Bill De Blasio’s ‘Contract With America’ eerily similar to CPUSA & SPUSA manifestos
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio last week unveiled a 13-point “Progressive Agenda” which is being called the Liberal ‘Contract with America.’ However, the Progressive Agenda is much more similar to two other platforms rather than the Republican contract with America.
Here are 7 ways that the Progressive Agenda is eerily similar to the Communist Party USA and Socialist Party USA‘s manifestos.
1. Minimum Wage
Progressive Agenda: calls for the raising of “the Federal minimum wage, so that it reaches $15/hour, while indexing it to inflation.”
CPUSA: “The democratic struggle is not only about democratic rights, civil liberties, and electoral democracy. It also includes struggles for peace, equality for the racially and nationally oppressed, equality for women job creation programs, increased minimum wage…..Once again capitalism gains extra profits from the special exploitation of youth by two-tier contracts providing lower wages for new hires and by extremely low minimum wages…..Even with ultra-right control of the Federal government, peoples legislative victories, such as increasing the minimum wage, can be won on an issue-by-issue basis locally, statewide, and even nationally.”
SPUSA: “We call for a minimum wage of $15 per hour, indexed to the cost of living.”
2. Rights To Organize
Progressive Agenda: “Reform the National Labor Relations Act, to enhance workers’ right to organize and rebuild the middle class”
CPUSA: “One of the most crucial ways of increasing the strength and unity of the working class as a whole is organizing the unorganized…..Speeding up the organization of unorganized workers is one of the most important challenges to labor and all progressive forces…..Organizing the unorganized by itself, however, is not sufficient continuing [sic] to win unions and their memberships to class struggle trade unionism and to broad trade union unity are also required.”
SPUSA: “The Socialist Party stands for the right of all workers to organize, for worker control of industry through the democratic organization of the workplace, for the social ownership of the means of production and distribution, and for international solidarity among working people based on common opposition to global capitalism and imperialism…..We support the right of any number of interested workers in a workplace to form a union with no limits on the subjects upon which employees and unions may bargain with employers….We call for the repeal of….all so-called “right-to-work” laws.”
3. Immigration Reform
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=768h3Tz4Qik
Progressive Agenda: “Pass comprehensive immigration reform to grow the economy and protect against exploitation of low-wage workers.”
CPUSA: “People of many nationalities face special oppression related to their national origins— issues of language, culture, history, immigration rights and status…..The ability of employers to pay workers differently based on skin color, country of origin, immigration status, or hire date in two-tier wage systems exerts downward pressure on the wages of all workers…..struggle for immigrant rights is a key component of the struggle for working class unity in our country today.”
SPUSA: “The Socialist Party works to build a world in which everyone will be able to freely move across borders…..We defend the rights of all immigrants to education, health care, and full civil and legal rights and call for an unconditional amnesty program for all undocumented people.”
4. Opposition To Trade Deals
Progressive Agenda: “Oppose trade deals that hand more power to corporations at the expense of American jobs, workers’ rights, and the environment.”
CPUSA: “Free trade agreements, placing supra-national committees of capitalists above the laws of any country, require ending environmental protections, allow the free export of capital and jobs, and remove the ability of countries to restrict the rights and activities of corporate managers…..rejection of imperialist free trade schemes.”
SPUSA: “We demand the immediate withdrawal of the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), and oppose the creation of a widened Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)”
5. National Paid Sick Leave & Family Leave
Progressive Agenda: “Pass national paid sick leave. Pass national paid family leave”
CPUSA: An October 2014 article on the Communist Party USA’s website praises that “women are fighting back to defend their jobs and their families against candidates who want to destroy women’s reproductive rights, health care, family leave and paid sick days.”
SPUSA: “We call for 16 months paid leave to be shared by new parents or in its entirety by a single parent”
6. Universal Child Care
Progressive Agenda: “Make Pre-K, after-school programs and childcare universal”
CPUSA: “Cuts in social welfare programs hit single mothers and their children especially hard….Among the forms of oppression women experience are attacks on their reproductive rights; lack of quality, affordable day care…..Our vision is one of Bill of Rights Socialism….where women have full rights and actual guaranteed equality; where all ethnic, national, and racial groups have full guaranteed equality and civil rights, implemented through a crash program of compensatory measures; and where fully funded quality education and programs for children are the highest priority.”
SPUSA: “We call for 16 months paid leave to be shared by new parents or in its entirety by a single parent, and the expansion and full-funding of high-quality child care facilities…..We support free, quality care and education for all children and young people, federally financed and community controlled……We support public child care starting from infancy, and public education starting at age three, with caregivers and teachers of young children receiving training, wages, and benefits comparable to that of teachers at every other level of the educational system.”
7. Tax Fairness
Progressive Agenda: “Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit. Implement the “Buffett Rule” so millionaires pay their fair share.”
CPUSA: “No taxes for workers and low and middle income people; progressive taxation of the wealthy and private corporations.”
SPUSA: “We call for a steeply graduated income tax and a steeply graduated estate tax, and a maximum income of no more than ten times the minimum. We oppose regressive taxes such as payroll tax, sales tax, and property taxes. We call for the restoration of the capital gains tax and luxury tax on a progressive, graduated scale.”
As you can see the similarities in the platforms between the ‘Progressive Agenda’ and the Communist and Socialist Party’s of the US are striking. Even the Progressive Agenda points that did not directly correlate with the CPUSA and SPUSA manifestos would undoubtedly be agreed upon by both parties.
I applaud this Liberal “contract with America,” not because I agree with them but because they are finally telling the people who they really are.
As one of our resident writers, Keith Farrell, said to me “I for one, welcome an openly socialist left-wing. Makes it easier to debate them when they aren’t hiding it.” I couldn’t agree more.