Oh yeah, Sam Webb has been the subject of numerous vindictive around here. What will happen with CPUSA is anybody's guess, when will the membership get it together? Will they? I see CPUSA in it's current form an obstical to needed organization. But they are the Party.Fucked up situation.
CPUSA's problems are centered on a New York clique. The backbone of CPUSA are the local clubs. The Ken Appelhans Club of Central Indiana is very active on labour issues such as joining the Hyatt workers on the picket line, participating in coalitions opposed to right-to-work laws, the Occupy movement, etc. There are strong clubs in cities such as Houston. Opposition to Webb's revisionism is open and vocal. I will point out that there has been an energetic debate regarding Marxism-Leninism within CPUSA than the Democrats have had regarding the righwint bent of their President.Originally Posted by blindpig
Then the question is why do they tolerate this revisionist clique? It seems that Webb must have significant support to remain in control or has party democracy been thrown out the window? Somebody voted for that asshole.
Webb never hid his views, nor were those qualitatively different over the course of decades. He may have changed by degree - quantitatively - but not qualitatively. Many of these views were generally articulated by him in the YCL, 40 years ago, before the end of the Soviet Union.
How is Webb's thesis that Climate Change is of such immediate significance that it takes precedence over class struggle... how is this different from the identical argument on the threat of nuclear war from a few decades ago?
How long ago was the thesis first advanced that "revolution" was not on the agenda in the U.S.?
Take a look at the Webb article reproduced in ML Today. One of the criticisms is from the Connecticut Party. It argues precisely that Webb's mistake is of degree - quantity and not quality.
And how are Webb's views significantly different from the views of the Committees which very much represented the views of a sizable section of the Party.
Blaming it all on Webb, or on a "small clique", from NYC defies logic.
Neither does this take into account the "objective basis" of opportunism articulated in the criticisms of Webb from both the Mexican and Greek parties.
This particular crisis was a long time in the baking.
The climate change argument and the nuke argument are equally bogus and abject surrender. I have long believed that the Soviets would not be the ones to initiate a nuclear first strike.The danger was entirely from the capitalist side, I do not count upon their rationality. To unilaterally declare 'peaceful coexistence' with an enemy dedicated to your destruction is not good sense, it sends the wrong signals.
How the fuck do you address climate change without putting your crosshairs on capitalism? It is intellectually insulting to suggest that.
Kazakhstan just held its parliamentary election on January 15. The Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan won seven parliament seats with 7.2% of the vote, an increase of nearly six points over the 2007 result. Here is a KNPK ad featuring the party’s leader, Zhambyl Akhmetbekov:
Russia’s 2012 presidential election is less than two weeks away, Sunday March 4th. If Putin wins less than 50% of the vote, a runoff election will be forced between him and KPRF leader Gennady Zyuganov.
Watch Zyuganov’s powerful speech (which I have translated below):
“Compatriot! Remember!
You are part of an amazingly talented and brave people, which created an unprecedented state between three oceans. Such a people need political power responsible to its grand destiny. We die and wither without this. We fall out from world history. And waiting is impossible!
We still have unique natural resources, remainders of industrial power, and a heritage of great scientific schools. We still want to build beautiful universities and spacecraft.
By strengthening peoples’ brotherhood we will be able to reach new heights! Russians and Dagestani, Yakut and Tatar – all our country’s peoples will live as a united family in free Russia. Pleasant children's laughter will fill our houses, and life will find meaning.
So it can be. So it will be! Simply, each must carry out their duty on March 4th.”
On Sunday, the Ukraine held its parliamentary elections. The Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU) won 13.3% of the vote, an increase of eight percentage points over the previous 2007 result. Here is a KPU campaign ad:
The KPRF recently held its 15th party congress. An English translation of the Political Report of the Central Committee to the 15th Congress of the CPRF was recently uploaded to the party's website. It’s quite good. I suggest reading it.
Quote regarding the world situation:
Also of interest: a Russian think-tank, ran by a Putin advisor, has stated that the 2011 parliamentary elections were, in fact, rigged against the KPRF. The KPRF really won 25-30% of the vote and first place.http://kprf.ru/party-live/cknews/115709.html
The aggressiveness of capitalism poses a growing danger to mankind and is a sign of the decline of that system. Resistance to imperialist policies is mounting in the world arena. Entire groups of countries have expressed their reluctance to be dominated by the global capital.
Of particular significance today are the historic examples of China, Cuba, Vietnam, the DPRK and Laos. They are accumulating the experience of alternative-socialist -- development that may be taken into account by other peoples. China has become the “workshop of the world” and is actively expanding into new markets, including Europe and the USA. By building up its productive forces it increases its political clout. Vietnam is developing at a rapid pace. The countries of Latin America are strengthening their sovereignty. The fraternal Byelorussia is steadily following its independent course. The interaction of these states, their economic integration and political cooperation opens up broad vistas.
The emergence of interstate organizations is a feature of our times. A comparatively brief period saw the appearance of: BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the South-American Common Market (MERCOSUR), the Union of South-American Nations (UNOSUR), the Caribbean and Latin American countries community (CELAC) and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of America (ALBA).
On the one hand, this kind of integration is often a manifestation of capitalist competition. On the other hand, it stems from the desire of the people to see a democratic, just and equitable world. The formation of such alliances restrains the ambitions of the USA, NATO and the world reactionary forces that stand behind them. That process provides an extra chance to bide time until new forces of resistance to imperialism, forces committed to socialism, emerge and grow stronger.
The emergence of BRICS, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, stakes a claim to the formation of an alternative world influence centre. These countries are home to more than half of the world’s population and account for an ever “heftier” share of the world economy. If they express their common will, the growing combined might of BRICS countries can be a serious obstacle in the way of the establishment of a new colonial model of the world.
Some international entities, above all ALBA, have a marked anti-imperialist character. While the processes of cooperation, integration and international division of labour in the European Union are used mainly in the interests of capital and suppression of the nations, in Latin America they serve the cause of liberating peoples. The integration of that part of the world is an important instrument of class struggle.
It’s also possible that the Russian bourgeoisie might decide to scrap the United Russia party:http://en.rian.ru/politics/20130314/...s--------.html
Sulakshin said the United Russia party had gained 20-25 percent of the vote at the 2011 State Duma polls, compared to the official figure of 49 percent, while the Communists had gained 25-30 percent, significantly more than the 19 percent announced by election officials.
[…]
Vadim Solovyev, the Communist Party’s top lawyer, told journalists the party had also estimated it took around 30 percent of the vote at the 2011 polls. He said the party had not contested the results in court because it did not believe its appeal would get a fair hearing.
All for now. – Comradehttp://kprf.ru/party-live/cknews/115709.html
Fifth, our work has helped to ideologically strip naked and consign to oblivion a whole slew of pro-regime parties. Democratic Russia and PRES, Russia’s Choice and Our Home Is Russia, Fatherland and Unity, which received so much hype in their time, have all sunk into oblivion. Some other parties are about to go into the dustbin of history. The alliance of oligarchs and bureaucrats has to change its masks all the time. Already Putin’s Popular Front is being groomed to replace United Russia.
More news (mostly May 1, 2013 related):
First, the Union of Communist Parties -- Communist Party of the Soviet Union (composed of many parties, including KPRF and KPU) now has an official website.
Click here for pictures and video from the Ukraine's May 1 marches. And here for Moldova. Note that the Google Chrome browser can be used to get a fast, but often inaccurate, translation of Russian language pages.
Finally, a video showing the KPRF's May 1 march in Moscow:
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