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February 2008
In this Issue: Internet update by Matt Parker and Sam Delgado CPUSA IT Department  The IT department is making progress towards the grand premiere of the new Party and press integrated sites at the end of the year. We are almost done with our new server infrastructure, and are researching new content management systems. We've brought a new Systems Administrator on board and are preparing to go live with the new improved transitional site for the People's Weekly World at the end of February. We are utilizing more video communications for the party website. In case you missed it, see the video section at: http://www.cpusa.org/article/archive/148/ with videos of CPUSA National Chair Sam Webb; Executive Vice Chair Jarvis Tyner; and National Organization Secretary Elena Mora NY State Chair Libero Della Piana and a new commercial promoting our new national office. We will also be putting a button on the page for the Party’s monthly newsletter, e-builder, so that members, club chairs, district leaders can easily access this summary of our priority projects and concrete experiences. Stay tuned for a new video from the Young Communist League on the elections! And more cross promotion between the YCL and CPUSA websites. Most important: pass it on! Forward the links to our videos and articles; there’s so much interest in politics these days, it’s a great way to get our ideas out widely. (back to top) Create a buzz - build the movement  Last month's Party Builder drew your attention to three recently developed tools: ***A DVD on the 2008 elections based on the Power Point presentation by the CPUSA Political Action Committee to the Party’s National Committee, entitled “Labor and the People v. the Ultra Right - A Gigantic Battle in 2008.” ***An abridged version of National Chair Sam Webb’s article, “On the Road Again: Challenges and Opportunities in the 2008 Election” which originally appeared in the People’s Weekly World. This is a single-page pamphlet form, which can be downloaded from our website and printed locally. ***A reprint of the PWW centerspread of questions and answers on the immigration issue. This may be reprinted, or re-issed as a pamphlet. The DVD presentation is great for club meetings, house parties, discussion groups and the written materials can be used as inserts in the PWW or Political Affairs. "Super Tuesday" demonstrated that millions of people throughout the country are engaged in the electoral process, and excited by the prospect of change after eight years of being "Bushed." Please let us know how you have helped "create the buzz" by using these our newest resources and we'll include it in future editions of the Party Builder! (back to top) Party building in the bronx By Elena Mora, Bronx club chair  Our club in the Northwest Bronx has a core of members who've been around for a long time. Over the years we've done lots of different things in our community, including distributing flyers door-to-door (usually related to elections and peace events). We've had quite a few successful forums in our homes as well. But we hadn't grown. Why not? In our case -- and we know this doesn't apply to everyone -- at least part of the problem was not really trying. We would hold events, and they would be well-attended – 25 people came to a PWW forum on Venezuela and 35 to another, on affordable housing and the cooperative housing movement. Yet we hadn't actually said to any of the people who came to these forums, "We have a local Communist Party group, are you interested?" I should add that we also didn’t make an effort to sign people up to subscribe to the paper, a step which would have put us in contact with them on a regular basis. So, we’ve begun an effort to build up a bigger group of subscribers, and we’ve started to ask the people we know already if they’re interested in coming to club meetings. One was someone we'd met while handing out palm cards at our local polling station on Election Day (she was there campaigning for another candidate). She also came to a peace vigil we organized (through moveon.org) in the park. She was also involved in the election of our co-op board, and we got to know her better through our own work around it. I finally emailed her and asked if she’d be interested in getting together with us, the local Communist Party group. And she said yes, and has been at every meeting since then and is involved in our activity. She has taken a sub to the paper, and is talking with others she knows about doing the same. Emboldened by that success (!) we decided to invite some others who we’d also known for a while – both PWW subscribers -- to come to our meetings, leaving open whether they would officially "join,” of whom one has joined the club and is actively participating in what we’re doing, particularly around the elections. (back to top) A recent recruitment  By a member of the Germantown Club Eastern Pennsylvania/Delaware District CPUSA We have all been discussing how to bring more new members into our Party. We need to continue discussing that, and analyzing what obstacles need to be overcome. At the same time, though, sometimes it may be as simple a matter as making our Party presence known to those with who we are in contact. I ride a local commuter train to and from work each day, and usually read the People’s Weekly World or Political Affairs on the train. One morning, in the fall of 2006, a young African-American woman boarded the train at the next station after mine and sat down beside me. Casual chit-chat developed. I told her about the newspaper I was reading. Conversation became more substantive. On days that followed, over several weeks, she again sat next to me. We had more conversation, or various subjects. I gave her copies of the PWW, which she read. I invited her to a neighborhood theater party to benefit the PWW; she came. I invited her to our annual PWW banquet; she came. She apparently liked what she saw and heard, and the people she met, and took some additional Party literature. Toward the end of the year (2006), she joined the Party. Due to a job change, my neighbor no longer rides the train with me, but she is now one of the most active members of our club. (back to top) Brooklyn Hosts African American history month event  "The Communist Party-led left and the struggle for African-American Equality and Against Racism (1925-1968-Present)" will be the theme at a public event hosted by the North and Central Brooklyn PWW Forum on Sunday, February 24 from 1:30-4:30 p.m., at the main Brooklyn Public Library. This important subject has gotten new attention in recent years, and the club is excited to present it, from the Communist Party’s point of view, with speakers who themselves played a role those struggles. They will include Grace Bassett, who participated in the Southern Negro Youth Congress (1936-1948), and Danny Rubin, a civil rights activist in Philadelphia (1948-1959) and a veteran national leader of the CPUSA. Chris Owen, a two-term school board president and Brooklyn community activist who ran for Congress in 2006 will be on the panel as well. The forum will also feature a video presentation, "The Life of Paul Robeson" narrated by Ozzie Davis, as well as a poetry reading and refreshments. (back to top)  A "damn good paper" makes subscriptions easy By Bruce Bostick I really don't think that there are many of our folks that attempt to get subscriptions. The people we work with and relate to politically, unionists and activists should subscribe to the PWW. It's our paper, and also their paper! We get their names and addresses, and get them subscribed. While we are always striving to improve the PWW, it is already a damn good paper. The corporate media doesn't report on our issues, our struggles. A couple of friends told me that at the last Franklin County Central Labor Council meeting (Columbus, OH), a delegate from the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) stood up and drew attention to my article in the PWW on the union's food/toy giveaway in Columbus, which got a very favorable reaction. A source of real and legitimate anger for the unionists is that the local ultra-right and corporate-dominated newspaper, the Columbus Dispatch, will not cover their activities. I absolutely know that the same situation is present, to varying degrees, across the country. Working people's anger at the tabloid pablum that is being passed off as "news" is strong and growing. The corporate media has very little credibility, and what little they have is eroding on a daily basis. If we don't help fill the need, then shame on us! (back to top) Holy shift!  By Lawrence Albright Organization Secretary, Florida District CPUSA The PWW's current subscription drive presents an interesting challenge to those people like me who have been rather lax about getting subscriptions. While I have from time to time gotten close friends to get a sub or two, for the most part my experiences have been in mass distributions where the paper is left for whoever cares to pick it up, or targeted distributions in specific communities. The subscription drive has meant that I have to shift my focus, and that's a good thing. As important as mass distributions are, and my club will continue to do those, subscriptions not only serve to help secure the financial basis of the paper -- they also insure that people will be getting the paper regularly so it is less stressful if there is a problem with distributions -- like a comrade being ill -- or the weather being bad (my apologies to all comrades in the northern climates for even mentioning this!). Another advantage of getting subscriptions is we don't have to scratch or heads wondering who is taking and reading the paper. If we go about getting subs properly, not only will we increase the paper's readership and financial base; we'll also be in a better position for both fundraising and Party building. (back to top) Contact: cpusa@cpusa.org www.cpusa.org www.pww.org www.politicalaffairs.net Stay tuned for our new websites at end of year! |
