Cross posted from New Zeal Blog

Howard Zinn, the prominent “progressive” historian who died early this year, has been “outed” as both a communist and a liar

Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media writes;

The prominent “progressive” historian Howard Zinn, whose books are force-fed to young people on many college campuses, was not only a member of the Moscow-controlled and Soviet-funded Communist Party USA (CPUSA) but lied about it, according to an FBI file released on Friday.

The file, consisting of three sections totaling 423 pages, was made available on the FBI’s website and released in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from this writer.

Zinn taught in the political science department of Boston University for 24 years, from 1964 to 1988, and has been a major influence on the modern-day “progressive” movement that backed Barack Obama for president.

Although Zinn denied being a member of the CPUSA, the FBI file discloses that several reliable informants in the party identified Zinn as a member who attended party meetings as many as five times a week.

What’s more, one of the files reveals that a reliable informant provided a photograph of Zinn teaching a class on “Basic Marxism” at party headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, in 1951. A participant in the class said that Zinn taught that “the basic teaching of Marx and Lenin were sound and should be adhered to by those present…”

Zinn was included on the “Security Index” and “Communist Index” maintained by the FBI. The “Security Index” was more ominous and included individuals who could be detained in the event of a national emergency.

Frank Marshall Davis, the Communist Party USA member who mentored the young Barack Obama, was also the “security index”.

The files confirm Zinn’s membership in the party from 1948-1953 and one says he was “believed to be a CP member as of October, 1956.” However, he denied membership in the party when interviewed by the FBI in 1953 and 1954 and claimed to be just a “liberal” or “leftist.” He did admit involvement in several CPUSA front organizations, the documents say…

In 1961, it says, Zinn “attempted to recruit students to attend 8th World Youth Festival [a communist-front gathering] and was described as pro-Castro in 1962. He publicly protested United States demand for withdrawal of Soviet missiles from Cuba.”

After WW2 service and an education on the GI Bill, Zinn taught at the all female, all black Spelman College in Atlanta.

According to one of his pupils, far left author Alice Walker, Zinn shocked an audience from a local white college by declaring “Well, I stand to the left of Mao Zedong.” – this at the height of the communist takeover of China.

Forced to leave Spelman because of his radicalism, Zinn went to teach at Boston University from 1964 to 1988.

On April 28, 1966 Howard Zinn was a sponsor of the Herbert Aptheker Testimonial Dinner. The dinner was held on the occasion of Communist Party theoretician Herbert Aptheker’s 50th birthday, the publication of his 20th book, and the 2nd anniversary of The American Institute for Marxist Studies.

It was held in the Sutton Ballroom, The New York Hilton, Avenue of the Americas, 53rd to 54th Street, New York City. Most, if not all, of the event’s sponsors came from the Communist Party’s intellectual elite.

As at February 28, 1969, Howard Zinn was listed as a sponsor of the Communist Party front Massachusetts Committee to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee.

By the 1980s Zinn had apparently switched his allegiance to another Marxist group.

At the Boston Democratic Socialists of America Socialist School, Fall 1989, Howard Zinn taught, the “History of Socialism,

By the mid 1990s Zinn was mixing with ACORN, Democratic Socialists of America and the Communist Party breakaway group, Committees of Correspondence.

With these people, Zinn was a founder of the radical New Party - later made famous by one of its most successful members, Barack Obama.

On September 20, 2001 500 people gathered at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City to remember the life of Democratic Socialists of America member Richard Cloward – originator of the infamous Cloward-Piven strategy, since utilized by sections of the US left to deliberately wreck the American economy.

Speakers at the event included Cloward’s widow Frances Fox Piven, Barbara Ehrenreich, Cornel West (later a member of Obama’s Black Advisory Council), Gus Newport – (all members of Democratic Socialists of America) , New Party founder Joel Rogers, future Obama supporter and ACORN defender Miles Rapoport and Howard Zinn.

In January 2002, a group of San Francisco leftists, mainly involved with Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM) or Committees of Correspondence and including future Obama “Green Jobs Czar” Van Jones, founded a national anti – Iraq War newspaper – War Times.

Endorsers of the project included Howard Zinn.

In 2004, Howard Zinn was one of 100 “prominent Americans” who signed an October 26 statement circulated by 911Truth.org calling on the US Government to investigate 9/11 as a possible “inside job”.

…we have assembled 100 notable Americans and 40 family members of those who died to sign this 9/11 Statement, which calls for immediate public attention to unanswered questions that suggest that people within the current administration may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war.

This is the same petition that got Van Jones into trouble in late 2009 – strangely, Jones’ name at number 46, has been “removed by request”. Fair enough, after all he was “tricked” into signing it.

In the 2000s, Zinn was also listed as a sponsor of the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library in Oakland California, alongside Committees of Correspondence members and endorsers Herbert Aptheker, Anne Braden, Angela Davis, Ann Fagan Ginger, Jack Kurzweil and Maudelle Shirek, plus Communist Party supporters David Bacon, Gerald Horne and Cassandra Lopez and Herb Shore and from Democratic Socialists of America.

In 2006 Howard Zinn was an original board member of Movement for a Democratic Society – an organization established to support the newly re-founded Students for a Democratic Society.

Other MDS board members included former Weather Underground terrorist leaders Bernardine Dohrn, Mark Rudd and Jeff Jones, former Students for a Democratic Society leaders Tom Hayden, Carl Davidson (an Obama associate in the New Party and later) , Mike Klonsky, Bert Garskof and Mike James, former Obama associate Rashid Khalidi, Bill Fletcher, Jr., and Barbara Ehrenreich from Democratic Socialists of America, Gerald Horne from the Communist Party USA and Charlene Mitchell, Noam Chomsky and Angela Davis from Committees of Correspondence.

In early 2008, MDS Board members Carl Davidson, Tom Hayden, Bill Fletcher, Jr. and Bararbara Ehrenreich went on to found Progressives for Obama.

Howard Zinn wrote more than 20 books, which included his 1980 best-selling and influential “A People’s History of the United States”.

Movie star Matt Damon recently worked with Zinn to turn the book into a documentary for America’s history students. Damon, who grew up next door to his idol, stated in Dec. 09 that one of his favorite books was A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn, a book he first started reading in 1980 at the age of 10.

No doubt Howard Zinn is currently being appropriately rewarded for his life’s work.

Boyhood mentors can influence a young man for life. Luckily Matt Damon has time left to consider his political direction.

To do so, he will have to be more honest than was his late mentor Howard Zinn.

New York Democratic Congressman Charles B. Rangel has been in the news recently over alleged ethics violations and  his Universal National Service Bill, which -  if enacted would reinstate a compulsory military draft, or alternative national service, during times of war, for men and women, aged 18 to 42, who are citizens or permanent residents of the United States.

The Bill is actually an anti War stunt. Rangel reasons that if all Americans were liable for service, public pressure to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would become overwhelming.

This is consistent with Rangel’s long history with the peace movement and the far left in general.

After earning a Bronze Star and Purple Heart in the Korean War, Rangel earned a law degree, before moving on to a political career.

In 1961, Attorney General Robert Kennedy appointed Rangel assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. In 1967, Rangel won election to the New York State Assembly, and in 1971 he ran against the famous Reverend Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. in a historic election. Rangel’s victory inaugurated the first of his seventeen consecutive terms as Harlem’s representative to Congress.

Straight after entering Congress Rangel was involved in the founding of the far left National Conference of Black Lawyers.

According to the National Conference of Black Lawyers website^;

In 1968, young people of African descent in America were growing impatient with the slow pace of social change. Despite modest advances brought on by two decades of non-violent resistance, from one end of the country to the other, the cry for Black Power was raised in the midst of a sea of clinched fists. At the same time, this new militant spirit had moved many to don black berets and carry rifles. On street corners in practically every Black community, passers-by heard demands for Nation Time and Power to the People!

National Conference of Black Lawyers and its allied organization, the National Lawyers Guild are the U.S. affiliates of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, once a leading Soviet front, today still dominated by communist and socialist lawyers and legal organizations.

In the late 1970s Charlie angel was linked another Soviet front organization, the World Peace Council.

The first official World Peace Council conference in the U.S. was the Dialogue on Disarmament and Detente held January 25-27, 1978, in Washington, DC.

It was sponsored by a small committee including and World Peace Council Presidium member,  Communist Party USA functionary and Amalgamated Meatcutters Union vice-president Abe Feinglass.

A luncheon was held to honor World Peace Council president Romesh Chandra , that was attendedby California Congressmen Philip Burton, Don Edwards, Ron Dellums and New York rep. Charles Rangel.

W.P.C. delegation members included President Romesh Chandra, KGB Colonel Radomir Bogdanov and Oleg Kharkhardin of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union International Department.

The Congressional Record of February 3, 1988 shows that  Congressmen Rangel was one several far left Democrats to vote against U.S. aid to the Nicaraguan Freedom Fighters – the “Contras”- then fighting against the Marxist-Leninist Sandinista government of Nicaragua

n October 1989 the Nicaraguan Sandinista Government announced that they would no longer comply with the 19 month-old cease-fire agreement with the Contras. This had been considered a prime step forward for the “peace process” that was progressing slowly as part of the Arias Peace Plan.

A resolution was introduced in Congress deploring the Sandinistas’ action. The Senate voted unanimously in favor, but in the House the vote was 379-29. All the 29 Congressmen voting against the resolution were Democrats.

The Council for Inter-American Security dubbed these 29 people the “Congressional Pink Caucus” – Rangel was one of the 29.

Rangel also helped found the radical Congressional Black Caucus and joined the equally socialistic Congressional Progressive Caucus.

On August 6 1993, a rally to commemorate Hiroshima Day was held at the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjold Park, New York. The rally was designed “to kickoff a national campaign to collect a million signatures supporting a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, commend president Clinton for extending the nuclear testing moratorium, urge renewal of the Non Proliferation Treaty, urge swift and complete nuclear disarmament.”

The event was sponsored by the Metro New York Peace Action Council and several other “peace’ groups. Speakers included Charlie Rangel Leslie Cagan, of the Cuba Information Project and the Communist Party offshoot Committees of Correspondence, David McReynolds of the War Resisters League, Socialist Party USA and Democratic Socialists of America,  Congressmen Major Owens and Jerrold Nadler, NYC Councilor Ruth Messinger (all D.S.A. connected) and NYC comptroller Liz Holtzman – once the employer and political idol of a young Elena Kagan.

In 1994 Charles B. Rangel was an initiator of the International Peace for Cuba Appeal, an affiliate of the Workers World Party dominated International Action Center.

Other prominent initiators included Cuban Intelligence agent Philip Agee, academic Noam Chomsky (D.S.A.  and Committees of Correspondence) and far left  Congressman John Conyers

Charles Rangel attended an October 1995 meeting in Harlem to welcome Cuban leader Fidel Castro to New York.

According to Communist Party USA paper Peoples Weekly World;

Almost 1,600 Harlemites and solidarity activists packed the Abyssinian Baptist Church to give a hero’s welcome to Fidel Castro, the president of Cuba.

The mainly African American audience, which included New York Democratic representatives Charles Rangel and Nydia Velasquez, enthusiastically greeted the Communist leader with a 10-minute standing ovation. Chants of “Cuba si, Bloqueo no!” resounded from the rafters and sent a strong message of protest to New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and President Clinton for excluding the Cuban leader from their sponsored events.

The audience erupted in shouts of “Fidel, Fidel” when Elombe Brathe, head of the Patrice Lumumba Coalition and chair for the meeting, asked the audience, “Who would you rather come to Harlem, Fidel or Giuliani?”;

H.R. 950, the Job Creation and Infrastructure Restoration Act of 1997 was introduced in the 105th Congress on March 5, 1997 by Congressman Matthew Martinez of California. It had 33 original co-sponsors, including Charles Rangel.

The leaders of the Los Angeles Labor Coalition for Public Works Jobs ( Jerry Acosta and Art Rodriguez) and and its only affiliate, the New York Coalition for Public Works Jobs ( Eddie Davis and Bill Davis) , who helped draft the bill were all known supporters or members of the Communist Party USA.

Rangel was an early and vocal opponent^{, ]}of the Iraq War, along with his openly socialist colleague Major Owens. According to the Communist Party’s, Peoples World;

Hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets March 22 in a spirited demonstration against the war on Iraq. The huge protest, held just two days after the start of the war, was proof positive that the peace movement – “the other world superpower” – is strong and growing here, one of the sites of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) said “there has been no evidence presented to Congress that Iraq is connected to 9/11. We support the troops but we don’t support the president.” Rangel was flanked by Rep. Major Owens (D-N.Y.), and many other state and city elected officials.

Socialism and corruption together in one man. Where have we seen that before?

Cross posted from New Zeal Blog

JournoList was an email group of approximately 400 journalists, bloggers and academics, who reportedly worked to influence news reporting in favor of Barack Obama and the Democratic Party during and after the 2008 Presidential elections.

The latest list of alleged “Journolistas” has turned up a very interesting name – Robert Kuttner of The American Prospect. This man is no basement blogger or CNN hack, he is the author of two books on the President and is connected to some of Obama’s most influential enablers.

Robert Kuttner’s March 2008 “Obama’s Challenge:American’s Economic Crisis and the Power of a Transformative Presidency” is a call to use the Obama presidency to change America in a more “progressive” direction.

According to leftist “think tank” Demos;

In this urgent and important book, Demos Distinguished Senior Fellow Robert Kuttner, co-founder of The American Prospect, explains what a President Obama must do to solve America’s economic crisis–the gravest since the Great Depression–and, in the process, become a truly transformative leader.

Kuttner’s March 2010 book “A Presidency in Peril” , is an acknowledgement that Obama hasn’t entirely lived up to some “progressive’s” hopes, but that things could yet still be salvaged;

From Demos;

In this hard-hitting, incisive account, Demos Distinguished Senior Fellow Robert Kuttner (author of the New York Times’ Obama’s Challenge Best-Selling) shares his unique, insider view of how the Obama administration not only missed its moment to turn our economy around-but deepened Wall Street’s risky grip on America’s future. Carefully constructing a one-year history of the problem, the players, and the outcome, Kuttner gives readers an unparalleled account of the president’s first year.

More importantly, Kuttner shows how we could-with swift, decisive action-still enact real reforms, and how Barack Obama could redeem his promise.

Note the phrase “insider view”. Clearly Demos believes that Kuttner has some kind of access to Obama Administration thinking and policy.

That view is probably accurate. Back in 1999, then obscure Illinois State Senator Barack Obama was brought to New York, to help establish a new organization.

Demos was founded by “social entrepreneur” Charles Halpern. Most of Halpern’s recruits to Demos were well known politicians or activists – except Barack Obama..

From the Demos website;

By 1999, Halpern had assembled a talented working group to develop Demos. Among them were David Callahan, a fellow at the Century Foundation; Rob Fersh, a long-time policy advocate; Stephen Heintz, Vice-President of the East-West Institute; Sara Horowitz, founder of Working Today; Arnie Miller, a leading executive recruiter; Barack Obama, then a state senator from Illinois; David Skaggs, a congressman from Colorado; and Linda Tarr-Whelan, an internationally recognized expert on women and economic development. This working group would eventually form the core of Demos’ staff and Board of Trustees.

Barack Obama was an early Demos trustee, as was some years later another obscure young radical, this time from San Francisco, named Van Jones.

Interestingly Demos staffer, Chuck Collins in a September 26 2008 article, posited several names he thought would make suitable appointments for an Obama administration.

One of them was;

“Van Jones, of the Ella Baker Center, to direct the Commerce Department’s new “green jobs initiative…”
Collins, was incidentally a founder of the radical New Party, which Obama joined in the early/mid 1990s in Chicago.

Kuttner and Obama have something else in common – a close relationship to America’s largest Marxist based organization Democratic Socialists of America.

To quote D.S.A. connected “JournoLista” Joel Bleifuss;

In particular, Obama can be linked to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the Democratic Party-oriented organization that is a member of the Socialist International

Obama has been close to D.S.A., possibly back to the early 1980s. Certainly key Obama friends and allies such as Quentin Young, Timuel Black, the late Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, Cornel West and Congressmen Danny K. Davis and Neil Abercrombie have been “DSAers”.

Other D.S.A types, such as Eliseo Medina, Harry Boyte and David Bonior have worked on Obama’s campaign, or in his Administration.

Kuttner’s ties to Democratic Socialists of America, go back almost as far as Obama’s.

In November 1989 Robert Kuttner addressed the D.S.A. November 1989 national convention in Maryland, on “the state of domestic politics”.

In 1990, Democratic Socialists of America was selling a list of pamphlets, including “Democratic Promise:Ideas for Turning America in a Progressive Direction”, by D.S.A. founder Michael Harrington, William Julius Wilson and Robert Kuttner.

William Julius Wilson, incidentally, addressed a Democratic Socialists of America organized forum at the University of Chicago, with Obama in early 1996.

Over three hundred people attended the first of two Town Meetings on Economic Insecurity on February 25 in Ida Noyes Hall at the University of Chicago. Entitled “Employment and Survival in Urban America”, the meeting was sponsored by the UofC DSA Youth Section, Chicago DSA and University Democrats.

The panelists were Toni Preckwinkle, Alderman of Chicago’s 4th Ward, Barack Obama, candidate for the 13th Illinois Senate District, Professor William Julius Wilson, Center for the Study of Urban Inequality at the University of Chicago, Professor Michael Dawson, University of Chicago and Professor Joseph Schwartz, Temple University and a member of DSA’s National Political Committee

In 1998, Robert Kuttner was honored at a Boston Democratic Socialists of America awards ceremony alongside D.S.A. member Deborah Meier. In March that year, Deborah Meier spoke at a Chicago memorial service for “DSAer” Saul Mendelson, as did Barack Obama.

In 1998 Democratic Socialists of America described Kuttner as a “socialist”.

American Prospect The journal of “liberal” intellectual politics, though half of the writers, and one of the co-founders, Robert Kuttner, are socialists. This journal sees its mission as the reinvigoration of “liberalism,” betraying a clear disregard for liberalism’s expressed desire to accept death

So far at least eight identified “JournoListas”, have ties to Kuttner’s, “The American Prospect“.

In 1996, Robert Kuttner helped found, with at least two dozen “D.S.Aers”, the highly influential “progressive” umbrella group Campaign for America’s Future.

Fellow C.A.F. founders Robert Borosage, John Cavanagh, Barbara Ehrenreich (D.S.A.), Frances Fox Piven (D.S.A.), Mark Ritchie (a Communist Party “friend”) and Joel Rogers had helped establish Obama’s New Party.

C.A.F. founders Tom Hayden and Barbara Ehrenreich went on to found, in 2008, Progressives for Obama, which was support by other C.A.F./D.S.A supporters Dick Flacks, Todd Gitlin, Adam Hochschild, Frances Fox Piven and Stanley Sheinbaum.

Besides Kuttner, three other C.A.F. founders, James Galbraith, Todd Gitlin, and Michael Kazin , would later turn up as “JournoListas”.

C.A.F. has run for several years the successful Take Back America and America’s Future Now! conferences, which annually attract the cream of the U.S. “progessive” movement, including many “DSAers”, “JournoLista’s”, Robert Kuttner and then Senator Barack Obama.

Earlier this year Robert Kuttner was serving on the Advisory Board of the Cry Wolf Project. This organization caused some controversy after it was found to be offering money to academics for articles countering conservative attacks on “progressive” programs.

Serving on the advisory board with Kuttner was Janice Fine of Rutgers University, an early founder of the New Party and a member of the Editorial Advisory group of Wade Rathke’s D.S.A./ACORN linked journal Social Policy.

Cry Wolf’s three co-leaders were “DSAers” Peter Dreier and Nelson Lichtenstein and Donald Cohen, a member of the board of Directors of Van Jones’ Oakland based Green For All.

Another close tie to the Obama Administration comes through Kuttner’s membership of the board of the Economic Policy Institute.

The Washington based “think tank” is led by “DSAer” Larry Mishel and boasts several D.S.A affiliates on its board, including Barry Bluestone, Teresa Ghilarducci (a Demos fellow), Julianne Malveaux and Bruce Raynor. New Party founder Larry Cohen and Campaign for America’s Future founders Thomas Buffenbarger, Jeff Faux, Ray Marshall, Gerald McEntee, Robert Reich, Andy Stern (also Progressives for Obama) and Richard Trumka also serve.

Two E.P.I board members have joined the Obama administration, William Spriggs as a Senior Adviser in the Department of Labor and Rebecca Blank as Under Secretary for Economic Affairs in the Department of Commerce.

More importantly long time E.P.I. staffer and “JournoLista” Jared Bernstein has served as an Obama campaign adviser and currently works for Vice President Joe Biden.

Interestingly, leftist economist and “Journalista” Paul Krugman, argued in November ’08 that, given the “centrist makeup” of President Barack Obama’s economic inner circle, the new Economic Recovery Advisory Board could be used to “give progressive economists a voice,” and mentioned Jared Bernstein and fellow E.P.I economist, and E.P.I. president, “DSAer” Larry Mishel as “progressive economists” who might be suitable for the board.

The Biden appointment was a step in that direction.

Were the “Journolistas” really just a “chat group”, or were they a conduit of information to and from the Obama Administration?

Did some of their members actually have some influence on policy and/or appointments within the Obama Administration?

Was JournoList, actually an intelligence and influence brokering network for the Obama campaign and Administration?

Somebody needs to ask Robert Kuttner and other “Journolistas” some serious questions.

Obama file 109 here

Eliseo Medina, SEIU Vice President and Democratic Socialists of America Honorary Chair, was the lead speaker at last weekend’s  2010 Netroots Nation discussion of Civil Rights in the Modern Era.

Here Medina tugs on the heartstrings and plays on the emotions as he urges the gathered, mainly young  “progressives” to unite behind the illegal illegal immigrant community. Medina is very careful to blur the line between illegal immigrants and Latino Americans.

His message is that by exploiting the Latino vote, “progressives” can carry several key states in November. To do that, the left must portray any resistance to illegal immigration as an attack on all  Latinos.

.

Medina has more influence than most marxist activists.

In 2008 he served the the Obama campaign as a member of Barack Obama’s National Latino Advisory Council. As a vice president of the D.S.A. dominated SEIU, Medina can put tens of thousands of activists on the streets to promote his socialist agenda.

Speaking at the 2009 America’s Future Now! conference in Washington DC, Medina was more matter of fact, more honest. This was an older crowd of hard core core “progressives”. They didn’t need the violins, they just wanted the numbers.

Here Medina plainly states that his campaign is purely about votes. Medina is pursuing “immigration reform” for one reason only 8 million new Democratic voters.

His aim is to “create a governing coalition for the long term”

That is “caring” socialism for you. Illegals immigrants are not individuals with hopes and dreams. their plight, their personal tragedies, are irrelevant. They not the result of irresponsible politicians unwilling to police U.S. borders.

They are simply numbers to be exploited, in the socialist pursuit of power.

The now closed down JournoList, has caused considerable controversy in recent weeks. According to its opponents, JournoList, teamed up some 400 prominent “progressive” journalists in an effort to smooth Barack Obama’s path to the White House.

There have been accusations that “Journolitstas”, deliberately sought to downplay Obama’s association with the marxist Rev. Jeremiah Wright and tried to smear conservatives, or opposing journalists as “racists”.

This post looks at 106 reported “Journolistas” to look for connections or common threads.

Of the  known “Jounolistas” and  organizations listed below, many  can be linked back to two interrelated groups  Democratic Socialists of America, the U.S.’s largest marxist based organization and D.S.A.’s “brain” the Washington DC based, far left “think tank” the  Institute for Policy Studies

Between them. D.S.A. and the I.P.S.  dominate or influence several organizations affiliated to JournoList, including;

*The American Prospect – Founded in 1990 by D.S.A. affiliate Robert Kuttner. Current editor at large is leading D.S.A. member Harold Meyerson
*Mother Jones – Includes D.S.A. member Adam Hochschild on its Board of Directors, plus some D.S.A. affiliated staff and contributors. Hochschild was a supporter of Progressives for Obama
*Economic Policy Institute - Led by D.S.A. member Larry Mishel and I.P.S.  affiliate Jeff Faux and several D.S.A. affiliated board members. This organization has contributed at least three officials to the Obama Administration, including Obama  economic adviser and “Journolista’ Jared Bernstein.
*Center for American Progress – Several staff and officials are affiliated with D.S.A. and the I.P.S. Writing of the Center’s relationship to the Obama Administration, former Weather Underground terrorist leader and Progressives for Obama supporter Mark Rudd said “There’s a whole govt. in waiting that Podesta has at the Center for American Progress. They’re mostly progressives, I’m told…”
*The Nation – Edited by I.P.S. trustee Katrina vanden Heuvel, who presides over an editorial board which includes D.S.A. members Norman Birnbaum, Barbara Ehrenreich (also an I.P.S. trustee) and Deborah Meier, plus I.P.S. affiliates Tom Hayden and Roger Wilkins.
*In These Times – Created by  I.P.S. and run mainly by D.S.A. members and affiliates. Based in Chicago, I.T.T.’s board of editors includes former Weather Underground terrorists and Obama associates Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.
*Progressives for Obama - Established by D.S.A. members Barbara Ehrenreich, Tim Carpenter and Bill Fletchers, Jr. Ehrenreich and Fletcher are also I.P.S. affiliates, as were two more of P.F.O.’s six founders Tom Hayden and Danny Glover.
*Campaign for America’s Future – Founded in 1996, by several dozen D.S.A. members and I.P.S. affiliates, C.A.F. is a major coordinator of the U.S. “progressive” movement. In recent years it has organized several major Take Back America and America’s Future Now! conferences in Washington DC -which are attended by the cream of the U.S. progressive movement, including Barack Obama himself.

Apart from the D.S.A./I.P.S. connection, leftist institutions like the The New Republic and the New Century Foundation are well represented. There are two  known connections to George Soros‘ Open Society Institute.

Many major newspapers are also represented, as is national public radio, CNN and a host of leading “progressive” blogs and websites and leftist media “watchdog” Media Matters.

The following 106 names, are reported members of the now-defunct JournoList listserv;

*Spencer Ackerman – Wired, FireDogLake, Washington Independent, Talking Points Memo, The American Prospect
*Ben Adler – Newsweek, POLITICO
* Mike Allen – POLITICO

*Eric Alterman – Professor of Journalism, City University of New York , POLITICO ,  The Nation, Media Matters for America, Center for American Progress Fellow , Institute for Policy Studies affiliate. In April 2003,  Eric Alterman e signed a “Statement on Cuba”, initiated and circulated by prominent Democratic Socialists of America member Leo Casey, calling for the lifting of trade sanctions against Cuba. In the 1980s Alterman was listed as a  “Guardian Associate”  by the Maoist-oriented  journal The Guardian. Alterman is a former protege and defender of the late I.F.Stone, a leftist journalist, secret Communist Party USA member and pre WW2 Soviet intelligence contact.
*Marc Ambinder – The Atlantic
*Greg Anrig – The Century Foundation
*Ryan Avent – Economist
*Dean Baker – The American Prospect. in 2009 Dean Baker was a Contributing Editor In These Times.
*Nick Baumann – Mother Jones
*Josh Bearman – LA Weekly
*Steven Benen – The Carpetbagger Report
*Jared Bernstein – Economic Policy Institute
*Michael Berube – Crooked Timber (blog), Pennsylvania State University. In April 2003, Michael Berube signed a “Statement on Cuba”, initiated and circulated by prominent Democratic Socialists of America member Leo Casey, calling for the lifting of trade sanctions against Cuba.
*Lindsay Beyerstein – Focal Point (blog) (formerly Majikthise). In 2009 Lindsay Beyerstein was listed as a member of the Drum Major Institute Netroots Advisory Council

*Joel Bleifuss – In These Times editor, long time Democratic Socialists of America affiliate. In October 2008, Joel Bleifuss was one several thousand college professors, students and academic staff to sign a statement “Support Bill Ayers”, in solidarity with former Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers.
*John Blevins – South Texas College of Law
*Sam Boyd – The American Prospect
*Rich Byrne – Playwright and freelancer
*Ta-Nehisi Coates – The Atlantic
*Jonathan Chait – The New Republic
*Lakshmi Chaudry – In These Times
*Isaac Chotiner – The New Republic
*Michael Cohen – New America Foundation
*Jonathan Cohn – The American Prospect, The New Republic. In 2009 Jonathan Cohn was a Senior Fellow of New York based think tank Demos, which is an Institute for Policy Studies partner organization
*Joe Conason – The New York Observer
*David Corn – Mother Jones
*Daniel Davies – The Guardian
*David Dayen – FireDogLake
*Brad DeLong – The Economists’ Voice, University of California at Berkley
*Ryan Donmoyer – Bloomberg
*Kevin Drum – Washington Monthly
*Matt Duss – Center for American Progress
*Eve Fairbanks – The New Republic
*Henry Farrell – George Washington University
*Tim Fernholz – The American Prospect, New America Foundation
*James Galbraith – University of Texas at Austin, Campaign for America’s Future

*Todd Gitlin – Professor of Journalism, Columbia University, former leader of  Students for a Democratic Society, Campaign for America’s Future founder, Democratic Socialists of America member, In April 2003, Todd Gitlin signed a “Statement on Cuba”, initiated and circulated by prominent Democratic Socialists of America member Leo Casey, calling for the lifting of trade sanctions against Cuba. Progressives for Obama endorser
*Ilan Goldenberg – National Security Network
*Dana Goldstein – The Daily Beast
*Merrill Goozner – Chicago Tribune, The American Prospect
*David Greenberg – Slate
*Robert Greenwald– Brave New Films, a production company that produced a documentary for Ronnie Earle during the case against Republican party leader, Tom DeLay
*Chris Hayes – The Nation
*Don Hazen – Alternet
*Michael Hirsh – Newsweek, Take Back America conference, 2008
*John Judis The New Republic, The American Prospect. A former leader of Democratic Socialists of America‘s preceding organization, the New American Movement, which was formed form the Students for a Democratic Society and the Communist Party USA. Judis is the former editor of Socialist Revolution magazine and is an Institute for Policy Studies affiliate

*Michael Kazin – Georgetown University. A founder of Campaign for America’s Future, editor of the Democratic Socialists of America controlled Dissent magazine and co-author of an history of the Communist Party USA with D.S.A. member Maurice Isserman. In April 2003, Michael Kazin signed a “Statement on Cuba”, initiated and circulated by prominent Democratic Socialists of America member Leo Casey, calling for the lifting of trade sanctions against Cuba. A veteran of the 1969 Venceremos Brigade to cuba.
*Ed Kilgore – Democratic party strategist
*Richard Kim – The Nation
*Mark Kleiman – The Reality Based Community. In 2005 Mark Kleiman served as an affiliated scholar of Center for American Progress.
*Ezra Klein – Washington Post, Newsweek, The American Prospect, 2010 Business Section columnist, Washington Post; formed JournoList, February, 2007
*Joe Klein – TIME columnist
*Paul Krugman – The New York Times, Princeton University, economics, world affairs, and Pulitzer Prize winner (neo-marxist)
*Lisa Lerer – POLITICO
*Daniel Levy – Century Foundation
*Alec McGillis – Washington Post
*Scott McLemee – Inside Higher Ed, Democratic Socialists of America affiliate
*Ari Melber – The Nation
*Seth Michaels – MyDD.com
*Luke Mitchell – Harper’s Magazine
*Gautham Nagesh – The Hill, Daily Caller
*Suzanne Nossel – Human Rights Watch. In 2005 Suzanne Nossel served as an affiliated scholar of Center for American Progress.
*Michael O’Hare – University of California, Berkeley
*Rick Perlstein – Author, Campaign for America’s Future. Democratic Socialists of America affiliate
*Harold Pollack – University of Chicago
*Foster Kamer – The Village Voice

*Katha Pollitt – The Nation, a member of Democratic Socialists of America and a supporter of Feminists for Peace and Barack Obama. In April 2003, Katha Pollitt signed a “Statement on Cuba”, initiated and circulated by prominent Democratic Socialists of America member Leo Casey, calling for the lifting of trade sanctions against Cuba
*Ari Rabin-Havt – Media Matters
*David Roberts – Grist
*Alyssa Rosenberg – Washingtonian, The Atlantic
*Alex Rossmiller – National Security Network
*Laura Rozen – Politico, Mother Jones. In 2009 Laura Rozen was listed as a Senior Correspondent of The American Prospect.
*Greg Sargent – Washington Post
*Thomas Schaller – Baltimore Sun
*Noam Scheiber – The New Republic
*Michael Scherer – TIME
*Mark Schmitt – The American Prospect. New America Foundation, former Director of Policy and Research at the Open Society Institute
*Adam Serwer – The American Prospect
*Thomas Schaller – Baltimore Sun (columnist), University of Maryland, Baltimore County (professor), FiveThirtyEight.com (contributing writer)
*Julie Bergman Sender – Balcony Films
*Walter Shapiro – PoliticsDaily.com
*Nate Silver – FiveThirtyEight.com
*Jesse Singal – The Boston Globe, Washington Monthly
*Ben Smith – chief writer/columnist for the POLITICO
*Sarah Spitz – NPR
*Adele Stan – The Media Consortium
*Kate Steadman – Kaiser Health News
*Jonathan Stein – Mother Jones
*Sam Stein – The Huffington Post
*Jesse Taylor – Pandagon.net
*Steven Teles – Yale University, New America Foundation Fellow
*Mark Thoma – The Economist’s View (blog), University of Oregon (professor)
*Michael Tomasky – The Guardian, Contributing Editor of The American Prospect
*Jeffrey Toobin – CNN, The New Yorker, writer for The New Yorker magazine – POLITICO
*Rebecca Traister – Salon (columnist)
* Tracy Van Slyke – The Media Consortium, Take Back America conference, 2008, former publisher In These Times
* Dave Weigel – Washington Post, MSNBC, The Washington Independent
*Moira Whelan – National Security Network
*Scott Winship – Pew Economic Mobility Project
*Kai Wright – The Root, The nation, The American Prospect, ColorLines, a radical pubLication of the Communist Party USA connected Applied Research Center
*Holly Yeager – Columbia Journalism Review
*Rich Yeselson – Change to Win labor federation

*Matthew Yglesias – Center for American Progress, The American Prospect, The Atlantic Monthly, blogger, POLITICO, Open Society Institute affiliation
*Jonathan Zasloff – UCLA
*Julian Zelizer – Princeton professor and CNN contributor
*Avi Zenilman – POLITICO

JournoList, was not just a bunch of “liberal’ journos with too much time on there hands.

It was a network of high level opinion makers, united by a “progressive” vision for America. They believed that their superior judgement and insight, obligated them to present Americans with a view of reality, that they would be too stupid and reactionary to grasp unaided.

At least a few, perhaps many, were committed marxists who saw journalism, not as a profession, but as a revolutionary tool.

This disgraceful episode should dispel forever the “progressive” lie, that the American MainStreamMedia and its “liberal” core, can be trusted to uphold the objective standards of their profession.

The late sociologist Richard Cloward, was together with his wife, Frances Fox Piven, the originator of the famous Cloward Piven Strategy.

Allegedly adopted by ACORN and other groups on the left, the strategy involved deliberately loading as many people as possible onto state welfare rolls, to the point where the system was bankrupted. The systemic crisis thus created would provide pretext for demanding fundamental change at the federal level: wholesale income redistribution — in other words, socialism.

According to Democratic Socialists of America’s Democratic Left of Fall 2001, page 17;

In 1966, Richard helped found the National Welfare Rights Organization, the protest movement of poor women. Its goal of winning federalization of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) by building the local welfare rolls to create fiscal and political crisis very nearly succeeded. Instead, Congress granted fiscal relief to states and localities through a new federal relief program called Supplemental Security Income (SSI). SSI was one of the most important federal social policy innovations in the post-World War II period.

It has long been known that Frances Fox Piven is a leading member of the marxist based Democratic Socialists of America, however until now Cloward’s affiliation to that organization has (to my knowledge) never been proven.

Here is the evidence that Richard A. Cloward too, was a D.S.A. member.

Just confirming what many have long suspected. You saw it here first.

Unlike some “fairweather friends” on the left, the Communist Party USA has never wavered in its commitment to its “friend” Barack Obama.

The Party has backed Barack Obama for many years and recognizes that he has the potential to deliver the “change” they have campaigned for since their foundation in 1919.

While leery of making open statements of support for the President, in the current political climate, the Party still likes to send little signals to its supporters from time to time – to keep the troops on target.

The latest comes from Michigan Party supporter, Kae Halonen, a “red diaper baby”, with roots in the “Red Finnish” communities of Minnesota and the Pacific Northwest.

Halonen was recently in Seattle to visit a relative. While there she attended a July 18 Peoples World benefit picnic in Gennessee Park.

Kae Halonen addressed the assembled comrades, quoting the “progressive evangelist, Rev. Don Wallis”, that basic change requires two things: a mighty movement that “knocks on the door” and someone inside willing to “open the door.” Some on the left, she said, “don’t understand that we need someone who will open the door...George W. Bush would never open the door no matter how hard we knocked. President Obama will open the door.”

The Communist Party aims to lead a “mighty movement” against the U.S. government, but like the Greek army outside the gates of Troy, the know they cannot succeed without inside help.

Brazil holds national elections on October 3. This nation of over 190,000,000 people, the fifth most populous in the world and a diplomatic “heavyweight”, will elect a new president, to replace current President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva who is constitutionally forbidden from succeeding himself, all 513 members of the lower house of Congress plus two thirds of the 81 senators.

The outcome of this election will determine whether Brazil’s foreign policy continues to reflect the values of its Marxist president and his ruling Workers Party , or move in a more pro Western direction.

Leading Communist Party USA member Emile Schepers, writing in the Peoples World, lays out the stakes from a Marxist-Leninist perspective.

Schepers is rooting for “Lula’s” chosen successor, former Marxist guerilla Dilma Rousseff.

The corporate controlled media in the United States and worldwide are promoting the idea that this is a ho-hum affair, because the differences between the major candidates are “small” except in the area of foreign policy. As the campaign, which started at the beginning of July, heats up, we see that in fact the differences are not small at all. And in foreign policy, at stake is whether Brazil will continue on a progressive and independent course, or whether it will be brought back in line with U.S. desires.

In the presidential contest, the candidate of Lula’s Workers’ Party (PT) is former Energy Minister and presidential chief of staff Dilma Rousseff. Daughter of an émigré Bulgarian communist, Rousseff was active in left-wing guerilla organizations fighting against the U.S. supported military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from the 1964 coup d’etat until 1985. While working underground, Rousseff was captured by agents of the dictatorship, imprisoned and tortured. After her release and the end of the dictatorship, Rousseff worked for political change in Brazil’s southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul, until becoming part of Lula’s national administration. Besides Lula’s Workers’ Party, Rousseff’s candidacy is being supported by the Socialist Party, the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) and others.

Though Brazil has dozens of political parties and several are running presidential candidates, Rousseff is challenged most strongly by Sao Paulo State Governor Jose Serra of the Social Democratic Party of Brazil – a party that is actually center-right. Although Serra also had opposed the dictatorship as a student leader and had to go into exile, developments during the election suggest a move to the right. This week, Serra’s vice presidential running mate, Indio da Costa, shocked many by off-handedly claiming, without citing any evidence, that Lula’s and Rousseff’s Workers’ Party (PT) was “linked to the FARC”, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, an assertion which Serra later endorsed. Currently in Latin America, right-wing regimes and politicians make a regular practice of claiming that their adversaries are “linked to the FARC”; this is the current form which red-baiting takes regionally. That da Silva and Serra would resort to such tactics is seen as a bad omen for how they would rule. On Monday, the Workers’ Party initiated legal action for libel and election offenses against da Costa and his party.

In fact, Lula’s domestic policies, while progressive in some ways, are hardly revolutionary and in fact are sharply criticized by some on the left, not all of which supports Rousseff’s candidacy. In foreign policy, however, Brazil, under the leadership of Lula and Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, has played a bold role that has been applauded by left-wing governments such as those of Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador. Brazil was and is firm in opposition to the June 2009 coup d’etat in Honduras and permitted overthrown president Manuel Zelaya to remain for a considerable time in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. Brazil also annoyed the United States by joining with Turkey in trying to come up with a peaceful solution to the issue of Iran’s nuclear policy. Brazil’s size and wealth are an important factor in efforts by the Latin American left to move the region away from U.S. hegemony. Should Serra be elected, it seems very probable that he would move Brazil away from this independent foreign policy – not a “small” change indeed.

Currently Rousseff and Serra are running practically neck and neck. But since the brief election campaign has just begun, Rousseff’s supporters are hoping that as the extremely popular President Lula begins to make his views known, millions of poor Brazilians will begin to move into the column of Rousseff, who is not very well known to them at present.

Will Brazil’s coming election advance the “Lula”//Cuban instigated “Red Tide” that has swept most of Latin America, or will it be the beginning of a new advance of freedom on the continent?

Either way, there will be huge implications for all of us.

Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (MORE), a spinoff from now defunct Missouri ACORN disrupts a local branch of the Chase Manhattan Bank, July 21, 2010, with chants of “predatory lender, criminal offender”.

Missouri ACORN was long dominated by supporters of the Missouri/Kansas District of the Communist Party.

One example is Missouri ACORN legislative laiason and Communist Party USA supporter Julie Terbrock.

Terbrock, like many Missouri radicals, moves around between organizations like ACORN, Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition, Jobs with Justice, Health Care for America Now! and of course the Democratic Party. For a time Julie Terbrock was Legislative Assistant to State Representative Maria Chappelle-Nadal.

Another ACORN radical, was former chair of the Missouri/Kansas Communist Party education/ideology committee Glenn Burleigh, recently St. Louis head organizer and political director of Missouri ACORN.

On March 24 this year Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment, joined activists for the Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition, in a protest inside the Bank of America tower in St. Louis.

Young Communist League supporter Ashli Bolden led the “Progressive Vote” contingent.

Tony Pecinovsky, district staff person for the Missouri/Kansas Communist Party reported the event for Peoples World and is clearly visible in the video below in his trademark beard, blue checked shirt and red fronted baseball cap.

Pecinovsky also serves on the board of Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition and is Secretary of St. Louis Jobs with Justice.

Even in heartland Missouri, the Communist Party USA beavers away to undermine free enterprise values and the American way of life.

In response to my July 12 article exposing evidence he had been a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, the campaign committee of former Democrat Congressman Neil Abercrombie, now contending for the Governorship of Hawaii, has posted an online denial which reads:

The latest wave of rumors and attacks are lame attempts to link Neil Abercrombie to a socialist group. See the facts below.

QUESTION: Was Neil a member of the Democratic Socialists of America or any other socialist or communist organization?

ANSWER: NO. Neil has never been part of any socialist or communist organization. These rumors are being spread by Neil’s political opponents and conspiracy theorists including those behind the so-called “birther” movement who continually claim that President Obama was not born in the U.S.

None of this explains why the D.S.A.’s Democratic Left newspaper, November/December 1990 issue, page 4, describes, “DSAer Democrat Neil Abercrombie seeking to regain the House seat representing Honolulu, Hawaii and Vermont independent socialist Bernie Sanders…”

In the 1990s many high ranking Democrat public officials were members of Democratic Socialists of America, including New York mayor David Dinkins, NYC City Councilor Ruth Messinger and Congressmen Ron Dellums (California) and Major Owens (New York). It was common for ” DSAers” to belong to the Democratic Party at that time and be identified as such.

Today, Illinois Democratic Congressman Danny K. Davis is also a member of Democratic Socialists of America and is often referred to in the organization’s literature as a “DSAer”.

“DSAer” is the usual term used by D.S.A. members to refer to other members. There are many examples of this terminology used in Democratic Left. In every case, those described as “DSAers”, were able to be confirmed as D.S.A. members. If Abercrombie’s denial is to be believed he would be the one and only exception.

Note the clip below, from Democratic Left, Summer 2006, page 15. Former Congressman Ron Dellums is referred to as a “DSAer”.

In this clip from Democratic Left, Summer 2006, page 3, former Congressman Major Owens is named as a D.S.A. member, while serving Congressman Danny K. Davis is referred to as a “DSAer”.

Note that in the 1990 article, Bernie Sanders who has not been a card-carrying D.S.A. member, was called an “independent socialist”, while Abercrombie is named as a “DSAer Democrat”. This indicates the editors of Democratic Left were choosing their words carefully and making a distinction between the two.

Clearly Democratic Socialists of America regarded Neil Abercrombie as a member of their organization.

D.S.A. also lists Neil Abercrombie’s wife Nancie Caraway as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America Feminist Commission. She was not only a member, but a nationally-recognized D.S.A. leader—apparently without publicly acknowledging the association in Hawaii. If she were on the board of directors of a corporation while her husband held Federal office, this would constitute illegal concealment of a conflict of interest. It is noteworthy that Abercrombie campaign’s flat denial does not say a single word about Caraway.

1985 D.S.A. Feminist Commission Directory, page 2

Neil Abercrombie’s apparent involvement with Democratic Socialists of America, did not end in the 1990s. below is an except from a Winter 2006 Democratic Left, page 4  article on D.S.A. support for Congressman Bernie Sanders.

Note the reference to  Democratic Socialists of America member and former Maine State Legislator,   Harlan Baker as a “DSAer”.

Neil Abercrombie is mentioned as one of those attending a D.S.A. Political Action Committee fund raising party in the home of the late Stewart Mott, in benefit of Congressman Sanders.

There appears to be strong documentary evidence that Neil Abercrombie was indeed a member of the Marxist D.S.A. and maintained ties to that organization as least as late as 2006.

Abercrombie’s emphatic denial, in the face of documentary evidence to the contrary, raises the stakes considerably.
Now it also becomes an issue of ethics and credibility.

Here are some questions for Abercrombie and Caraway:

• If Neil Abercrombie was never a member of Democratic Socialists of America, why did Democratic Left’s editors indicate otherwise?
• How does Abercrombie explain the 16-year record of his involvement in D.S.A. activities?
• Is the erstwhile First Lady of Hawaii still a member of D.S.A.?
• Has she ever openly acknowledged her D.S.A. membership to a Hawaii audience or publication?

The voters of Hawaii deserve to know the answers.