Politics
American Bolsheviks’ Marxist Conquest of the Democratic Party

American Bolsheviks’ Marxist Conquest of the Democratic Party

Communist/socialist-inspired groups have been quickly winning converts and taking control of the Democratic Party, at both the national and local levels. ...
Trevor Loudon
Article audio sponsored by The John Birch Society

Four U.S. communist groups have formed an alliance to take over the Democratic Party at every level. With a combined membership of more than 65,000 and significant financial backing from unions, foundations, and even some churches, the plan is credible and is already well under way. Three of the four groups involved — Communist Party USA (CPUSA), Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS), and Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) — are loyal to Beijing, while the fourth and largest partner organization — the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) — is connected to a network of European and Latin American communist and socialist parties.

In a May 2018 memo to CPUSA members, party leader John Bachtell urged attendance at an online webinar to be held on May 23. The webinar would feature leading representatives of the CPUSA, DSA, FRSO, and FRSO front group LeftRoots.

Sponsored by the hitherto little-known Left Inside/Outside Project, the webinar would discuss “building power inside and outside the Democratic Party.” Bachtell emphasized that the CPUSA “is collaborating with several left groups and progressive activists to promote unity and coalition building in the electoral arena. Building electoral coalitions with every force possible including with the Democratic Party is key.”

Inside/Outside Project

The Left Inside/Outside Project first revealed itself in a letter entitled “The Left We Want to Build: Breaking Out of the Margins,” published June 9, 2017 on the FRSO-aligned website Organizing Upgrade. Communist infiltration of the Democratic Party has been going on for decades, but this is something new. By working together, the communists could not only completely dominate the Democratic Party  — but realistically hope to challenge for power at a national level. This alliance would first become a “left trend,” working in unison both inside and outside the Democratic Party — “an alignment of organizations and individuals — based on strategic unity”:

We believe that … only determined, long-term, energetic efforts to break out of the margins based on a common view of how to engage in our electoral system, while also building mass protest, offer a chance to make the left a force in U.S. politics and, eventually, a contender for power.

The statement went on to propose a diversified strategy of running leftist candidates inside the Democratic Party, working to defeat moderates, and coordinating with outside socialist forces:

The fight against the far right is strong-est when it is energized by an inspiring vision for economic and social justice. Campaigns for openly socialist candidates and progressive challenges to neoliberal Democrats must all be part of the political mix. And the opportunities for broadening the reach of progressive and left forces will be greatest when they both struggle within and work in tandem with the larger anti-Trump or anti-right front.

Key leaders of CPUSA, FRSO/LeftRoots, DSA, and CCDS signed onto the Left Inside/Outside Project.

Precedence

While the Left Inside/Outside Project can muster only about 65,000 core members, it is worth remembering that in 1910, seven years before the Bolshevik revolution, the combined Russian revolutionary forces of Bolsheviks and the slightly more moderate Mensheviks numbered fewer than 10,000.

And America’s modern Bolsheviks are way more media savvy and practiced than was Lenin’s crew. They also have access to billions of dollars of government, foundation, union, and church funding, and a generally sympathetic national media.

America’s communists also dominate the Working Families Party (which operates in 19 states to help elect leftist Democrats) and Bernie Sanders’ Our Revolution, which claims 200,000-plus members across all 50 states. The communists also control almost all major labor unions (including the nearly 2,000,000-strong SEIU) and hundreds, if not thousands, of smaller nonprofits, community groups, and leftist churches. They also have allies in at least 100 members of the U.S. House and around 25 members of the U.S. Senate who are to some degree sympathetic to their socialist objectives.

Photo credit: Gwengoat/iStock/GettyImagesPlus

This article appears in the May 20, 2019, issue of The New American.

The miracle is that the communists haven’t already won. However, to give the devil his due, they’re far closer than most Americans would even begin to imagine.

So how has the Left Inside/Outside project been working out so far?

Communist Party USA

Just after WWII the CPUSA claimed more than 100,000 members. Today it boasts only about 5,000 cadres. This, however, is deceptive because only about 20 percent of CPUSA members are open about their affiliation.

Today’s CPUSA is strongest in New York City, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Missouri, and the states of Connecticut, Texas, Arizona, and California. 

The CPUSA has infiltrated the Democratic Party across the country. Communists, some openly, some secretly, are working in Democratic campaigns, holding Democratic Party leadership positions, and even running for public office on the Democratic Party ballot line. They also are pushing their policies inside the Democratic Party, to the point where it’s almost impossible to distinguish between the CPUSA and Democratic Party programs. The Green New Deal is but the latest example. Many comrades also work closely with influential congressmen or U.S. senators. 

In the San Diego area, two CPUSA members, Carl Wood and Emiliana Sparaco, are currently running for the California Democratic Party Central Committee, from Assembly Districts 76 and 80, respectively. If elected in May, Wood intends to push for the “Healthy California Act that provides improved Medicare for All, a Living Wage of at least $15/hour, the Green New Deal for a healthy environment with good new jobs in a peace economy, and legislation to promote strong Unions.” 

Sparaco traveled to Sochi, Russia, in October 2017, as part of a U.S. communist delegation to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution — keynoted by Vladimir Putin himself. In 2018, Sparaco was a leading activist in Flip the 49th, which helped Democrat Mike Levin win California’s 49th Congressional District. 

In northern California, Sacramento-area Democratic Representative Ami Bera, who serves on the House Foreign Relations Committee, has won several super-close elections with communist help. For example, in 2014, CPUSA members Juan Lopez, Cassie Lopez, Michelle Kern, Nell Ranta, and Mik Diddams canvassed and phone-banked out of Bera’s campaign headquarters. 

In Chicago, CPUSA members such as Pepe Lozano worked in the successful Chuy Garcia for Congress campaign — Garcia was once described by an opponent as “110% communist.” CPUSA member Abdul-Aziz Hassan has worked for 22nd Ward Alderman Ricardo Munoz, a Democrat, for several years. Even CPUSA leader John Bachtell once served as a precinct chairman for then-U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama. 

In Ohio, former CPUSA chairman Rick Nagin has worked inside the Democratic Party for decades. Nagin helped elect Senator Sherrod Brown and was a close ally of Cleveland Mayor-turned-Congressman Dennis Kucinich for decades. Nagin has run several times for public office on the Democratic Party ticket, and served as the Democratic Leader in Cleveland Ward 14 and on the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Executive Committee — which is heavily influenced by communists. Communist Aleena Starks was a field organizer for the Ohio Democratic Party in 2018, where she organized “get out the vote” for far-left Senator Sherrod Brown. In February Starks was in Beijing as a guest of the Communist Party of China.

In St. Louis, the CPUSA has worked closely with many black Democratic candidates through its front group the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. Longtime CPUSA member Glenn Burleigh is very active in the Democratic Party and has managed several Democratic campaigns, including Robin Wright-Jones for State Senate and Lewis Reed for St. Louis mayor. Missouri CPUSA leader Tony Pecinovsky recently lost his race for St. Louis Alderman, standing as a Democrat, with 48 percent of the vote. His socialist running mate, first-time candidate Megan Ellyia-Green got 31 percent in a three-way primary for the St. Louis Board of Aldermen presidency. 

In New York City, the communists have major influence in the Democratic Party. Former communist Dan Margolis was active in New York City elections, including as the mid-Staten Island coordinator for the 2004 Democratic Party congressional campaign. According to Margolis’ blog: “I ended up working on many Democratic campaigns during my time in the CPUSA: John Kerry’s, Obama’s twice, [Senator] Kirsten Gillibrand’s, Fernando Ferrer’s (he nearly beat Michael Bloomberg to become mayor of NYC), and a host of others.... I am proud to say that I wrote the first official document in the CPUSA calling for support of Obama in the primaries: I wrote this as chair of the party in Brooklyn, in 2007.” 

In New Jersey, communists such as Estevan Nembhard and Carol Widom were active in Democrat Ras Baraka’s successful 2014 campaign for the mayoralty of Newark. Baraka is the son of one-time CPUSA member Amina Baraka. 

Connecticut is the CPUSA’s “jewel in the crown.” The party seems to almost run the state. The CPUSA is close to Governor Ned Lamont, whose famous uncle Corliss Lamont was identified under oath as a secret communist by former CPUSA leader Louis Budenz. Both U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy are close to the Communist Party. Senator Murphy even employed CPUSA member Max Goldman as an aide for nearly three years, while serving on the highly sensitive Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Representative Rosa DeLauro is very close to CPUSA Connecticut leader Joelle Fishman and her husband Art Perlo — the son of Roosevelt-era Soviet spy ring leader Victor Perlo. In 2012, DeLauro helped organize birthday celebrations for veteran Connecticut communist Al Mar-der. Comrade Marder is so well regarded in international communist circles that he was invited to Moscow in June 2015 to help the Russian Communist Party celebrate the anniversary of the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany. Marder even got a big hug from then-Russian Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov. 

Down in Texas, the situation is not much better. In Dallas, local communist leader Gene Lantz is very active in the local Democratic party. Lantz is close to Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson (House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology) and is close friends with Representative Marc Veasey of the House Armed Services Committee. In Houston, local CPUSA leader Bernard Sampson doubles as a Democratic Party precinct chairman. The Houston CPUSA also ran several comrades for public office in 2018 on the Democratic ticket (it’s still illegal to run for office as a communist in Texas). Comrade Ali Khorasani ran for Congress in Texas District 2, but was defeated in the primary. Communist Penny Shaw ran for a seat on the Harris County Commission, but lost with 45 percent. Another party member, Sema Hernandez, also ran a shoestring campaign in the Texas U.S. Senate primary and managed to secure a respectable 250,000 votes.

In Arizona, longtime CPUSA ally Patrick Morales serves as a Democrat on the Tempe School Board and is friendly with newly elected Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who is a longtime CPUSA affiliate. Tucson-based Congressman Raul Grijalva has worked very closely with the CPUSA since at least 1993.

CoC/CCDS

Committees of Correspondence (CoC) was founded out of a 1991 split in the CPUSA. Since 2002, it has been known as CCDS. The organization is about 400 members strong, many of whom are also active in DSA, FRSO, or CPUSA. CCDS is mostly centered in Boston, New York City, Chicago, Western Pennsylvania/ Kentucky, and the Bay Area. 

Nevertheless, CCDS still has some localized influence in Democratic Party politics. CoC campaigned for Dick Durbin when he was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996, and for New Yorker Chuck Schumer when he also won a Senate seat two years later. 

California’s far-left Congresswoman Barbara Lee was a card-carrying CoC leader in the early 1990s. 

In 1996, CCDS leader Paul Krehbiel was a leader of the communist/labor coalition that ousted conservative Republican “B1 Bob” Dornan from his safe Orange County seat. That was the first step in a concerted left-led campaign that has turned all of Orange County blue and decimated the California Republican Party statewide.

Barack Obama himself worked closely with CCDS members such as Carl Davidson and Timuel Black while serving in the U.S. Senate from Illinois. In Kentucky, Representative John Yarmuth has close ties to some CCDS members, and in Mississippi, Democratic State Representative Kathy Sykes is an open CCDS leader. 

FRSO

The Freedom Road Socialist Organization, like most Maoist-based groups, is highly security conscious. Only a handful of members are publicly acknowledged. Membership probably hovers at around 1,500 members, but could be considerably higher (or lower). One thing is certain, however, FRSO’s multiple front organizations are generously funded through the Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations and other leftist nonprofits, unions, churches, and local and federal taxpayers.

FRSO is strongest in the Northeast (Boston, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, and the District of Columbia), in the South (North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and southern Florida), and the West Coast (Los Angeles and the Bay Area). FRSO is also active in Texas, New Mexico, Missouri, Vermont, Ohio, Oregon, Washington State, and Hawaii. It tends to focus on areas of heavy “minority” concentration. 

FRSO is heavily involved in racial politics. It is the main force behind Black Lives Matter, the mainly white Showing Up for Racial Justice, and a multitude of Asian-American and Latino-focused activist groups.

In Boston, FRSO operates through several fronts, including the very influential Chinese Progressive Association. Through these groups, FRSO has ties to Senator Elizabeth Warren and has helped elect many Massachusetts public officials, including radical freshman Congressman Ayanna Pressley. 

In Philadelphia, FRSO is very close to prominent City Councilor Helen Gym, and helped to elect ultra-radical District Attorney Larry Krasner.

In the Bay Area, one has to practically kiss FRSO’s ring to get elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (City Council). At least seven serving San Francisco supervisors have close ties to FRSO members or front groups.

FRSO is heavily concentrated in the South, which it terms the “New Confederacy.” Following Maoist strategy, FRSO aims to win power in certain Southern cities and rural areas, from which to expand its influence in the local Democratic Party through harnessing the minority vote. 

Its goal is to destroy the GOP’s Southern base entirely.

In Virginia, FRSO-controlled voter-registration group New Virginia Majority — using sophisticated voter ID maps from the Geography Department of Wuhan University in China — has signed up tens of thousands of new minority voters for the Democrats. They also worked closely with former Governor Terry McAuliffe to restore voting rights to more than 200,000 felons. New Virginia Majority takes full credit for flipping the state for Obama in 2008.  

In Florida, FRSO’s New Florida Majority has helped flip several state legislative and a couple of congressional seats for the Democrats. In 2018, New Florida Majority got behind ultra-left gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum. They signed up enough new minority voters to raise the Democrat vote by more than 40 percent over 2016 — taking the unfavored Gillum to within a hair’s breadth of victory. FRSO was also behind the referendum that restored voting rights for 1.4 million convicted felons. They are now busily signing  them up to vote Democrat in 2020.

FRSO applied the same tactics in Georgia with gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, and again came within a whisker of winning. 

In Tennessee, FRSO unsuccessfully backed Democrat Senate candidate Phil Bredesen. However, FRSO did manage to elect their Memphis friends Tami Sawyer and Lee Harris to the Shelby County Commission and mayoralty, respectively.

In swing state North Carolina, FRSO has elected city councilors and other Democratic candidates in several cities.

FRSO also elected the late Chokwe Lumumba to the Jackson, Mississippi, mayoralty in 2013, and his even more radical son Chokwe Antar Lumumba in 2017. Lumumba has vowed to make Jackson the most “radical city on the planet.” Jackson is now effectively a Maoist base in the heart of the Republican-dominated South.

DSA

America’s largest Marxist organization, Democratic Socialists of America, is the giant of the bunch. Founded in 1982, DSA has, on the back of the Bernie Sanders and anti-Trump movements, grown from 6,000 members to almost 60,000 dues-paying members in less than three years. 

DSA claims more than 600 comrades in Seattle; 350 in Portland, Oregon; 850 in the East Bay; more than 1,200 in Los Angeles; 1,100 in Chicago; 1,000 in Boston; more than 3,000 in New York; 1,200 in the District of Columbia; 450 in Baltimore; 500 in Atlanta; and more than 700 in Austin, Texas, alone.

DSA has taken over or infiltrated local Democratic committees in Portland, Maine; central and eastern Texas; Iowa; Nebraska; Tennessee; California; and multiple other states. In many areas, DSA, Our Revolution, and allied groups are becoming THE Democratic Party.

In Nebraska, DSA comrade Tom Tilden was until recently second associate chair of the state Democratic Party. Next door, in Iowa, DSA controlled approximately 20 percent of the delegates to the Democratic state convention through the newly created Iowa Democratic Progressive Caucus. 

The situation is similar in Florida, where DSA’s several hundred comrades work through the Florida Democratic Progressive Caucus.

In California, DSA is currently running more than 150 DSA members or allies for the California Democratic Party Central Committee. At the May 2019 California Democratic Party state convention, current state Deputy Party Chairman Daraka Larimore-Hall will likely be elected to the state chairmanship. A DSA Marxist will then run the largest Democratic state party in the country — with a substantial number of socialist committee members behind him.

DSA ran dozens of candidates as Democrats in the 2018 election cycle. High-profile DSA candidates included Kaniela Ing (Hawaii, Congressional District One), Rashida Tlaib (Michigan, Congressional District 13), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York, Congressional District 14), Zak Ringelstein (Maine, U.S. Senate), and Connie Johnson (Oklahoma, governor).

Only Tlaib and Ocasio-Cortez made it to Congress this cycle, but dozens of DSA/Democrat state reps, county commissioners, and school board members will no doubt stand for Congress and the Senate in future elections. 

DSA also has ties to many serving representatives, including Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), John Lewis (D-Ga.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa), and Katie Hill and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).

Veteran Chicago Democratic Congressmen Danny Davis and Jan Schakowsky have both been dues-paying DSA comrades. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) was a long-time DSA comrade, as was his predecessor, John Conyers from Michigan.

It should be remembered that the Judiciary Committee is the most powerful body in the House. It has oversight over the Justice Department and the FBI.

DSA enjoyed a decades-long relationship with former president Barack Obama. DSA also has also worked closely in the past with Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Buttigieg, and Beto O’Rourke.

Consequences 

The Democratic Party is well on the way to a complete socialist transformation — expertly driven by a dedicated Marxist army totally committed to a socialist America.

This is a disaster for the millions of traditional Democratic voters out there who still believe they are voting for Harry Truman and JFK. It is a great opportunity for patriots to forcefully point out that the Democratic Party is now the party of Karl Marx and V.I. Lenin. The party is now largely run by people loyal to China, Cuba, and the communist parties of Europe rather than the country that birthed and raised them.

If the Democrats regain the White House in 2020 and take back the Senate, expect the revolution to go into overdrive.

The next election will not be fought between Democrats and Republicans, but between Americans and Marxists. Every election, the public is told “this is the most important election of our lifetimes.” Well this time it actually is. American freedom, indeed Western freedom, hangs on by a thread. 

Photo credit: Gwengoat/iStock/GettyImagesPlus