“Communists in convention: What our mission is and isn’t” first appeared on PeoplesWorld.org on July 1, 2014. Read it on PeoplesWorld.org.

Below is a section of the keynote to the Communist Party USA 30^th National Convention, June 13-15, 2014. It was delivered on the convention’s opening day by outgoing National Chair Sam Webb. The newly elected national chair is John Bachtell, who previously served as Illinois organizer for the party. We will feature other sections of the keynote in the coming weeks. – Editors

Good afternoon everybody, and a special good afternoon to our international guests. Thank you so much for coming.

“Want a better world? Get on board with the new labor movement” first appeared on PeoplesWorld.org on May 21, 2014. Read it on PeoplesWorld.org.

Social change, and especially deep-going social change in a progressive, left and socialist direction doesn’t just “happen.” It requires, first of all, real, active, and politically far-seeing social movements on the ground.

And the labor movement — energized, growing, membership-driven, and class and democratic minded — is an essential cornerstone of those social movements.

“Ukraine, U.S. and Putin; who’s the bully?” first appeared on  PoliticalAffairs.net on April 9, 2014. Read it on PoliticalAffairs.net.

If the world breathed a sigh of relief when the Cold War wound down in the late 1980s, it started trembling as U.S.-Russia relations took a dangerous turn over Ukraine and Crimea. This is a very troubling development. If it continues in the present direction, the result will be damaging on a range of issues – nuclear weapons proliferation and elimination, Iran, Syria, terrorism, climate change, and domestic politics in the two countries, to mention a few.

If you listen only to the mainstream media and both Republican and Democratic politicians you get the impression that the perpetrator of this sharply negative turn is the power-hungry Putin, and that the trigger was Russia’s heavy hand in the Crimea.