 Next, we're going to have Rosana Cambron, and she will be giving testimony for our Cold War Truth Commission. She is the cold chair of the National Communist Party, USA, and a coordinator of the Worker's Center in Los Angeles. Rosana. Hi, everyone. Good afternoon. And thank you for inviting us here today. And for this event, which I think is going to be a vital resource for many generations to come. In 1919 was a crucial year in history. Throughout the world, new parties emerged from existing socialist parties and anti-colonial movements. They united around the struggle for socialism and against imperialism. In the United States, the Communist Party USA was born. Many immigrants came to the United States fleeing poverty and persecution. Some had been involved with socialist movements in the lands from which they came. They would be joined by African-American activists who had faced the highest level of exploitation and oppression in the United States, fighting for three centuries against slavery and then Jim Crow. Indigenous people, Mexican Americans, and people of the U.S. colonies of Puerto Rico and Philippines, along with Japanese and Chinese Americans, all of whom were victims of violent, racist exploitation and oppression. U.S. Communist emphasized the oppression of what was then called the Negro people as a cornerstone of capitalist rule. They made the organization of Black rule and urban workers into unions, a central focus of their work. They also organized both black and white working people to fight against all forms of racism. Many of the struggles in which Communists had played a leading role in the 1920s had ended in defeat. The 1926 Pace Act, New Jersey Silk Strike and the later Castonia, North Carolina Mill Strike had been violently crushed, Zacco and Vanzetti died in the electric chair in 1927. But Communists strengthened by the world Communist movement and a political structure of a revolutionary party that united them, learned from these setbacks. The capitalist utopian dream of letting the rich take care of the poor collapsed in the great market crash of October 1929. Over the next four years, unemployment rose to more than a third of the workforce. Wages for employed were slashed and millions lost their savings. In March of 1930, Communists in the U.S. and throughout the world organized international unemployment day to mobilize against this crisis. Shortly thereafter, unemployment councils led by the Communist Herbert Benjamin organized in cities throughout the country to block the evictions of thousands of tenants who could not pay their rent. The unemployed councils were forward came forward with a new idea unemployment insurance, which was so identified with the Communist Party that the conservative that the then conservative AFL leadership initially rejected the proposal and condemned it as a Communist Party program. Beginning in 1935, the new deal program of Franklin Roosevelt elected three years earlier at the height of the depression would enact unemployment insurance along with comprehensive public works, labor and social welfare legislation, collective bargaining units, social security and later minimum wage and wages and the 48 hour work week, the most important victories for workers in U.S. history. While the benefits were significantly less than the Communist Party and others had advocated for, the leading role of the Communist in the unemployed councils and in the unions and community organizations made the Communist Party the undisputable head of a domestic Marxist movement towards socialism. As the new deal government advanced labor and social welfare reforms in response to the working class upsurge, Communist led in the formation of a new civil rights groups. The National Negro Congress, the South, the Southern Negro Youth Congress, both groups sought to build alliances with and through the CIO, the Works Progress Administration and other new deal agencies. Although these and other militant civil rights organizations which Communist helped to build would be ruthlessly suppressed during the post-World War II period, many of their veterans activists would play important roles in the victories won during the great civil rights upsurge of the 1960s. Many civil rights leaders cut their political teeth in these struggles. As you can see that throughout these struggles, the Communist Party sought unity of the working class and recognized that racism was an effective tool by the capitalists to divide the workers. Communist Party activists struggled to build inclusive industrial unions since the birth of the Communist Party. By the early 1930s, a strike wave swept the nation. The roles of the administration responded to this working class upsurge by enacting National Labor Relations Act or Wagner Act, which provided a democratic process for workers to organize trade unions and negotiate collective bargaining agreements. Communist fought to advance the Fair Employment Practice Commission, which the new deal government had created in 1941 to integrate black workers into the expanding war production industries. You can find more detailed history of the party in two recent books. Let them tremble and faith in the masses by Tony Pesanovsky, which recounts how the party despite its setbacks and anti-communism continued to fight for workers' rights. As you can see by this brief history that the work of the Communist Party along with other progressive organizations and individuals were building movements that were achieving important victories, especially around the fight against racism and winning workers' rights. The ruling elite responded to these gains by organizing a coordinated and strategic frontal assault. Though this war on workers started decades ago, these important worker gains called for an escalation. This occurred at the end of the World War II, with the birth of the Cold War. The first step of this assault started as an ideological war. The thinking was, if we can convince the American people that capitalism equaled America, equaled liberty, equaled democracy, then one can deduce that capitalism equals the American way of life. Therefore, anything that is opposite capitalism was un-American, anti-freedom, undemocratic, and should be feared and rejected. Any attack on capitalism is an attack on American values. This successful media campaign laid the groundwork for one of the darkest chapters in our country's history, the McCarthy era. This state-sponsored witch hunt of communists cost hundreds to be blacklisted, thousands to lose their jobs, and dozens of the finest, most militant movement leaders to be jailed. The aim of this fascist campaign was never to silence the Communist Party and its members. Its true goal was to squash and paralyze it. Any and all-progressive and individuals involved in bringing up fundamental political, economic, or social change. This same anti-communism line of attack was later used against Black Panthers, Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, and countless others. And although most of the laws and actions taken during the McCarthy period were eventually overturned and demon-constitutional, there is no denying it had a long and lasting impact on the American psyche. But even in the worst of times, the smear tactic was never absolute or permanent. Millions of Americans rejected anti-communist and refused to be – anti-communism and refused to be silent. In time, new organizations were formed and new leaders arose, giving birth to new movements, which brings us to today. So are the ideas of socialism communist relevant and necessary today? I say yes, now more than ever. Endless wars, police brutality, gender inequality, continued racism, increased income inequality, massive homelessness, rampant consumerism, and an impending environmental catastrophe all call for change. The Trump presidency is a reflection of the new and more dangerous stage of struggle we are in. Trump may be gone, but the fascist forces that put him in office are still there and are organizing. But with all of these problems now is not the time to despair. The winds of change are strong and they are blowing in our favor. National organizations are growing everywhere, movements are coalescing, and trade unions are getting their militant groove back. The younger generation is now easily – is not easily influenced by the anti-communist narrative. They are looking for an alternative to the life they are currently living under, climate change, high cost of education, and lack of jobs. Bernie Sanders, AOC and the rest of the squad are countering that negative socialist narrative and making it cool again. Are they still using anti-communism as a weapon 30 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the supposedly end of communism? Absolutely. In fact, in the last election, it was Trump and the Republican party's first line of attack. They tried to stir and awaken old prejudices and fears of claiming that Joe Biden and the Democratic Party were trying to replace American values with socialist ones. Another attempt was in a recent CNN article that equated the attack on the Capitol by white supremacists with the communist arrest made during the Cold War. During the last election, several attempts were also made to equate fascism with communism. But much more insidious than all of this was their use of anti-communism to brainwash and mislead many into voting against their own self-interest. They have been able to convince millions of their working class supporters to oppose tuition-free college, a free national healthcare, student loan forgiveness, because these are socialist programs that go against American values. Anti-communism continues to be the ruling class weapon of choice in the battle of ideas. As we move forward, I cannot overstress the importance of building unity, being aware of the tactics that have been used to divide us. Some of their tactics include looking for ways to divide leaders using their weaknesses, both personal and ideological, to promote division. Spreading rumors and feeding egos is another critical form we need to be mindful of. In closing, I would like to invite all of you to join our party in convincing our families, our communities, our country that socialism is not a dirty word. It is our salvation. Sooner or later, we do this. The sooner we do this, the sooner we can begin to organize more effectively to address poverty, racism, gender inequality, war, the climate crisis, and so much more. Thank you. Bravo, Rosana. Thank you so much for your testimony. A couple of things before we move on to another moving testimony is at our first Cold War Truth Commission. We made signs and you could take a selfie and the sign said, fellow traveler, E.K. and what of it. And so I think whatever we are, however we identify, the more allies we have possible and to be unabashed and unafraid of who our friends are, because look at what they're up to, look at what they do, their values. I want to mention someone else who was at the first Cold War Truth Commission. He couldn't be with us now, but he was one of the first African American city councilmen of Los Angeles. His name was Bob Ferrell, Robert Ferrell. And he made a super point that I wanted to just make sure is in the record today also that Rosana spoke of. He says he remembers back in the 40s when the Communist Party, various labor organizers were helping the Black community and that they were considered by the Black community some of their greatest allies. And then he said, and as the Cold War continued McCarthyism, they just all those white allies disappeared. They got picked off. They got jailed. They had to leave to Mexico, whatever. And all of a sudden the Black community really felt without allies. And I just found that so tragic and immoral. I wanted to bring that up.