Gerhard, it was great meeting and talking with you. Please keep us in the loop about the event for March/April. We would be very pleased to send someone to give a talk as part of the program. "The practical application of Communist Theory" though, is about the largest scope subject you could choose, so we will need to discuss in more detail what to focus on. In regards to your letter, we welcome honest, constructive criticism, from within the Party and without, and we look forward to working together, one way or another. Naomi Rankin Leader of the Communist Party of Alberta |
Working backwards through your specific questions:
1. Paying dues is the formal method of distinguishing members from non-members. The dues range from $1 to $40 a month, based on income - you can look at our constitution on the CP of Canada website and the last page gives the table of dues.
2. United Front is a general concept of how we aim to work with others - that in the course of the development of political struggle, we go beyond informal support for various individual campaigns. We aim for discussion and joint development of programs with other organizations - it could be other political parties, but also unions, women's groups or students or environmentalists or human rights groups, seniors' groups, First Nations groups, etc. The basic idea is more or less formal agreement among groups on a program they can all support and would all actively campaign for.
3. Actual campaigns - so many that I am not going t try to give an exhaustive list, but just off the top of my head, as examples - participating in the May Day march each year, Going to picket lines and rallies in support of labour union campaigns, participating organizing the Council of Canadian climate change conference, taking part in peace demonstrations, organizing meetings for anti-war and anti-imperialist speakers across the country, petition campaigns against the TPP and other "free trade" deals, supporting Idle No More....
4. When do we do this again? We have been holding the Coffee with Communists on the 2nd Saturday of the each month, and intend to continue to do so. For the last year or so pretty much all our activities have been scheduled on Saturday afternoons, because that was what worked for the people involved, but it is on our agenda to figure out how to create opportunities to participate for people who go back and forth to camp work, and for people who do shift work. I can't give you a definite detailed schedule of events right now, but we need to work that out. Part of the process would be for you to tell us in more detail about your schedule, so we can start looking at other time slots.
5. What next? I recommend you get a subscription to People's Voice, and if you have contacts you think should be reading it, we can arrange for you to get extra copies of each issue to distribute. We will add you to our email distribution list so you will get the information about upcoming events and activities.
About party leadership: I am feeling less exhausted than I have in years, because we really are seeing signs of an upsurge in interest in the party and its ideas, and I anticipate an increase in membership and in the effectiveness of our public work and propaganda. As a party of the working class with an understanding of the significance of collective action, we are always interested in new members becoming as active as possible. Every member of the party has a role to play as a leader. Since class struggle is about the most complex phenomenon in the world and requires continual analysis and creativity, becoming a leading Communist is the ultimate on-the-job training - and no one in their right mind would join the Communist Party as a career move. In many ways we are more like a non-profit organization than like the bourgeois parties. It's more a matter of finding people willing to take on jobs, rather than competing for votes. But the formal leadership positions are filled according to the principles of democratic centralism, i.e. a convention elects a central committee, the central committee chooses its executive and the party leader from among its ranks, and then the convention delegates get a vote again to reject or confirm the Central committee's choices.
1. Paying dues is the formal method of distinguishing members from non-members. The dues range from $1 to $40 a month, based on income - you can look at our constitution on the CP of Canada website and the last page gives the table of dues.
2. United Front is a general concept of how we aim to work with others - that in the course of the development of political struggle, we go beyond informal support for various individual campaigns. We aim for discussion and joint development of programs with other organizations - it could be other political parties, but also unions, women's groups or students or environmentalists or human rights groups, seniors' groups, First Nations groups, etc. The basic idea is more or less formal agreement among groups on a program they can all support and would all actively campaign for.
3. Actual campaigns - so many that I am not going t try to give an exhaustive list, but just off the top of my head, as examples - participating in the May Day march each year, Going to picket lines and rallies in support of labour union campaigns, participating organizing the Council of Canadian climate change conference, taking part in peace demonstrations, organizing meetings for anti-war and anti-imperialist speakers across the country, petition campaigns against the TPP and other "free trade" deals, supporting Idle No More....
4. When do we do this again? We have been holding the Coffee with Communists on the 2nd Saturday of the each month, and intend to continue to do so. For the last year or so pretty much all our activities have been scheduled on Saturday afternoons, because that was what worked for the people involved, but it is on our agenda to figure out how to create opportunities to participate for people who go back and forth to camp work, and for people who do shift work. I can't give you a definite detailed schedule of events right now, but we need to work that out. Part of the process would be for you to tell us in more detail about your schedule, so we can start looking at other time slots.
5. What next? I recommend you get a subscription to People's Voice, and if you have contacts you think should be reading it, we can arrange for you to get extra copies of each issue to distribute. We will add you to our email distribution list so you will get the information about upcoming events and activities.
About party leadership: I am feeling less exhausted than I have in years, because we really are seeing signs of an upsurge in interest in the party and its ideas, and I anticipate an increase in membership and in the effectiveness of our public work and propaganda. As a party of the working class with an understanding of the significance of collective action, we are always interested in new members becoming as active as possible. Every member of the party has a role to play as a leader. Since class struggle is about the most complex phenomenon in the world and requires continual analysis and creativity, becoming a leading Communist is the ultimate on-the-job training - and no one in their right mind would join the Communist Party as a career move. In many ways we are more like a non-profit organization than like the bourgeois parties. It's more a matter of finding people willing to take on jobs, rather than competing for votes. But the formal leadership positions are filled according to the principles of democratic centralism, i.e. a convention elects a central committee, the central committee chooses its executive and the party leader from among its ranks, and then the convention delegates get a vote again to reject or confirm the Central committee's choices.
A note from Gerhard: My initial correspondence with Naomi Rankin can be found here. find my response to here correspondence below, as it was also given to her. We look forward to that all future dialogues!
1. Read the Constitution here. As Naomi stated, the dues are on the last page. Moving forward, it is still unclear to me how many people pay dues, locally, provincially, and nationally.
2. Love it.
3. I must add, also, that I had a blast canvasing yesterday evening (Canada out of NAFTA!). It was fun but, I must admit, also exhausting. I truly enjoy the engagement though. Two people happily declared their prior and continued allegiance to the the Party. Another declared immediate conversion. I think I may have directed a few others to the Party page, and one or two to my own. It would nice if we could get more young people out, perhaps through the Young Communist League - Edmonton? Perhaps through Good Grief Collective?
4. I did enjoy Coffee With Communists, but would prefer to attend meetings with a focused agenda. We had almost a dozen people for coffee, but only four of us canvassing. In my opinion, if the meet-up had more direction, we would have talked about NAFTA, and pressed for a commitment to act. Instead, there was only the last minute e-mail, and the correspondence too lacked "oomph"; the quality of being exciting, or energetic.
5. Regarding the People's Voice: there is no doubt that I will become a dues paying member of The Communist Party of Canada, though I doubt I will subscribe to The People's Voice. In my opinion, it isn't Communist enough. If we are Communists, we must be Communists openly and proudly, whereas the magazine seems covert, and does not seem to reflect our ultimate aim. Bear in mind that not everyone connects the color red to Communism. I showed the newspaper to my co-workers, none of whom guessed at who distributed it, and were surprised when I told them. Even as we distribute flyers, we should be on the forefront, shouting, "Communists are against *Insert cause*, and you should be too!" We should have ball caps with our emblems, and every person who meets Naomi, should know who they are talking too. If I owned the party, I would advocate for transparent re-branding. That's just me. So I do my thing. In support of CPC, if they are going to be who they are, then I would like to support them as loudly and proudly as I do with my own endeavors.
1. Read the Constitution here. As Naomi stated, the dues are on the last page. Moving forward, it is still unclear to me how many people pay dues, locally, provincially, and nationally.
2. Love it.
3. I must add, also, that I had a blast canvasing yesterday evening (Canada out of NAFTA!). It was fun but, I must admit, also exhausting. I truly enjoy the engagement though. Two people happily declared their prior and continued allegiance to the the Party. Another declared immediate conversion. I think I may have directed a few others to the Party page, and one or two to my own. It would nice if we could get more young people out, perhaps through the Young Communist League - Edmonton? Perhaps through Good Grief Collective?
4. I did enjoy Coffee With Communists, but would prefer to attend meetings with a focused agenda. We had almost a dozen people for coffee, but only four of us canvassing. In my opinion, if the meet-up had more direction, we would have talked about NAFTA, and pressed for a commitment to act. Instead, there was only the last minute e-mail, and the correspondence too lacked "oomph"; the quality of being exciting, or energetic.
5. Regarding the People's Voice: there is no doubt that I will become a dues paying member of The Communist Party of Canada, though I doubt I will subscribe to The People's Voice. In my opinion, it isn't Communist enough. If we are Communists, we must be Communists openly and proudly, whereas the magazine seems covert, and does not seem to reflect our ultimate aim. Bear in mind that not everyone connects the color red to Communism. I showed the newspaper to my co-workers, none of whom guessed at who distributed it, and were surprised when I told them. Even as we distribute flyers, we should be on the forefront, shouting, "Communists are against *Insert cause*, and you should be too!" We should have ball caps with our emblems, and every person who meets Naomi, should know who they are talking too. If I owned the party, I would advocate for transparent re-branding. That's just me. So I do my thing. In support of CPC, if they are going to be who they are, then I would like to support them as loudly and proudly as I do with my own endeavors.
I shared my concerns with a friend in their group. He forwarded this picture from one of their gatherings, and it was encouraging, but I still think we can do better. Lenin isn't really the face of Socialism in Canada, or the future of Communism. I would rather see a code of ethics on a banner; something people would see, and automatically approve of. That is our common ground. On a personal note: the grace Naomi Rankin has exhibited while receiving constructive criticism has been a breath of fresh air. We do not see eye to eye on everything, but common ground has been forged. There is no doubt that, in some capacity, we will forward together positively. Lastly, I am very interested to hear more specifically about how the "convention elects a central committee". Gerhard Jason Geick Maple Syrup Socialist |