User:Jdhthegr8/sandbox/Red Party (United States)
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Red Party | |
|---|---|
 | |
| National Secretary | Gabriel Pierre (IA) |
| Second Secretary | Peter Moody (NJ) |
| National Treasurer | Marion Pierre-Antoine (IA) |
| Headquarters | Cedar Rapids, IA |
| Ideology | Orthodox Marxism Anti-Stalinist Left |
| Political position | Hard Left |
| Anthem | The Internationale |
| Motto | Freedom, Solidarity, and Revolutionary Democracy |
| Website | |
| red-party | |
The Red Party (United States) is a Marxist organization in the United States. It supports the establishment of "working class unity in a single socialist party-movement". Established branches of the Red Party are in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, Iowa, New Brunswick, New Jersey, and Raleigh, North Carolina but it also has official members working to form branches in Illinois, Connecticut, Florida, British Columbia, and Quebec. Party branches are composed of 2-10 people and internally practice democratic centralism for all major decisions. The party's National Secretary is Gabriel Pierre, its Second Secretary is Peter Moody, and its National Treasurer is Marion Pierre-Antoine. The Red Party currently fields no candidates for public elected office but has endorsed Mimi Soltysik of the Socialist Party USA for President of the United States.
History[edit]
The party started to come together under the name "The Independent Workers League" in 2012 and was mostly composed of former members of the International Marxist Tendency at first with some members from the International Socialist Organization, Socialist Alternative, and Socialist Party USA. Its members were attracted to the political stances of the Communist Party of Great Britain (PCC) and modeled the new party's program after it. In 2013 they voted to change the name to "The New Communist Party of America", but then voted to change to its current name in 2014 to avoid confusion with a Maoist organization that had the same name. In June 2016 the party held its first biennial National Convention, in which matters of policy and ideology were discussed among membership and elections were held for positions in their Central Committee.
Ideology[edit]
The Red Party supports principled unity between existing Marxist organizations wherever such cooperation is possible. The party is open to mutual activism, dual-carding, and transparent conversations between members and non-members as a means of building this. They support the formation of broad industrial unions rather than the more common trade union structure, which they describe as having "Bureaucratic leadership and class collaboration". The Red Party's long term goal is the creation of a mass movement composed of allied leftist organizations, industrial unions, and other worker-built institutions to eventually establish a workers' republic as a first stage of a "global transition to communism". Members of the party have identified with Marxist Centrism as a broad interpretation of the party's strategy. The works of Karl Kautsky, Vladimir Lenin, and Mike Macnair are major influences on The Red Party's policy and ideological standpoints. The party is against Stalinism and any totalitarian interpretation of Marxist theory.
Policies[edit]
The Draft Program of the Red Party includes proposed policy demands. Its latest revision was made at the July 2016 National Convention. These demands are divided into two sections- Democratic Demands and Economic Demands. They are quoted directly from the Draft Program as follows:
Democratic Demands
- Abolish Senate and the presidency, their power to an expanded House of Representatives.
- Nationalize all banks and consolidate them into a single, nationally administered central bank.
- Debt relief for small farmers and small businesspeople. Provision of low-interest loans for small business and incentives for small businesses to join the socialized sector of the economy.
- Abolish the electoral college.
- Election of the judiciary.
- Elect all legislatures by proportional representation.
- Right of recall over all elected officials.
- Disband the standing army; expansion of the National Guard and the general arming of the people in its place.
- The right of soldiers to elect and recall their officers. Full trade union rights in the armed forces.
- Immediate closure of all military bases on foreign soil.
- End all foreign aid to repressive, reactionary regimes abroad.
- Unilateral disarmament for all weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, chemical and biological.)
- Replacement of police forces as presently constituted with democratically controlled committees for public safety.
- Immediate release of all non-violent offenders from incarceration; rehabilitation, not prison, as the first resort in criminal justice. Incarcerated persons should maintain the right to vote.
- Citizenship rights for all immigrants residing within the United States. Free movement of people across the borders. Abolish “English only” laws and recognize regional minority languages.
- The right of self-determination and sovereignty to Native American nations, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Northern Marianas, Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, former US Pacific Trust Territory, as well as all ethnic or national minorities by democratic vote on a community-by-community basis. Voluntary union as the basis of the democratic republic. Reparations to American Indian nations.
- Abolish the secret state – repeal the Patriot Act and the NDAA, and immediate shutdown of the CIA and NSA. End secret diplomacy – all international relations to be conducted in public view.
- End the “war on drugs.” Legalization of illicit substances for personal consumption. Treatment of addiction as a social concern rather than criminal.
- Complete separation of church and state, including the removal of tax-exempt status for churches.
- Full sexual education in school. Free access to birth control and abortion.
- Full legal and social equality for LGBTQ people, including adoption for same-sex couples and gender reassignment surgery as a health care concern. Provide housing and quality social services for LGBTQ and other displaced youth.
- Enshrine and extend the right to freedom of speech. Democratize the major media to allow for sustained public participation; protection and expansion of the commons.
Economic Demands
- Abolish private health care; establish a socialized health service to provide free, universal, high-quality care.
- A right to quality housing and utilities without debt, with nominal rent.
- Free higher education, whether college or trade school. Abolish all student debt.
- Repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act and all other anti-union laws. Establish simple card-check unionization.
- Enshrine the right of all people to living-wage employment and a guaranteed minimum income for students and disabled people.
- Abolish unemployment by establishing full-time employment as a six-hour working day and a thirty hour work week with no loss in pay.
- A minimum wage of $15 an hour as a first step toward a living wage.
- Workplace election of all managers in socialized industry.
- Establishment of socialized, worker-controlled cafeterias, day cares and laundries as a step toward women’s liberation.
- Nationalize the energy giants and create a mass public works program to rapidly transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy.
- Free, quality local public transportation and expansion of the Amtrak system to provide low-cost medium- and long-distance transit.
Published Material[edit]
The party publishes a periodical magazine titled The Red Vine which includes articles and commentary from their website. In addition to opinion pieces written by party members and official party statements representing the Red Party as a whole, guest letters and articles are also published on the website as well as public debates. It is available in both digital and paper copies. A podcast called Anti-Capitalist Radio also represents the party views and is hosted by Gabriel Pierre and David Arthur Smithers.
References[edit]
External links[edit]