What Would a Communist Do?
The best person to answer that question would be a communist. Since I don't have a communist under my bed (I looked), I turned to the Communist Party USA as a source. Here then, is my report on what the CPUSA has been up to recently (or at least what it is willing to post on its public web site). http://www.cpusa.org/
"the right-wing extremists, the letting loose of the demagogues of hatred, fear, racism, and division, and the digging in of private insurance companies and other sections of corporate America. ....
"As for the supporters of health care reform, we have to be every bit as tenacious as right-wing reaction. Justice, morality, and truth are on our side, but they are not enough. Only when combined with persistence, united action, and struggle over the bill's content, including a public option, will real health care reform see the light of day."
"If health care reform fails, it will be a giant step backwards for the Obama administration and for working people, the labor movement, African American, Latino, Asian-Pacific Island communities, women and youth on every issue including the economy, peace and democracy."
"Besides my regular duties of first aid, referrals and consultations, I spend a great deal of time talking to the politicians within the community... To these politicians, we are not just a fringe element on the horizon, we are the true people representing the needs and wants of the community."
"Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, who together developed an analytical structure and methodology that enabled the working class to..."Engels, in an effort to counter a dogmatic interpretation of historical materialism that was fashionable in the socialist movement of that time, wrote..."Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Russian revolution asserted..."
"President Obama and progressive Congress people can't be the only change agents and will be change agents only up to a point. Our responsibility is to support them, prod them, and constructively take issue with them when we have differing views.
"But more importantly -- and this is the heart of the matter -- we have to reach, activate, unite, educate, and turn millions of Americans into ‘change agents' who can make the political difference in upcoming struggles."
"Honduras' Supreme Court voted unanimously to oust Zelaya, and her legislature voted the 125- 5 for same. The five contrarian legislators belong to Honduras' Communist party..."
"The CPUSA agrees that it is necessary to ratchet up the pressure on the de-facto regime, and calls for the following actions:
"We should contact the White House and the State Department to demand that the US government respond to President Zelaya's request by taking the following immediate steps:
"Cancel US visas for the top military and political leaders of the coup.
"Freeze bank accounts in the US belonging to coup leaders as requested by Zelaya.
"Remove US personnel from the military base at Soto Cano, cease all coordination with the coup government's armed forces...
"We should demand an end to the activities in support of the coup government...
"Further, we should be contacting our members of Congress ... and work for the passage of House Resolution 630...
"Finally, the AFL-CIO, US Steelworkers and Local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union have led the way in calling for the restoral of Zelaya and the constitutional order in Honduras. We should build on these initiatives..."
"Congressmen Bill DeLaHunt (D-MA) and James McGovern (D-MA) have taken the initiative with a resolution described below in a message from the Alliance for Global Justice."
- Support Obama. Specifically, support his health care reform, especially a public option.
- Support progressive Congress people. Specifically support Massachusetts Democrats Bill DeLaHunt and James McGovern in punishing Honduras for legally ousting Zelaya.
- "Reach, activate, unite, educate" and create millions of "change agents." (What is a change agent? Well, Obama and progressive Congress people are some examples.)
- Work with the Alliance for Global Justice, Health Care for America Now, Organizing for America, Mother Jones, the labor movement generally and specifically the AFL-CIO, US Steelworkers, Local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the SEIU.
"communists of our generation would do well to follow the example of our Depression-era comrades. Without giving up their longer-term vision of socialism, ... they were a vital part of the political process of the Depression era."