Washington DC Communist Party
Template:TOCnestleft The Washington DC Communist Party DC Communist Party (DCCP) has existed since at least the 1930's or earlier. Over the decades it has ebbed and flowed, depending on what was happening in U.S. politics and the economy, or in foreign affairs.
This Keywiki section will concentrate mainly on the DCCP from the 1960's onward, though earlier materials will also be included as found or relevant. The DCCP has also been called the DC/VA Communist Party or the DC/MD Communist Party over the years, though Maryland has had a separate Party since the 1940's, but because of overlaps in the espionage cases, members of both the DC CP and the Maryland CP show up in different contexts but in one activity or event, as well as in their own activities.
National Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression
From the CPUSA newspaper the Daily World, May 30, 1974, p. 2, "Chavis to speak in D.C. Saturday".
Washington,, May 29. Benjamin Chavis, treasurer of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR), has been added to the list of notables who will address the opening of the Cabral-Tubman Center for Marxist-Leninist Education here Saturday.
Jarvis Tyner, national chairman of the Young Workers Liberation League, will be the featured speaker. The list also includes:
- Robert Lindsay - chairman of the Young Workers Liberation League branch here
- Arturo Griffiths, Jr. - of the Latin-American Youth Center
- Walter Pierce - of the Adams Morgan Organization
- Josephine Butler.
The center is at 2327 18th St., N.W. The opening includes an open house from noon to 5 p.m. with refreshments.
The evening program, with speakers and entertainment, begins at 8 p.m."
Additional information on people listed:
Rev. Benjamin Chavis - a member of the " 10", a group of black men charged with rioting and arson. Most charges were either reduced or dismissed later on but Chavis became their spokesman and was picked up by the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and brought into their front, the NAARPR, among other groups. He later became the head of the [[NAACP] in Baltimore, then left to become a National Of Islam follower. He had previously been a minister in the United Church of Christ (UCC).
Robert Lindsay - formerly a "teacher" at the W. E. B. DuBois School of Marxist Studies in Washington, D.C., the predecessor of the Cabral-Tubman Center. Later became a high ranking CP member in New York State.
Arturo Griffiths, Jr. - longtime supporter of the DCCP and their only major Latino activist.
Josephine D. Butler - the Soviet Union's top "peace" contact in DC, as she was a leader of the Marxist Statehood Party, along with chairman of the DCCP Maurice Jackson, CISPES contact for the El Savadorean communist guerrilla leadership of their FLMN movement. Became a professor of African Studies at Georgetown University around 1990.
Butler was the chairwoman of the WPC's DC affiliate, the Paul Robeson Society, among other communist fronts and organizations.