Posting this article in reference to a previous post I made here yesterday.
ON NOVEMBER 29th the Biden Administration released an upcoming plan to mobilize military forces in the Indo-Pacific Region.¹ With what originally started under President Obama and his “Pivot to the Pacific” strategy, Biden continues in these footsteps with increased aggression towards China² and the DPRK, as well as stationing of troops in Australia.³ Since his inauguration, President Biden, with the support of NATO, has taken hostile steps in the region towards both Russia and China. Likewise, the Communist Party USA’s support of the Biden Administration and – as they call – the Democrat’s “progressive governing agenda” shows their political bankruptcy and opportunism in advocating for status quo liberalism.
Imperialism is not a new strategy for Joe Biden (considering Barack Obama’s reputation of executing over 500 drone strikes in countries overseas) and continues once again with him at the helm.⁴ Despite the oft-given point that Biden evacuated troops from the now 20-year occupation of Afghanistan, it was merely a strategical pivot towards the Indo-Pacific region. Arms sales to Australia have increased, threats towards China have escalated, and Ukraine has been used as a foothold to further destabilize the region. While the Biden administration flounders to provide any type of relief to working people in the country who have suffered extensively under COVID-19, US imperialism remains wholly intact. The so-called “progressive” presidency and its promises of reform have all been left by the wayside for continued militarism and foreign aggression.
During all of this, the CPUSA has offered up its words of condemnation for the violence Biden’s administration has used against Haitian migrants,⁵ the bombing of Syria,⁶ and other instances, but with the CPUSA’s vocal and enthusiastic support during the 2020 election cycle, this feigned ignorance is little more than brazen opportunism. To claim that Democrats seek “not just to rebuild the economy, but to transform it”⁷ is a spit in the face of the working class that has suffered around the country from excruciating labor conditions, low pay, and inflation. As Lenin said in his letter to the workers and peasants, “it is time we learned to judge political parties not by their words, but by their deeds.”⁸ And what has the CPUSA done in the 21st century besides write deceiving declarations of supposed proletarian justice in service of revisionism? From framing Obama as having a “bold vision for a more socially and economically just nation” to supporting Biden’s supposed “most progressive platform of any major-party nominee in history,”⁹ what has the CPUSA accomplished besides being a mouthpiece for liberalism? The party has grown to be akin to the Mensheviks of Lenin’s time, revolutionaries only in words and showing its sympathies towards capital at moments when class consciousness is needed most. Joe Sims, John Bachtell, and their lackeys continue to lead their members astray under the guise of being “principled” yet, by continuing to support the Democrats, show their true colors as defenders of the bourgeoisie.
sources
1 Jeremy Scahill, “Biden to Pentagon: Keep the War Machine Running,” The Intercept (First Look Institute, December 2, 2021), https://theintercept.com/2021/12/02/biden-military-deployment-global-footprint/?utm_medium=email
2 “Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby and Dr. Mara Karlin, Performing the Duties of Deput,” U.S. Department of Defense, November 29, 2021, https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/2856143/pentagon-press-secretary-john-f-kirby-and-dr-mara-karlin-performing-the-duties.
3 “DOD Concludes 2021 Global Posture Review,” U.S. Department of Defense, November 29, 2021, https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2855801/dod-concludes-2021-global-posture-review/.
4 Jeremy Scahill, “U.S. Absolves Drone Killers and Persecutes Whistleblowers,” The Intercept (First Look Institute, November 4, 2021), https://theintercept.com/2021/11/04/drone-attack-kabul-pentagon-report-whistleblowers/; Micah Zenko, “Obama’s Final Drone Strike Data,” Council on Foreign Relations (Council on Foreign Relations, January 20, 2017), https://www.cfr.org/blog/obamas-final-drone-strike-data.
5 Communist Party USA, “Good Morning, Revolution! Imperialist Border Crisis Edition,” Communist Party USA (Creative Commons, September 24, 2021), https://www.cpusa.org/party_voices/good-morning-revolution-imperialist-border-crisis-edition.
6 CPUSA Peace & Solidarity Commission CPUSA International Department, “Biden Bombing Syria Continues Two Decades of U.S. Aggression,” Communist Party USA (Creative Commons, March 2, 2021), https://www.cpusa.org/article/biden-bombing-syria-continues-two-decades-of-u-s-aggression/.
7 John Bachtell, “Biden’s ‘Crisis Presidency’ and Potential for Transformative Change,” People’s World (People’s World, May 21, 2020), https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/bidens-crisis-presidency-and-potential-for-transformative-change/.
8 Vladimir Lenin, “Apropos of the Victory over Kolchak,” Letter To The Workers And Peasants Apropos Of The Victory Over Kolchak (V. I. Lenin Internet Archive, 2002), https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1919/aug/24.htm.
9 John Bachtell, “Biden’s ‘Crisis Presidency’ and Potential for Transformative Change.”
I had lunch with John Bachtell once. I'm kind of a big deal in the revisionist world.
:corn-man-khrush:
It was. He's a friendly guy. His wife is also nice. I was a lot younger at the time and less sure of my politics, but even then I was skeptical of CPUSA. I didn't understand their hybrid strategy of pursuing liberalism through an organization that has the baggage of communism/pursuing communism via liberalism.
No doubt, I think I and many people would get along with John, Joe, Rosanna, and the other liberal revisionists in the old party in casual non-political settings, since it's not personal but a professional difference. I'd probably find them a whole lot more likeable if they weren't telling communists to phone bank for :hillary: and shit
CPUSA isn't complicit, they're an active cheerleader. Just like a bunch of other socialist parties that went lib to survive anticommunist purges.
Just like a bunch of other socialist parties that went lib to survive anticommunist purges.
"Bro let's purge the communists in the Party so we can survive the anti-communist purges, bro it'll work out I promise"
At least those other parties got to be part of the circles of power on the new capitalist states. The CPUSA literally gets nothing for all their cringe.
🤡 pusa
This took me longer to parse out in my head. But made me have a giggle when it clicked.
There’s not exactly a lot of options that aren’t fed compromised. You just find a local chapter of an org that is doing the most good in your town and then get to work. Don’t say or do anything illegal and be wary of anyone who does.
Every communist org is going to be fed infiltrated, like every single one, you can't stop it, you can just find ways to deal with it.
The CPUSA, at least that's how some people presented it to me, is having a resurgance in membership, which are apparently way more radical than the party line was the last 30 or so years.
I'd rather see the CPUSA properly rejuvenated by some good old purging than creating yet-another-ML-party-which-will-totally-for-real-be-the-one-guys-trust-me.
Maybe it's not a good idea to throw the baby out with the bathwater? The CPUSA however flawed it may be probably built some kind of organizational infrastructure over the years, there's no need to build that anew in a new org if the old one can be reformed.
Also I haven't really heard that great things about the PSL either, they have their own set of problems. No org, old or new, is gonna be so great that everybody is happy with it.
Maybe you're right maybe I just stumbled upon the few good CPUSA members so I have a skewed viewpoint, just saying organizations can change for the worse but also for the better.
Joe Sims the co-chair of the CPUSA ever since getting elected in 2019 has always been a pro-democrat liberal normaly using ML terms to try to sound like an actual communist while saying shit like "lets vote out fascism", CPUSA has been a khrushchevite party for a while but in their current development they are probably gonna become an more left DSA in a few years
i recoment this reading talking about Joe sims revisionism
We also got an article on Sims too
It's also more accurate to say that the party has always changed in reflection of the Soviet leadership as the respective leaders of the Party were influenced by whom they ideologically grew up under and with when they follow the lead of the CPSU. Examples being how Foster, Browder, and Dennis had stronger ties to Stalin, whereas for Gus Hall - who was influenced from his time growing up under Stalin - unfortunately had to deal with the post-stalin world that Khrushchev wrecked with his "secret" speech, during the Red purges, and the shattering of the Communist movement in America due to the Sino-Soviet split.
The character of the Party membership also changed through the decades as the party membership was losing industrial concentration due to the purges of Communists from the labor movement and the Red Scare, and slowly replaced its membership with members of the intelligentsia instead of the working class this shift was observed from the 70s and culminating in 91 as a significant section of the intelligensia revisionists attempted and failed an ideological coup of the Party then immediately leaving to split the party. It became clear at this time that the majority of the Party was no longer the old guard that stood with their coworkers on the picketline to wag the middlefinger at the boss but a new generation that grew up doing the performative protests that were emblematic of the hippie era.
It really starts making sense why the American Communist movement crumbled into the wreckage it is today after the death of Comrade Hall.
i meant they are going to become a democratic party political organization like the DSA but instead of using socialists to call themselfs they use communists, not that they are being pushed to the left
I just found out about the Marxist Unity Group inside the DSA, and they sound uncompromising af. I'm interested in joining, but have no idea how factions work inside political parties. Wouldn't it be weird to get accepted into the DSA, and then immediately join a hardline Marxist caucus inside it?
DSA enough credit then the ML caucuses
im sure the CPUSA has many principled ML members in the states too that do a lot of praxis, but just like in the DSA the leadership of both is controled by people who's only strategy is to vote democrats and to play by their rules, and no matter how many good socialists both orgs have the bad leadership is going to make that not matter in the end
The difference with the DSA is because they actively don’t do DemCent, a group of dedicated socialists can take over a local chapter if it sucks and do good shit
So much of local DSA organizing is a bunch of socialists showing up to the biggest grouping if socialists in town and figuring out what to do from there. My chapter basically forked itself into several different working groups, all of which organize openly other groups. Some of those working groups have co-chairs that aren't even DSA members.
The main chapter mostly exists to delegate funds and do outreach to paper members.
Remind me to interview you on your time with PSL sometimes, and if there's any of my party cells in your area to see if we can't coordinate some good stuff sometime. - as long as that's alright of course.
DSA is already further to the left than CPUSA even at the top. To give an example DSA endorsed Bernie Sanders while the CPUSA endorsed Hillary.
You should look into the Chairman of the CPUSA during that time, pretty sure he just went full lib democrat after that
Sam Webb? Yeah he quit then became a DNC operative. His successor John Bachtell helped elect Obama when he was running for senate. Joe Sims thankfully doesn't have baggage like that, or he's smart enough to keep his mouth shut on it, since the only thing he's ever done was be a failed actor like Reagan
You can read not just their twitter but the twitter of their locals. Its full electoralism. They don't put any value in organizing unions or mutual support networks.
I really don't understand what their strategy is here. Nation DSA has plausible potential options to either gain recognition and clout within the democratic party and move them left or at least be antagonistic towards the party by running in primaries. CPUSA has no such potential. The democratic party will never recognize them or take them seriously simply because they have "communist" in the name. I'd love to know what their theory on their electoral strategy is.
Yeah this is garbage but is it possible the CPUSA is changing? I've been following some CPUSA members on tw*tter and they've been consistently having good takes on stuff like this.
I feel like the rank and file members aren't really in sync with the leadership.
No, you can have Lenin-level analysis in a communist party, but a minority can not go against a majority and the revisionist leadership must willingly step down when they are voted out.
