We Must Speak Up Now

As members of the Communist Party USA, we can no longer sit in silence as Sam Webb, Jarvis Tyner, Judith LeBlanc and Scott Marshall turn our Party into a cheer leading organization for the Democratic Party.

We insist on full disclosure of all finances.

Our attention has been drawn to rumors wealthy individuals have paid off this leadership.

This would not be the first time government agents and corporations have attempted to disrupt the activities of OUR Party.

Webb has traversed our country attacking loyal Party members. Working class members.

Webb started his attack by launching a racist diatribe against Evalina Alarcon who heads up the National Committee seeking a Cesar Chavez National Holiday. Webb then went on to attack members of Middle Eastern origin working in league with Homeland Security and the FBI.

Webb then focussed his attack on African-American members of the Party.

Today, OUR Party lays near ruin with fewer than 140 dues paying members across the entire United States.

Webb continues to hurl insults and invectives against national liberation movements in joining with U.S. imperialist attacks on Hamas and the right of the Palestinian people to defend their homeland.

Webb has failed to rally OUR Party in defense of the working class as workers are losing their jobs and homes from New Jersey to San Fransisco.

Webb has forced OUR Party to appear to be a lap dog for the Democratic Party.

Webb is a racist and a sexist.

We take this initiative with great reluctance. The CPUSA has traditionally been in the forefront of the struggles of the American people for peace, democracy, jobs and human dignity.

The present moment requires active resistance to capitalist oppression and exploitation.

Webb and his entourage do not reflect the views of the Communist Party USA. Webb, Tyner, Marshall, and LeBlanc have used their positions for graft and corruption. They took large sums of money in return for turning the Communist Party USA into a servant of U.S. imperialism.

Webb's policies have destroyed OUR Party in the industrial heartland. We call for a united effort to rebuild and reestablish our Party's presence in the industrial heartland. We reaffirm the principles of industrial concentration.

As Communists we believe the only path to defeating the ultra-right is through progressive labor unity against the Democratic and Republican Parties.

McCain, Obama and Clinton are enemies of the working class.

We call on all Communists who have quit the Party in disgust to hang tough and stay strong.

The same unity needed to defeat reaction is needed in the struggle to save our Party.

The statement below appears on the CPUSA website. We cite our differences with this sellout to the monopolies which slanders the left-wing movements in our country who are our allies and relegates the working class movement to being obedient to reactionary trade union leadership operating as an appendage of the Democratic Party.

Our responses are in blue.

Statement of the CPUSA

Revolt with a Vote

As of this writing, the Republicans have settled on their nominee, and the U.S. is still in the midst of a Democratic primary race that has energized and mobilized millions of people, especially youth, across the country. In state primary after state primary, record numbers of people have come out to vote, or caucus, to add their voice to the millions debating the question: Who will be the Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) or Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.)?

Neither Obama or Clinton should be supported. Both are reactionary warmongers.

Either way, the results will be historic: We’ll have, after the Democratic National Convention at the latest, the first-ever woman or African American presidential candidate, and, if all goes right, one of them will make history by going on to become president. This fact alone is invigorating, and the election of either will be a tremendous victory against the ultra-right. The process alone has gone a long way to dispelling much of the left-wing cynicism that set in after the 2006 electoral victories.

How can the election of right-wing warmongers be a step forward for the American people?

The 2006 results were a complicated, though definitive, victory to all youth and working people. Our country began 2007 on better political terrain than we have seen in decades, better than most youth have ever seen. The 2006 elections yielded results that only the most optimistic had expected: The ultra-right lost the majority in both the House and in the Senate.

The Democrats were given a clear majority by American voters for the express purpose of ending the war and impeaching the Bush-Cheney gang. The American people got more war and more corruption with the complete approval from Democrats. This statement is an outright lie. Truth is required. Republicans lost and the ultra-right remained in power. The Democrats are the ultra-right like the Republicans. Everyone can see this.

This has radically shifted American politics in favor of young and working people, of the racially and nationally oppressed and women. For example, the day before the 2006 elections, the question in Congress was whether to stop the war in Iraq. After the elections, the question became “When?”

The wars go on.

Congress took an initial step in the right direction on higher education by decreasing the interest rates on student loans, an improvement that will help many youth currently dependent on loans for school. Increasing the minimum wage improved the income of many working people nationwide. And the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would make it easier for workers to form unions without employer intervention had a majority of support in both houses.

The Democrats have offered no relief to students. The Democrats failed to rally in support of EFCA.

But even though a lot has changed, many things have stayed the same. The U.S. is still an occupying force in Iraq and there is no set plan to get out and restore that nation’s sovereignty. EFCA still has not passed; the list could go on. The ongoing problems in our country, even with a Democratic majority, have made many on the left cynical, or, more likely, encouraged their cynicism, with a small but vocal number accusing the Democrats of being no different than the Republicans they ousted. One of the more outrageous examples of this is the ongoing protest outside the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Another example was the protest launched by largely middle-class white activists against Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), renowned as the most senior fighter for civil rights in Congress, for not going full-throttle to impeach the President. His protestations that the Democrats simply did not have the numeric strength to do so meant nothing to his protestors.

Honest people on the left do not accept these lies. We are not cynical. We understand an alternative to this two-party trap is required. Webb and this group around him have made repeated attempts to sabotage all efforts toward political independence. The majority of the American people say there is no difference between the Democrats and Republicans. Protests at the home of Nancy Pelosi should be larger and more aggressive. John Conyers promised to go "full throttle" toward impeachment. Congress made this THE issue. Conyers lied. This statement lies. Democrats had the votes. Democrats refused to use those votes and their power to impeach Bush and Cheney. Protesters expected Conyers to do what he said he would do if the American people handed Democrats a victory and a majority in the House and Senate.

Rep. Pelosi, in October at a D.C. reporters’ luncheon, put it bluntly and correctly: “We said we would change the debate, that we would fight to end the war. We never said we had the veto pen or the signature pen.”

Democrats failed to fight. Pelosi led Democrats in continuing the war and refusal to act on the problems of the people. Protesters should drive Nancy Pelosi out of her home just like the mortgage industry has foreclosed on and evicted hundreds of thousands from their homes after being the victim of an immense scandal of corruption and greed.

Here we have, in essence, the reason why there is still so much wrong with our country, and why there is such a need to win the 2008 elections. If the Democrats are able to scrape together enough votes for an important bill, say EFCA, they still have to get enough votes in the Senate—60 votes altogether—to avoid a Republican filibuster. Even after that, the bill then has to go to President Bush, who will strike it down with a veto. To override a veto, the Democrats have to get together an even higher number of votes. Consequently, to get anything done at all, given that the ultra-right still holds the executive branch and power in Congress, all sorts of compromises have to be made with the Republicans.

More excuses from Communist leaders who should have spent one million dollars initiating struggles.

The 2008 elections allow us to both remove more extreme right-wingers from Congress and the opportunity to get rid of the ultra-right’s White House veto power. Many of the bills that passed through Congress in the last two years could actually become law. The chance to change the face of the executive branch also allows young people to put a stop to the appointing of backwards Supreme Court and federal court appointees.

Another lie. Everyone knows this is a lie.

But who are the ultra-right, and why should youth struggle against them in the 2008 elections?

Yes, who is the ultra-right?

The ultra-right represents the most extreme, backwards, reactionary sections of transnational capital. They represent the war profiteers and the energy/oil conglomerates. If left in power, they aim to:

 Waste billions of dollars on unjust wars
 Deny workers the right to organize a union
 Destroy public education and the ability for us to go to college
 Undermine the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act
 Deny a woman’s right to choose
 Privatize Social Security and dismantle pensions
 Repeal environmental regulations and reject any measures to curb global warming.

Are there any kinder, gentler corporations not sharing this agenda? Let us have names.

Young people, particularly youth of color and working class youth, suffer the most under these regressive measures, often seeing the military as their only option after high school. The overwhelming majority of soldier deaths are young men and women under 30. Those that do return often suffer from post-traumatic stress and mental illness, making it difficult to return to school or get a decent job. In fact, the jobs available to youth overall do not provide much to shout about. The long-lasting ultra-right wing attack on trade unions, which the Reagan administration took the lead on in the 1980s, has left young workers to fend for themselves with less than five percent of young workers having a union job.

Why have Democrats left these youth to fend for themselves? Why hasn't the present leadership of the Communist Party USA set in motion union organizing drives?

While tuition rates continue to rise and state and federal grant based aid are at a devastating low, privatization runs rampant in colleges and public schools around the country. With no real interest in education, companies flock to schools to make money off of students. In reference to privatization, the National Education Association, a teachers’ union, reports on their web site that, if the ultra-right isn’t stopped, “one could imagine a system of public education where nearly all administrative, teaching, support, and even cultural functions would be controlled by private companies, reducing the role of elected school boards to glorified contract administrators.”

Has the Webb leadership of OUR Party challenged this? No!

Young people are also the ones that would suffer from the environmental damages caused by deregulation of corporate emissions standards. We will have to scrap for reproductive rights in an anti-Roe v. Wade era. And in another 30 or 40 years, it will be today’s young people left with the empty bank account that used to be social security and pensions.

It takes a struggle to win. Lenin made this clear. Struggles cannot be led from glass offices high above the streets of New York City.

Intertwined with all of this is the question of the economy, which has already caused grief to millions, and appears to be rapidly getting even worse. While nothing short of the replacement of capitalism can end economic crises, the ultra-right aims, above all else, to protect the profiteers at the expense of working people.

Exactly. Democrats AND Republicans aim to protect the capitalist profiteers.

Of course, a Democratic victory in 2008 will not solve all the problems caused by so many years of ultra-right domination, or by capitalism in general.

A Democratic Party victory will not solve one single problem.

Some on the Left use this as an excuse to suggest reactionary action. Instead of targeting the ultra-right, which suffered a devastating blow in 2006 but is still in the fight, they focus on Democrats as the main enemy. Instead of targeting the driving forces behind the current war in Iraq, attacks on the labor movement and women’s rights, and youth, they rally against progressive Democrats like John Conyers and Nancy Pelosi “from the left.” Many of the people proposing these ideas are the same that have suggested that youth shouldn’t even participate in the elections, that they are “bourgeois” because they represent a choice only between two “imperialist” parties, etc. Instead, they argue, we should take to the streets and make our demands heard there—usually on a Saturday afternoon in front of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., when legislators are spending their weekends elsewhere.

This is a most slanderous statement intended to create disunity in the peace and progressive forces in this country. There is no basis for this slander. It is Webb and this small grouping he works in league with who drives a wedge in the movements of people seeking real change. Such slanders against peace activists is what has led us to issue this Statement.

These are all dangerous suggestions that take advantage of our legitimate anger and frustration with the current war, lack of jobs and poorly funded schools among other things. Youth need not have false notions about the Democrats in order to challenge the ultra-right. There is no excuse to stand on the sidelines.

Webb and his revisionist entourage of liars has sidelined our Party and sidetracked the struggles.

Our ancestors certainly did not spill blood over the right to vote for us to simply give it up. While the leadership of both parties represents sections of the capitalist class, the sections are different. The most backwards, dangerous section is located within the Republican Party. At the same time, both parties represent coalitions: The Republican coalition represents corporate interests on the one hand, and extreme religious conservatives on the other. This coalition has begun to break down, and many who supported the Republicans for years are moving away.

This simply is not true.

The Democratic Party is also a coalition: Its leadership does consist of the less reactionary section of monopoly capital, but its mass base is currently made up of the labor unions, youth organizations, a large segment of the anti-war movement, women’s organizations, civil rights organizations, civil libertarians and so on. Looking at the parties as coalitions is more illuminating than simply looking at the leadership; it becomes much easier to see which camp we want to be in, which coalition we want to see win at this stage.

If this were true why then has Webb stated in no uncertain terms the Communist Party supports no candidate? One would think if this is true Webb would have the courage to say as much.

Swells of young people agree and have already stepped up to the challenge in the Democratic primaries, voting in record numbers and refusing to accept the idea that these elections don’t matter. In Iowa alone, the youth turnout rate more than tripled from under 21,000 in 2004 to over 65,000 in 2008, and it quadrupled in Tennessee despite the devastating storms that ripped through on Super Tuesday. Similar situations have occurred in all Democratic primaries to date.

Specifically what are these young people voting for?

The leading Democratic candidates represents the strongest opposition to the ultra-right we’ve ever seen in a presidential election. The mere fact that candidates must posture over who is more pro-jobs, pro-peace, pro-gay or pro-healthcare is a giant leap forward. And who cannot find progress in the fact that much of the country seems ready to elect either a Black man or a woman as president?

Posture? We are talking about these candidates telling outright lies in order to curry votes.

And there is something to be said for the movement of young people that surrounds Barack Obama. An overwhelming majority of the 2008 primary youth vote went to Sen. Obama, who won this section of the electorate in all Super Tuesday states but Arkansas, California and Massachusetts. Even in those states, Obama kept the margin of victory incredibly low. Obama went on to sweep the Potomac Primaries (D.C., Maryland and Virginia). Of the two candidates, many feel he has provided an inspirational vision for the future of our country. And for youth, who so often feel left out of the discussion, this has been increasingly attractive.

What is there to be said for youth or anyone else blindly voting for any candidate not knowing where those candidates stand on any issue?

Whole new avenues of discussion have opened up. Barack Obama’s historic speech, “A More Perfect Union,” addressed the issue of race and racism in America more openly, and more insightfully, than any speech by a major political player in, possibly, a generation.

Obama has disowned his own pastor who has no fear of speaking truth to power. Obama has rejected his own pastor for political expediency. Is this "courage of one's convictions?" No. If there was anything which could have been said in defense of voting for Obama it was that he was brought along in his thinking by Reverend Wright. Obama has now disowned and disavowed Reverend Wright the only credibility Obama had.

These developments have not only galvanized young people to vote, but to also get active in the campaigns. And progressive Democrats and young people are using the presidential elections as inspiration to engage in local races as well, removing backwards officials from school board posts, city councils and other state and municipal positions.

There is no merit for this statement. This statement is baseless without facts. Wishful thinking at best. Deception at worst.

This fight is winnable, and there is an actual strategy to win, a strategy that consists of more than playing at revolution and calling for chaos in the streets. Right now the elections are the most critical form of struggle; this is where we have the best shot of finally breaking the back of the ultra right. Afterwards, we will continue to build a united movement that can work to establish a real electoral alternative, and eventually to challenge the system overall.

Webb and his elitist entourage has not participated in any struggles for eight years. There is no indication they understand "movement building." This is idle talk from armchair revolutionaries at best; government and corporate agents at worst.

The only next steps to really ending the war, passing the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), raising the Pell Grant in a significant way, among other things, is to get around the Bush veto. This means that McCain must be denied the White House in November

What has been presented in this statement is a surefire way to put McCain in the White House.

Of course, who wins the elections, is also of importance. This question is not simply one of whether it will be Obama or Clinton. Going back to the idea of these U.S. electoral parties as coalitions, we have to ask: Which part of the coalition will most decisively leave its mark on the elections? Will it be the Democratic Party’s leadership, the machine, that section of the capitalist class? Or will it be the base of the party and those who operate within its orbit? The progressive forces, if they are really able to turn out the vote, to organize best for the elections—and this has been the trend—and to put forward their agendas most strongly, will certainly leave their imprint, and the next President will be pushed in a much more progressive direction than they may even care to go. This kind of victory, which would include a total Democratic sweep in November, could set the stage for higher forms of struggle for generations to come.

What is the "progressive agenda" Webb and his entourage are supporting. Previously Webb told us supporting more funding for the war was an act of "progressivism." A surefire way to put McCain in the White House is to continue with holding this "progressive agenda" from the American people. As we know, the American people are fed up with lie after lie after lie coming from Bush, Cheney, McCain and now Clinton and Obama. This is not the way to keep McCain out of the White House.

On Barack Obama. Obama is not a new phenomenon coming from now where. Obama, like Clinton, has been groomed by some of the most dangerous and powerful sections of capital holding powerful positions in the apparatus of state-monopoly capitalism for the express purpose of carrying forward the deadly and destructive aims of United States imperialism.

As has been pointed out by others Sam Webb has betrayed OUR Party. In betraying OUR Party Sam Webb has betrayed the working class.

This statement from the CPUSA website has targeted real progressive elected official. This statement has slandered some of our country's best rank and file trade union leaders. This statement has maligned progressive clergy who are so often the leaders of the "Saturday afternoon peace vigils and protests." This statement is a wholesale attack on the broad movements for peace, social and economic justice and its intent is to drive a wedge between these progressive forces in our own country and those around the world who clearly understand, and fear, McCain, Clinton and Obama.

The Webb leadership of the CPUSA has been the primary obstacle to a united peace movement and a reinvigorated labor movement by doing the dirty work for the Democratic Party and reactionary sections of the labor movement subservient to capital.

Concerned Members of the Communist Party of the United States of America