Pre-Convention Discussion - Educational Papers Series

I was asked to write on, “How do we convince working people of the U.S. that Socialism is the answer? What questions do we need to answer? ... We have a new and growing opportunity to talk about socialism with our friends and coalition partners. Many are raising the inspired and defiant slogan, “A better world is possible!” The door is now wide open for us to fill in the dashes. That better world is Socialism!

The Current State Of the Struggle for Healthy Families in the USA; And What to do About It. "The outright greed of the health care industry in the United States generates huge corporate profits on the one hand, and at the same time increasingly excludes access to quality health care for millions of working families across the nation. Untold misery and uncounted premature deaths are left in its wake. ... "

Can our Party be built faster than its present very slow pace? How? Growth of the Party is a problem we have been grappling with ever since our height in 1946-48 of 80-100,000 members. If there were simple answers, easy to fix, we would have done so long ago.

Women and men in the United States have lived through another year of a "jobless recovery." ... Women, particularly poor women, working class women and women of color, face the direct blows of an administration that wants to further privatize survival.

The collapse of the Soviet Union was an enormous ideological windfall for U.S. imperialism. President George H. W. Bush delivered a triumphant State of the Union message Jan. 28, 1992: “(C)ommunism is dead…

When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, many feared for revolutionary Cuba. Overnight, Cuba lost 75% of its international trade. By 1994, the Cuban economy had shrunk by at least one third, and the Cuban people as a whole saw a significant decline in their standard of living. Although this led to another rafter crisis in 1994, the revolutionary, democratic and socialist government headed by comandante Fidel Castro assured its people that Cuba would endure, and that the gains of the revolution would not be taken away, even as it became impossible at that point to make big advances in building socialism.

Meet Mira and Jose*. Mira is a retired needle trades worker. She has no union, few benefits and persistent medical problems. Her older husband continues to work in a small neighborhood restaurant. We met them while campaigning door-to-door for a progressive democrat in the late spring of 2004. ...

We are now winding up one of the more fruitful pre-Convention discussion periods. The publication of the Draft Main Political Resolution and the Draft Program early in the discussion period was a significant factor in its productivity. ... A small scattering of members around the country expressed similar but not identical differences with the direction of the Party leadership.

I am going to respond to the following questions: How does the Party’s strategic line stand up to the outcome of the elections? Does the Party need to change its strategic line? If not, what do we need to do to move forward?

In the wake of the elections, some have said we should back-burner these “cultural issues,” while some have called for emphasizing “economic” issues. I would argue, though – as others have – that what we must do is to frame the debates more broadly. This is especially true with the difficult and contentious issue of abortion.

Racial and ethnic unity is necessary for working class unity. Racism exists today but has changed its form The Right uses racism to divide the working class and therefore our documents and literature need to focus on why Black, Brown, white unity is necessary.

Socialism USA will open up many opportunities for women that currently are not available to all. One of the main goals in a socialist society needs to be the dismantling of the patriarchal society ...

There are some things we can say for certain happened in Ohio and the U.S. in November, 2004. One, as everyone knows, Ohio’s electoral votes handed George W. Bush the number necessary to clinch the electoral college vote and secure a second term as president of the United States. Two, the election didn’t pass the ‘smell test.’ That is, there were so many flaws in the election process – from registration through recount – that many have concluded that democracy lost in Ohio.

Sam Webb’s report, "No Mandate, No Surrender," provides an excellent analysis of voter trends, and a blueprint of where to go from here. .... I would, though, like to think a little about how we can reach out to people who are eligible to vote, but don't, and, also, think about segments of the Bush coalition who might be more naturally allied with us.

Our generation is under attack. Despite his bad showing with youth, Bush has showed that the close 2004 elections won't slow down the ultra-right when it comes to political and educational policies for youth and students. The White House's 2005 budget proposals cut funding for mentoring and tutoring programs, pit Pell grants against Perkins loans, and leave fire departments fighting school boards for resources. The Bush administration continues to push legislation like the No Child Left Behind Act, which places ridiculous requirements and rules on the public education system then underfunds then. The ultra-right works purposely to create a sickly educational system in order to open up space for the use of our schools as profit-makers for private corporations.

The New Deal of the 1930s can be seen as a response to the reality of socialism born in 1917, when the Russian Revolution thrust on the world's action agenda the vision of a society based on collective ownership and working class empowerment to meet human needs. Seventy years later, the Bush/Republican far-right advocacy of an "ownership society" can be seen as an effort to turn the clock back to the world before socialism came on the scene – a world of untrammeled power for a few "captains of society," and crumbs for those who do the work.