Communists look to give Democrats boost

By Bob Unruh

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The Communist Party USA is stepping up to bat in the 2014 election, rallying its troops against Republicans and promoting a long list of ways for people to support the Democratic Party agenda.

An Internet announcement signed by Lisa Bergmann of the Young Communist League USA and Joelle Fishman of a related political action committee said: “Can you believe it? No, really. Student debt has exceeded $1.2 trillion. One third of black men are serving time in prison, and young black men are 21 times more likely to be killed by police than whites. Republicans are attacking DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and aiming to deport more undocumented students. At the same time, unemployment persists at eighty percent for youth of color, and voter ID laws have quelled youth voter turnout in many states.

“What do we say? Stand up, fight back, VOTE!”

The party, which offers a variety of election 2014 resources and also boasts that on Oct. 15, 1842, Karl Marx became editor of Rheinische Zeitung, a newspaper later published on behalf of the Communist League, promotes ways to “Get Out the Vote.”

“Students, immigrant rights activists, organizers from Ferguson, and young union members are all hitting the pavement right now to elect progressive candidates to the Senate and to Governor seats across the country,” the announcement said.

For “motivation,” it said, volunteers should consider the appropriate response to “Ferguson and mass unemployment among African American youth, the “Republican filibuster” that stopped Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s student loan act, the Voting Rights Act and “voter ID and other laws that limit turnout of youth.”

The party said in Florida there are phone bank volunteers with AFL-CIO, in Arizona a door knocking campaign is under way and in New York, there are rallies with the Working Families Party.

It offers links to sign up for telephone campaigns by the ALF-CIO, MoveOn, Democracy For America and others.

The party follows the Communist Manifesto, which states: “The Communists fight for the attainment of the immediate aims, for the enforcement of the momentary interests of the working class; but in the movement of the present, they also represent and take care of the future of that movement.”

The CPUSA, not quite 100 years old, reports that it “has an unparalleled history in the progressive movement of the United States, from the struggle against Jim Crow segregation, the organizing of the industrial unions, from the canneries of California, to the sweatshops of New York City.”

WND reported earlier this year, however, when the communists were unhappy with the Democrats, too.

At the time, they called for “street heat,” including civil disobedience, to demand passage of comprehensive legislation that would “keep families together” and include citizenship for “the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently in the country.”

The sentiments were expressed in an article by People’s World, the official magazine of the Communist Party USA. A piece on the People’s World website was titled “Progress toward immigration bill? Not without ‘street heat.'”

The article noted “reports of progress in labor-business negotiations over new immigration reform legislation” but said “‘street heat’ is essential to keep the effort from failing once more.”

The magazine said it disapproves of plans for a guest worker program, which it claims is aimed at “securing a supply of cheap labor from which it can derive extra profits, and undercut the rest of the workers.”

Continued the publication: “Guest workers are legally in the country, but they are in a vulnerable position, because they can’t change jobs when they are not satisfied with the pay or working conditions.”

 

Bob Unruh

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially. Read more of Bob Unruh's articles here.


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