Draft Program of the CPUSA

The Road to Socialism USA:
Unity for Peace, Democracy, Jobs and Equality

Download PDF: CPUSA_DraftProgram.pdf

Preface to the Draft

The working group which prepared this draft based itself on the work of the National Committee during recent years to develop our strategy to meet the needs of the moment and the struggle. We had the work of the whole Party to draw upon. Once adopted, the new program will be an authoritative statement of our strategy from here to socialism.

Why do we need a new program?

Our last program was written in the late 1960s, then modified and printed in the early 1980s. Much has changed in our country and in the world in the 25 years since. One reason for a new program is to take account of the rise of the ultra-right to power in the U.S., to stress the theoretical and practical basis for our strategy of building a massive coalition to defeat the ultra-right, and to integrate and connect our current strategy with our long range aim of building socialism.

Another reason is to take account of the setbacks and defeats that socialism saw in the late 1980s and early 1990s. These setbacks changed the world balance of forces and limited the options for national liberation movements and newly free colonies, which now are forced by necessity to trade on the world market on the capitalists' terms, and who no longer have the same alternative markets and political and material backing they formerly received from the socialist community of nations. The workers of the world are confronting capitalists in each country as well as the transnational corporations, which are determined on economic globalization not to serve humanity but to increase exploitation and oppression.

Another reason for a new program is that the world now faces new and increased dangers of imperialist war and militarization, of nuclear weapons and space-based weaponry, of global ecological crises, of an aggressive, reactionary U.S. administration bent on world domination.

New generations are entering the struggle and need a well-thought-out, developed strategy of social change related to the struggles and movements of today. We have a more militant labor movement which is leading many battles for social issues as well as on-the-job struggles. And we have a worldwide peace movement unrivaled in history.

We face new challenges and threats, new opportunities and possibilities-all these demand that we update and revise our strategic outlook.

What a program is, and what it is not

This program is primarily a statement of basic strategy that guides our work for an entire historic period. It analyzes the main social forces, the main struggles and movements, and the stages of struggle ahead of us on the way to socialism. It connects our work today to our long range perspective. It applies Marxist theory to the most fundamental problems of politics facing us. Our outlook is that this program, when amended and adopted, will guide us for possibly ten or more years. We avoid detailed discussion of current issues and challenges-that is the role of the main political resolution.

Our draft program is a way to talk about strategy, about our estimate of the main social forces, of the role of our Party. We need to combine sophisticated and rigorous theoretical analysis with popular language so that our strategic thinking is accessible to today's activists who may not be familiar with Marxist classics or phraseology.

That leads us to what a program is not. A program is not a popular pamphlet for mass distribution, not a history lesson, not an extended argument for Marxist-Leninist theory. It is not a compendium of Party positions on all issues. A program is not a list of demands, not a detailed discussion of tactics nor an assessment of the present level of consciousness and activity of social movements, not a replacement for other political, agitational, and educational materials we need.

Though not primarily a recruiting document, we hope that the final program will help our recruiting over the next few years. The program should help in several ways: by making available to prospective members a succinct statement of our basic strategy, by helping educate our membership old and new-through educationals, club discussions, and individual study-about our basic strategy and how to explain it, by highlighting our strategy as one of the primary features that distinguishes our Party from others on the Left, by clarifying confusion about our positions, and by making explicit some things we often take for granted without explaining.

The draft document, one of the basic pieces for the pre-convention discussion period, directs the attention of the entire membership to the strategic issues and choices confronting our Party and our class. We need a program that helps people in struggle, not a reference manual. We need a living document rooted in our struggles, not a static list of formulas.

This draft places questions to the Party for discussion, and has much room for improvement. The audience for the draft is the entire Party membership and those who work most closely with us; the audience for the final program will be broader.

While our finished program will be an authoritative statement of our Party's strategy, this draft is not definitive. The purpose of the draft is to help us have the conversations we need in order to get to a definitive statement of strategy. Back to top

1. Introduction

We, the working people of the United States, face tremendous problems: exploitation, oppression, racism, sexism, a deteriorating environment and infrastructure, huge budget deficits, and a government dominated by the most vicious elements of big capital and its political operatives.

We as a country face serious choices: militarism and imperialism or peace, increased wealth for the few or justice and equality for the many, increased power in the hands of the super-rich or real democracy for the vast majority, ultra-right domination of all branches of government which deals with problems by blaming workers and increasing exploitation or progressive electoral coalitions that seek real solutions in the interests of all working people.

The working class-the vast majority of the people, all those who work for a living-faces a relentless, vicious, and immoral enemy: the capitalist class. Our country is oppressed by one of the most controlling, despicable, entrenched capitalist ruling classes ever, concentrating enormous political, economic, and military power in the hands of a handful of transnational corporations. These corporations seek to steal, embezzle, extort, and scheme all wealth from the tens of millions of poor and working people, from small businesses and family farmers, from men, women, and children, from seniors and youth. They exploit people as workers on the job and the same people as consumers at the check stand. Their foremost weapon to maintain their dominance is the use of racism to divide working people and achieve extra profits. They work hard to extend ultra-right control over the government and government policy.

The ultra-right is led by the most reactionary, militaristic, racist, anti-democratic sector of the transnationals. They gain support for their ultra-right agenda from other political tendencies and social groups, most of whom are misled as to their real interests.

The solution to this ultra-right domination lies in building the broadest, most inclusive unity among our multinational, male/female, multigenerational working class, among racially and nationally oppressed people, women, and youth, and among the mass people's movements, starting with the labor movement. This all people's front to defeat the ultra-right is in the process of developing, learning and being tested in giant struggles for peace, to protect Social Security, to win health care for all, to win control of all three branches of government from the right wing.

Our country, our people, and our environment are all being destroyed by the greed of a few obscenely wealthy capitalist groupings. Our world is threatened by the ravages of capitalist globalization, by relentless efforts to drive wages down to the lowest possible level, by the spread of toxic wastes, by attempts to destroy unions and all protections won by workers through struggle. We can't let this situation continue.

Today, we need radical solutions, real democracy and real unity. We, the workers, the majority, need to take power from the hands of the wealthy few, their corporations, and their political operatives. We need peace, justice and equality. We need real solutions to real problems, not the empty promises of politicians and corporate bosses.

The United States has a proud history of radical and revolutionary struggles, of mass movements demanding and winning economic and social programs that meet the basic needs of the people, of protecting and expanding democracy, of uniting to overcome obstacles with initiative, energy, and innovation. The Communist Party is part of this country's radical tradition.

We believe that the millions of working people have the power, if organized and united, to run this country, to create a government of, by, and for the people. We have the right and responsibility, faced with an exploitative, oppressive economic system, to alter or abolish it. We can eject the fat-cat financial donors from the voting booths, throw the scavengers out of the banks, eject the CEO's from their golden parachutes, and elect regular, honest working people to represent us instead of corporate lawyers and millionaires.

The Communist Party sees no contradiction between fighting for the immediate demands and reforms needed by working people today, and our ultimate goal of socialism, the revolutionary transformation of society and the economy. The constant battles over issues large and small are where workers learn the lesson that more fundamental changes are necessary, that people need socialism to have a truly humane society.

We, the working people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, need socialism, a system based on people's needs, not on corporate greed.

The Communist Party USA has a program to get us there. Back to top

2. Capitalism, Exploitation, & Oppression

The capitalist class owns the factories, the banks, and transportation-the means of production and distribution. Workers sell their ability to work in order to acquire the necessities of life. Capitalists buy the workers' labor, but only pay them back a portion of the wealth they create. Because the capitalists own the means of production, they are able to keep the surplus wealth created by workers above and beyond the cost of paying worker's wages and other costs of production. This surplus is called "profit" and consists of unpaid labor that the capitalists appropriate and use to achieve ever-greater profits. These profits are turned into capital which capitalists use to further exploit the producers of all wealth-the working class.

Capitalists are compelled by competition to seek to maximize profits. The capitalist class as a whole can do that only by extracting a greater surplus from the unpaid labor of workers by increasing exploitation. Under capitalism, economic development happens only if it is profitable to the individual capitalists, not for any social need or good. The profit drive is inherent in capitalism, and underlies or exacerbates all major social ills of our times. With the rapid advance of technology and productivity, new forms of capitalist ownership have developed to maximize profit.

The working people of our country confront serious, chronic problems because of capitalism. These chronic problems become part of the objective conditions that confront each new generation of working people.

The threat of nuclear war, which can destroy all humanity, grows with the spread of nuclear weapons, space-based weaponry, and a military doctrine that justifies their use in preemptive wars and wars without end. Ever since the end of World War II, the U.S. has been constantly involved in aggressive military actions big and small. These wars have cost millions of lives and casualties, huge material losses, as well as trillions of U.S. taxpayer dollars. Threats to the environment continue to spiral, threatening all life on our planet.

Millions of workers are unemployed or insecure in their jobs, even during economic upswings and periods of "recovery" from recessions. Most workers experience long years of stagnant real wages, while health and education costs soar. Many workers are forced to work second and third jobs to make ends meet. Most workers now average four different occupations during their lifetime, being involuntarily moved from job to job and career to career. Often, retirement-age workers are forced to continue working just to provide health care for themselves. With capitalist globalization, jobs move as capitalists export factories and even entire industries to other countries. Millions of people continuously live below the poverty level; many suffer homelessness and hunger. Public and private programs to alleviate poverty and hunger do not reach everyone, and are inadequate even for those they do reach.

Racism remains the most potent weapon to divide working people. Institutionalized racism provides billions in extra profits for the capitalists every year due to the unequal pay racially oppressed workers receive for work of comparable value. All workers receive lower wages when racism succeeds in dividing and disorganizing them. In every aspect of economic and social life, African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Asian and Pacific Islanders, Arabs and Middle Eastern peoples, and other nationally and racially oppressed people experience conditions inferior to that of whites. Racist violence and the poison of racist ideas victimize all people of color no matter which economic class they belong to. The attempts to suppress and undercount the vote of the African American and other racially oppressed people are part of racism in the electoral process. Racism permeates the police, judicial and prison systems, perpetuating unequal sentencing, racial profiling, discriminatory enforcement, and police brutality.

The democratic, civil and human rights of all working people are continually under attack. These attacks range from increasingly difficult procedures for union recognition and attempts to prevent full union participation in elections, to the absence of the right to strike for many public workers. They range from undercounting minority communities in the census to making it difficult for working people to run for office because of the domination of corporate campaign funding and the high cost of advertising. These attacks also include growing censorship and domination of the media by the ultra-right; growing restrictions and surveillance of activist social movements and the Left; open denial of basic rights to immigrants; and, violations of the Geneva Conventions up to and including torture for prisoners. These abuses all serve to maintain the grip of the capitalists on government power. They use this power to ensure the economic and political dominance of their class.

Women still face a considerable differential in wages for work of equal or comparable value. They also confront barriers to promotion, physical and sexual abuse, continuing unequal workload in home and family life, and male supremacist ideology perpetuating unequal and often unsafe conditions. The constant attacks on social welfare programs severely impact single women, single mothers, nationally and racially oppressed women, and all working class women. The reproductive rights of all women are continually under attack ideologically and politically. Violence against women in the home and in society at large remains a shameful fact of life in the U.S.

Youth, especially working class youth and racially and nationally oppressed youth, have inadequate public education and are increasingly priced out of higher education. Young people lack job training and face great uncertainty in the job market. Their cultural, recreational, and sports needs are largely unmet. Youth also face in their own ways racism, sexism, and attacks on civil liberties. Poverty and lack of opportunity compel large numbers of young people to enter the military and face possible loss of life in one war after another.

Seniors, retired and often no longer able to work, face shrinking and disappearing employer pension plans, while Social Security and Medicare are under continual attack. Seniors who have worked all their lives are threatened by the ultra-right push to end entitlement programs and by the lack of or exorbitant cost of health care and assisted care living facilities.

Over 45 million people are continually without medical coverage-over 70 million are without medical coverage for at least one month each year. Medical costs are soaring even for those with coverage and their out-of-pocket costs are increasing. There is a chronic and growing shortage of affordable housing across the country. Unionized workers are forced to negotiate lower wages to pay for their health benefits.

The crisis of the cities is chronic and growing and embraces all aspects of living. Financial burdens are steadily transferred from the Federal government to the states and then to the cities, causing rippling and crippling budget deficits. As the majority of racially and nationally oppressed people live in urban areas, the crisis of the cities also reflects institutional racism.

Most of rural and small town U.S. is in continual recession. Hundreds of thousands of family farms have been put on the brink of extinction, squeezed by agricultural corporations, banks, wholesalers and retailers. Thousands of family farms disappear each year to bankruptcy and sale, swallowed by agribusiness and corporate development. Predatory lenders, monopoly corporations and the insurance industry also conspire to put the squeeze on family farms, urban and rural small businesses as well as professionals and intellectuals. Back to top

Capitalism in the Era of Monopoly and Imperialism

The chronic problems working people face today are rooted in the birth and history of the capitalist system itself. "Free" competitive capitalism was replaced at the end of the Nineteenth Century by monopoly capitalism. Great amounts of capital were assembled in a few companies in each industry, in our country, and internationally. At the same time, industrial and banking capital merged into finance capital, dominated by banking capital. These monopolies proceeded to divide up the world economically, each with their own sphere of control. To insure the stability of investment, corporations sought to dominate the governments within their spheres. The monopolies succeeded in backing up their economic division of the world with the military-political division of the world. Africa, most of Asia and Latin America, and parts of Europe were divided into colonies or semi-colonies of the U.S., Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Belgium and the other monopoly capitalist states.

Vladimir Lenin, founder of modern communism, predicted that wars would break out to redivide the world, making the era of monopoly capitalism also the era of modern imperialism. The then existing division of the world could not satisfy those countries and economies growing most rapidly. The search for economic domination led to wars and world wars, wars that killed and maimed millions and subjugated whole peoples under extremely repressive and inhumane conditions.

Soon the monopolies and the government in the U.S. (and the other imperialist countries) became intertwined, transforming into state monopoly capitalism. The state became a direct instrument to accumulate capital for the monopolies. Government regulation became a tool to partially overcome the anarchy of private capitalist competition and improve some of the social problems that affected working people, with the ultimate aim of improving  economic stability for the rich. The state also became a source of economic stimulation through tax collection from the whole people to finance military spending and wars. Back to top

Internationalization of Economic Life, Transnationals & Capitalist Globalization

Following World War II, a scientific and technological revolution took place that resulted from the drive to maximize profits through advancing technology and productivity. It centered on new materials, on new means of transportation and communication, and more recently on information technology. These achievements enabled a new stage in capitalist globalization, a further socialization of world economic life, and a qualitative shift in the internationalization of production, still under private capitalist ownership.

The capitalist world economy at first could not fully utilize these new developments; the existing forms of capitalist ownership were too restrictive. Signs of economic stagnation marked the mid-1970s. The capitalist answer was the growth of monopoly corporations into transnational corporations, whose reach extends beyond any one country's sphere of influence. Stimulated by the internationalization of economic life and the scientific and technical revolution, these transnationals control many economic stages from financing to research and development, to sources of supply, to production, to wholesale and retail distribution. Internationalization gave the monopolies many more alternatives for resource extraction and production based on which country is cheapest for each operation. This enabled greater coordination and planning within the bounds of a single transnational and in temporary cartel-type arrangements with other transnationals. This process achieved a partial, temporary overcoming of the anarchy inherent in private capitalist ownership of production and distribution.

Today, a few more than 500 transnationals worldwide, some 300 of them based in the U.S., dominate the capitalist world economy, the capitalist governments, and their international institutions. There are transnational banks, transnational industrial manufacturers, transnational arms dealers, transnational wholesale and retail distributive monopolies, transnational entertainment and publishing giants, and transnational conglomerates which own so many businesses it is almost impossible to tell what their main business is. By the 1980s, transnationals dominated economic and political life in the U.S and much of the globe. Back to top

World Balance of Forces

To the surprise of almost all political and social movements, the Soviet Union, the socialist countries of Eastern Europe, and of Mongolia, collapsed at the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s. This resulted from a combination of internal and external factors. The pressures of the arms race, the cold war, and imperialism's other economic, political and ideological pressures played a major role. There were also mistakes in developing socialist forms of ownership and an organization of the economy that best fit advances in the means of production. There were distortions of the distinction between administrative and political work, as well as political and ideological weaknesses, and in some countries, an increasing debt to transnational banks and other capitalist lending institutions. The world communist movement and Communist Party, USA are still studying and discussing the relative importance of the various causes of the demise of the socialist states to best learn for the future.

Previously, when the socialist countries, the national liberation movements, and the working class and peace movements in the developed capitalist countries were united, they could significantly impact the outcome of most international struggles, and win victories in many cases. They prevented world nuclear war and maintained peaceful coexistence and competition between the capitalist and socialist countries. They made possible the victory of national independence in many countries and the emergence of the non-capitalist path of development in some developing countries. In the socialist countries, living conditions more or less steadily improved from the end of World War II. Imperialism has been unable to end socialism in China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Cuba.

During the period of struggle for peaceful coexistence between the U.S. and world imperialism on the one hand, and the Soviet Union and other socialist countries on the other, our Party and the worldwide Communist movement concluded that the balance of forces had reached the point where world war and smaller scale wars were not inevitable, but could be prevented by mass struggle. At the same time, it is evident that imperialism still gives rise to destructive and dangerous wars and we have as yet been unable to prevent all wars.

Among the results of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries returning to capitalism were major setbacks for the progressive forces on a world scale and a shift in favor of imperialism headed by the U.S. With the demise of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, Cuba, China, Vietnam, North Korea, and Laos face severe new problems. A number of countries of socialist orientation were forced back toward capitalist development.

Wars of liberation become stalemated militarily due to U.S. intervention, in some cases even prior to the Soviet Union returning to capitalism. National liberation movements had to give up much of the gains they had won, facing powerful imperialist-supported forces. The ability of new countries to choose socialist development became much more limited. The Communist Parties and the movement toward socialism in the developed capitalist countries suffered substantial losses. The transnationals gained the possibility of direct expansion and control within the former socialist countries.

With their new economic and political dominance over most of the world, a sharpening of competition developed among the few hundred gigantic transnational for control of the new areas and to redivide economic control worldwide. The transnationals have become increasingly intertwined with the governments of the leading imperialist powers and multi-state institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and others, while coming to politically and economically dominate or divide up influence in many developing countries and countries with a middle level of development. Back to top

The Emergence of Ultra-Right Domination

Two major political tendencies have developed in recent decades in the U.S., both among the transnationals and the political parties and governments with which they are intertwined. The first tendency represented the most reactionary section of the transnationals. Initially, this trend emerged in response to the relative weakness in its economic, political and world influence during the 1960s and 70s, as an effort to reverse that decline through an aggressive military-based governmental policy. It took over the Republican Party and elected Ronald Reagan as President. While it suffered some setbacks during the Clinton years, it still has not received a major lasting rebuff. Its policies include open domination by the transnationals over most of the government. This means seeking destruction of the social safety net won in the Roosevelt years, deregulation of protections for the public interest, a radical shift of the tax burden from the transnational corporations and wealthy to the working class, professionals and small capitalists. There was a dramatic reduction of government spending on the needs of the poor, the nationally and racially oppressed, and the working class, while increasing various forms of subsidy for big corporations and the super-rich.

Dominance by the ultra-right means constant attempts to eliminate measures that fight racism and overcome its effects. The ultra-right's open and covert uses of racism divide and weaken its opposition. It means an increase in the repressive power of the police and their racist practices. It means continual and increasing restrictions on democratic rights, including the right to vote. It demagogically uses right-wing religious prejudices and works to eliminate separation of church and state. It means a growth of military spending and of the military-industrial complex. It means a growth of nationalist ideology, jingoism, and xenophobia. It publicly declares "big government" the enemy of individual freedom and prosperity and dismantles social welfare programs in the name of "fiscal responsibility." At the same time, it boosts military spending drastically, cuts taxes on the rich, and provides billions in corporate welfare. This is financed by the biggest federal deficits ever, exhibiting the greatest fiscal irresponsibility.

Beginning with the Presidency of George W. Bush in 2000, this ultra-right trend has moved even further to the right. Determined to use the overwhelming military power of the United States, the Bush Administration claims the right to dominate the world for its own economic and political-military interests. It uses the phony rationalization of spreading its own reactionary concepts of "freedom and democracy," meaning freedom for the corporations and democracy for the few. It claims the moral right to attack any country it wants, to conduct war without end until it succeeds everywhere, and even to use "tactical" nuclear weapons and militarize space. Whoever does not support the U.S. policy is condemned as an opponent. Whenever international organizations, such as the UN, do not support U.S. government policies, they are reluctantly tolerated until the U.S. government is able to subordinate or ignore them.

The ultra-right claims its international policies and increasing limitation on democratic rights at home are part of a necessary, unavoidable, unending "war on terrorism."

The ultra-right trend among the transnationals is supported by the military-industrial complex, by the oil and energy industry, by the pharmaceuticals that benefit from privatizing health care and from deregulation, by big sections of high tech and finance capital The ultra-right is backed by the most reactionary sectors of the capitalist class.

The other tendency to emerge is that of the sector of the transnationals largely associated with the national Democratic Party leadership. It is willing to make some concessions to the Democratic Party's mass base among labor and the nationally oppressed and women to ameliorate social discontent. This sector usually advocates a less unilateral, less triumphalist policy in relation to both the world and domestic social forces. In pursuit of their particular imperialist interests, this sector of transnational capital and its political representatives are significantly more reluctant to use military force until other means are exhausted. They see a greater role for the United Nations and other international bodies. Domestically they see a continued need for economic regulation and social welfare programs to keep social peace and avoid the extremes of destructive capitalist competitiveness.

The International Front for Peace

The socialist countries once formed the core of the world anti-imperialist front. With the demise of the Soviet Union, there is no longer a consistent international alliance of the forces for peace and progress against the forces for war and reaction regarding international and social issues.With each major international issue of struggle comes a new balance of forces. But now there is an immense and growing front of world public opinion and of states against U.S. hegemonic power. There is growing worldwide resistance to U.S. military action, to any military action by the other imperialist powers, and to solving international problems by military means. Only a handful of client states side with the U.S. because there is growing recognition that such policies threaten not only world peace but increasingly threaten the very existence of humanity.

The peace front is increasingly reflected in the UN. It consists of the remaining socialist countries and the developing countries that maintain some degree of independent policies. Even most other developed imperialist powers often recognize that military options result in highly dangerous consequences and seldom are useful or lasting even for their imperialist aims. The U.S. ultra-right ignores the existing world balance of forces for peace at the expense of weakening its general international influence.

There is also a growing resistance to U.S. international economic actions in international, bilateral and multilateral relations. Often it is the U.S. and the other big capitalist powers against the socialist countries and most of the developing world in economic relations. With nearly all of the socialist and developing countries now members of the WTO, IMF, and other international trade alliances, the struggle also takes place within these organizations. Increasingly, the developing countries have challenged the trade alliances' aim to regulate international economic relations in the interests of the transnationals and their "home countries," particularly the U.S.

There is a growing recognition that the internationalization of economic and social life means that social problems anywhere in the world impact all countries, including the richest ones. Mass poverty, several billion people living on less than $2 a day, extremes of wealth and poverty between classes and nations, international debt, lack of education, absence of health care in the face of pandemics such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and the severe and growing threats to the world's environment, are international problems facing all of humanity and requiring international solutions.

Some sectors of transnational capital recognize that there are problems that threaten the existence of humanity as well as their ability to maximize profits. This is also true of some imperialist powers. However, so far they have come up with only limited funds for such problems as AIDS and such agreements as the Kyoto Accords. When they do agree to take some positive action it usually directly benefits their own bottom line.

The socialist countries, the developing countries, and the working class and social movements of the developed capitalist countries continue to press for real and extensive action. Gradually these forces are becoming more united and determined about the need to confront international problems. On all these issues, the U.S. ultra-right opposes any meaningful action and tries to slow and divide the pressure for real measures. There is, however, the slow growth of a common world front of states and social forces for progress on these issues.

Part of this recent positive change in the world balance of forces is the resurgence of a leftward movement in several parts of the world, most notably in much of South America. In a number of the developed capitalist countries, the labor movement has become a more militant force in economic and political arenas.  There is some renewed strengthening of socialist and other Left forces-including the communist movement-associated with the international and regional progressive social and economic forums in recent years. The movement leftward is not a simple direct movement toward socialism, Marxism and the communist parties. It is rather a multi-faceted and eclectic. These are not uniform processes and there are countries where the ultra-right has gained ground, or where the ultra-right continues its political dominance, as in the U.S.

U.S. imperialism is the leader of world imperialism and home to the bulk of the dominant transnationals. It seeks control over the entire world, including its fellow imperialist powers. Under ultra-right political leadership, U.S. imperialism has immense instruments for winning its aims-ranging from its military preponderance to its various means of economic domination and political pressure, from  bribery to ideological weapons. But even with all of these instruments, U.S. domination is slowly weakening. Back to top

Present Features of Capitalism

The absolute and relative exploitation of the working class is at an unprecedented level and continues to grow rapidly. Each transnational corporation now exploits not only its own employed workers from many countries and the entire working class of its home country, but the entire working class of the world. At the same time, the working class is growing worldwide.

The movement of capital around the world in search of maximum profit is ever faster, whether in terms of the location of production, the supply of raw materials and other resources, research and development, mass distribution, currency, or price manipulation and speculation.

Disproportions in the world's highly interdependent economy spreads and is harder to control because of the transnationals' dominance. Regulation by any single country has less effect. International trade agreements in some cases even overrule national sovereignty in favor of the transnationals. The economy is therefore more vulnerable to supply and currency manipulations. The result is greater instability and volatility, more severe boom and bust cycles, and prolonged stagnation. Therefore, the contradiction between the increasingly international social character of production and distribution on the one hand and the concentration of capital among fewer and fewer on the other hand sharpens economic and social problems and contradictions. It also sharpens the class struggle.

The advance of the means of production connected with the globalization of economic and social life under domination of the transnational monopolies requires higher levels of environmental protection, education, health care, culture, housing, and family care to produce the quantity and quality of labor now needed. But this is in contradiction to the greater quantities of capitalist profit needed to sustain the growth of the giant transnationals, which only comes from a higher rate of exploitation and exploitation of growing numbers of workers worldwide. Intensification of the class struggle and sharper attacks on the living conditions of the working class are inherent in the dominance of the transnationals.

The development of modern capitalism requires the strengthening of the economic and political organizations of the working class and all working people both within our country and internationally. The merger of the transnationals with the state in the main imperialist countries means that capitalist globalization is both an economic and a political process.

In developing strategy and tactics for each stage of struggle, the main objective conditions must be considered. These objective conditions include the major features of today's capitalist economy. They also include the world and domestic balance of forces. These balances, reflecting the outcome of struggle of the contending class and social forces and states, place limits on what can be achieved until the balance undergoes a qualitative shift as a result of the accumulation of quantitative changes. In that sense, the overall qualities of the current stage of struggle are also an objective limitation determining what strategy and tactics can accomplish until that overall balance is replaced by a new political environment.

A correct and thorough understanding of capitalism, its essential features and current conditions, as well the political balance of forces is key to guiding the class and democratic struggles for change. Back to top

3. Class Struggle, Democratic Struggle & the Main Forces for Progress

Workers always seek to solve the chronic ills they face. Whether individual workers are conscious of it yet or not, the ultimate outcome of this struggle is socialism. To determine the strategy and tactics required for immediate progress and more fundamental change, it is necessary to be clear about what propels progressive change and about which struggles and classes have the potential to play decisive roles. The history of our country and the experience of struggle in recent years confirm Marxist theory's assertion that the struggle of the working class against the capitalist class is the chief driving force for progressive change. Back to top

The Class Struggle

The working class is compelled to resist increased exploitation. It seeks to improve living conditions by increasing workers' share of the new value they create at the expense of the capitalists. This class struggle takes place in the factories where commodities are produced and in the venues of distribution and sale of commodities. This is the economic side of the class struggle. The class struggle also has a political side. It plays out in struggles over governmental action or inaction, over social spending and tax policy, over elections, and ultimately over which class or formation of class and social forces becomes dominant in holding and exercising political power. The class struggle also exists in the realm of ideology, between social and political ideas and values that justify the political and economic policies of the contending classes.

The class struggle starts with the fight for wages, hours, benefits, working conditions, job security and jobs. But it also includes an endless variety of other forms for fighting specific battles: resisting speed-up, strikes, contract negotiations, demonstrations, lobbying for pro-labor legislation, elections, even general strikes. When workers struggle against the capitalist class or any part of it on any issue with the aim of improving or defending their lives, it is part of the class struggle.

There is no limit to the range of issues that are part of the class struggle: peace, democratic liberties, full equality and against racism, health care, decent schools, public housing, social security, environmental protection, and more. The class struggle takes on more conscious forms in strike struggles, which are expressions of trade union consciousness. The class struggle reaches full class and socialist consciousness only when the alliance of class and social forces is built under working-class leadership in order to win power and construct socialism. The activity of the Communist Party is based on building full class consciousness, which includes socialist consciousness.

The Working Class

The working class is the only force capable of becoming the general leader of the struggle for full social progress and socialism. Capitalism's dependence on  the working class to create all wealthgives it a strategic role in the production process and great potential power.

The size of the working class and its experience of collective labor and collective struggle prepare it to lead the struggle for progress. In the words of the Communist Manifesto, the working class is "the only truly revolutionary class," because only the working class has no other interest than ending capitalism completely and replacing it with socialism. These qualities and experiences also make the working class fertile ground for the ideas of socialism and Marxism and for Communist Party membership.

The working class of the U.S. is vibrant and diverse. The working class constitutes the great bulk of the country's population, and is continually growing. Its diversity includes skilled and unskilled labor, white-collar and blue-collar workers, people of all ages, organized and unorganized, employed, underemployed, and unemployed. The working class is almost evenly composed of men and women. Most nationally and racially oppressed communities are more heavily working-class than the country as a whole, and together constitute more than 25% of the working class, a percentage that is growing.  Workers and their families are a substantial majority of the total population. Despite its growing diversity, ours is a single working class, a class whose unity is growing and deepening.

Organized Labor

The labor movement is the organized sector of the working class. The diversity of the labor movement is growing in composition and leadership in recent years.The working class is constantly being joined by some who were once independent professionals-including doctors and engineers- but are now employees of vast corporations.

The labor movement has shrunk in the U.S. and some other developed capitalist countries in recent decades. Despite that, labor has become the leading force for progress on many social issues and in the electoral arena. Speeding up the organization of unorganized workers is one of the most important challenges to labor and all progressive forces. Back to top

The Democratic Struggle & Its Relation to the Class Struggle

Democratic struggles take place all the time throughout the U.S. and the world. They are struggles to enlarge democracy in every aspect of life for all working people, to improve their real life options. They include the struggle to prevent deterioration of living conditions. The democratic struggle is not only about democratic rights, civil liberties, and electoral democracy. It also includes struggles for peace, equality for the racially and nationally oppressed, equality for women, the struggles for job creation programs, increased minimum wage, for adequate health care, education, day care, housing, social security and other retirement benefits, environmental protection, protection of family farms and small businesses, the needs of youth, cultural programs, progressive taxation, sharply reduced military spending, and more. The struggles of all class and social forces to curb the power of the transnationals are democratic struggles.

The class struggle and the democratic struggle are closely linked. They overlap and intertwine. Every specific class struggle is also part of the democratic struggle because in those struggles, the masses of workers seek to enlarge or protect democratic possibilities. Often, class battles are played out in the political arena where the democratic action of millions of workers can powerfully affect the battle's outcome. The democratic struggle brings together the working class and other class and social forces for common struggle against one or another sector of the capitalist class.

The U.S. Constitution, as originally written, placed many restrictions on democracy, so from the time of the country's founding, there has been a continual battle to extend democracy to all. From eliminating property requirements to outlawing poll taxes, from demanding that the Bill of Rights be included in the Constitution to legal battles to ensure that all people have inalienable rights, from not only freeing the slaves but enrolling them as voters to extending the franchise to women, from lowering the voting age to the Voting Rights Act, our history has been one of masses of people demanding their full right to participation in the decisions which affect their lives. Many victories have been won in this struggle, but it is far from over. Democratic rights are always under attack.

The struggle to protect and expand democracy is the way to prevent fascism. It is the way to defeat the ultra-right. It is the path of curtailing the power of the monopolies. In and through the democratic struggle, the class struggle advances toward victory. Democratic struggle is the way to bring the working class and people's forces to the brink of  socialism. On the eve of socialism, the class struggle reaches its decisive turning point and goes beyond the limits of the democratic struggle under capitalism. The victory of socialism will open a new stage in the continual development of democracy, this time planned and guaranteed.

Our country's revolutionary traditions and history are filled with sharp struggles to protect and expand democracy. The desire of all people to actively participate in the decision-making of society drives battles for voting rights, for expanding the electorate, for reforming the electoral system, for protecting civil liberties, for guaranteeing civil rights, for an end to all forms of discrimination, for eliminating the power of large financial contributions which enable the rich to dominate elections. These democratic struggles are often entered into by working class forces that see the value for workers of expanding their political power and opportunity. The democratic struggle embraces class and social forces other than or in addition to the working class in struggle against one or another sector of the capitalist class and its dominant transnational monopolies.

Often, class battles are played out in the political arena, where the democratic rights of millions of workers can powerfully affect the outcome. The class struggle and the democratic struggle are closely linked. They overlap and intertwine. Every specific class struggle is also part of the democratic struggle because in those struggles, the masses of working people seek to enlarge or protect democratic possibilities.

The Constitution provides for political democracy, which though limited, is under attack by the ultra right. Protecting and expanding democratic rights are crucial struggles which Communists support. But we go further-we demand real economic democracy, and freedom from exploitation and oppression. We want the lives of all working people to be free not only of unwarranted government power but also to be free of unwarranted corporate power.

Every democratic struggle, by weakening the capitalist class or a section of it, objectively shifts the balance of forces, strengthening the working class. The struggle to defend and enlarge democracy is therefore the only path to socialism in our country-any other path will fail and is politically indefensible. Back to top

4. Unity is the Key to Victory: The Core Class & Social Forces for Progress

From the smallest of class struggles to the largest, unity is the key to victory. The experience of working people in their workplaces and neighborhoods is that only by joining together to fight for their common interests and demands can they win. This is the guiding principle of all unions and people's organizations: in unity is strength.

The Communist Manifesto declared: "Workers of the World Unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains." The Communist Party seeks to build broad unity to achieve the strategic and tactical goals of the working class. Our organizing principle is coalition work with unions, mass organizations, and mass movements.

This principle is not just true in struggles on the workplace, on the campus or in the neighborhood, but is equally true at the ballot box, in the larger political and social struggles, and in the battle for the hearts and minds of the public. Only by joining together can the working class and its allies win the larger struggles for dignity, rights and power. The working class cannot achieve its ultimate goal-socialism-without fighting for its leading role in the context of unity with other class and social forces. Back to top

Working Class Unity

Working class unity is fundamental to all key social and political victories. It is essential to the class struggle. In recent decades there has been a decline in the percentage of people in the workforce who are union members. Organizing unemployed workers into the trade union movement is one part of this fight for unity. Only by organizing the unorganized can the working class increase its strength as a whole. Working-class unity depends on uniting all the diverse sectors of the multiracial, multinational working class in the U.S.

Likewise, unity between various unions, between unemployed and employed, between industrial and service workers, etc., will strengthen the labor movement and increase its ability to fight for bigger demands and victories. Only by uniting with workers in other countries can we successfully confront the transnationals.

The working class plays a leading role in the struggle for various demands, but many of the key needs of working people cannot be won by the trade union movement or the working class alone. Unions must engage in coalitions with community, civil rights, women's, student and other organizations in order to increase their combined ability to win against a powerful enemy. From strike struggles, to legislative initiatives, to the fight for the White House, labor must build unity with other social forces to achieve victory. Only the unity of millions of working people led by the working class can win a revolutionary struggle.

The unity of labor and community cannot be based solely on the demands and leadership of labor. Labor must also take up the fight for the demands of its allies on the basis of mutual trust. This also allows for the working class to establish its leading role among the mass movements as a whole. The Communist Party always seeks to build principled unity among the working class and all progressive social forces to further their interests and power.

New levels of unity have developed in the working class movement in the recent period. The common struggle against capitalist globalization has ushered in an advanced phase of working unity between the labor movement, the environmental movement, the student movement, and others. Shifts in labor's immigration policy have allowed a new level of unity with immigrant rights organizations. Labor has increased its support of and work with Labor/Student solidarity organizations in recent years. There is a constant need to reinforce and defend this unity on the basis of common work, mutual respect and understanding.

At all strategic stages of struggle from the present to the construction of  socialism, the working class is the most important and consistent class and the only one whose interests are entirely on the side of progress and socialism. That does not mean that at every moment, in every struggle, it will in fact be the leader. But the working class will tend more and more to become the leader of the struggle for progress and socialism.

The working class, however, cannot be the sole force in these struggles, because its opponents at each stage are powerful, with great resources at their command. Only with the maximum of unity and powerful alliances can victory be assured in a peaceful manner. There are other major social forces whose interests substantially parallel those of the working class as a whole. Back to top

Special Oppression & Exploitation 

The most important of the potential allies of the working class are those who suffer special oppression and exploitation due to capitalism. All oppressed communities are well represented as part of the working class and also include people from other classes. Those who are part of the working class suffer the exploitation and social problems of all other workers, and in addition suffer from "special oppression," oppression that is not solely based on class. Some people experience triple and quadruple oppression since they face several kinds of intense exploitation, discrimination, and oppression.

The racially and nationally oppressed, women, youth, and immigrants all face types of special oppression. Many features of special oppression cut widely across class lines and effect to some degree all members of each oppressed social group. They affect not only those who are workers or part of the professional and small business groups but to some extent even those from sections of the capitalist class. This common experience of oppression creates a wide basis for unity among the group.

Capitalists directly gain from special oppression. Extra profits are extracted by the special oppression and exploitation of each group and from the disunity caused among working people. Capitalists and their apologists use ideological poison to justify and cover-up both special oppression and the exploitation of all workers. The working class members of the specially oppressed peoples play a key role in building the alliance between the working class and the oppressed group as a whole, since they are an important part of both. Back to top

Multiracial Unity for Full Equality and Against Racism

The foremost potential allies of the working class, through the various stages of struggle all the way to socialism, are the nationally and racially oppressed peoples. At the same time, racism is the single most important weapon of the ruling class to weaken the class and democratic struggles. It is a classic divide-and-conquer tactic. Spreading division among the working class and between the working class and its allies weakens all movements and struggles. Against this division, we must build multiracial unity with antiracism and the fight for full equality at its core. The working class is the most multiracial, multinational class in our society, and multiracial unity is key to building internal unity in the working class as well as in society as a whole.

The U.S. is perhaps the most multiracial and multinational country in the world, with  almost 300 million people that include almost every race, nationality and ethnic group on the planet. Racially and nationally oppressed people live and work in every region, in every state, and in every major city. They are primarily working-class and generally occupy the lowest-paying, most exploitative jobs. Among the nationally and racially oppressed are African Americans, Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans and other Latino peoples, Native Americans, Asian American and Pacific Islanders, and Arab and Middle Eastern peoples.

Racism in its many forms continues to play a central role in every aspect of U.S. life, including keeping the ultra-right in power, and in producing super profits, and in developing and justifying the creation of institutional discrimination

The working class must fight against racism and for full equality of all nationally oppressed if it is to unite internally and enter lasting alliances with the organizations and movements of racially oppressed peoples. By the same token, the nationally and racially oppressed groups must support labor's demands in order to unite internally and to ally with labor.

From its inception, the United States was built on racism. From the displacement and near genocide of Native Americans, to the enslavement of African Americans, to the theft of much of Mexico, to the racist exclusion of Asian and Pacific Islander immigrants and the current xenophobic hysteria against Arabs and South Asians, racism has been a convenient tool for the maintenance of power and super-profits by the ruling class at the expense of oppressed people. Racism is a tool that not only exploits racially oppressed people, it aids in the exploitation of white workers as well.

Racism affects the unity of the working class at all levels. Racial discrimination in hiring, racist wage and salary policies, racial stratification of various industries and trades undermine the interests of all workers. The ability of employers to pay workers differently based on skin color, country of origin, immigration status, or hire date in two-tier wage systems, creates downward pressure on the wages of all workers. It allows bosses to extract even higher profits from racially oppressed workers. Racism is good for business, but is bad for working people of every race. White workers have a powerful self-interest in fighting racism-white workers will gain greater victories to the degree that they unite with nationally and racially oppressed workers. Multiracial unity in the workplace and on the shop-floor is the key to winning victories for all, to lifting wages, conditions and dignity for every worker.

The workplace is not the only place where building multiracial unity is essential. Multiracial unity is necessary at all levels of the class struggle. This is the reason for the long-standing coalition between the labor and civil rights movements. Not only do these movements have common enemies, they have a common agenda of expanding economic, social, and civil rights. The working class and racially oppressed people have common interests in housing, employment, education, and other areas.

White people do not themselves experience racism, but should take the lead in combating all instances of racism and national oppression wherever and whenever they occur. These acts are the building blocks of grassroots unity and trust. They prove the struggle against racism is not for racially oppressed people to combat alone. It is in the self-interest of all workers, leading to greater unity, respect, and strength for the labor movement and all other movements. Back to top

Allied Movements:

African Americans

Historically and continuing today, African Americans and their organizations play a tremendous role in democratic and class struggles, and in building alliances with progressive movements, especially the labor movement. The reasons for this key role include:

1. the central role played by slavery in providing capital for U.S. political and economic development;
   
2. the central role resistance to slavery played in winning the Civil War, the "Second American Revolution";
   
3. the central role played by the Civil Rights revolution in defeating Jim Crow laws and practices, mobilizing virtually an entire people and their allies, challenging and defeating entrenched reaction in the South, forcing changes in the voting laws to expand democracy, setting the stage for movements of other oppressed peoples;
   
4. the exceptionally high percentage of African Americans who are working class;
   
5. African Americans are among the largest nationally oppressed peoples, and live and work in strategic locations and industries around the country;
   
6. the level of coordinated struggle that the labor movement and the African American people have already achieved;
   
7. the bell-weather role played by the successes and the setbacks in the struggle for African American equality with respect to the struggles of all other oppressed peoples.
   
8. The African American people play a big role in national politics. Their concentration in large urban centers, high working-class composition, heavy concentration in the labor movement, and high level of political/social organization including churches and mosques, civil rights organizations, and social and fraternal organizations, all make it possible for these groups to politically mobilize millions, including many beyond the African American community.

In national elections, African Americans vote overwhelmingly against the ultra right more than any other group. There are thousands of Black elected officials nationally; almost all run as Democrats. Because they vote almost unanimously as a block in most elections, African Americans have a level of influence beyond their actual numbers.

Mexican Americans

Mexican Americans together with African Americans are the two largest nationally oppressed peoples in the U.S., with Mexican Americans being one of the fastest growing sections of the population. The Mexican American population is concentrated in the U.S. Southwest, land that was originally stolen from Mexico, with U.S. domination being imposed on the many Native American and Mexican American people living in those areas.

Mexican Americans mainly vote Democratic and have a major and growing impact on national elections. They have emerged as perhaps the most decisive group of voters in California and the southwestern states. Nationally, there are thousands of Mexican Americans holding public office, most elected as Democrats. The Mexican American people are overwhelmingly working-class and are a major force in the trade union movement nationally. There are also many large national, regional and local mass organizations among the Mexican American people that have a big impact on the U.S. political scene. Among the problems faced by Mexican Americans are language discrimination on the job and in schools, cultural suppression, anti-immigrant laws and abuses, and lack of full political representation.

Immigrants

The labor movement has recently embraced the importance of unity between immigrant and native-born workers. Not only did anti-immigrant sentiment and racist repressive laws allow bosses to relegate immigrant workers to near-slavery conditions with no recourse, but it also undercut the attempts by native-born workers to organize unions and win concessions from management. Attacks on immigrants in farm fields, at the borders, and by law enforcement lay the basis for undermining everyone's rights.

The U.S. has large communities of immigrant workers. These workers are often super-exploited, working in the most primitive, unhealthy, non-union conditions. Each immigrant group faces its own national oppression, and many face racial oppression as well. Basic human and labor rights are often denied them. Thousands of undocumented, mainly agricultural workers crossing the border with Mexico are subjected to the murderous policies of the Border Patrol and racist vigilantes. They are hounded, chased down like criminals. Hundreds have tragically died or been murdered, especially in border areas, for simply trying to unite their families or find a better life.

For most Latinos, common use of Spanish and shared experience of discrimination in the U.S.are forging unity among Latino peoples. At the same time many immigrants from Latin America speak an indigenous language as their first language or do not speak Spanish at all. Latinos are extremely diverse culturally and in terms of national origin. Over half of all Latinos in the U.S. are foreign-born and face discrimination as immigrants, including Brazilians whose language origins are Portuguese.

Fleeing U.S. Imperialism

Many people come to the U.S. as a result of wars with either direct U.S. military involvement or surrogates financed and trained by the U.S. People from many countries immigrate to the U.S. because of dire economic situations in their home countries. Reactionaries often use this immigration to bolster their claims that the U.S. is a beacon of freedom. But it is actually a condemnation of U.S. transnationals and their crass exploitation abroad. Refugees often immigrate to the U.S. looking for economic survival. They are refugees from the economic policies of U.S. imperialism, from the neo-colonial, "free trade" exploitation experienced around the world.

Many  refugees fled their countries due to right-wing dictatorships and death squads supported and trained by the U.S. in Guatemala, El Salvador and elsewhere in Central America.

Many immigrants from the Caribbean are trying to escape the U.S. stranglehold on their home countries. Dominicans, Haitian Jamaicans, and others play vital roles in their communities in the U.S.

Haitian immigrants, from one of the poorest countries in the world, have experienced U.S. support for dictators and death squads, U.S. attempts to subvert and co-opt popular democratic movements, and direct exploitation by U.S., French, and other transnationals. Once in the U.S., they face continued impoverishment, heath crisis, racism and discrimination.

Asian Americans come from many different nations, with different cultures, different histories, and different politics. The widely varying conditions in their homelands have a big impact on the consciousness, level of organization, and integration into U. S. society of the different Asian immigrant groups. While a large number of Asian Americans are foreign-born, millions of Asian Americans have been living in the U.S. for generations.

When  immigrants arrived in the U. S. and under what conditions are big factors in the level of political consciousness of Asian American communities. During World War II, many  Japanese Americans, most of whom were citizens, faced forced incarceration in internment camps.  They have a different life experience and political history than Vietnamese who immigrated during the turmoil of the defeat of U. S. armed forces in the mid-1970s. Filipinos whose parents and grandparents came to the U. S. in the 1920s to work in the agricultural fields of California have different national issues than South Koreans, many of whom immigrated following World War II as professionals and students. As more recent immigrants from Asia live in this country for longer periods, they increasingly face and understand the racial and national discrimination rife in the U. S., and increasingly struggle against that oppression. Cambodians, Laotians, Koreans, and national minorities from within those countries endure virulent racism, discrimination, and forced exclusion from major parts of society. The national questions faced by Asian Americans are thus complex, varied, and need specific attention.

Pacific Islanders also come from countries and lands with widely varying political and economic conditions, from colonies of the U. S. like Guam, to independent nations like Fiji, to hundreds of smaller islands which are still struggling to create and maintain their own national identities. Samoans, Fijians, Micronesians, and many other nationalities all face national discrimination and racial discrimination in particular ways.

Increasing numbers of Africans immigrants,  have come to the U.S. in recent years, fleeing economic oppression, war, lack of opportunity, famine and genocide. Many African immigrants come with advanced degrees but are relegated to the lowest paid jobs and living conditions.

Colonies of the U.S.

The U.S., contrary to mythmaking in many U.S. histories, maintains several colonies around the world. To hide this fact, the government uses the term "protectorate" or "commonwealth" to describe the occupied nations.

There are about 4 million Puerto Ricans in their nation Puerto Rico, a U.S. colonial possession. Puerto Ricans in their homeland face numerous kinds of discrimination and special oppression. Part of their fight for justice includes the fight for the right of self-determination for Puerto Rico. A prerequisite for Puerto Ricans being able to fully exercise any right to make a decision dealing with their country is the transfer of all sovereign powers to the Puerto Rican nation. This includes their own association with any other country, a right which cannot truly be exercised under the domination of U.S. imperialism.

Puerto Ricans living in the U.S. form as large a community as they do in Puerto Rico. They are overwhelmingly working-class  and they are very active in the trade union movement. Puerto Ricans vote consistently against the right.

For several decades during the last century, the Philippines was a "protectorate" of the U.S., and many Filipinos immigrated during that time and subsequently, many to work in the agricultural and canning industries. Filipinos played an important role in early efforts to unionize farmworkers on the West Coast and in Hawaii.

The U.S. maintains colonies in Guam, Virgin Islands, Samoa, and elsewhere whose population has no vote, no say and no sovereignty.

Post-9/11 Discrimination

More than six million people of Arab ancestry live in the U.S., including such nationalities as Palestinians, Iraqis, Lebanese, Syrians, Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia. Many live in communities in Michigan, Illinois, California, and New York. Most are workers, with many active in the labor movement and otherwise active politically. Thousands of Iranian Americans also live in the U.S. Many people from all these nationalities have been citizens of the U.S. for generations, many are recent immigrants.

As a result of U.S. aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq and support of Israeli occupation of Palestine and refusal to accept the existence of a co-equal Palestinian Arab state, a substantial majority of Arabs, Muslims and South Asian peoples in the U.S. have become active opponents of the ultra-right. Discrimination against them, which dramatically increased following 9/11, has intensified their opposition to the current course of U.S. domestic policy. This heightened discrimination and oppression includes racist violence, registration  with the FBI, imprisonment without due process or even legal counsel, and mass deportations.

The demonization of Arabs, Muslims and South Asians does not make anyone safer. It is in reality a support for the aggressive military policies of the U.S. government and a racist justification of oppression.

Native Americans and other Indigenous Peoples

There are many unique features of the national struggles of Native American Indians and other indigenous peoples in the U.S.. Issues of sovereignty and treaty rights, language and cultural rights fishing and hunting rights, land rights, health care and education give a different character to these struggles. Also, the abuse and mismanagement by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as well as tribal government issues, make an impact on Native American forms of organization and struggle.

The attempted genocide of Native Americans  must be recognized and acknowledged by honoring treaties and tribal sovereignty, by reparations and affirmative action for tribesas well as for urban Indians. Native Americans have played an important role in the Ironwork, Construction and other industries in some regions of the country, and have a long history of struggle for survival and democratic rights.

Some tribes play an active, vigorous role in the electoral process. The growing political clout of some tribes is contrasted with the most vicious effects of racism on the living conditions, education, employment, health, and survival of many Native Americans, who on some reservations are subjected to the worst possible living conditions, highest infant mortality rates, highest rates of disease and suicide, and highest unemployment of any nationality. The growth of gambling casinos on many reservations has not alleviated conditions for the large majority of Native Americans, and is not a solution to the racism and national oppression they face.

Other indigenous peoples, including Aleuts, Inuit, and native Hawaiians, have their own cultures and traditions. Hawaii, which had its independent monarchy overthrown by an invading army, was a colony of the U.S. for many decades. Native Hawaiians face national oppression in addition to the problems faced by Hawaii as a whole, one of the most multi-racial states.

United Against Sexism: The Struggle for Full Equality for Women

Working class women suffer additional forms of oppression and exploitation than do male workers. The capitalists gain super profits as a result-billions of dollars each year. They also gain greater profits from male workers when male supremacy helps the capitalists divide male and female workers.

Like racism, sexism is a key tool of the ruling class against all women and the working class as a whole. The wage differential remains between men and women in similar jobs resulting in billions more in profits. The gendered stratification of the job market ensures that many women are relegated to the lowest-paying, least secure jobs. Under capitalism, women workers are doubly oppressed, once as workers and again as women. Racially and nationally oppressed women face triple oppression. Women continue to be compelled to shoulder the predominate burdens of childcare and domestic household work. Treatment of women as sexual objects also brings additional profits to the capitalists and divides men and women. Cuts in social welfare programs hit single mothers and their children especially hard, with rapidly growing numbers of single mothers being driven further into poverty. These cuts hit women of oppressed groups even harder.

Among the forms of oppression women experience are attacks on their reproductive rights, lack of quality, affordable day care, inequality in child rearing and household work, sexual harassment on the job, and domestic and sexual violence. The special oppression of women also cuts widely across class lines. This provides the potential for a progressive role for women as a whole, as an ally of the working class and the nationally oppressed.  Women workers play a key role in assuring an alliance of the women's movement with the working class, while nationally oppressed women play such a role in the alliance with the nationally oppressed. Generally, women are more advanced than men on issues of war and peace, and on social welfare programs.

Men should take the lead in combating all instances of sexism and male supremacy in the labor and people's movements as well as in the family. Men have a self-interest in this-greater principled unity means greater victories for all. Women need and deserve an equal place in the ranks and in the leadership of the labor movement and all the people's mass democratic movements, including the Communist Party. The main expression of the unity of men and women must be in the united struggle for women's rights and equality. The labor movement needs to stand up for the rights of working women in particular as well as women generally. All the people's movements need to defend reproductive rights and basic equality for women against rightwing attack.

Youth & Students

Under capitalism, youth and students experience special oppression and exploitation. Once again capitalism gains extra profits from the special  exploitation of youth, by two-tier contracts providing lower wages for new hires and by extremely low minimum wages which mostly affect young workers. Capitalists also gain from pitting generations of workers against one another. Capitalism deprives youth of free access to quality education, of cultural and sports activities, of living wage jobs and entry-level training and apprenticeship programs, and threatens young people's hope for a secure future.

Capitalism seeks to use youth as cannon fodder in its imperialist adventures. Working class youth and students are in a position to be a key link between youth and the working class; They are the core of a labor/youth alliance. Similarly, youth who are also specially oppressed can help ally youth with the other core forces in the struggle for social progress. The forces of ultra-right reaction attempt to appeal demagogically to the young generation, but increasingly the desire of youth for a secure future and their high social ideals move youth into on-going alliance with labor and its allies and pushes the youth movement in a leftward direction.

United Against Homophobia

The ultra-right also uses homophobia, and attacks on gays and lesbians as a wedge to divide its opposition. Using their false notions of "morals" and "family values," the right attempts to use homophobia to gain allies for its corporate agenda among the working class and its allies. As do all other people, gays and lesbians deserve and are demanding full and equal civil rights, including the right to marry.

Those leading the attack on gay rights are also attacking labor and slashing budgets for social programs. The real threat to working families is not gay marriage but the ultra-right agenda of maximum profits and war. Homophobia was one of the weapons of the McCarthy-era attack on democracy, and continues to be called on by the ultra-right in attempts to split the growing unity against the rightwing program. Unity against homophobia and for gay rights is an important defense of basic rights for gays, lesbians, and all people, and is a key to building unity against the broad anti-democratic agenda of the right. Discrimination in housing, employment, education, as well as hate crimes against gays and lesbians, need to be punishable by law where they are not, and enforced where they are.

Other Social Movements

There are other class and social forces, social movements and political tendencies that play important roles in the political life of our country. These include the peace activists, family farmers, professionals, and small business people. Similarly, movements in support of improved public education and public health care, for reforming and democratizing our electoral systems, civil liberties organizations, various community and neighborhood organizations, and democratic progressive sections of religious denominations and organizations, at times all ally themselves with the working class. At times, one or another struggle led by these groups can be the sharpest battle in a region or in the nation as a whole, galvanizing new support, understanding, and activism. The massive worldwide peace movement involves tens of millions directly, and hundreds of millions who support and agree with the goal of building a peaceful world.

International Solidarity & the Struggle for Peace

The politics of the Communist Party are rooted in proletarian internationalism. This means that we recognize that the working class of the whole world has common interests in their mutual understanding, liberation, peace and development. We share a common enemy: world imperialism, particularly U.S. imperialism, its most reactionary transnationals, and the governments they dominate. We support the broadest possible unity of the international working class. We also support international solidarity with other forces, peoples and movements struggling for liberation worldwide.

Like other forms of unity, international unity must be built on respect, trust and joint action on issues of common interest. International working-class solidarity and unity is not built in the abstract but in specific struggles, in reality.

The need for international working-class unity is more important than ever. U.S. imperialism, particularly under ultra-right dominance, is increasingly warlike and belligerent. There are similar trends in some competing imperialist powers. In their attempts to spread economic, political and military control across the globe-in short, to spread their empires-some capitalist nations do not hesitate to declare war on weaker nations. We cannot rule out the danger of war between imperialist powers in the future, though the destructive effects of modern weaponry, the overwhelming military superiority of the U.S., and the likely negative internal political opposition serve to discourage ambitions for direct military imperialist conflict. Working people are the victims on both sides of all imperialist wars and military adventures.

 The U.S. government is the main imperialist power in the world and is therefore the main threat to peace worldwide. The U.S. working class and peace-loving people have a special role to play in the international peace movement. We have a responsibility to all past, present, and potential future victims of direct U.S. military aggression, including socialist Cuba, Vietnam, and North Korea. Building international unity against war and aggression is increasingly a matter of human survival. Unity against the development and use of nuclear weapons and against expanding the arms race into space is a continuing and escalating necessity.

Capitalism has been a global system since the early days of mercantile capitalism. Since the 1970s, changes in science, technology, and transportation have reinforced the dominance of transnational corporations within capitalism. The ever-more-rapid capitalist globalization of the world is an increasing threat to working people around the world. Giant transnational corporations and the governments that back them are racing to expand their markets and access to resources. They are destroying national sovereignty, workers rights and environmental protections in order to increase their profits. Only much greater unity and solidarity by the labor and people's movements internationally can counter the ravages of capitalist globalization.

A new level of international unity and struggle emerged from the protests of the November 1999 meetings of the World Trade Organization in Seattle, Washington. Environmental groups, student organizations, women's groups, and others came together with the labor movement and allies from around the world to say no to capitalist globalization. There exists today a much higher level of international consciousness among working people and a much greater level of functional international unity than in recent memory. Back to top

5. Unity Against the Ultra Right

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, capitalism in the U.S. went through a period of economic stagnation, an oil crisis which challenged U.S. corporate dominance of energy resources, the exposure of the illegal and immoral operations of U.S. intelligence agencies, and the resignation of a sitting president. Internationally, there was the renewed economic power of U.S. competitors in Europe and Japan, a continuing rise of newly independent former colonies who sought alternatives to subservience to the transnationals, growing economic strength in the socialist community of nations, and a military defeat of U.S. imperialism in Vietnam. These and other challenges to U.S. capitalist dominance caused a shift in ruling class thinking.

Sections of the U.S. ruling class began to seriously fund right-wing think tanks, ultra-right political campaigns, and efforts to turn religious fundamentalism to their political advantage, in an attempt to reassert their power. They sought to reassert U.S. military strength with massive investments in new weapons systems. They sought to break up the grand political coalition that supported the Democratic Party by building their own coalition of transnationals, and economic and social conservatives in the Republican Party.

Beginning in the 1970s and dramatically escalating with the election of Reagan, the ultra-right increased U.S. military build-up. Under Reagan, they attacked the very existence of unions and bargaining rights, imposed tax cuts for the rich, cut social programs, demonized foreign opponents of the U.S., and covertly funded the right-wing-initiated civil war in Nicaragua. They picked small countries to invade, testing new military equipment and strategy, and breaking down resistance at home and abroad to U.S. military invasion as a policy option. The election of Clinton led the ultra-right to step up attacks on Democrats, liberals, and all social programs, and to intensify all their efforts in a vast right-wing conspiracy which quickly won a Republican majority in Congress for the first time since World War II. Across the "mainstream" political spectrum, support for capitalist globalization led to the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the WTO, and other international trade agreements and organizations and to increased outsourcing of union manufacturing jobs.

Further shifts to the right occurred with the stealing of the 2000 elections and the 2004 election of George W. Bush. Republican control of all three branches of the federal government put tremendous power into the hands of the most reactionary section of the transnational corporations. Massive tax cuts for the wealthiest few, accompanied by huge increases in military spending and privatization of social programs, have decimated the budgets of most states and cities. Today, pre-emptive war and nuclear weapons development aimed at global domination threaten the future of the entire planet. Utilizing the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 as a smokescreen, constitutional rights of free speech and assembly have been curtailed, and police powers and monopolization of the media have accelerated.

The ultra-right is dominated by the most reactionary sectors of the transnational monopolies. These include the military-industrial complex, the oil and energy industry, the pharmaceuticals, sections of the high tech industry and finance capital, and massive manufacturing and distribution companies including Wal-Mart. The ultra-right also incorporates various social and political tendencies, and has achieved a mass base among sections of different class and social forces which currently support ultra-right candidates against their own interests. Most of ultra-right's mass base is unaware of the real program of the ultra-right. These include the so-called "neo-conservatives," social and fiscal conservatives, religious fundamentalists, nativists, libertarians, and other rightwing trends. The ultra-right also includes sections of the urban and rural middle strata: farmers, large and small business people, as well as small sections of most class and social forces. This mass aspect of the ultra-right movement tends to be located more in the suburbs and exurbs, and in small cities and towns especially in the West, Midwest and South.

The present period of capitalist development poses a grave danger to democratic rights and civil liberties in the United States. Since the early 1980s, the Republican Party, dominated by its ultra-right wing, has controlled much of the national legislative agenda, while the leadership of the Democratic Party ceded ground to their agenda.

Currently, every movement for change and progress is challenged by the oppositional power of the corporations. Workers face corporate power in every contract negotiation. African Americans, Mexican Americans, other Latinos , Native Americans, Asian Americans, and women face corporate power when they seek real equality on the job and in their communities. Youth face corporate power when they seek free quality education for all. Environmental organizations face corporate power when they try to stop pollution, stop the dumping of industrial waste, or stop the ravaging of remaining wilderness areas.

The corporations and their paid hacks in the media constantly proclaim that "competitiveness" requires lower wages, fewer benefits, fewer holidays, gutted pension plans, continuing wage differentials and discrimination, and the free export of capital and jobs to other countries. We don't think that is so. "Free Trade" agreements, which place supra-national committees of capitalists above our laws, which require ending environmental protections, which allow the "free" export of capital and jobs, which remove the ability of countries to restrict the rights and activities of corporate managers, are only free in that they give a "free" bonus of super-profits to the already rich and powerful at the expense of democracy and sovereignty. Back to top

Building an All-People's Front Against the Ultra-Right

The only strategy capable of defeating the ultra-right is the widest possible unity of all the class and social forces whose interests run counter to those of the most reactionary section of the transnationals. This includes all the class and social forces  described herein, except the most reactionary sectors of transnational capital. This unity will include an ever-growing Center-Left political coalit