This article was reprinted from the February 10, 1996 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.
Gus Hall is national chair of the Communist Party USA. The following article is based on Hall's opening remarks to a CPUSA national board meeting on January 23, 1996.
The number one priority for the Communist Party, at this moment in the life of our country, must be defeating public enemy number one -- Gingrich and his gang of 73 freshmen stormtrooper Republicans -- in the 1996 elections. And blocking them not only from maintaining their majority choke hold in e House and Senate, but also from taking over the White House.
Thus, everything we do must, in one way or another, be molded to serve this all-important electoral mission. Our Party is needed to help defeat the ultra-right and its ruling class Contract on America because we are staunch fighters, with 75 years experience in uniting people into all people's fronts in a time of sharpening class and democratic struggles.
Gingrich and his "Gang of 73" serve and represent the most extreme, racist and reactionary sections of corporate America. Unless we can shift the balance of power in Congress, we cannot defeat the Contract.
Unless we greatly accelerate the number and strength of mass movements of protest across the country -- on the streets, in public rallies and mass actions -- Clinton will be pushed to the right, toward the more extreme Republican positions.
We have to concentrate on helping to build, lead and, where there are none, initiate electoral coalitions of unity and protest to defeat the fascist-like Contract -- a life and death struggle for millions.
It is within these struggles, within the process of building anti-Contract movements and anti-Contract electoral coalitions that we attract masses of people to our party. Building the Communist Party and building movements against the Contract are interconnected. They should be seen as inseparable.
Ridding the U.S. Congress of the fascist-like wing of the Republican Party and its criminal Contract is the greatest challenge our people and our country face. It is also the greatest challenge our party faces. Because we have no interests apart from those of our class, our people, our party has to be about what the people are about.
In the 1996 elections and the fight against the Contract the Communist Party can make the difference. People who are joining see the Party as an important force in the struggle against the effects of the Contract.
In these struggles, we will have unlimited opportunities in our day-to-day activities to transform people's anger and protest, their alienation from the two parties, into a class and Communist perspective, even a socialist consciousness.
Until now I have been resistant to using "fascist" or even "fascist-like." But after giving this some thought and watching developments, I am now convinced that the fascist danger is inherent in the direction that Gingrich and his Gang of 73 are moving.
Looking back at the experiences during the rise of Hitler and German fascism. I have, reluctantly, come to the conclusion that the response was too little, too late. The Communist Party in Germany did not move quickly enough to organize the working class and the trade union movement, to unite the anti-fascist forces and to build a united front against fascism. We must take heed of that costly lesson.
Of course, the U.S. is a different capitalist society, in a different era. And we should not overstate the danger. But even with the big differences in time, place and circumstance, we have been underestimating the danger posed by the 73 and their fascist-like fanatic fringe handlers -- the religious right, the reactionary think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, and the pro-fascist corporate and financial forces.
After careful consideration, we have come to the conclusion that our party leadership has, to this point, underestimated the fascist danger inherent in the politics, ideology and actions of the extreme right majority in Congress. We are therefore reassessing our policy and tactics. This reassessment is based on the following developments:
l. The Contract itself and how it would destroy the social, legal, economic and ideological fabric of our society.
2. The drive to eliminate "big government " is a demagogic cover to eliminate all responsibility of the government for the people's welfare and, equally dangerous, to bypass and eventually do away with democratic structures and the apparatus of government.
3. Under the guise of fighting bureaucracy and "getting government off the backs of the people," the Contract forces would repeal, cut, privatize and eventually eliminate all government programs.They would use the deceptive cover of turning federal programs into block grants under the concept of "state's rights."
Gingrich brazenly bragged, "We can't take Medicare head on, but we can wound it so it will die on the vine." And, "The welfare state cannot exist within the confines of a balanced budget."
4. Going to the extreme of shutting down the government to intimidate the president and the people.
When asked what would happen if government was shut down, Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) replied, "We don't know, and frankly we don't care." And later, at a retreat for the freshman and sophomores sponsored by their pro-fascist handlers, Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed scolded them for "not keeping it shut down." At this event the Gang of 73 and Gingrich were berated for not getting the Contract passed, even if it would cost their reelection.
5. The campaign to eliminate all the regulations and laws that put some curbs on the insatiable greed of the corporations. Deregulation is a drive to undo and to repeal the limited legislation that prohibits corporate practices that are dangerous to people's welfare.
6. Likewise on the federal environmental regulations. The corporate polluters are out to repeal, to abolish all laws that keep the corporations from totally poisoning our environment and destroying our natural resources.
7. The puzzling circumstance that the 73 freshmen were all elected at the same time and with almost identical politics and ideology. The answer is the little-known fact that it was Gingrich and his GOPAC (now under investigation) that bought the election of the 73 freshman. They are "privately" owned -- lock, stock and barrel -- by the most reactionary, pro-fascist corporate sectors of the ruling class and the military.
This is one reason why there is a growing split in the Republican ranks. For example, [Sen. Bob] Dole is not as recklessly extreme as either Gingrich or [Steve] Forbes. Gingrich and Gang are far to the right.
8. There is a dimension of the Contract that would implement genetic social engineering that would result in "Bell Curve" policies of genocide, in the destruction of all affirmative action programs and backsliding further on equality and integration.
9. The new level of racism, anti-Semitism and anti-immigrant scapegoating are cut from the same cloth as the fascist ideology of superior and inferior peoples, used to divide.
10. The drives to privatize and "profitize" public services and institutions, like transit, hospitals and the public school system.
11. The fierce corporate drive not only to sanitize mass murder by the tobacco industry, but to nullify and repeal all health and safety regulations that protect workers and the public.
12. The corporate drives to downsize, lay off and close plants while productivity rises and profits skyrocket.
13. The conservative Supreme Court and the federal courts where three Republican judges just voted to overturn Clinton's executive order to prohibit striker replacement.
14. The new Crime Bill that would put teenagers in jail for life under the "three strikes and you're out" policy.
15. The frightening emergence of open right-wing terrorism against government buildings, abortion clinics and public facilities and the rise of fascist hate groups and other paramilitary groups. The Oklahoma City bombing is the logical outcome of the "anti-big government" ideology.
16. The establishment of a totally volunteer Army is a breeding ground for hate groups, paramilitary and mercenary forces that operate both within and outside the United States.
17. U.S. imperialism and the U.S. military establishment, State Department and CIA have become more bold and brazen in their impatience with democratic procedures and their willingness to use troops to secure the U.S. as the "one superpower." U.S. troops in Bosnia and deployments in Hungary are part of the plan to establish a "beachhead" in eastern Europe and to prevent the return of socialism.
18. The nearly total domination of the mass media by pro- fascist corporate conglomerates like Westinghouse, GE and Disney. Corporate control is most obvious in the rather sudden rightward editorial shift in the New York Times and Washington Post and in TV programming. When you add radio talk shows like Rush Limbaugh, G. Gordon Liddy and Howard Stern, it becomes clear that the extreme right and fanatic fringe are in control of our air waves.
19. There is a new level of demagogy to convince people that extremist politicos like Buchanan, Forbes and even the Christian Coalition's rabid Reed are "populists" because they are anti-corporate, anti-big government. Reed's latest slogan is "we defeated fascism and communism. Now we will defeat the liberal bourgeois establishment."
20. Most troubling is that the 73 fanatic Republicans are mounting a challenge to Congress, the president and the federal government that is not within the democratic structure, but outside of it. It is a "lynch mob" domination of Congress. This puts Clinton in an especially difficult situation.
Life and the U.S. political scene dictate that we cannot divorce Clinton from the electoral equation. To shift the balance of power in our country there is no alternative to the lesser-of-two-evils concept and tactic. Therefore, without determined, steadfast and unwavering grassroots pressure, Clinton will move away from even the more positive positions he took in his State of the Union address.
Without visible, mass organized labor-community pressure he will not continue to veto anti-people legislation and separate himself from the extreme right wing, as he tried to do on some important working class issues. With mass actions of protest and consistent political public pressure the extremists can be further exposed and isolated. And Clinton will feel inclined, and even compelled, to move more towards labor and its allies.
We have to keep in mind that this is a new experience for our country. Not new in the sense of fascist elements, but new in the institutions of government, like the Congress. However, these anti-democratic forces can be routed, stopped in their tracks, if we adjust our policy and tactics for the 96 elections.
Our assessment can influence labor, the AFL-CIO and people's movements. It gives a new dimension to the need to focus resources and energies on ridding the Congress of the majority led by the fascist fringe Republicans.
What are some of the adjustments we should make? The threat from the extreme right calls for increased flexibility, downplaying and even making concessions on differences we may have with any labor or people's forces. We have to help make it possible to build all people's united front movements.
Thus, in the interests of defeating these reactionary forces we will support Democratic, independent and Communist candidates -- whatever candidates and tactics fit into the overall goal of undoing the Republicans.
We must take initiatives and help to build united anti- Contract movements, electoral alliances and labor-community coalitions, of Black-Brown-white. However, there can be no independence without independence from the Contract.
The fascist danger speaks to the absolute necessity of building a mass Communist Party. Together with labor and a united people's fightback, we can defeat and eliminate the fascist threat from Congress and protect our democratic institutions and traditions.
However, fascism will remain a potential threat as long as we have capitalism. It is only in a socialist society, where the working class and people own and control all government and national resources, will we finally rid ourselves of even a "whiff" of fascism.
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