Class, Race and Women’s Equality- a Strategic View

“Class, Race and Women’s Equality- a Strategic View” first appeared on PoliticalAffairs.net on April 27, 2007. Read it on PoliticalAffairs.net.

Editor’s note: Excerpted from The Nature, Role and Work of the Communist Party. See for the full article.

We look at the world through a class lens. The class struggle is the mainspring of the historical process.

As Marx and Engels observed, “the history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of the class struggle” (Communist Manifesto) Up until then, the historical process was seen as accidental and arbitrary. In constructing a new theoretical model, they persuasively argued that historical change was in large measure the outcome of the collective struggle of millions against their class oppressors rather than the whims of dominant classes and individuals or historical accidents. Their insight provided people in every corner of the globe with a new way to understand as well as influence history. 

The Nature, Role, and Work of the Communist Party

“The Nature, Role, and Work of the Communist Party” first appeared on CPUSA.org on February 27, 2007. Read it on CPUSA.com.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the nature, role, and work of the Party. Sounds like a mouthful and it is. Hopefully, it will give everyone, to continue the metaphor, something to chew on.

The outcome and implications of the mid-term elections will figure prominently in this discussion how could it be otherwise?

Our countrys political terrain has shifted. The American people expect a change in course. What is more, the labor-led peoples movement, whose energy, organization, and political clarity were decisive to the elections outcome, is now turning its attention to legislative battles.

We will do likewise, but with this added wrinkle: we will also give attention to growing the Party and its press in this new context of struggle.

Election 2006: The Stakes Are Very High

“Election 2006: The Stakes Are Very High” first appeared on PoliticalAffairs.net on April 16, 2006. Read it on PoliticalAffairs.net.

Excerpted from a March 4 speech to the national committee of the Communist Party USA.

Last fall, I noted that the cumulative weight of an increasingly unpopular war, Katrina, indictments, incompetence, corruption, scandals, cronyism, and deeply felt anxiety with energy costs and the economy had taken its toll on the standing of the Bush administration. For the first time since 9/11, I said, it governed from a position of weakness and its support had narrowed to its most diehard backers. It spoke with far less political and moral authority. I went on to say that this downward slide in Bush’s political fortunes was more than a momentary blip.

Fighting racism is at the heart of our struggles

“Fighting racism is at the heart of our struggles” first appeared on PoliticalAffairs.net on March 4, 2006. PoliticalAffairs.net.

From People’s Weekly World Newspaper   For the past six years, millions of Americans have been battling the Bush administration and its policies of pre-emptive war, economic austerity, usurpation of democratic rights and racism.

Yet a sober look at the political landscape yields an inescapable conclusion — though the movement has grown in breadth and depth, though this administration is greatly weakened and though some victories have been won, Bush and his right-wing counterparts in Congress continue to drive the nation’s political agenda.

Socialism Revisited: The Day After

“Socialism Revisited: The Day After” first appeared on PoliticalAffairs.net on April 22, 2005. Read it on PoliticalAffairs.net.

Paper presented at the panel entitled ‘Imaginings of Socialism’ at the Left Forum sponsored by Global Left Dialogue, New York City, April 17, 2005. The moderator of the panel was Manning Marable; the other panelists were Robin Kelley, Amiri Baraka, and Michael Albert.

Thank you Manning. I appreciate the opportunity to participate on this panel with you, Robin, Amiri, and Michael. I have admired scholarship, poetry, and activism of each of you from afar. I enjoyed Robin and Michael’s presentations. My remarks are along a different line and more near term.

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