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Excerpts of Report to Connecticut CPUSA Convention, April 25, 2010

Welcome! A shout out to each of our 18 clubs and two in formation!

We are here to make a better future for our children, our communities and our world. Like the slogans on the walls say: Jobs not Jails, Books not Bombs. People before Profits.

The Communist Party gives us confidence, hope and strength. It shows us there is a progressive direction to history. It shows us the power of unity and solidarity, that an injury to one is an injury to all. It gives us the tools to analyze the world and the courage to project the way forward and change it.

A lot has taken place in five years. When we had our last convention George W Bush was president. It was a scary time. 30 years of greedy corporate looting, the biggest in history. The right-wing policy of never ending war put us and the earth at peril.

The giant financial, energy, military and medical corporations made out like bandits. In Connecticut, 85,000 people lost their jobs since this economic crisis. Over half of Hartford residents live below the self-sufficiency standard. Hartford and Youngstown, Ohio are tied for highest poverty. Youug African American and Latino men are lost in street shootings. These are the effects from the 30 year total right-wing agenda.

Our last convention adopted the strategy of building a broad all people’s alliance to defeat Bush and the extreme right-wing. Within that alliance, we saw labor, African American, Latino, women and youth, what we call the core forces for social progress, as key to mobilize the vote along with environment, peace, LGBT and other movements.

The 2008 election broke new ground. Every club was engaged and grew. New members joined because they saw us building unity in action for Obama, and they liked our vision for changing the whole system.

We’ve got to work even harder for unity in 2010. Why?

The election of President Obama and the Congress changed the political landscape. But the ultra-right, the capitalist economic crisis and U.S. imperialism remain.

The broad alliance that elected President Obama took time to get reorganized after the election, creating a very dangerous situation.

In our neighborhoods worry is deep about attacks on our first Black President, and the need for marches and actions to back him up and push a progressive agenda forward.

The Tea Party and Republicans blame African Americans, immigrants, President Obama and “big government” for the economic crisis. But that demagogy falls flat when the responsibility for the crisis is placed on the giant corporations and the capitalist economic system.

The labor movement is directing the anger of millions who lost pensions, wages, health care and homes into a powerful pro-worker’s rights movement that rejects corporate greed and right-wing populism.

The struggle for economic justice and the struggle for equality and an end to racism go hand in hand.

The right-wing opposes any government spending except for the military and tax cuts to the wealthy. They dismiss the role of government for the common good. This is a huge fight before us.

Newt Gingrich has a new contract on America aimed at getting working class people to side with a corporate agenda in 2010. In Connecticut, our three newest Democrats in Congress and our open Senate seat are targeted.

Our unity slogan has been “No Cuts, No Layoffs, Tax the Rich.” Last year a small millionaire’s tax was passed over Gov. Rell’s veto.

We have to ask: what is needed to make all public schools excellent so that every child’s right to an equal, quality public education is fulfilled?

What is needed to close the budget gaps in cities like Hartford, New Haven, and Waterbury?

In the depression of the 1930’s government jobs programs put people to work and were wonderful for education, the parks, the arts, housing and transportation.

There is a shortage of 100,000 jobs in Connecticut and 20 million in the country. The private sector cannot fill that hole.

It will take the creation of millions of jobs by the federal government, targeted first to communities hardest hit.

It will take taxing the rich, regulating finance and big corporations, cutting the military budget, bringing the troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan. This is the unity program we carry as we work in the broad people’s alliance.

In Connecticut, conversion of government contracts from military production to sustainable energy and other needs could save and create thousands of unionized manufacturing jobs.

The actions this week can influence our congressional delegation to lead for legislation like the Local Jobs for America Act, the Keep Our Educators Working Act, the Employee Free Choice Act, and comprehensive immigration reform.

Right-wing extremists call government programs “socialism” as a scare tactic. The health care, jobs and other reforms we are fighting for aren’t socialism, they are concessions from capitalism.

We’re for socialism so we won’t have to constantly struggle for concessions; so as workers we have the power to decide the priorities and allocate the resources created by our own labor to meet the needs of ourselves, our families, and all working people.

The convention discussion has been great to think more deeply and reach out more broadly. Some conclusions:

One. Building the broad all-people’s alliance against the extreme right-wing remains a necessity with an all out push in the 2010 elections. The labor movement is key to press a people’s agenda and bolster progressive aspects of the Obama program.

Two, The struggle for unity and against racism is central to any progress. The front burner struggle for good jobs has to include closing the unemployment gap in the Black, Latino and immigrant communities, and opening opportunities for youth.

Three. Struggling for and winning improvements in education, health care, employment, housing and other reforms is not separate from, but a part of, the longer term struggle for socialism.

Four. Enlarging the Communist Party also strengthens the broad movement because of the unity message and tactics we bring.

With new clubs in new cities and dozens more members in our existing neighborhood and workplace clubs our contribution will be greatly magnified.

We have built our multi-racial working class membership door to door with the People’s World. Many readers miss the full print edition but appreciate our mini-print. It is a great compliment to the new daily on-line People’s World and Mundo Popular.

Through the daily on-line, perhaps we can identify friends in key districts and start new People’s World routes to help bring out the votes and lead to new clubs.

Yesterday was Earth Day. Next week is May Day. Karl Marx said nature and labor are the only two sources of value. We stand with the workers of our country and the world to end exploitation of labor and the earth for a more just, equal and sustainable society that puts “People and Nature before Profits.”

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