cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/5141613

From the Tweet:

"The Communist Party USA is saddened to learn about the passing of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. Our Party sends condolences to all members of the Communist Party of Vietnam and to all the people of Vietnam."

  • Cowbee [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    5 months ago

    Wow, Comprador Party USA not completely flubbing a public response? Are these the weeks where decades happen?

    (Who am I kidding, CPUSA is still going to be worse than useless)

    • CPUSA is best at multi-track drifting, they curtsy to Cuban and Chinese communist parties and stab everyone in the back with their crypto-Bidenism and endorsement of the IMCWP imperialist pyramid theory (all capitalist states = imperialist).

      • aaro [they/them, she/her]
        ·
        5 months ago

        props to being the very first person I've ever heard use the phrase "crypto-bidenism" and having it actually make full and complete sense

        • The CPUSA has also hosted a speaker from the CPC in the years past, but this is for the purposes of fostering internationalism it doesn't indicate they've taken this geopolitically clueless stance of ordering Russian troops "out of Ukraine". CPUSA and most of IMCWP as far as I am aware sides with the KKE on Ukraine. Articles by leadership of CPUSA with actual power describes an alliance against Trump as the #1 prerogative of this election. That's pretty duplicitous considering all of their friendly talk about the CPC they are willing to put out there are well. Our relatively impotent situation should cement to people the urgency of building power outside the uniparty of war and global debt slavery.

          • Makan@lemmygrad.ml
            hexagon
            ·
            5 months ago

            Actually, most of the IMCWP does not side with the KKE; the KKE is at odds with everyone else in the IMCWP.

            CPUSA has a peace stance vis a vis the Ukraine war and goes by the policy of other communist parties.

            What you describe is not duplicitous and you have yet to explain really why.

              • comradecalzone@lemmygrad.ml
                ·
                5 months ago

                Re: "calling Russia military operation in Ukraine illegal"

                You're right, a part of the party's position is that it was wrong and in violation of International Law. The suffering of the working class has escalated as a consequence of the war.

                But this alone would be a surface level analysis. The party recognizes:

                • The presence of U.S. bases and military forces near Russia's western border are rightfully seen as threats by Russia.
                • U.S. imperialism and NATO's expansions, including the attempt to bring Ukraine into the military alliance, has heightened tensions.
                • Agreements reached in 2014 with respect to the autonomy of 4 million Russians living in Luhansk and Donetsk their autonomy have never been implemented by Ukraine’s government.
                • The 2014 U.S.-backed coup in Ukraine and subsequent slaughter of separatists by the fascist Azov Battalion and brought tensions to a boiling point.

                Thus, our "main task has to be to work to develop a peace movement and to change the Biden administration’s policy. That’s the best way and only way to support the workers of Russia and Ukraine." Not idealistically decry Russia's actions and do nothing, despite US-imperialism creating the situation in the first place. That is the core of our position, that which informs our priorities and our actions.

                • That's the weird part, it's easier to deal with completely clueless randoms who don't understand Ukraine's post-Maidan government has been conducting ethnic cleansing campaigns that started a civil war than it is to deal with people upholding the CPUSA's line. Here the CPUSA is telling me I need to be pragmatic and push the democrats left by siding with them in an "anti-Trump coalition", because actually Putin should have been even more idle and insensitive in the face of the ethnic cleansing. I don't really want to debate whether the party is run by Bidenists after the way they've treated people who tried to talk about the genocide, versus the way they've treated the Communist Party of Israel.

                  Why do they line up with the KKE in condemning the SMO for the past 2 years? Why do they blame Russia for the post-Maidan govt purging communists?

                  Every time I talk to CPUSA people they just say no no no we don't believe that and then my RSS feed updates with an article by Joe Sims that's even worse on an issue like AOC. What the hell is even going on in there guys?

            • What's the full listing for parties on each side of the split? I don't mean to spread misinformation here. I call this duplicitous because the CPUSA does not have a peace stance on the war in Ukraine, when they say "Russian troops out of Ukraine" they mean the return of the territories considered to be Ukraine by the post Maidan government. This is based on the idea that NATO and Russia are both imperialist powers justifying "revolutionary defeatism". Most Marxists in the global south as far as I know have a more dependency minded view of Russia as a semi-peripheral state which has aligned with the periphery? Am I Bowlderizing this lol? Because using anti-imperialist messaging to convince people they are being represented by a party that scolds and threatens clubs into falling in line with their democrat tailism is a betrayal of the efforts of the members who end up getting purged trying to discuss a sane line on Palestine for instance.

      • Łumało [he/him]@lemmygrad.ml
        ·
        5 months ago

        I mean, the more and more I read about the CPUSA the more I consider your upper leadership irredeemable and a leech on the local branches.

        https://clarion.unity-struggle-unity.org/2024-02-22-cpusa-hypocrisy/

        Hell if I was American, the FRSO would look much more appealing to me, partly because they have an actual stinkin' programme.

      • PM_ME_YOUR_FOUCAULTS [he/him, they/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        5 months ago

        In what way is CPUSA better than useless?

        Didn't the leadership just dissolve an active chapter for, in part, dissenting at the convention over Bidenism?

        https://clarion.unity-struggle-unity.org/2024-07-16-austin-moving-on/

        • Makan@lemmygrad.ml
          hexagon
          ·
          5 months ago

          There is no Bidenism.

          Also lol Austin Club and Red Clarion, they're kinda a laughing stock

          • PM_ME_YOUR_FOUCAULTS [he/him, they/them]
            ·
            5 months ago

            There is no Bidenism.

            WHEREAS the corporate/financial extreme right and the extreme-right coalition have a strategy to disrupt, demoralize, and splinter the growing unity in the anti-fascist and people’s movement. Principled unity in action is an asset Communists bring to the table. Communists and our friends have a strategic role in building and maintaining unity within the anti-extreme-right coalition.

            THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that to defend the working class, people’s movement, and democracy, the Communist Party issues this urgent call to action to build a broad People’s Needs, Not MAGA Greed Campaign, an all-people’s front to win victory. We must go all out to support the all-people’s front for a maximum voter turnout on the critical issues affecting our lives.

            THEREFORE, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Communist Party is committed to year-round organizing and mobilizing on the issues facing the working class, to build a broad-based grassroots movement on its behalf, and will encourage our members to work in their local communities with labor and other forces in targeted voter registration, education, and mobilization efforts, in support of the issues to help elect Communist and progressive candidates, support voting rights for immigrants, and support progressive ballot initiatives. We call on our members to work on neighborhood-based canvassing and to get out the vote with labor and allies for the strongest pro-worker and progressive candidates at every level.

            THEREFORE, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a victory over rightwing candidates will be a decisive defeat for the corporate rightwing and fascist forces. This will help change the balance of forces and clear the way to change the direction of our nation–to slash the military budget, end the sending of weapons to Israel, tax the rich, win quality healthcare for all, strengthen the right to vote, strengthen union organizing rights, restore Roe v. Wade, and end police murder of people of color.

            THEREFORE, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Communists will give full united support and participation in the broad front to defeat Trump, Trumpism, and the MAGA Republicans.

            Y'all are to the right of DSA on this election lmao

            • comradecalzone@lemmygrad.ml
              ·
              5 months ago

              This is resolution 5, which did not pass at the National Convention, nor has a version of it yet passed from the National Committee. A big part of the disagreement was the lack of mention of the Democratic party and its role in allowing our descent into fascism.

              I largely agree with the resolution, but it is a fine line that has to be walked between building a People's Front against fascism, and subordination and class collaboration.

              • PM_ME_YOUR_FOUCAULTS [he/him, they/them]
                ·
                edit-2
                5 months ago

                Thank you for an actual response. Your party has a god-awful reputation and stuff like this looks disgustingly unprincipled on its face

                I ask again however, as I did elsewhere in this thread, who exactly is in this "People's Front" against fascism aside from CPUSA itself? The Democratic Party, itself a fascist organization, surely cannot be included

                • comradecalzone@lemmygrad.ml
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  5 months ago

                  Your party has a god-awful reputation

                  Definitely true in some digital circles like Hexbear. This hasn't been my experience on the ground, however.

                  stuff like this looks disgustingly unprincipled on its face

                  It seems to me that, in cases like this, the discussions are initially framed from either a place of misunderstanding or malintent. It's a pretty fundamental fact that this resolution was not passed.

                  I ask again however, as I did elsewhere in this thread, who exactly is in this “People’s Front” against fascism aside from CPUSA itself?

                  We define a "People's Front" or "Popular Front" as an alliance on specific issues, and the alliance is not necessarily based on class character. This is opposed to a "United Front," which is a more stable and permanent coalition of united working class orgs. It can be other communists, labor activists, liberals, Democrats, and other progressive groups.

                  Locally we have worked with progressive democrats, student orgs, housing activists, and even Catholic orgs on things like specific housing issues (e.g. property millage for funding local housing insecurity services) and forcing our city and county officials to call for a ceasefire in Palestine.

                  If we committed to blocking a Trump presidency, it should be a strategic one off, not subordination to a party that enforces the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.

                  Finally, we do not see the Democratic Party as a fascist organization. We define fascism using the comintern's definition as presented by Georgi Dmitrov: "the open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic and most imperialist elements of finance capital".

                  This is not an excuse for the imperialist, settler-colonial, bourgeois-subservient Democratic Party, but there is a material difference between fascism and neoliberal orthodoxy. The conditions for organizing the masses becomes much more difficult when there is a ramp up in censorship, imprisonment, and outright executions of communists. This philosophy of "Social Fascism," where modern social democracy and fascism are equated, in part caused the communists to remove themselves from the masses and underestimate fascism. It led to a failure to prevent fascism in Bulgaria, Poland, Finland, and Germany pre-1935, hence the comintern's analysis.

            • Makan@lemmygrad.ml
              hexagon
              ·
              5 months ago

              We are not.

              I don't see any Bidenism and I don't even know what you mean by Bidenism.

              We never even endorsed Biden.

              • robinnn
                ·
                5 months ago

                Never! Btw LOVED how one of your justifications for calling for a ceasefire was that it helped Biden’s chances of winning against Trump! Let’s all “vote for democracy”!!

              • PM_ME_YOUR_FOUCAULTS [he/him, they/them]
                ·
                edit-2
                5 months ago

                THEREFORE, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Communists will give full united support and participation in the broad front to defeat Trump, Trumpism, and the MAGA Republicans.

                The party is here committing itself to electoralism on behalf of the Democrats with the thinnest figleaf of a self-declared "broad front" (who else is a member of this front exactly, btw?). Let's see here, who exactly is at the top of the ticket, and would be elected upon the defeat of Trump, and Trumpism. It's noted war criminal, Genocide Joe Biden! Guess you didn't endorse him, just fully committed yourselves to electing him.

                • Makan@lemmygrad.ml
                  hexagon
                  ·
                  5 months ago

                  They are not.

                  The party works with Dems and third-parties alike and only endorses its own candidates.

        • comradecalzone@lemmygrad.ml
          ·
          5 months ago

          No. Many other districts (and by proxy, clubs) also dissented over resolution 5. Not only was there no "reprisal," but we have been asked for feedback on it.

          We have not, however, broken democratic centralism.

      • Tomorrow_Farewell [any, they/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        5 months ago

        Didn't you recently liquidate a chapter for 'black nationalism'?
        EDIT: while also invoking MLK in your statement about your commitment to non-violence in response to the assassination attempt

        • Makan@lemmygrad.ml
          hexagon
          ·
          5 months ago

          We didn't. I'm in the organization. There was a lot more to that and with a big lead-up to it too.

          Yes, we don't actively call for political violence and warn against it due to obvious reasons.

  • LesbianLiberty [she/her]
    ·
    5 months ago

    Odd affinity for the CPUSA ✅
    Posting to multiple subs across separate instances for no reason ✅
    Brief, contradictory, and frustrating replies when given any pushback ✅

    Oh yeah, it's Pluto time big-cool