by Eric Brooks, January 2011

Dolores Ibárruri, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Spain, in the context of the Siege of Madrid (10/1936-3/1939) made famous the slogan “¡No Pasarán!” – fascists shall not pass. The call resonates today, evoking a spirit of revolutionary optimism and defiance: Exploiters shall not pass!
– Eric Brooks

I have walked in that hinterland of despair that is unemployment. I have felt the cold hand of fear clasp my heart as needed services disappear one by one and finally the cupboards are bare and the lights are turned off and there is no more gas for the car.

While the social democrats speak of process and winning small battles, the battle at hand is big, and the urgency of now demands fundamental change in our society and in the priorities that inform our social decisions.The necessary tasks facing us as members of the working class, working women and men, we who do not exploit others for our enrichment, are immense.

The material conditions required for sustaining human life, our beautiful planet and its necessary environment, are a casualty of capitalist exploitation. US wages don’t meet the basic needs of great masses of people who find themselves making choices between shelter and food, necessary medicines and heat.

Our youth are indentured to the banks for the cost of education, their aspirations to develop themselves and build a foundation for a stable life turned against them. Many find that stability beckons but is always and increasingly beyond reach.

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From Labor Up-Front: In the people’s fight against the crisis (page 94)

By Gus Hall

Main Weakness-Sectarianism

…for the present period the nature of the main weakness that holds us back from measuring up can be characterized as sectarianism-a deficiency that comes in many varieties-Left and Right.

The deficiency derives from both a lack of appreciation of the level and the scope of the mass trends and a lack of understanding of the new features of the mainstream and the Left current, as well as from not understanding or fully appreciating the unique and necessary contributions we Communists can and must make to these movements. So the deficiency is both an underestimation of the mass upsurge and the Party’s role in it.

When masses are not in motion, when the waves of struggle are at ebbtide, it is necessary to pursue policies and tactics that sometimes go sharply against the stream-tactics and policies of an opposition, policies that one could call sectarian, as Karl Marx once did. We have experienced such periods. This, however, is not one of those periods. In a period of high tide such policies and tactics turn into their very opposite. They do not lead. They tail events.

The struggle against sectarianism requires the conscious and consistent, never-ending seeking out and nurturing of allies, especially allies who are ready to work with us as Communists.

One of the very important features of this period, as I indicated previously, is that the number of such people on the Left is growing very fast. Increasingly such people are seeking us out and expressing the desire to consult with us. These are people who will and do disagree with us on some questions. They may be ready to work with us in only one or two areas. They will have ideological flaws of many kinds. They may have had, and may still express, anti-Party concepts and slanders. But the real truth is that if we cannot work with such people, then who the hell can we work with. The fact is that if we cannot work with such people we are not going to work with anyone-except ourselves.

In mass work, the words “working with and giving leadership to” are a very important concept. If we do not practice this concept, if we do not respect the independent character of the mass movements, we can never win their respect for our leadership. Even in mass organizations in which Communists are in leading positions they cannot be viewed or characterized as “our movements.” Only the Party is ours.
Our relationship with mass organizations and movements must be shaped by the fact that we are not out to “take over,” or to dominate administratively, because it does not serve any useful purpose. Communists must be the very best of team players. The push for Communists to run for elective office, whether in a trade union or in an ad hoc committee, must come from one’s co-workers. It must be earned.

Of course there are times when differences must be discussed. But we must always remember who is the main enemy. We must be careful in our judgments. We must always use the explanatory tone. We must always take into account the sum total of facts before resorting to criticism. We must continue to master the art of discussing-not debating or arguing-while working together as allies and friends.

We must put subjective and personal feelings on the back burner. They must not be permitted to become obstacles to working with people who may sometimes irritate us. We must always meet people more than halfway in order to win them, to convince people that it is possible, necessary and even enjoyable to work with us, even if we do not agree on everything. We must never assume that we are always right.

We must not follow the petty-bourgeois Maoist line of treating all who are not one hundred percent with us as being one hundred percent against us. We simply must not tolerate such attitudes.

In this context, for example, a policy of building only Left unity in a period when Center forces are in motion is sectarianism. Left unity is a very important concept. And in the context of building Left-Center unity it is a necessary concept. But a Left unity that rejects working with the Center forces is sectarian.
Experience in united front struggles shows that differences are lessened if the Party carries on independent propaganda on issues on which there are differences. Thus, Party propaganda in the form of leaflets, pamphlets and lectures is most necessary and very helpful in our united front work, especially if our materials are explanatory and convincing.

United front, wrote Lenin, is a method of mobilizing working people who either have no special or specific philosophy but who are for democracy, or people who are under the influence of reformist, revisionists or opportunists.

On the united front, Lenin said:

The purpose and sense of the tactics of the united front consist in drawing more and more masses of the workers into the struggle against capital, even if it means making repeated offers to the leaders of the Second and Second-and-a-half Internationals. (V.I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 42, p. 411)

At a recent Conference of Communist and Workers Parties (Moscow, 1969) the resolution stated:

Communists should not regard everyone who is critical of the Soviet Union or the Communist Party, or who differ on one or another issue as being anti-Communist and who must be fought and rejected as far as the united front is concerned.

In this period, when the Party is pursuing a mass policy and when the members are involved in mass movements, there are of course other kinds of problems that emerge that are of a Right-opportunist nature.

When involved in mass movements there are always pressures for Communists to act and even talk like just good old plain progressives, to talk like good anti-monopoly fighter, like good democrats, like good trade unionists, like good national liberation fighters, like good old liberals.

Now there is nothing wrong with talking and acting like good trade unionists or progressives. It becomes a weakness if our activities are limited to that level. (emphasis is admins) We have more to say about reforms than reformists do. For us tactics are related to strategic objectives. Our exposes are not limited to the boss or the corporation. We expose them as links in the system.

Some who work on the level of reformists continue to go to club meetings, read our press and quote Marxist classics. But the fact is that very often the opportunism begins to corrode the ideological and political innards. Such comrades will begin to lose their class and socialist consciousness, and in time slip into a fantasy world where they think they can get along as well and even better outside the Party. This of course is opportunism and it is also liquidating the Party.

There are warning signs of this weakness. When comrades work in mass organizations and movements and never get a subscription to the Daily World, People’s World or to Political Affairs, never recruit a new member-that is a warning signal that such comrades need help. They need political and ideological help. We cannot accept as natural that a comrade works in a shop, is a member of a trade union or a mass organization for 15, 20 and even 25 years and never recruits enough to start a club of the Communist Party. Some retire without ever recruiting anyone.

Such comrades were good old trade unionists, or good old democrats and democratic fighters for all those years, but they did not live and work as Communists-ideologically, politically or personally.
We must be clear that although working with mass movements may lead to problems of Right opportunism, that must never be permitted to become a conscious or unconscious excuse for not pursuing a mass policy, for not being involved in mass struggles. That would be like deciding not to plant a garden because you may have problems with opportunistic bugs and worms.

From Working Class USA: The Power and the Movement (p. 95)

By Gus Hall

In a period of ebb in social, political and economic struggles it is not always easy to judge what are necessary adjustments in tactics. And it is not easy to separate tactics that correctly reflect the new problems, the new relationship of forces of the ebb period, from actions that are motivated by an opportunistic retreat from the difficulties of struggle of such a period. What adds to the difficulty is that there are pressures for both.

Opportunistic retreat and a shift in tactics appear simultaneously because they are reactions to the same realities. It is further complicated by the fact that in most cases the paths of opportunistic retreat starts with very necessary and correct steps of tactical adjustment. Where one ends and the other begins is at times very difficult to determine because there also are periods when one individual can reflect a mixture of both and also because the rationale for a retreat often sounds very much like the rationale for a tactical shift.

The key word in determining one from the other is “struggle.” A correct tactical adjustment is not a shift away from struggle. It is a shift of tactics for and in struggle. Tactics after all have meaning only when they are an integral part of the struggle. On the other hand an opportunistic retreat is an edging away from struggle. It is a process of giving up positions, making unnecessary concessions, and all this without struggle. A correct tactical shift is to find a new path to struggle, while an opportunistic retreat is a way of avoiding struggle, and giving up positions, thinking this will placate the enemy.

By Gus Hall
Main report, 24th National Convention, CPUSA

In the minds of the people today there is a coming together of the two broadest concerns that involve the great peace and democratic majority:
1) the concern for the preservation of humanity and nature because of the threat of nuclear war, and,
2) the deep concern for the preservation of U.S. democracy, the democratic structure and democratic rights.
The danger in both cases comes from the same source: the most reactionary
militaristic, chauvinistic and racist, and anti-labor section of monopoly capital…
The broad forces reflecting overall democratic traditions and feeling include the working class, middle class, intellectuals, professionals and people in the mass media. This includes large numbers of Afro-Americans, Chicano-Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans and other oppressed minorities.
How to tap the potential of this moment with initiatives that will lead to mass actions by the broadest democratic forces is the task at hand. Our task is to tap this potential so as to give rise to forms of political independence that will lead toward a new popular mass political party.
…There is a need for new initiatives, for the building of a people’s movement to establish a new democratic structure, a people’s democratic structure. There is a need for movements and struggles to strip the executive branch of much of its powers, to limit or repeal its war making powers and for constitutional reforms. In a nuclear world, no one individual should have such powers.
There is a need for people’s movements in the struggle to cut the military budget to the bone, to put an end to the war economy and the war budget.
It is possible to go on an ideological offensive against monopoly capitalism. It is a moment when millions can be made to see that monopoly capitalism is the root of all social evils, that it is associated with everything that is anti-democratic, corrupt, immoral, that hard rock of capitalist reality.

The following resolutions were passed by the Texas state convention Sunday.

1. Be it resolved the party adheres to the principle expressed by Marx and Engels in the Communist Manifesto that workers of the world must unite. In accordance with this principle, the party urges its members and others to support peaceful, legal, anti-imperialist actions that express the solidarity of this party with our class brothers and sisters.

2. Be it resolved that the organizing department of the party be reinstated when feasible with the mission of coherently facilitating the recruitment of new membership and Marxist Leninist education and the connection with appropriate party organs.

3. Be it resolved that in the future if funds and membership allow, the print edition of the People’s World be reinstituted. Also, be it resolved that the party continue to periodically publish documents which will express the political line on current issues of struggle.

4. Be it resolved that the party affirm the primacy of the class struggle between the working class and the capitalist class.

This is the contribution by the Houston club of the CPUSA to pre-convention discussions.

The Communist Party USA offers the best political hope for working people in this country. At a time of great change in the United States, the CPUSA has the experience and history to lead important struggles. With these opportunities come significant questions for our party. The decisions, tactics and conclusions offered by party leadership over the last couple of years demand examination. We believe that our party is at a crossroads and we must make major changes in ideology and practice in order to end years of stagnation and dwindling membership.

POLITICAL STRATEGY AND TACTICS

Alignment with the Democratic Party

Although most progressives were thrilled with the election of President Barack Obama, the first African-American President of this country, we must make a realistic assessment of this achievement.

President Obama’s election marks a departure from the direction of the extreme right. However, in no way can it be considered a qualitative change in the direction of our government and nation. Obama is a Democrat, and as such, will continue to represent the interests of the wealthy elite. Many policies antithetical to the interests of working people have been continued, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. By not acknowledging these facts, the Party leadership appears to be forsaking its historic role as an unremitting fighter for jobs, equality, peace, not to mention its role in championing socialism.

The fight against the ultra right

Although the ultra right-wing in U.S. Politics remains a threat, its existence cannot justify silence in the face of the Obama administration’s errors that harm working class interests. Party leadership has failed to assertively speak out against the White House’s erroneous, pro-big-business policies at a time when history requires we do so.

The struggle against Bush policies carried forward into the new administration must continue and intensify. When the administration sides with progressives, it should be supported strongly. Similarly, the obstructionist Republicans and Democrats should be identified clearly and efforts need to be made to remove them from office and replace them with progressives.

We need to work tirelessly to put together the coalitions necessary to build mass movements to respond to the destructive nature of the ultra-right and capitalism. The fight is not over. It has barely started.

DAY-TO-DAY OPERATION OF THE PARTY

The need for organization and discipline

We have been concerned about the lack of organizational effort on the part of CPUSA leadership. In Houston, we have received very few names of individuals in the area interested in the party. We have been very vocal about this and were told by leadership to “stop agitating” about this issue.

This low number of contacts leads to two possible conclusions. One would be the party is not attracting people with its political line so that few are contacting. The other conclusion would be that party staff are not forwarding the names or responding to inquiries. Either of these possibilities would have dire consequences for any effort to build the party and would spell doom for the future of the party if this is continued.

Along these lines, our club has been contacted by frustrated people from around the country who tell us they have attempted to contact the party numerous times and have received no response. Some party members in Houston attempted to contact the YCL and in fact were supported by our District Organizer in this effort and never received a reply. Some friends of the party from Houston attempted to contact the CPUSA and never received a response.

Prioritize youth

The Houston club is greatly encouraged by recent discussion documents that seek to prioritize youth organizing and overall party growth. With such a commitment, we believe, must come a transparent and sincere endeavor to cultivate better internal communications. Specific improvements of day-to-day operations in the party, providing appropriate resources to local clubs, and giving potential recruits an opportunity to connect locally must be part of any national discussion.

Positive Internet developments

To its credit, the CPUSA has named Jim Lane of Dallas to coordinate people contacting the party from the Internet, but who do not live in an area with a club. He has been doing a marvelous job and it is paying off. New members have been writing for our press and one wrote an excellent pre-convention discussion document. Party leadership should provide further guidance for Internet use and should articulate the overall outreach, recruitment and political strategies for its use, especially social media, for local clubs as well as the party as a whole.

WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

Outreach to mass media

There needs to be more outreach from the national office to mass media organizations, particularly progressive outlets. Some party leaders have appeared on right-wing shows and that should not be repeated. The party should not be disgraced by being associated with such buffoons as Glenn Beck.

Spanish-speaking outreach

Traditionally, the party has reached out to Spanish-speaking peoples. Recent personnel cuts have set us back. The party should return to, intensify and deepen our outreach work to Spanish-speaking peoples. Spanish-language Internet sites need further development.

Marxist education

One of the CPUSA’s strengths is our understanding of Marxism and the application of this theory in political strategy and tactics.The working class desperately needs an understandable guide to classic theory and how it is relevant to their everyday life and struggles. The Little School http://tx.cpusa.org/ has made great strides in furthering Marxist education with little support from the rest of the party. Party leadership should support this effort wholeheartedly and provide needed resources to build and expand this effort. Jim Lane is providing webinars on a variety of educational topics and this new technology opens up opportunities for education and training in a convenient, inexpensive on-line environment.

Let’s lead some struggles for a change

The Bush administration took the nation in a destructive direction. This provides us with countless opportunities to lead the working class.

We cannot lead the fight for the interests of the working class by just blending into the Democratic Party and trade unions. Of course, we need to work with these organizations and others and we need to take on our role as coalition and unity builders.

A labor leader once said, “The way to be a leader is to find a crowd and get out in front of it.” The CPUSA can lead the masses of working people, the poor and the oppressed. Unfortunately, we have failed to get out in front and in many instances lag behind.

In short, in order for the CPUSA to grow, we need to open up and reach out to the working class. If we fail in this effort, the working class will suffer while the capitalists will notch up another victory.

This is an exciting historical period. CPUSA is uniquely positioned to use our historical materialist methodology to lead our class, the working class, forward! The dismal records of the Democrats and Republicans have failed us miserably. Working people need a party that will speak for us. We need a party that sees things from our perspective. That party is the CPUSA!

This article is part of the discussion leading up to the Communist Party USA’s 29th National Convention May 21-23, 2010. All contributions to the discussion should be sent to discussion2010@cpusa.org for selection not to the individual venues.For more information on the convention or the pre-convention discussion period, you can email convention2010@cpusa.org.

Of course, we must update Marx, Lenin, and Gus Hall and apply basic principles to the present. However, we need to ask ourselves if we are discarding “old” ideas because they don’t appeal to the working class or because we are drifting in our ideology. In rereading the following taken directly from Political Report to National Committee/National Council by Gus Hall, September 19, 1992, I would suggest that other than reference to specific events at that time, it is even more applicable today.

THE PLUS

There are a lot of experiences and experiments and good work. But there are weaknesses. The overall level of our work is not high enough.

For example, to the extent that we become more involved in mass work, to the extent the weaknesses of not integrating the concept of the plus shows up, and with it, the lack of recruiting. We still have not yet mastered the art of including the plus concept in all our work. Without the plus we cannot recruit. Without it, we cannot raise class consciousness, and certainly not socialist consciousness. The plus prepares people for the Party.

Take the present economic situation. It is not enough to blame the closing of GM plants on GM in general. It is not enough to blame mass layoffs or the lack of medical care on the Reagan-°©‐Bush years. We have to do that. But it is not enough. It is enough for reformists, but not enough for Communists.

It is interesting to note that years ago the Social Democrats and the capitalist press used to slander the party by saying the Communists always blame everything on the system. Looking back, actually that was a compliment because they were slandering our plus.

Our most important and unique contribution, by way of the plus, must be to explain in the most basic and simple ways how and why the problems the people face are ultimately the results of the capitalist system, the exploitation, racism and oppression.

At the recent steelworkers convention, the delegates from the Canadian section of the union included the plus. They spoke about capitalism as the basic problem and they mentioned socialism. They talked about ‘Rambo” capitalism. They got standing ovations.

One of the residues from the factional period is the lack of focus on industrial concentration, on workingclass concentration. In their petty bourgeois minds industrial concentration was a dirty word. This was related to their non-class position.

The plus gives industrial concentration a deeper meaning. Without the plus we can be involved in mass work all out lives and never recruit anyone.

The Party can only grow on the basis of the influence of the plus. The plus must be a factor in the plan of work. The objective situation is now more open for our plus.

During the ten months since the convention we have made important headway. But there are some weaknesses.

In thinking about what it will take to raise the level of the work of the Party to new levels an old idea comes to mind.”

PLAN OF WORK

There was a time when the Party planned and organized its work on the basis of plans of work. The fact is without a plan of work it is impossible to function on the basis of priorities. It is impossible to have overall direction in our work. Without a plan, it is impossible to deal with concretes. It is impossible to focus on the working class without an overall plan of work. Without a plan, industrial concentration is but one of the many equally important tasks we do. Drawing up a plan forces us to think in concrete terms.

So plans of work, on all levels, are necessary to move to a new, higher level of work. Without plans there can be no checkup or follow‐up, no assessment. Without a plan of work we respond to whatever moves us at the moment. Reading the letters and reports from districts and clubs is a study in just this kind of problem.

The plans of work must respond to the question: how can we raise our work to a higher level?

Whether and how we do this depends very much on how we see the nature and role of our Party today. (Bell’s emphasis)

To measure this we have to take a fresh look at Lenin’s concept of a party of a new type.

Lenin’s concept of a workingclass revolutionary political party was molded in the struggle against liberal, petty bourgeois, social democratic concepts of the Party. In theory, these forces were reformist. Organizationally, they were anarchists. In life, they were discussion circles.

Lenin’s concept was developed in response to the historic role and revolutionary tasks of the working class.

Lenin developed the structure of democratic centralism, with the clubs as the base of the Party’s activities. Without clubs there is no need for democratic centralism.

The Leninist structure presented the idea of active leadership of mass movements and struggles – by clubs. It added the element of active leadership to the concept of influencing mass moods, mass thought pattern and mass trends.

Lenin presented the concept of main concentration on industrial mass production workers as a cornerstone of the Party.

A Party of a new type was necessary in order to fulfill the leading role of the Party. Lenin’s new type party is a party with communist essence, with the communist plus. That has not changed. (Bell’s emphasis)

We must take the political, ideological and structural essence of this concept as a guide to mold our own party of a new type, in response to our present situation.”

CLUBS OF A NEW TYPE

In life what does this mean? It means clubs of a new type. Our criticisms in this area do not mean that we in the leadership have the right answers, but the clubs don’t accept or apply them. If we had the answers, the clubs would have done so. These weaknesses are to a large extent reflections of weaknesses in our leadership. We must also not approach the clubs as if there are no objective problems. There are many.” In the original document there follows many paragraphs on the prerequisites of becoming a club of a new type.

RECRUITING

We have to ask why we don’t recruit more. The objective conditions are ripe. We are certainly in need of new members. People need our party, now more than ever.

To answer this, we should give some thought to why people join our party. Some join for reasons of friendship. Others like the work we do in mass movements or our contributions in mass organizations. But the most solid kind of recruits are those who are convinced ideologically, who are class conscious, who believe socialism is the solution. These are the people recruited by our plus. (Bell’s emphasis) Within our overall plans we have to have specific approaches to recruiting. We have to have timetables and goals. We have to inject the plus. (Bell’s emphasis)”

Recommendations:

1. Study the concept of the communist plus and how we apply it today.
2. Reestablish the Organization department.
3. Charge the Education Department with producing educationals on the communist plus and basic Marxist‐Leninist concepts.