Report on Political Independence

Opening to the National Board

Introduction
There is a vast body of material in dealing with political independence. Needless to say, there are many new developments on a daily basis, especially since the theft of the presidency.

The struggle for political independence is interconnected with, and in opposition to, the ruthless drive for increased profits by transnational corporations. It is part and parcel of the striving of working class families for survival, to realize hopes and dreams and to determine their own destiny.

The struggle for political independence is interconnected with all aspects of our work, including such basic democratic questions as organizing the unorganized into the labor movement, the struggle for multi-racial unity and against racism, and peace.

This is a critical moment for political independence and for democratic rights. Throughout the country there is a new awakening. At the same time, there is a danger that without leadership at the grass roots the profound anger at the presidential coup and Bush administration policies could turn into negative cynicism.

In preparation for this report, Jarvis Tyner convened a meeting attended by Denise Edwards, John Gallo and Judy Ann. In addition, several other discussions were held, although more input will help to further round the report out.

What stands out from the input so far is an urgency for upping the ante on organizing labor and community coalitions on issues, in the first place at the local level, to defeat the extreme right-wing program. And tying that organizing to voter registration, turnout and, eventually, to electing candidates of labor, the people's movement, the left and Communists.

1. What is political independence in this moment?

The debate around what is political independence and how to move it forward has been a hot-button issue in the Pre-Convention discussion - throughout the Internet discussion group, in articles, and in meetings.

Scientifically, we have to place the discussion of political independence in the context of objective conditions, and we have to take a dialectical approach.

It's not about whether to work inside the Democratic Party or outside the Democratic Party. Or whether to participate in the electoral process or not participate.

A working-class, independent political action approach addresses the issues, the strategy and tactics of how to further labor and people's political power. It is about independence from big business control and domination. It will take many forms, many initiatives and many methods.

The particulars of political independence must be based on the assessment of the moment we are in.

Lenin argued and polemicized for participation in the parliamentary struggle starting from where the masses were, where the working class is.

At the National Committee meeting, Sam Webb placed the foundations of our policy to defeat the extreme right wing. He dealt with questions that had come forward in opposition to that policy, and showed that an underestimation of the danger from the extreme right wing underlies differences in strategy and tactics.

The Bush administration onslaught came so fast despite - and because of - the coup, and because of the economic crisis of capitalism. The tax cut for the rich lays the basis for further destruction of the safety net, and privatization of public education and public services. It will have a long-term impact. Bush's use of the death penalty, his promotion of the Nuclear Missle Defense system, and his disregard for the Kyoto Treaty all have long-term impact. The demonstrations and uproar in every country against Bush is a rejection of the notion that the United States can rule the entire world.

It is these dangerous policies that define the point of struggle at this time.

The hurt for working class people is not something in the future; it is happening now at the local level. For example:

At the Massachusetts State convention of the Communist Party, we learned about stepped-up police repression against youth of color in Boston directly related to the atmosphere created by the Bush administration.

In Connecticut, Republican Governor John Rowland, emboldened by Bush, set a new national precedent by using taxpayer dollars and Medicare funds to hire out-of-state strikebreakers in an ill-fated attempt to destroy the healthcare workers union.

The repression against the Charleston Five takes place in the context of the Bush administration's anti-labor, racist policies.

Perhaps the biggest example is the energy rip-off crisis in California, connected to some of Bush's largest contributors and pals at Enron.

The point is, if we aren't part of taking on the extreme right wing, then we are complicit in the increasing, wholesale repression and militarism. At the same time, with mass struggle, Bush policy can be thwarted, and new gains can be won.

This is evidenced in the dramatic departure of Senator Jeffords from the Republican Party, delivering the Senate to the Democratic leadership that would have been in effect all along, but for the presidential coup. Jeffords' exit is based on 20 years of intolerance against the moderates within an extreme-right wing controlled Republican Party, which has now become so intense that a group of 32 moderate Republicans has formed, headed by Congressman Jack Quinn from upstate New York. In this regard, the New York State convention of the Communist Party emphasized the importance of building the Party clubs upstate to help organize mass pressure. Jefford's exit from the Republican Party is a reflection of anger against the Bush administration program, in the first place by the voters of Vermont.

Jeffords' action broadens the scope of political independence in this moment. It opens new possibilities of coalition between center, left and progressive forces who object to the extreme nature of the Bush administration program. The fact that the Patients' Bill of Rights has come to the floor of Congress for debate; that despite much still to be fought for there is some backtracking by Bush on such issues as the environment and Vieques, is an indication of the potential and necessity of left-center unity in this moment.

The possibilities are indicated within a New York Times poll of June 21. The poll shows that the majority of Americans do not agree with the policies of the Bush administration. It states, "There is a substantial gap between his stand and theirs on many issues including the patient's bill of rights, education, energy, the environment, raising the minimum wage, prescription drugs and judicial appointments."

Some sections of the left are still not won to the necessity of working with the center at this moment in order to defeat the right. We have to continue to find ways to bring them in. The position of Ralph Nader, which dismisses the Republicans as an arm of corporate monopoly, and then places its main fire against the Democrats misses the power of a labor-led all-people's coalition. This position becomes anti-coalition building, and objectively helps the extreme right wing maintain power and control. However, there are opportunities to work together at the local level where Greens are often involved in coalitions on vital issues of environment, labor and social policy.

Within the labor movement and among progressive organizations like USAction, Alliance of Retired Americans, Campaign for America's Future, and the Children's Defense Fund, important new initiatives are designed to push Democrats to "challenge the limit of debate" on such issues as raising the minimum wage, health care for all, and changing budget and tax policy to "leave no child behind."

Robert Borsage, director of Campaign for America's Future (which organized two conferences our leadership attended several months ago in Washington, DC), delineates these initiatives in an article in the July 2-16 edition of American Prospect. He begins by quoting Rep. Jan Shakowsky speaking at the Next Agenda Conference:

"What we need to do is create a political home for progressives that is permanent. We need to transform the anger, the frustration, and the rage that I'm hearing from people out there into progressive activism. To accomplish that - this is an announcement - we are creating a progressive-leadership organization of activists and leaders across the country to spread ideas and strategy, to educate the next generation of leaders, to get our message into the media, and to separate rhetoric from reality. We're recruiting progressive political officials, local activists, labor leaders, and others."

Borsage continued, "This effort is now under way. On June 24, Antonio Villaraigosa, Dick Gephardt and others will speak at a conference in L.A. devoted to the theme "Take Back Our Country," co-sponsored by the southern California chapter of Americans for Democratic Action and the Campaign for America's Future. And in September the Campaign for America's Future will co-sponsor a conference with the Progressive Los Angeles Network (PLAN), which is at the center of the labor-based community movement for change in the city. Progressive legislators will join with local officials, union leaders, and community activists in laying out an agenda and learning how to make the case.

"A similar conference in October will help launch in Pennsylvania a coalition of progressive groups, many of which worked heroically and successfully in the 2000 presidential campaign to set up the issues that determined the outcome of the vote. Co-sponsoring the conference will be the Keystone Research Center, Citizens for Consumer Justice (the state's USAction affiliate), many labor organizations, and the Campaign for America's Future. Other conferences are now being planned for Illinois and other states, and a regional conference is in the works of people all over the South. In each area, activists will be enlisted into an ongoing statewide or regional coalition; they'll be able to share information on local and national issues and form an agenda and strategies....

"The Bush presidency and the short-lived Republican majorities in both houses of Congress may mark the end of the conservative era... but change isn't inevitable... It will come only if independent citizen-movements force new demands onto the Bush administration and if activists join with political leaders forwarding an agenda that inspires hope and building coalitions on the ground that can do the heavy lifting..."

Within left-center unity, all those who are allies in the struggle against the extreme right wing will not be allies in the struggle against monopoly capital. But in the midst of the struggle against the extreme right wing, new possibilities can emerge for the struggle against monopoly capital.

A wonderful example is last year's defeat of California Governor Pete Wilson. There is still a struggle with Governor Gray Davis, but there are openings for bigger victories, such as the Cesar Chavez Holiday Campaign. This campaign was successfully waged in the framework of unifying against the extreme right wing, as Evelina Alarcon has reported.

Bush's main tactic is to create divisions and disunity. He has focused on promoting disunity within the labor movement and racial disunity. His carrot is the promise of jobs. His stick is endorsement of drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (by the Teamsters union), endorsement of protectionist trade policies (by the United Steel Workers of America), and endorsement of Star Wars (by the International Association of Machinists).

The struggle for unity against the extreme right is top priority. Denise Edwards emphasizes that while the USWA is making a deal on steel imports in Washington, on the other hand the union is developing an independent labor political apparatus at the grass roots. This includes running three union leaders for Congress in the last election.

More advanced demands and pressure is part of the mix of tactics needed to defeat the extreme right wing. As Juan Lopez points out in reference to the broad support for public ownership of energy, "Yesterday's advanced demands are now becoming today's immediate demands." As the US Senate changed hands, electric rates suddenly plunged in California, indicating the effect of the all-people's unity movement combined with more advanced demands. These developments are laying the groundwork for an anti-monopoly coalition and government, containing the seeds of socialism.

Our role in building independent politics is three-fold:

1. Project solutions that unify and that expose Bush

2. Build the broadest possible all-people's coalitions and mass action. Within that, promote labor's leadership, multi-racial unity, labor and people's independent structure.

3. Build the connection between elections, day to day organizing and struggle on advanced issues in labor and the people's movements and in our club concentration neighborhoods and workplaces. A larger Party will strengthen the movement, and vice versa.

Si Gerson, writing on Pete Cacchione said that Pete "participated in precinct politics to invest it with working class content, with mass participation in struggles on issues." Pete's view was that "the Parliamentary fight is not just to expose, but where a strong fight is supported by mass movement, it could register genuine gains for the people." An example is rent control, for which Ben Davis and Pete Cacchione led the successful fight. They saw the Communist candidates "not as the whole coalition, but as the most advanced sector within it, and connected to building a strong grass roots base."

Ben Davis and Pete Cacchione, elected by proportional representation in New York in the 1940's, represent many electoral breakthroughs. Our rich history, past and present, should be shared with the voting rights movement of today, as part of our special contribution.

2. Theft of presidency and pro-democracy movement

The presidential coup and the fight against it is a watershed in American politics. The blatant, racist, anti-democratic, "whiff-of-fascism" political decision by the Supreme Court to deny the voters their choice and hand the election to George W. Bush has created a very deep anger.

The report by the US Civil Rights Commission delivered a stinging indictment:

"During the November 2000 presidential election in Florida, restrictive statutory provisions, wide ranging errors and inadequate and unequal resources in the election process denied countless Floridians the right to vote… African American voters were nearly ten times more likely than white voters to have their ballots rejected in Florida...The failure to provide proper language support resulted in widespread voter disenfranchisement of possibly several thousand Spanish speaking voters in Central Florida."

This coup based on racism, and anti-Semitism, has set off a new movement in our country. The right to "one person, one vote" is being fought for in a broad, new context. Violations against voters in the African American, Latino and poor voting districts in Florida, in Tennessee, in Missouri, in Illinois, in Boston and New York, etc, have the attention of the nation. Lawsuits against violations of the Voting Rights Act in Florida filed by the NAACP, PRELDF and others; demonstrations; protests, and the formation of new organizations are all part of this development.

The outpouring within Florida during the vote count struggle touched whole families, whole sections of people who more than likely never thought of themselves as activists. The coalitions of the labor movement, seniors, clergy, the Haitian, African American, Puerto Rican and Latino communities and women that emerged are now largely immersed in a single goal: to defeat Jeb Bush for governor in 2002. The defeat of Jeb, and as the slogan goes in Florida, "Getting rid of all the Bushes" is a national priority, along with completing the job to end Republican rule in Congress. The mayoral elections in New York and Los Angeles are also part of this mix, which we have already agreed needs more analysis and discussion regarding the labor-African American-Mexican American alliance.

This increased level of consciousness has opened up possibilities for new coalitions that join together issues of racism with expansion of democratic rights and economic rights. For example, in Connecticut, a bill was just passed a couple of weeks ago for restoration of voting rights to ex-offenders during parole. The issue had been on the legislative calendar of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus for several years. The outrage at the extreme right wing stealing the presidential election on the back of racism propelled the largely white supporters of campaign finance reform to become part of the effort, along with labor and a coalition addressing poverty issues at the capitol. As a result, the restoration of voting rights is now law.

In Illinois, the Fannie Lou Hamer Project is organizing for campaign finance reform as a "civil rights issue," crossing racial and class lines for support.

Nationally, a Voter Bill of Rights, initiated by the Center for Constitutional Rights in the days following the 2000 elections, broadens the fight for voting rights to include opening up the entire voting process to become more democratic, and to allow voters more choices. Our Party is listed as one of the endorsers. When we wrote in, the reply was "We are happy to have you." The ten points include:

1. Strict enforcement and extension of the Voting Rights Act;

2. Abolishment of the Electoral College and its replacement with majority rule elections.

3.Clean Money Elections - which calls for public financing of elections, a measure which was carried out in 2000 in Maine and Arizona for the first time. In Maine, 115 candidates chose to use only public money, forgoing the acceptance of other monies. Over half of the clean money candidates were elected. This included some Republicans, but many were first-time candidates, working people and progressives who said they now felt they could reasonably get elected. This warrants national study as an alternative to campaign finance reform bills which limit labor contributions along with corporate contributions, thereby becoming objectively anti-labor.

4. Instant Runoff Voting - which allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference.

5. Proportional Representation - which allows for representation in elected bodies according to the percentage of votes received.

6. Voting rights for former prisoners.

7. Make voting easier and more reliable - same day voter registration, national holiday on election day, adequate staffing at voting precincts, equal quality modern voting machines in all districts.

8. Easier access to the ballot, the media, and debates for candidates; end prohibitive ballot access requirements.

9. Create independent and non-partisan election administration bodies.

10. Statehood for the District of Columbia.

The Pro-Democracy Conference being held in Philadelphia next weekend also welcomed us as an endorser. It will include a cross-section of organizations, some labor, and some who are among those on the left who have not seen the extreme right danger that we are trying to reach out to. It will also include those organizations that are in the forefront of the struggle around fair redistricting, and protecting black and Latino representation.

Some legislation has been introduced to Congress that encompasses aspects of the Voter Bill of Rights. The Equal Protection of Voting Rights Act of 2001 introduced by Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. John Conyers and the Provisional Voting Rights Act of 2001 introduced by Rep. Jan Shakowsky are the strongest. In addition, the Democratic Caucus has formed a Special Committee on Election Reform, which is holding hearings around the nation.

In the tradition of historic struggles for democratic rights in the South, a powerful victory for voters' rights was won in Selma, Alabama in the October, 2000 mayoral runoff. "Reformed" segregationist Joseph Smitherman was defeated by James Perkins. Smitherman was mayor at the time of the pivotal 1965 "Bloody Sunday" march for voting rights over the Edmond Pettus Bridge, led by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Perkins' victory was boosted by the Joe Gotta Go campaig,n which drew volunteers from Selma, Birmingham and from California to Mali, West Africa, emphasizing the importance of the South in building political independence today.
3. Status of labor and people's movement in electoral arena

It is significant to take a look at the numbers of elected officials coming out of labor and people's movements.

Labor: The goal of 2000 union activists elected to public office by the year 2000 was overfulfilled, including two from the teachers union elected to Congress from California. In total, 900 union members ran for local, state and federal office last year.

African American: There are now 37 members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Mexican American and Puerto Rican: The numbers of elected officials and of political associations are continuing to grow and expand in influence.

Progressive Caucus: There are now 57 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Pro-labor women: Four new labor-endorsed women were elected to the US Senate last year.

It is also significant to note the increasing voter turnout by labor, African American, Mexican American, women and environmental communities.

As a result of the biggest labor mobilization ever, 26% of all voters in 2000 were from union households. The labor movement registered 2.3 million new voters from union households for the 2000 election.

The African American vote increased dramatically in most states, and delivered a 90% vote for Gore and Lieberman. The Latino vote increased 11.6% over 1996 and was key in several states in defeating Bush, including California and New York.

The National Organization of Women spearheaded a massive voter drive and 54% of women voted for Gore.

Many environmental organizations joined forces with labor and other allies resulting in pro-environmental candidates winning in 75% of the Sierra Club's top priority Senate and House campaigns.

Today, the majority of voters are no longer registered with either the Democratic or Republican Parties. The majority of voters are now registered as unaffiliated. This is a signal of discontent and searching. If the labor, left and progressive forces do not fill this void, the danger is large that the right wing, masquerading as "independent," will attempt to capture this vote.

4. Building political independence

AFL-CIO and the labor movement

Steve Rosenthal, Political director of the AFL-CIO gives an excellent presentation on labor's goals and how to win them. His starting point is a chart that shows the gains made in the last four years to register union members and pull out the vote. He makes the connection between changing the balance of power in Congress and organizing the unorganized in the South. It's pretty straightforward, because the numbers show that union members made the difference in several key races last year. A shocking figure in the presentation was the large number of union members polled in April who said they supported Bush's performance as president.

In answer to this situation, the AFL-CIO has developed issue flyers and an action campaign geared to lay out clearly for their members why and how the Bush program is anti-worker. Based on the fact that workers respond most favorably to information at the workplace, a year-long campaign is being put into place "to define the Bush administration and Bush agenda for union members and other working Americans with the goal of targeting key elections in 2002."

There are a growing number of experiences that combine organizing the unorganized and electing pro-labor candidates. The election of Hilda Solice in Los Angeles is one, which is very interesting because it shows that even in the midst of the main goal being to defeat the extreme right wing, the goal of getting better candidates within the Democratic Party is part of the picture. She replaced Matthew Martinez in the primary last year, and is already one of the strongest fighters in Congress. I believe her campaign emerged directly as a result of the massive successful organizing drives in California. In general, the breadth of the labor-community coalition and labor's political independence is pace-setting in Los Angeles.

John Gallo develops the concept of building labor's power, based on the experience of the Central Labor council in Cleveland, which is a model being built on for the last ten years. Rather than send money and campaign workers to the Democratic Party, the unions have set up their own voter registration and get-out-the-vote machinery, and join in coalition with community groups. They registered 15,000 new voters in one month last year working together with NAACP and WILPF and high school students. They are continuing year round with education and legislation.

John emphasizes the need to build a base locally around local issues in the context of defeating Bush. He writes, "A main tactic we are using is to tie independent political activities to organizing rights of workers, i.e., union recognition, first contracts, NLRB violations, etc. Below is the Workers Bill of Rights that 15 of 21 council members signed. Because of this, and because they had individually acted to support workers rights in the past few years, they got the early endorsement from the CLC. Puts them out in public as pro-union and subject to our evaluation. Also organized a breakfast last week with 14 suburban mayors and some union organizers re: difficulties of organizing and violations of workers rights, and how these mayors can (and should) help workers in their towns, by calling/writing to an employer, stopping on the picket line, or even stronger actions they could take. They were surprisingly favorable. Next day one Mayor volunteered to write a letter to a car dealer who's opposing an organizing drive. Step by step."

Cleveland Ohio Central Labor Council
Workers' Bill of Rights

Cleveland City Council members have a special opportunity to help working families and improve the quality of life for our community. Below is a vision of the community we expect public officials to adopt to best serve our entire community:

Good Public Services: Citizens deserve good public services that are accountable to the public. I will oppose privatizing services, will explore bringing back services currently being performed by outside contractors and support unions working with local government to improve services.

Strong Public Education: Cleveland will only be a truly "All American City" with strong public schools. Elected officials have a special role in speaking out for strong schools for our children. I will vote against public funds going to private schools, will not advocate for school vouchers funded by our tax dollars and will work with the Cleveland AFL-CIO or other groups to support literacy as a priority in Cleveland Schools.

Good Corporate Citizenship: Many Cleveland based employers are good corporate citizens who try to help create a better community. I will not support contracts or tax breaks to employers who discriminate or violate the National Labor Relations Act and I will strictly enforce the Cleveland Fair Employment Wage Law (living wage) unanimously adopted by Cleveland City Council.

Quality Health Care: The quality of living in our community improves when families have health care coverage. I will work to expand coverage of the CHIPs (healthcare for children and working parents) program and speak out for expanded health care coverage.

Workers' Rights: Clevelanders enjoy better wages, benefits and working conditions when they negotiate collective bargaining agreements. Employers often deploy fear and intimidation tactics to fight a worker's right to choose a voice at work. I will stand on the side of workers by connecting economic development with workers' rights, prevent public money from going to employers who fight against workers' voice at work, support "card check" recognition and participate in supporting organizing of workers in Cleveland.

Signed_____________________________Date________

Ballot Initiatives/Living Wage Ordinances, etc.

Ballot referenda, initiatives and proposition questions are also an important part of the movement for independent politics.

In Cleveland, Ohio a very impressive ballot initiative for school funding was organized on a precinct level with a good victory. Its significance is emphasized by the fact that the Central Labor Council is credited with making thousands of phone calls that helped bring out the vote, and was represented in the leadership of the coalition.

In New Haven, Connecticut ballot referenda on ending child poverty, the Martinez Public Works Jobs Bill, economic conversion and military spending have raised the level of election period debate and received large votes.

Organizing to defeat reactionary propositions is also an important part of this movement. Ballot initiatives for school vouchers were resoundingly defeated in Michigan and California in 2000 as a result of massive public education and get-out-the-vote campaigns.

Third Parties and Fusion Tickets

The fact that 100,000 people voted for Hillary Clinton on the Working Families Party line and not the Democratic Party line, builds up pressure on her once elected to take stronger stands on issues that the WFP does. It also provides another way of building an independent machinery. Third Party without spoiler role. John has given many exciting reports. Only nine states have laws, but even there, many are limited. The Working Families Party is now in the process of branching out into New England.

Labor, Left and Communist candidates:

We have been self-critical that our full contribution cannot be felt without many more of our own candidates.

Our candidates should emerge out of coalition work taking place at the local level.

Party candidates should come out of local politics. We should examine more closely how to run as part of coalitions for smaller, local offices.

Jarvis Tyner said in the discussion: "No people's party can develop without being rooted in neighborhoods. Prospects for political independence are great on the basis of issues."

At the Connecticut Communist Party convention workshop on voting rights, there was an interesting discussion. The example, which helped elect the most militant State Representative, Evelyn Mantilla, was to take the concept of union density, and apply it to our building neighborhood clubs. In other words, develop Party density, or a large number of Party members in a given area of an election district. Turnout of such a club constituency can dramatically help elect pro-labor candidates, or even possibly to run our own candidate. This approach takes the concept of neighborhood concentration and places it into our electoral strategy and independent politics.

5. Experience of our candidates and elected officials

The experiences of our candidates and elected officials are such valuable work from which we can learn and further develop our approaches. We hope to make a turn in this Convention to correct the problem of having so few candidates. As we gain more elected officials, it is likely that they will appreciate exchanging and learning from each other as well.

A local elected official emphasizes that the legal structures are a barrier to governing on behalf of peoples needs. An elected official is constrained by existing rent laws, and structures formulated on behalf of developers' interests and corporate interests. A role for the Communist elected official can be as "the people's voice." The information can go back to the labor and neighborhood activists and to the Communist Party clubs with the idea of building grass roots movements to change the laws.

Denise Edwards said from her two successful candidacies she would generalize the need to build up the concept of Communists running for public office as part of a slate out of a coalition.
She described her situation this way: "The political system reflects the deep decay of capitalism. In Pennsylvania the system is deeply in chaos and intense state of decay. The big problem is creating unity at the bottom. The problem is not lack of money. The problem is control. It is absolutely ruthless. I want to appeal to regain the moral high ground. We have every right to get control back of the money that pays for children, seniors, and everything else."

6. Assessment of our Party's work and projections

Our Party made an important contribution to the 2000 elections in many ways, but perhaps most significantly through our assessment and decision to place the main thrust of our work on defeating the extreme right wing. In this sense, we walked arm-in-arm with the labor movement, women's, civil rights and environmental organizations. Our comrades in Florida made a very particular contribution, along with the entire Party, in the post-election struggles.

However, it is certainly the case that we are not set up to make the kind of on-going contribution to independent politics that is necessary at this critical moment. We have excellent analysis and policy, and some fine experiences at the local level. To bring that fully to life, and to connect all unfolding struggles to the defeat of the extreme right, we need to do much better. Toward that end, this report offers several ideas:

1. We need a strong and functioning commission that can stay on top of new developments and play a role in the coordination of our work. Perhaps in addition to the commission, an ongoing national network of those on the front lines in this field would be useful.

2. Our political action work should be developed in conjunction with building our Party and building the labor movement in the South and in key swing states.

3. We need to help state and club Party organizations develop our election strategy in connection with working class concentration communities and neighborhoods, including developing target election districts at the state and national level.

4. We need to break through the ideological and tactical barriers to running Communists for public office, emphasizing small, local offices and coalition tickets. As a first step in this process of qualitatively increasing the number of Communist candidates and elected officials, the organizing workshop at the National Convention will begin with a panel of our recent candidates and elected officials.

5. We need a regular presence in Washington DC in order to stay abreast of key national legislation, participate in national labor and peoples' coalitions based in the nation's capitol, and prioritize those bills around which grass roots support should be built nationwide.

6. We need consistent and active participation in the emerging pro-democracy and voting rights coalitions emerging on the national and local scene, where we have been welcomed to participate in our own name.