“Building a Transformative Movement & Party” first appeared on CPUSA.org/PoliticalAffairs.net on May 7, 2013. Read it on CPUSA.org/PoliticalAffairs.net.
I want to welcome you to Winston Unity Center, named after our former National Chairman, Henry Winston. Winnie, as he was affectionately known, would be very happy that we are meeting this weekend to turn our attention to the twin tasks of building a transformative movement and party. Few things were closer to his big heart.
“Keep hope alive, build a transformative movement” first appeared on PeoplesWorld.org on April 10, 2013. Read it on PeoplesWorld.org.
It is easy to become frustrated with the pace and the scale of change in recent years. Over the past 30 years or more, we have lost far more battles than we have won. Nearly every section of the working class – none more so than racially oppressed workers – has lost income, job opportunities, and rights as the capitalist class has ferociously pressed its offensive. Entire regions have been turned into economic wastelands. Many cities have become placeholders of poverty, inequality, and racial segregation. The temperature of the planet tracks upward. And wars and the buildup to wars for geoeconomic and geopolitical advantage, albeit disguised in the language of containing threats to world peace and stability, continue apace.
“Hugo Chavez empowered and united” first appeared on PeoplesWorld.org on March 12, 2013. Read it on PeoplesWorld.org.
The powerful voice of Hugo Chavez – a voice for economic justice, democracy, empowerment, national independence, continental solidarity, peace, anti-imperialism, and socialism – has been stilled.
While local and global elites sigh in relief and belittle his life in the major media, the untimely death of Chavez is also evoking a heartfelt cry from millions of abused, marginalized, and exploited people across the globe – none more so than in Venezuela and throughout Latin America.
“Is full employment possible under capitalism?” first appeared on PeoplesWorld.org on February 27, 2013. Read it on PeoplesWorld.org.
Editor’s note: The following are remarks given by Communist Party USA chair Sam Webb at a Feb. 25 University of Georgia debate sponsored by Phi Kappa Literary Society. The debate topic was “Is full employment possible under capitalism?” Webb debated Greg Morin from the Libertarian Party of Georgia. See video at end of article.
Billed as “The Debate That Never Happened,” UGA’s Phi Kappa Literary Society decided to recreate an attempted 1963 debate between CPUSA’s Arnold Johnson and UGA economist David Wright. That attempt had been squelched by a unanimous vote of the Faculty Committee on Student Affairs. The society was accused of attempting to “incite riot.” In the spirit of free speech, the society hosted this debate during its 50th anniversary.
Thank you, and thanks to Phi Kappa Literary Society for the invitation to participate in this debate on this beautiful campus and in this historic chapel. Thanks also to Speak Progress.
The debate question – “Is full employment possible under capitalism” – is by no means an academic one.
“Obama, Coalition politics, and the struggle for reforms” first appeared on PeoplesWorld.org on February 14, 2013. Read it on PeoplesWorld.org.
President Obama’s State of the Union speech reveals once again that president is a democratic reformer (on domestic issues) in the mold of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.
And the fact that the president has a disposition toward reform is of great significance – not only to the millions who are struggling to mitigate the worst effects of 30 years of right-wing extremism and capitalist globalization, but also to people who desire social change of a radical nature.
Here’s why.
I'm a long-time socialist and activist, but new to the blogging world, to which I aim to bring a different perspective on politics, sports, culture, and Marxism. I also teach online classes, but leave plenty of time for swimming, hiking, ESPN, music, reading, drinking good beer, and, not least, my family and friends. I wish I could play basketball, but my knees ruled out that possibility long ago. I was the national chairperson of the Communist Party, USA from 2000 until 2014. While I grew up in Maine and currently live in New York City, my politically formative years were spent in Detroit during the 1970s and 1980s. I graduated from St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia (where I played basketball) and received my MA in economics from the University of Connecticut.
