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Communist Party USA held its 27th National Convention July 6-8, 2001 at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.
Here’s the view from the Texas table
Texans
Attended Communist Convention
I
arrived in Milwaukee a few days early and helped with PR work. Local and
national coverage was pretty good. The local Milwaukee paper went to the
trouble to scrounge the world for a credible anti-communist to write their
headline. They finally found somebody in Atlanta, Georgia, who would testify
that we are all dead. They used that for their headline, but the text of the
article was good. They noted that Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin was
spinning in his grave to see so many lively Communists who outlived his
witch-hunt!
Everybody
I talked to agreed that the convention was better organized and more enjoyable
than any in recent memory. There were 512 folks. 45% were union members. 79%
have e-mail! The temperatures topped out at 80! We had “coffee shop”
entertainment every night, at least two major parties in the dorm, and we had
cultural presentations like music and videos every now and then all through the
convention.
Everything
came off well. We got seriously behind when the international delegates began
to be presented. I guess there were around 20 of them. None spoke very long,
but there was a wealth of information about their own countries and their
observations about their areas. I think the Brazilians and the
Middle-Easterners struck me the most because so much is changing in their
areas.
I didn’t
get to go to much of the night life because of my PR duties, but I was able to
attend 3 of the 20-30 workshops presented: culture, seniors, and educating
activists. Attendance was good and everybody was eager to share ideas. Part of
the success of the thing was that cpusa had just gone through a pre-convention
discussion period that was probably the largest and most extensive in history.
Internet use made that easier. I think everything is still up at www.cpusa.org. They’ll also put some of the
presentations there.
I was
pretty excited to hear about plans to enlarge the web site. I think that
districts like Texas will be able to move onto the national site, so people can
find us all together.
Everybody,
including me, was charged up and eager to get to work on making America a
better place to live. I’m looking for feedback from people who want to get
active and/or people who want to learn more about how to work for change.
With Love & Solidarity
***
We held our Texas Convention on June 3. Here are some notes:
Attending were people from the major Texas cities, several Young
Communist League members, and a national leader.
Our District Organizer opened with explanation of how
pre-convention discussion works. She described the overall situation in Texas.
Emphasized working in coalitions, especially coalitions with labor. Our
scattered members need to form clubs. We want to be inclusive. We urge
collective process. “We have to be reality based.”
There were reports from each of the major cities, then
discussion. Here are some of the points made:
The People’s Weekly World is an organizing tool that we should
all use if possible. It’s easier to fight for something than against something.
The nature of labor struggles is on positive demands such as
living wage, health benefits
Our national leader said, “You are in a more strategic position
than you might think.” He went on to stress the importance of minority rights.
He said that immigrants are the traditional base of the labor movement in
America. Historically, the CPUSA die not win the great victories of working
people alone, “But the Party was always part of the mix.” Today is a time of
extreme crisis. There is absolutely no bar to the success of our efforts in
Texas.
Other discussion points made:
Unity is our main goal.
Cultural groups are very critical to future development of people’s
struggle.
Education in Texas is an extremely critical issue.
“Right to Work” (anti-union) struggle in Oklahoma is also
important.
Commercial media sources are far from adequate and getting
worse.
The convention went on to select delegates for the national
convention. All guests and delegates need to get their travel arrangements made
quickly.
We took up a quick collection that almost paid our expenses for
the convention.
Our national leader made one parting synopsis of the state
convention: “This was a good long step.”
**
Some Questions for you:
·
Do you want a role in
directing the Party over the next period? Do you think it’s important?
·
Have you read the documents already published on www.cpusa.org? Have you written your ideas in
the on-line discussion?