Report given during month leading up to the 27th National Convention of the CPUSA National
Committee's Leadership Role
The National Convention is the highest decision making body in the Communist
Party. It has both the important tasks of setting policy and electing
a new National Committee (NC). These are interrelated parts of the same
democratic process.
The NC is vested with the responsibility of giving leadership to the Party, bringing the political agenda to life, applying it to all areas of work and mobilizing the entire Party in the process. It elects officers, organizes the various commissions and leadership collectives of the People's Weekly World, Political Affairs, Nuestro Mundo, and other Party institutions.
Setting the Party's political agenda and electing new national leadership are the culmination of the extensive democratic Pre-Convention Discussion period. The discussions flow from the Party's involvement in mass struggles, movements and coalitions. This process takes in the experiences and thinking of clubs, districts, commissions, the e-communist group on the Internet, and the contributions in the Pre-Convention Discussion Bulletin and Party publications.
Guidelines
for the Process
The process to elect the NC is designed to strengthen Party unity at all
levels and is connected to the political agenda set by the Convention.
The process involves the whole Party and should result in the election
of a unified collective.
We want to guarantee the class, racial and national, gender, age and geographic composition of our leadership. We can't leave the election of a balanced leadership collective up to a random process. We have a large country and not every delegate is familiar with the work of all those being proposed to the NC.
Our election process is not modeled after bourgeois electoral procedures, which are popularity contests based on personalities or competing platforms. Since the National Convention adopts a collectively derived political agenda there is no need for competing platforms or individual campaigns for leadership.
National
Leadership Pool
Our process for electing an NC begins long before the actual vote is taken
at the Convention. In a new innovation designed to expand the democratic
process of leadership election, the NC has established a "leadership
pool." Every district should submit proposals for this pool after
collective discussions, including at district conventions. In addition,
consultation will take place between the outgoing national leadership
and the district collectives.
In submitting proposals to the leadership pool, districts' collectives should keep in mind that this list will be retained and used for staffing of commissions and other important national level leadership and policy-making positions.
Process
at the Convention
At the start of the Convention, this "leadership pool" information
will be turned over to the Convention Presiding Committee. The Presiding
Committee is the collective leadership of the Convention elected by the
delegates. One of its responsibilities is to deliberate and propose a
National Committee list. It will take into consideration all the proposals
from the national leadership pool and the criteria for forming a collective
leadership as well as any changes in structure and organization.
The Presiding Committee presents its proposed list to the Convention. The election process allows additional nominations from the floor. The delegates then vote, by secret ballot, for the new National Committee.
Collective
Nature of the National Committee
The NC is not a federated body made up of individuals who represent constituencies
in districts or clubs. Delegates at the Convention don't vote to elect
individuals to represent them. Instead delegates will elect a political
collective that represents and gives leadership to the whole Party.
Our leadership is an activist leadership. An effective leadership is one that is in touch with the working class and social forces in motion and active in Party clubs and other collectives. Our leadership should be active in labor and community struggles, coalitions and movements for workers' rights, equality, peace, environmental justice, etc.
Our leadership should be rooted among working class comrades, especially workers from the shops, industrial workers, and activists in labor struggles.
It should
be fully reflective of:
-The diverse racial and national composition of our class and people:
African American, Mexican American, Puerto Rican and other Latino nationalities,
Asian, American Indian, Arab, etc., reflecting as much as possible the
demographic changes of recent years;
- Immigrant workers;
- Women and men;
- Both urban center and rural communities;
- Gay, Lesbian and straight;
- All ages ranging from youth, including Party members active in the YCL,
to those with veteran experience;
- Geographic dispersal, and especially reflecting the growth of the labor
and people's movements in the South and West;
- Leadership of Party institutions like the PWW, PA, Nuestro Mundo, our
publishing institutions, etc.
The opening report to the May National Committee meeting outlined some thinking on the character of leadership to be elected:
"Those entrusted to lead the Party at the coming Convention should bring more energy, enthusiasm, creativity, modesty and collectivity to our Party's initiatives."
"Party leaders at this moment should be committed to fighting for the policy direction of the Party even in cases where they have reservations and differences."
The new leadership reflects the process of continuous renewal, of replenishing the leadership with younger comrades while maintaining a continuity of experience.
Summary
The proposals from the districts to the national leadership pool should
include brief biographies that offer pertinent information about racial/national
background, gender, age, and area of work, etc.
The election of leadership is a collective process organically linked to the activities of the Party. The election process should result in a more united Party, greater unity of leadership with membership and the functioning of a dynamic and unified collective.
