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p The Communist Party of the USA—the vanguard of the progressive forces of the country—is waging a consistent struggle for the vital interests of the working class, against the oppression and omnipotence of the monopolies and in defence of democracy. Functioning in the citadel of imperialism and the target of consistent persecution and repression by the forces of reaction, the Communist Party of the USA directs all its energies toward mobilising a mass movement of working people against the brutal system of capitalist exploitation and all forms of social and national oppression.

p In recent years, on the basis of a scientific, MarxistLeninist analysis of new developments in American economic and socio-political life, the Communist Party of the USA has come out with a number of documents of great importance for promoting the further development and invigoration of the American labour movement. These are the programme statement of December 1962, entitled "The Way Ahead for American Labor”, the Party’s economic programme published in May 1964; the Party’s draft Programme submitted for broad discussion on the eve of the Party’s 18th National Convention in June 1966, and adopted at the 19th National Convention in 1969; as well as Gus Hall’s reports to the 18th and 19th conventions and the resolutions adopted at those conventions. An important place in these documents is given over to making a profound scientific analysis of the class structure of American society today and defining the historic role of the American proletariat as the leader and organiser of working people in the struggle for liberation from the yoke of capital.

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p In its statement, "The Way Ahead for American Labor”, the Communist Party stressed that "the foundation of our Communist Party rests on the concept of the leading role of the working class and its historic mission to abolish exploitation. That is why, above all else, we are a working class party, ’the party of the poor and the oppressed’. That is why we place the greatest emphasis on the problems of the working class and on its decisive role in our country. That is why it is so vital to combat every tendency to underestimate the leading role of our American working class.”  [196•1 

p In its struggle against bourgeois and reformist efforts to belittle the role of the American proletariat, the Communist Party of the USA vigorously exposes the fallacious and petty-bourgeois views of those who, proceeding from the false premise that the class-consciousness of working people diminishes as their living standard rises, endeavour to depreciate the class-consciousness of the proletariat and underrate the significance of the workers’ struggle for their economic interests. Labour’s struggle for the fulfilment of the most elementary demands—higher wages, a shorter workweek and greater job security—is in itself, notes the Communist Party of the USA, a colossal force in the service of progress.

p Rejecting all manner of capitulatory theories and false assertions based on a superficial study of class forces and the nature of the class struggle, Gus Hall, in his report to the 18th National Convention of the Party, said: "It is utterly wrong to think that, having won substantial gains, workers can simply sit back and enjoy them. On the contrary, the unions are compelled to wage unending warfare against the unceasing efforts of the employers to nullify and destroy these gains, not to speak of the additional struggle required to win further improvements.

p “Furthermore, these victories have a two-sided effect. There is not only the effect of the victory, but also the effect of the struggles through which it is won. It is through these battles that a worker can be shown the class nature of the 197 struggle. It is in the fires of struggle for a better life that he learns the meaning of class unity and class struggle. This is the path that leads the working class to the political arena of struggle; this is the path that leads to socialism.”  [197•1 

p The Communist Party warns that the struggle for social progress cannot be expected to proceed spontaneously. The paramount duty of Communists and other progressive forces in America is to render all possible assistance in this struggle. The organised section of the working class—the trade unions—must carry out extremely important tasks. "The trade union movement has proved itself to be the most effective mass weapon our working class has with which to tackle the pressing economic and political problems of the day,” a resolution of the 18th National Convention of the Communist Party of the USA stresses. ".. .We Communists have only the most fraternal concern for the wellbeing of this movement. It must receive our warmest support in good weather and bad.”  [197•2 

p Over the years, the Communist Party has supported many social and economic demands set forth in the programmes of individual trade unions and the AFL-CIO. This refers particularly to demands for a 35-hour workweek with no reduction in weekly pay, demands for a guaranteed minimum wage, as well as to questions relating to unemployment, taxes, housing, anti-labour legislation and civil rights. In a statement issued in 1962, the Communist Party noted that the campaign for a 35-hour workweek "can present the first major defence of labour’s right to work since the 1930s".  [197•3  "The working of a 35-hour week,” the statement continued, "would mean creating new jobs for millions, perhaps for as many as one-third of those at present on unemployment rolls. Even more significant, such a struggle and victory would infuse labour with a new spirit, a new vitality, a new vision.”  [197•4 

p While noting that the trade union programme could, in 198 the presence of certain positive factors, become the basis for a struggle to fulfil the immediate demands of working people, the Communist Party, at the same time, declared: "Too often decisions of the AFL-CIO Conventions and Executive Council meetings remained on paper. A struggle to end this practice is overdue. Undemocratic practices, methods of ‘business’ unionism and class ‘partnership’ ideas, neglect of the unemployed workers, continued jurisdictional quarrels and raiding, expulsion policies, remaining discrimination practices against Negroes, Puerto Ricans and Mexican-Americans—these evils still afflict many unions to one degree or another.”  [198•1 

p The Communist Party did not restrict itself to merely supporting union programmes; it also came out with its own demands, which more fully reflected the needs of working people.

p The objectives to be fought for were outlined in the Communist Party’s programme statement, "The Way Ahead for American Labor.” These include: 

p —a 30-hour workweek with pay as for 40 hours; annual wage increases; paid vacations; greater union control over work rates;

p —vigorous political action to place under government ownership certain branches of industry receiving large government subsidies and enterprises chronically operating under capacity. These enterprises should be switched over to producing materials for housing, school and hospital construction and other public works. Appropriate guarantees should also be sought to ensure the rights of unions and their participation in the democratic control over the operation of these enterprises. The government should be made responsible for providing jobs wherever private enterprise is unable to do so;

p —abolition of all forms of job discrimination against Negroes. Negroes should be given unrestricted opportunity for industrial training. A national fair employment control board should be established;

p —revocation of tax privileges for big business and a 199 substantial reduction in taxes paid by workers and all lowpaid working people;

p —establishment of price controls by the government, trade unions and consumers, and abolition of the present practice of price fixing by the monopolies;

p —adoption of federal public works programmes for youth and other workers, with wages set at union rates;

p —repudiation of government policies of wage freezing, strikebreaking and compulsory arbitration. Reinstatement of all trade union rights and the repeal of all anti-labour laws. Extension of the right to organise and to strike to all who work for hire;

p —raising the minimum wage for all workers to $2.50 per hour;

p —adoption of a programme of lifelong insurance, administered by the federal government under the social security system and financed by raising taxes on the big monopolies. Such a programme should provide for normal living conditions for the sick, disabled and unemployed; proper care for the aged and for workers and their families; retention of all the other benefits available under the present social security system and improvement of this system on the basis of recommendations by the labour movement. Young people entering the job market, the programme statement noted, should receive adequate unemployment benefits until they find jobs.  [199•1 

p In 1964, when President Johnson announced, under the pressure of public opinion, his "war on poverty" programme and, a little later, his so-called Great Society programme, the Communist Party went further than merely criticising the President’s programmes; it offered its own proposals for an effective struggle to eliminate the poverty and privation suffered by millions of Americans. While agreeing that government programmes, in principle, could and should help the American people in fighting for their vital interests, the Communist Party at the same time exposed the inadequacies and weaknesses of the promised reforms. The Communists warned that it would be naive to believe that 200 Emacs-File-stamp: "/home/ysverdlov/leninist.biz/en/1973/USLUT203/20071219/203.tx" the "war on poverty" programme could really eliminate such inherent defects in the capitalist system as poverty and unemployment. In its economic programme, published on May 3, 1964, the Communist Party made its position crystal clear: "We are prepared to join wholly and without reservation in such a war. But if it is to be truly ’ unconditional war’, we need to go far beyond the very limited programme which President Johnson proposes. Such a war cannot be half-hearted or limited to ‘band-aid’ remedies. It must be determined and unrelenting, and must go to the heart of the problem. It must be a total war.”  [200•1 

p “The basic cause of unemployment and poverty. . .” the Communist Party noted, "is not automation, nor is it personal shortcomings or misfortunes. On the contrary, the cause is an economic system in which production is for maximum private profit instead of for maximum public good. It is an economic system in which prices are jacked up while wages are held down, in which tens of billions of dollars a year are wasted on armaments and other unproductive expenditures while ... vital social needs go unfulfilled, while millions go hungry and jobless, in which abundance itself leads to poverty and privation. In short, the cause of poverty today is monopoly-dominated capitalism, and the war against poverty is a war against monopoly greed.”  [200•2 

p Having outlined the immediate, day-to-day tasks and the more long-range tasks in the struggle, the Communist Party proposed that the first order of business should be to augment the funds earmarked for the war on poverty by making a sharp and substantial cut in military spending—by $20,000 million over the following two years, to begin with.  [200•3 

p The top priority demands outlined by the Communist Party in its programme for day-to-day struggle were as follows: 

p —jobs for all willing and able to work;

p —abolition of segregation and discrimination;

p —elimination of the ghettoes;

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p —adequate benefits for all needy and unemployed;

p —ensuring a future for American youth;

p —assistance to small farmers and agricultural workers;

p —redevelopment of areas in which there is chronic unemployment;

p —government control over automation;

p —protection of trade union rights.

p In its 1964 economic programme, the Party also proposed measures to limit the power of the monopolies, and these proposals were further developed in the New Programme of the Communist Party of the USA, adopted at its 19th National Convention. Special attention was focussed on basic reforms that would pave the way for revolutionary changes, strike at the power of big business and bring the people genuine economic and political gains at the expense of the monopolies. The New Programme of the Communist Party of the USA notes that the reform programme should be centred around three major problems—the economic welfare of the people, peace and freedom.

p “Most urgent,” the programme stresses, "is a halt to US imperialist aggression and reversal of the militarisation of our country. With this go measures against racist oppression, exploitation and humiliation of the Black people. The fight for peace and freedom is in turn the spearhead of a fight for a reallocation of national resources that will give priority to the problems of slums, ghettoes and poverty, of urban crisis and deteriorating public services.”  [201•1 

p The programme of basic reforms envisages a number of important measures, such as: democratisation of the country’s entire economic life; the actual realisation of the right to work; elimination of mass unemployment; expanded social insurance; nationalisation of certain industries; a radical tax reform aimed at taxing the rich; public ownership in all mass information media under public control; repeal of repressive laws.  [201•2 

p While it set forth the broad outlines of necessary basic reforms and pointed out the general directions of the 202 struggle for their accomplishment within the framework of the existing social system, the Communist Party of the USA at the same time emphasised that "the social crisis can be resolved fundamentally only through the replacement of capitalism with socialism.”  [202•1  The Communist Party regards the struggle for reforms as "basic training for the fight to take complete political power".  [202•2  "We Communists,” the New Programme noted, "motivated by the elemental human needs of our class and our people, fight the evils of capitalism. Ours is the fate of our class and our people. The trials of their existence are ours. We strive for improvement of their condition here and now. Often this is a life-and-death question. At the same time, we are convinced that socialism, and beyond it communism, offers the only fundamental, lasting solution to the problems of exploitation and oppression, that it opens the only door to an immeasurable improvement in the quality of man’s life. Thus the struggle for revolution is the logical continuation of the struggle for a better life.”  [202•3 

p Pointing out in its documents that the struggle against poverty and unemployment, for a higher living standard, for civil rights and for democracy is above all a struggle against the power and dominance of the monopolies, the Communist Party lays stress on the fact that the key to success in the anti-monopoly struggle is the unity of all strata of American society—the working class, the blacks, the small farmers and small businessmen, etc.

p In its efforts to promote united action by the working class and its allies, to create a single anti-monopoly front, the Communist Party places primary emphasis on work in the trade unions, which carry the main responsibility for mobilising all working people. "Without such united action, not even the most meagre programme can be won. With it, the foundation can be laid for the building of a political coalition against the trusts headed by organised labour and 203 powerful enough to wrest basic concessions from them."  [203•1  It is the profound conviction of the Communists that such a struggle will lead to the creation of a new political majority. First, a majority that will challenge the corporate Establishment and fight for radical reforms. Then, arising from this conflict, a political majority for the socialist alternative.

p In their new party programme, the American Communists say: ”. . .We conceive of a path to socialism in America encompassing ever more determined and widening struggle against exploitation, against imperialism, against racism, against war and colonialism, for an ever more viable democracy that includes all our people, white and black. We see it as encompassing struggle for progressively more radical measures, as dictated by necessity, to realise the potential for abundance, knowledge, culture and human happiness created by the genius of American labour and science.

“For us socialism represents a culmination, a crowning achievement of democratic struggle for a better life.”  [203•2