A leftward shift': Communist party USA sees chance as progressives surge

[DonViejo]

In Chicago, an American party derided and feared for 100 years looked eagerly to a brighter future

Eric Lutz in Chicago

Sun 23 Jun 2019 08.30 EDT

As the Communist party USA kicked off its 100th anniversary celebration, Jarvis Tyner called for delegates and guests at the national convention in Chicago to “set the record straight” about one of American politics biggest historical bogeymen.

“The truth is the communist party isn’t out to hurt you,” Tyner, vice-chair of CPUSA and its candidate for vice-president in 1972 and 1976, told a large and diverse crowd. “It will set you free.”

The remarks, met with applause, came on the first day of CPUSA’s 31st national convention – and at a moment in American politics in which democratic socialism and progressive ideas are increasingly finding a home in the mainstream of the Democratic party.

Communists from across the US, along with international delegates from Germany, Canada, Venezuela and elsewhere, sought to send the message that their party has been the most consistent champion of those ideas, has been on the right side of some of the most consequential ideological battles of the last hundred years, and is ready to continue the fight into its second century.

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/23/communist-party-usa-chicago-cpusa-convention

[Loki Liesmith]

1. Sue guys. Whatever.

[Takket]

2. One of the most important messages in 2020:

DO.

NOT.

VOTE.

THIRD.

PARTY.

full stop

[Wounded Bear]

3. Yeah, what he said...

[Scurrilous]

4. "The truth is the communist party isn't out to hurt you..."

“It will set you free.”

Yeah, tell that to the people of North Korea.

[Loki Liesmith]

5. I'm upper middle class...

I get paid well and worked hard for the status. I’m pretty sure the Communist party is out to hurt me.

[natstephen]

15. Well, I'm poor and underpaid.

Sorry if I'm not moved by the communist threat talk...

[Loki Liesmith]

16. Wishing you better times

But the CP gives me no reason to support it as it’s pretty clear I’m the “enemy”

[natstephen]

17. As long as the poor are the enemy...

... everybody is ok with the system.

We're used to it. Thanks, anyway.

[ck4829]

9. Yes, the situation in North Korea is absolutely horrible

Just imagine if we had to go through the same things they did... spectacles of enforced patriotism before public events that if you don't participate in, you can get death threats, you might even get verbally bashed by your own country's leaders.

The world's largest incarceration rate... and a lot of it is for nonviolent crime.

A state-tied media that is in bed with the government and is becoming increasingly consolidated.

North Korea's demographics of the general population are one thing, but the people who run it are completely different... more male, more of one ethnic group, richer. Why does this disparity exist?

Nepotism abounds and a family runs the show with family members being put into certain positions just because of the bloodline they have.

An advanced healthcare system made possible through the tax money of all the citizens and the prices they pay for goods and services... yet there are people who decide that there are some who are not "worthy" of receiving that healthcare.

"Elections" where the person who gets the most votes does not necessarily win the election.

Shoring up paranoia of the 'other', the 'outsider', yet not noticing the violence from their own people, the cruelty of their own government.

And of course the cruel system of "juche", AKA military first. Where money is sank into the military, even boondoggles, at the expense of healthcare, education, infrastructure, etc.

I thank God we are not like North Korea... at all.

[Turin_C3PO]

10. It's ridiculous to compare us to North Korea.

Although Trump and his minions are overturning norms and institutions at an alarming rate, we’re still 100x better than North Korea, Venezuela, and any other number of despotic hellholes.

If we were North Korea, you wouldn’t have the freedom to write what you just did on this website.

[EX500rider]

12. Well they might have the freedom to write it but they would also have the freedom to..

....live in a hell-hole work camp for the rest of their short life.

[Greybnk48]

6. The communist party, compared to when I was a kid, is deader than a doornail.

And NOBODY that I know would ever want to be a part of the bleak, dreary existence of the communist party that failed years ago, and I'm super liberal and so are most of my friends.

What people want is another FDR, and Democratic Socialism. Not communism. Besides, Marx showed us that communes only work for smallish groups and that's certainly proved true in the real world. You have to be able to throw the "free-riders" out.

[DinahMoeHum]

7. The ol' Yippie prankster, Jerry Rubin, had their number even then.

In his book Do It!, he had a whole chapter about their ignorance, incompetence and insignificance in the bigger picture of things.

Thankfully, somebody has published the extract in its entirety.
Substitute the name Trump for Nixon, and it is still relevant today.

https://www.panarchy.org/rubin/doit.html

(snip)
The left turns Communism into a church with priests defining "the line." It's a Christian trip all the way. Study and sacrifice to make the revolution. Suffering will free you and the working class.
(snip)
The ideological left is made up of part-time people whose life-style mocks their rhetoric. There's a thousand miles between their actions and their ideology
(snip)
The left drives people away almost as fast as Nixon (Trump) drives people toward us. (Thank God Nixon (Trump) does a better job!) Ideological hassles on theoretical bullshit, boring meetings - is this the life of a revolutionary? Who's going to give his life to a movement with that kind of come-on?
(snip)
Many intellectual radicals arrogantly call themselves "Marxists." (Poor Karl.) They're very mechanical, telling us the "Laws of Marxism" say revolution comes only out of economic exploitation. There'll be revolution only if there's another economic depression.
(snip)
For years I went to left-wing meetings trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Finally I started taking acid, and I realized what was going on: nothing. I vowed never to go to another left-wing meeting again. Fuck left-wing meetings!
(snip)

Etc.

[Scurrilous]

8. LOL

"For years I went to left-wing meetings trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Finally I started taking acid, and I realized what was going on: nothing. I vowed never to go to another left-wing meeting again. Fuck left-wing meetings!"

[Loki Liesmith]

13. I wish we could get our terminology straight

Democratic socialism is communism. It’s just communism achieved by non violent means. Social democracy is what everyone here keeps calling democratic socialism.

[Polybius]

11. I only know one Communist

The guy is in his late 50's, with a long white beard. The first time I met him, I told him jokingly that he looks like Fidel. He thanked me with teary eyes and wanted to hug me lol.

[natstephen]

14. Reading Americans talking about socialism/communism...

... is like travelling to the past.

Decades of mccarthism have destroyed a lot of good sense and criticism.

[brooklynite]

18. Pro Soviet Union until that became...inconvenient

[natstephen]

19. The Soviet Union had a pivotal educational role in this planet...

... as huge as the French Revolution.

The Soviet Union served to remind banksters, billionaires and powerful business owners what happens when you treat people like shit, just as the French Revolution served to show to the "nobles", kings and queens, what happens when you do the same.

After the French Revolution, basic human rights were created and recognized.

After the Soviet Union, the Western elites started to understand that if the state does not grant a minimum of dignity for the masses, they might end up in a gulag.

The problem with the elite is that they need to be constantly reminded of that.

The problem with the elite today is that there is no Soviet Union to make them behave. They feel free to do whatever they want, once again, in global scale.

We need a new "Soviet Union". We need a new "French revolution".

[hunter]

20. The Libertarians are equally amusing.

I'm a left wing radical, pacifist, and environmental extremist, but my politics are always practical.