The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression

Altouh this article is a bit dated, I still think its central thesis is dead on...however, Im not sure I agree with ISWRs assessment of Zviad Gamsakhurdia.

Inside Story: World Report
September, 1995

Soviet Communism--Alive and Deadly

Has Soviet Communism actually died?

The answer seems obvious to most Americans, who receive their information through the major news media. The television screen has conveyed dramatic and colorful images of protests in the streets of Moscow, tanks outside the Soviet Parliament, and the substitution of the traditional Russian flag for the Soviet hammer-and-sickle red flag.

Those who pay closer attention to Soviet events, or who travel to Moscow or certain other major Russian cities, find evidence of democratic elections with vigorous opposition movements, a relaxation of moral standards on Russian television, and busy capitalists in the streets of Moscow. Even the borders have been declared open, allowing citizens to leave, and a couple of old concentration camps have been shut down. The KGB is releasing some of its files. Former political prisoners now speak out openly. And Boris Yeltsin declares he is no longer a Communist. Could events be any more dramatic?

Americans, however, tend to forget how much absolute control a Communist regime exercises over its captive nation. For decades, our television cameras and gullible travelers were led on carefully prepared tours of the Soviet Union, bringing back stories of "happy" Soviet citizens working enthusiastically on building socialism. A few Americans truly believed such colorful nonsense, while most others gradually came to accept the idea that the Soviet dictatorship was mellowing.

The "collapse" of Soviet Communism, orchestrated as an alleged "coup" against dictator Gorbachev in 1991, gave our television cameras and tourists the most spectacular show yet. The changes seemed more genuine than ever before, and thus more convincing. But is it possible that we are merely witnessing a larger-scale deception than before, a quiet prelude to a new hot war? Startling new evidence says we are.

The police state and genocide

The greatly hyped-up news coverage of the "changes" in the Soviet Union has exaggerated their importance. Whether in Spain during the 1930s, Hungary during the 1950s, or Indonesia during the 1960s, Communist regimes have never been overthrown without significant violence and bloodshed. Cosmetic reforms cannot bring down such a dictatorship, especially a long-established one.

The Soviet regime has had 77 years to destroy all opposition and crush the morale of the population. In the most thorough study of its kind, political scientist R.J. Rummel of the University of Hawaii estimated that the Kremlin mass-murdered some 62 million Soviet citizens between 1917 and 1987; the number could be as high as 127 million.1 This genocide has been carried out in thousands of Soviet concentration camps, as well as through mass trials and shootings and even by enforced famine in whole regions of the Soviet Union.

The purpose has been to create mass terror. To frighten the entire population, the killing had to be random and widespread. As dictator Vladimir Lenin commanded, "The courts must not ban terror... but must formulate the motives underlying it, legalize it as a principle, plainly, without any make-believe or embellishment. It must be formulated in the broadest possible manner...".2

Acting on his orders, the government set quotas for the number of civilians to be rounded up and imprisoned-or executed-in each area of the Soviet Union. Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, for example, described "the assignment of quotas, the norms set, the planned allocations. Every city, every district, every military unit was assigned a specific quota of arrests to be carried out by a stipulated time. From then on everything else depended on the ingenuity of the Security operations personnel."3 Soviet defector Vladimir Petrov, who had worked in the secret police until 1954, also described the process:

I handled hundreds of signals to all parts of the Soviet Union which were couched in the following form:

"To N.K.V.D., Frunze. You are charged with the task of exterminating 10,000 enemies of the people. Report results by signal.-Yezhov."

And in due course the reply would come back:

"In reply to yours of such-and-such date, the following enemies of the Soviet people have been shot."4

Millions of citizens have been sent each year to the concentration camps to die more slowly-while performing economically useful slave labor. Genuine criminals were treated better and put in charge of the other inmates:

The world of the camps was grotesque as well as lethal. The ancient criminal element, accounting for about 5% of the prisoners, terrorised the "politicals," with the connivance of the authorities. They looted their possessions and clothes, beat them, murdered them: even worse, they took the lion's share of the rations already calculated to give the barest minimum on which a prisoner might survive for a while.5

One major wing of the state terror was carried out as a war against the Jewish population of the Soviet Union. Beginning under Lenin, the Communist Party banned Jewish schools and charities, raided Jewish celebrations during Yom Kippur and other holy days, and tortured, killed, or exiled to concentration camps untold numbers of religious Jews.6 During World War II, nearly half a million Jewish refugees from Poland were seized during the Soviet invasion of Lithuania; these were immediately deported to Soviet concentration camps, religious leaders being sent first.7 Menachem Begin, the future prime minister of Israel, was one of these, but later escaped the Soviet Union.8 In 1945 the Soviets even seized most of the Jewish inmates of Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps, transferring these hapless prisoners to Soviet camps to help finish the Nazi Holocaust.9

Common myth today holds that this genocidal terror ended with the death of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. But professor Rummel estimates that some 7 million citizens were murdered by the Soviet government between Stalin's death and 1987, and possibly as many as 12 million. The terror pattern is as arbitrary as before: people are arrested for "economic crimes," meaning participation in the underground economy, an activity carried out by virtually all Soviet citizens. In the mid-1960s, for example, even "the illegal manufacture of such fripperies as hair ribbons and lipstick brought certain offenders before the firing squad...". Based on an analysis of names, Jews are apparently 20 times as likely as other Russians to be targeted for arrest.10

Concentration camp survivor Avraham Shifrin was able to leave the Soviet Union in 1970 and move to Israel, where he established the Research Center for Prisons, Psychprisons and Forced Labor Concentration Camps of the USSR. He published his comprehensive research on Soviet camps in 1980, indicating more than 2,000 concentration camps were active-including 119 camps for women and children and at least 41 death camps.11 By 1990, Shifrin reported that some 2,500 camps were now holding an expanded population of 7 million inmates under Mikhail Gorbachev's regime.12

But more chillingly, Shifrin has recently discovered that the "former" Soviet Union under Boris Yeltsin is rapidly building many new camps throughout the country, in addition to the thousands of ongoing camps. These still-empty camps could serve to hold vast numbers of Western Europeans once the Red Army moves into Germany, Italy, France, and England.

Since the "collapse" of Soviet Communism in 1991, Moscow has opened to the public a tiny handful of old camps, mostly in Siberia. But the other 2,500 camps remain in full operation, exterminating large numbers of citizens under a continuing regime of terror. The Soviet propaganda works only because most Americans never understood the severity of Communist oppression in the first place.

The Communist Party machine

In the "collapse" of the Soviet Union, Communist Party members did not even lose their collective hold on power. A few Party members were shuffled around between powerful government positions, while most declared themselves "former" Communists. Boris Yeltsin has himself been a Communist since 1961, although he now claims to be a "former" Party member; his administration is thoroughly staffed with such longtime Communists as Yuri Petrov, Oleg Lobov, and Viktor Ilyushin.13 His leading opponent, the tough-talking Vladimir Zhirinovsky, openly boasts of his own KGB backing.14

As of mid-1993, 11 of the 15 Soviet republics were openly under the control of "former" Communists, including Eduard Shevardnadze of Georgia, Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, and Leonid Kravchuk of the Ukraine.15 Shevardnadze, in fact, previously worked for the KGB as the head of several detention centers. Eyewitnesses report Shevardnadze's legendary cruelty at his Tbilisi prison:

In room 45 Agdomelashvili (an agent) beat Mikhelashvili (a Jew) on assignment from Panfilov (chief of operations); in room 44, agents... beat and cut with a razor the object Datusani; in room 37 agent Usipyan on assignment from Panfilov and Svimonishvili beat the object Valeri Kukhianidze, whose internal organs got so beat up he spit blood, after which he died in the Central Prison Hospital and was "written off"... in a word, beating went on in all the rooms, and the groaning and howling of the objects was heard all over the building... It was a slaughterhouse.16

Those Soviet republics not under obvious Communist control have been ruled by figureheads on behalf of the Communists. For example, former Georgian "President" Zviad Gamsakhurdia-though often portrayed in the Western news media as a democratically elected anti-Communist-actually worked closely with the KGB and was allowed to run Georgia through a completely Communist-controlled bureaucracy, as he openly admitted. He also protected the socialist infrastructure by blocking free-enterprise reforms.17

Not only do Communists and their "former" comrades thoroughly permeate the political leadership and bureaucracy of the entire Soviet Union, but they have kept its socialist power completely intact. Virtually the entire economy remains in government hands; only tiny zones in Moscow and certain other major cities allow a few private businesses, such as street vendors. New Soviet laws guarantee the restrictions on private property and business activity, and Communist apparatchiks still hold the reins of economic power. "Permission to take part in large-scale enterprise is only granted through these aqpparatchiks, and only if it is in their interests," writes one former Soviet citizen of the current situation. "All the property of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union-its billions in funds and billions in real estate, all of its sanatoriums, publishing houses, and fleets of cars, and the cooperative enterprises created under its aegis, everything-has been handed over for allocation by the very same new Russian administration that is led by the old secretaries of oblast Party committees." The handful of entrepreneurs are further squeezed with heavy taxation.18

Why doesn't the newly "free" press of Russia report this? Because there is no free press. In Moscow, for example, all printing presses, all delivery trucks, and all newsstands are owned by the government, which also controls prices on all publications.19

Not that it matters, since no "opposition" movement would care to tell the truth anyway. KGB General Oleg Kalugin has openly boasted that KGB personnel include "even figures in our democratic movement. There are many people in the movement-in fact, famous people-who have been cooperating with the KGB for twenty to twenty-five years."20

Already by 1984, top KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn warned that the Communists had created artificial, controlled opposition for many years: "There can be no reasonable doubt that the dissident movement as a whole is a KGB-controlled false opposition movement... and that many of its leading members are active and willing collaborators with the Central Committee and the KGB."21 Naturally, such phony dissident movements are playing along with the Soviet deception.

The real picture outside Moscow

The moment one leaves the major Russian cities, the continuing rule of Communism becomes immediately obvious. World Report has received testimony, from Americans and others working inside the "former" Soviet Union, that now confirms this. The identities of most of these people will remain undisclosed for their protection, although any traveler to the Soviet Union will be able to verify these facts.

Absolute socialism still rules the entire Soviet Union, including Russia and the other Soviet states. No citizen believes life has improved; indeed, government controls are creating worse poverty than ever before. There is no middle class, and an annual inflation rate of over 1,000 percent is coupled with persistent shortages of most goods. Those products that are available are often useless. Salaries are typically as low as three dollars per month, and overwhelming red tape blocks any task from getting accomplished.

The citizen remains a slave. By the fifth grade, the government chooses each person's life career, from which there is no escape. People are forcibly crowded into massive apartment buildings containing some 20,000 residents each. Few cars are seen on the streets of any city because only Party members and taxi drivers can own them, and daily gasoline shortages limit all transportation. Health and life expectancy are low; suicide is common.

"Democracy" is ignored as a cruel joke. Voters may only choose between Communist-approved candidates (many of them "former" Communists), and thus elections occur quickly and quietly, generating little public interest.

Nor has the police state diminished. In all Soviet republics, citizens are constantly terrified by the ever-present KGB. Since 1990, both Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin have expanded the KGB,22 and the agency's budget has even doubled in some Soviet republics, such as Kazakhstan. Each foreigner visiting the Soviet Union is assigned a KGB officer, usually without the visitor's knowledge, and the movement of foreigners is controlled by forcing them to use taxis or public transportation. Citizens and foreigners alike may not travel between cities without permission and the proper papers-including internal passports and visas. These papers are rigorously checked upon entry into, and exit from, any city, and are even checked constantly during the first week a foreigner is in a new city. Computerized systems are beginning to replace the old methods, and citizens are being required to carry magnetized ID cards

Prisons and concentration camps are more ubiquitous than naive foreigners realize. Prisons often look like ordinary factories on the outside, though slave labor fuels the work on the inside. Unscheduled searches of people and cars at every street corner, conducted by police or militia units, are common. And people guilty of "economic crimes" tend to disappear or are subject to summary execution; bank tellers who come up short on transactions, for example, are speedily shot-unless the customer was shortchanged.

Yeltsin's declaration of open borders is a hollow one for Soviet citizens, who still cannot leave their country. Even travel outside the Soviet Union is heavily restricted, regardless of the Soviet republic. An invitation must be initiated by someone in a foreign country, who accepts full financial resonsibility for the trip, and the Soviet citizen's boss must approve. The citizen must then visit the appropriate consulate to be interrogated by the Soviet authorities (in addition to the foreign representatives), who run a complete background check on the person. The person must usually agree to leave family members behind, to prevent defection. Several weeks may pass before the KGB returns a verdict on the travel request; in the Ukraine, this decision is not rendered for two years, and the hapless citizen must physically check in with the Soviet authorities every day during the final six months of the waiting period-at which time the request may still be denied.

To prevent Soviet air force pilots from defecting, pilots are not allowed to know their flight patterns or destinations until after they are airborne. Further insurance is provided by laser-guided surface-to-air missile batteries, which track every plane during flight and are fired if the pilot deviates from his designated route.

Russian control over the Soviet republics remains painfully obvious. Russian troops are stationed in several of the republics, and the Russian military runs all missile sites and all military facilities. Even military training remains in Russian hands, as all soldiers from the republics are sent to Russia for boot camp. Phone calls between cities are routed through Moscow, and phone tapping by the KGB is routine-poorly hidden by sudden changes in phone transmission quality. "We have grown used to the fact of constantly being bugged, of always being watched," says Russian author Lev Timofeyev, who also points out that eavesdropping devices remain installed in Soviet apartments.23 Of course, only a tiny fraction of citizens can have phones at all. Foreign companies and investors, moreover, have discovered that even though the various Soviet cities and republics seem to initiate projects, all contracts are actually negotiated in Moscow under Russian authority. And key political positions in the republics are filled by Russian Communists, not locals.

To fool outsiders, the KGB has learned to disguise many of its activities through the "Russian mafia." Former KGB officer Golitsyn has revealed that the KGB's Economic Department and the Interior Ministry's OBKhS have penetrated-and even partly created-the black market underworld during the past 70 years.24 Taxation, for example, can now be portrayed as common crime. Timofeyev reports that "according to some reports, anywhere from 20 to 50 percent of produce is regularly stolen from district warehouses. Farmer's markets are under the control of criminal elements, who extract a commission from each seller and force sellers to keep their prices above a certain level."25

Even arms shipments to other Communist regimes are now disguised as business ventures under "mafia" control, giving Yeltsin his excuse for not being able to stop such activities. In 1990, for example, the Soviet business ANT was discovered to have been set up by dozens of KGB officers and Communist Party members, and was shipping tanks out of the country under the guise of selling tractors.26

In short, the Soviet Communist state remains intact, and is quietly accelerating its war against the West. As a part of these activities, the Soviet military is rapidly expanding and preparing for a hot war-a topic to be covered in future issues of World Report.

The real collapse of the Soviet Union will be marked by violent overthrow, by the execution of millions of Communist Party members and KGB personnel, by the shutting down of thousands of concentration camps and the opening of the borders, by the rapid conversion of the whole economy to free enterprise, and by the universal ownership of guns amongst the population. But if Americans do not wake up soon enough to the Soviet danger, we may first witness our own national surrender to the growing Communist empire.

How can we destabilize the Soviet Union while there is still time? Future issues of World Report will document how the Soviet military-industrial complex has been entirely built with Western aid and technology, and how the interruption of this flow will bring the Kremlin to its knees-for real.

1 Rummel, RJ, Lethal Politics, New Brunswich, New Jersey, 1990.
2 Lenin, VI, Collected Works, as quoted in Methvin, EH, The Rise of Radicalism, Arlington House, New Rochelle, NY, 1973, p. 321.
3 Solzhenitsyn, AI, The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956, Harper & Row, NY, 1973, pp. 69-70.
4 Petrov, V. & Petrov, E., Empre of Fear, Praeger, NY, 1956, pp. 73-74.
5 Conquest, R., Introduction, in Rossi, Jacques, The Gulag Handbook, Paragon House, NY, 1989.
6 Gottlieb, Rabbi NZ, In the Shadow of the Kremlin, Mesorah Publications, NY, 1985, pp. 11-18, passim.
7 Kranzler, David, Thy Brother's Blood, Mesorah Publications, NY, 1987, p. 131.
8 Begin, M., White Nights, Harper & Row, NY, 1977.
9 Rummel, Op cit., p. 163.
10 Ibid., chapter 9, esp. p. 219.
11 Shifrin, A., First Guidebook to Prisons and Concentration Camps of the Soviet Union, Bantam Books, NY, 1982, esp. pp. 10, 19-21, 31-35.
12 Shifrin, A., "A Performance: Glasnost and Perestroika," an open letter, Jan. 1990.
13 McAlvany, DS, McAlvany Intelligence Advisor, Jan. 1994, p. 12; Timofeyev, L., Russia's Secret Rulers, Alfred A. Knopf, NY, 1992, p. 85.
14 Orth, M., "Nightmare on Red Square," Vanity Fair, Sept. 1994, pp. 83-84.
15 Timofeyev, Op cit., p. 13.
16 Testimony of Yuri Tsirekidze in Story, C., Soviet Analyst, vol. 21, no. 6, June-Aug. 1992, p. 11.
17 Interview with Gamsakhurdia in Timofeyev, Op cit., pp. 46-51.
18 Timofeyev, Op cit., pp. 44, 86, 143, 144.
19 McAlvany, Op cit., p. 5.
20 Timofeyev, Op cit., p. 90.
21 Golitsyn, A., New Lies for Old, Dodd, Mead, & Co., NY, 1984, pp. 229-230.
22 McAlvany, DS, McAlvany Intelligence Advisor, Sep/Oct 1991, p. 21; Associated Press, "Yeltsin gives more mandate, more staff to retooled KGB," SF Chronicle, 11-24-94, p. C8.
23 Timofeyev, Op cit., p. 4.
24 Golitsyn, A., Memorandum to the CIA, 9-27-93, excerpted in Story, C., Soviet Analyst, Oct 1994, 23:1, p. 3.
25 Timofeyev, Op cit., p. 117.
26 Ibid., pp. 121-126.

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American Reform Party
http://www.americanreform.org
E-Mail: webmaster@reformparty.org
10 Aida Ct.
Lodi, NJ 07644
Phone: 973-777-3838
"To renew democracy, our mission is to stimulate citizen participation in
the political process, break the two-party monopoly, and guarantee free
elections."
(http://www.reformparty.org/platnat.html)

Communist Party U.S.A.
http://www.cpusa.org
E-Mail: cpusa@cpusa.org
235 W. 23rd St.
New York, NY 10011
Phone: 212-989-4994
Fax: 212 229-1713
"The Communist Party USA is an organization of activists in labor and
all the people's movements with three main political aims: Defeating the
right-wing agenda of the Bush Administration. Winning a wide-ranging
program of reforms that put the well being of the people before private
profits. Eventually replacing big business with labor and its allies as the
dominant power so as to insure that the rights, economic security and
expanding needs of the people become the overriding concern of
society."
(http://www.cpusa.org/article/archive/11/)

Constitution Action Party
http://www2.ari.net/home/CAP
E-Mail: fcreel@crosslink.net
PO Box 5705
Arlington, VA 22205-5705
"CAP intends to become the new majority party in this country by uniting
traditional values with a well-thought-out program of economic
populism."
(http://www2.ari.net/home/CAP/)

Constitution Party
http://www.constitutionparty.com
E-Mail: info@constitutionparty.com
450 Maple Ave. E
Vienna, VA 22180
Phone: 800-2-VETO-IRS
"The mission of the Constitution Party is to secure the blessings of
liberty to ourselves and our posterity through the election, at all levels of
government, of Constitution Party candidates who will uphold the
principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the
United States. It is our goal to limit the federal government to its
delegated, enumerated, Constitutional functions and to restore
American jurisprudence to its original Biblical common-law foundations."
(http://www.constitutionparty.com --> Mission Statement)

Democratic National Committee
http://www.democrats.org/
E-Mail: feedback form
430 S. Capitol St. SE
Washington, DC 20003
Phone: 202-863-8000
"The Democratic National Committee plans the Party's quadrennial
presidential nominating convention; promotes the election of Party
candidates with both technical and financial support; and works with
national, state, and local party organizations, elected officials,
candidates, and constituencies to respond to the needs and views of the
Democratic electorate and the nation."
(http://www.democrats.org/about/function.html)

Democratic Socialists of America
http://www.dsausa.org/dsa.html
E-Mail: dsa@dsausa.org
198 Broadway, Suite 700
New York, NY 10038
Phone: 212-727-8610
Fax: 202-608-6955
"The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is the largest socialist
organization in the United States, and the principal U.S. affiliate of the
Socialist International. DSA's members are building progressive
movements for social change while establishing an openly socialist
presence in American communities and politics."
(http://www.dsausa.org/about/)

Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org/
E-Mail: info@greenpartyus.org
PO Box 57065
Washington, D.C. 20037
Phone: 202-319-7191, 888-414-7336
Fax: 202-319-7193
"The Green Party of the United States is a confederation of state Green
Parties. Committed to environmentalism, non-violence, social justice and
grassroots organizing, Greens are renewing democracy without the
support of corporate donors. Greens provide real solutions for real
problems. Whether the issue is universal health care, corporate
globalization, alternative energy, election reform or decent wages for
workers, Greens have the courage and independence necessary to take
on the powerful corporate interests."
(http://www.gp.org/partyinfo.html)

Labor Party
http://www.thelaborparty.org/
E-Mail: info@thelaborparty.org
PO Box 53177
Washington, DC 20009
Phone: 202-234-5190
Fax: 202-234-5266
"The Labor Party is a new political
party of, by and for working people.
It was founded in June 1996 at a
convention of 1,400 delegates from
hundreds of local and international
unions as well as individual activists.
We believe that on issues most
important to working people – trade,
health care, and the rights to
organize, bargain and strike – both
the Democrats and Republicans have
failed working people."
(http://www.thelaborparty.org/a_index.html)

National Libertarian Party
http://www.lp.org
2600 Virginia Ave. NW, Suite 100
Washington, DC 20037
Phone: 202-333-0008, 800-353-2887
"Libertarians believe the answer to America's political problems is the
same commitment to freedom that earned America its greatness: a
free-market economy and the abundance and prosperity it brings; a
dedication to civil liberties and personal freedom that marks this country
above all others; and a foreign policy of non-intervention, peace, and
free trade as prescribed by America's founders."
(http://www.lp.org/organization/history/)

Natural Law Party
http://www.natural-law.org
E-Mail: info@natural-law.org
see: state by state contact
information
"The Natural Law Party—America’s leading voice for prevention-oriented
government—offers voters forward-looking, scientifically proven solutions
to the nation's problems..." (http://www.natural-law.org)

New Party
http://www.newparty.org
E-Mail: inforequest@newparty.org
88 Third Ave., Suite 313
Brooklyn, NY 11217
Phone: 800-200-1294
"The New Party is a progressive political organization taking root around
the U.S. By starting small and thinking long-term, we're building a
multi-racial, lively and creative political organization that can, over time,
break the stranglehold that corporate money and corporate media have
over our political process."
(http://www.newparty.org)

Reform Party USA
http://www.reformparty.org
E-Mail: info@reformparty.org
420 1/2 S 22nd Ave.
Hattiesburg, MS 39401
Phone: 877-467-3367
Fax: 601-544-1424
"We, the members of the Reform Party, commit ourselves to reform our
political system. Together we will work to re-establish trust in our
government by electing ethical officials, dedicated to fiscal responsibility
and political accountability."
(http://www.reformparty.org/)

Republican National Committee
http://www.gop.com
E-Mail: info@gop.com
310 First St. SE
Washington, DC 20003
Phone: 202-863-8500
Fax: 202-863-8820
Editor's note: A specific statement about the RNC's purpose is not
available on the organization's website. The RNC is the organizational
arm of the Republican party. Their purpose is to organize, fundraise,
and campaign to increase representation of Republicans in government.
Issues important to the party are articulated here.

Socialist Labor Party of America
http://www.slp.org
E-Mail: socialists@slp.org
PO Box 218
Mountain View, CA 94042-0218
Phone: 650-938-8359
Fax: 650-938-8392
"The core of the SLP program points up the need for classwide political
and economic organizations. A primary role of the political organization
is to challenge the political apparatus of the capitalist class and its
monopoly of state power, while promoting worker classconsciousness and
emphasizing the need for organizing working-class strength on the
economic field. The objective of economic organization is to unite the
workers at the point of production so as to render them capable of
taking control of the entire productive process and democratically
administering and operating it in society's collective interests."
(http://www.slp.org/facts.htm)

Socialist Party USA
http://sp-usa.org
E-Mail: natsec@sp-usa.org
339 LaFayette St., No. 303
New York, NY 10012
Phone/Fax: 212-982-4586
"The Socialist Party has been the voice of democratic socialism in the
US for over 100 years."
(http://sp-usa.org/about/)

Workers World Party
http://www.workers.org
E-Mail: ww@workers.org
55 W 17th St.
New York, NY 10011
Phone: 212-627-2994
Fax: 212-675-7869
"What is our basic view? We're for socialism. We think that ownership of
the tremendous productive wealth built up by hundreds of millions of
workers can't remain in the hands of a privileged few."
(http://www.workers.org/wwp.php)

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Last updated May 18, 2004

Have you seen this one?

Support for kerry and a call for the drive for new members of the communist party.

Found at: http://www.cpusa.org/article/articleprint/544/

Party Builder #4

Author: National Organizing Department
First published: 04/17/2003 12:20 by {article_topic_desc}

We need a bigger Communist Party USA

The following is a summary of the plans for our upcoming drive to win new members to the Communist Party. The
drive, which kicks off May 1, includes increasing the circulation of the People's Weekly World and raising money for the
Party's fund drive. These are all interrelated and one builds on the others.

We Communists have to be deeply involved in the struggle for peace, in the huge spontaneous growth of the peace
movement, in the many rapidly expanding coalitions. This is the meaning today of building a united people's front
against the ultraright.

This will set the stage for the 2004 elections, a struggle to wrest control of the presidency and both houses of
Congress away from the Republican ultraright.

But we can't lose our party in the mass movements, no matter how important they are. We have to build the Party,
build our independent base, and recruit. This is necessary so that we can speak to many more people in our own
name, build unity between coalitions and movements, and step up our fight for socialism, for the future, in the
movements of today.

Most Communist parties in major capitalist countries, and even many in the developing world, are similarly engaged in
this rebuilding process.

We need to recognize that quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes; we can't just work a little harder and
expect huge breakthroughs all at once. We have to start with realizable goals and then build on them.

Party building means . . .

Party building means asking people to join. It means setting and meeting recruiting goals. But it also means increasing
subscriptions and distribution of the People's Weekly World (PWW).

It means building the group of activists around us who work with the Party. It means planning educational work to
support the drive and consolidate the new members.

Our goal is more new members, but we're not only interested in increasing our numbers. We want to build the Party
among workers, trade unionists, people of color, youth and women, activists and leaders.

We must recognize that each club and district is different, in size, history, experience, makeup. Therefore, decisions
must grow out of clubs and districts setting their own priorities.

We propose to offer a menu of choices, a list of possible ways to participate in the recruiting drive. Each club can then
pick from those possibilities the two or three tasks that will be realistic and also move it to a higher level of recruiting
and outreach work.

Each potential new member is different and they join for their own reasons, not for our reasons. We want people to
join in order to share our work, but they may join because they need help in strategizing in the work they are already
doing.

We want people to join who are committed communists, but they may join before they have a clear idea of what a
communist does. We want people to join in order to increase our size so we can have a bigger impact in our mass
work, but they may join in order to find out what Marxism has to teach them.

Some people are ready to join as a radical form of protest against the Bush administration and the multinational
corporations. We want to encourage all people ready to be active to join, whatever their previous level of political
activity or organizational experience.

We have to learn to pay attention to how to move people closer, how to bring more people around the Party, and
how to translate the political capital we have built up into a larger Party.

We need to engender a Party-building spirit in our work - we are not just hard workers for the mass movements, we
are also revolutionaries building the party of socialism.

A big part of this is increasing the circulation of the PWW. That is why the circulation drive of the PWW is running
concurrently with our recruiting drive.

Our club lists of potential recruits are also lists of people who should be getting the PWW, and winning them to
subscribe is a big step on their path to membership.

Distributing the PWW and getting subscriptions are essential aspects of Party building.

Fundraising, asking others for financial contributions for the work of the Party, is another crucial aspect of enlisting
those we work with to help guarantee that the Party thrives. We can't function, we can't grow, without increasing the
amount of money we raise.

While many Party members are extremely generous with donations from their own pockets, raising money from those
we work with builds our base, gets people to commit to supporting our work and to working more closely with us and
identifying with our program.

Personal visits, letters, requesting advance gifts and bequests, selling buttons, bumper stickers and T-shirts, all lay
the basis for expanding our work. Political Affairs (PA) and the YCL are also having building drives at the same time. PA
has a goal of 1,000 new subs (they already have 200!) and the YCL has a goal of 250 new members.

We want to have widespread discussion of what it means to be a communist today, what the Party has to offer that is
unique, what things we do better than other organizations, what special contributions we make to the trade union
movement, the civil rights movement, the peace movement, and many others.

Part of our goal is to produce and distribute to districts materials which will help after the drive, materials that we
should start to have on hand everywhere all the time - brochures, items for sale (T-shirts, mugs, caps, buttons,
bumper stickers, posters, etc. - not to have all of this immediately, but to start building up our inventory of such
materials), videos, new members classes and discussions.

These are some aspects of building a culture of recruiting.

The Party-building drive committee will soon issue a plan, complete with a calendar of events and a menu of options
for clubs and districts.

Included will be a document to stimulate discussion, experimentation and initiative in all bodies of the Party. Our clubs
and districts vary widely in size, composition, history and in the challenges they face.

Each collective of the Party needs to pick from the menu of options those that best fit their circumstances, that are
realistic and have the potential to advance our struggle to build our working class revolutionary party to a higher level.

1. Schedule a discussion in your club, district or other collective about the drive, your goals and potential.

2. Develop a list of friends and contacts who can be asked to subscribe to the PWW or PA, asked to contribute
financially to the work of the Party, and asked to join.

3. Set a realiztice numerical goal and let us know what it is.

4. Schedule an event about the Party's approach to the struggle for peace, with a national or district speaker.

This drive has to help us build our clubs in neighborhoods and workplaces. We need to grow, but we also need to
focus our growth in our clubs' concentrations.

Revitalizing clubs and focusing our work on specific concentration areas must be part of our long-term strategy for
reaching specific groups of workers, building recognition of our consistent struggle for defeating the ultraright, and
developing an independent base of supporters and friends for each club.

We also ask commissions to make any additional suggestions or proposals to this menu that can help recruit workers
and the nationally oppressed.

Calendar

April:

* Bill Davis to chair drive committee, Jarvis Tyner, Scott Marshall (Labor Commission), Marc Brodine (Washington State),
Gail Ryall (Northern Calif.), Joe Bernick (Ariz.), A.J. for the YCL and Jen Barnett (PWW) as well as possible additional
people from Southern Calif. and Ohio.

* The job of the committee is to stimulate discussion throughout the Party, produce the necessary materials, plan
tours, coordinate with the PWW Circulation Drive, PA, the YCL, and the Party Fund Drive, and to evaluate this drive
and plan next year's drive.

* Start visits to districts & clubs to discuss and plan drives.

* Issue materials for the recruiting piece of the drive.

* Build mailing and recruiting lists.

* Revised environmental program.

May-June:

* The drives - fund, recruiting, and PWW circulation.

* Big Tour - national chairman, CPUSA staff, PWW staff? Focus on issues of peace and human survival.

* May Day events by some clubs or districts - extra attention to planning the first week of the drive.

* Fund appeal letter to arrive May 1.

* Tour to North Carolina and Tennessee.

* Public meetings, house meetings, Internet follow-up, advertising campaign in the PWW and PA, articles on the drive
in PWW, articles on redefining what it means to be a communist in PA, issue brochure on the importance of finances
for the Party and movement - dues, members, sustainers, wills & bequests, contributing work and tools, spreading the
word.

* Issue brochure on socialism.

* Run "What the CPUSA means to me" ads in the PWW & PA (other possible ideas: "I'm a card-carrying member," "I
joined, why don't you" - all with photo of one member and short quotes from that individual on why they joined, what
it means to them, why others should join, too).

* Explore other ad possibilities - subway signs being one example, and national publications or student newspapers

July and August

* July 4 rally in at least one city; possible theme: "Celebrate the Next American Revolution."

* Series of new members/prospective members classes/discussion groups.

* Evaluation meetings in national and state boards, Organizing Department, Finance Department, PWW Editorial
Board, with the goal of using results and proposals from the evaluations to design 2004 drives, design several
additional pilot projects to run before the 2004 drives.

What's new on PWW website?

Over the past few months many changes have taken place on the PWW website. Online viewers can now subscribe,
via pay pal with a credit card, and order "No War for Oil" bumper stickers, also, via pay pal.

Two new features have been added to the left-and sidebar of the website. The first is a navigation feature - the
"Sections" category. The “Sections" category breaks the weekly paper down into five subsections - International,
National, Labor, Peace and Analysis - making navigation easier for our viewers who are specifically interested in those
topics.

The second is an interactive feature - the "Headlines" category. This category enables viewers to submit their email
address, enabling us to contact them about updates and changes to the website.

The PWW website has also continued to make available PDF versions of the lead stories each week. The website can
now be reached by typing either www.pww.org or www.peoplesweeklyworld.org into your web browser.

- Tony Pecinovsky

National conference to examine health care issue

We will be hosting a national party conference on "The Crisis in Health Care and the Fightback" at our center May
17-18 in New York City.

In order for the conference to be effective in moving the Party into action we need the full participation of all districts.
We will be calling each district to discuss with you conference preparations, your ideas, and who should be attending
from you district.

While, of course, we want to put emphasis on health-care activists and professionals, we also want to guarantee the
participation of district leaders and trade unionists.

Comrades already involved in health-care fights, from seniors fighting for prescription drug benefits, to industrial
workers and their families whose health-care plans are being torn up, to activists fighting for comprehensive, universal
health care, will all bring especially valuable experience to the conference.

In addition we also want to think about close friends and coalition partners that we would like to invite. Hopefully, the
conference can help us build new relations and consolidate old ones.

We urge as many districts as possible to put the conference on your district board agendas as soon as possible so we
can get the best possible mobilization.

See you in New York,

Scott Marshall,
CPUSA Labor Commission secretary

PDF version of Party Builder #4

END OF PARTY BUILDER

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