May 12, 2024

Moshe Peniro is a member of the Communist Party USA, who requested to keep their real identity anonymous. This letter was written in response to a letter published by SCORE on the Forum on on May 10, which can be read here.

A Response to SCORE from a CPUSA Member

by Moshe Pinero

The Covid-19 pandemic critically altered the landscape of many facets of social, political and economic life in every single nation on the globe. Feelings of isolation and discontent with the response from elected officials along with economic precarity prevailed in the minds of many, especially in the United States. In many ways these ideas still dominate conscious and unconscious collective thinking of the masses of working Americans. The landscape of 2024–that is, the social, political and economic landscape–would not be what it is without the events of 2020, marked by not only the Covid-19 pandemic but Black Lives Matter mass movement and presidential election as well. Careful study of these events and the cascade of problems that have arisen because of them, is essential to understanding the necessary political tasks before us for the foreseeable future. 

Recently, a letter from a collective called SCORE was written and addressed to the Communist Party USA regarding language used in the main discussion document for the pre-convention period titled, Forward together: For pre-convention discussion. Within their letter, they state discontent with language used surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic. Specifically, they take issue with the phrase “the country recovered from COVID” arguing that the country hasn’t actually recovered and thus, the CPUSA is ignoring that “key pillar of fascist policy is the dismantling of public health”. While it is true that the Covid-19 pandemic still profoundly impacts poor, black and brown, and disabled individuals most severely and perhaps the use of the word “recovered” can be interpreted as implying that the pandemic is over, this critique misses the mark. It neglects to acknowledge some very critical information about the U.S. healthcare system as it relates to public health and ignores the overall political message the document is trying to convey.

The public health infrastructure in the United States has been abysmal for many decades. Unlike other “developed” nations, we do not have universal healthcare coverage such as Bernie Sanders’ proposed “Medicare For All” plan, nor do we have something resembling the National Healthcare Service (NHS) which is the United Kingdom’s public healthcare service system. The United States has a myriad of federal agencies dedicated to public health, such as the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as well as publicly funded programs aimed at providing low cost care to low income individuals and families such as Medicare/Medicaid, CHIP, etc. Unsurprisingly, since the onset of the pandemic, adult Medicaid and CHIP enrollment increased by a little over 40%. However, private insurance still reigns supreme when it comes to healthcare insurance coverage, leaving many Americans either uninsured, underinsured or priced out of care despite being insured. And while funding for the CDC has been hardly adequate, increases have happened every year since Biden took office. These two facts, as well as others, further validate the demand for access to affordable/free healthcare, which undoubtedly includes the epidemiologic character of the CDC as well. So while it is the case that the Covid-19 pandemic is still on-going and indeed requires more attention than what it has gotten, certain sections of the capitalist class have conceded some ground when it comes to public health funding, generally speaking–there is no set consensus on this issue within the capitalist camp.

The fascists within the GOP are itching for the opportunity to cut funding for and dismantle the very little public health infrastructure that does exist, evident by their history of cutting public social programs in general. So in that regard, it is true that it is a “pillar” of their policy. While the CPUSA document in question does not specifically name Covid and public health as one of the main targets of Trump’s GOP, it does state the following:

“…the Republican Party is arguably the most dangerous political party in history. Its strategic defeat is a historic imperative. It is central to social progress. Indeed, it may well be central to human survival.”(Forward together: For pre-convention discussion)

Very clearly, the CPUSA is expressing that the GOP threatens human survival through their policies of deconstruction, austerity, privatization and limited government in general, which of course envelops their approach to healthcare and public health as well. Not only because of the nature of these policies but also because…

“The economic impacts of racism and sexism, such as ongoing wage differentials (for African Americans they’ve grown worse since the start of the century), housing discrimination, unequal access to healthcare and education…obviously have deeply affected these sections of the country’s diverse working class. Institutionalized racism and misogyny are clearly hard at work.” (Forward together: For pre-convention discussion)

The idea that the CPUSA, through this document, has engaged in “unconscious capitulation to social pressures allows the reproduction of the fascist policies” or is “organize(d) the way the bourgeoisie wants them to” is totally ludicrous. The document has identified the very basis of the issue the critics have decried–institutionalized bigotry, capitalism and its effects on healthcare access. It is indeed the case that the Covid-19 pandemic made this interplay incredibly glaring, but it also has brought the need for adequate healthcare for all people to the forefront of working class demands and will be a key area of struggle for the foreseeable future–this is brought up in the document in question many times.

Through over-scrutinously nitpicking language, the critics at SCORE have failed to understand that the CPUSA’s Forward together: For pre-convention discussion document is inclusive of their very valid concerns regarding Covid-19. Resolute ideological and organizational battles against political forces that seek to perpetuate institutionalized bigotry within healthcare are a threat to human survival and social progress. The necessary time and attention that the chronic and acute effects of Covid-19 pandemic deserves will not come about because a group of Communists, in the CPUSA or otherwise, declare it to be a top priority. Mobilizing the masses of workers in the struggle for healthcare as a democratic right is the requisite solution. As the document states, “working-class power is the only language the ruling class understands, regardless of the inclinations of its various factions. Ruling class power only concedes to the power of consciously mobilized demand.”

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