Who are communists? What kind of people join the Communist Party (CPUSA)? Communists are political people from all walks of life. Regular folks who experience the difficult problems of everyday living, think about the problems and want to solve them. Life and day-to-day struggles have taught communists that it takes unity and struggle to win anything. Communists are fighters against anything that seeks to divide working-class people. It is only in the corporations' interest to have division among people. Our Party struggles against the corporate ideology of racism, discrimination and prejudice, against anti-Semitism, male supremacy, and anti-immigrant policies. It fights for equality for all.

The CPUSA is a party of working people. We are men and women, younger and older, citizen and non-citizen. We are Black, White, Latino, American Indian, Asian, of many nationalities and countries of origin. We are steelworkers, machinists, auto workers, teachers, professors, students, garment workers, service, office and computer workers, doctors, nurses, ministers, rabbis and other clergy.

The Communist Party is a working-class revolutionary party founded in 1919 in Chicago, Illinois. Communists believe that life gets better or worse based on the struggle between the filthy rich (the haves) and the poor and working class people (the have-nots). The CPUSA is devoted to bettering the lives of "the have-nots". Communists understand that capitalism is the root of all problems in our society. Poverty, racism, war, lay-offs, insecurity, cutbacks to social programs, homelessness, lack of health care, and lack of opportunity for young people keep growing under capitalism. We believe that capitalism has no future and cannot solve any of these problems. In fact, capitalism just makes these problems worse and creates new ones for the working class.

The class struggle is a fundamental feature of capitalism. There can be no capitalism without the two main, opposing classes - the working class and the capitalist class. And there can be no capitalism without the struggle between these two opposing classes.

In order to end these crises the CPUSA advocates and fights for a different system. A system where the majority of people come first. Political and economic power would be in the hands of the working people. Basic needs like housing, food, education, health care, equality and jobs are met by society. That kind of society is called "socialism".