Communist Party USA (CPUSA) is nearing 100 years as a political party in the United States, and they’re focused on making 2019 their biggest and most impactful year yet. As such, they’ve laid out some guidelines and strategies for 2018 to accomplish that goal. This reporting details those plans, and is for Low Intensity Conflict subscribers.
CPUSA recently published a strategy guide for 2018 and beyond as they focus on outreach and growth. They held their annual party building conference earlier in November, and developed a path forward.
Executive Summary
- This strategy draws connections between the Russian communist revolution 100 years ago and the modern communist revolution, as if it say ‘Now it’s our time for revolution.’
- The document repeatedly boasts about the party’s growing numbers, how many major cities in which they have members, and how successful the movement has been so far. (Analyst Comment: CPUSA produces propaganda made especially for college students and younger people who are impressionable.)
- Despite all the successes, CPUSA claims they are still struggling, and need more involvement and donations in order to help the movement grow.
- CPUSA says the organization knew Trump was a danger and that people would protest his actions, but they could not have imagined how evil Trump would turn out to be. They describe Trump’s “crisis-a-day governing style”, and then describe how strong the opposition and resistance against his administration has been.
- CPUSA describes its recruitment plans and their target audiences. The target audience includes young people, especially students and Millennials. By their own admission, CPUSA “is a party that is going to be built largely among Millennials. Let’s face it: that’s where the greatest opportunity lies. We have to step up our work with the young generation. This is a special question that requires special measures. At our last convention, we made some decisions in an attempt to reorganize our work with a focus on students.”
Notable Quotes:
- “The party we want to build is ours for the making. It is composed of and led by workers of all stripes and varieties. It participates in mass struggles around the basic issues of the day. It both initiates activity and works in coalition with others. It is militant. It fights for unity and sees electoral work as essential to our very existence.”
- “What makes us unique is the unity between theory and practice; we test our ideas against the real world, and when they don’t work we change them.”
- “So, let’s go out and defeat Trump and build this party. We’re going to do it and ain’t nobody going to stop us. In the words of the old spiritual, ‘Ain’t’ nobody gonna turn us around!’”
[Source: http://www.cpusa.org/article/rebuilding-the-communist-party-in-the-fight-against-trump/]