Some on the left still continue to turn a blind-eye to the fact that their Democratic Party has been taken over by the far-left progressive movement with strong ties to communism, socialism and Marxism.
Various communist and socialist groups were photographed and filmed during the October 2 “One Nation Working Together” rally in Washington, D.C. But the real controversy could be found in the fact that the Communist Party USA, a group that served as a subversive pawn of Moscow for decades, was officially invited to be part of it.
The CPUSA was an official “endorsing organization” and was given space to set up a literature table by the rally organizers. Indeed, a two-page official list of “One Nation March” organizations shows that it was given a highly coveted “reserved space.”
Paul Kengor, author of the new blockbuster book, Dupes, called this fact remarkable. He commented, “It’s remarkable because historically, communist involvement at these rallies has been meticulously concealed, hidden from progressives, with the communists using the progressives as props — as dupes. That the two sides…happily accepted one another, proudly uniting, shows how far to the left progressives have moved, not to mention their unflagging confidence under the ascendancy of Obama-Pelosi-Reid.”
The officially-sanctioned groups also included the AFL-CIO and several left-wing labor unions; United for Peace and Justice, founded by veteran Marxist activist Leslie Cagan; Code Pink; the ANSWER Coalition, a front of the Party for Socialism and Liberation; the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC); the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism; Green for All, the group once associated with former White House official Van Jones; Democratic Socialists of America, which helped give Barack Obama his start in Illinois state politics; and the NAACP.
The progressives in the AFL-CIO and other unions which sponsored the October 2 rally in the nation’s capital were excused by the major media for giving special status to a political party that has always elevated the interests of world revolution ahead of the United States. The CPUSA, when it was directly funded by Moscow, was viewed by the FBI and the CIA as a subversive force representing a foreign ideology and America’s destruction. The CPUSA announced objective was a “Soviet America.” That is why the CPUSA and its agents, many of them secret members such as “historian” Howard Zinn, Obama mentor Frank Marshall Davis, singer Paul Robeson and labor leader Harry Bridges, were under FBI surveillance and the subject of extensive files about their activities and associates.
Obama’s grandfather, Stanley Dunham, who picked Davis as his grandson’s mentor, also had an FBI file. But that has turned up missing.
The CPUSA was so extreme during its heyday that it not only defended the mass murderer Stalin but the Hitler-Stalin Pact. The group also supplied Soviet espionage agents in the U.S. Government. Nobody can claim ignorance about the CPUSA at this late date in its history. But top CPUSA officials Jarvis Tyner and Sam Webb were there at the “One Nation Working Together” rally.
Interestingly, an on-line publication that noted the involvement of Tyner and his colleagues was The Root, which is published by The Washington Post. Cord Jefferson, a staff writer for The Root, quoted Tyner as saying, “This is the real deal here. We don’t agree with Obama on everything, but the future of our country is associated with moving the country away from the last 30 years, and he’s part of that. He said the people ought to get involved and make the change that they want, and I think that’s a good thing for the country.”
In terms of the size of the rally, Jefferson acknowledged, “Composed of labor union members, teachers, gay activists and others, the excited crowd was noticeably smaller than the one that overtook the National Mall during Restoring Honor.”
Debating Obama’s Marxism
The CPUSA spin-off, the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS), took a different tack on Obama. Former Obama associate Carl Davidson, once a top official in the SDS, was helping run the CCDS literature table, explaining why he thinks Obama is not a socialist. “Obama is a Keynesian liberal,” he told me, “and not a very good one.” By that he meant that Obama prefers to use federal government monetary resources to influence but not control outright the economy. He refused to be interviewed on camera, saying conservatives misquote him.
When I commented to Davidson that there must have been a dozen different socialist groups at the event, he laughed and said I had underestimated the number.
Some of these are clearly more important than others. Two of the most important these days are the Workers World Party (WWP) and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Some members of the former left to form the latter. They operate front organizations such as ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) and the International Action Center.
These groups supplied some of their representatives to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the Warwick Hotel in New York City on September 21, while he was in town speaking to the United Nations.
Left-wing press reports say that among the individuals and organizations in attendance at this event were Cynthia McKinney, a former Democratic member of Congress from Georgia and the Green Party’s presidential candidate in 2008; poet and activist Amiri Baraka; Brian Becker of ANSWER; MOVE Minister of Information Ramona Africa; International Action Center co-director Sara Flounders; Ardeshir and Eleanor Ommani, co-founders of the American-Iranian Friendship Committee; former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark; Million Worker March Movement organizer Brenda Stokely; Shafeah M’balia of Black Workers for Justice; Phil Wilayto of Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice and Equality; Larry Holmes of Bail Out the People Movement; Don DeBar of WBAIx.org; Ryme Katkhouda of the People’s Media Center; Michael McPhearson of United for Peace and Justice; and Reverend Graylan Hagler.
Michael McPhearson was the “peace organizer” of the “One Nation Working Together” October 2 march and his “peace contingent” assembled near 14th Street and Constitution Ave., where Larry Holmes riled up the crowd at a mini-rally by denouncing recent FBI raids on so-called “peace” and “anti-war” groups.
While Holmes remains with the WWP, Brian Becker left to join the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a favorite of the Kremlin’s propaganda arm, Russia Today television.
The Workers World Party had been investigated by the House Internal Security Committee for its support of the North Korean regime and Arab terrorist groups. But the House Committee was disbanded by liberals in Congress.
In total, there were reportedly “100 leaders and representatives of anti-war, labor, alternative media and Iranian and Palestinian solidarity organizations” at the event with Ahmadinejad. Anti-Israel activists were clearly visible at the October 2 rally, with McPhearson expressing the predominant view that U.S. military aid to Israel should be immediately ended.
