The article below is based on the keynote report presented by Joe Sims, co-chair, CPUSA to the National Committee at its January 31, 2026 meeting.

As the National Committee meets today, the center of the struggle for democracy in this country is in the Twin Cities. And that struggle took a dramatic turn a week ago last Friday when the people of Minneapolis and St. Paul spoke in one voice saying, “No work, no school, no shopping.” On that bitter cold day, in -15 degree weather, 75 thousand marched against ICE and MAGA state terror.

Labor’s Role

Workers stayed home, perhaps most. Even 700 businesses closed their doors in support of the protest. It was a veritable general strike of the people. You might even call it an all-people’s strike. And let’s be clear, the labor movement led it. It was they who helped initiate the coalition of civil rights, community and faith organizations that organized the protest. Labor’s initiative in this regard changes everything. Indeed, the single most important development in the anti-MAGA upsurge is the beginning of the trade union movement’s entry into the fightback.

Labor’s new role has the ruling class shaking in their boots. Recently, some 60 Minnesota CEOs issued an open letter boasting of all the “hard work” they’re doing behind the scenes to calm the situation in the state. It’s clear that what they’re really interested in “calming” is their corporate profits in light of the general strike. And that, of course, is not complicated: simply tell MAGA and ICE to get the hell out of the state!

Open letter indeed: it was way too little and way too late. Alex Pretti had already been shot dead. First

And I’ll tell you something else: it will only stop when the workers and people make it stop. And this is what the National Committee must address today: doing whatever we can to help broaden and deepen the working-class-led fightback.

Liberal v. Revolutionary Tactics

Comrades, the main question in this regard is to support the demands of the people of Minnesota to remove ICE from their state, stop the killing, and prosecute those who are responsible. Achieving these goals requires bringing maximum pressure to bear on those who hold the levers of power including Congress, the White House and, most importantly, their corporate backers. We’ve got to call, write, petition, hold vigils, lobby, hang signs, sit in, pass resolutions in our places of worship, unions, and community organizations, occupy, and strike. In other words, employ all the tools in the toolbox.

Some people think these are not effective means of struggle. They argue that by definition, if you lobby, write a letter or petition you’re engaging in liberal politics. I beg to differ. What makes a tactic liberal or revolutionary is not the individual action itself, but the collective intention along with the manner of carrying out the action. Is the intention to bring about a reform as an end in itself, or is it a means to a greater end? And every tactic has the potential of being a means to a greater end. What greater end? To make people think, raise their consciousness, build unity, and move them into struggle around a given set of demands. Consider that demands by definition are always a reform. But that’s all right: we support reforms, but we don’t leave it there. We’re masters of the communist plus. We understand that the winning of a reform is not an end in itself, but a stepping stone on the road to something bigger. The winning of a demand is a means to a greater end.

If we win on ICE Out! then we take that momentum and we use it to defeat those who brought ICE in.

If we win on ICE Out! then we take that momentum and we use it to defeat those who brought ICE in. It’s all about collective action: we register to vote, we recruit working-class progressive — hopefully, left — candidates, we take the offensive and go after those who created the mess in the first place. We pursue, defend, retreat when necessary, and advance when possible, always prosecuting the case. We fight on and on, continually pointing to the systemic roots of these difficulties in monopoly capitalism and the need to replace the system. That’s the way we roll — that’s the way we have always rolled.

What’s true with regard to the politicians is also true for their corporate backers. And in Minnesota we’ve got to go after their backers. And that means going after the signers of the Open Letter who are working to protect their corporate profits. One of the most notorious of them is Target.

Targeting Target

Target has been the object of a nationwide boycott for a year now. This boycott began because of their about-face on DEI after Trump’s election and it’s been extremely effective. Profits are down and continue to drop. Efforts to shore up business, including firing their CEO and making a fresh start with a new head, have failed.

Then came the ICE invasion of Minneapolis and Target made the very smart business decision of allowing their stores to be used as a staging area for Trump’s henchmen’s operations. Think about that for a minute: Target went from being on the front row for DEI after the George Floyd rebellion to being on the front row to cancel it for Trump. And now they’re on the front row assisting ICE’s roundup of our neighbors. How’s that for hypocrisy?

Well, that hypocrisy did not go unnoticed. Last week Minneapolis organizers called for actions at Targets around the country protesting their support for ICE. Party clubs in Pittsburgh, Atlanta, New York, DC and Chicago joined coalition efforts.

Shouldn’t the Party as a whole heed the organizers’ call and help initiate actions at Targets around the country? We’ve got 250 clubs. How many can we get to participate?

Civil Rights Benefit Everyone

It’s extremely important that we take this issue up. The stakes are very high. Consider that MAGA has used DEI as an excuse to completely dismantle Civil Rights throughout the federal government. It’s true. They’ve closed all of the government’s Civil Rights offices and fired or laid off all of their staff. Trump has even overturned presidential executive orders from the 1960s prohibiting discrimination from companies receiving federal contracts. That’s why we say there’s been a Civil Rights counter-revolution.

DEI and Civil Rights are perceived as African American or Latino issues. Nothing could be further from the truth.

This counter-revolution affects us all, a fact not obvious to most because DEI and Civil Rights are perceived both inside the movement (including in the party) and in the broader public as African American or Latino issues. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Civil Rights benefits everyone.

Take what happened to the Department of Education (DOE). Do you know why MAGA dismantled it? They’ll say that it was because the Department was promoting critical race theory, or Black, Latino, women’s and LGBTQ history. What they’re not telling you is that the DOE’s main purpose is protecting students’ civil rights and those rights are being cancelled in the process.

Allow me to explain: some 20 percent of all children are special needs — that’s one in five. Fifteen percent are in special ed. The role of the Department of Education was to protect the civil rights of these students: those with autism, learning disabilities, speech impediments, ADHD, MS, MD, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, paraplegia, you name it.

The Department of Education sets the “rules of the road” to ensure that a child’s zip code or disability doesn’t determine their right to an education. Does your child need a ramp, a disabled bathroom, a special ed teacher? Do you want them to be able to sit in the same classroom with other students? Sorry, if local schools refuse to provide these things, there’s no opportunity for parents to appeal. Now that’s gone thanks to Trump’s mass layoffs and closing of the DOE’s regional offices. DEI was the excuse they used to get rid of it. Needless to say, all children, the majority of whom are white, will be affected.

Clearly, the dismantling of government enforcement of civil rights is a big setback. However, the battle is not over. Currently, the disposition of the Department’s $66 billion budget is being fought over in Congress. The good news is that so far they’ve rebuffed cuts to special ed and other programs around the country. The point here, of course, is that civil rights deepens democracy, benefits everyone, and is in everyone’s self-interest. That is why it must be defended.

We must fight for “every inch of bourgeois democratic liberties.”

That is also the reason why each and every encroachment on our rights must be defended against. The party must fight for “every inch of bourgeois democratic liberties” as Georgi Dimitrov said in his United Front Against Fascism.

The Right to Collectively Bargain

One such bourgeois democratic liberty is the right to collectively bargain. And this right was cancelled on March 27th of last year by Trump for 1.3 million federal workers. As we have said many times before, it was the greatest act of union busting in U.S. history. In fact, we have said it so many times that the New York Times is even saying it now, seen in a recent headline using those very same words.

The struggle to restore these rights is one of the greatest challenges before the labor movement today. A bill to right this wrong, the Protect America’s Workforce Act, passed in the House late last year and is now pending in the Senate. Its passage would be a stunning rebuke to Trump. However, it’s going to take more than a phone call and a petition — as important as they are — to make that happen.

That’s why we must continue our support for a labor-led national day of action in DC as proposed by CBTU. Their resolution needs to be promoted wherever people are organized. The leadership of the AFL-CIO needs to hear the call loudly and clearly. By now it’s old news that they have not heard the call loudly and clearly enough.

What is new is that things are in motion. What’s new is that organized labor in some places is beginning to take the fight to MAGA. They’re not only joining the No Kings and other protests but, as in Minnesota and New York City last week, are beginning to lead them. The science of class struggle requires that we keep our eye on what is new and respond to developments as they unfold, calibrating our tactics in time and in tune with the needs of each moment.

The working class comes to its conclusions at its own pace. Life is the great teacher. It’s lived experience that shapes social consciousness. We saw in the Twin Cities that when confronted with an invasion of 3000 fascist goons who shot in cold blood two of its best daughters and sons, the labor movement rose up and showed its organized might.

Yes, labor is beginning to move. On February 7th, AFGE, supported by CBTU, the AFL-CIO, USSA and others called a Young Workers March in DC, demanding a living wage, healthcare and childcare, affordable housing and education without debt.

Just yesterday there were calls for an economic blackout and strikes. In many places people demonstrated, including walkouts of high school students. Protests were particularly widespread in Minnesota. Setting aside for a moment the practicality of calls for a general strike, the point is that people are angry and want to do something — that’s what’s important.

On March 28th, the third No Kings demonstration will take place all over the country along with what they’re calling a landmark event in the Twin Cities. February’s a short month and March will quickly be upon us, so let’s start getting our contingents ready.

As we prepare, the Political Action Commission is sure to keep us busy with the weekly Rapid Response initiatives that focus our attention on the main struggles that are occurring across a rapidly changing terrain. Speaking of which, the upcoming midterms will soon be front and center: it goes without saying that for the next several months they will occupy a place at the top of our agenda. To get ready, we’re planning an all-party national election conference in May that, while focused on the contest for Congress, must also address running our party candidates for local office.

Yes, it’s a heavy load. And of course, we wish we could do more, but we have to do what we can while taking pains to improve our work. This means staying in touch with district and club leaders, gauging and responding to what is happening on the ground in real time. And take initiative, comrades, while building coalitions with others. As Bobby Seale used to say, we must Seize the Time! Why is that important? Because if you don’t take initiative, you’ll always end up tailing events. The point is to do so in a broad way.

MAGA Imperialism

This is important not only with respect to ICE deployments around the country but also U.S. imperialism’s newfound appetite for military intervention. Humanity is confronted with a newly aggressive MAGA imperialism that has bombed more countries in a single year than any other administration. Some 7 attacks have already occurred with more on the way, to say nothing of the strikes against boats in the Caribbean. The old post-WWII Cold War alliances are cracking at the seams, ripped apart by the now public inter-imperialist rivalries between the main centers of world imperialism, raising the danger of new wars including the possibility of thermonuclear confrontation.

MAGA and their backers are racist to the core and make no bones about it—we have the KKK in the White House.

Let us not forget that MAGA’s fascist-tinged domestic policy is accompanied by an equally fascist-tinged might-makes-right foreign policy that seeks to preserve the dominance of white capital not only in the U.S. but in Europe as well, as clearly seen in Trump’s National Security Strategy. These people are racist to the core and make no bones about it—we have the KKK in the White House.

In these circumstances, the fight for peace is even more important and today that means continuing to seek ways to bring the working class and people of color into the fight. It bodes well that the AFL-CIO Executive Council this time around quickly condemned the kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores. And let us not forget that Cuba is next on their list with the recent tightening of the blockade and declaration of an emergency. The occupation and genocide of Palestine as well continues and requires renewed effort on our part.

Going forward, building relations with the faith community and the African American church will be extremely important.

Party building

Comrades, in June we’ll celebrate two years since our 32nd convention. And we can be proud that in most districts the party has maintained a steady pace of growth and involvement. Our party and YCL clubs are actively involved in coalition work and have a public presence both in the communities and online. And we are so very proud that we made some electoral breakthroughs last November. Again, congratulations to our candidates!

We are continuing a steady pace of recruitment and are reaching out to and vetting new applicants far better than before. Our Ed Department is holding a steady pace of Marxist classes and in a few places we have study groups, some in person, some hybrid. People’s World is continuing its excellent coverage of domestic and international struggles with a clear working-class orientation. Good Morning Revolution has maintained its weekly address of key ideological and political developments.

That said, we have to confront the fact that the CP’s growth, while steady, is not in keeping with the possibilities of the moment. It seems that we’ve hit a plateau but haven’t managed to move beyond it. We have to think about why.

Consider that since Trump was first elected we’ve recruited 20,000 members. And that’s great. However, 9,000 of that number are no longer subscribed to our lists. We’re reaching out to them to find out why. Have they quit? Are they receiving too many emails? Did they unsubscribe accidentally? We don’t know the answer.

Is the rate of growth at least matching the rate of losses? It would be important to know. It should: sharpening class struggle and a growing left point in that direction. Mamdani is now New York’s mayor along with many other socialist elected officials around the country. Still, we have not yet been able to tap deeply into this socialist moment as it’s been expressing itself in the current situation. We’ve got to figure out how to make a splash. It’s possible. Our appearance on the Daily Show pointed in that direction.

While we figure it out, let’s continue to explore new ways to carry on our activity including emphasizing cultural work — not as a second thought, not as entertainment, not to fill spaces between agenda points, but as an essential feature of party and YCL work.

It is in storms and struggle that class and social consciousness arises and takes form.

Comrades, we are going through a very difficult period of intense class and democratic struggle, a period of storms and struggle. And we’ve got to be prepared for what’s coming. As Gus once said, we do not fear the storms. We understand that it is precisely in the storms that class and social consciousness arises and takes form. It is only through struggle that our class learns and draws conclusions. Our role is to be there side-by-side with our class siblings, standing with them, hand in hand, going toe-to-toe with monopoly and help chart a path through the thunder. And we will get through the thunder. As sure as I’m standing here, the clouds will part, the winds will cease, the sun will come back out and we’ll emerge in a new day.

Image: Downtown Minneapolis protest 2026-01-23 by Lorie Shaull. CC BY 4.0. ICE Agents in Minneapolis After Shooting by Chad Davis. CC BY 4.0. Young worker march on Washington by IAM Union. Public domain.