Communist Party USA
This political and organizational report was presented at the meeting of the New York State Committee on Jan. 29, 2022. This political report is divided into four parts: 1) the meaning of the Republican Party–engineered defeat of the legislation protecting voting rights, and the need in 2022 for a mass anti-fascist front; 2) the importance of the labor upsurge we are participating in; 3) the New York state political situation; and 4) organizational proposals. Given the serious developments around U.S. intervention in Ukraine, we have added a report from Henry Lowendorf of the Peace and Solidarity Commission and the US Peace Council. The first thing I want to say is that I hope this meeting condemns the growing Washington-Pentagon war drive and war moves against Russia, endorsed by both Democratic and Republican parties. It is important to emphasize that Biden’s domestic policies, while not consistently pro–working class, are different from Trump’s and give us more space to organize. At the same time, Biden’s foreign and domestic policies are in the final analysis the U.S. ruling class’s attempt to shore up U.S. hegemony and capitalist rule, both worldwide and at home. Both imperialist war, threatened by Democrat Biden, and the danger of a fascistic coup spearheaded by the Republican Party, are products of capitalism, and as socialists we oppose both. U.S. Hands Off Ukraine! NATO out of Eastern Europe! Let us help build in 2022 the mass fightback necessary against the right danger in 2022. And part of that successful fight surely involves fighting for people’s needs, as well as defending democracy, and for socialism. The right-wing danger My starting point is where we left off at our last State Committee meeting in September. The Republican obstruction and defeat of the voting rights legislation by the Trumpite Republicans, combined with corporate Democrats, has brought us to a dangerous new place in the struggle against the right. As media and the DOJ Task Force have focused on the violence of the coup plotters on January 6, a slow-moving and better-prepared peaceful coup is taking place with the passage of laws subverting voting rights in many battleground states. The defeat of the John R. Lewis Voting Act, coupled with the defeat of the Build Back Better Act, has been spearheaded by many of the same Republican senators who helped plan and support the coup on January 6. Make no mistake: election of a Republican majority in the House and Senate, victory by coup supporters in 2022 and 2024, will not mean just reactionary policies, as devastating as those will be. Election of a Republican legislative majority will complete a long-planned fascistic power grab by the Trumpite Republican Party in 2022—enabling future administrations to curtail or smash the very vehicles we use to fight — unions, use of science, relatively independent journalism, women’s reproductive rights and voting rights, the judiciary, LGBTQ rights, public education, health care, and separation of church and state. What is needed between now and 2022 and 2024 is a massive fightback, call it if you will an anti-fascist mass front, loosely organized, extending to all the forces that this power grab has in its cross hairs. The only way to win this class battle disguised as an election is to mobilize the biggest turnout of labor, oppressed nationalities, youth, and women’s organizations in a mass anti-fascist front to defend democracy. The other thing is, and make no mistake about this: As we defend democracy, in order to assure the massive turnout, we must also keep our eyes on, in the words of Joe Sims, “the prize of answering to…
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Next steps for New York State CPUSA (report)