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