National Committee Meeting February 2002

How well do we understand the importance of organizing at the grassroots, of building forms for influencing the thinking, and moving into action, regular people? Why is building the movements and as well building the Party at the grassroots not just a good idea, but essential?

Even as George W. Bush was delivering his chilling war buildup state of the union address, filled with empty words about jobs, education and health care, a bus load of Enron workers robbed of their jobs was wending its way from Texas to Washington, D.C. "The morning after" these courageous workers entered the halls of Congress to demand a full investigation of Enron, and immediate survival for themselves.

The revolution will be networked. The Party's political reach extends only as far as our ability to communicate and collaborate with each other, our allies and the general public. This is a plan to consolidate and reinforce our computing platform/infrastructure to support increased productivity and broader political impact. Note: This article contains a 2/28/02 update at the end.

The newly formed national education commission has begun to meet and has attempted to respond to the needs of the party organization. The most immediate tasks are to: 1) facilitate the completion of district schools by every district where possible, 2) organize a 7 day national school for new and potential national and district cadre, 3) prepare monthly Marxist educational articles for the PWW, and 4) facilitate the regularization of quality club educationals.

Capitalism may well be facing its worst crisis since the Crash of 1929. I say that fully aware that, as a friend of mine once put it, you Communists have accurately predicted ten out of the last 2 real economic crises.

This honoring of a hero of the Party with over 70 years of leadership and distinguished service in the struggle for African-American equality, civil rights and Socialism was given by Jarvis Tyner, CPUSA Executive Vice-Chair at the National Committee meeting, Feb 9-10 2002. James Jackson gives a brief acceptance speech.
Click here to hear the full streaming audio of the speech
Coming soon: Click the headline above to read the full speech.

In Illinois we've had a number of meetings with leaders of mass organizations and trade unions, we've received special invitations to be on steering committees and planning committees of mass coalitions, and we've had a most impressive response to our annual People's Weekly World Banquet--and in each case we've gotten comments like, "We really need your Party to be part of these movements. We really appreciate your approach to political questions."