By Chuck Idelson
     CLEVELAND- For scores of Communists locked out of their
Party's 25th Convention, and many others who'd been allowed in but
effectively denied their right to speak, there was at least one
warm haven from the icy winds whipping off Lake Erie and the
political chill ripping through the convention proceedings.
     In Room 211 of the Cleveland Convention Center, the shut out
delegates hugged, cried, laughed, and sang, a lot-- "we lost the
war, but we had the best songs," said one delegate quoting Tom
Lehrer's statement about Spanish Civil War veterans. They also held
workshops, on topics like the 1992 elections, the labor movement,
and socialism. They talked about the future, and they took a
fateful step.
     "We're at a turning point in the history of the Communist
movement. We will have to account to the mass movement for the rest
of our lives about what we do this weekend. We can't leave this
town without having fulfilled this duty," said one delegate.
     Shortly after the final gavel fell across the street in the
official convention, the Communists in Room 211 came to consensus
to set up a committee of correspondents, establish a newsletter or
publication, commitment to work on the 1992 elections, the April
11 Save Our Cities march on Washington, and a labor project, and
to meet again in about six months.
     "What we may accomplish in the next six months may be
historic. If not, it may be a minimum contribution" to creating a
more just society, said Charlene Mitchell, a veteran leader of the
CPUSA and the National Alliance Against Racist and Political
Repression, as the Sunday meeting closed. "I joined the Communist
Party because I was sick and tired of capitalism. It is not a
victimless crime, and I want socialism for my future and the future
of my children and grandchildren. Socialism is only as inevitable
as those who struggle to make it that."
     The roots of Room 211 could be found in stirrings and
discussions that have ruminated in the CPUSA for the past few
years, culminating in recent months in a document titled "An
Initiative to Unite and Renew the Party" that was ultimately signed
by nearly 900 CPUSA members, at least a third of the entire
membership. 
     It notes the tremors shaking Communist parties around the
world, warns of the CPUSA's "stagnation in theoretical concepts"
and "isolation from progressive developments in our country," and
"attempts to stifle debate (that) threaten our Party's very
existence." It says participation in mass struggles should be "our
primary task and yardstick" and emphasizes the "need to update our
concept of socialism" and "to make our Party much more democratic."
     "We struggled to make these changes through the (Party's)
National Board within their structure," Mitchell those gathered in
Room 211. Noting those efforts met increasing resistance, Mitchell
continued, "four African Americans on the board decided it had to
be placed before this national convention" and received support
from several leading white Communists. "We did it to save our
Party. We have to continue to fight for what we believe in. That
is socialism, but a sociaism that has democracy as its central
core. Without (that) it is not working class democracy."
     The movement for renewal was matched by upsurge from below.
That could be seen in countless discussions in Communist Party
clubs across the nation, and at the convention in the blue
"Initiative" buttons worn by dozens of delegates on the convention
floor. The spirit of change hung in the air of Room 211, and on the
lips of Communists who came by plane, train, bus, or car from
Northern and Southern California, New York, Massachusetts,
Minnesota, Washington DC, Alabama, Texas, and many other locales.
     "Even if the leadership of this convention were under the
people in this room, the political tasks would be the same. That
is renewing the Party," said union activist John Case.
     While even the seated delegates still represented a
substantial chunk of those inside the convention, many felt they
had been vilified, and unable to respond to a mountain of
accusations. "I've shed tears of anger and frustration," said Alva
Buxenbaum, a union activist and leader of the New York delegation
whose elected leaders were treated with scorn and abuse.
     Martha of New York, said she'd witnessed "an abandonment of
the essence of Marxism-Leninism. Things in the world have happened.
This is an organization that professed a root cause analysis. We've
gotten instead ossification and religion which lead to inquisition
and witchburning."
     "The problem was not factionalism, the problem was a purge,"
the effort to "drive the initiative people out of the Party,
certainly out of the leadership," said Carl Bloice, PWW Associate
Editor, one of numerous Initiative signers dropped from the
incoming National Committee, along with several of the Party's best
known and respected leaders, including Angela Davis, Herbert
Aptheker, and Mitchell.
     "What was most disturbing," said Bloice, was the lack of
discussion in the convention about issues so crucial to the world
communist movement and working class people of the United States,
the challenge of charting a "path to the future. We are so out of
step and this convention put us further back."
     "We have to start talking now about a movement that has a
working class orientation and base, is democratic, is guided by
Marxism that is not dogmatic, that is multi-national, race, gender,
and open to all people, that is activist and non-sectarian. (NOTE,
CARL NEEDS TO EXPAND THIS PARAGRAPH)
     Bloice counseled those in the room to recall, "why did we join
this and not something else. Why would we bother to found something
new, if something else already exists? The problem has to be to
guarantee a viable working class movement for socialism. That is
the task before us."
     Many others were stewing on the task ahead as well. Linda M.,
a doctor from Chicago, summed up the discussion some of the locked
out delegates had held. "The views ranged from establishing a pre-
Party formation to staying in the Party and waiting it out. We need
to think about flexible actions that lend credibility to broader
forces. The weight of the concern was that both rank and file
members and non-Party people can agree to the actions and
participate."
     "We need to do more mass work, in a non-sectarian, non-elitist
way," said Melodi of Los Angeles. "The right thing to do is to
organize. Don't go home and mourn, go home and organize," said a
delegate from Alabama. "I know we're going to have a program of
struggle," said Buxenbaum, who said many of the New York delegates
were planning to call together trade unionists from throughout the
city to develop a program for tacking the city's budget crisis.
     Sandy P. of Chicago brought greetings from veteran CPUSA and
African-American community leader Ishmail Flory, and his concern
that "we establish a structure that will keep people in contact."
     There were calls for righting wrongs of the past. The
delegates in Room 211 endorsed, with a standing ovation, two
resolutions brought to the convention from Northern California,
calling for a formal apology that has yet to be given to Communists
of Japanese ancestry who were incarcerated by the U.S. government
in 1942 and expelled by the CPUSA and one endorsing lesbian/gay
equality. 
     There were urgings to break barriers that have too long
existed with people outside the CPUSA, and to ensure, as Franklin
Alexander of Northern California put it, "that we go back to our
members and work out decisions there." And, there was discussion
about more cooperative ways of working with each other.
     Just as he had moved many to tears on the convention floor,
Dr. Herbert Aptheker brought almost everyone to their feet in Room
211.
     "In a historic sense, we're not leaving a Communist Party. A
split or disruption is not the point. Lenin was in the opposition
for years. He advocated a Leninist party with human feeling.
There's a need for modesty and listening. The difficulty is to
remember the times we were wrong and others were right. Humility
is part of a humane approach. We must stress education, and take
up difficult questions like psychology and the problems of power.
     "We must have historic consciousness about the current epoch.
Counter revolution has won. It's not OK, but it's not unusual. (In
the early 19th century) Metternich was the leader of a successful
counter revolution. It didn't last long, but for thosxe who lived
through it, it was very long. But it ends, and this one will end
because counter revolution doesn't meet the needs of human beings,
and the only thing permanent in the history of human beings is
these needs and the reality of human resistance. Counter revolution
is counter humanity. It spits on people, and their needs and
desires.
     "When we have socialism in the United States, it will be
because the mass of American people want it so badly, it cannot be
kept from them."
     (Alice Sunshine contributed to this article.)