COMMUNIST PARTY USA
EXCERPTS
Special District Meeting on African American Equality and Building the Communist Party and Young Communist League
Chicago, IL September 30, 2007
Opening Remarks By John Bachtell, IL District Organizer
First, I want to acknowledge the collective nature of this report and preparation for the meeting. Thanks to everyone who contributed.
Secondly, these remarks will not begin to touch on every question, only a few of the key problems and issues before the district. The rest is up to you.
Thirdly, we should underscore this is not an issue for only one club or our African American comrades. While the South Side club may have a special role to play in this process, the whole district will tackle whatever weaknesses, problems and challenges we have. Similarly, whatever advances, achievements and victories we win will be celebrated and shared by every member.
Every one of our clubs has within its geographic concentration an African American community and African American organizations. Every one of our clubs is involved in local coalition work, where we have the role and responsibility of fighting for multi-racial unity and of making the fight against racism the central aspect of unity building.
Chicago is a leading center of the African American community nationally, in the working class and organized labor movements, in the political and cultural arenas. It is playing a vital part of the emerging labor led coalition, in every struggle around economic justice, for political independence, etc.
Scott reported the Party’s Labor Commission would begin discussions on crafting a new Party reindustrialization plan for the US. Others in the labor and environmental movements, including the so-called Green-Blue alliance, are thinking about this and we will be part of the process.
There is an active and vibrant counter recruitment movement that has reached into many high schools, which we should be a larger part of.
The crisis in education is compounded by the obscene inequality in funding across the state between the wealthiest school districts and the poorest. Illinois ranks near the bottom nationally in education funding. The broad education funding reform coalitions, including the A+ coalition that includes teacher unions, and the Better Schools Better Funding Coalition, that have emerged saw this year as a golden opportunity to change funding because Democrats were in the majority in both chambers of the state legislature and hold the governorship. Both initiatives went down to defeat – Gov. Blagojevich’s GRT and HB/SB 705, which would have raised the income tax – as vicious infighting consumed the Democrats. The coalitions will now have to regroup and we should be more deeply involved.
There have been several community marches against a rash of recent police killings of African American youth. In some communities the situation is explosive. Rev. Al Sharpton has established a Chicago branch to his organization and will be a regular presence here especially on the police brutality issue.
While the call for more after school programs is vital, we must continue to pin the blame directly on the gun manufacturers and their mass production of death for maximum profits. We should work with groups like Father Flager (sic), Rev. Jackson, Cease Fire and others to respond to the problem.
The African American community has played a historic role in the democratic struggles of this city from the beginning when it was founded by Dusable. This includes organizing the trade union movement – among steelworkers, autoworkers, packinghouse workers, railroad porters and others, breaking down the walls of segregation, political independence and more.
At the center of many of the democratic advances has been the Labor-African American alliance, the heart of BBW multi-racial unity and all-people’s unity. It’s impossible to see the African American equality movement separate and apart from what’s developing in labor and the labor led people’s movement.
Ordinance by Daley was just the straw the broke the camel’s back.
The Daley Machine, WalMart and big business failed in efforts to win key aldermanic elections despite their best efforts and money and the most anti-labor of campaigns. The Party was heavily involved in several of the campaigns, including for Sandy Jackson.
Once again, this key alliance has to be the apple of our eye, helping to strengthen the Labor-African American alliance, as a key part of broader BBW unity and all people’s unity.
We should also do more to bring Labor and other forces into coalition on problems especially facing the African American community … We are experiencing what could be a historic breakthrough in organizing for the October 27 peace demonstration in both the labor and African American communities. Credit has to be given also to the organizers, we among them, who really fought for the broadest of outreach and to overcome the mistakes of past demonstrations, to ensure African American community organizations and activists were in on the ground floor, an equal partner from the outset.
We hope this meeting will accelerate the process of building the fighting capacity of the party against racism and discrimination; of renewing, strengthening and expanding our relations with organizations and activists in the African American community … By stepping up our involvement and connection to struggles and movements already existing in the African American community, we will expand our relations with key activists and organizations – for example the National Rainbow PUSH, CBTU, some of the key churches like Trinity UCC, the Mt. Pilgrim Baptist Church, key community organizations like the South Austin Community Coalition, Kenwood Oaklawn Community Organization and others. We have had working relations at various levels with many of these organizations over the years.
On the other hand, where coalitions get started around particular issues, it is essential for the party and YCL to play a role to guarantee that organizations of the African American community, and all core forces, are in the planning from the ground floor.
With the 2008 elections around the corner, CBTU announced at their national meeting a novel grassroots organizing approach to electoral mobilization. They will assign members to organize their neighbors; register voters and form neighborhood get out the vote operations. The AFL-CIO may take this up as a model. Shouldn’t we try to be a part of this effort?
Our clubs should have more organized activities that will result in more public clubs responding to and involved in key struggles. We want to encourage our clubs to develop and expand their relations with key grassroots organizations and activists, and hold public events.
Finally, we need to take direct steps to build the Party and YCL in all directions. As Jarvis pointed out in his speech to the St. Louis conference, the Party has a marvelous and historic history among African Americans. This is especially so in Chicago. Who can forget the Party in the depression, Lightfoot, Florey, Woods, Pat Ellis, Frank Lumpkin and so many others.
To become a mass party once again we need basic steps. The clubs need to expand the circulation of the PWW among African American activists and organizations. The PWW is the best people to people, relationship builder that we have and is absolutely indispensable to this process. Without relationships we cannot recruit.
If we make the necessary changes, and take the necessary steps, there is no reason why we cannot become a mass Party, including building our membership widely in the African American community. Let’s rededicate ourselves to this end.
http://www.cpusa.org/article/view/858/
