Dennis Kucinich and the Communists

Voters in Ohio's 10th District are well aware that their Congressman Dennis Kucinich is way, way out on the left.

After all he is a member of the far left Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Few realize however, that Dennis Kucinich is allied to members of the Communist Party USA, a party with more allegiance to China and Cuba than to the the United States of America.

Check out this official Kucinich ad from his brief 2008 presidential campaign.

The video doesn't say so, but Bruce Bostick is no ordinary steelworker. He is a veteran of the 1969 Venceremos Brigade to Cuba and a long time Ohio and national official of the Communist Party USA.

So why would a Democratic Congressman officially accept the endorsement of a Communist Party leader?

Unfortunately, for Dennis Kucinich, this is simply par for the course.

Dennis Kucinich has reportedly been close to the Communist Party USA since his days in Cleveland Ohio council politics in the 1960s.

According to the World Socialist Web Site;

Take Kucinich first. As mayor of Cleveland in the late 1960s, he represented one of the most “left” elements in the Democratic Party during the heyday of the radical protest movement. He was closely allied with the Stalinists of the CPUSA, who still had significant influence in the working class of Cleveland, particularly in such unions as the UE and UAW. With the collapse of the protest movement and the shift to the right in American bourgeois politics, Kucinich was driven out of political life for two decades, before returning to office as a state legislator and ultimately winning a congressional seat

During Kucinich's successful 1996 Congressional run, there was considerable controversy over his ties to Communist Party USA member Rick Nagin.

Writing in the Communist Party USA's paper, People's Weekly World, Ohio Communist Party chairman, Rick Nagin, detailed the campaign which led to Kucinich's election to Congress:

The election of Dennis Kucinich in Ohio's 10th Congressional District was a ground-breaking event demonstrating the powerful political potential of a mass, grassroots coalition led by labor.

Trade unionists and seniors provided the largest numbers of some 5,000 volunteers but many others came from Hispanic, environmental, peace and other organizations.

The Republicans reacted with fury to this open challenge to their decades of labor-baiting bully tactics. Kucinich's program, Republican county chairman Jim Trakas announced, is "very similar to the Communist Manifesto" and is "what Lenin stood for." Kucinich blasted this reversion to "McCarthyism."

The smears were endlessly propagated by a right-wing talk show host who made it his mission three hours every morning to stop Kucinich. The poisonous attacks, aimed at suppressing voter turnout, caused the race to tighten considerably. In the final week before the election the focus of the Hoke campaign shifted to virulent red-baiting directed at this writer.

In what was probably a first since the beginning of the Cold War, Kucinich refused to knuckle under, calmly stating that I was one of 5,000 volunteers and declaring, "It's Halloween and Hoke is dressing up as Joe McCarthy. Karl Marx is not running my campaign but apparently Harpo Marx is running his."

While Kucinich would claim that Ohio Communist Party leader was only "one of 5,000 volunteers", the Communist Party USA itself later contradicted Kucinich's claim.

In 2005 Rick Nagin campaigned unsuccessfully in his own right for Cleveland City Council, and was heavily criticized over his Communist Party ties. Nagin had resigned as chairman of the Ohio Communist Party (but had remained a member) to take a position as executive assistant to Nelson Cintron , the first Latino in City Council and a protoge of Kucinich's

According to the People's Weekly World;

Nagin was continuously targeted as a member and former chairman of the Ohio Communist Party, yet his strong showing was impressive and stemmed from a number of factors....

Nagin also had seven and a half years of experience as executive assistant to Nelson Cintron Jr. who represented an adjacent ward. Furthermore, he had been a key organizer for Dennis Kucinich's campaigns for Congress and president and for the 2004 John Kerry presidential campaign

The Communist Party USA appears to see Dennis Kucinich as a man worthy of support and someone who can be relied on to push the correct agenda in Congress.

In a 2004 report to the CPUSA National Board, the Party's Political Action Committee chair, Joelle Fishman wrote a report on Party work in the U.S. Presidential elections. She included a comment on Dennis Kucinich and the Democratic Party National Convention.

Dennis Kucinich's 50 delegates to the national Democratic convention, will be presenting a platform plank for a Department of Peace, voted favorably by four state conventions, including dramatically in Texas just this week. The efforts of Kucinich together with Jesse Jackson and others, to bring forward more advanced demands, will make an important contribution to the convention. A very special contribution will be made by an expectedly large number of labor union delegates who will work together in one bloc to get a strong platform for jobs, health care, and pensions.

The Communist Party USA would also be at the convention;

We project our role at the convention as distribution of the Peoples Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo and literature to delegates and in free speech areas, and participation in the Kucinich-led issue events.

Communist Party Chairman Sam Webb, wrote in a July 2007 report to the Party's National Committee;

Finally, we should have a positive attitude toward the candidacy of Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Despite the efforts of the media to sideline him, Kucinich is emerging as a leading voice of the broad people’s coalition. He brings consistent anti-right, anti-corporate, pro-peace positions to the presidential primaries and debates. None of the other candidates can make the same claim. The more he speaks to audiences of the core forces, the better positioned the movement will be to win in 2008 and to fight the good fight in 2009.

Rick Nagin was back with Dennis Kucinich in 2008, working as Labor Coordinator for Dennis Kucinich's successful 2008 primary campaign.

Dennis Kucinich, (center rear), endorsed Rick Nagin (second from right) in his almost successful 2009 City Council race.While Nagin stood as a Democrat, he is still unequivocally a leading member of the Communist Party.

Said Dennis Kucinich of comrade Nagin;

I've known Rick Nagin for more than 30 years. He's honest, hard-working and conscientious. The people of Ward 14 have a chance to elect a Councilman who will be totally dedicated to them. What more can you ask for?

I'm proud to join with the AFL-CIO in supporting Rick Nagin

Dennis Kucinich, Congressman, 10th District.

Perhaps the voters of Ohio's 10th District should reflect on whether they would still vote for Dennis Kucinich, if he were running as a member of the Communist Party.

Because if they wouldn't vote for an open communist, why would they vote for a man who is almost certainly a Communist Party supporter.

Meet the Communist Party USA's "Men of Faith"

The Communist Party USA is out to recruit the religious.

Not content with workers, "people of color", youth, greenies, gays and the generally disgruntled, the reds are coming after Christians, Jews, Buddhists and Muslims.

The Communist Party USA has re-founded its Religion Commission as it seeks to bring more churches and "people of faith" into the "progressive" fold.

In the struggles of the day, the CPUSA always seeks the broadest possible unity of the working class and all its allies. This necessarily includes seeking unity of people of varying religious and philosophical outlooks.

Religious faith and religious institutions remain powerful influences in the United States today. They cannot be ignored in building an all-people's coalition for progress, not only on account of their numerical and ideological strength but also because of the positive contributions and insights that religious traditions can bring to progressive struggle...

Our Party has, of course, long been clear about its support of freedom of conscience and of religion, both in the present and under socialism. And we welcome people of religious faith as members and leaders without discrimination. We believe, however, that it is time for the Party to move beyond simple tolerance to an active embrace of the progressive aspects of religious traditions and their incorporation in our vision both of present struggles and of a socialist and communist future

Of course, the communists don't seek to learn from the religious. They seek to "guide" them.

It must be a task of Communists who are active in faith communities to bring to people an awareness of the progressive values and potential inherent in their traditions and to lead them to turn that awareness into action that will challenge both the members and leaders of their religious communities and the larger society.

The party has a fine record of working with "Christians".

Our Party has a history of working with religious activists and communities of faith. Many of our members are people who are active in religious communities, or have connections with faith-based groups... The Rev. Arnold Johnson, a Methodist minister, joined the Communist Party while he was in jail during the Harlan County, Kentucky coal miners' strike, and he went on to be an outstanding leader of the Party. Paul Robeson never lost touch with his roots in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. His work combined an appreciation of scientific socialism with the spiritual dimensions of the Black Church. Robeson's funeral was held at the AME Church where his brother was the pastor. Among his pallbearers was Gil Green, a longtime leader of the CPUSA. Because of his public role, he was not in a position to publicly acknowledge his Party membership. But Robeson was a leader and Party supporter, and both a Communist and a Christian for all of his adult life, and in the best senses of both.

The party doesn't mind if you worship Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, just as long as you care about "social justice".

We must take a conscious and welcoming approach to recruiting people of faith into our Party. To that end we are working on a pamphlet which will introduce our Party and its program to progressive religious people, and invite them to join. The strong progressive traditions within many faith communities in the US offer a promising basis for mobilizing not just individuals but substantial communities and institutions of faith in support of social and economic justice. Therefore the Commission should also serve as a means of assisting the work of religious comrades within their respective religious bodies and organizations.

The Communist Party USA has asked two righteous party members to minister to their religious flock.

Tim Yeager is is a member of Grace Church in Oak Park, Illinois, where he serves as assistant organist. Tim is the Chair of the Peace & Justice Committee of the Diocese of Chicago and has served in the national leadership of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship.

He is concerned that the Church finds and uses its prophetic voice to advocate for a more just and peaceful socioeconomic order, and feels that there has never been a greater need for all people of good will to join together in the struggle against poverty, violence and fear.

Tim is a long time Communist Party USA member and works as Financial Secretary/Treasurer of the National Organization of Legal Services Workers, United Auto Workers, Local Union 2320, which represents nearly 4,000 lawyers, support staff, social workers and other employees working in legal and human services agencies across the country.

As a committed Christian, Tim is very concerned about the Middle East, so he moved two resolutions at a November 2009 Diocesan meeting in Chicago;

Resolved, that the 172nd Convention of the Diocese of Chicago call upon the President of the United States and Congress to press the State of Israel to end the blockade of the Gaza Strip thereby permitting free and uninhibited access for all humanitarian assistance, a return to normalized trade, and the lifting of the ban on building and educational materials.

Further Resolved, that this 172nd Convention commend President Obama for his efforts to negotiate peace with justice between Israel and Palestine, and urge that he continue these efforts as a high priority

Tim serves as the Communist Party USA Religion Commission Chairperson.


The Rev. Pierre L. Williams received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, and his Master of Divinity Degree from Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia. After being awarded the Master of Divinity degree, he also completed pastoral residency at Johns-Hopkins Hospital located in Baltimore, Maryland. He currently serves as Staff Chaplain at Harbor Hospital, Baltimore. He is an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.

Pierre Williams, as have we all, has been tempted. He has succumbed.

Many years ago, in his wayward youth, Pierre L. Williams, 52, of Baltimore, Maryland, pled guilty to defrauding the United States Department of Education by using false social security numbers in order to secure $29,500 in guaranteed student loans. Pierre pled guilty to one count of Student Assistance Fraud and was sentenced to Caesar's punishment, on February 8, 2000.

Pierre was pursuing a master's degree in divinity at the Wesley Theological Seminary at the time of the offense and in the fall of 1995, submitting an application for financial aid using his true social security number. Because he had previously defaulted on his college student loans in the 1980's, his financial aid application was denied. For the following academic year, he submitted a second financial aid application using a false social security number.

The Office of Financial Assistance at Wesley Theological Seminary approved this application and processed the loans, In subsequent applications, Pierre used two other social security numbers, both false, to secure additional loans. When officials at Wesley learned of the discrepancies and confronted the defendant, he initially denied having committed the fraud, but he eventually admitted his guilt in statements made to federal investigators and administrators at Wesley.

Pierre has sought atonement for his lapse through good works. He is an active and contributing member of Baltimore United for Peace and Justice and the Phillip Berrigan Memorial Chapter of Veterans for Peace.

In 2008, Pierre joined his party comrade Tim Wheeler in campaigning in South Carolina for his Christian brother Barack Obama.

Pierre serves as Secretary of the Communist Party USA Religion Commission.

Some cynics may feel that the Communist Party USA is merely exploiting religion as a means of furthering its revolutionary agenda.

I ask the hard hearted among my readers to cast such dark thoughts aside and accept that our communist brothers are as committed today, to religious freedom, tolerance and the exercise of conscience, as they have been in the past.

Enemy of Liberty-Dennis Brutus-Dies in Capetown

An enemy of liberty on two continents, Dennis Vincent Brutus (1924-2009) died early on December 26 2009 in Cape Town, South Africa


Brutus is remembered for the good work he did against South African Apartheid, but his real life's mission was promoting socialism.

Brutus was born in Salisbury, Rhodesia in 1924, but his South African parents soon moved to Port Elizabeth, in the Republic of South Africa.

Brutus entered Fort Hare University on a full scholarship in 1940, graduating with a distinction in English and a second major in psychology. Further studies in law at the University of the Witwatersrand were cut short by imprisonment for anti-apartheid activism.

Brutus’ political activity initially included extensive journalistic reporting, organising with the Teachers’ League and the African National Congress movement, then already extensively infiltrated by the Communist Party of South Africa.

He was also an early leader in the new South African Sports Association as an alternative to white sports bodies. After his "banning" in 1961 under the Suppression of Communism Act, he fled to Mozambique but was captured and deported to Johannesburg. There, in 1963, Brutus was shot in the back while attempting to escape police custody. He nearly died while awaiting an ambulance reserved for blacks.

While recovering, Brutus was held in the Johannesburg Fort Prison cell which more than a half-century earlier housed [[Mahatma Gandhi]]. Brutus was transferred to Robben Island where he was jailed in the cell next to Umkhunto We Sizwe terrorist leader [[Nelson Mandela]].

Forced into exile, Brutus resumed simultaneous careers as a poet and anti-apartheid campaigner in London, and while working for the [[International Defense and Aid Fund]], was instrumental in achieving South Africa's expulsion from the 1968 Mexican Olympics and then in 1970 from the Olympic movement.

Brutus moved to the US in 1971, serving as a professor of literature and African studies at Northwestern (Chicago) and Pittsburgh. He defeated efforts by the Reagan administration to deport him during the early 1980s.

While in the US Brutus worked closely with the Communist Party USA, Institute for Policy Studies, Africa Action and various other Marxist organisations.

In 1972 he was a sponsor of the Communist Party's National Anti-Imperialist Conference in Solidarity With African Liberation, held at malcolm X College in Chicago.

In the 1980s Brutus served on the Board of Directors of the Chicago based Black Press Institute, a Soviet/Cuban/Grenadan connected operation run by Alice Palmer-later a political mentor to Barack Obama.

Following the ANC/South African Communist Party takeover of South Africa in 1994, Brutus resumed activities with "grassroots social movements in his home country"-mainly Trotskyist oriented operations.

In the late 1990s he was a featured speaker each year at the Marxist controlled World Social Forum and joined protests against the World Trade Organisation, G8, Bretton Woods Institutions and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.

In October 1998 Brutus returned to the US to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the Communist Manifesto, by speaking at the "Manifestivity" at Cooper Union's Great Hall, New York.


In 2006 Dennis Brutus contributed a foreword to "Marx, Lenin, and the Revolutionary Experience: Studies of Communism and Radicalism in an Age of Globalization" by US Trotskyite writer Paul Le Blanc.

Up until this year Brutus still served on the Advisory Committee of the US based Independent Progressive Politics Network-a group linking activists from Democratic Socialists of America, Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism and other Marxist tendencies.

Among awards Brutus recieved were the US War Resisters League peace award in September 2009, two Doctor of Literature degrees conferred at Rhodes and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in April 2009 -- following six other honorary doctorates – and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the South African government Department of Arts and Culture in 2008.

Brutus was also awarded membership in the South African Sports Hall of Fame in 2007, but rejected it on grounds that the institution had not confronted the country’s racist history. He also won the Paul Robeson and Langston Hughes awards.

Brutus loved Venezuela and Hugo Chavez-seeing him as a leader of world socialism.

Below is a poem presented by Dennis Brutus, when in Venezuela for the eighth meeting of the "Network of Intellectuals and Artists in Defence of Humanity" and the "World Forum for Alternatives", October 18, 2008.

There will come a time
There will come a time we believe
When the shape of the planet
and the divisions of the land
Will be less important
We will be caught in a glow of friendship
a red star of hope
will illuminate our lives
A star of hope
A star of joy
A star of freedom

In thanks to President Hugo Chavez and the people of Venezuela,

Dennis Brutus

Even in his last days, Brutus was fully committed to revolution "advocating social protest against those responsible for climate change, and promoting reparations to black South Africans from corporations that benefited from apartheid".

In August 2009 Brutus called for the "Seattling" of the recent Copenhagen summit because sufficient greenhouse gas emissions cuts and North-South "climate debt" payments were not on the agenda.

Brutus made the following comment in an open letter to the UN Climate Change Gathering in Copenhagen on Oct. 12, 2009,

The danger in falling short of setting deep cuts of 45% from 1990 carbon emission levels is that it puts us beyond the tipping point where unknown additional and more catastrophic changes will be wrought in the earth's water and rainfall systems, ultimately killing millions in sudden and violent storms, droughts and fires.



Brutus intended to attend the conference as he states in the video above, filmed on the occasion of his 85^th birthday, however he died shortly afterwards.

Dennis Brutus led a vigorous and committed life, but ultimately a served tyranny and destruction far more than human liberty.

He lived a whole life without learning that liberating South Africa's blacks and coloureds, could be achieved without enslaving everyone else on the planet.

Communist Party USA statement on Healthcare Bill

President Obama's friends in the Commmunist Party USA are pulling out all stops to ensure that the president's Healthcare Bill becomes law-with coverage of illegal immigrants and state funding of abortion.

The Communist Party is rallying all its allies in the "people's movement" and both Houses of Congress to get this Bill passed.

The Party understands that this Bill will be a giant and near irreversible step towards socialized medicine and wedding the American middle class onto the state teat forever.

From the CPUSA website;

CPUSA: Keep Up the Momentum for Strong Health Care Reform Now

by CPUSA National Committee, 11/18/2009

Resolution of the National Committee, CPUSA, adopted November 15, 2009

As the historic fight for health care reform passes to the Senate next week, and then to conference committee before final vote, a continued and expanded push is needed to prevent blockage of this key legislation, to insure a strong public option with no taxation of health benefits, inclusion of immigrants, and to eliminate measures that restrict coverage for women's reproductive rights. Messages to the Senate are needed in favor of health care reform that is affordable, accessible, portable and universal.

The outcome of the monumental battle for health care reform will affect every other issue on the labor and people's agenda. As the extreme right-wing teamed up with the medical industrial complex to stop passage at all costs, they drew a line in the sand, threatening to bring down the Obama Administration on the issue of health care.

To date, a huge mobilization has taken hold with labor at the center, involving African American, Latino, women, senior and youth organizations, small business, the faith community and many others, complimenting the role of the Progressive, Black, Hispanic and Asian Pacific Congressional Caucuses working together. The key to passage of positive health reform is phone calls, letters, rallies and public expressions of support to every member of the US Senate. Several members of the House who were undecided stated publicly that they voted in favor because of the huge volume of calls and messages from constituents.

The union workplace sticker and call-in day, giant rallies in California, sit-ins and vigils in Connecticut, and protests at insurance companies in Chicago are great examples of the creativity that this movement has sparked. The pressure cannot be let up if health care with a public option is to become law. Passage will give millions of people coverage they do not have, and will save countless lives. But passage will not be an end. It will create forward motion toward the single-payer national health service our country needs. It will provide new experience in organizing and mobilizing at the grass roots. It will open the door to the fight for the right to form a union and many other key battles that lie ahead coming into the 2010 elections.

National Committee
Communist Party USA

The Party understands that this Bill is not socialized medicine per se, but it will create forward motion toward the single-payer national health service our country needs.

The Party sees the Healthcare battle not as a stand alone issue, but as a key component in the struggle for a socialist America.

American's ability to restore their great Republic will hugely reduced should this Bill in any form, be passed through the Senate.

For a sound Republic and a healthy populace, Americans need to take the stand of their lives against the Communist Party and Obama's plans for socialized healthcare.

Top Communist Assesses Obama-Pleasing So Far, But More Effort Required

Jarvis Tyner, executive vice chair of the Communist Party USA and big time Obamaphile has just issued this assessment of the Obama presidency.


Jarvis Tyner-right-with two "friends"

Right wing "racist jackals" please take note.

This is a very good look at Communist thinking and tactics-and consequently a good insight into the future direction and priorities of their "friends" in the Obama administration.

Read it through-several times- know thine enemy!

Considering all of the political complexities of the new era we have entered, President Obama has done a remarkable job in his short time in office. Those of us on the left need to look ahead and refuse to let differences with some of the President’s decisions keep us from seeing the historic and positive changes that are happening. The way we disagree with the President is also important. We need to make sure that nothing we do will help the right-wing anti-Obama campaign that "wants Obama to fail."

Many on the left are upset and disappointed with Obama’s decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan, his part in the Wall Street bailout and some of his appointments. Some are also bothered by aspects of his health care and environmental proposals and some specifics of his timetable and priorities for change.

No struggle is pure, however. And the prize we have to keep our eyes on is the growing strength of the labor and people’s movement and the overall fight for democracy. Did Obama’s election strengthen the peace, labor, anti-racist, environmental, immigrant, women’s and youth movements? It qualitatively did.

Did his election positively affect the lives of the working majority, especially in their ability to survive this economic crisis? Has the election of our 44th President increased the confidence of the people that they can fight for and achieve a better life for themselves and their families? Has it strengthened multiracial unity, the fight against racism, sexism, homophobia and all forms of bigotry? The answer is an emphatic Yes

!

A chance for change

In his historic election night speech, Obama said, “This victory alone is not the change we seek – it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you.”

In that speech he called for people to build a post-election movement and continue to work with him to bring about change. He said, “I will listen to you especially if we disagree.” It was a call to work together, and if we disagree he is open to listening. The left needs to understand that the tactics used against Bush in the old period have to change to fit the new situation

.

Today we have a president with huge support among working people and the racially oppressed. The people’s movements that they are a part of are in motion, and they are working with the President in the fight for real change.

Yes the "peoples movement" helped elect Obama.

They recognize the right danger, and they are not going to let us go back to the failed policies of Bush and company. They know, especially in these hard economic times, that it is they who will suffer the consequences if President Obama fails.

If Obama fails we all fail

The strategy of the extreme right is to bring Obama down by building a movement against his policies. They still have a tremendous voice in the mass media, and they are hammering away at any issues they think will gain support. That is what the tax day “Tea Parties," the anti-choice demonstrations at the Notre Dame commencement and now the insurance-industry sponsored uproar at health care town hall meetings have been all about. The ridiculous charge that Obama is a socialist who is recklessly piling up the national debt is also part of their game plan

.

Those of us fighting for real change have to defend the President against those who are out to derail his entire program. While this doesn't mean we always agree with him on everything, when and how we disagree is important, because if he fails we all fail.

Obama is not a socialist, but he does believe in democracy. He is trying to do what a democratic government should do, that is, provide for the general welfare of the people. Compared to the previous administration that seems almost revolutionary.

Phew-relieved to hear that.

The right-wing campaign against the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court was particularly disgusting. The blatantly racist tone of the Republican opposition demanded that all democratic-minded people support her nomination vigorously. The American people were not complacent in the face of the virulent racism against Judge Sotomayor.

As we know from the last 30 years, with the use of racism yesterday’s lunatic fringe can become tomorrow’s mainstream. Though greatly weakened, the right danger is still a factor. As they lose ground they are becoming more desperate and dangerous. People like Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter and Glenn Beck should not be ignored. They need to be and are being exposed for the racist demagogues they are.

Imagine it! These racist jackals of capitalist greed called the first Latina nominated to the Supreme Court “a racist.” Judge Sotomayor only said that someone from her class or ethnic background would have more empathy for others of a similar background then a white male judge raised in the privileged corners of America. That’s coming from a Puerto Rican woman raised by a single mother with a modest income, and who fought her way up to becoming a federal judge. And they called her a racist?

These are the same people who pushed the “three strikes” rule (which has punished thousands of poor and minority offenders with long-term imprisonment) and introduced harsher penalties for crack than for the possession of power cocaine. They are the ones who support racial profiling, police brutality, immigrant bashing, the packing of our prisons disproportionately with Blacks and Latinos, and the racist death penalty. They are the most vocal against the Employee Free Choice Act and universal health care reform, and they defend the use of torture by the Bush administration. Calling Sonia Sotomayor a racist is racist in itself. They know full well whom all these policies are disproportionately aimed at, and it’s not rich white people

.

If there is anyone who should apologize for racism, it is the right-wing trash-talkers who attacked her and spread their venom on the airways every day. Our nation desperately needs the empathy of Judge Sotomayor on the highest court in the land. The point is we can't ignore these right-wing jackals, nor assume that their racist tactics are ineffective. There are millions of people who listen to their poison every day on the media.

The labor movement also has a role to play in defending Obama and opposing racism. AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, at the annual convention of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists this summer, gave an excellent speech against racism and why the labor movement must continue that fight. He said, “We will never decouple our fight for economic justice from the fight for racial justice.” After describing Bush as the worst president ever, he went on to say that “Obama has done more for organized labor in two months then Bill Clinton did in eight years.” Trumka spoke forcefully about how the working class must fight racism. His speech demonstrates that a higher level of class-consciousness has grown out of the 2008 election struggle.

Since the election, the labor movement has been in alliance with the Obama administration fighting for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. This fight cannot be won without building broad multi-racial unity, including both people inside and outside of the labor movement. That unity is not possible without fighting racism. That’s part of the big picture. What was impossible before the election is now possible.

The impossible is now possible

What was impossible before the election is now possible. To illustrate my point, back in the 1990s there was a movement organized to pass the Martinez bill for public works jobs. It called for spending $500 billion over 10 years to build schools, housing, health care facilities, infrastructure, etc. For years, congressional Republicans refused to let it out of committee for an up-or-down-vote on the floor of Congress. Then Rep. Matthew Martinez, D-Calif., lost his seat and the bill was not reintroduced. That was then.

Today, Obama’s stimulus package (known as the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act”) dwarfs the Martinez bill in scope, amounts to close to $1 trillion, and is projected to create over 3.5 million jobs. It passed within one month of Obama taking office. This is now.

It was President Obama’s historic election that set the stage for the stimulus package to pass. It has made the impossible possible

.

Under the Bush neo-con regime it was impossible to pass real health care reform. But now reform is possible. It may have to start with passage of the Obama plan for a public option included with a mix of private plans, but that can open the door for the passage of an HR 676 single-payer-type bill at a later point.

This recalls communist Van Jones' "minimum demand" tactic.

The end of the war in Iraq, the restoration of the right of Cuban Americans to send remittances to their relatives in Cuba and the closing of Guantanamo were not possible before, but now they are. Despite the folly of escalating the war in Afghanistan, peace is far more possible today than before the last election. The struggle for peace continues, but it is being waged on a higher level since the Republicans suffered an historic defeat last November.

Consider also, the Waxman-Markey bill, which would limit greenhouse gas emissions. It’s not everything the environmentalists want, but it is still considered a good bill. Again, such legislation is only possible today because of the election of Obama and the new Congress.

In an op-ed in the New York Times last May, Nobel-prize-winning economist Paul Krugman made a similar point about the passage of the Waxman-Markey Bill, a bill of which he is somewhat critical. “After all the years of denial,” he wrote, “after all the years of inaction, we finally have a chance to do something major about climate change. Waxman-Markey is imperfect; it’s disappointing in some respects, but it is action we can take now. And the planet won’t wait.” He warned, “We shouldn’t make the 'perfect' the enemy of the good.” I think that is good advice generally for the left today.

These things have to be understood about the new administration and the new era we have entered. The fight for reforms is the main battleground in the fight for progress. It is critical to understand that today. I would add that those who only favor “fundamental change” but reject reforms, will end up isolated and merely marking time politically.

Assessing Obama presidency up to now

As I said earlier, there are those on the left who are clearly disappointed with some of the early actions of the Obama administration. My view is that when you look at the big picture and the new potential for change, Obama’s election is the most positive overall political development our country has seen in 30 years. Obama was not only a great candidate, he is also a great president, and he is fighting the good fight on a number of fronts. However, I agree with Sam Webb (National Chair of the CPUSA) when he says that it would be wrong to think of him as the president of the left. He is not.

Phew-again.

Webb, who sees the big picture, correctly describes this period not as an era of disappointment, as some are starting to say, but as a “springtime of possibilities.” He describes Obama not as a president of the left but as a “reformer,” and adds that “we are entering an era of reforms, possibly radical reforms.” I think that is very accurate. The left can have a positive impact if it understands what is and what is not possible in this period.

Taking Sam Webb’s assessment into account, I do not have a tactical formula to offer fits all circumstances, but my sense is that Obama is heading in a positive direction. The left has to approach Obama with the view that:

• He is not the enemy.
• He will listen.
• He can be convinced to respond positively.

Convinced by who? Sam Webb might know-after all he regards Obama as a "friend".

Moreover, the left and progressive forces are linked to Obama’s destiny. Harry Belafonte, an astute political observer in addition to being a talented performer, correctly noted that if the right wing is able to defeat Obama on health care, the Employee Free Choice Act, his environmental program, abortion rights, the war or any of his key policies, it would be a huge setback for the all of us too. We must not let that happen.

We have to remember that Obama has already done some unprecedented things.

He has passed a stimulus package that is bringing jobs and relief, and also moves towards restoring the concept that the role of government is to help the people. It has a trickle-up aspect to it, versus the past 30 years of trickle-down policies. When he met with both major labor confederations recently, John Sweeney, head of the AFL-CIO, described how the White House has become the “house of working families.” Last January, Obama himself let labor leaders know that his administration did not like having to deal with two separate labor federations, and called on Change to Win and the AFL-CIO to move toward becoming one united federation again. That was an unprecedented statement coming from a sitting president.

Just keep in mind here that John Sweeney is a member of the CPUSA allied Democratic Socialists of America.

In another significant sign of progress, Obama restored the right of Cuban Americans to send remittances to family members in Cuba. This is the very important beginning of a new process towards dropping the travel ban and normalizing relations. Following through on the promise to close the prison at Guantanamo was a further step in the right direction. Now great things are possible that were mere hopes before.

Again, we need to look at the big picture. We should not let our disappointments and disagreements (even sharp disagreements) with some of the new administration’s appointments and policies blind us to the bigger picture. Great changes have taken place in the last 100 days. Obama’s “springtime of possibilities” has truly sprung. Though struggle, even greater changes will happen.

Now is the time to “let a thousand flowers of united grassroots struggle bloom.” We are in a new era. The impossible is possible now.

All the more reason to step up the counter-attack.

Van Jones is a Communist-No Ifs, No Buts-Valerie Jarrett Has Been "Watching"

This is stunning-a 2008 audio of Van Jones explicitly stating that the "Green Jobs" movement will be used to push through "revolutionary" change.

I defy anyone to listen to this and tell me that Van Jones is not still a communist.



Hat tip RBO.

Even more stunning is the only days old admission by "the other half of Obama's Brain" Valerie Jarrett, that "we" have been watching Van Jones for some years and are "so happy to recruit him to the White house"

I suggest to readers that they check out this post.

It explains that Jarrett's late father-in-law Vernon Jarrett worked closely with a certain Frank Marshall Davis in a Communist Party front in late 1940s Chicago.

Frank Marshall Davis-a covert Communist Party member then went to Hawaii and ended up mentoring the young Barack Obama.

When Obama moves to Chicago, Vernon Jarrett uses his newspaper columns to promote Obama's political career.

The Chicago Communist Party mucks in as well and writes Vernon a lovely eulogy when he dies a few years ago.

Then coincidentally Valerie Jarrett hires Michelle Obama, becomes friends with Barack and ends up advising him in the White House.

Now Valerie Jarrett is overjoyed at bringing another leftist into the White House to keep Barack company.

Remember folks, the Van Jones scandal started right here

New Zeal's Van Jones Expose Goes Mainstream

New Zeal broke the story of Obama "Green Jobs Czar" Van Jones' communist background here and here.

It went round a few blogs-then died out until it was kicked off again by Romantic Poet.

Now it is "mainstream". Glenn Beck has been thrashing it on Fox-so now millions know about the guy.



That's great, but the obvious question is-why does a Kiwi blogger have to do the US media's work for them?

Hi-Tech Revolutionaries!!!

The Obama era has given the Communist Party USA a new lease of life.

The party is set to launch a new website for its new online daily newspaper which it hopes will massively increase readership.

The party aims to use the website to cover and promote the emerging "peoples movement"-that means communist controlled mass movements to non red readers.


The word is out. On Sept. 1, the Peoples World launches a brand new state-of-the art website for the recently re-emerged daily working-class Marxist press in United States.

The new format has the potential of dramatically increasing the number of the 100,000or so online readers we now reach on a monthly basis.

The website will offer news and features in a multi-media format that includes daily and even up to-the-minute news reports, on-site coverage of events, features, podcasts, photographs and even video.

You’ve already heard about the coming AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh Sept. 13 to 17. This convention and the events surrounding it will give us the opportunity to test this new venture in an unprecedented way as we bring you coverage of what will be a dynamic labor-led gathering of the new and powerful people’s movement that has exploded onto the scene in the 21st century.

We are taking this so seriously that we intend to have a full team on the ground to bring you up to date on everything.

The labor movement has already put everyone on notice that it will not stand for watering down health care or on the Employee Free Choice Act. It has already put everyone on notice that a second stimulus package on the order of the WPA program of the 1930s is called for. In Pittsburgh it will map the plans to make these things a reality.

Along with Political Affairs and Labor-Up-Front we will have a hospitality suite that will feature a history of our press, the Communist Party and the left in the labor movement. Many at the convention will have the opportunity to see and talk about this history for the first time. You can see why we are so excited about this.

Our side needs to wake up-these guys are far from dead and buried.

Why I Support Honduras

Honduras is the new frontline in the war against socialism.

Pro-Chavez Honduran president Manuel Zelaya, tried to push things too far too fast and offended against his country's constituion. He was legally kicked out of office-just as US President Nixon would have been had he not resigned first.

Now the sides are squaring off. The internatioal left is calling for the restoration of Zelaya.


The freedom forces are backing the new Micheletti government.

This statement on Honduras from the Communist Party USA makes the situation clear.

Manuel Zelaya, the legitimate president of Honduras, has made a specific request to the Obama administration to increase pressure on the illegal regime of Roberto Micheletti, which was installed after a coup d’etat on the morning of June 28 of this year. Zelaya has asked the Obama administration to increase diplomatic and economic pressure on the illegitimate regime by taking actions targeting the main culprits. This happens at a critical moment when the talks mediated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias have not progressed due to the intransigence of the coup regime, and when mass protest in Honduras has reached a peak with a general strike and with a growing mass movement in the streets to restore Mr. Zelaya, who is encamped on the Honduras-Nicaragua border, to the presidency.

The coup regime is isolated worldwide, but hangs on because it expects to be able to draw on material resources from the US, in spite of President Obama’s strong statement against the coup. The US ultra-right, led by figures such as Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Congressman Connie Mack (R-FL), and supported by strong business, political media and military networks in the United States, are doing all they can to throw a lifeline to the illegal Micheletti regime. Their hope seems to be to keep the regime in power long enough that the scheduled November elections in Honduras (which Micheletti may move up) can take place under repressive conditions in which supporters of Zelaya’s program of progressive social and labor reforms can not openly campaign without risking jail or violence, and thus can not possibly win. Meanwhile, Micheletti’s de-facto government is increasing repression against labor, peasant, student and other opponents, with reports of several new deaths in the last two days.

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, and expel Honduran officers currently being trained at the School of the Americas in Fort Benning Georgia.

*We should demand an end to the activities in support of the coup government by the International Republican Institute and other governmental and non-governmental organizations in the United States who have a heavy responsibility for the current situation.

Further, we should be contacting our members of Congress to ask that they sign on as co sponsors and work for the passage of House Resolution 630, which denounces the coup d’etat and asks the government to take measures to restore the constitutional order in Honduras. This resolution, introduced by Congressman Bill DeLaHunt (D-MA) has 40 cosponsors; this number has to be greatly increased.

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 by getting statements and actions in support from other unions, faith based organizations, and civic and community organizations of every description so as to build a massive solidarity movement with the Honduran people here in the United States.

There is no shooting yet-but that could change at any time.

Honduras should be supported by all freedom lovers as the first serious reversal Latin America's "red tide" has suffered.

If the West stands by Honduras it will embolden the counter-revolutionary forces in Bolivia and elsewhere in Latin America.

By supporting Honduras we defend our own freedom.