Report on Structure and Leadership

Report given at the National Committee Meeting

This report is based on lots of discussion, input and thinking, by a lot of comrades, which is difficult to thoroughly reflect. From last September's Board meeting, where we discussed the need for more reality-based and results-oriented style and methods of work, to the work of the Convention Committee on Structure and Organization, to the pre-convention discussion generally, and then last month's Board meeting, we've been grappling with how to adjust, renovate and refresh, our Party's structures and ways of working.

So my report is about a process that has been going on for a while, and which is aimed at addressing a complicated, many-sided problem. It is about changing our political culture, and not just which bodies and committees we have, or want to have, and who is on them, or not on them.

It's about setting ourselves up so that we can work in the way that is required by today's political circumstances, and in a way that is appropriate to our size and strength. And these political circumstances, which changed drastically on September 11th, require that we step up the pace of those structural and organizational changes, that we make them with, as Sam said, "urgency and soberness."

Everything we've talked about improving in terms of how we work, how we
arOur aim is for our Party to be as big a factor in the struggle for peace, and against the ultra right and the economic crisis, as we can be. To weigh in. To bring our clear politics into the struggle.e structured, must be placed in this dramatically different context. So, for example, it is not just important, but urgent, that we are closely connected to developments, to the mass movements, integrally a part of them; it is not just important -- it is essential, urgent, that we are able to respond quickly, develop and utilize appropriate, skillful tactics,
participate in action, initiate and organize action.

In the opening report to this meeting, Sam talked about making our political tasks the "daily concern of everyone" in the Party. Coordinating our work, figuring out creative, mass ways of getting the clubs into this fight, moving the Party into this struggle, into action, that's what the moment requires and that will also help us to build the Party and our press in size, influence and connectedness.

We need to make organizational changes, cadre changes, technical changes. We need "strategic deployment" -- of resources, time, personnel. It means getting better at deciding what we can do, and what we can't, and what must be done first in order to get to what must be done next. It means better defining the role and function of collectives; it means establishing priorities, it means setting goals.

It means outwardness, less internal meetings and more field work. It means more realism accompanying optimism; it means more creativity, political depth, following political developments, connection with struggles and movements. It means an action orientation; coalition building, initiative.

And we want to be better organized politically so that we can develop the best, the clearest, the most tactically on target policies and approaches. That means discussions that are well planned and take place in the best and strongest collective setting, and in a timely fashion.

Relating to mass leaders and to Party activists in the mass movement, and following developments should be a core aspect of the work of district and national leaders.

We need to be organized in such a way that comrades have time and find opportunities to bring our thinking and tactics out, whether by writing for our own publications, other publications, or the wider media, speaking at public events, meeting with leaders of movements, etc. And among other changes, that requires that we spend less time in internal meetings. Said that already, didn't I?

We've also talked a lot about the need to reach a wider audience with our ideas. This of course has always been our aim, but we haven't always done what's practically necessary to achieve it. Now, though, we've reached political and technological "critical mass" on this.

We need to make dramatic improvement in our outreach apparatus, devoting time and attention to the web site, and the mass and independent media, establishing stronger collectives and staffing our publications.

Though we won't solve everything with these proposals, we think they go in the right direction. We need to finish this project, as much as possible.

As important as the proposals themselves is the idea behind them and the direction we're going in. Sam came up with a phrase to describe what we need to do -- it's a little unwieldy, but it makes the point, I think: "Streamline the structure, spread out the leadership, empower the collectives."

To which I would add: Clearly define the role of each collective, and staff it accordingly.

The proposals we are making today are different from the ones we made to the National Board at our meeting in Chicago in September. We concluded from that discussion that we needed to go back to the drawing board, not in terms of the "why" and "how" of the need for changes in our structure, but on the specific proposals.

The discussion at that meeting was consistent with the conclusions drawn by the Structure and Organization Committee, which presented its report to the Convention, and with lots of other discussions, formal and informal, that we've had over this last year and a half, with comrades and collectives around the country, about how to improve our functioning.

The report to the September Board meeting, and the discussion for the most part up until now, has focussed on the national level bodies. It was necessary and appropriate to start at the national level. There are important changes that need to be made, and the process has energized a broad section of the leadership and put before them questions of our organizational and political work. It put our national situation more front and center for more people, and called on comrades to "pitch in."

Drawing many more comrades into looking at and helping solve the problems on the national level has also enabled us to look at other problems of organization and structure, including those of the districts and clubs, and how the national center relates to the districts and clubs.

So, although today's proposals are for national bodies, in preparing them we were guided by concern for the status of the districts and clubs, and what impact they will have on the struggle to rebuild the Party, which in essence is our task. And, as the district organizers will attest, life makes this point, on a regular basis.

So we want to start with this proposal: that is, that after this meeting of the NC, we ask every district to review its structure, its standing committees, who's on them, etc., and figure out how they can be improved, streamlined and politically strengthened.

If a choice has to be made between a national assignment for a comrade, and a district assignment, we should not automatically give priority to the national level bodies. We still need full time organizers for the Party in many districts -- the bad news is that we still have big holes, including Michigan; the good news is that Tina has agreed to become the organizer for Maryland.

Our proposals aim to put more focus on the districts and clubs and we do this in number of ways, including that there are 11 district organizers on the new National Board and four in the Organizing Department. We are also re-defining the role of the Org. dept., with greater emphasis on working with the districts, and on Party and press building. And, lastly, we are trying very hard to keep the national bodies small so that we have people for the district leaderships.

The question we started with was: what standing commitees does the NC, does the Party, need, and what should be their role.

We made a lot of effort to slim down the proposals for national bodies. We do not need and cannot afford to have a top-heavy, overloaded national structure, given the size of the Party, and the cadre and resource needs at the club and district levels.

We didn't go name by name figuring out what body each person should be on, but rather, we went commission by commission figuring out what we need to make it work.

The leadership bodies that need staffing and strengthening are the National Board, the National Organization Department, the National Finance Department, the national commissions, the PWW and PA editorial boards AND the district leaderships.

I don't include here the YCL, since it is an independent organization, except to say that in the process of coming up with these proposals we consulted with the YCL and have tried to keep its needs in mind as well. You'll see that we are not proposing YCLers for most of the commissions; although of course when commissions hold larger meetings, or are working on something that relates to young people, they should involve YCLers.

The heart of our proposal: strengthening the Board and setting up an effective organizing department. The essence of the change we need is a national structure that has well-planned, well-organized political discussions, make good decisions, and is set up to implement them.

NATIONAL BOARD:
The National Board's role and functioning has been a big concern for many comrades, for many reasons. Our aim is to strengthen it, both in terms of who is on it and how it can function as the body that assesses developments and makes policy.

In putting together this proposal, we wrestled with the problem of having the right comrades on the Board so that it can fulfill that political role. We need a Board that consists of comrades from around the country. We need Board members who are involved in the labor movement and other struggles. But we also need to be able to function regularly and quickly. The size of the country and comrades' very full schedules present problems. At one point we had the idea that we would try to eliminate the distinction between resident and full board, but it became clear that that wouldn't really work.

So what we've come up with is a smaller Board -- in Chicago we were proposing 49, now we're proposing 35 -- which includes comrades from around the country, and a large number of trade unionists. As important as who we put on the Board is how the Board functions so that those who don't work full time for the Party can participate. We are aiming for twice a month meetings, with one of the meetings in the evening. Our
experience in recent weeks with large conference call meetings on the terrorism and war crisis has been very good, I think, and our aim is to continue to utilize this as the only way to get the input of such comrades on a regular basis.

To our collective credit, we have already made many changes in this past period which strengthened the Board politically, bringing in the experience and thinking of those who are most involved in key struggles or knowledgeable and connected on important issues. We will continue to do this. The Board agendas will be organized so that we can get regular input from those comrades who are closest to the struggle against the right and the economic crisis, to building the labor-people's coalitions.

I want to say a few words about those who are not on this list. Without exception, these are very tremendous comrades, with important experience and political sense. And thank goodness -- thank goodness we have so many excellent comrades who are not proposed to be on the Board, because we need those kinds of comrades working in the district leaderships and other leading bodies, too. The Board is not the only place for leading comrades to be to make important political contributions.

ORGANIZING DEPARTMENT:
Our aim: to set up an Organizing Department that is structured so that we can help build a united Party of mass action, so that we can help to organize and participate in sustained campaigns, how to accomplish the goals of deeper and wider connections with struggles,
movements, in particular the labor movement, and how to rebuild the Party.

We are calling it the Organizing Department because we want to give more stress to that role -- organizing -- which is not an internal one, but rather, helping our Party clubs and districts become organizing centers of the struggle. The Department will include key district leaders, heads of commissions and publications, and areas of work.

We need an Org. Dept. that promotes and facilitates an action orientation, quick response style.

We need an Org. Dept. that can consistently look at how to grow the Party and press, in connection with issues and struggles we are involved in.

We are a small party with big tasks. We should set priorities, and do things in an organized, thought-out way. But we should also cut down on any and all unnecessary layers and steps and be more realistic about what's possible.

I want to speak a minute about the administrative and technical work of the national office. Without a big change in how well our office is organized, in how well and quickly we communicate with the clubs and districts, in how outwardly-directed is our national set up, all these other changes will be for naught. It will only be potential.

We need to do whatever is necessary to set up a thoroughly 21st century operation.

Or course, as you all know, our communication set-up has taken a leap into the ... present! ... with the new web page, and we should be very proud and excited about this. The comrades who worked on it, putting in long hours and lots of creative and solid political thinking, and deserve our deep appreciation.

But more than our appreciation, what's needed is a commitment to maintaining and building up our use of the internet. It is not an extra; it is not optional, but required for an organization to be taken seriously and to take advantage of the many tools for outreach, publicity, education and organizing that the internet provides. Also not optional is the setting up and maintaining of a modern system of communication, within the Party, and we have plans around that.

The administrative, organizational and political work of our national center are on a continuum. Good administrative work is a must for organizing to go on; good organizing approaches, plans and follow through bring good political decisions to life.

The way we see the Finance Dept and the way it works is also part of this picture. On the one hand, this department must be strengthened, we just don't have enough people to do what needs doing and to bring our finance work up to date, and find new ways to guarantee the Party's future. A key feature of that change is the developing of a budget that connects political priorities with financial realities, and to monitor that connection in an ongoing way. This work needs to become much more "transparent," Party leadership needs to know our situation, positives and negatives, so that it is their property and their responsibility. And we want to add comrades to the finance department who are not "in house," as we have to every other collective.

Another weakness in our functioning has been the attention and resources given to the press, and the way we structure the connection between the Party and the PWW. Terrie will report the proposals for the new editorial board.

Lastly, on the commissions: We are proposing a change in our concept of the commissions. The idea is that they function as working groups, task forces, playing more of an active, mobilizing, organizing role.

We need to empower the commissions and other bodies. This does not mean we abandon coordination, or the setting of priorities, or democratic centralism. Democratic centralism is not a matter of procedures, or guidelines you can chart, or a chain of command and communication. It's not administration; it's political. It's practical experience in the struggle, at the grass roots, and policy making based on conclusions drawn from that experience.

And for this to truly happen, in a real, organic, way; for this to characterize our style of work, we need more action and initiative on the part of clubs and districts, we need more input to and exchanges in leading bodies, we need more collectives which are empowered to help implement policy.

Party commissions should have both responsibility and authority: authority to help develop Party policy in their area, and responsibility to help implement it. We need working groups that keep abreast of developments in the area of work for which they are
responsible -- political, ideological and organizational developments.
Regular reports should be given by commissions, whether to the Board or NC. Also have to find ways to provide input and updates to the whole Party, ie, districts
and clubs, including that commission meeting minutes go to the chairs of
all of the other commissions and to the districts.

We need working groups that establish and maintain relationships with mass movement leaders and activists, develop mailing lists, ensure that they receive Party materials, build PWW and PA circulation among people in these movements, etc., help districts establish mass relationships and practical work as well.

And we need for the commissions to organize articles for Party publications and help produce Party literature when needed and as well, write in the name of the Party for other publications.

Given these kind of regular, practical tasks, we need comrades who will make
their commission a main focus and priority of their work and contribution
to the Party. While we do want commissions to tackle ideological and political questions, and draw others in to discussions when necessary, we don't want bodies that function as think tanks. We want them to do work.

Staffing all of these bodies was a complicated process. We are probably not
fully satisfied with any of them, and composition can certainly be improved, but a
lot of time and effort has gone into the proposals, and we think it's the
best we can do at this point. There are still some big holes, areas of work
that we just don't have the people to cover, and we'll have to deal with
them when we can.

We want to elevate the integrity and political responsibility and accountability of all Party bodies. So, although obviously some adjustments will inevitably be made as time
goes by -- we don't want comrades who don't function to remain on
collectives, and we may want to add people at some point -- we should establish a procedure for making changes in collectives, namely, that proposals to add or remove comrades should be presented to the Org. Dept or Board.

The Board proposal includes many comrades with live, ongoing connections to the growing labor and people's movements and coalitions. It includes steel and auto workers, union organizers and trade union activists, and comrades with responsibility for the key areas of work including districts, commissions and publications, and the YCL.

The breakdown is as follows: 17 women, 18 men; 11 district leaders; 4 veterans. There are five African Americans, six Latinos, and one American Indian; 10 trade unionists and a number of other comrades connected to the labor movement or with trade union experience. Seven comrades are from the west coast and southwest, 10 are from the midwest and 18 are from the east coast.

We are also proposing to set up what we are calling a Coordinating Committee, rather than an Exec. We are mindful -- very -- of the problems that the Exec caused in the past period, of taking over the role of the Board, Org. Dept and other bodies, of becoming an organizational bottleneck and an undemocratic usurping of the political authority of the Board and National Committee.

I put that so strongly because I think we all -- including those of us who have been members of the Exec -- agree that this is how things worked, and we are all, I believe, committed to changing that situation.

However, we also couldn't get around the need for a small body to meet between Board meetings, with limited functions, mainly proposing agendas for the Board and NC, directing problems and questions to the appropriate bodies, and when necessary, figuring out how to deal with emergency questions that can't be put off.

It's that last part that makes many comrades uncomfortable. But we are
asking that you have confidence that this body will strive to stick to its
limited role, and that when important political matters must be dealt with
we will, as we have so many times in the past year, organize meetings of
the Board and even more broadly, to include other leading comrades. That
has been our recent practice, and we are committed to it.

We want to nominate for election the following comrades: Jarvis Tyner, as
Executive Vice Chair, Elena Mora, as Organization Secretary, Evelina Alarcon,
Judith Le Blanc and Scott Marshall as Vice Chairs; Esther Moroze as Treasurer and Lee Dlugin as Comptroller.

These comrades are proposed to hold national titles in addition to Sam, who we elected at the Convention. We need these because it is important that we publicly identify our national leadership as more than just the national chair, as a collective leadership, a multi-racial, male-female group of people. But by no means are these the only national assignments in our structure.

One of the most important assignments -- one of the most important jobs -- that someone can have in our Party is that of district organizer. We should get rid of any distinctions that might be made between district leaders and national leaders. If you can lead a district, if you can raise money for the paper and deal with club problems and relate to the movements and struggles in your state, you are doing THE work, and should be considered a national leader of the Party.

As well, the editors and leadership of our publications are national assignments from the Party, and, chairs of the commissions are national assignments, important -- essential --assignments. We say this to underscore another point that was made at the Board meeting discussion on leadership, and before and that is that while we don't need lots of officers and titles, we should recognize and support all those Party leaders whose work makes a key contribution to the Party nationally.

Everyone is needed, although perhaps not in the same was as before. We need all hands on deck, and we should and can have confidence in each other, in the collective method, in our Communist politics and our commitment to keeping our eyes on the prize of a peaceful, just, socialist world.

Thank you.

[*** The National Committee elected the National Board and officers, and approved the memberships of the following collectives: Coordinating Committee, Organizing Department, Finance Department, People's Weekly World Editorial Board, Labor Commission, African American Equality Commission, Peace and Solidarity Commission, International Commission, Political Action Commission, Economics Commission, Public Education Commission, Farm/Rural Life Commission, American Indian Equality Commission, Health Commission, Religious Community Commission, Media Committee, Internet Committee. Proposals for a number of other bodies are still being discussed, including the Mexican American Equality, Puerto Rican Equality, Women's Equality and Environment commissions, as well as the Political Affairs Editorial Board.]