Keynote to the CPUSA National Committee meeting in New York City, July 11, 2026.

This meeting of the National Committee must be focused on the November midterms. As we meet just one week after the 250th anniversary, there’s no question before the party, the working class or the U.S. people that’s more important. Everything revolves around defeating the MAGA forces. You name it: labor rights, civil rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, the environment, peace, and indeed democracy itself.

And the prospects for this defeat are growing. In fact, if the election were held today the generic ballot suggests a 5 percent advantage for beating the GOP in the House. The Senate is a steeper climb, but still, it’s possible.

Momentum is on democracy’s side.

And so far, the primaries show that momentum is on democracy’s side. This is true in general, and it’s particularly true with respect to the stunning victory of DSA candidates in New York City and Colorado. As we previously noted, a deep radicalization is taking place in the working-class electorate. There is great dissatisfaction with both the Democratic and GOP establishments. In both cases, real change was promised but never delivered and now voters are increasingly looking at the socialist alternative.

Contributing to this momentum is the beginning of a shift in the involvement of the trade union movement in the democratic upsurge. It started with the January ICE invasion of the Twin Cities and the murders of Renee Goode and Alex Pretti. Workers around the country said, “Enough is enough.” And No Kings 3 saw trade unions in many cities help organize and lead protests.

Then came the People’s World (PW) May Day Town Hall where we were joined by several labor leaders including the AFL-CIO’s Fred Redmond in another sign that the trade union leadership was doing things differently. This was followed by Liz Shuler and Fred Redmond’s historic endorsement of May Day. That was big! May Day, born in the great city of Chicago, finally came home thanks in the first place to the immigrant rights movement that kept the flame alive.

At the same time, we must also acknowledge the work of our own comrades in the labor movement. And let’s not forget People’s World and the outstanding role it’s playing. Taken as a whole, we can be proud of making a small but important contribution to the working class’s growing leadership. And that’s precisely our role, our “plus,” to help place a working-class stamp on the battle for democracy.

That’s precisely our role, our “plus:” to help place a working-class stamp on the battle for democracy.

It’s difficult to overstate the importance of the trade union movement’s involvement. When they joined the protests, it brought the organized strength of labor into the fight: it built unity and it helped improve the No Kings movement’s racial composition. That’s what we mean by a working-class stamp. Was that stamp enough? No. A lot more needs to be done but things are moving in a good direction. Some of the center forces in the trade unions have moved and there’s a growing left in labor. That left has played a unique role in bringing these developments about. Over the past period, important coalitions of different unions have emerged to lead the fight. Let’s continue to explore working with them and others to build on these developments.

In this regard, the ongoing effort to hold a national day of union solidarity initiated by CBTU remains part of the mix as does the AFL-CIO’s support for a back-to-school boycott of Target.

As we shift gears and prepare to march from the streets to the ballot box this summer and fall, keep in mind that unions have their own separate electoral operation including mailing lists, phone banks, and an independent candidate endorsement process. This includes get-out-the-vote mobilizations. In other words, unions are armed with a ready-made form of political independence.

In the coming weeks where possible clubs should make plans to identify and reach out to local unions and central labor councils and volunteer to join their efforts. And I know from experience it’s easier than you think: all you’ve got to do is make a phone call. The point here is to take concrete steps to build relationships now that will help build the movement after the election as we prepare to run our own candidates for office.

It goes without saying that building these relationships applies to all of our coalition activities. Faith communities, civil rights groups, women’s organizations, and grassroots organizing networks all will be mobilizing in the next weeks and months leading up to November. And let’s remember the election won’t be over on Election Day. The day after it’s likely we’ll have to fight to consolidate whatever victories occur. As we know in this atmosphere nothing can be taken for granted. What we do today will lay the basis for future work tomorrow.

And a big part of that future work must be continuing to run for elected office ourselves. And here I’m very happy to report we’re doing that: Dom Shannon and Cesar Ruiz De Castilla won in Philly. And I keep hearing about others who are planning to run: in Columbus, Peoria, Kansas, and in Brooklyn. I say, run comrades run! We’ve got to strike while the iron is hot. And that means we’ve got to start running under our own colors. It is time to wave our flag high.

The socialist moment is back!

In this regard, we’ve got to recognize the reemergence of what we’ve called the “socialist moment.” That’s what the DSA election victories around the country represent, and no manner of Trump’s red-baiting is going to change that. In fact, it might help facilitate it. The American people, and in particular this rising young generation, aren’t buying the anti-communism. As one young communist put it on her Instagram page, “Gen Z loves communism.” And I’ll tell you something: she’s not that far off. A March 2025 YouGov poll shows 62 percent of those below 30 favor socialism and 34 percent favor communism.

We’ve got to tap into that sentiment, we’ve got to organize it, and to do so, folks have to be able to find us. And I can think of no better way of making that discovery possible than throwing our hat into the election ring with party campaigns. And when we say party campaigns, we’re not talking about narrow sectarian exercises in foolishness. No. We understand that by definition an election campaign requires building a coalition. What we are advocating is clearly identifying our party affiliation as we campaign. This applies whether we run on a party line, as independents, or in the Democratic Party.

Far too often the fear of red-baiting has held us back. But younger generations, and in particular Zoomers, fortunately are largely free of these inhibitions which Gus Hall used to refer to as rubber bands pulling us back into a period when members were unable to work openly. During those years, our semi-legality forced our cadre to be very selective about who they revealed their membership to.

As a result, very little was done in the name of the party itself. Members found other forms for carrying on political work: a union rank-and-file committee, a study group or a community organization. And when discussing our public presence you’d often hear the phrase “oh they know who I am.” Well the truth is sometimes they did, and sometimes they didn’t. But whether they did or didn’t, the time has come to cut those rubber bands. They’re a drag on growth, they contribute to inactivity, and they curb party initiative — and you can’t lead if you don’t take initiative.

And we need to be able to lead, don’t we? And that means responding quickly to developments as they occur in real time: you’ve got to call a meeting, organize a protest, issue a statement, make a video, as developments unfold. You can’t wait a day or week later — when that happens, the moment’s already past, and with it, the ability to influence developments. And leadership is all about influencing developments.

Here, however, caution is in order: how you lead is important. Is the goal to lead alone or in coalition with others? If you’re not careful, taking initiative alone can result in your marching alone, and we’ve had that experience as well.

In an effort to avoid this problem some years ago a line of reasoning emerged in the party that we should not get involved in any struggle unless other organizations or movements first addressed it. And that appeared to make sense: gauge where the movement is, build unity among broad social forces, and respond as you go along. It appeared to make sense. However as Marx warned, if appearance were reality, there’d be no need for science. In practice this wait and see attitude proved deadly. In fact, Lenin critiqued it, calling this tendency “tactics as process.”

You see what actually happened is that we often responded not only too slowly, but without a plan. And when you’re too slow and don’t have a plan, you end up tailing developments. Instead of helping develop and lead the line of march, we ended up staggering alone at the end of the march. Yes, in an effort to avoid sectarianism, we ran smack dab into a sectarianism of a different type. This became so pronounced that one day it was actually announced that we are no longer a vanguard party. All of this is the result of what we now know is a form of garden-variety economism.

The lesson here of course is that we should always respond quickly and strive to lead with others. As we have said before, coalition building and the united front policy is a way of life in the Communist Party.

Needless to say, this requires revisiting and refining the Leninist theory of the party as our rebuilding process unfolds. This includes updating its application to 21st-century conditions.

Comrades, our last convention, as you know, prioritized strengthening our organizational status and we elected comrade Anita Waters as organizational secretary, re-establishing this position for the first time in a quarter century. Anita’s been doing a great job. Under her able leadership and working alongside Rossana, communication has improved, new member outreach has been regularized, and 11 new clubs have been established. Anita also successfully led our PW fund drive this spring, to the tune of $140k. That said, there’s much that remains to be done. And let me count the ways:

Consider for a moment that many districts and clubs are brand new, and even most of the old ones have new leaderships. Basic information, like how to hold a club and district conference, the method for conducting elections, and what’s involved in putting together a plan of work, was not known. And the club guidelines, while touching on some of these issues, are silent on many. The first challenge we face therefore is restoring institutional knowledge and memory.

The second challenge has been restoring our conception of the role of the Org Department itself. With over 20,000 members joining the party over the last several years, its focus out of necessity has been new member outreach: in other words, it’s been internal. But a political party such as ours struggling for socialism must conduct national campaigns.

“After the correct policy has been hammered out, everything depends on organizational work, including the political line itself — its implementation or its failure.” — Georgi Dimitrov

I came across Georgi Dimitrov’s summary at the 7th World Congress where he repeated an organizing principle that had become an axiom in the international movement. Here’s what he said: “After the correct policy has been hammered out, everything depends on organizational work, including the political line itself — its implementation or its failure.”

The challenge then is what’s the most effective means of implementing our policies? Who does it? The national office, district leaderships, club leaders? Some would argue that it’s the clubs — that’s where the rubber hits the road. But what do you do when many, if not most, of the clubs have inexperienced new leaderships? And the same is true with our districts. Who oversees the implementation of national campaigns like workplace concentration, the Target boycott or Palestine or Cuba solidarity or our work on the midterm elections?

Another issue is how effectively we are communicating the policy? In the past we’ve used email, the club and district leaders meetings, the publication of our reports on our websites and GMR. However, email blasts are not read by younger comrades, club and district leader meetings are attended by only a few dozen out of a few hundred clubs, and at times reports are not published in a timely way. So what should we do?

Admittedly, it’s a challenge that we haven’t figured out. Sending an email, we know, is not the end of organizing expertise but rather the barest beginning. Much of good organizing depends on person-to-person outreach. Some of that activity has been undertaken by national commissions. However, here too, the work has been uneven. To correct this, at the urging of young National Board members, party officers have called together informal collectives of leaders of national commissions and club activists on the Target campaign and Cuba solidarity. It’s a start, but it’s not a permanent solution.

However, there are still other aspects of our organizational work that require attention. For example, conducting national membership drives, keeping on top of dues collection, overseeing our participation in national marches and rallies etc. We should also add to the list, publicizing our activities.

Then there’s the challenge presented by social media. I’ve heard it argued that having a presence on platforms like TikTok and Instagram is more important than our websites. I don’t know if that’s true or not — platforms come and go — someone, for example, shared the PW’s page on Myspace with me the other day. But this I do know: Instagram and TikTok are major, major locations for sharing ideas, information, and organizing. And I also know that we’ll never succeed in becoming a mass party if we don’t master their use.

With this in mind, we’ve made a number of unsuccessful attempts over the last years to establish a social media collective: twice, actually, in the last several months. The reasons for their failure to come together and stabilize have varied, but the main problem has been finding a comrade with the wherewithal to anchor the work. With this in mind, Rossana and I have again had to involve ourselves directly in the work. Recently, a new start has been made under comrade Brooklyn’s leadership, and we’re very happy it’s off to a very good beginning.

Now of course when talking about media and the battle of ideas, we can’t fail to mention People’s World, which remains our flagship publication. And if anyone has had any doubts about its role, they need only listen to Brother Redmond’s remarks at the May Day Town Hall. Let me quote them.

“I want to really thank the incredible staff at People’s World. You are spreading the gospel of this movement far and wide, and we appreciate People’s World and everything that they do to make sure that our message of self-determination, of dignity and respect for all workers, is being heard loud and clear.” He continued “I can’t tell you how important it is to have an outlet by workers and for workers, telling important stories about working people and families in a way you just do not see anywhere else.”

The truth here is that under very challenging circumstances and with limited staff, the PW actually plays an indispensable role in the labor and people’s movement not only in our opinion, but in the view of the labor movement itself. And what other Marxist daily publication in this country can say that?

Now we also hasten to add the PW also faces significant challenges in today’s rapidly changing media environment, along with an aging website. And we have yet to figure out how to navigate and build our social media circulation. Unable to resolve these issues, a number of clubs and districts are utilizing local print editions. And that, I believe, is a good thing.

However, the longstanding challenge of how to apply the Leninist concept of organizing the party around our online press remains. This should not be understood as a PW problem, but a party problem, and it’s connected to a number of issues, including the need to improve and diversify the PW’s content. It’s also connected to our ability to fundraise. With this in mind, the NB is proposing we sponsor a party conference on the PW in the next several months to discuss its use, mission, and content.

Standing alongside the PW is CPUSA.org, now led by Eric Brooks and assisted by Cameron H. The party website serves as the main expression of our public presence. Several times a week it publishes our news and views and hosts all of our digital resources, including our program, constitution, and educational videos. It also hosts our theoretical articles, but I’m happy to say this will soon be supplanted by the relaunching of Political Affairs, our newly revived theoretical journal. In PA’s new editorial collective, we’ve brought together some of our finest young thinkers and activists, and we will begin publishing soon.

I’m also happy to report today that efforts to build the Young Communist League are continuing around the country. YCL collectives are meeting in several cities and campuses, including in some places we are just learning about. For example, we just learned of a YCL club of 30 on a university campus in Corvallis, Oregon.

YCL clubs in NY, Philadelphia, D.C., New Haven, and Michigan are doing great work. Some YCLs have worked on multiple city council campaigns, others are involved in the fight to protect public housing, still others are working on community campaigns demanding police accountability. A convention organizing committee has been established a few months ago, and it’s been meeting monthly. And in just a few weeks, the 7th annual Little Red Schoolhouse will host over 30 party and YCL comrades from around the country. This year we received over 70 applications to attend.

For the first time in several decades, we have established a communist core in our youth work.

Comrades, for the first time in several decades, we have established a communist core in our youth work. They have the beginnings of a solid foundation in Marxist science and support the CPUSA program, including our electoral policy, all of which are important pre-conditions for holding a convention. In fact, there are several outstanding young communist leaders with us today, whose work, in our view, deserves election to our highest bodies and we will be placing their names in nomination to the National Committee this weekend.

Let’s remember “Gen Z loves communism” and their voices and opinions deserve every consideration in our proceedings. Their election will add a new layer to our leadership and help lay the basis for its transition.

Comrades, the fascist danger literally grows deeper with the passing of each day. It’s not that the MAGA forces have grown stronger: quite the contrary: they’ve become weaker. Their coalition is splintering and public support has plummeted, particularly after the attack on Iran. But this weakness makes them far more desperate and desperation breeds danger.

This danger has grown more perilous in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent rulings. The MAGA majority on the court has removed congressional oversight of federal agencies; they ended campaign spending limits for political parties; and they’ve canceled temporary protection status to Haitian and Syrian immigrants. All of this reinforces the power of the MAGA federal executive, giving it unlimited and unreviewable authority. In the wake of the immigration rulings, the country is likely to be subject to ethnic cleansing on an unprecedented scale.

Then there’s Trump’s recent anti-communist tirades after the DSA congressional victories, and in particular his Mount Rushmore diatribe against the party. I tell you, it should not be taken lightly. It would be a huge mistake to underestimate its potential impact. Not only may we be subject to greater surveillance and repression, but it also could lead to attacks from the lunatic fascist right.

There’s a pattern of growing repression around the country.

There’s a clear pattern of growing repression around the country. The FBI raid on the Ohio Organizing Collective for alleged voter fraud; the Texas Prairieland prosecutions of eight defendants in connection with an ICE protest, where the eight were given exorbitant life sentences, ranging from 100 to 30 years. Add to the list the June federal indictment of eight University of Michigan students for criminal harassment and “terrorizing” campus officials by placing fake corpses on their lawn and spray-painting their homes. There’s Chicago’s Broadview 6 indictment of anti-ICE protesters, which collapsed due to prosecutorial misconduct.

In Minnesota, there have been attempts at mass indictments of local activists and state officials for obstructing ICE enforcement. There, subpoenas were withdrawn after a rebuke from a federal judge; and let’s not forget the Stop Cop City RICO indictments of 60 activists in Atlanta. And then there’s the new targeting of nonprofit organizations by the Trump administration. Here the IRS has been directed to investigate and strip the tax-exempt status of nonprofits and foundations accused of “fomenting or financing” civil unrest.

Finally, there’s the Cuba angle and the foreign agent charge. In May, the Justice Department and the Treasury Department launched a massive inquiry into organizations supporting Cuba. They’ve compiled a list of 145 nonprofits and political groups, including the Party and solidarity networks like the Venceremos Brigade. All of this demands of us to go all out over the next several weeks to work to defeat the MAGA right in congressional races – and that means working on the campaigns of some candidates who we don’t agree with. Sitting on the sidelines may well result in the democratic opposition sitting in jail. And if the past is prologue to what’s coming, they’ll come after the communist left first.

Finally, comrades, the threat to democracy at home is equaled if not exceeded by the threat abroad. MAGA imperialists and their abettors in both parties have invaded and bombed seven or eight countries and murdered a few hundred in the Caribbean Sea. The war in Ukraine has continued, and the war on Iran has been reignited. The crime and genocide against Palestine and the death toll there continues to rise. Cuba is under the gravest threat since its revolution, and their recently announced reforms only resulted in a further tightening of the blockade.

All of which raises again the need for redoubling our efforts not only to defeat the MAGA right but to defeat U.S. imperialism generally. Imperialism is imperialism no matter which of the two parties enforces it. Therefore our efforts to change U.S. foreign policy, cut the military budget, and transfer resources to human needs remain at the top of our agenda.

Look, our country has to be set on a new course. And to do so we have to break the billionaire and yes, trillionaire grip on the U.S. government. Yes. Anti-fascist and anti-monopoly tasks are beginning to coincide. Speaking of trillionaires, Elon Musk, on the Fourth of July, used that date to yet again express his contempt for democracy and alignment with the most reactionary and bellicose fascist forces. In an exchange on X, he was advised:

“Elon, this is the moment where you’re supposed to wise up and abandon classical liberalism. If you let takers vote, they will not only take more and more, they will make it more and more rewarding to be a taker, and they will convert more and more makers into takers, forever… Universal suffrage leads to universal suffering.”

Musk replied, “I have wised up.”

But here’s the thing. Musk and Co. are not the makers. Actually, you and I know they’re fakers. It’s the working class that are the makers. Musk and Co. have been tricked by their algorithms that have turned reality upside down. But that’s all right. We know something else. Workers are not only makers. We are also shakers, and we’re getting ready to shake things up. The truth is we’re coming for the fakers. We are coming for the fakers — that’s why the socialist moment is rising again, so let the shaking begin!

Joe’s live presentation is available here:

Images: People protesting. New York Central Labor Council; Writer’s Guild Members on strike. WGA-East; All other images licensed under Creative Commons.