February is Black History Month - USACP

History Month and the Communist Party has been hosting local events and activities around the country to celebrate Black History and help appreciate the role of African American people, the struggles and their role in the movements for progress in the country from slavery to civil rights to today. The Communist Party has always understood that Black History is American History. .. Here is a teaser from a recent article on the current economic crisis on the Black community:African Americans and the Jobs CrisisBy Art Perlo, from PoliticalAffairs.net (Read the full article here.) .         The economic crisis has brought suffering to every part of the country and every section of the working class. As in past recessions, this crisis has fallen most heavily on communities already suffering, and particularly on people of color and immigrants. This is true of every aspect of the crisis, including foreclosures and evictions and state and local government layoffs and cuts in services. There are many attempts to divert attention by pitting sections of the working class against one another: white workers against racially and nationally oppressed, African Americans against immigrants and Latinos, young against old, men against women. Whatever the motives, these themes play into the hands of the Wall Street bankers and other corporate interests who are the primary cause of the crisis and obstacles to solutions that must come at their expense. This article, however, will focus primarily on the jobs crisis in the African American community as a critical part of the overall picture. . Even before the crisis, African Americans faced difficult, and in many ways worsening employment opportunities. This crisis has hit all workers hard, including white workers, with employment levels the lowest since the 1930s. But during the best boom years of 1988-90 and 1998-99, the percentage of African Americans employed in each age group just about reached the levels that white workers have fallen to today. Put another way, white workers today are just beginning to face conditions that African Americans faced in the best of times...   .   . Below are just a sampling of enlightening articles for Black History month: Dallas relives its Black History Communist Party and African American equality Two Great Biographies for Black History Month Lorraine Hansberry home gets landmark status Songs of the civil rights movement ring out at the White House . African American Equality: Pre-Convention Discussion with Jarvis Tyner The discussion leading up to the Communist Party's 29th National Convention has been going strong. For Black History Month we are presenting a national live broadcast of a presentation by CPUSA Executive Vice-Chair Jarvis Tyner on African American Equality. The brief presentation will be followed by answers to questions from participants.   African American Equality Convention Discussion Presentation with Jarvis Tyner Thurs, Feb 23, 2010 8pm Eastern time You can watch the video live on the CPUSA website. Make sure to test to see if your computer can play the video by reading the system requirements at Ustream.tv ahead of time. If you have trouble with the video, you can also call in to hear the presentation by telephone. To participate by phone, call (605) 475-4850. Dial 1053538# when prompted. (Long distance fees from your carrier will apply.) You can send questions ahead of time to questions@cpusa.org or submit questions live during the discussion by watching on the the Communist Party's Ustream video channel. The video will also be available for viewing following the event. If you haven't already, make sure to sign up for our other mailing lists: Communist Party Action List — where you will receive regular action alerts about pressing national issues and social justice campaigns in the mass movement. 29th Convention List — where we are publishing periodic updates on the Pre-Convention discussion period, important deadlines and information leading up to the 29th National Convention in New York City, May 21-23, 2010. People's World Headlines — And don't forget to sign up for a twice weekly pick of pressing news and insightful analysis right to your inbox from the People's World news site. .

The People's World - USCP

• We're back!

  Oct01

  by: PW Editorial Board

  Welcome - The People's World is launching its new website; yes, like the little engine that could, we are a daily again, in a bigger, better and more powerful format, reaching tens of thousands of readers through the ever-widening medium of the Internet.

  

• San Francisco hotel workers take to the streets

  Sep29

  by: Marilyn Bechtel

  Hotel workers hold a militant and spirited march in San Francisco.

  

• Univ. of California community protests cutbacks

  Sep27

  by: Marilyn Bechtel

  A statewide protest is rocking the California university system.

  

• Hotel workers stage sit-in at Hyatt

  Sep26

  by: John Wojcik

  In one of the largest civil disobedience actions in recent history, some 200 Chicago and Indiana hospitality workers and supporters sent a message to hotel giants: We Are Not Afraid!

  

Unite-Here says: Sí se puede, yes we can!

by: Unite-Here
30.Sep

Video: About 200 hospitality workers and supports arrested in Chicago civil disobedience. Park Hyatt Chicago, Sept. 24, 2009.

Astronaut: World has no borders, pass immigration reform

by: Pepe Lozano
2.Oct

The time has come for immigration reform says astronaut.

Michael Moore's 'Capitalism' is labor of love for working America

by: Teresa Albano
18.Sep

On the year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, filmmaker and slacker hero Michael Moore gave a gift to working America: an explanation of what happened.In short: capitalism happened.

Featured Writers

Right fails to stop jobless benefits extension

by: John Wojcik 2.Oct

The House votes to extend unemployment compensation.

Public option in better position after Senate vote, backers say

by: Susan Webb 2.Oct

After Senate Finance Committee vote, the fight for a public option has entered a new stage.

Union!

by: Elena Mora 20.Sep

Crystal Lee Sutton, the North Carolina textile worker played by Sally Fields in the 1975 movie "Norma Rae," has died of cancer.

The specter of big government? Get real

by: Sam Webb 23.Sep

Years ago Grover Norquist, a Washington insider of right wing pedigree, quipped: "I don't want to abolish government.

Hundreds rally to stop Chrysler plant closing

by: John Rummel 2.Oct

Out of Afghanistan

by: PW Editorial Board 2.Oct

New bridge symbolizes river’s rebirth

by: Tim Wheeler 2.Oct

Reforming CEO compensation — how much is enough?

by: John Case 29.Sep

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• Oct03

  Oakland: The struggle for health care, lessons from China, 1949 to now: Come join the Political Affairs readers group...

• Oct04

  Sacramento, Calif.: “Where is Labor Going?” Eyewitness account of AFL-CIO convention by PW editor Teresa Albano: “Where is Labor Going?” An eyewitness account...

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Racism is more than an attitude

* Sam Web

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I am sitting in a coffee shop in Cambridge, not far from the racial profiling incident of Henry Louis Gates that triggered a national conversation on race and racism, and, being a bit nosy, hear some references to "Skip" Gates.

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What these conversations (and others like them) reveal, I'm afraid, is that many people fail to understand that racism is more than an attitude of one person or people toward another person or people. That misunderstanding allows the mass media to make the ludicrous claim that Sonia Sotomyor is a racist.

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Racism is a historically developed set of practices and beliefs, some obvious, some more subtle, that systematically subordinate racially and nationally oppressed people to an inferior status in every area of life. It developed in a symbiotic embrace with predator colonialism and nascent capitalism in this hemisphere centuries ago. This symbiosis gave racism a particularly brutal, bloody, and exploitative character, while at the same time acted as a major engine of capitalist development in the Americas.

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One would think that given this history, racism (as well capitalism and colonialism) would have exited the world stage long ago. But it persists. But not in exactly the same way as it did in earlier centuries. While its essence remains the same, the institutional and ideological structures of racism have changed, in part due to the developmental pressures of developing capitalism and in part due to the popular opposition to this vile system by the racially oppressed and their allies

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The election of Barack Obama and the nomination of Sonia Sotomyer were inspiring moments in our nation's life that advance the freedom agenda and auger well for the struggle for racial (and gender) equality. But they didn't eliminate the structures, institutions, and rationalizing ideological systems that sustain racist oppression and white supremacist ideology in the early part of the 21st century. That still needs to be done by a multi-racial movement, powered in no small part by a working class and labor movement that understands that its class interests are interlocked with a successful struggle for affirmative action and equality.

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A challenge no doubt, but a worthy and necessary one for the broad coalition that elected the first African American President!

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in CPUSA News

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Communist Party USA statement on Honduras crisis

>Archive - Daily Online

Author: CPUSA
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 06/28/09 23:00

The Communist Party USA (CPUSA) joins with the world in denouncing the coup d’etat this morning against the legally elected president of the Republic of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, by the Honduran military, in which, according to a statement by the president’s wife, Mr. Zelaya was threatened and beaten before being sent into exile in Costa Rica.

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• The CPUSA denounces alarming reports of physical attacks by troops against the ambassadors of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua in Tegucigalpa, and calls for protection of all diplomatic personal; and, if the reports of the attacks are confirmed, punishment of all the responsible parties for this gross violation of Honduran and international law.

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The CPUSA further:

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• Demands that president Zelaya and other members of his government be returned to power immediately, and that the troops return to their barracks.

• Demands the immediate release of all labor, community and student leaders who have reportedly been rounded up by the army, and the restoration of freedom of the press.

• Recognizes that the Obama administration has repudiated the coup, and insists that President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton hold firm to this position, refusing diplomatic recognition and any military aid to Honduras until President Zelaya is restored to power.

• Calls upon unions and other people’s organizations in the United States to actively support our brothers and sisters in Honduras in resisting this brutal military coup d’etat.

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Communist Party Statement on Honduras Crisis
www.cpusa.org/article/articleview/1052/1/42/

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Declaración del Partido Comunista sobre la crisis de Honduras
www.cpusa.org/article/articleview/1053/1/42/

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