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Party Watch 2004:

Title: Communist Party USA targets elections

http://www.cpusa.org/past-weeks/Party%20targets%20elections.htm

NEW YORK -- In an optimistic, struggle-filled March meeting, the Communist Party's National Committee pledged to become more involved in the labor and people's movement. "The Communist Party has to become more fully part of the mix," said newly-elected CPUSA National Chairman Sam Webb in his address to the meeting, referring to the turning-point Seattle WTO protests, and the massive demonstrations against the confederate flag and racism in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Webb called the upsurge a "loosely formed anti-monopoly, anti-corporate and anti-racist coalition."

The meeting was additionally the scene of an important event a transition in the leadership of the Communist Party. The meeting elected Sam Webb, chairman, Jarvis Tyner, executive vice-chairman, and Evelina Alarcon, Lee Dlugin, Judith Le Blanc, and Scott Marshall as vice-chairs. Elena Mora was elected National Organization Secretary. Gus Hall, who has led the Party since his election in 1962, was elected to the position of senior chairman. He will also be working on a new book. Esther Moroze was reconfirmed as national treasurer.

The new officers are African American, white, Mexican American, American Indian, Puerto Rican and Jewish. They are majority women. The new leadership was elected by acclimation.

In his report to the meeting, Webb, 55, paid tribute to the leadership of the heroic generation of Communists from the 1930s and 40s.

Webb highlighted the enormous contribution of this generation to industrial unionism, breaking the back of Jim Crow racism, and defeating Nazism. "These mule tough and street smart Communists, to borrow a phrase from the now deceased Machinist Union President William Winpinsinger inscribed an indelible mark on every major confrontation of the 20th century and improved the conditions of life for millions of Americans," Webb said.

CPUSA national secretary Joe Sims, editor of Political Affairs, who made the nomination on behalf the Communist Party national board. Sims noted that a high-level of Party unity made for a smooth process of transition. "Thanks to Gus Hall's able leadership, party unity has never been higher," Sims said. "As indicated by our recent conferences in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, the Party is ideologically and politically united. Our Marxist-Leninist outlook continues to serve us well."

Sims said Hall led the CPUSA through "fair weather and foul, through the Cold War Š up to the new labor upsurge and our efforts to build a mass Communist Party today. We learned from you many things including how the steel was tempered." Hall received a standing ovation.

Many "baby-boomers" took the floor and reflected how Hall, Henry Winston, former national chairperson, and George Meyers, former chairperson of the Communist Party's labor department, influenced them. Trade unionist after trade unionist, Black, Brown and white, took the floor and spoke about their working class experiences and how these working class Party leaders affected their lives and political development. Bobbie Wood, a Chicago CLUW leader, said, "Gus and the Party distills the essence and experience of the working class and then broadcasts it."

Tyner presented a report to meeting on the 2000 electoral struggle. His report focused on the necessity of defeating the Republican right in the upcoming presidential and Congressional elections.

The splits in the Republican Party, he suggested, open the door to their defeat in November, a defeat made all the more possible by the alienation of the U.S. electorate from the policies of the far right.

Tyner expressed the need to redefine strategic and tactical concepts in light of the ever-changing patterns in the U.S. electoral scene. "Less emphasis," he suggested, "should be given to concept of the fascist danger in current conditions." That danger subsided with the electoral results in '96 and '98 and the setbacks to the Gingrich Republicans.

Key to the defeat of the ultraright is the new role of organized labor, Tyner said. The report underlined the growing importance of political independence and touched on the Nader candidacy. "We need to develop a dialogue with these forces," he said. A big question about the Nader candidacy is whether or not it will focus the center of its fire on the Republicans or on the Democrats. "We have to urge that the emphasis be on the Republicans."

The new executive-vice chairman placed emphasis on the need for Communist candidates. "We cannot be a mass party without Communist candidates," Tyner said.

Elena Mora reported on party building. The emphasis was building more effectively at the grassroots, recruiting workers and helping the organization get more involved in existing struggles. "Party building has to be uppermost in our minds," Mora said. Discussing the upsurge among young people Mora said "It requires all of us to 'think out of the box' to be helpful in building the YCL." The plan of work projects a series of initiatives, including May regional meetings on the 2000 elections and a membership drive to include a series of public meetings nationwide.

The national committee adopted resolutions on racism and police brutality and murder, Iran, and mass actions calling on the CPUSA to build for the upcoming spring demonstrations and the elections.