this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2024
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I get that CPUSA has some bad reputation. This clip is a part of a call-in show. It features 4-5 calls from American hogs and the CPUSA guy responds to their questions. I think that this interview was interesting at least. I will post more information in a comment.

video link
https://www.c-span.org/video/?536104-4/joe-sims-communist-party-usa-campaign-2024=

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

Before accepting any callers, the show host asks the CPUSA Co-Chair if CPUSA endorses any candidate for president. He says that the CPUSA has never endorsed candidates from other political parties for president. So CPUSA is not endorsing Biden.

The first caller identifies politically as an independent. She starts by saying that she's never heard of the Communist Party of USA and she's afraid of communism. She asks why the communists want to take away her guns and then she says that we need to build a dome over America to protect America from climate change caused by China.

CPUSA Co-chair responds by saying that CPUSA doesn't want to take away your guns. He says that the US should stop shipping guns all around the world. He says that gang-related gun violence is related to the drug crisis which needs to be addressed. Then he says CPUSA is not a party of big government, that it is a party of helping working class people. He says "we don't need filthy rich people telling us how the country should be run". He says that corporations control the US media. He says that China wants a clean environment for their children.

The second caller identifies as a Republican. She says that her father was a dentist in Chicago and that she believes that communism would have prevent her father from inventing the "gold inlay" by imposing regulations on him.

CPUSA Co-chair responds by saying that the narrative that communists want to stifle innovation is a lie. Then he turns it around and says that McCarthyism restricted the rights of communist Americans. He says that if we look at history, it is the Americans who oppressed Communists and not that Communists have oppressed Americans.

The third caller identifies as an independent. He asks how CPUSA is funded. He implies that CPUSA is funded by the "Communist party of Russia".

CPUSA Co-chair responds by saying that CPUSA doesn't receive funding by foreign government or foreign corporation unlike other candidates of other American political parties. I think he may be referencing AIPAC. He says that CPUSA is funded by donations from working class people.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Those responses are all pretty much what I hear when I say I’m a communist or even just a socialist.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago

You're a communist huh? Well how come you ain't supporting a giant dome over america??

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago

I sometimes get told I’m more evil than a Nazi

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

Watching it rn!

Just saw that you posted the video in the title. Thanks!

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 3 months ago (6 children)

Holy shit these callers.

my dad organized with the communists at the YMCA but under communism he wouldn't have had that freedom that capitalism affords him

are you funded by the communist party of Russia?

the only way to solve global warming is by putting a giant dome over the USA. I

[–] [email protected] 35 points 3 months ago (3 children)

C-span does this same call-in show every morning, 7 days a week. The callers behave like this pretty much every day.

I don't watch it every day but it's a guilty pleasure. Hearing the unhinged beliefs of many Americans is sometimes entertaining.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago

Frankly, when you go to protests as a socialist or communist, you get all sorts of unhinged questions LMAO

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago

It's one of the purest call-in shows out there.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

I used to watch it all the time. Closest thing left to unhinged public tv

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Putting a giant Simpsons dome over the USA is probably a net good though tbh

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Yes but you might come down with a case of Spaceballs constantly trying to replace their air.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 months ago

the only way to solve global warming is by putting a giant dome over the USA

let-em-cook

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

big-honk what freedom exactly is that?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago

And it's CSPAN, so you're not getting the truly unhinged reactionaries out there

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Yeah...

I'm used to it lol

[–] [email protected] 32 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Lesser evilism "the struggle continues" liberal enabler CPUSA?.

We don't endorse but......vote

even a centrist Biden presidency could prevent further setbacks for civil rights, women’s reproductive rights, immigrant rights, and labor rights provided there is mass pressure from below. ...if it does come down to Biden vs. Trump, who would be more likely to forgive student debt, expand healthcare, protect immigrant families, and take actions to mitigate the climate crisis? Who are we more likely to convince to shift their decisions in a more progressive direction? Who would our Cuban, Venezuelan, and Nicaraguan comrades prefer to see in the White House, considering the U.S. imperialist blockade loosened up during the Obama administration? Our short-term tactics and strategy are not limited to voting for the “lesser of two evils,” 

Therr were other parties ballot and they throw out DNC propaganda. How's it been going since then CPUSA? How's that imigration, climate crisis, and foriegn policy been on this "lesser evil"? ukkkraine hamas-base give the Republicans what they want on the border and immigration without addressing our foriegn policy.

Deeply unserious Fascist enablers.

Shit like this tuns me off. visible-disgust

Ok lets watch it.

"On one side you have a fascist in Trump and the MAGA movement. On the other a progressive coalition" he-admit-it

There it is! Can't even call out Biden in the same vien as Trump enabling fascists under this capture "coalition". kiryu-slam

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Who would our Cuban, Venezuelan, and Nicaraguan comrades prefer to see in the White House, considering the U.S. imperialist blockade loosened up during the Obama administration? Our short-term tactics and strategy are not limited to voting for the “lesser of two evils,”

They would prefer Americans grow a backbone and not chain themselves to the oppression of the third world. That we would separate ourselves from our state's power and build working class movements divorced from these ghouls. Also Joe just tried to coup Diaz

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

Oh they are not limited to but still they do.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago (10 children)

The people (i.e Ukraine) need to determine heir own destiny. (And when they did reject the US instigated Maidan coup and were subsequently bombed and terrorized for a decade the Russians were to just sit by and do nothing while their borderlands and went into chaos? They warned and tried peace for a decade to manage it but the west kept fueling conflict in ukkkraine ) Cold War poisioned brainworms

Russia needs to stop? How about we need to stop fueling proxy wars? Why does he phrase it like this?

Old bastards move out of the way instead of standing in the way.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago (2 children)

We can dunk on the 2A USA Dome women all we want, but honestly, she seemed very genuine to me. She's obviously riddled with right wing induced anxieties, but when she said, "If you're gonna say we're taking all the guns, sure I'd give mine up, but..." it surprised me a little. She sounds like the kind of person who, if her fears could be dispelled, would be open to changes and reforms around the 2A. The only thing keeping her in this mindset is this fantasy that she'll get shot by some gangbanger. There is no way to know what percentage of the population she represents, but it's interesting nonetheless.

Her comments on the "US Dome" were clearly one of defeatist sarcasm because again, her position was rooted in this fear that China is doing nothing and will never do anything. Obviously, WE know that's not the case, but she clearly has no one casting a light on that shadow for her. She doesn't think we should literally build a dome, she is using this extreme example of "the only thing we can do" to solve the issue because it's clear that she also believes "no one else is doing, or going to do, anything about climate change".

There was no climate denial on her part, there was no "from my gold dead hands" rhetoric on guns. Just pure fear and defeatism.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Damn, I wonder how they got that organized, that's kind of neat in a reaching out to the terminally TV glued types.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

It's quite a good way of outreach.

We need to talk to people on the street more than on the Internet, tbh.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I love the CPUSA and I'm within the organization.

Do tell me about it sometime.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

You might wanna delete this in risk of fedposting

just saying

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago (7 children)

I'm aware.

My own District Organizer (he's in his 80s) was harassed by FBI agents well into the 1990s and 2000s, at least.

Also, it's quite well-known by this point that I'm in the CPUSA. I've said this multiple, multiple times on Hexbear.

Many PSL and CPUSA and FRSO members announce their respective organizations online, especially on Twitter.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Yeah I know part of being a member of PSL is also being open with being a member like online and stuff? I think so anyway, I'm not a member and it's just one of those things I've heard

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It is and it isn't. When you are in the work place, or for some other strategic/tactical/safety reasons, some members may not disclose their membership in some situations. But in general, when PSL organizers are organizing in the community or with other groups/community members we don't typically hide our membership. In general, there is a feeling that the time is right to openly show who we are and what we stand for, to present ourselves in a forthright way to the people, and to encourage the masses of people to be unafraid of organizing and participating in politics, particularly revolutionary politics and anything that would expand their understanding of democratic participation beyond bourgeois politics/voting.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

I agree.

It's the same with CPUSA and FRSO, at least.

We want to be more open.

CPUSA still tends to err on the side of caution and not reveal certain names or memberships of certain people.

Even then... It's been tending toward openness. In Pennsylvania, we were featured in several news outlets over our confrontation and protesting of the Moms for Liberty action in, I believe, Philadelphia.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Link broken

Edit: won't play with certain VPNs. God he's so fucking old. Could we get a leader who isn't over 60?

Jesus christ he refers to the Biden administration as a "progressive coalition". So genocide and corporate capitalism. Go fuck yourself, Joe Sims.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Oh, really? I'm in the CPUSA. Tell me about it. @[email protected]

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

I posted the video because I liked what the guy had to say and also I think American hogs are silly. The juxtaposition between the anti-communist american hogs and the calm talking CPUSA guy is a funny.

I have seen a lot of posts on hexbear and other places which say that CPUSA is run by feds. I don't have a strong opinion about it myself.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (3 children)

They're probably definitely not actually run by feds (as far as anyone knows, COINTELPRO types are genuinely very hard to sus out by design). They have some institutional failings, however, if someone's in it they're like by default probably better on things than most Americans. I've been in CPUSA in the past and work with PSL now and in my experience PSL is better, however this may be an entirely local thing for me. You should investigate both and try and work with whatever you have locally; I have my disagreements with CPUSA's strategies but I don't want to be excessively divisive.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

We are not feds, trust me. We get harassed by feds.

Thanks for giving us a chance. I'm glad you stumbled upon this.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, the reputation of CPUSA being full of feds is also a reflection of the extent to which the US state has repressed the organization. There are things I disagree with about the CPUSA's politics and strategy, but state repression isn't something that CPUSA members chose and it is unfair to most of its members. Sadly, I do think that it has still had a very real negative effect on the party and the way it has developed and who has remained. It is sad because it is a reflection of the tremendous impact the party once had.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Well, I think we're getting back into the swing of things, but trust me when I say: many CPUSA members, especially older members, don't reveal their membership specifically because of previous harassment, especially during the Cold War, but even during the 1990s and 2000s.

I remember hearing of one district that didn't use the Internet till, say, 2011 or something; they just met in the woods or some place that was obscure, some rural place.

I think such things have ham-strung us, if anything, hence why some of the politics seems "conservative" compared to, say, perhaps PSL or FRSO.

I respect Nat'l Committee and what they've been through and they are very talented; hell, I love their books especially and their scholarship.

But it often seems like the right-wing conspiracy theory "that Communist Party members are literally behind the scenes guiding things rather than being open about what they do" ... because, in some ways, they are. Like, local civil rights and trans rights and labor union heads are Communist Party members, they just don't say so.

Also, I just saw in the video that Maurice Isserman was quoted. He's a pretty anti-communist historian and, unfortunately, I've seen even leftists quoting him, at least at times. Well, perhaps they were liberals, not leftists, but you get what I mean.

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