Another good one.
September 27, 2001 The Washington Times
By Robert Stacy McCain
Ten years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, communists are taking over Washington — or at least, the National Mall. Most in the media would have you believe that the protesters who will gather Saturday across from the White House are a "broad coalition" of groups (as CNN decribed the 1999 rioters in Seattle) or perhaps a "various political, social and religious organizations" (as the New York Times described this summer's rioters in Genoa, Italy). Hogwash. They're communists, and some of them are honest enough to admit it.
One of the most vocal promoters of Saturday's demonstration is the International Action Center (IAC). The IAC's chief spokesmen — Brian Becker and Larry Holmes — are both officials of the Worker's World Party (WWP), a Marxist organization with a record of supporting repressive communist regimes such as Cuba and North Korea.
The history of the WWP is instructive. Its founder, Sam Marcy, was a follower of Leon Trotsky, the Bolshevik leader who was purged by (and later assasinated by henchmen of) Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. Marcy split from the Socialist Workers Party after his fellow Troskyists refused to endorse the USSR's 1956 invasion of Hungary. So Messrs. Becker and Holmes, whose party began by defending Kruschev's military conquest of Hungary, now want to protest war and "American imperialism." Isn't that nice?
But the WWP and the IAC aren't the only commies backing Saturday's demonstrations. Among those sponsoring, promoting and supporting the rally at the Washington Monument is the Communist Party USA (CPUSA).
The Young Communist League, youth affilate of the CPUSA, carries this message on its Web site, www.yclusa.org: "We extend our invitation for people to come to Washington D.C. for the Peoples' Summit . . . on September 29th."
Like the WWP and the IAC, the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) has its own front group, Refuse & Resist (R&R), founded in 1987 by veteran RCP activist Clark Kissinger. Mary Lou Greenberg, another RCP member, is also on the National Council of R & R, a sponsor of Saturday's protests.
Kissinger — who recently served a 90-day jail sentence for probation violation — was national officer of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in the 1960s, was involved in the 1968 riots in Chicago, then left SDS. A follower of Mao Zedong, Kissinger has been affiliated for more than 20 years with the Maoist RCP. Last year, Kissinger offered this bit of analysis: "The problem in this country is the oppressive system of capitalism that exploits people all over the world, that destroys our planet, that oppresses minority people, that sends people to the death chambers in droves. That is a problem that has to be done away with. Is there a solution? Yes. Revolution is the solution." Advocating Maoist revolution — and promoting the ubiquitous hero of the left, Philadelphia cop-killer Mumia-Abu Jamal — has won R&R and RCP the support of rockers like Rage Against the Machine and Chumbawamba.
The communist influence on Saturday's protest extends far beyond the participation of avowed Marxists, Trotskyists and Maoists. Among the scheduled speakers are members of the Institute for Policy Studies, a think tank which during the Cold War consistently trumpeted the Soviet position, "supporting the goals and causes of virtually every revolutionary terrorist movement backed by Havana, Hanoi, and Moscow," according to one historian.
Want more? Should any protesters manage to get themselves arrested Saturday, they will call on the attorneys of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), organized by lawyers for the Communist Party in 1936. The NLG is affiliated with the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, described by the CIA in 1978 as "one of the most useful Communist front organizations at the service of the Soviet Communist Party."
Being old enough to remember the Cold War and to have cheered the collapse of the Soviet empire, I have to scratch my head at the crowds of young people — most of them rich, white college kids – who flock to these protests organized by communists. Did America endure a four-decade nuclear standoff with the Evil Empire, so that its children could grow up to be commies?
I suppose many young people are victims of their Baby Boomer teachers, who taught them that the "peace" movement of the 1960s was all sunshine and light. Guess nobody bothered to tell the kids about the bombings perpetrated by the Weather Underground and the murders committed by the Black Panthers, to say nothing of the millions enslaved and slaughtered in Vietnam and Cambodia because of the "peace" resulting from communist victory.
So hundreds of young people will be out in front of the White House, supporting the communist attack on "American imperialism."
It doesn't really matter what they're protesting, of course. Saturday's demonstrations were originally organized to protest against "globalization" during the the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund meetings. Those meetings were canceled after the Sept. 11 bombings, so suddenly the focus was shifted to opposing U.S. efforts to strike back against terrorism. It makes no difference to the commies, you see. Whatever the cause, the enemies are the same: America and capitalism.
Some may ask why the "anti-globalization" movement doesn't purge all these communists. The simple answer is that, if all the communists were purged, there wouldn't be any movement left. Behind all the rhetoric about protecting the environment and relieving poverty in the developing world, this movement is unadulterated Marxism — anti-capitalist, anti-freedom, anti-American. A better question is this: Why are we sending aircraft carriers halfway around the world to look for enemies, when our nation's worst enemies — communists proclaiming an anti-American jihad — will be right there in front of the Washington Monument on Saturday?
Robert Stacy McCain is an assistant national editor for The Washington Times.
Email: smccain@washingtontimes.com