dissolve the party and join the Democrats. They have already done the latter.

[The Idler]

You are surprised? They do this all the time. I distinctly remember the leader of the CPUSA shaking hands with Obama in 2008. They are controlled opposition.
This handshake would have been reported in the right-wing media and I cannot find it on Google. I know the CPUSA supported Obama and will support the Democrats this time around but I don't think there was ever a handshake.

[PikSmeet]

Progress of sorts...as there aren't many brutal dictators for them to support anymore. No Stalins, Pol Pots, Maos etc.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

The CPUSA is just a sad organization. They should have disbanded decades ago.

[PikSmeet]

The CPUSA is just a sad organization. They should have disbanded decades ago.

Given the hostility to America within the CPSU it was always a hard sell for them. Plus, all the twists and turns of SU foreign policy, they never knew where they stood.

[KurtFF8]

They also just abolished the YCL.

It seems they're making a very conscious decision to move further to the right than they have in a long time.

[PikSmeet]

They also just abolished the YCL.

It seems they're making a very conscious decision to move further to the right than they have in a long time.

Maybe they did that are they don't have any members under 65?

[A Revolutionary Tool]

Wow, they really need to change the name to Social Democratic Party USA. Their "Bill of Rights Socialism" is basically the "Second Bill of Rights" laid out by FDR, that's how far behind they are when it comes to their politics. You'd think at least they stick with that and tell people to support Sanders getting the nomination but noooooo they fucking put it into print that they want to build a "multi-class" alliance and that Bernie will make that hard to do without the corporate establishment behind him! What the actual fuck, the CPUSA is farther right than somebody running for the Democrats nominee! I knew they sold their soul to the devil a long time ago but this is just pathetic.

I remember people from the CPUSA would say the party never endorsed Obama and that they didn't support Democrats(even though I saw a interview by user nightcrowred on YouTube he had with Sam Webb who said that people should vote for Obama. I tried to use it as proof because their press never explicitly endorsed Obama to my knowledge but nightcrowred deleted all of his videos which made my proof disappear) but they clearly put it into print that their strategy is to defend the presidency and the Democratic Party. Imperialism? Not as bad when Democrats do it. Economic warfare on working people? Not as bad when Democrats do it. Racist government? Not as bad when Democrats do it.

[PikSmeet]

Wow, they really need to change the name to Social Democratic Party USA. Their "Bill of Rights Socialism" is basically the "Second Bill of Rights" laid out by FDR, that's how far behind they are when it comes to their politics. You'd think at least they stick with that and tell people to support Sanders getting the nomination but noooooo they fucking put it into print that they want to build a "multi-class" alliance and that Bernie will make that hard to do without the corporate establishment behind him! What the actual fuck, the CPUSA is farther right than somebody running for the Democrats nominee! I knew they sold their soul to the devil a long time ago but this is just pathetic.

I remember people from the CPUSA would say the party never endorsed Obama and that they didn't support Democrats(even though I saw a interview by user nightcrowred on YouTube he had with Sam Webb who said that people should vote for Obama. I tried to use it as proof because their press never explicitly endorsed Obama to my knowledge but nightcrowred deleted all of his videos which made my proof disappear) but they clearly put it into print that their strategy is to defend the presidency and the Democratic Party. Imperialism? Not as bad when Democrats do it. Economic warfare on working people? Not as bad when Democrats do it. Racist government? Not as bad when Democrats do it.

You never know where you stand with these Stalinist CPs'.

As Khrushchev used to say, the USSR got on better with republicans than democrats. The USSR traded with South Africa, even after 1978 when the West began it's programme of disinvestment.
You never know, from day to day, where you are with parties like these. At least they can't send you to Siberia.

[PikSmeet]

This handshake would have been reported in the right-wing media and I cannot find it on Google. I know the CPUSA supported Obama and will support the Democrats this time around but I don't think there was ever a handshake.

Obama would never have shaken hands with this rabble. Blimey, what would have been in it for him?

[A Revolutionary Tool]

You never know where you stand with these Stalinist CPs'.

As Khrushchev used to say, the USSR got on better with republicans than democrats. The USSR traded with South Africa, even after 1978 when the West began it's programme of disinvestment.
You never know, from day to day, where you are with parties like these. At least they can't send you to Siberia.Yes, it's all that darn Stalins fault. If only the CPUSA had 60+ years to change course.

[PikSmeet]

Yes, it's all that darn Stalins fault. If only the CPUSA had 60+ years to change course.

Yep, the should have disbanded in 1991 when the USSR dissolved.
What was/is the point of them now? What they believe in failed.

[PikSmeet]

Yes, it's all that darn Stalins fault. If only the CPUSA had 60+ years to change course.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gus_Hall

Blame this clown...slavishly toeing the line of the CPSU, how the **** did he expect that to go down with workers in the US?

[odysseus]

The cpusa us more irrelevant than revleft:lol:

[Sewer Socialist]

Left-Wing Sanders: an Infantile Disorder

[GLF]

I am not a member of CPUSA. Like with anything else American, they are comparatively further right (by European communist standards).

Many are religious. A few of them are democratic socialists. They support right-wing, warmonger Obama and have for years. Oh, and their youth wing is a joke.

I came close to joining a few years back but ultimately found them repulsive.

[PikSmeet]

I am not a member of CPUSA. Like with anything else American, they are comparatively further right (by European communist standards).

Many are religious. A few of them are democratic socialists. They support right-wing, warmonger Obama and have for years. Oh, and their youth wing is a joke.

I came close to joining a few years back but ultimately found them repulsive.

They way you describe them, they sound like every other communist party out there, past, present or future.

[Lord Testicles]

They way you describe them, they sound like every other communist party out there, past, present or future.

Yeah, every communist party, past, present or future has, have or will endorse Obama. :rolleyes:

I think if I live another 5-10 years I'll probably have lived long enough to see the CPUSA endorse a Republican candiate.

[PikSmeet]

Yeah, every communist party, past, present or future has, have or will endorse Obama. :rolleyes:

I think if I live another 5-10 years I'll probably have lived long enough to see the CPUSA endorse a Republican candiate.

They'd have form...communist parties that is.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/president-nixon-in-moscow

Breshnev preferred republicans to democrats, admitting that the CPSU got in better with the former.

[GLF]

Yeah, every communist party, past, present or future has, have or will endorse Obama. :rolleyes:

I think if I live another 5-10 years I'll probably have lived long enough to see the CPUSA endorse a Republican candiate.

They already have. Obama.:p

[Burzhuin]

If somebody in the Party leadership endorsed Obama it would not express the opinion of us, members of CPUSA. I remember nobody of my fellow communists expressed any sympathy or support to Obama, Kerry or Gore in previous elections. I know in 2012 communists voted not for Obama, but for Party for Socialism and Liberation candidate Gloria La Riva.

[Working Class Hero]

The CPUSA was decimated by the Second Red Scare and never recovered. I remember going to one of their meetings near Yale while Occupy New Haven was going on and being throughly unimpressed.

Their collaborationist attitude is deeply saddening. Fortunately, few leftists in this country take the seriously.

[Burzhuin]

Their collaborationist attitude is deeply saddening. Fortunately, few leftists in this country take the seriously.
Please enlighten me, whom leftists (of any kind) take seriously. Of course other than their own organization.

[Working Class Hero]

Please enlighten me, whom leftists (of any kind) take seriously. Of course other than their own organization.

I would say that a lot of leftists in the know have a lot of respect for Socialist Alternative, especially with the election of Kshama Sawant to the position of councilwoman in Seattle, though I'm sure they have plenty of detractors.

The left in this country is nowhere near as powerful as it was when Debs and Goldman were alive.

[Homo Songun]

They also just abolished the YCL.

It seems they're making a very conscious decision to move further to the right than they have in a long time.

I suspect political line changes might not be the immediate cause of this and all the other similar moves they've been making lately. For example, they also just disbanded Political Affairs, the theoretical journal. But that makes little sense in the era of Bernie Sanders.

At the same time, some of the leadership is sounding somewhat vague alarms about some kind of crisis within the party.

I suspect a group within the party wants to liquidate everything but the valuable real estate and the intellectual property, with which they intend to profit therefrom somehow. The "People over Profit Network" or whatever they call it sounds like it could become some kind of rump NGO thing.

My main question at this point is whether or not they are going to keep the name CPUSA. It is a kind of a trademark after all.

[Homo Songun]

More on the changes in the CPUSA from their current leader John Bachtell:

http://www.cpusa.org/changing-times-social-networking-and-enhancing-the-party-s-role/

About the YCL folding:


Thirdly, the National Board agreed to reinvent our approach to youth and students. Given the current explosion of activity on the campuses this couldn't have come at a better time.

It has been clear for some time building a separate youth organization (Young Communist League - YCL) wasn't working. We do not have the leadership capacity to build a separate organization and website. We were putting an impossible burden on our young comrades.

Asking our young members to build the YCL separated them from the party organization, which they should be helping lead and change. District and club leaders did not build the YCL because it didn't fit the realities they faced.

And the organizational form and methods of the YCL didn't fit the new movements and social networking.

The NB agreed upon a campus focus, to create a forum or space to engage students within the Party and developing forms of collaboration with PeoplesWorld.org. PeoplesWorld.org envisions itself becoming the voice of campus based movements by creating a network of student journalists and social media activists. Two energetic dynamic young organizer/social media activists have been hired to make it go.

Some argue we are liquidating the Party and youth work with this approach. In reality while the YCL was building important relations with national student organizations, groups existed in only a few places and a Facebook group page.

Others argue non-student youth in the community are being abandoned. But many young workers are students and movements incubated on campuses are overlapping with labor and community organizing. Nor is building party clubs or other appropriate forms precluded.

The proposal further calls for promoting youth into leadership of the PeoplesWorld.org and CPUSA where they can help transform all aspects of our image, action, communication, websites, education and culture to fully reflect our intergenerational character.

Although many youth agree with our politics, many also see the CPUSA as a relic. This proposal will facilitate our ability to engage with the many young people being drawn into activism.

Here's a funny quote from further on down:


Today's highly developed state apparatus is also an arena of class struggle. We envision the ability of the working class to "wrest by degrees" power and remake the state for the benefit of society before it eventually "withers away".

[ckaihatsu]

Today's highly developed state apparatus is also an arena of class struggle. We envision the ability of the working class to "wrest by degrees" power and remake the state for the benefit of society before it eventually "withers away".


I got dibs on being the next 'Emmanuel Goldstein'...(!) (grin)


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/9f/1984EmmanuelGoldstein.jpg/285px-1984EmmanuelGoldstein.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Goldstein

[The Idler]

You are surprised? They do this all the time. I distinctly remember the leader of the CPUSA shaking hands with Obama in 2008. They are controlled opposition.
Still waiting for any evidence for that handshake you distinctly remember...