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Young Communist League Infiltrates US Democrats

Submitted by on June 24, 2007 – 4:46 am EST9 Comments

The Communist Party USA and its youth wing, the Young Communist League is busily infiltrating the US Democratic Party.

The main party tends to work secretly at a high level. The YCL tends to work at the grassroots and is far more blatant.

Their stated aim is to elect socialist Democrats to the US Congress and deliver a leftist Democratic government and presidency.

The Democrats seem to welcome the young Communists into their ranks. Certainly there is no resistance.

Here are some examples from the 2004 elections which illustrate how the process works.

Shane Brinton, at 20 years old is the youngest voting member of the Humboldt County (Northern California)Democratic Party Central Committee. He is also the local contact for Progressive Democrats of America and serves on the National Council of the Young Communist League.


According to this post on the Marxism mailing list, Brindon;

spent last summer in Missouri with the CP and YCL working on electoral politics. We knocked on hundreds of doors and got a black socialist progressive (John L. Bowman) elected as a state rep. He ran as a progressive Democrat against a white right-wing anti-choice Democrat that was backed by the Republicans.

That was a battle that the party and YCL won, because we did the work. The party doesn’t just talk, it works. That’s why more and more young people like myself are attracted to it.

In a report to the National Committee meeting of the Communist Party on November 20, 2004, (originally delivered at a YCL conference) Jessica Marshall, YCL National Co-coordinator outlined examples of YCL electoral activity.


It’s important to note here that this is a generation of young people that have no particular allegiance to the Democratic Party and show hope for the possibility of further developing independent and progressive voter coalitions and voting blocks. But this generation of voters also was mature enough to recognize the importance of uniting in this year’s election to elect John Kerry and defend themselves against a President and Congress that has been wreaking havoc on our lives for quite some time. This represents a tremendous opportunity for the YCL as we continue to grow and work to build broader, progressive coalitions of youth and students.

Of particular importance to the YCL in our efforts to deepen and broaden our relations with other progressive youth and student organizations, were our YCL Midwest Summer and GOTV election projects. In July, we went to St. Louis where 13 YCLers (5 of whom stayed for the whole month) volunteered alongside the party, Planned Parenthood, CBTU, SEIU and AFSCME, and others on several campaigns including the victorious campaign of John Bowman who is here today. During that same period we sent 12 volunteers to Cleveland where volunteers worked with the Vote Mob and participated in labor walks.


Interesting that Democratic congressman Bowman, an activist with the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, should be attending a Young Communist League conference!

We worked on everything from phone banking to lit drops and led precincts in Akron for the VoteMob operation….Both the Milwaukee and Chicago YCLers worked in Wisconsin, helping to chaperone a group of 400 high school students on election day who participated in a massive knock and drag effort to get people to the polls, in addition to their work with Vozes, an immigrants rights group, the League of Conservation Voters and ACT on door-knocking and GOTV efforts.

In New York YCLers were delegates and founders of the local organizing committees of the National Hip Hop Political Convention. In Providence, Miami and Chicago YCLers helped head up the League of Pissed Off Voters efforts. YCLers staffed Democratic Party operations and headed up precincts in Ohio and Florida. A YCLer from Virginia was a canvas director for a progressive young candidate in a tight race in Ohio. In Miami, the newly formed club helped ACT organizing efforts at Miami Dade Community College.

Headed up precincts in Ohio and Florida? The US Democratic Party is notoriously weak on the ground. In some areas, the CPUSA and their allies ARE the Democratic Party.

Guess who is supporting Barack Obama?

In Chicago YCL members were very active in the Youth for Obama efforts and one member worked with the United States Student Association and his student government to register over 1,000 new voters. New York YCLers worked on the election bid of Frank Barbaro in Brooklyn and to defeat Republican Olga Mendez in Upper Manhattan. In Buffalo, YCLers worked with Citizen Action and went to work in Ohio.

The list goes on and on. Thousands of young people were registered, thousands of doors were knocked and collectively our membership learned what it takes to seriously get involved with electoral campaigns.

This was just the youth wing of the CPUSA. The far larger main party mobilised several thousand activists to help the Democrats in 2004 and 2006.

No doubt they will be out in force, campaigning for the Democrats, Edwards, Clinton or Obama in 2008.

In a tight race, a few thousand dedicated activist may make all the difference.

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