Communist Party Almost Endorses Kerry
By Jeremy Reynalds
Talon News
September 9, 2004

NEW YORK (Talon News) -- The Communist Party of the United States is apparently implicitly endorsing the election bid of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. Leading the group's web site is a banner headline titled, "Top 10 Reasons to Defeat Bush."

Prior to the article, readers are advised to "download the flyer. Then print on double-sided paper (best at a union print shop) and cut in half. The result is a handy voter education piece -- the front has our Top 10 Reasons to Dump Bush and the back shows what Congress will look like when the Republicans lose their majority."

However, a spokesman at the Communist Party said the organization does not endorse candidates from other parties. He added that a letter circulating through the Internet saying the Communist Party is endorsing Kerry is not true. Nonetheless, at the end of the flyer laying out the 10 reasons to defeat Bush, the following words are displayed: "Had enough? Vote Nov 2. A public service of the Communist Party, USA."

In addition, an e-mailed response from the Communist Party read, "However, the reality is that if Bush is going to be defeated this year, it will be by Kerry, and it is crucial that we beat Bush. While both Kerry and Bush are ruling class candidates, there are significant differences -- for example, Cuba is worried that if Bush is reelected, Bush will invade Cuba. For example, Kerry has pledged to sign a bill legalizing card-check union elections, which would result in the organization of many million more workers into the labor movement. While we disagree with many of Kerry's positions, we aren't indifferent to the differences between the Republican and Democratic positions and policies."

A statement in the same e-mailed response read in part that the Communist Party of the United States has its own independent political platform for this year's elections. However, the party is not fielding its own candidate because officials feel that to do so could "distract from the main effort of defeating Bush and the ultra-right extremist agenda."

"Though our platform goes much further towards full social justice than Kerry's, to win any of it requires defeating Bush," the statement continued. "A movement that can break the Republican stranglehold on government could then win social progress on many fronts."

According to the Communist Party flyer, "Bush is destroying workers rights and outsourcing jobs instead of protecting the right to organize and creating new jobs rebuilding schools, bridges, roads and hospitals."

In addition, the flyer charges Bush with "bankrupting" the federal government "with giant tax cuts for the very rich and super-funds to the military instead of securing the budget for human needs by taxing the rich and spending on human needs."

The writer also charges Bush with "rolling back civil rights gains" and "curtailing women's rights and choice by undermining Roe v. Wade instead of upholding the right to choice and ending the gender wage gap."

Bush is also accused of "abusing immigrant workers in low-wage jobs instead of providing a clear path to citizenship and equal rights" and "exploiting and ruining the environment by protecting corporate polluters instead of conserving our natural resources for the public good.."

The flyer blasts the Bush administration policy in Iraq and calls it a "disaster," charging Bush with "pushing for more preemptive wars and for first strike nuclear military policy instead of negotiations and cooperation utilizing the UN."

According to the flyer, Bush is also "denying" civil liberties and freedom of speech by saying he is fighting terrorism, "instead of repealing the USA Patriot Act and helping cities, towns and states fund firefighters and police."

On its web site, the party claims "We think that a socialist government could be elected under our current political structure, and that if the capitalist class can be restrained sufficiently, that transformation could be peaceful. That is what we want, what we work for. But in most revolutions, the source of the violence is the actions of the established order, which resorts to civil war or violent repression to prevent a peaceful revolution."

Attempting to explain what the Communist Party is doing today, the group says on its web site, "The Communist Party USA is an organization of revolutionaries working to bring about social change in a conscious, progressive direction. We understand the connection between working for democratic reforms and improvements in living standards today, and building a movement large enough and united enough to create revolutionary change and socialism in the future."

Neither the Bush or Kerry campaigns immediately responded to a request for comment.

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