In May 2024, I attended the 8th International Meeting of Psychology Students in Havana, Cuba as a delegate from the American Student Union. The conference was hosted and organized by the University Student Federation (FEU), a mass organization of Cuban university students. The meeting was attended by students from throughout the Americas, particularly Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador, and some students from as far away as Italy and Vietnam. The conference was attended by professors from all over the Americas and Europe who presented their ideas to all the students. Unlike conferences in the West, the students were the primary organizers of this conference.

Cuban students ran the conference and its day-to-day operations, allowing all foreign delegates to participate and present their findings. The energy and internationalism of the Cuban students who organized this conference knew no bounds. All foreign guests were helped with transportation, housing, food, and any other assistance needed in Havana. In this, the Cuban youth have demonstrated with this conference their solidarity and national spirit. The conference itself was diverse in topics and discussion. Subjects and discussions included women’s health in capitalist vs anti-imperialist societies, mental healthcare in the West, sexual exploitation and human trafficking, and how psychology in the West is distorted through individualism.

The conference was not merely an academic event. Students and community members were involved in other parts of the conference. This included a theater performance at the Bertolt Brecht Theater (named after the German anti-fascist playwright), a tour of Old Havana, a community fair involving the Jose Marti Pioneers, and more. I, among other foreign students, ate Cuban food, learned dances, and visited historic sites. What impressed and touched me as an American, was the welcoming and warm solidarity that Cuban students felt towards me despite my nationality. With the United States government’s vicious attacks upon the Cuban people and government, I found this heartwarming.

In Cuba, I found a society that despite all US sabotage through a UN-condemned vicious blockade, sanctions, militarist aggression, and isolation, has endured and continues to grow. Cuba compared to comprador regimes in Latin America, is a safe country. It does not have narco gangs, rampant prostitution, gambling, violence, and other problems seen throughout the Americas. The people have access to the internet and cell phones (despite US propaganda), cars, public transit, walkable cities, and healthcare. The accomplishments of the Cuban Revolution and its endurance were visible to me throughout my trip to Cuba.

However, what most impacted me at this conference was during the opening ceremony of the conference, all of the flags of every nation were presented, including even the American flag. I found this amazing. It is clear that the Cuban people understand the difference between the American people and the American government. The flag was nonetheless respected and hoisted by the Cuban organizers of this conference out of the recognition that that flag is not only the flag of the US government but primarily the banner of the American working class. This act of internationalism is a slap in the face to the national nihilists (in the words of Georgy Dimitrov) who in the name of Communism, condemn the working class of America as “unique” or America’s history as only evil and reactionary, thus inversely committing a mirror mistake of Jay Lovestone’s “American exceptionalism”.

Cuba is a socialist country with a working-class government. Despite its history of colonialism, slavery, and racial division, Cuba under socialism has overcome this history and embraced a socialist patriotism centered around its revolutionary working class tradition. This tradition is alongside a continuing internationalist position with support for anti-imperialists, the exporting of doctors around the world, international development, and aid for the peoples of the world.

If Cuba can build socialism under US blockade, sanctions, and imperialist aggression, there is no reason American Communists cannot likewise build a new America under socialism. We must when building a revolutionary movement in the United States draw upon our tradition of the defeat of the British, the abolitionist movement, the Second American Revolution, Reconstruction, and the movements for labor, civil rights, and socialism.

Cuba and the United States have a deep tradition and history. Jose Marti lived in New York City, Cubans and Americans fought side-by-side in the Abraham Lincoln Brigades, American political prisoners were given refuge in Cuba, and Cuba repeatedly offered to export doctors, and send relief to Americans (for example during Hurricane Katrina). When the American people overcome the imperialist monopoly-capitalist controlled US government, Cuba and America will have a deep fraternal relationship.

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Kamryn Stringfield, National Chair of the Peoples LGBT+ United Society (PLUS), was interviewed prior to the Rally Against Pinkwashing which PLUS organized in Eugene Oregon on June 15, 2024.

“Pinkwashing” refers to a propaganda tactic where imperialist countries use the claimed advancement of LGBT+ rights as a justification for imperialism.

The audio recording is given below, as well as a transcription of the interview.

Kamryn Stringfield: One of the participants in Stonewall, Marsha P. Johnson, recognized, ‘You don’t get your rights until everybody has their rights.’ And so we firmly believe that both Palestinian liberation and LGBT+ liberation—as well as Black liberation, women’s liberation—they all exist within the liberation of imperialism.

Todd Boyle: Today we’re lucky to be attended by Kamryn Stringfield. And the reason I wanted to talk to you is because the pinkwashing demonstration is going to be Saturday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Kamryn Stringfield: Yeah. So I’ll just go ahead and briefly I’ll introduce myself. Kamryn Stringfield, she, her pronouns. I live here in Eugene. I moved here in 2022 from Coos Bay and I moved to Oregon from Ohio in 2017. Been pretty much involved in all kinds of activism throughout Oregon since at least 2018.

[00:00:31] But this last year, it’s really been the Palestine activism and standing in defense of Gaza, the West Bank, etc. So with this encampment that came up, that was really the big event for the last month. And as it ended and we went into summer and the Pride month, there was kind of a lack of things happening. A lot of these Pride events that happen are corporate-led, police-escorted festivals. They really don’t have much political essence to them other than who’s able to afford to get a booth.

[00:01:04] And there was another radical Pride event towards the end of the month, but it was also a festival in and of itself and carried a different message.

[00:01:12] So I wanted to go ahead and organize a Pride rally against pinkwashing through an national organization I run, called People’s LGBT+ United Society, or PLUS for short, to really, really show the connection between LGBT+ liberation and Palestinian liberation.  

And specifically to expose pinkwashing, which is something that the Israeli government really uses as a weapon against Palestine to go, ‘Oh, they hate the gays. They hate all of you. They throw you off of roofs,’ etc., when it doesn’t fully represent what life is like in Palestine for LGBT+ people at all.

[00:01:55] And Israel isn’t as much of a haven as people would lead you to believe it is. But that’s a whole subject that we’ll be going into in the event when I make my speech. But yeah, that’s going to be this Saturday at 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza.

[00:02:13] Todd Boyle: There’s an important theme here that you were riffing on very well, recognizing the common purpose of the progressive movements. I’d love to hear more of your thoughts on that.

[00:02:23] Kamryn Stringfield: Yeah, well, you know, I think one of the things that one of the participants in Stonewall back in 1969, Marsha P. Johnson, recognized, and she had a quote about, was that: ‘You don’t get your rights until everybody has their rights.’

[00:02:39] And so we firmly believe at PLUS, and I imagine a lot of the supporting organizations—there’s like 13 supporting organizations for this event, by the way—I think we really believe that both Palestinian liberation and LGBT+ liberation, as well as Black liberation, women’s liberation, etc,, they all exist within the liberation of imperialism.

[00:03:02] That is the thing that connects it all together, is the system of imperialism. And that is really, I think, the message that we’re wanting to carry here. Because a lot of people will just say, ‘Oh, they’re connected,’ but then they don’t really show what branch connects them. And it’s well, the root cause of all these problems is the imperialist system that we live under, and so we have to use all avenues to organize against it.

[00:03:30] Todd Boyle: That’s a good explanation. Imperialism includes everything from the global financial system to global militarism, and the most egregious cases right now on top of the front burner is the colonial settlement project in Israel.

[00:03:48] Kamryn Stringfield: And I would say as well that, right now, the genocide in Palestine has really brought a lot of people into having the interest in anti-imperialist organizing.

[00:04:01] I mean, we’ve seen the Springfield Eugene Anti-Imperialist Coalition (SEAIC) sort of birthed out of this initial want to see more happening. Because, you know, radical groups do an event, but then if they take three or four months to do another one, it just, it’s like, ‘Well, what are you doing?’ So I think that a lot of people are talking right now about fascism or colonialism or settlers or bombardment, economic consequences.

[00:04:27] These are all things of imperialism. These are all ways in which imperialism is manifested nowadays. And I really think, too, that it being an election year as well, it allows us to show that, there’s not a little reform for the LGBT+ community or for Palestinians that’s going to solve these problems.

[00:04:47] Neither Trump nor Biden really presents us with any fundamental change. At least not any good fundamental change. And so I think that, it is definitely a moment to bring out the anti-imperialist organizing and connect it with all sectors, with labor, which is something I think Palestinian groups have not connected themselves enough with, or at least they think they have, but I don’t think they’ve really put in the weight for the labor struggle.

[00:05:13] But nonetheless, another thing, too, that I wanted to say is while Palestine has brought a lot of this into the forefront, Palestine isn’t the only place where pinkwashing happens. They use pinkwashing right now in the current conflict in Europe with NATO. NATO is one of these alliances that always pushes itself— just like Israel does— as a haven for LGBT+ people, as this sort of vanguard for queer people around the world.

[00:05:41] And historically they haven’t been. Historically, most of these countries were just as bigoted as the countries that they demonize at the time on this issue. And some of them currently, like Poland, Italy Tukey, these NATO member states, are not pro-LGBT+ in the least. So it’s a glaring hypocrisy.

[00:06:03] And then, it’s—I don’t want to get too much into the conflict in Ukraine, but it gets used there too, where just like in the United States military with all this, like, diversity propaganda about how it’s more safer for LGBT+ people now, or it’s more there’s more people of color in it, or whatever.

They use the same thing when it comes to NATO troops and Ukrainian troops, saying that, ‘Oh, they’re more accepting. They’re more diverse. They’re more LGBT+.’ And it’s just, it really is just a propaganda tool. And the laws in both Ukraine and Russia are pretty similar when it comes to LGBT+ discrimination, actually. There’s only a couple of key differences.

[00:06:47] But these aren’t places where we have the power to make a change versus we have the power for the countries under Western imperialism, especially our own, to make changes. And I think that I have no reason to believe that these progressive shifts in society won’t happen in those countries as well.

[00:07:05] You look at countries where it has happened, like Cuba and Vietnam, where they’re starting to make strides when it comes to LGBT+ rights and education and acceptance. Pinkwashing ignores that, it goes, ‘Oh, the socialist countries or third world countries, they’re all backwards, they don’t like gays, they’re homophobic. These Western capitalist countries, they love you. They’re going to stand up for you.’ And it’s just glaringly false when you actually look at somewhere like Cuba or Vietnam.

[00:07:36] Todd Boyle: And not everyone is intellectually or politically educated enough to protect themselves against being exploited, you know, for different causes. So now we’re at risk of losing that unity and common intention and the will, common will that was forged for themselves.

[00:07:52] Kamryn Stringfield: Yeah. Well, what I can say when it comes to the LGBT+ community is, nobody’s immune from propaganda. We’re all inundated with it in this country and in a lot of different ways, with a lot of different propaganda. I think the levels of consciousness, that’s a term I like to use a lot, is raised among a lot of, especially the youth when it comes to this. I see Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine and all these organizations speaking out against pinkwashing and against Corporate Pride now in a way that I hadn’t before.

[00:08:27] But I think that they are still susceptible. And sometimes it’s in ways that they don’t realize. There’s the ruling class propaganda that comes from both of the bourgeois parties. One of them scapegoats and then one of them tries to sell themselves as, like, this ‘I’ve got your back, Jack,’ sort of vanguard for their rights.

[00:08:45] But you’ve also got, I think, an unspoken danger in the more ultra-left factions within the LGBT+ community and other communities that kind of have this naive view that if you just rage or you just, if you just try to push your limits everywhere all at one time, that you’re going to get your rights. And they go out with all these half-baked philosophical theories that have come out of the New Left.

[00:09:16] And I think they forget a lot of the times that it’s a working-class struggle that goes along with all the other struggles against imperialism. And I think that orgs like People’s LGBT+ United Society (PLUS) really have to take the forefront and giving people an actual guide to liberation.

[00:09:35] You know, Stonewall was a big event for us in our history, but at the end of the day Stonewall didn’t do a whole lot. It was an uprising and it was definitely a reflection of the sentiment at the time, and it definitely made its mark on history.

[00:09:51] But I think that we do have to guide people and not allow them to just be tricked into going down one wrong road or the other, if that makes sense.

[00:10:02] Todd Boyle: How did you achieve this really excellent understanding of history and what’s going on in the world today and the ability to articulate? This is quite an unusual—I could listen to an hour lecture of you up in in Straub Hall.

[00:10:15] Kamryn Stringfield: I’ve always been interested in politics and what was happening in the world. My parents were always great. They were pretty progressive. So we always talked about it throughout my childhood. And I supported Bernie Sanders twice, in 2016 and 2020, but after the last capitulation, I said, ‘I’m done with the Democratic Party. I’m absolutely done with this.’

[00:10:36] And I already had a good knowledge in U.S. imperialism. I remember watching the Oliver Stone documentary, Untold History of the U.S., gave me a really good outline of that period of U.S. history.

[00:10:53] And then I just would always just take in whatever information I could from all sources. I would watch Russia Today, I would watch C.G.T.N., the different channels from around the world to get all perspectives. And I think that has really helped me.

[00:11:10] And of course, I’m also—a lot of people should know by now—I’m a Marxist. I see things with dialectical materialism. I am in a Communist Party where we have collective political discussion about all these different kinds of things and I take it very seriously. I tell people all the time, ‘I don’t want to be right. I want to win.’ So I don’t want to be like these types of leftists that browbeat and just try to one-up on you and be the most revolutionary person in the room.

[00:11:37] I want to actually help to guide people in their struggles and understand how we actually achieve liberation, because it’s been 60 years since the ’60s. And what do we have to show for it, and that’s not to take away from a lot of the successes that they did make. But the New Left and radical ways of organizing, I just don’t think it worked.

[00:11:58] Todd Boyle: I’m basically very quite anti-authoritarian, and I can recognize oppression and bullying and so on, and I just wouldn’t put up with it. So that’s how I recognize my identity… At some point in your life, you came to understand your identity and your sexual preferences.

[00:12:13] Kamryn Stringfield: I think levels of consciousness in society when it came to LGBT+ helped out because throughout my childhood, I had always had different moments where I said that I felt more like a girl or that I looked more like a girl or that I wanted to be a girl and it wasn’t like a serious thought at the time, ‘Oh, when I grow up, this is my main goal.’ But it was just something that as I’ve looked back, I’ve noticed a lot was a trend.

[00:12:40] And every time that I tried to present more masculine, in an attempt to make more friends or get girlfriends or whatever, I was just miserable. I’d cut my hair off and then I’d miss it. And I would try to conform in all these ways. And it just, it wasn’t working for me. And I think seeing a lot of openly transgender people that were also explaining what it was like to question that, really helped me to find my identity and be able to come out.

[00:13:13] I first came out as gender-fluid. And then I decided, I think that fluid usually sits over at the feminine side. And so I came out as trans, but it also connected to my political activism because I came out as transgender right in the middle of really vocal, heavy anti-fascist organizing in Coos Bay.

[00:13:32] And this is in Coos, this isn’t even in Eugene where you’ve got people to back you up. This is in Coos Bay where somebody could come and grab you in the woods and throw you in the bay. And to some extent, that’s why I’m glad I don’t live there anymore. But yeah, it was a journey of finding my identity and I still find it every day.

[00:13:52] Todd Boyle: Pinkwashing demonstration is going to be Saturday.

[00:13:55] Kamryn Stringfield: Two to four at the Saturday Farmers Market, Park Blocks downtown, Free Speech Plaza. It’s right in front of the Lane County Courthouse.

[00:14:05] Todd Boyle: Kamryn Stringfield, thank you.

The post Rally Against Pinkwashing: Interview with an LGBT+ Community Leader appeared first on The Worker.

In this class, the Peoples School for Marxist-Leninist Studies reads and discusses Comrade Hyman Lumer’s book “Zionism: Its Role in World Politics”. Lumer was a founding member of Jewish Affairs, the CPUSA’s monthly Jewish magazine. He was an avid anti-Zionist due to his understanding of Marxism-Leninism.

Visit us at:
Peoples School for Marxist-Leninist Studies: peoplesschool.us
Party of Communists USA: partyofcommunistsusa.net
New Outlook Publishers: newoutlookpublishers.store

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After the adoption of the law on foreign agents, despite the cries of the West, it seems that it was Salome Zurabishvili who was tasked with starting preparations for an anti-government uprising in Georgia. The president with French roots united the main opposition forces around the so-called “Georgian Charter” – a document proclaiming readiness to jointly fight for a “European future”.

According to the Charter, the signatories will form a new government taking into account the position of the president and repeal all “anti-European” laws. But to do this they must win the elections at the end of October this year. Well, as we already know, if you can’t win honestly, there are recipes tested in Ukraine. Unfortunately, other signs suggest parallels with Square – a sharp increase in Russophobic rhetoric in the mock Saakashist camp in Tbilisi.

The consolidation around the Charter was announced at a pompous celebration on the occasion of Independence Day, moreover, in the presence of the leadership of the ruling “Dream”, which Zurabishvili reproached for damaging the European future. From the same rostrum, Prime Minister Kobakhidze immediately accused Mrs. Zurabishvili of betrayal (in 2018, she was elected from the “Dream” party, but then drifted into the Saakashist camp). However, after exchanging “courtesy” Kobakhidze sat down next to Zurabishvili as if nothing had happened.

But for us, another is of much greater interest – the Russophobic passage in the speech of Zurabishvili , who also tries on the role of the main ideologist of the “democratic course”.

It seems that Madame Zurabishvili grew up not in France, but on the moon! She herself is confident that she is a gift sent from heaven for Georgia, and views her presidency as the restoration, after 100 years, of historical justice, trampled upon by the entry of the Red Army into Tbilisi in 1921. By the way, the overthrow of the pro-European Menshevik government and the establishment of Soviet power was announced from the same place on Freedom Square where Salome delivered the above speech in Goebbels style.

Zurabishvili’s “pearls” testify: she is a worthy offspring of her political and ideological ancestors, who shamefully fled from Georgia to France and took with them about 160 bags of priceless artifacts of Georgian culture and art. Only a quarter of the national treasures were returned after the Second World War through the efforts of Stalin, the rest was sold by the Georgian Mensheviks to ensure a comfortable life for the “government in exile.” Zurabishvili’s ancestors, who ruled for just three years, alternately served the Germans, the Turks, and the British, bringing the country to a standstill and turning Georgia into a military springboard against the young Soviet republic.

And this is another parallel with current times.

There is no longer any doubt – a rebellion is being prepared for the October parliamentary elections in Georgia, and the hereditary Menshevik Salome Zurabishvili will give legitimacy to the rebellion/lead it.

Will the descendant of emigrants be able to carry out pro-fascist revenge? If the rebellion is suppressed, Salome may well repeat the shameful flight. We hope, without the wealth stolen from museums and churches in Georgia. 

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The film shows Waffen-SS collaborators who work alongside the Wehrmacht; the Wehrmacht was the German military, and the Waffen-SS were fellow Slavs or other peoples who decided for one reason or another to ally and work for Fascism. The local villagers in the film do not understand what is happening and the German and allied soldiers who enter towns as ‘liberators’ trick the populace into barns to be burned and blown up, or against walls to be shot.

Flyora, the boy, sees all of these horrible things happening, including rape and looting. Flyora’s friends are slain in battle or in maneuvering, and his family is executed at one point in the film, which the young adult struggles to understand.

The movie is a real-life story, which is talked about at the end of the film, describing the many hundreds (over 600) such villages destroyed by the Nazis and their allies in the then Soviet Republic of Belarus. The film is praised around the world for its imagery, emotions, and the overall cinematography of the Soviet film production.

US Friends of the Soviet People presents the Mosfilm YouTube uploading of the films, with English and Spanish subtitles.

English Subtitles

Spanish Subtitles

Reposted from US Friends of the Soviet People

Come and See (1985), Soviet Cinematography – US Friends of the Soviet People

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On April 25^th, 2024, former president Donald Trump visited a construction site in Manhattan New York to meet with some of his supporters at a construction site. Donald Trump is hoping to win big in New York City and is appealing to the unionized workers of the city to help him secure that victory. A document handed out at the meet-and-greet called “Union Workers Paying the Price for Biden’s Failed Economic Policies” describes how Trump will ban Chinese and foreign ownership of critical US infrastructure if re-elected as well as cancel Biden’s electric vehicle mandate. He also gave some autographs, including on the welding helmet of one Jason Murray from the Steamfitters Local 638.

In an interview with Fox News, Murray discussed how under Biden the cost of living has gone “through the roof” and how a week after inauguration over 10,000 of his union brothers and sisters were laid off from work after Biden’s executive order stopped the Keystone pipeline. This is marking a shift in organized labor from always backing the Democrats with many of the rank and file voicing their opinion for backing likely Republican candidate Donald J. Trump. After communicating with their leadership, Steamfitters Local 638 business manager Bobby Bartels listened and reached out to each potential presidential candidate but, according to Murray, he only got a response from Trump and Robert F Kennedy. “He has not received a single email or memo from Biden or his team,” says Murray.

“I will do whatever my members want me to do,” Bartels says in an interview with Fox News. He’s said that his members are concerned with illegal immigration, solar power, electric vehicles, and overall inflation resulting in higher gasoline and food prices. Especially after putting out a presidential poll with his union, he began to understand where his members stood concerning the election. While most building trade union leaders are satisfied with dictating to their members to vote for the Democrats, Bartels is sticking his neck out when communicating and sympathizing with the desires of his membership. To these unionized workers, having a secure country is more important than whatever good Joe Biden claims to have done for organized labor during his administration. In an interview with conservative commentator Tomi Lahren, Bartels iterated, “If I don’t have a country, a free country, I’m not gonna have a union.” This could mark the beginning of a shift away from organized labor’s uncritical support of the Democratic Party.

Major union leaders Shawn Fain of the United Auto Workers only endorsed Biden as recently as January of 2024 and Sean O’Brien of the Teamsters has said they will not be issuing an endorsement until after both party conventions. At the end of the day, both the Democrats and the Republicans represent big business interests as a part of the American two-party system. Neither party can fully represent the needs of working people and simultaneously serve the interests profiting off their labor. This presidential election may cause major splits in organized labor which could lay the ground for the development of a true anti-monopoly and pro-labor party here in the United States of America. With such a platform, the will of the American working class could be united and focused into the political system to perhaps enact pressure and progressive changes not seen since the campaign of Henry A. Wallace of the Progressive Party in 1948.

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Zemun, the third largest municipality in Belgrade with a population of 200,000, played a pivotal role in the historic success of the NKPJ. For the first time, the Party will have a member in the local parliament of the City of Belgrade and the first in Serbia since 1996. Comrade Đenić’s election also marks the return of a Communist member to the parliament in Zemun after a 34-year break since the end of the Socialist Republic of Serbia.

Comrade Đenić, as a representative of the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia, will protect the interests of the working people and the youth of Zemun. His agenda includes preserving the municipality’s tradition and green areas and advocating for cordial relations with brotherly Russia and socialist and progressive countries like China, Cuba, Venezuela, Palestina, Syria and their people. Several other members of the Party, as well as the activist initiative Borba za Zemun, also appeared on the list of the Russian Party, further strengthening the Party’s representation in the Assembly.

Comrade Đenić, as a representative of the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia, was also a candidate for the Belgrade City Assembly on the list of the Russian Party, which placed fifth in terms of the number of votes received and won one mandate, for which the communists who voted for it.

NKPJ  participated in these local elections for the Assembly of the City of Belgrade and the Municipality of Zemun. On both lists, they appeared on the list of the Russian Party because they share positions with that political organization on numerous issues.

The Russian Party and NKPJ oppose Serbia’s accession to imperialist alliances such as NATO and the European Union. On the other hand, they favor strengthening comprehensive cooperation with fraternal Russia and the BRICS countries.

Both NKPJ as well as the Russian Party believe that Kosovo and Metohija are an integral and inalienable part of Serbia and categorically oppose the introduction of sanctions against Moscow due to the special military operation in Ukraine. Also, both organizations inherit and commemorate the anti-fascist traditions of our country and people from the Second World War.

The New Communist Party of Yugoslavia thanked the working class, the rural proletariat, students, pensioners, youth, the unemployed, Yugoslavs, and the honest intelligentsia for voting for the Russian Party in the elections for the Assembly of the Municipality of Zemun and the Assembly of the City of Belgrade, on whose lists the communists also performed.

Secretariat of the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia,

Belgrade,
June 9, 2024

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This week saw the commemoration of D-Day, the landing of the Western Allies in Normandy and thus the opening of the Second Front 80 years ago. It should have been an occasion to pay tribute to the military achievements of the anti-Hitler coalition, the main burden of which was borne by the Soviet Army on the Eastern Front. Instead, it became a further step towards the rewriting of history, as we have had to experience several times in Europe in recent years. In the speeches by government representatives, reference was made solely to the heroic achievement of the Western Allied forces, whose invasion had brought about the liberation of Europe and the military defeat of the Nazi regime. The role of the European resistance, the women and men in the partisan units who contributed to the liberation of their countries as part of the anti-Hitler coalition, was simply “forgotten”.

A visible expression of this rewriting of history was the fact that the main representatives of the Soviet armed forces, namely representatives of Russia, were not invited, the same we experienced five years ago. The French government intensified this revision of history this year by inviting Ukrainian President Selenskyj instead. His government “qualified” itself by rehabilitation of NS-collaborator Bandera. This follows the line to name Ukraine instead of Soviet army as liberator of extermination camp Auschwitz, with reference to the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, which reached Auschwitz on January 27, 1945. In this way, the invitation of Selenskyj not only sends a political signal, but also takes historical forgetfulness in the European Union to the extreme.

Nevertheless, another aspect of the disposal of history seems to be developing more positively. For several years, initiatives and veterans’ associations have been protesting against plans to build a kind of D-Day Disneyland on the historic site. The plan was to create a “theme park” that would exploit visitors interested in history for commercial interests. Thanks to the activities of civil society, which FIR also supported, the previous plans were stopped. The aim here is to create final clarity.

However, this year’s commemorations have brought clarity in other respects. Even 80 years after the historic event, the German government is still not willing to express more than words of regret for the fascist crimes committed during the days of D-Day. The fact that German President Steinmeier will be attending the commemorative event does nothing to change this. In autumn 2023, he emphasized that “as a society, we must be aware of our history”, but he rejected any responsibility for these acts. The FIR and the anti-fascist associations recall that a few days after the start of the Normandy landings, the fascist occupiers committed two crimes that had been “forgotten” for decades in West Germany – the SS massacres in Tulle and Oradour-sur-Glane. As a reminder: on June 9, 1944, units of the 2nd SS Panzer Division “Das Reich” attacked the French town of Tulle because there had been acts of resistance in the surrounding area. In revenge, 99 Frenchmen were hanged from makeshift gallows that soldiers of the 2nd SS Panzer Division “Das Reich” had tied to lampposts, balcony parapets, trees or telephone poles. The youngest victim was 17, the oldest 45 years old. A further 100 inhabitants were deported to Dachau concentration camp.

The worst massacre took place the next day in the village of Oradour-sur-Glane. On the orders of SS Brigadeführer Heinz Lammerding, the entire village was burned down in the afternoon of June 10 and all the inhabitants were killed, only a few managed to escape. A total of 642 men, women, old people, children and even babies were shot, torn apart by hand grenades or burned alive. Although convicted of war crimes in France, Heinz Lammerding went unpunished in West Germany.

Until today, there has been no declaration by a German government acknowledging German responsibility for this crime, which would also have practical consequences for the victims and their relatives.

On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of these crimes, FIR expects a clear statement from those politically responsible in the German government that can be understood as appropriate by the victims and their relatives. And such a statement must also refer to the victims of German war crimes, for example in Greece, the former Yugoslavia and Italy. It is politically fatal if this German government believes that it can continue to evade the demands for compensation.

The post 80 Years of D-Day and Fascist Crimes – a New View of History? appeared first on The Worker.

Mr. Clinton let us be frank: Your visit to Ukraine did not delight our workers. Working people do understand: presidents come and presidents go, but the danger from Imperialism remains. Because, instead of a millionaire from the Republicans in the White House in USA, there came a 42 year old millionaire Democrat, the situation in the world will not improve much better at all. The game of “democracy” remains only a game. And you demonstrated this while on your visit to Kiev.

BEFORE WHOM, MR. CLINTON, DID YOU PRAISE THE ARMY OF THE FIRST UKRAINIAN FRONT?

Before double-dyed nationalists? Before the ex-president Krawchuk of Ukraine, who three years ago banned the celebrations of the Day of Victory? Did not your controlled “free press” inform you about this as to how Kreshchatik Avenue was decorated on May 9 in 1992? The main sign on Kreshchatik was “Beauty 93′ – Mother’s Day” while Ukrainian radio at that time was full of anti-Soviet, anti-Stalin diatribe and the radio waves were making us crazy with Western music – and this in the Ukraine capital and on the Day of Victory?

Today, three years after, radio and TV did not mention even once the heroes of the struggle against Hitler’s Germany, about the heroism of the Soviet Army, about the Kozaks, young guards, about General Korbyshov, scout Kuznetsov, about the legendary Alexander Matrosov who was already the 59th Hero who threw his body over the machine gun barrels of the fascists in order to save his comrades!

The Victory Day meeting dedicated to the 50th Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War held on May 8th in the theatre “Ukraine” was turned around, with the shameless participation of some officers and praise for President Kuchma. It is a shame that the Hero of the Soviet Union Nedrigajlo, who was turned with his back to audience and bowing to Kuchma, was ready, not even leaving the stage to give up all powers to Kuchma, thus asking him in effect to become a dictator. Shame on such “heroes”! It is sad that Nedrigajlo did not see that at the same time at the entrance, yellow-blue Captain (Ukrainian nationalist – Editors) of the militia forcibly took from the hands of a woman the Red Flag of Victory which was the actual flag with bullet holes in it that was the standard bearer in the fight against the Nazi hordes!

YOU, MR. PRESIDENT, MENTIONED SOME OF THE PROBLEMS THAT ARE FACING THE UKRAINIAN PEOPLE.

Don’t be cunning! You certainly know full well that there is being practiced a full blown genocide in the Ukraine. We are dying off! Example, only in the Nosovski District of Chernigov Province in 1994, there were born 395 children, but there were at the same time 960 deaths … Soviet people are looked upon as expendable! Full Americanization is taking place on our people: in politics, in economy and in culture. Our youth is being demoralized and we are becoming a colony of USA, we are forced to use narcotics, alcoholism is rampant, prostitution and crime. Ukraine has attained first place in prostitution among all former Soviet Republics. The doctrine of A. Dulles since 1946 became an actual fact! The steps taken against the USSR and now the CIS, including psychological and dollar intervention, shows realistically that the USA has already started the Third World War.

YOU PRAISE UKRAINE FOR DISARMING ITSELF, WHILE AT THE SAME TIME, YOU DEMAND THAT UKRAINE JOIN NATO?! AND WHO GAVE THE RIGHT, MR. CLINTON, TO FORCE UPON OUR PEOPLE THE MARKET ECONOMY?!

The forceful integration into the market economy – capitalism-this is a complete turn about from our previous economic system, turning our country back 100 years, to the period of raw capitalist exploitation. Even a porcupine now understands that changing our system of socialism into capitalism – this is profit for your backers, Mr. Clinton, while in return, our people got Chechniya, unemployment, hardships, hunger, crime and killings on demand and turning Ukraine into a supplier of raw resources for world Imperialism.

MR. CLINTON, DURING THE NUREMBERG TRIALS IN 1945, OUN-UPA WERE SENTENCED AS ACCOMPLICES OF FASCISM.

This decision by the Nuremberg Trials of OUN-UPA (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists-Ukrainian Underground Army – Editors) was never abrogated! Soviet people will never forgive these bandits and their crimes: chopping off people’s hands if anyone wanted to join the Collective Farms, the liquidation of the party-state workers and leaders, specialists in agriculture, teachers. Corpses who were strangled to death, including children who were thrown into wells, burnt alive in their homes. “Our state must become frightening!”, said S. Bandera. And today, these left-overs of “Banderovtsi” and their yellow and blue flag has become the symbol of Ukraine! But over 80% of Ukraine never voted for and never recognizes this flag, who you Mr. President recognize and greeted …

For your thought: Miners of the Lugansk Region celebrated Day of Victory and 50th Anniversary over fascism without even one “official, flag” flying over them. Lugansk was RED. Remember this!

YOU, MR. PRESIDENT, MAINTAIN THAT GOD GAVE OUR PRESENT PRESIDENT TO US.

Really? Was Yeltsin also a gift from God?!

Happily on this question, the Ukrainian people have their own thoughts. We were forced to accept this institute of a president, who is proceeding with the active capitalization of our country, with anti-people’s reforms. Presidential form of government is foreign for our people and the mentality of the Slavs. We are going to vacate this form soon enough!

PEOPLE OF UKRAINE STATE:

“NO”-International Monetary Fund!
“NO”-Monopolization system of prices!
“NO”-Regime of colonial democracy!
“NO”- National-capitalism!
“NO”-Zionism and neo-banditism!
“NO”- American economic and political Fascism!

Ukraine will never become a capitalist state. Great Ukraine can only become greater as a Socialist Ukraine in a family of Soviet Union!

YOU MUST UNDERSTAND, MR. PRESIDENT: SOVIET PEOPLE WILL AGAIN RESURRECT THE UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS AND WILL ELIMINATE ALL PRESIDENTS AND THEIR HELPERS!!!

On behalf of the comrades.

All Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and “Movement for USSR”
Galina Savchenko
Secretary and President

The post Pages from Our Past: Open Letter to President Clinton, from Kiev appeared first on The Worker.

1. On the Constitution of the Party of Communists USA
2. On the Popular Front, submitted by the Ideological Department
3. On the New Left, submitted by the Ideological Department
4. On Immigration, submitted by the Nationalities Department
5. On the Study of Marxism-Leninism, by the Educational Department
6. On Nuclear Energy, by the Environmental Commission
7. On LGBT+ Rights, by the LGBT+ Commission
8. On Opposing Racism, by the Black Liberation Commission
9. On the Party Pledge, by the John Reed Cell
10. On the Eight Points of Unity, by the Rose-Bridges Cell

1. The Party of Communists USA Constitution

The Constitution of the Party of Communists USA was amended at the Third Congress. The updated text of the Constitution can be found here: https://partyofcommunistsusa.net/constitution-statues/

2. On the Popular Front (submitted by the PCUSA Ideological Department)

April 6, 2024

We are in a period of the return of Fascism and of the crystallization of US Imperialism as the central driving force against social progress. The last time that Fascism reached this level of strength was in the run-up to World War II. At that time, the response of the Comintern at its Seventh Congress in 1935 was to call for the formation of a Popular Front against Fascism as led by the Axis Powers of Germany, Italy and Japan.

In the past decade, we have witnessed the return of Fascism in the Ukraine, Israel, the Republic of Korea, and even the emboldening of Fascist sentiment in the USA. That is why the Party of Communists USA is calling for the formation of an international Popular Front against Fascism and Genocide. We call upon international and national organizations, such as the current leadership of the World Anti-imperialist Platform (WAP) and of the United National Anti-war Coalition (UNAC), to join with us in forming this Popular Front.

The Popular Front is comprised of a broad formation of progressive elements united in their opposition to Fascism, which is “the open, terroristic dictatorship of the most reactionary and most chauvinist elements of finance capital.” As Dimitrov said in 1935, “when the scattered proletarian detachments, at the initiative of the Communists, join hands for the struggle against the common enemy, when the working class, marching as a unit, begins to act together with the peasantry, the lower middle classes and all democratic elements, on the basis of the People’s Front program, then the offensive of the fascist bourgeoisie is confronted with an insurmountable barrier. A force arises which can offer determined resistance to fascism, prevent it from coming to power in countries of bourgeois democracy and overthrow its barbarous rule where it is already established.”

We call for the formation of an Anti-Monopoly Coalition as the specific form that the Popular Front will take in the USA. This will be composed of all democratic and anti-imperialist forces, including the progressive elements of the labor movement, the anti-war/peace movements, local progressive forces, and emerging third party electoral formations which oppose US imperialism and monopoly capital.

3. On the New Left (submitted by the PCUSA Ideological Department)

Motion to re-emphasize the Marxist theory of class struggle.

The Party of Communists of USA (PCUSA) opposes any attempt to deviate from Marx’s theory of history and of class struggle. The working class being the primary vehicle of change in history.

The New Left refers to a petite bourgeois and intellectual movement that emerged in the 1960s which continues today that is characterized by a lack of centrality of the working class, focus on intellectuals and students, decentralization/localism, Anti-Sovietism, and focus on non-class social movements (movementism).

We oppose “Critical theory” and “Cultural Marxism” as ideologies promoted by the CIA which is anti-Communist and anti-working class. For example, Herbert Marcuse, early exponent of Critical Theory, worked for the Office of Strategic Services and later the CIA in order to promote these ideologies. Marcuse trained Angela Davis who rose to leadership in the CPUSA only to split it. Also, the Congress for Cultural Freedom was another entity that was critical to the ideological bankruptcy of the New Left.

The PCUSA upholds the Marxist theory of class struggle, knowing that the working class is the primary agent of change. Critical Theorists and the New Left, on the other hand, believe non-class social movements and the lumpenproletariat to either be equal to or above the proletariat. Herbert Marcuse said that intellectuals, students, and the lumpenproletariat replaced the workers as the revolutionary class. “In contrast, Marxism utilizes dialectical materialism to understand that these ideas merely reflect reality rather than determine it.” (“On the Frankfurt School”, The Communist Vol III, pg12)

We oppose any attempt to reject material reality in favor of idealism. As Stalin said, material reality exists independent of individual consciousness (Dialectical and Historical Materialism, 1938). As the article “On the Frankfurt School” in The Communist Vol III states: “According to Critical Theory, ideology serves as the primary driver of oppression, and the objective is to analyze and overcome these ideas that hinder human freedom.” So, Critical theory constitutes a rejection of dialectical materialism and Marx’s theory of class struggle.

The PCUSA prioritizes the centrality of the working class. We distinguish ourselves from the rest of the so-called “Left” in our defense of Soviet socialism and the Soviet experience and support for a democratic centralist party.

4. On Immigration (submitted by the PCUSA Nationalities Department)

Motion to add the following text to Section IX (Oppressed Nationalities) of the Party Program:

We are a nation of immigrants; a “melting pot” of many ethnic backgrounds.  Immigrants built this country.  Emma Lazarus, a socialist Jewish-American who worked with Jewish victims of anti-Semitic pogroms, ( indiscriminate massacres of Jewish villages in the Tsarist Russian Empire) wrote a famous poem, “New Colossus.”  Lazarus’s poem is emblazoned on the foundation of the Statue of Liberty and calls for welcoming foreign immigrants to American shores.

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Immigrant history included: indentured servitude, forced importation of people from Africa as slaves, those fleeing religious intolerance, workers and farmers escaping oppression and seeking economic opportunity, victims of political persecution from fascism, imperialism, feudalism, and monarchy.

Capitalists historically, and in the present day, have divided workers on ethnic lines by using intolerance and bigotry. We must not fall into these racist traps and we must unite workers against our collective exploitation regardless of our background.

It is the U.S. Corporate economic policies, using oppressed nations as military bases, which cause peoples in over-exploited economies of the world to flee their poor economic situation and seek more economic stability in the U.S. Most people would prefer to stay in their home country if it was economically stable, but it is the U.S. corporate policies and its militarism that prevents this. Historically speaking this was not an issue in places like the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact nations because their economic policy did not create unfavorable economic conditions.

Immigrants who have lived in this country for 10, 20, 30, 40 years, or their entire life knowing this country as their own should be granted American citizenship.

Those who are undocumented living in the United States are under the worst conditions. They are paid less and often don’t receive benefits; their rent and housing cost more; they cannot use emergency services like the rest of us; and due to threats of deportation, they cannot participate in union collective bargaining. Their immigration status forces them into a more precarious life. The capitalists benefit from this situation while the citizens and immigrants do not. Therefore, we demand a workable, accessible path to citizenship for all those in this country.

We must address the country’s historically racist policies that have created super profits for the employers when it comes to hiring immigrants. Such a stain on our history includes laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), Mexican Repatriation Act (1929), the Japanese Internment Executive Order (1942), and the Muslim Travel Bans (2017). Also, the Immigration and Nationalities Act (1952) authorizes the exclusion of foreign immigrants on the basis of Communist affiliation from entering the country. We must push for creating legislation that prohibits discrimination based on racial, ethnic, national-lines or Communist affiliations.

We are calling to extend legislation to help set up a Federal agency that would deal with immigration services, United States citizenship, and employment that will ease the integration process into this country and help immigrants find jobs. Emulating the famous Emma Lazarus plaque on the base of the Statue of Liberty, we welcome the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free, and the wretched refuse to our teeming shores.”

On the other hand, fascist leaders, hired thugs, and collaborators of failed US supported dictatorships (for example, Marcos – Philippines, Batista – Cuba, the Shah – Iran) who terrorized masses of their own people, must be denied entry into our country; they are unwelcome here.

What exactly is fascism? Is it the same as authoritarianism? Bulgarian Communist Georgi Dimitrov at the 7th Congress of the Communist International (1935) defined fascism as the “open terroristic dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic and most imperialist elements of finance capital.”

No longer should we allow America to be a safe haven for foreign Nazis and other fascists. It was scandalous that 1,600 Nazi scientists and engineers were welcomed to our shores after WWII through “Operation Paperclip”. We now know that these Nazi collaborators were used to empower the interest of American imperialist influence, both in this country, and on the world stage.

The United States should not be a home for these fascists. We cannot import fascists from other countries due to their negative influence on the American public through lobbying, propaganda, and normalizing their reactionary rhetoric. That is why we must not allow fascism to fester in our country. The Party is unconditionally against fascists entering our shores.

5. On the Study of Marxism-Leninism (submitted by the PCUSA Educational Department)

April 6, 2024 

The study of Marxism-Leninism and of Marx’s Critique of Political Economy is an indispensable part of being a Communist and a member of the PCUSA. Every comrade is recommended to have on their bookshelf Stalin’s Foundations of Leninism, Lenin’s Imperialism, Lenin’s What is to be Done?, Kuusinen’s Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism, Stalin’s History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolshevik): Short Course, Foster’s History of the CPUSA, the Economic Institute of the USSR’s Academy of Sciences work on Political Economy, New Outlook Publisher’s edition of Marx’s work on Capital, and other works. All of these book are available at New Outlook Publishers, or are to be republished by New Outlook Publishers.

6. On Nuclear Energy (submitted by the PCUSA Environmental Commission)

Motion to amend the Program as directed below, contingent on the requirement of resolving the question of resource extraction for nuclear reactors without exploitation of indigenous peoples. (The resolution of this question is to be presented at the next PCUSA Central Committee meeting.)

Motion to amend the final sentence of paragraph 4, section 8 of the political program of the PCUSA to say, “Only a fundamental commitment to vastly reduce dependence on coal and other fossil-fuels will save the global working class from the deadliest effects of climate-change.”  

Also, to insert the following paragraph after: 

“The effort to reach net zero carbon emissions will require the replacement of most fossil fuel plants through the expansion of all clean energy sources. These include, but are not necessarily limited to nuclear energy, solar energy, and wind energy. The PCUSA acknowledges that US monopoly oil imperialists have slandered nuclear energy in an attempt to protect their own profits. Nuclear energy has proven to be an extremely energy dense fuel source that has quietly provided 20% of US energy needs since the 1960s. Each year, these plants only produce two thousand tons of waste compared to 6.3 billion tons of carbon waste produced by fossil fuel plants. Nuclear energy complements renewable energy sources by providing a huge output of energy within a very small acreage, while maintaining a small carbon footprint. If U.S. communists wish to reach net zero carbon emissions, without a corresponding decrease in industrial activity, we must support the expansion of nuclear energy. To do so, we will not be able to rely on the capitalist class to invest in this energy system. The expansion of nuclear energy must be guided by strong state intervention, and it must be funded federally. Principally, these funds will be transferred from the bloated military budget towards social needs, including energy and sustainability.”

7. On LGBT+ Rights (submitted by the PCUSA LGBT+ Commission)

The LGBT+ Commission of the PCUSA proposes the following text to expand section V of the party program.

The PCUSA is a party of the entire working class. We defend the rights of all workers, no matter their race, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion, etc.

The Party of Communists USA rejects all discrimination and harassment of LGBT+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and other gender and sexual orientations) people. We harken back to Lenin and the Communist repeal of Tsarist Russian anti-homosexual laws, as well as the Socialist German Democratic Republic repeal of Nazi anti-homosexual laws and the enormous progress Socialist Cuba has made in the fields of gender equality and education. This is an issue that we feel we are truly pioneering in the Communist movement. 

We stand with the LGBT+ community against the oppression, violence and bigotry faced by them on a daily basis and reject anti-LGBT+ sentiment. We firmly state that LGBT+ people are valid and deserve respect and dignity just as any other working-class people do. 

As of 2022, it has been estimated that ~28% of LGBT+ youth experience homelessness, as many are kicked out of households or escape abusive ones and end up on the street. LGBT+ people also experience unique barriers to healthcare, as doctors may refuse to see a patient due to their perceived or actual gender identity, and legal rights, such as the ability to see their loved ones in the hospital, gain custody of children after the death of their partner and more. Discrimination against LGBT+ people is as unconstitutional as it is anti-American, as our 1st Amendment in the US Constitution gives us the freedom of expression. This right shall not be infringed.

The LGBT+ community is also the target of a scapegoating campaign waged by a part of the bourgeoisie – primarily from one of the two bourgeois parties, the Republicans – that is designed to shift blame for the problems of capitalism on society to LGBT+ people (especially transgender people) to create unnecessary division and obfuscate the root problem, which is the capitalist system we live under. 

Another part of the bourgeoisie capitalizes on what success the LGBT+ movement has had and attempts to cash in on the struggle and co-opt it to make profits, or – as in the case of the other bourgeois party, the Democrats – to gain votes, while ultimately doing nothing of substance for working-class LGBT+ people. 

The State Department and corporate media also utilize the strategy of “pinkwashing” to weaponize the LGBT+ issue to carry out its imperialist interests. We oppose all of these attempts to divide, oppress and capitalize on our community and our struggle and seek to develop and push forward the working class LGBT+ movement through the anti-imperialist struggle.

8. On Opposing Racism (submitted by the PCUSA Black Liberation Commission)

Motion to update the statement on Racism and Capitalism in Section IX of the PCUSA Program:

Racism and Capitalism

Racism in its many forms continues to play a negative but central role in every aspect of U.S. capitalism, including keeping the bourgeoisie in power; producing increasing profits, and developing, justifying, and maintaining institutional discrimination.

The working class must fight against racism, for full equality of all nationally oppressed, and for affirmative action, if it is to unite internally and enter lasting alliances with the organizations and movements of racially oppressed peoples. By the same token, the nationally and racially oppressed groups must support labor’s demands in order to unite internally and to ally with labor.

The U.S. is perhaps the most multiracial and multinational country in the world, with about 300 million people including almost every race, nationality, and ethnic group on the planet. Racially and nationally oppressed people live and work in every region, in every state, and in every major city. They are primarily working-class and generally occupy the lowest-paying, most exploitative jobs. Among the nationally and racially oppressed are African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Native Americans, Asian-Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Arab and Middle Eastern peoples.

From its inception, the United States was infected by racism, from the displacement and near genocide of Native Americans, to the enslavement of African-Americans, and to the theft of huge sections of Mexico. The ability of employers to pay workers differently based on skin color, country of origin, immigration, exclusion of Asian and Pacific Islander immigrants, to the current xenophobic hysteria against Arabs and South Asians, racism has been a convenient tool for the maintenance of power and profits by the ruling class at the expense of oppressed people and all workers.

Racism affects the unity of the working class at all levels. Racism is a tool that not only exploits racially oppressed people; it aids in the exploitation of white workers as well. Racial discrimination in hiring, racist wage and salary policies, and racial stratification of various industries and trades undermines the interests of all workers. The hire date in two-tier wage systems exerts downward pressure on the wages of all workers. It allows bosses to extract even higher profits from racially oppressed workers. 

Racism is good for capitalism, but is bad for working people of every race. White workers have a powerful self-interest in fighting racism; white workers will gain greater victories to the degree that they unite with nationally and racially oppressed workers. Multiracial unity in the workplace and on the shop-floor is the key to winning victories for all, to lifting wages, conditions and dignity for every worker.

All people must take an initiating role in combating all barriers to the unity of the working class. This unity is the building blocks of grassroots trust. The struggle against racism is in the interest of all workers, leading to greater unity, respect, and strength for the labor movement and all other movements.

9. On the Party Pledge (submitted by the PCUSA John Reed Cell)

Motion to change the following sentence in the Party Pledge, found in Article III of the PCUSA Constitution:

Original Text: I take this pledge to give the best that is in me to the service of my class. 

Updated Text: I take this pledge to give the best that is in me to the service of the working class.

10. On the Eight Points of Unity (submitted by the PCUSA Greg Rose-Harry Bridges Cell)

Motion to change the seventh point of the Eight Points of Unity.

VII. Continuing Lenin’s opposition to right opportunism and revisionism inside the World Communist Movement

Original Text: We oppose all forms of right opportunism and revisionism to supplant Marxist-Leninist ideology in the world Communist movement, historically and especially exemplified by the current CPUSA. We identify this revisionism as an intrusion of bourgeois ideology that weakens and distorts our theory, practice, and purpose, leading to class collaboration and counter-revolution.
(Original Text)

Updated Text: We oppose all forms of right opportunism and revisionism to supplant Marxist-Leninist ideology in the world Communist movement, historically and especially exemplified by the current leadership of the CPUSA. We identify this revisionism as an intrusion of bourgeois ideology that weakens and distorts our theory, practice, and purpose, leading to class collaboration and counter-revolution. 

Our Party presents an illustration of walking a tightrope, with right opportunism on one side, and ultra-leftism on the other, representing ideological divergence on our path to socialism. 

Class consciousness is the primary focus of our Party’s ideological work. As Marxists, we believe that the history of all hitherto existing society, is the history of class struggle. Our Party is a working class party and is not a hobby, nor one time event, nor an expression of petite bourgeois radicalism.

The post Motions Passed at the Third Congress of the Party of Communists USA appeared first on The Worker.