A message from Greece...

Note: This is the link to PAME, the All Workers’ Militant Front, as mentioned below.:

http://www.pamehellas.gr/main.php?lang=2



Communist Party of Greece - [13.05.2010] Message to the National Committee of CP, USA

Communist Party USA,
National Committee,
New York
Athens, Thursday, 13 May 2010

Dear comrades

We would like to thank you for the information regarding your 29th party convention and to extend our greetings to the delegates. Our parties have met in the past in common struggles for workers’ rights, in the struggle against anti-communism, for the defense of socialism and the Soviet Union, for the unity of the communist movement on the basis of our revolutionary principles and traditions.

We are following as closely as we can the developments in the USA, the escalation of the aggression of US imperialism which lately has become quite obvious. The US is striving to respond to the trend of losing ground within the framework of the imperialist system by inciting regional tensions and conflicts, so that it can take advantage of its political and military supremacy in order to safeguard its interests and maintain its spheres of influence.

In Greece, the working class and the popular strata are facing a barbaric attack, on the pretext of the economic crisis; an attack which has been jointly unleashed by the social democratic PASOK government, the EU and the IMF, with the assistance of the conservative ND party and the open support of the nationalist LAOS party.

The remarkable resistance presented by the labor and popular movement is spearheaded by KKE which continually strives to reveal the real cause of the crisis, the sharpening of the basic contradictions of capitalism. Without the consistent exposure of the compromised and discredited in the eyes of the workers trade union leaderships of GSEE and ADEDY (the national confederations of the private and public sector respectively), without the decisive contribution of PAME (All Workers’ Militant Front), the national trade union front comprised of class oriented Federations, trade unions, labor centers and trade unionists, the labor movement in our country would have been disarmed, unprepared, and unable to fight back.

KKE calls upon the working class, the self-employed, the poor farmers, and the youth to engage in even stronger, more massive and organized actions in order to stave off the onslaught and pave the way for a different path of development. There can be no way other than the nationalization of the monopolies. The working class must take possession of the concentrated means of production and mobilize them with central planning and popular participation. This presupposes a struggle aiming for people’s power, for socialism-communism.

The fightback against anti-communism, the adamant defense of the historical contribution of the Soviet Union and socialist construction in the 20th century, of the identity and revolutionary traditions of the communist movement, take on particular importance today.

As long as the crisis of the international communist movement persists, as long as the situation does not improve and retreats from ideological and theoretical principles are not resolutely confronted, as long as the front against opportunist views that hinder the formation of a single revolutionary strategy against imperialism does not become strengthened, the situation will harbor the danger of an even greater backslide.

The existence of strong Communist Parties steadfast to the principles of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, with a revolutionary program for the overthrow of the rule of monopolies, for building socialism - communism, is the foremost demand of our times.

We look forward to learning the conclusions and the resolutions of your convention.

With comradely greetings

The Central Committee of KKE

e-mail: cpg@int.kke.gr

Distributed courtesy of:

Alan L. Maki
Co-Chair,
Lake-of-the-Woods Club

58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell Phone: 651-587-5541

E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

Please check out my blog: http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

A Moral Vest

Alan, thanks so much for these words of encouragement. The internet is slow and expensive so while my articles are being printed elsewhere I cannot even open my own website at juneterpstra.com but I will keep trying. Here is my second article from Cuba.

I have some wonderful photos but will not be able to upload until next week when I am home.

In solidarity, June

3/19/10

A Moral Vest

By June C. Terpstra, Ph.D.


In the film, Fidel, The Untold Story, there is an interview with Fidel Castro where he says he does not need a Kevlar vest to protect him from countless assassination attempts because he wears a moral vest. I am back in Havana, Cuba today after visiting a natural medicine clinic in Santa Clara, Cuba; an agricultural cooperative in Matanzas, Cuba; a teacher training arts school in Matanzas; and ELAM, the incredible Latin American Medical School that trains and sends doctors to work all over the world. With each program or institution visited I wonder what it would be like to live in a country with values of social justice instead of values of profit and plunder. There are countless examples of those who wear a moral vest here in Cuba.

It is most certainly not easy for the Cubans to live their principles in the face of so much oppression from the USA. Their daily lives are restricted from the moment they wake till they sleep at night and not by the government. Running water, flushing toilets, toiletries, access to oil to run a tractor or a car, obtaining the parts to fix a car, obtaining medicines; these and more are scarce and make life difficult. It is interesting to me that while their form of socialism is so hated by USA elites it is based in hard work and contributions to the country; they are rewarded for the level of their commitment to social justice and the sharing of resources. This is not allowed under capitalism.

The homes and apartments in which Cubans live, whether they are allotted cars, their jobs are all based on education, level of commitment and hard work as evidenced in their contributions at work and in their communities. People from the USA have difficulty grasping the concept of a life where one does not pay rent or a mortgage or a car payment or for health care or school. Members of this delegation from the USA continue to ask questions about shareholders; how much cars cost; where the stores are located; and, how much oppression people here are facing without any real understanding of the fundamental changes this government is attempting to establish and manifest.

In the Cuban medical schools they are taught both traditional and natural medicine. These doctors are known and trusted around the world because they have been taught to care about the patient and not view them as a client to be charged money for profit. Just recently seven American women doctors trained in Cuba returned to work with the medical brigade in Haiti. All of the training done in Cuba is framed within the commitment to serve communities in need. On the contrary, the people of the USA are programmed to think hate of medicine not for healing rather as a mechanism to maintain disease to keep a drug and surgical industry as a profitable way to make money.

On the farms in Cuba the land is given to those who apply and they are allowed to live on the land and work for 90 days before they make their commitment and a cooperative board accepts them as a member of the cooperative association. Women and all races in Cuba have access to these opportunities and many incentives are provided because developing a self-sustaining Cuba has been critical since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Once one is a member they contribute to both their own sustenance and receive the resources and benefits of their hard work. Women and all races are present at every level of labor and leadership.


Education, intellectual life, and culture is highly respected and valued in Cuba. They have established a teacher training program for artists in music, literature, theater, dance and painting, and sculpture. The students pay nothing for this specialized education but they must make a commitment to teach at the end of their training. There is no job insecurity in Cuba; the teachers of the arts will always have jobs! On the contrary, in the USA, the arts programs are always the first to be cut and many schools no longer have these programs for all the students nor are they offered on a daily basis. Which country is really a country of wealth?

Every place I have visited and talked with the people they express their commitment and passion for their culture and society. This is not my experience in the USA where the focus is rarely on producing art for the people. Producing art is for money and fame. Where ego is de-emphasized here; narcissism is encouraged in the West. Where good behavior is encouraged here, ugly and violent behavior is glorified in the USA. Where the women’s federations set up programs to counsel all family members in domestic crisis and teach them to live in ways that benefit the family; the USA model is to disconnect and provide a band-aid in the form of a shelter.

I am not telling you things are perfect here in Cuba. They are not. Most certainly, the effects of the embargo have been devastating. The effects of colonial racism and sexism have their own unique manifestations here as Cuban socialism attempts to rid itself of these internalized oppressions. However, the real Cuban people; not the ones who are sitting in Miami plotting the destruction of their own people out of their own greed and selfishness; the real Cuban people wear a moral vest and the examples they set for their children in the schools and hospitals and their daily life are visible to those of us to whom they open their doors.

Frank Lumpkin, African-American steel worker, long time Communist fighter and a working class hero

Frank Lumpkin, African-American steel worker, long time Communist fighter and a working class hero, passed away March 1 at the age of 93. In this era of economic crisis, exploitation and war, proletarians in the Twin Cities can draw inspiration from yesteryear’s fightback. Lumpkin's battle against mill closings and his national solution, "the public takeover of the closed plants to provide the jobs and make the steel that the country needs," is a rousing answer to the pending closure of St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant. Frank's serious reading of Marxist texts is a lesson for today's activists. 

Beatrice Lumpkin’s Always Bring a Crowd!: The Story of Frank Lumpkin is a handbook for action. 

This Black proletarian, master tactician and long-time member of the Communist Party, was honored by PBS, called a "History Maker" by an African-American site and commemorated with the words "Fought for Rights of Workers at Wisconsin Steel" in the Chicago Tribune. In Minnesota, the Gus Hall Action Club dedicated a recent blog post to Frank Lumpkin and the Thoughts from Podunk blog promotes the book 

Always Bring a Crowd! 

Brother Lumpkin’s battles against the closing of Chicago’s Wisconsin Steel are epic. The plant gates slammed shut in 1980 and the 3500 proletarians were forced to "live a nightmare. Suddenly, workers were out on the street, left with nothing: no jobs, no pensions, no sick pay, no supplementary unemployment benefits, not even pay for the last three weeks they worked." Frank, with 30 years in the mill, fought back! He organized the Wisconsin Steel workers to struggle for the plant’s reopening and their benefits. Lumpkin forged the Save Our Jobs committee and, under his leadership, it "became a crusade that never quit" until victory was won. Comrade Frank was a militant and hardened Marxist-Leninist. (Information and quotes from Always Bring a Crowd!: The Story of Frank Lumpkin by his wife Beatrice)

Chicago public TV station WTTW’s commemorative video about Frank Lumpkin 

is excellent:

http://video.wmht.org/video/1436362722/

A superb excerpt from Beatrice Lumpkin’s Always Bring a Crowd!: The Story of Frank Lumpkin about Communists, rank-and file workers’ activity and the forging of Save Our Jobs:

1980: "The plant’s closed. Don’t come in tomorrow. Maybe never."

"Nobody knew what to do. What could you do without an organization? Frank Lumpkin had read about the ’Save Jobs’ committees at the Youngstown, Ohio and Detroit Dodge-Main plants in the rank and file paper, Labor Today, and in the Communist Peoples Daily World. These papers were urging workers to fight plant closings. Frank realized that Wisconsin Steel workers had allies and did not have to fight alone. Fred Gaboury, then editor of Labor Today and a trusted friend (and Communist Party cadre -M.W.), encouraged Frank to take the first step: ’Get a committee going To Save Jobs and start a petition to Congress to reopen the plant.’ Frank thought that was good advice as far as it went. But how could you do that when the in-house union refused to move? He decided to talk it over with some friends from the mill.

"Frank invited some Wisconsin Steel workers to a meeting in his basement. Some he had met during years of African-American rank-and-file groups in the mill such as ’Self-Help’ and ’Getting It Together.’ If ever self-help was needed, that was the time. The meeting was open to any idea for action. The unanimous decision was to organize a ’Wisconsin Steel Workers Save Our Jobs Committee.’ Their first action was to petition the President of the United States, asking him to reopen the mill.

"’Fight or Die’ was the call Frank sent out to his fellow workers. And for 17 years he led the unemployed Wisconsin Steel workers, working without pay, using his house as the first headquarters and his own money when necessary for organizing expenses. No one who knew him would call him a saint, as R.C. Longworth had suggested in the Chicago Tribune financial section. However, it was true that Lumpkin’s dedication was based on his love for working people. Lumpkin’s staying power was strengthened by the belief that workers could change the system if they organized. He often said, ’the system’s got to go.’ He thought it was wrong to allow a few capitalists to close Chicago’s steel mills and ruin the lives of 30, 000 steel workers’ families. His ultimate solution was socialism - production for the good of people, not profits for a few.

"Under Lumpkin’s leadership, Save Our Jobs became a crusade that never quit. The Wisconsin Steel workers took the Save Our Jobs name because their first goal was to reopen the mill. The second goal, which as the years passed became primary, was to get their unpaid benefits. (The WTTW video focused on the fight for the stolen money - M.W.)

"The committee went into action immediately. They circulated their petition to the President and Congress asking them to reopen Wisconsin Steel. The petition let the world know that Wisconsin Steel workers would fight for their jobs. At churches, taverns, beauty shops and grocery stores, wherever steel workers and their families gathered, there was someone collecting signatures to reopen the mill. In a few days, over 4000 steel workers and friends had signed the petition. With thousands in support, Save Our Jobs (SOJ) planned a mass delegation to take the petitions to the state legislature in Springfield, and to Congress in Washington, DC.

"The idea of mass action began to catch on! The in-house union had not organized a labor action in over 30 years. Inside the mill, the rank and file knew how to slow down or ’work to rule’ to make the company live up to the contract. But they had never carried picket signs or demonstrated with other steel workers. After the mill closed, Save Our Jobs members became the most experienced demonstrators in the Chicago area." (Beatrice Lumpkin, Always Bring a Crowd!: The Story of Frank Lumpkin)

Frank Lumpkin, African-American steel worker, long time Communist fighter and a proletarian hero, passed away March 1 at the age of 93. Circulate the tribute 

video. Call on May Day books to carry 

Beatrice Lumpkin’s Always Bring a Crowd!: The Story of Frank Lumpkin. Check out the Lumpkin's organization, the Communist Party. "If you can't find a leader, be a leader," Brother Frank once said. And his militant statement from decades back is our battle cry: Fight or Die! 

Michael Wood, Gus Hall Action Club, http://gushallactionclub.blogspot.com

 

http://video. wmht.org/ video/1436362722 / A word about TV station WTTW’s commemorative video about Frank Lumpkin, African-American steel worker, long time Communist fighter, proletarian hero: "Lumpkin got another chance to speak for himself in Ten Good Lives, a prize winning TV documentary produced by Jay Shefsky for WTTW, ’Chicago’s Window to the World.’ Lumpkin took viewers for a walk through the closed mill while he told the story of the steel workers’ fight to survive. The documentary was based on a sculpture exhibit, on permanent display at De Paul University’s Monsignor Egan Center. The exhibit includes a bronze bust of Frank in hard hat and working clothes. (This is featured about 4 minutes into the tribute piece. -M.W.) Margot MacMahon, the sculptor, titled the collection, ’Plain hard working, ’ an apt description of Lumpkin. However, his love of useful work is just a part of his love and confidence in working people. That may be the magnet that attracts working people to him, the confidence that together they can win." (Beatrice Lumpkin,Always Bring a Crowd!: The Story of Frank Lumpkin) (Frank Lumpkin:"My whole life has been around the Communist Party. Everything good that has happened to me has been through the Party. Nothing can make me deny it.") Brother Lumpkin and Save Our Jobs’ first protest can inspire proletarians in the Twin Cities: "On April 22, 1980, the bankruptcy court was hearing the Wisconsin Steel case again. Save Our Jobs held its first demonstration. They came with picket signs to make the workers’ plight known. But no one made a move to raise a sign and begin the picket. Except for Frank, these workers had never, ever held a picket sign in their hand. Then the news media showed up, including a television crew. Frank knew he had to do something. He picked up a sign and began to walk alone. One or two joined him, while the rest stood and watched. As the television camera began to film, one by one other Wisconsin Steel workers picked up signs. They took their first, hesitant steps and then seemed to gain confidence. All they were asking for was what they had already worked for - payment of wages, supplementary unemployment benefits, medical insurance and pensions. Above all, they called for the reopening of their plant. ’For us, this picket line was historic, ’ Frank said later, ’We Wisconsin Steel workers are joining with other working people to fight for our rights.’" (Beatrice Lumpkin, Always Bring a Crowd!: The Story of Frank Lumpkin) Michael Wood

A response to Sam Webb, National Chair, Communist Party USA:

Sam Webb wrote this in the "new" on-line People's World--- my response follows:

Setting the record straight 

January 20 2010

 

By: Sam Webb

It is said by some on the left that the Communist Party USA has no differences with President Obama. Just to set the record straight: we do and we express them. For example, we opposed the nearly unconditional Wall Street bailouts and deployment of more troops to Afghanistan. We argued for a bigger stimulus package. And we said the president should push the envelope more; otherwise he runs the danger of the extreme right turning the popular discontent over the economic crisis against him, the Democratic Party, and the people's movement that supports his agenda. Isn't this what we saw in Tuesday's election in Massachusetts, where a right-winger was elected to the Senate?

 But in expressing our differences with the president, communists go to great lengths to state them in a constructive and unifying way. We don't do it to score points or demonstrate our "militancy." We don't lose sight of the class nature of this struggle.

The main organizations of the working class and people are not always in sync with the president on every issue either. But they don't turn their differences into an unbridgeable divide between them and him. In fact, they consider him a friend and are mindful of the unrelenting attack, steeped in racism and other forms of division, coming from right-wing extremists, against our nation's first African American president - something that was so evident in the Senate election in Massachusetts.

The left has something to learn from the approach of these people's organizations. We are too comfortable in our role as an exceedingly small, but "principled and militant" grouping in U.S. politics. Such a posture, which could easily gain greater currency in the aftermath of Tuesday's election, may feel satisfying, but it won't help us evolve into a political player that exercises a major influence on U.S. politics nor get us a flea hop closer to socialism.

In my view, the president has made mistakes, particularly his handling of the financial, jobs and health care crises, but he isn't the main obstacle to social change; he is not the "enemy," or even an "enemy." President Obama is a reformer, not a socialist reformer, not a radical reformer, and not even a consistent anti-corporate reformer, but a reformer nonetheless whose agenda creates space for the broader people's movement to deepen and extend the reform process in a non-revolutionary period.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson were Democratic Party regulars, but, with the help of a popular and sustained insurgency, both of them stepped outside of their comfort zone and morphed into change-makers, thus opening up space for substantive reform - Roosevelt with the New Deal and Johnson with civil and voting rights, Medicare, federal aid for education and the "War on Poverty." Unfortunately, Johnson's mistaken decision to escalate the war in Vietnam stained, perhaps irreparably, his presidency and historical legacy.

Barack Obama in my opinion has the same potential to "grow on the job" and enact reforms that measurably improve the lives of the American people and reframe our nation's place in the world. Right-wing extremists and powerful sections of capital feel much the same. Hence, the formidable opposition striving to sabotage, block or contain even the tiniest reforms by any means necessary. To make matters much more difficult, the broad coalition supporting reform is not yet of sufficient size, strength and understanding to consistently elect people's candidates as well as guarantee passage of the president's reform agenda - let alone radical reforms such as sustainable and just economic development, a national "profit-free" health service, a massive full employment program with affirmative action and living wage guarantees, fully funded, integrated, quality public education from child care to college, and a new foreign policy that accents peace, cooperation, equitable relations and a commitment to end global poverty.

Until that movement is at such a level, it is premature to say what the political limits of this president are, or, to put it differently, smugly dismiss him as simply another Clintonian Democrat. When our movement reaches the level of the popular upsurges of the 1930s and '60s, we will be in a better position to say where he fits on the political spectrum and whether his views are elastic enough to accommodate more deep-going changes.

Don't think we will succeed if the Obama presidency fails. If it fails, we will once again be fighting an uphill, defensive struggle as we were in the Bush and Reagan years, or worse. Witness the election of Republican Scott Brown to the Senate.

There will inevitably be differences and tensions with this White House as we go forward. In most instances, the differences will pivot around the pace and depth of reform; in some instances, such as the decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan, the differences are more fundamental.

The role of the left is to help navigate these differences, while at the same time infusing energy and clarity and sustaining the strategic unity of the people's movement against the main enemy - right-wing extremism and powerful sections of big capital. This admittedly is a difficult needle to thread, but, as we know from the experience of the 1930s and '60s, it was done then. And there is no reason to think that it can't be done now. In doing so, the left of our time will move into the center of U.S politics.

  

My response:

Obviously Sam Webb hasn't an inkling of how to "thread a needle" much less initiate a develop struggles intended to solve the problems of working people.

What a crock.

You have the unmitigated gall to call enforcement of affirmative action "radical" when it has been in force for forty years! Only to be abandoned by Barack Obama, his Administration and the Democrats.

Barack Obama is no friend of working people; Obama is doing a con job for Wall Street.

None of this is "radical:"

"...let alone radical reforms such as sustainable and just economic development, a national "profit-free" health service, a massive full employment program with affirmative action and living wage guarantees, fully funded, integrated, quality public education from child care to college, and a new foreign policy that accents peace, cooperation, equitable relations and a commitment to end global poverty."

We already have three "profit-free health services" in this country:

1. Veterans Administration
2. Indian Health Service
3. National Public Health Service

It is only a matter of expanding these three health services which Barack Obama and the Democrats have left underfunded to have more funds to fight his dirty imperialist wars.

What is "radical" about living wages?!

There is nothing "radical" about a commitment to end global poverty;" the leaders of the entire world signed onto the Millennium Statement to do just this.

As far as peace... no one wants these dirty imperialist wars.

By making the claim that these things are "radical" you aren't even defending the democracy you claim you are protecting in "fighting the ultra-right."

By calling these things "radical" you have provided nothing for people to unite around for change.

The worst part of all, you confuse for the working class friend and foe. Wall Street is our enemy and Barack Obama represents Wall Street--- he always has and always will... unless of course you have reason to believe the words he wrote in Foreign Affairs Magazine are not his own.

You come to Bemidji, Minnesota and tell Native American Indians that their just demands for jobs through the enforcement of affirmative action at living wages is "radical" and you will find the only ones agreeing with you are the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party's 8 candidates for governor with two exceptions, including former United States Senator Mark Dayton telling you that you are full of it, along with State Representative Tom Rukavina. You will find the racist Bemidji City Planner, a Democrat--- Rita Albrecht, who refused to implement affirmative action in the planning, construction, staffing and maintenance of this massive one-hundred-million dollar plus public works project, in complete agreement with you.

That you cannot distinguish between the huge gap between the so-called labor "leaders" who have betrayed the workers they are paid to represent and what the rank-and-file of these unions want is pathetic.

If Obama "succeeds" in carrying out Wall Street's agenda working people are going to be in one hell of a worse mess than we are already in.

Obama is no kind of "reformer" no matter how far you try to stretch the definition of this word--- there isn't a dictionary of any kind on the face of this earth that stretches the meaning of "reform" as far as you do: "reform" means to make things better... there is no way you can claim that Obama, the Democrats, or the small handful of over-paid union leaders covering his worthless political butt are making anything, in any way, better for the working class... your support for "the best deal that could be had in health insurance reform" is a major "wage cut" for the working class in case you haven't figured out that taxes on workers' health benefits is a wage cut and one more attempt to place the burden for these problems on the backs of working people continuing to drive down the overall standard of living of the working class.

You built yourself nice million dollar glass offices but you haven't allocated one single penny to develop the kind of nation-wide fight-back required... and now we know why; you think what people need and want is "radical" when it is nothing more than what is required for basic social and economic justice.

Go ahead and make all the stupid posts you want to about me on the Internet... the fact remains you don't even dare to stand at a mine, mill or plant gate and distribute your stupid ideas.

Alan L. Maki
Co-Chair,
Lake-of-the-Woods Communist Club




Webb has failed to point out what kind of massive movements it took to win the reforms of the 1930's, and he fails to note that Lyndon Johnson made some very significant reforms--- only because America's major cities--- and many smaller ones--- were, quite literally, BURNING.

Communist Party vice chairman speaks at MU

This is the "Letter to the Editor" I submitted in response to this article:

Regarding your article, "Communist Party vice chairman speaks at MU."

Jarvis Tyner stated:

"He's only the beginning,I think he's a transitional president. I think somebody else is going to come in and take it even further."

Tyner only speaks for a very few Communists in stating this.

Such thinking is very dangerous because it leads people to think that Obama is some kind of friend of working people when he is nothing of the sort. Barack Obama's agenda is now very clear; his main priority is Wall Street profits; working people pay the bill and suffer... this is "the new normal"--- Wall Street made this mess and the coupon clippers brought in Barack Obama to help them profit some more from solving their problems on the back of the working class.

The Associated Press pointed out in an article, "Obama wants domestic spending cuts in next budget." These cuts are sure to hurt working people on the bottom the worst.

The article continues:

"The flow of red ink has been increased by war spending for Iraq and Afghanistan, recession-fighting stimulus and bank bailout spending and by reduced tax revenues from high unemployment and reduced personal and business income."

Obama can create all the "green" jobs he wants to but if those jobs continue paying working people nothing but poverty wages the economic mess our country is in is going to worsen.

Obama has even refused to enforce longstanding affirmative action policies leaving people of color and women who are already suffering horrible poverty to fend for themselves.

Obama is not a liberal, nor is he progressive; he is no friend of working people... he has refused to provide the change people thought they were voting for.

Barack Obama has shown himself to be nothing other than a slick talking insurance salesman.

Sounds to me like Jarvis Tyner is a member of the Democratic Party out on the stump campaigning for Barack Obama's second term when he should be leading the struggles for peace and for improving the lives of working people.

Tyner should be holding Obama accountable by telling him:

No peace; no votes.
No single-payer universal health care; no votes.
No living wage jobs; no votes.

Alan L. Maki
Another long-time Communist
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
218-386-2432

Communist Party vice chairman speaks at MU

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2009/11/13/jarvis-tyner-speech/

Friday, November 13, 2009


COLUMBIA — Jarvis Tyner, executive vice chairman of the Communist Party USA, spoke at MU on Thursday and said the election of President Barack Obama opens the door for the left wing, which he feels has allowed itself to be pushed to the sidelines and overcome with progress-impeding cynicism, to mobilize.

"He's only the beginning," Tyner said. "I think he's a transitional president. I think somebody else is going to come in and take it even further."

Tyner spoke to an audience of about 70 people at MU's Ellis Auditorium. He focused on the transitional phase he feels the United States is in because of Obama's election.
Although the president is neither a communist nor socialist, his administration marks the country's movement away from the right-wing governments that have been dominant in the U.S. since the Reagan administration, Tyner said.

He said that while the Democratic Party is not without blame, the Republican leadership has been the source of the nation's problems that include an increase in poverty, a ruined economy, the continuation of global warming, impeded scientific research and the destruction of public schools by No Child Left Behind.

Tyner said he and his party are not completely satisfied with the work Obama has done since taking office, listing the need to withdraw troops more quickly from Iraq, for initiatives to end nuclear weapons and to re-establish trading relations with Cuba.

However, Tyner praised the public option in the recently passed House health care bill, saying Americans need to put massive pressure on the Senate to pass the legislation with the option intact. He also felt there should be public options for the auto and housing industries and for student loans.

A Communist Party USA member for more than 50 years, Tyner joined the party as a young worker in Philadelphia. He was the party's vice presidential nominee in1972 and 1976. Also a founding member of the Black Radical Congress, Tyner has fought for racial justice and workers' rights since the 1960s when he became active in the Civil Rights and Labor movements.

He said the next step for the Communist Party USA is to move more into the mainstream.

"We're not ready to run for president, but we are ready to run for City Council, school boards. And we're going to do that more," Tyner said.

MU senior Alaina Boyett, who attended the event, said she was already familiar with much of the material Tyner discussed because of a Marxism class she's enrolled in. She liked that he made a point to separate the Communist Party and ideals from what she felt they are associated with in the mass media.

"I thought he was fair in his criticism of Obama and the right-wing talking heads," Boyett said.

MU's Karl Marx Reading Group, which meets to discuss communist texts and how their arguments apply to political action today, organized the event because members were interested in hosting a speaker. Leadership in St. Louis suggested Tyner.

"I thought Jarvis would be a good spokesman for what we're all about because he's been fighting for social justice for so long and a party member for so long," said Jack Buthod, the group's president.

Buthod, who joined the group as a sophomore, said it has been around for a few years but wanted to bring a guest speaker in to draw attention and generate new membership. Although he identifies himself as a Marxist, he said not everyone in the group does.

"I'd say it's definitely a mix. There's multiple communists in the group, but there's also people more interested in talking about the ideas from different perspectives," he said.

A group of seven MU students set up a mock-gulag in Speakers Circle on Thursday evening as a reaction to the Tyner event, a demonstration referencing the Soviet labor camps used to imprison political dissenters as well as criminals.Gulags were at their most prominent during Joseph Stalin's reign. One protester dressed up as a Soviet guard and held three others captive in a white metal canopy surrounded by barbed wire. Others handed out flyers and spoke to passersby.

One protester held a cardboard sign that said, "This is the Communism Jarvis Tyner is promoting."

The group hoped the demonstration's proximity to Ellis Auditorium would attract the attention of attendees of Tyner's speech and lead them to come ask questions, although they said they were protesting communism in general and not Tyner specifically.

MU senior Eric Hobbs, who played the role of guard dressed in a forest green button-down shirt and trousers and a Soviet-style hat with earflaps, decided to protest when he saw a flier for Tyner's speech on campus Monday.

"I thought communism's message was going to be spread, and I thought it would be good to spread the message communism isn't that good," Hobbs said, who believes the governing philosophy leads to government abuse of power and oppression.

"The main goal of the protest is to most importantly remind people of the damage of communism, what can happen when the government has too much power," Hobbs said, giving the examples of the Soviet Union and Communist China.

MU sophomore Megan Roberts organized the mock-gulag, modeling the demonstration after one at Washington University in St. Louis, which students held Monday to commemorate the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Roberts, who was out of town Thursday night, said she anticipated that Tyner would either talk about the evils of capitalism or the glories of communism and wanted the protest to remind attendees, as well as Tyner himself, of the oppression and deaths caused by the philosophy.

"Communism is a very idealistic thing, and I think people lose sight of its evils and what it's done to humanity," Roberts said.

This is the "Letter to the Editor" I submitted in response to this article:

Regarding your article, "Communist Party vice chairman speaks at MU."

Jarvis Tyner stated:

"He's only the beginning,I think he's a transitional president. I think somebody else is going to come in and take it even further."

Tyner only speaks for a very few Communists in stating this.

Such thinking is very dangerous because it leads people to think that Obama is some kind of friend of working people when he is nothing of the sort. Barack Obama's agenda is now very clear; his main priority is Wall Street profits; working people pay the bill and suffer... this is "the new normal"--- Wall Street made this mess and the coupon clippers brought in Barack Obama to help them profit some more from solving their problems on the back of the working class.

The Associated Press pointed out in an article, "Obama wants domestic spending cuts in next budget." These cuts are sure to hurt working people on the bottom the worst.

The article continues:

"The flow of red ink has been increased by war spending for Iraq and Afghanistan, recession-fighting stimulus and bank bailout spending and by reduced tax revenues from high unemployment and reduced personal and business income."

Obama can create all the "green" jobs he wants to but if those jobs continue paying working people nothing but poverty wages the economic mess our country is in is going to worsen.

Obama has even refused to enforce longstanding affirmative action policies leaving people of color and women who are already suffering horrible poverty to fend for themselves.

Obama is not a liberal, nor is he progressive; he is no friend of working people... he has refused to provide the change people thought they were voting for.

Barack Obama has shown himself to be nothing other than a slick talking insurance salesman.

Sounds to me like Jarvis Tyner is a member of the Democratic Party out on the stump campaigning for Barack Obama's second term when he should be leading the struggles for peace and for improving the lives of working people.

Tyner should be holding Obama accountable by telling him:

No peace; no votes.
No single-payer universal health care; no votes.
No living wage jobs; no votes.

Alan L. Maki
Another long-time Communist
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
218-386-2432

Is The Global Recession Over?

This is a very interesting and important question being posed here. The same question is being posed in a variety of publications ranging from conservative to the left.

Here we get an interesting take from one of the largest, most powerful and influential communist parties in the world.

However, noticeably absent is any reference to what these huge debts being incurred in the name of "economic stimulus" are really doing to nations and people.

This accumulation of debt may be having some short-term results as far as alleviating the problems associated with the collapsing capitalist economy which is certain to negatively impact all the countries the United States is trying to use to shore up its own economy.

But, there can only be one consequence of this huge accumulating debt aimed at trying to save the capitalist system, not just from complete collapse, but saving the system itself... we are already well into a full-blown depression.

What is the consequence of all this debt that is not considered in this article? Poverty. Massive poverty will be the result of these huge accumulations of debt. Masses of people who have never experienced poverty will be experiencing poverty and everything that goes with such poverty.

One need only examine what the western imperialist governments and their bankers did to socialist Poland to figure this out.

Debt equals poverty... massive debt equals massive poverty.

Recession, depression or whatever happens with the capitalist economy this massive, massive, massive debt is going to result in the most devastating and massive world-wide poverty the human race has ever experienced.

Something to think about and ponder as you gather around the dinner table... you might also contemplate how much longer you will have food to put on the dinner table for your family...

The leading capitalists, headed by Wall Street, are taking advantage of this depression as capitalists always do--- using this economic depression to drive down that standards of living of working people across the globe.

It is no wonder so many working people are turning to Karl Marx for answers... one only has to read the very short Chapter 26 from Volume One of Marx' "Capital" to understand what is taking place in the world today... if you have never read or studied Karl Marx before, I would urge you to get to your nearest public library and check out Volume One of "Capital" and give it a good, thorough read because what the bankers did to Poland they are now doing to the entire world... the United States included.

Alan L. Maki




People's Democracy

(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vol. XXXIII

No. 25


June 21, 2009



Is The Global Recession Over?



C P Chandrasekhar



FINANCE ministers of the G8, meeting at Lecce in Italy during the latter part of week ending June 14, were cautiously optimistic. The final communiqué noted that in the aftermath of efforts at financial stabilisation and fiscal stimulation “there are signs of stabilisation in our economies, including a recovery of stock markets, a decline in interest rate spreads, (and) improved business and consumer confidence”. But, the ministers cautioned “the situation remains uncertain and significant risks remain to economic and financial stability”.



There were two elements of the communiqué that pointed to a compromise between the differing perceptions of the US and UK, on the one hand, and Germany and France, on the other, regarding the principal problems and tasks at hand. The first of these elements was the reference to the persistence of “significant risks” which was not there in the original draft of the communiqué, and was ostensibly inserted by those countries (UK and US) who feel that it is not yet time to decide that the recovery is here and the stimulus provided thus far has been adequate. Moreover, the mention of “encouraging figures in the manufacturing sector” that figured in the draft was dropped, since it went against the evidence that industrial production in the eurozone area had fallen by 21 per cent in April, relative to the corresponding month of the previous year.



LEADING POWERS DIFFER ON EMPHASIS

The second element of the communiqué of interest is that it pushes for going beyond thinking of recovery and formulating national level “exit strategies” “for unwinding the extraordinary policy measures taken to respond to the crisis.” The reference here is to the huge budget deficits and high levels of public debt that many countries, especially the US, have accumulated in the wake of the bail-outs and the stimulus packages they have put in place. Though the US and UK have played down this aspect of the discussions, there is clearly a difference in emphasis among the leading powers on where the world economy stands and what is the immediate priority in terms of action.



The difference hinges, quite clearly, on the extent to which different sections believe that the worst is over. The reason for uncertainty regarding a potential recovery is that the figures are yet to point to a definitive revival. As of May 2009, nearly two years since the financial crisis broke and a year-and-a-half after the onset of the global recession, the economic scenario remains uncertain, if not bleak. The rate of unemployment in the US, which stood at less than 5 per cent in the first quarter of 2008, had risen to 8.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2009 and is estimated to have touched 9.4 per cent in May 2009—its highest rate for the last 26 years. This possibly explains US pessimism. It is true that the unemployment rate in the European Union had also risen from 6.8 to 8.1 per cent between the first quarters of 2008 and 2009. But the higher base level may be making the problem appear less alarming to ruling governments there than in the US, influencing their perceptions.



Output growth too gives no cause for optimism. Quarter-on-quarter growth rates of US GDP (as measured relative to the corresponding quarter of the previous year) had declined sharply in the last quarter of 2008 and first quarter of 2009 across the G7. This decline was even sharper in the UK and the EU, than the US). The crisis had clearly not gone away by the beginning of April, despite signs of recovery in the stock market. The disconcerting element is that this situation prevails despite huge infusion of funds by G7 governments. According to one estimate, the US Federal Reserve had by April 2009 offered about $12.7 trillion in guarantees and commitments to the US financial sector, and spent a little over $4 trillion in combating the crisis. As a result the federal deficit has risen to more than 12 per cent of GDP, frightening fiscal conservatives who predict the onset of stagflation. The big thrust seems to be over and the recovery is still not in sight. What it has possibly done, and even that is not certain, is prevent the recession from turning into a depression.



OPTIMISM BASED ON STILL TENUOUS EVIDENCE

Despite this evidence relating to the period till the last full quarter for which numbers are available, speculation that the downturn has bottomed out and the developed world is on the verge of recovery proliferates. This optimism is based on still tenuous evidence, including evidence that the rate of decline of economies is slowing. The most important of these is that the monthly decline in employment in the US is down sharply. In May 2009 nonfarm payroll employment fell by 345,000, which is around half the average monthly decline over the previous six months and well below the close to 750,000 fall in January this year. Associated with this fall in monthly employment declines is a fall in new unemployment claims. Economist Robert Gordon of Northwestern University in the US, a respected analyst of growth and productivity trends in the US, has found that past recessions came to an end four to six weeks after new unemployment claims peaked, which they have now done. So he conjectures that the business cycle will find its trough in May or June (Financial Times, June 3, 2009). While these developments are reassuring, we should view them in the light of the fact that the unemployment rate is at record levels and new unemployment claims are still above the figures they touched in the worst months of the last recession.



A second cause for optimism is that US producers may be reaching the phase of their inventory cycle where an increase in production is inevitable. By April, wholesale inventories had fallen for the eighth month running as firms cut back production to clear the excess inventories generated by falling demand. Having made those adjustments, it is argued, firms are now in a position where they would have to step up production, especially if demand begins to stabilise. In other words, the argument is that since things are so bad, they can only get better. But the figures do not support even this position. Thus, after seven months of decline, inventories in April fell 1.4 per cent relative to the year before and 6.4 per cent relative to the corresponding month of the previous year. That was because sales fell by 0.4 per cent in April, led by automobiles and parts. Sales of durable goods too were down 1.9 per cent during the month and 23.4 per cent over the year.



The third potential cause for comfort is the sign that relative to previous months the decline in production is slowing. The available evidence shows that the decline in GDP relative to the immediately preceding quarter, which was rising till the first quarter of 2009, seems to have bottomed out in the US and to a lesser extent in the EU. What is more, this trend seems to be reflected even in the month-on-month annual growth rates of industrial production, with the rate of decline in April 2009 relative to the corresponding month of the previous year showing signs of reversing its hitherto continuous increase in the US, UK and EU.



While this third factor may be adequate reason for optimism for some, there are two reasons why we should not read too much into this data. To start with, even if the downturn is touching bottom in terms of the stabilisation of the rate of decline, the decline could persist and the economy could “bounce along the bottom” as some analysts reportedly speculate. That is, there is no “statistical” reason why a stable rate of decline should automatically lead to lower rates of decline and positive rates of growth in the coming months or quarters.



Further, it is unclear whether there would be adequate alternative stimuli to sustain the recovery when the effects of the already implemented fiscal stimulus wane. Governments could hold back on providing any fresh stimulus because of arguments of the kind espoused by conservative economists, representatives of the financial sector and even some European governments, which emphasise the dangers of inflation. If that happens, recovery would depend on the return of the consumer to the market.



But here too the prognosis is not all too happy. Fears generated by the recession and rising unemployment and the increased desire to save to make up for the decline in the values of accumulated housing and financial assets is encouraging savings even in the US. According to a recent estimated of the Federal Reserve, the net worth of US households had fallen 2.5 per cent or by $1,300 billion in just the first three months of 2009. This comes on top of the 18 per cent fall in the previous year which was the worst since the Fed began estimating household wealth in 1946.The net result is that household savings rates in the US are rising and consumer spending was falling in March and April this year.



In the event many still remain sceptical. The Financial Times quotes Martin Feldstein as saying that “it is possible but unlikely” that the recession is over. “I think it is a more likely scenario that we are seeing the favourable effects of the fiscal stimulus,” he reportedly said. “That, for a while, will offset the general diminished trend we have seen over the past two quarters, but it is a one-shot thing.” Put otherwise, there could be more bad news ahead.

MAY DAY BRINGS THOUGHTS OF SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVES

Friday, May 1, 2009

Harry Targ









Sketching Today’s Global Political Economy

During the latest phase of monopoly and finance capital (1945- to the present) enormous changes occurred in the global political economy. First, the United States emerged as a superpower and in an effort to crush the threat of socialism around the world committed itself to constructing a “permanent war economy.” This permanent war economy would create the military capacity to destroy alternatives to global capitalism, stimulate and maintain a high growth manufacturing economy, justify an anti-communist crusade to crush the left in the United States, and co-opt and/or repress working class demands for change. In addition, the permanent war economy would occasion the perpetuation of racism and patriarchy in public and private life.

As the years passed corporate rates of profit began to decline as a result of rising competition among capitalist states, over-production and under-consumption, an increasing fiscal crisis of the capitalist state, and rising prices of core natural resources (particularly oil). With a growing crisis, global corporate and finance capital shifted from investments in production of goods and services to financial speculation. Thus capitalist investment steadily shifted to financialization, or the investment in paper-stocks, bonds, private equity and hedge funds and other forms of speculative investment. Financial speculation was encouraged by state tax policies, “free trade” agreements, an expanded international system of indebtedness, and increased reliance on consumer debt.

Multinational corporations which continued to produce goods and services sought to overcome declining profit rates. This, they concluded, could only be achieved by reducing the costs of labor. To overcome the demand for higher real wages, health and other benefits, and worker rights, manufacturing facilities were moved from core capitalist states to poor countries where lower wages were paid. Thus, in wealthier countries millions of relatively high paying jobs were lost while production of goods increasingly moved to sweatshops in poor countries. Wealthy capitalist states experienced deindustrialization .

Finally, assisted by technological advances, from computers to new forms of shipping, financial speculation and deindustrialization fueled the full flowering of globalization, or the radically increased patterns of cross border interactions- economic, political, and cultural. Globalization began to transform the world into one integrated global political economy.

In short, we may speak of a four-fold set of parallel political and economic developments that have occurred since the end of World War II, in which the United States has played a leading role: creating a permanent war economy, financialization, deindustrialization, and globalization.

Should We Be Thinking About Socialism Today?

A rich and vital set of images of a socialist future comes down to us from the utopians, anarchists, and Marxists, the martyrs of the first May Day, and the variety of experiments with socialism attempted in Asia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean. Extracting from the multiple reasons why individuals and movements chose socialism one reason stands out; that is, that capitalism historically is and has been a cruel and inhumane system, a system borne and fueled by slavery, genocide, super exploitation of workers, tactics of division based on race and gender, and an almost total disregard for the natural environment that sustains life. Building a permanent war economy, financialization, deindustrialization , and globalization are merely extensions of the cruel and heartless pursuit of profit which has been the fundamental driving force of the capitalist mode of production.

Drawing on the history and the images of a better future coupled with the brutality of the capitalist era, we might conceive of a 21st century socialist future that has four main dimensions.

First, we need to create institutions that are created and staffed by the working classes and serve the interests of the working classes. While scholars and activists may disagree about what “class” means in today’s complicated world, it is clear that the vast majority of humankind do not own or control the means of production, nor do they usually have an instrumental place in political institutions. Therefore, socialism involves, in the Marxist sense, the creation of a workers’ state and since most of us are workers (more than 90 percent of the US population for example), a state must be established that represents and serves the interests of the many, not the few.

Second, our vision of socialism is a society in which the working classes fully participate in the institutions that shape their lives and in the creation of the policies that these institutions develop to serve the needs of all the people.

Third, socialism also implies the creation of public policies that sustain life. Socialism in this sense is about good jobs, incomes that provide for human needs, access to health care for all, adequate housing and transportation, a livable environment, and an end to discrimination and war.

Fourth, socialism is also about the creation of institutions and policies that maximize human potential. A socialist society provides the intellectual tools to stimulate creativity, celebrate diversity, and facilitate writing poetry, singing and dancing, basking in nature’s glow, and living, working, and loving with others in humanly sustainable communities.

Today we remain terribly far from any of these dimensions of socialism. But paradoxically, humankind at this point in time has the technological tools to build a mass movement to create a socialist future. We can communicate instantaneously with peoples all over the world. We can access information about the world that challenges the narrow ruling class media frames about the human condition. We have in the face of brutal war, environmental devastation, enduring racism, super exploitation of workers everywhere mass movements of workers, women, people of color, indigenous people, and youth who are demanding changes. Increasingly public discourse is based upon the realization that our future will bring either extinction or survival. Socialism, although it is not labeled as such, represents human survival.

Where do we who believe that socialism offers the best hope for survival stand at this critical juncture? We are weak. Many of us are older. Some of us have remained mired in old formulas about change. Nevertheless we can make a contribution to building a socialist future. In fact we have a critical role to play.

We must articulate systematic understandings of the global political economy and where it came from: permanent war, financialization, deindustrialization , and globalization. We need to articulate what impacts these processes have had on class, race, gender, and the environment. In other words, we need to convince activists that almost all things wrong with the world are connected and are intimately tied to the development of capitalism as the dominant mode of production.

We need to take our place in political struggles that demand an expanded role for workers in political institutions. We need to insist that the working classes participate in all political decisions.

We need to work on campaigns that could sustain life: jobs, living wages, single payer health care, climate change etc. Our contribution can include making connections between the variety of single issues, insisting that participants in mass movements take cognizance of and work on the other single issues that constitute the mosaic of problems that require transformation. We must remember that in the end the basic policies that sustain life require building socialism. Most struggles, such as those to achieve living wages or a single payer health care system for example, plant the seeds for building a broader socialist society. We can incorporate our socialist vision in our debates about single issues: if we demand a living wage, why not talk about equality for example?

We need to rearticulate our belief that human beings have a vast potential for good, for creativity, and given a just society, we all could move away from classism, racism, and sexism. We could pursue our talents and interests in the context of a sharing and cooperative society.

By working for institutional incorporation (empowerment) and life-sustaining and enhancing policies we will be planting the seeds for a socialist society.

“In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold,
Greater than the might of armies, magnified a thousand-fold.
We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old.
For the union makes us strong”

From “Solidarity Forever,” Ralph Chaplin lyrics, 1915.