Secretary’s Report
2nd Meeting of the 1st Session of the District Executive Committee
Virginia District, Communist Party USA
Reports from Clubs and Collectives:
- NoVA
District Organizer reports: The planning committee for the to-be established club in the Northern Virginia (NoVA) area has been formalized with a composition of some seven of the area’s most active members, and a general view towards tenant organizing, cooperatives, unions, and strategic coalition building.
- Tidewater
Club Chair reports: Tidewater’s club has officially changed its name to the Revolutionary Workers’ Club (RWC).
Action planning with the RWC has taken on a formalized approach and is being stressed more heavily. With more and more people getting vaccinated on-the-ground actions are expected to pick up, and talks are ongoing of shifting from PPE distribution to food.
Club Secretary Reports: Events have been taking place under the leadership of the RWC, and as more such events and meetings have been taking place the club structure has been strengthening as a result of new members becoming better acquainted with one-another. The Club is now going over candidates for a new officer position who will be in charge of coordinating strategic coalition building efforts.
- Appalachia
Collective Representative reports: The Appalachia Collective convened a meeting on Sunday, May 9th, and resolved to begin moving forward on the formation of a Club specifically in the Roanoke area, with a general view towards tenant organizing, unions, and mutual aid.
Special Reports:
- Education Committee
YCL Chair unanimously chosen to serve as the Executive’s representative for overseeing and leading the Education Committee, formalizes the currently-existing book study programs as an appendage thereof geared more towards Comrades with a pre-existing foundational knowledge of Marxism; more formalized programming to be established for newer Comrades and specialized topics.
As per the recommendation of a couple of Comrades from Appalachia, the Executive unanimously agrees that a Mandarin study program is worth pursuing, and shall propose at the next general District meeting.
The Education Committee shall hold its first meeting at 8:30pm on Saturday, May 22nd.
- Technical Committee
Committee Chair reports: A new Chair shall be elected to serve the Technical Committee at its next meeting, 7pm on June 6th.
A period of research and deliberation was conducted on the issue of whether or not to designate a Discord server as an official line of communications for the District strictly for non-sensitive communications; the Technical Committee, after much deliberation and vigorous debate, recommended that this initiative move forward. The Executive Committee, in light of this recommendation and the findings and statements thereby, came to a unanimous decision that such an initiative shall be proposed to the next general District meeting, with the understanding that a strict delineation be made between such a server and official lines of communication, and that measures be actively put into place to assure this delineation, as well as to ensure that any minors belonging to the YCL are properly supervised and kept away from any adult subject matter.
After much deliberation and research, the Technical Committee has established a public-facing calendar for the use of the District, which shall be under the oversight of the Executive Committee with the help of the Technical Committee. It is hoped that this will clear any confusion with regards to when meetings are, as well as shine more transparency on how many different moving parts there are within the District itself.
- Little Red Schoolhouse
The YCL’s National body has announced the Little Red Schoolhouse program from July 23rd to August 1st in New York City, designed to introduce younger Comrades (under the age of 35) with key educational works as well as practical matters relating to our work. In light of the massive growth the District has seen within the past year, the Executive Committee is pleased with the interest shown so far by several Comrades, but is also saddened to find that so many who would otherwise be interested are too busy with work. The Executive Committee expects that some six or more Comrades shall be recommended to attend the program from our District, but wish to actively encourage more to consider applying; a special emphasis has been placed on uplifting Comrades from marginalized and underserved communities in this effort, as it is within their communities in particular that the situation is most dire, and the need for Communists most great.
- Open Discussion on AgitProp
Consensus that the current state of our AgitProp is lacking. The fire and zeal of our younger Comrades must be brought forward and given the right to place its mark upon our undertakings, just as younger generations in the past have always been the leading voices in revolutionary agitation. We must not allow ourselves to be stifled, and we must not allow our “image” to become that of “your grandpa’s Communist Party.”
New slogans presented for the consideration of the District:
“CPUSA:
Our Sword is You”
“Do whatever is necessary
That is our tradition”
The next Executive Committee meeting shall be held on May 30th
The Secretary shall report on it to the District on June 4th.