The Democrats have activised their grassroots organization at local level and campaigning against the maverick policies of the President which have led to inflation and more unemployment. For Democrats, the positive factor is that the latest opinion polls have shown that Trump has now a popularity level of 37 per cent of the voters, the lowest for him during the present tenure.

Among the Democratic Party, the tussle continues over the policy direction during the current campaign. Senator Bernie Sanders has asked his Democratic Socialists supporters to intensify campaign against the Republicans and Trump in particular, on the basis of the demands for free public health and welfare measures for the underprivileged. His young supporters the New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani as also Saikat Chakraborty, the nominee for San Francisco constituency, are the major campaigners drawing national attention.

The Communist Party of USA is a small cadre based party with its support base among the trade unions, academia and underprivileged women. CPUSA works in close cooperation with the democratic Socialists and also other NGO’s who are against President n Trump’s MAGA programme. Both CP and the DSA of Bernie Sanders have called for the formation of anti-MAGA coalition of forces to defeat the Republicans in the coming November mid term polls.

According to the Communist Party, the results of the November mid term polls could well determine the main direction of the country for many years to come. So efforts will have to be made to mobilise maximum sections of people including the disenchanted Trump supporters under a sort of anti-MAGA coalition and defeat the Trump nominees in the November mid term polls.

Joe Sims, the party’s co-chair, noted that the CPUSA will be doing two important things: It will, as it has already done, enter coalitions with pro-labor and allied forces to back candidates committed to pro-working-class politics. In other cases, the party will run Communists for public office who will also seek support from the broad coalitions they’re involved with locally.

When it comes to joining with others in coalitions to fight MAGA, Sims noted that the ground is fertile. He pointed to the growing strength of anti-MAGA movements like No Kings that support candidates willing and able to challenge the right wing.

In Philadelphia, for example, a broad coalition of forces united to back Chris Rabb, who ran for and won the Democratic nomination for an open congressional seat. He will be part of what is hoped will be a new anti-MAGA majority in the House of Representatives next year.

In New York state and in Minnesota, party members have been elected to local positions where they put forward alternatives to the anti-labor, anti-working-class approach of right-wing lawmakers. The same is true in Maine and many other states across the country. In another state, a party member will run for a seat on a city council this year. Another aspect of the party’s work in the midterms will be to “put the pressure on.”

“As we’ve said many times before, without mass pressure, centrists and liberals will always move to the right,” said Sims in his opening remarks Saturday. “Over the last year, the people’s movement has vocally expressed its discontent with how many of our elected officials were responding to the MAGA crisis, and it has had an impact. There’s no question about that. And in this regard, we say, ‘Keep the pressure on,’ because without that pressure, all bets are off.”

Sims noted that when it comes to the midterm elections, the CPUSA “is increasingly a visible public force in anti-MAGA movements and coalitions around the country. And we can proudly say our clubs and members have been there from jump street in marches and rallies across the country.”

This particularly applies in cases where the party runs candidates in its own name. The candidates often have long histories of involvement in the day-to-day struggles of movements in their communities. They don’t just appear during election campaigns and then disappear afterward. When it comes to working in coalitions, Sims noted that the party is an acknowledged member of coalitions in a number of major cities, among them D.C., L.A., Chicago and NYC. He noted, on the positive side for CPUSA, that “anti-communism has less and less of an impact.”

When it comes to the upcoming elections, however, Sims noted that the party faces a huge task. “We have a helluva fight in front of us. The fascist danger is stalking the land. And they’re taking big strides…. And they’ve been given carte blanche by the ruling class to do whatever they want. Total immunity. And it’s not just the Supreme Court. It’s the IRS as well. Not only will there be no further investigation, but they created a $1.8 billion slush fund of taxpayer money” for Trump loyalists. “And this includes, the January 6th coup plotters.”

Sims took issue with the Louisiana decision by the Supreme Court to disallow African American representation in the deep South, effectively disenfranchising millions of Black voters. He noted that during the midterms there are already some 20 Congressional districts at stake.

That means that for the CPUSA and for the coalitions in which it will be involved, the need is to battle what amounts to an attack on the entire working class. “The right to equal representation is gone; affirmative action out the door, abortion rights finished. And mark my word, the right to collective bargaining is next. When 20 African American seats are lost in the U.S. House, that means 20 votes less for the PRO Act; 20 votes less for Social Security; 20 votes less for health care or enforcing the Voting Rights Act. It’s 20 votes less for civil rights for children, and yeah they got rid of that, too, with the dismantling of the Department of Education.”

Sims did not stop with laying out what is stake on the domestic front. He also raised the alarm about what is at stake around the world. “And then of course, there’s the lawlessness of MAGA imperialism, its wanton murder of people on the high seas, its kidnapping of presidents, the waging of war against 11 countries, their support for the Gaza genocide, and now indictment of Raúl Castro. This is what is at stake in November.”

Bernie Sander is also addressing series of meetings in favour of the left wing candidates who are fighting on behalf of the Democratic Party in the primaries. He has directed that DSA members have to work from the lowest level and through their work at the local level, they can impress the voters about the need for a people’s oriented reform programme for the US economy.

Sanders also shares the view of the Communist Party when Sims said, “we cannot stand aside during these elections. Standing aside is capitulation to fascism.” Sims quoted the historic anti-fascist Georgi Dimitrov, who said, “Those who do not fight fascism in its preparatory stages in fact facilitate its growth later.” (IPA Service)