Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger was an American folk singer and radical anti-American activist. He died at age 94 on January 27, 2014 in New York City.

He served on the Advisory Board of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism and on the Advisory Board of the Rosenberg Fund for Children. He was married to Toshi Seeger.

Communist Activity

Pete Seeger first subscribed to the Communist Party USA paper New Masses in 1932 and formally joined the Party ten years later, under the influence of his secret Party member father.

His father, an ethno-musicologist at Julliard and later at UCLA, wrote a column for the Daily Worker under the byline Carl Sands.

Seeger says he left the Party in 1950, but continued involvement in communist fronts and organs for decades including;

• American Peace Mobilization
• American Youth Congress
• American Youth for Democracy
• Council on African Affairs
• American Committee for Yugoslav Relief
• National Council of American-Soviet Friendship
• Civil Rights Congress
• American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born
• Committee for a Democratic Far Eastern Policy
• Jefferson School of Social Science
• New Masses
• Daily World
• Labor Youth League
• California Labor School
• National Lawyers Guild
• Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade
• Committee for the First Amendment
• American Peace Crusade
• National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee
• National Committee to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee

• Political Rights Defense Fund SWP front

Vagabond Puppeteers

It was last June when four young college students in New York City got together to find “an interesting way to spend the summer.”

They were Jerry Oberwager, 22; Mary Wallace, 22; Pete Seeger, 20; and Harriet Holtzman, 23, and when they got through laying their plans for an interesting summer, they were the Vagabond Puppeteers and they worked for six weeks to give substance to the title.

To be vagabonds they had to travel and that meant acquiring a 1930 model Oldsmobile and putting it in shape for the road. And to be puppeteers they needed puppets and so they made their own, 22 of them all told.

Then they constructed an outdoor stage, built a rack on top of their jalopy, gathered together cooking utensils and blankets, made room for a banjo an a typewriter and started out — with high spirits but with rather vague notions about their program.

Now they are back, with 4,000 miles of travel behind them and a record of performances in every corner off rural Now York state which delighted an audience that totals 7,250 persons.

Typical of their reception everywhere is the letter of commendation which was given them by the Madison County 4-H Council in Morrisville, N.Y. The council "found that the Puppets attacked a serious problem in a humorous way and were thought—provoking as well as funny. . . . The puppets are real actors."

Typical, too, was the report in the Watertown Times of one of their performances given during the height of the milk strike. The show, said the Times, was “in contrast to the grimness of the picket line.” The portable outdoor stage was set opposite the Sheffield Plant Driveway, and there was an audience of several hundred striking dairy farmers.

Highlander School

Martin Luther King, Pete Seeger, Rosa Parks, Ralph Abernathy, and Charis Horton at Highlander, 1957

Rosa Parks said that the first time she met a white person who treated her with respect was at the Highlander School in Tennessee where she attended a workshop on labor rights and met the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and communist balladeer Pete Seeger.

Eighth World Festival of Youth and Students for Peace and Friendship

• Pete Seeger was listed as one of several "artists" who would be supporting the United States Festival Committee, Inc., the CPUSA-controlled U.S. affiliate for the Soviet "peace front", the World Festival of Youth and Students for Peace and Friendship, which ran from the 1940's through the 1980's. A "ticket" for this "festival was reproduced in the "Monograph" entitled "The Communist International Youth and Student Apparatus", prepared for the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS), Senate Judiciary Committee, 88th Congress, 1st Session, 1963, by former CPUSA member Herbert Romerstein, Sub Doc No. 99-949.

The ticket, which appeared on p. 44 of this monograph, contained the following text: "FESTIVAL, FOLK & JAZZ CONCERT", Artists:

• Alix Dobkin
• Peter Seeger
• Bob Dylan
• Archie Shepp
• Perry Robinson
• Jerry Silverman
• Cecil Taylor
• New World Singers

Palm Gardens, 310 West 52nd Street, N.Y.C., Wednesday, April 25, 1962 at 8:30 PM Contribution $2.75, Students $1.75 Auspices: "United States Festival Committee, Inc., 460 Park Avenue So., N.Y. 16, N.Y., MU 6-0182

The "Chairman" of the Committee was Michael Myerson, a longtime identified CPUSA youth leader and then Party leader, and the Treasurer was Norman Berkowitz, who "has been an active member of Advance, the Communist youth organization in New York City." Op. Cit, p. 43, monograph.

GI Civil Liberties Defense Committee

Circa 1969, Peter Seeger, New York, was listed as a sponsor of the Socialist Workers Party created and ledGI Civil Liberties Defense Committee(GICLDC) .

Wilfred Burchett 60th Birthday Committee

A half-page notice/ad appeared in the weekly Maoist-oriented US weekly the "Guardian" of February 27, 1971, Pg. 9. It was produced by "The Wilfred Burchett 60th Birthday Committee in association with the Guardian announces "A Burchett Antiwar Chest Campaign". It asked for greetings to be send to Burchett as well "as generous a contribution as possible to swell the Burchett antiwar chest."

Wilfred Burchett was a longtime identified member of the Communist Party of Australia Australian Communist Party, a KGB-recruited journalist (See the SISS hearings "Testimony of Yuri Krotkov", and the wearer of a Red Chinese uniform while propagandizing British and Australian POWS during the Korean War. He was also a Guardian correspondent in Hanoi during the Indochina War and wrote blatantly pro-Communist propaganda stories, as well as geting some columns published in the New York Times.

Among the myriad of communists and pro-communist "Sponsors" of this affair was:

• Pete Seeger

• Jane Fonda
• Noam Chomsky
• Ossie Davis
• Richard Dudman - St. Louis Post-Dispatch
• Al Hubbard - the fake Vietnam veteran and leader of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War in Vietnam (VVAW)
• Dr. Benjamin Spock- the "baby doctor" and later an open marxist candidate from the Peoples' Party
• I. F. Stone - covert member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and identifed KGB asset
• Dr.Quentin Young - identified member of the CPUSA from Chicago; head of the radical Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR); personal physician (later) of the future president of the United States, Barack Obama, and the top CPUSA pusher for a single payer health insurance program/universal healthcare.

See the KW page for "Wilfred Burchett" for a complete list of those who sponsored this ad.

Ruth Gage-Colby Testimonial Committee 1972

A letter was sent out by the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party (SWP) front, the National Peace Action Coalition (NPAC), announcing a testimonial dinner for Ruth Gage-Colby "for her more than fifty years of dedicated work for peace." Gage-Colby was "a longtime leader of "Women's International League for Peace and Freedom" (WILPF), an organization long dominated by the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) in its leadership positions at the national and regional levels.

A list of "Patrons" was also on this notice and included

• Pete Seeger

A few of the other "Patrons" included key identified CPUSA member Leonard Boudin, Leon Davis, Abe Feinglass, Corliss Lamont, David Livingston, Ruth Meyers (5th Amendment and Women Strike for Peace WSP leader; Florence Luscomb, I.F. Stone Isidore Stone (also identified as a KGB agent), and Dalton Trumbo. There were also over 12 Members of Congress, most of whom had or would have very significant CPUSA fronts and causes to their names.

A section is under construction for the full text of this NPAC dinner notice letter of the "Ruth Gage-Colby Testimonial Committee."

Political Rights Defense Fund

In the early 1970's, the Trotskyist "Socialist Workers Party (SWP) set up a legal defense fund, the Political Rights Defense Fund (PRDF), to attack internal security surveillance and investigations of their illegal ties to the Fourth International, Leon Trotsky's equivalent of the Soviet's Communist International Comintern. The SWP eventually won a court case in which the judge ruled that they did not have to make public their supporters/donors lists because they feared retaliation or repression by the Government (this despite compelling evidence being presented at the trial that they were in violation of the "Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

The SWP sent out, thru the PRDF, several brochures about the PRDF and their goals, undated by received in the mail between 1973 and 1974. Among the list of "Sponors" of the PRDF listed on them were, twice:

• Pete Seeger

The full list of "Sponsors" can be found under the Political Rights Defense Fund section in the Socialist Workers Party fronts reports here at KW. Seeger sang at President Obama's inauguration in 2009, and interestingly, at least three to four other political/radicals who were as of 2013, were also on one of these lists:

• Rev. Willie Barrow - Operation Push V.P., Chicago; Hanoi visitor (also a friend of Michele Obama
• Percy Sutton - Borough of Manhattan president, New York City
• Dr. Quentin Young -Medical Committee for Human Rights, a mixed communist/radicals support group for various demonstrations against U.S. policies and presidential nominees. Young was also an identified member of the CPUSA (HCUA, Chicago Hearings, 1960's).
• Eliseo Medina - International Executive Committee, United Farm Workers (UFW), who played a major role in enlisting the Hispanic vote for Obama in his presidential elections. He was a member of Obama's National Latino Advisory Council in 2008, and earlier had a key role in planning the AFL-CIO's immigration strategies to open up the borders.

Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade

Pete Seeger was listed as a "participant" in the "35th Anniversary Celebration]] of the congressionally cited CPUSA front, Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (VALB), as found in a notice for the event which was scheduled for Feb. 12, 1972, Prince George Hotel, NYC. The notice appeared in the CP's newspaper the Daily World of Feb. 5, 1972, p. 10

National Council of American-Soviet Friendship 1972

A notice appeared in the Nov. 2, 1972 issue of the CPUSA's newspaper Daily World (DW), p. 10 about an upcoming "Friendship Rally" To celebrate three Soviet anniversaries. Pete Seeger was one of the listed performers. The event was sponsored by the old CPUSA front and KGB operation known as the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship (NCASF), cited many times by Congress, the FBI and the CIA as a Soviet/KGB propaganda front organization. The affair was to be held on November 5, 1972 at "Town Hall - New York, 123 West 43rd St.

Among the people listed as speakers and performers was:

• Pete Seeger - songs with a banjo

Pete Seeger article in Saturday Review of May 13, 1972

An article entitled "Strummin' Banjo in North Vietnam" by Pete Seeger appeared in the May 13, 1972 issue of Saturday Review, a liberal weekly magazine. It was a laudatory article about Seeger and his family's ten day March trip in Hanoi "at the invitation of the [[Musicians Union of the Democratic Republic of North Vietnam" - included (his wife [{Toshi Seeger]] and daughter Tinya Seeger.

It was a "Kumbaya Roadtrip" in that Seeger made it seem like North Vietnam was a land of milk, honey, and love, interspersed with anti-American, pro-Hano propaganda such as the following: "In the afternoon we visit "The Exhibit of War Crimes". We see the latest ingenious bombs and anti-personnel devices designed to carry on computerized electronic warfare from the air."

Seeger forgot to mention that during his trip to Hanoi, North Vietnam launched its 200,000 men "Easter Offensive" invasion of South Vietnam, eventually losing an estimated 75-80,000 men before retreating in defeat back across the DMZ.

Another "war crimes" accusation attempt came on p. 30 when he went to a village and described the school/yard as follows.

"No bell in this school. Signals are given by a huge homemade drum made our of a wooden barrel and hung from a tree in the courtyard. Nearby is a war memorial: part of a U.S. jet shot down over the village. its shiny aluminum, machined by the world's most advanced technology, contrasts with the mud, brick, and wood of the school and also attests to its failure to put the village out of business."

Seeger also let slip an interesting statement about Hanoi (March 10th) when he wrote: "Trees everywhere. Also bomb shelters. The city has not been bombed since 1968, but the people believe an all-out attack may yet come." (p. 28).

He also said that in his talk with Luu Quy Ky, the head of the journalists association, Luu said "that after the U.S. and the 'puppets' are defeated, some have predicted trouble in the south. ..But we know that the job is to rebuild, not to recriminate" and that "So, today, the NLF proposed that there be no reprisals against the puppet mercenaries."

A rough estimate of the number of So. Vietnamese officials, soldiers, their families, teachers, political cadre, religious leaders, plus Montagnard tribesmen, and possibly No. Vietnamese army defectors, who were killed outright in Hanoi's occupation cleansing by executions and massacres, by slave labor camp work without proper medicine, food, and torture, numbered at least 83,000 in the camps (reliable figures from former prisoners), plus the eyewitness accounts of major massacres during the end of the war and in prison camps hidden away from the public. If the "no reprisal" figures for just the Viet Cong defectors (Hoi Chans) killed in the "silent bloodbath" that followed runs true to form, upwards of 250,000 ex-VC were executed or sent to slave labor camps from whence many never returned. They had incurred "blood debts" against the revolution that had to be paid. See: Douglas Pike, "The Viet Cong Strategy of Terror", 1970 for more on this issue of "blood debts".

Seeger, in an attempt to seem neutral about North Vietnam and the war, wrote: "Monday - I do two twenty-minute broadcasts that will be broadcast to GIs over "Voice of Vietnam." I have been thinking all week about what I will say and sing and, after talking with Seymour Hersh (KW: writing from Hanoi for the New York Times) and Toshi, decide to stay strictly away from political explanations of any sort."

Ad Hoc Committee of Concerned Citizens

A large ad appeared in the New York Times, (date unclear), about 1973, by a group calling itself an Ad Hoc Committee of Concerned Citizens, which was condemning a shooting on October 20, that was attributed to the militant Jewish Defense League (JDL). The sponsors list was a "Who's Who" of the old Communist Party from the 1940's - 60's with a few New Left radicals thrown in for cover. Among the "sponsors" was:

• Pete Seeger - Musician

Daily World's 50th Anniversary Celebration Dec. 8, 1974

A notice/announcement published in the CPUSA newspaper "Daily World" (DW), Dec. 4, 1984, p. 2, entitled "Take your stand Dec. 8", read as follows:

"Financial contributors inspired by the Daily World's 50th Anniversary Celebration to be held this Sunday, Dec. 8 at 2 p.m. at the New York Statler Hilton Hotel have been sent by

• Pete Seeger
• Harvey O'Connor - id. CPUSA from Illinois
• Louise Pettibone Smith - one of the CPUSA's oldest supporters
• Sam Ingram and
• Bradford Lytell" (sic) - mostly likely a misspelling of the last name "Lyttle" , a leader of the misnamed "War Resisters League" (WRL), who has publicly announced his support for both Hanoi and the CPUSA. A leader of the "Hanoi Lobby Mobe organizations, among other communist united fronts, CPUSA fronts and communist causes.
• Brad Lyttle - War Resisters League (WRL); People's Coalition for Peace & Justice (PCPJ), New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam New Mobe

"Follow their example. And also come to the celebration. You'll be getting a fine program, but besides that, your presence will be a message, loud and clear, to President Ford, to Congress and to the monopoloies, that you are not going to tolerate their profiteering ripoff, that you knwo the score and that you aim to see to it that the Daily World is around to help build the mass fighting movement that will stop their greedy actions."

"Only $2 will make it possible for you to be part of this history making event. Bring others; and don't forget, this is a Birthday Party, so bring a present for the paper, your paper, Our Paper."

National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression

• Pete Seeger was one of the "sponsors" of the May 11-13, 1973 founding conference of the CPUSA front, the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression NAARPR, which grew out of the Angela David Defense Organization efforts of the CPUSA.

60th Birthday Celebration of James E. Jackson

The following notice appeared in the "Daily World", December 28, 1974, p. 11, en toto:

Join the 60th birthday celebration of James E. Jackson and welcome the publication of his new book, "Revolutionary Tracings".

Sunday, Dec. 29, 2:00 PM, N.Y. Hilton, 6 Ave. & 53 St

Program

• Ossie Davis
• Pete Seeger
• Multi-National Arts Ensemble

Sponsors

• Dr. Edward K. Barsky - Doctor - id. CPUSA
• Carl Braden - id. CPUSA
• Joseph Cadden - a "Joseph Cadden shows up on numerous (30) pages of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities "Index" for Appendix IX, 1944, regarding "Communist Front Organizations with special reference to the National Citizens Political Action Committee (NCPAC).
• Prof. John Henrik Clarke - Professor
• Dr.Irving J. Crain - Doctor - open CPUSA supporter
• Judge George W. Crockett - Judge - identified as a communist lawyer who went to jail for misconduct during the Rosenberg trial
• Howard da Silva - id. CPUSA
• Angela Davis - open CPUSA
• Dr. Arthur P. Davis - Doctor - sent a "tribute" to the event
• Ernest DeMaio - id. CPUSA
• Stanley Faulkner - Attorney - lifelong supporter of both the CPUSA and the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party (SWP) for whom he also served as their attorney
• Hugo Gellert - id. CPUSA
• Rev. Jesse Jackson - Reverend
• Mary Kaufman - Attorney - harcore CPUSA sympathizer and identified in the DW of Dec. 31, 1974, p. 3 as "a U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials" and an attorney who "defended Jackson during the Smith Act trials of the 1950's."
• Charlene Mitchell - open CPUSA
• Anthony Monteiro Tony Monteiro - id. and then open CPUSA; As of the affair, chairman of the event and Young Workers Liberation League YWLL leader
• Grace Mora - open CPUSA. Mother of one of the "Ft. Hood Three" communist soldiers. Id. in the DW of 12/31/74, as "Chairman of the Puerto Rican Commission of the Communist Party"
• Dr. Leith Mullings - Doctor (later Professor) - covert, then open CPUSA member
• William Patterson - open CPUSA leader
• Art Shields - open CPUSA writer and organizer
• Modjeska Simpkins - longtime CPUSA supporter in the South and leader of the cited CPUSA front, the Southern Negro Youth Congress (SNYC), DW 12/31/74. She was also a "Sponsor" of the 60th Birthday Celebration" for top CPUSA leaderJames E. Jackson, scheduled for Dec. 29, 1974, from a notice in the CP's newspaper the Daily World (DW) of Dec. 28, 1974, p. 11.
• Jessica Smith- id. CPUSA member, id. Soviet spy and wife of two identified Soviet spies
• Helen Sobell - wife of convicted and confessed Soviet spy (Both Helen and Morton Sobell were listed as participants in the "60th Birthday Celebration" for CPUSA leader James E. Jackson, DW, Dec. 28, 1974, p. 11, for the Dec. 29th event in New York City.
• Morton Sobell - convicted and confessed Soviet spy
• James West - open CPUSA member/organizer

Tickets will be sold at the door at $5.50 each. Youth tickets are $2.50 each.

[NB: The greater majority of these sponsors are either congressionally identified members of the CPUSA or are open members of the CPUSA. Those not identified so far as Party members have long documented records of support for the CPUSA and its fronts and causes. Some of these will be further identified as additional information is located]

An earlier article in the Daily World of Dec. 19, 1974, "Fete for Dr. Jackson enlists more backers" had names not listed in the later Dec. 31st article, and included:

• Henry Winston - CPUSA leader - National Chairman
• Margaret Burnham - longtime CPUSA supporter and related to CPUSA members
• Anne Braden - id. CPUSA and wife of id. CPUSA member Carl Braden
• Christopher C. Alston - described in the DW of Dec. 31, 1974 as "a former auto worker from Detroit" who told "of working with Jackson in organizing southern tobacco workers and the Southern Negro Youth Congress, a three-time congressionally/governmental agency identified CPUSA front (See: "Guide to Subversive Organizations", HCUA, 1961 edition)
• Marvel Cooke - openly admitted longtime member of the CPUSA whose story was told in the CPUSA newspaper People's Weekly World (PWW), 2/25/2009, "Marvel Cooke: Journalist, labor and peace activist" and at http://www.cpusa.org/article/articleprint/1018/. Author was Marilyn Bechtel, a longtime CPUSA leader. Cooke was also a key worker in several CPUSA fronts including the "Council of Arts, Sciences and Professions", "National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, identified as a KGB front operation in the US and on its magazine "New World Review". She also worked on other publications during her career including W.E.B. DuBois's magazine "Crisis", the leftist black newspaper "Amsterdam News", and "the progressive daily newspaper", the "Compass".
• Ernest Kaiser - veteran CPUSA sympathizer
• Edythe Kimmelman - longtime CPUSA sympathizer and wife of David Kimmelman
• Dr. David Kimmelman - longtime CPUSA sympathizer
• J. H. O'Dell - presumable Jack O'Dell aka Hunter Pitts O'Dell aka John Vesey, a lifelong member of the CPUSA, identified as their southern organizer in the 1950's, on the National Board of the Party in 1961, and personal secretary to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. before being exposed as a Communist. Then was hired covertly for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference New York office after being forced out of their headquarters office. Later became the Director of the International Department of Rev.Jesse Jackson's Operation Breadbasket, Operation PUSH and the National Rainbow Coalition, as well as being involved in the various pro-Hanoi "united fronts" "Mobes" and the anti-defense united front [[Mobilization for Survival] (MFS).
• Abbott Simon - longtime CPUSA sympathizer.

Attendee at the event was *Esther Cooper Jackson, open CPUSA member, and wife of James Jackson. Other attendees included:

• Helen Winter - CPUSA official - Foreign Relations Secretary of the CP and wife of Carl Winter
• Gus Hall - General Secretary of the CPUSA
• Robert Handman - who served with Jackson in the 823rd Aviation-Engineering Battalion in the China-India-Burma front during the WW2
• Ruby Dee - lifelong supporter of the CPUSA along with her husband Ossie Davis
• Pete Seeger - admitted longtime CPUSA member who claimed he left the Party but he never stopped supporting their fronts and causes - sang for the audience
• Dr. Mordechai Johnson - id. as "the Black educator" who sent a message that "hailed the development of the SNYC as a beacon for Black youth"
• Dr. Thomas Turner - Hampton Institute sent a tribute message.
• Jason Mason - "a student of Jackson's from Liberia" sent a tribute message
• [[Ambassador from Cuba Ricardo Alarcon- suspected Cuban intelligence official of the DGI - sent a message of tribute

Music was provided by the "Multi-National Arts Ensemble".

Rally for Detente and World Peace 1975

One of the Communist Party USA fronts that Seeger participated in was the National Council of America-Soviet Friendship, cited by several governmental agencies and Congress, including the Subversive Activities Control Board, Docket No. 104-53, Report and Order, February 7,1956, pp. 16, 53, 54 & 55; Attorney General Tom Clark, letters to Loyalty Review Board, released December 4, 1947 and September 21, 1948; the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, House Report 1311 on the CIO Political Action Committee , March 29, 1944, p. 156; and SISS "Handbook for Americans", S. Doc. 117, April 23, 1956, p. 91

These citations are found in The Guide, which is short for Guide to Subversive Organizations and Publications (and Appendixes)revised and published December 1, 1961, including Index, House document No. 398.

The National Council of American-Soviet Friendship along with the openly marxist publication New World Review, sponsored a Rally for Detente and World Peace on the 30th anniversary of V-E Day (May 1975), with "tickets available at "V-E Day Committee, 156 Fifth Avenue, Suite 308, NYC, 10010, CH 3-0666 and CH 3-0667. This address is the home to many Communist Party USA fronts and causes over the decades, as well as related "anti-Vietnam" groups under communist domination if not outright control. Often several fronts or event-fronts occupied the same suite as permanent front groups, which is why the address and suite numbers are important.

Participants in this event, as taken from an ad in the Communist Party USA newspaper, the Daily World were:

• Ossie Davis - Master of Ceremonies - actor - (a longtime supporter of the Communist Party USA and avowed socialist, along with his wife Ruby Dee)
• Pete Seeger - singer (identified member of the Communist Party USA who also supported the Maoist-oriented The Guardian newspaper (US) in later years)
• Boris Polevoy - Soviet author
• Mikhail Ulyanov - Soviet film star
• Tikhon Belsky - Soviet Major General: Stalingrad veteran
• Katherine Camp - International President,Women's International League for Peace & Freedom (a longtime supporter of Communist Party USA and Socialist Workers Party fronts and causes. WILPF was dominated at the national and key chapter level for many decades by identified members of the Communist Party USA and their documented supporters)
• Ernest DeMaio - Permanent Representative of the World Federation of Trade Unions to the United Nations. He was also a longtime identified member of the Communist Party USA and a top Party labor leader in the US. His brother Tony DeMaio was reportedly a Soviet MKVD assassin in Spain during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930's.

Initiating Sponsors:

• Rev. Ralph Abernathy - Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and a Vice-President of the Soviet front, the World Peace Council. He later broke with communist causes.
• Rev. John C. Bennett - One of America's leading religious figures who supported Communist Party fronts and causes for many decades. Was the head of the leftist Union Theological Seminary New York
• Harry Bridges - (Many times identified member of the CPUSA. Also a member of the Australian Communist Party. Former longtime leader of the CPUSA dominated International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union ILWU. Bridges was identified in the Fall issue, Labor Studies, 1995, as one of Moscow's top ten secret Communist Party members in organized American labor.
• Judge George Crockett, Jr. - Identified in Trial By Treason: The National Committee to Secure Justice for the Rosenbergs and Morton Sobell, House Document No. 206, House Committee on Un-American Activities, August 25, 1956, p. 39 as one of "former Communist political prisoners", referring to a statement in a cited "announcement" by the New York Civil Rights Congress about delegations going to "delegations visiting political prisoners throughout the country"
• Ossie Davis - An actor and avowed supporter of "socialism". He amassed a record of support for the Communist Party. its fronts and the Soviet Union from the mid-1950's until he died in the mid-2000's. He was married to Ruby Dee who also has a similar record of supporting the and its fronts. An article about his communist past was published online at www.augustafreepress.com - the archives link to this article may no longer exist. Citation will be added here)
• Ruby Dee - Actress. Married to Ossie Davis who also amassed a decades-long record of supporting the Communist Party and its fronts and causes.
• Anne K. Eaton
• Dr.Luther H. Evans - Identified in the book World Peace Council - List of Members 1977-1980, page 140, published by the Soviet peace front, the World Peace Council as the following: Former Chairperson, World Federalists; Chairman of the Board Coalition for International Cooperation and Peace; former Librarian of Congress.
• Prof. Jerome D. Frank - Longtime supporter of CPUSA fronts and causes.
• Carlton B. Goodlett (MD) - Identified member of the CPUSA and listed in the cited World Peace Council 1980 booklet "List of Members 1977-1980", page 141, as "Publisher; Physician; President, National Newspaper Publishers Association, (Black Press), p. 141. He was also a "sponsor" of the founding of the Soviet's U.S. affiliate of the WPC, the U.S. Peace Council. He was "the main speaker" at the tribute to CPUSA leader Claude Lightfoot in Chicago on February 11, 1979 as printed in the Daily World, February 15, 1979, "800 crowd Chicago hotel to honor Claude Lightfoot".
• Patrick E. Gorman - Socialist supporter of CPUSA fronts and causes. Identified in the CPUSA newspaper Daily World, February 15, 1979, as part of "a committee co-chaired by Mrs. Brenetta Howell Barrett, the Meatcutters International Board Chairman Patrick Gorman and Gus Savage to honor CPUSA leader Claude Lightfoot. The article was written by CPUSA member Ted Pearson, a leader of the Illinois Communist Party and was entitled "800 crowd Chicago hotel to honor Claude Lightfoot". Among those present were Pete Seeger and Rev.Frederick Douglas Kirkpatrick , with telegrams sent to the affair by Gorman, US Representative John Conyers , Rev. Willie T. Barrows - Deputy Director of Operation PUSH; former Southern Christian Leadership Conference president, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, and above cited Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett
• Edward Lamb - Leftist reported millionaire who supported CPUSA fronts and causes for decades, especially those related to supporting the Soviet Union.
• Rev. Richard Morford - Identified as a member of the CPUSA. His religious credentials have been called into question as to whether he actually had a legitimate clergyman certification/schooling. Several identified members of the Communist Party USA were "clergymen", i.e. Howard Melish, Joseph Fletcher, Stephen Fritchman etc.
• Ava Helen Pauling - Wife of identified member of the CPUSA ,Linus Pauling, a college professor and Nobel Prize winning chemist.
• Linus Pauling - Identified member of the CPUSA. See testimony of former CPUSA leader Louis Budenz in hearings on Tax-Exempt Foundations, House Select Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations and Comparable Organizations, December 23, 1952, p. 723
• Jessica Smith - Identified member of the CPUSA since the 1920's. Wife of Soviet agent Harold Ware and later married to CPUSA attorney and identified member of the Party, John Abt. See: The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors, p. 186, Regnery, 2000, Herbert Romestein and Eric Breindel

"Victory over German fascism"

On Friday, May 16, 1975, a similar affair was held to honor the 30th Anniversary Victory Over German Fascism in Chicago. The same three Soviet speakers were there who was also in New York City, with Norm Roth, president UAW Local No. 6, presiding over it. The event was sponsored by two CPUSA fronts, the Chicago Council for American Soviet Friendship, the Chicago affiliate of the NCASF and the Chicago-GDR Friendship Society, the Chicago affiliate of the American-GDR Friendship Society

Jessica Smith Anniversary Celebration, Tribute and Luncheon

"A Celebration, A Tribute, A Luncheon" To Honor Jessica Smith on her 80th birthday and 40th year as Editor of New World Review (NWR)" was placed in the CPUSA's newspaper Daily World (DW), of Jan. 3, 1976, p. 12?. Smith was an identified Soviet spy who had been married to two Soviet/CPUSA member spies. NWR was a congressionally identified CPUSA, Soviet propaganda publication. Among the participants at this event was

• Pete Seeger

National Coordinating Center in Solidarity With Chile, 1976

The identified CPUSA front, the National Coordinating Center in Solidarity With Chile (NCCSC), exposed in 1975 by Rep. Larry McDonald (D-GA), in the [[Congressional Records of , entered an updated report on this group in the Congressional Record (CR) of May 4, 1976, entitled, "Marxist Coordinate Anti-Chile Campaign"..

In this report, McDonald described the role of this organization in supporting the attacks on the Chilean junta that overthrew marxist-dictator-in-progress, Salvador Allende. He went into detail about their holding a "National Legislative Conference on Chile, in Washington, D.C. from May 16-17, 1976 and provided their "List of Sponsors" in his report. Among those sponsoring this event were:

• Pete Seeger
• Prof. Noam Chomsky
• Morton Sobell - convicted and later admitted Soviet spy, and his second wife Helen Sobell
• Members of Congress - James Abourezk, Bella Abzug, George Brown, Ron Dellums, former Senator Fred Harris, Michael Harrington, George Miller, Toby Moffett.

A complete list of these "sponsors" will appear in the KW section on the NCCSC.

Guardian 30th Anniversary Political Meeting and Celebration 1978

A notice of the "Guardian 30th Anniversary Political Meeting & Celebration" was placed in that newspaper's Oct. 4, 1978 issue "marking 30 years of teh Guardian's contributions to the people's movements and a renewed dedication to the struggles of today". Scheduled for October 27, 1978, as the Washington Irving High School, New York City, it promoted meeting "with representatives of the people in struggle including:

• Pete Seeger

[See the "Guardian" section of KW for a complete list of guests/participants mentioned in this ad]

Guardian 35th Anniversary Fundraising appeal

• Pete Seeger was listed in a Guardian fundraising appeal, issue of ####, 1983, "Now, during its 35th anniversary year, join us in offering much needed support to the gtuardian -- an essential voice committed to today's struggles for peace, liberation and social justice".

Fellow "signers" included key members of the Hanoi Lobby such as identified KGB agent Wilfred Burchett (See his WK page for details), Norma Becker, Leslie Cagan, david Dellinger, [{Sidney Lens]], and wife of convicted/admitted Soviet spy Morton Sobell, Helen Sobell.

Socialist Debs award

Every year since the mid 1960s the Indiana based Eugene V. Debs Foundation holds Eugene Debs Award Banquet in Terre Haute, to honor an approved social or labor activist. The 1979 honoree, was Pete Seeger.

Palestine Human Rights Campaign project

Pete Seeger was listed as an "Endorser of Emergency Committee' Appeal" re the expulsion of two "West Bank Palestinian Mayors from their homes May 3, 1980" for their support of PLO terrorism..

• The PHRC was a PLO-support organization set up in the U.S. by the Zogby Brothers, among others (i.e. Jim Zogby and John Zogby in late 1977 or early 1978. See the PHRC section here at KW for more information.

"February 1980 PHRC Letter/Letterhead" fundraising letter for their Spring 1980 program"

"We hope that you have found our work worthy of support, because we are now making an urgent appeal for contributions to support our Spring '80 program".

Sponsors (partial list):

• Pete Seeger

New American Movement

In 1981 the Lucy Parsons Chapter of the New American Movement and friends honored Milt Cohen and Vicky Starr for their many years of activity in the causes for people's progress and democracy. The members of NAM listed were: Alba Alexander, Bill Barclay, Dan Gilman, Roger Gilman, Debby Holdstein, Rob Persons, Miriam Rabban, Ralph Scott, Julie Skurski, Peg Stroebel, Monty Tarbox and Ed Kucinsky. The friends of NAM listed were: Florence Green and Ben Green, Bob Reed of Seattle, Judy MacLean of San Francisco, Max Gordon of NYC, Quentin Young and Ruth Young of Chicago, Clarence Lipschutz and Peggy Lipschutz of Evanston, Miriam Bazell, Florence Gibbon of Chicago, Bronwen Zwirner of New Bedford, Leonard Lamb and Constance Lamb of Astoria, Helene Susman and Bill Susman of Great Neck, Corinne Golden of Chicago, Robert Havighurst and Edythe Havighurst of Chicago, Sara Heslep, Sandy Barty, Clara Diamont, Pete Seeger, Steve Nelson, Hannah Frisch, Sue Cohen, Gil Green of NYC, Joan Powers, Clarence Stoecker and Rebecca Hobbs of Chicago, James Bond of Oakland, Pat McGauley, Gabby Rosenstein of Santa Monica, Karl Cannon and Fay Cannon of Camarillo, Loriel Busenbard and Steven Starr, Daniel Starr, Beth Starr and Bob Starr (children of Vicky Starr) were listed as friends of the Lucy Parsons Chapter of the New American Movement.

Center for Cuban Studies

A notice appeared in the January 9, 1982 edition of the CPUSA newspaper, the Daily World (DW), p. 11 announcing a benefit concert for the Castro-created/aided Center for Cuban Studies (CCS), a propaganda operation run by Sandra Levinson and endorsed by the Castro Lobby. See the KW page on the CCS for more details. The notice is as follows:

"The Center for Cuban Studies proudly announces a benefit concert for its TENTH ANNIVERSARY with

• Roy Brown - singer, musician. A long time supporter of CPUSA fronts/causes
• Pete Seeger - former CPUSA member who never left communist causes
• Daniel Viglietti

and from Cuba, Sara Gonzalez

Saturday, January 30, 1982, 8:00 PM, Hunter College Auditorium, Park and 69th, New York Tickets: $25, $15, $10, $5 from Center for Cuban Studies, 220 E. 23rd St, NY/ 685-8086 10% discount groups of 10 or more; 20% groups of 20-plus

[End of notice]

Organizing Committee for Federation for Progress

A pamphlet obtained on March 27, 1982 in Washington, D.C. was entitled "A National Call To Form a Coalition Opposed to the Reagan Administration", "For Jobs or Income, Peace and Equality", issued by the "Organizing Committee for Federation for Progress" Federation For Progress (FFP). Among the signers of this "call" was:

• Pete Seeger - Musician

This "call" was signed by a mix of Communist Party USA members and/or supporters, assorted Marxist organizations supporters (non-CPUSA groups), radical lawyers and black Marxists. This letter will be reprinted en toto in the "Federation For Progress" page at KW

We Will Make Peace Prevail!

On March 28, 1982 the New World Review organized a gala luncheon "We Will Make Peace Prevail! Disarmament Over Confrontation, Life Over Death", at the Grand Ballroom, Hotel Roosevelt, New York City. Virtually all participants were identified as Communist Party USA.

Pete Seeger and Toshi Seeger were listed on the Committee of Sponsors.

National Council of America-Soviet Friendship Peace Rally

A notice appeared in the Communist Party's newspaper the Daily World (DW) announcing the following: "Peace Rally & Concert" with

• Richie Havens
• Pete Seeger
• Ossie Davis
• New Song Quintet
• Rep. Parren Mitchell - (D-Md)
• Anne Braden
• Ernest de Maio and
• A Senior Official from the Soviet Embassy

May 7 (1982), 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall tickets $5-$25 at box office (212) 247-7459 or call (212) 679-4577

National Council of American-Soviet Friendship (NCASF) - this was congressional cited as a Soviet/KGB front many times and later reaffirmed in the 1980's in special FBI reports on "Soviet Active Measures" given to Congress.

Preparatory Committee 12th World Festival of Youth and Students

The April 1985 insert Dynamic of the Young Communist League (YCL), appeared in a April 1985 edition of the CPUSA's newspaper, the Daily World.

Among the "Partial list of endorsers as of March 20, 1985", was:

• Pete Seeger - Singer/songwriter

The National Preparatory Committee was the World Festival of Youth and Students WFYS arm in the U.S., created and dominated by the CPUSA and their youth arm, the YCL. The WFYS was an apparently a project of the Soviet front, the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) though this was totally covered up in the article.

DSA concert

On April 23, 1991 Democratic Socialists of America brought together a crowd of at least 800 to the Riverside Church in New York City to hear Billy Bragg, Pete Seeger, Gretchen Reed, Robin Holcomb, and Kate McGarrigle and Anna McGarrigle. Amid the stunning atmosphere of the church, the performers entertained and inspired the audience with songs and stories of the struggle for social justice. DSA's Rafael PiRoman served as Master of Ceremonies and Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger introduced the event. The concert was sponsored by Youth For Jobs, Peace and Freedom, a project of the Institute for Democratic Socialism and the DSA Youth Section.

CoC National Conference endorser

In 1992 Pete Seeger, Beacon New York, endorsed the Committees of Correspondence national conference Conference on Perspectives for Democracy and Socialism in the 90s held at Berkeley California July 17-19.

Honoring the Sidels

New York City Democratic Socialists of America held a fundraising bash on December 7 1992, at which longtime activists Ruth Sidel and Victor Sidel were awarded the Paul Du Brul Memorial Award. Approximately 150 people gathered to honor the Sidels, to enjoy a performance by Pete Seeger and Randy Harris, and to hear remarks by Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger and other political and labor leaders.

Peace for Cuba Appeal

In 1994 Pete Seeger 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, Congressman John Conyers and Charles Rangel.

Massachusetts May Day

In May 1995 the Communist Party USA newspaper Peoples Weekly World published a May Day supplement. Included was a page offering May Day greetings to Massachusetts Communists Lew Johnson, Laura Ross, and Ann Timpson. Endorsers of the greeting included Pete Seeger.

IPS Twentieth Annual Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards

A notice of a reception and awards program of the Marxist [Institute for Policy Studies]] (IPS) appeared in the [[Washington City Paper, P. 36, Sept. 20, 1996, edition. It read in part as:

"The Institute for Policy Studies invited you to the Twentieth Annual Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards, Thursday, Oct. 3, The Lincoln Theater, 1215 U Street NW, Washington, D.C. 6:OO PM - Reception 7:OO PM - Special music guests: Pete Seeger (on banjo) & Rhythm Express (with Maria Breyer of STOMP)

[KW: The awards were named after former Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier and IPS staffer Ronnie Karpen Moffitt, who were killed in 1976 by a bomb planted in their car in Washington, D.C. Several members or former members of the Chilean junta's intelligence agency were indicted and convicted in this bombing, with a couple going to jail. Letelier was identified as not only a Chilean Marxist leader but also an agent of the Cuban Secret Police, the DGI which was basically controlled by the Soviet KGB.]

Then it listed the awards recipients: Full notice to be found at the KW page for the Institute for Policy Studies

Letter to the Editor, People's Weekly World, October 12, 1996, Page 16

In the Oct. 12, 1996 edition of the CPUSA's "People's Weekly World" PWW, Peter Seeger wrote the following "Letters" - "Music to our ears" - "(Your) fine editorials, and, in the same issue, the statistical info comparing social welfare $ to corporate wlefare $ and Pentagon $ prompt me to this belated contribution." Peter Seeger, Beacon, New York

Communist "Manifestivity"

On October 30 and 31, 1998 the Brecht Forum presented the "Communist Manifestivity to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the Communist Manifesto" at Cooper Union's Great Hall, New York.

Individual endorsers of the event included Pete Seeger.

Robeson event sponsors

On May 31 1998 the Peoples Weekly World held a Paul Robeson birth centennial celebration in New York, at the Henry Winston Auditorium.

Speakers included Gus Hall, chairman of the Communist Party USA and Roger Green of the NY State Assembly.

Sponsors of the event included poet Amina Baraka, Grace T. Bassett, actress Vinie Burrows, former Peoples Voice editor Marvel Cooke, Councilmember Tom Duane, Attorney Rob Ellis, Assemblymember Roger Green, Gus Hall, Councilmember Bill Perkins, labor unionist Bobbie Rabinowitz, actor John Randolph, Pete Robinson, poet Sonia Sanchez, singer Pete Seeger, labor unionist Chris Silvera, PWW editor Tim Wheeler, New York City Coalition of Black Trade Unionists president Jim Webb and labor unionist Ira Williams.

Rosenberg Fund for Children

In 2003 Pete Seeger was on the Advisory Board of the Rosenberg Fund for Children.

Not In Our Name Newspaper Ad, New York Times, January, 2003

On January , 2003, a group of Maoist marxists and other communists and supporters known as Not In Our Name (NION) placed an ad in the "New York Times" against the coming war in Iraq, which featured "A box at the bottom of the ad asks readers to send donations to an organization called the Bill of Rights Foundation.

York wrote the following about the Bill of Rights Foundation;

"The Bill of Rights Foundation is a New York-based group that has for years devoted nearly all of its funds to the defense of Abu-Jamal Mumia Abu-Jamal, who shot and killed a Philadelphia police officer in 1981."

• Judith Levin - President of the Foundation
• Leonard Weinglass - for a long time he was Mumia's lead attorney
• Marlene Kamish - succeeding attorney for Mumia

Among the "more than 100 well-known Americans" who signed the antiwar statement/ad were:

• Pete Seeger
• Ed Asner
• Martin Sheen
• Susan Sarandon
• Kurt Vonnegut
• Alice Walker
• Barbara Kingsolver
• Graham Nash
• Bonnie Raitt

Peoples World reader

In 2004 Pete Seeger was a reader of the Communist Party USA, Peoples Weekly World.

Symposium on James and Esther Jackson

On October 28, 2006, an event entitled "James and Esther Jackson, the American Left and the Origins of the Modern Civil Rights Movement" was held at the Tamiment Library of New York University. Three panels of academics and activists delivered papers illuminating the lives of the James Jackson and his wife Esther Jackson, their co-workers and the struggles in which they participated that helped shape developments in the United States from the late 1930s to the present. Angela Davis, David Levering Lewis, Percy Sutton, Pete Seeger, Michael Nash, Jean Carey Bond, Michael Anderson, Maurice Jackson and Charlene Mitchell delivered papers and spoke at the event. Sam Webb, Debbie Amis Bell and Daniel Rubin were among the estimated 250 individuals who attended the event.

Endorsed people's World

Seeger made a personal endorsement of the Communist Party USA's People's World of June 2, 2007, on page 2 of the publication.

Obama inauguration

In 2008, Pete Seeger sang at a concert to benefit the Obama presidential campaign.

Pete Seeger at the Obama inauguration party

At Barack Obama's inauguration concert Pete Seeger sang fellow communist Woody Guthrie's socialist anthem "This Land is Your Land" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Fred Klonsky-son of communist Robert Klonsky, former Students for a Democratic Society activist Progressives for Obama supporter and brother of Obama supporter Mike Klonsky, marked the occasion on his blog;

How ironic. Here was the legendary Pete Seeger singing for the president-elect at the Lincoln Memorial. Seeger, a life-long radical, one-time communist, fighter for working people and defender of the environment from corporate greed. For the first time many got to hear the original Woody Guthrie lyrics to This Land is Your Land, which include these words:

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;

Sign was painted, it said private property;

But on the back side it didn’t say nothing;

That side was made for you and me.

In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;

By the relief office, I’d seen my people.

As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,

Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me,

As I go walking that freedom highway;

Nobody living can ever make me turn back

This land was made for you and me.

Chicano movement

The 40th Anniversary Commemoration Committee of the Chicano Moratoriums was formed in the summer 2009 by the Chair of the National Chicano Moratorium Committee of August 29, 1970 along with two independent Chicano Movement historians whom although not of the baby boomer generation, have become inspired by the Movimiento. The organization posted a list of significant “Chicano movement” activists on its website which included Pete Seeger.

Nobel Prize for Pete Campaign

Eleanor Walden set up a campaign that aims to promote Seeger for the Nobel Peace Prize Award. California Rep. Barbara Lee nominated him in 2009, but the nomination must be submitted every year to be considered.

The website asks for visitors to sign a petition to support his nomination. The Kendra Alexander Foundation is the fiscal supporter, which takes individual donations on behalf of the campaign and sends them to the campaign.

National Jobs For All Coalition

In 2010, Pete Seeger, was listed as serving on the advisory board of the Democratic Socialists of America dominated National Jobs For All Coalition.

"Free the Cuban 5"

From an April 8,2011 letter.

"Dear President Carter:

We, Actors and Artists United for the Freedom of the Cuban 5, want to extend our deepest gratitude for your recent visit to Cuba, as well as our support for your statements promoting improved relations between our countries.

Your call for the release of Gerardo Hernandez Nordelo, Antonio Guerrero Rodriguez, Fernando Gonzalez Llort, Ramon Labanino Salazar, and Rene Gonzalez Sehwerert, known as the Cuban 5, and your willingness to visit with their family members in Cuba mean a great deal to all involved. We strongly agree that there is no reason to keep these men, who were simply trying to protect their country from terrorism, imprisoned any longer...

Further, we enthusiastically support you in having subsequent discussions with President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and hope you will call for urgent action on their part to make right this unjust situation.

Again, we thank you and look forward to the possibility of improved relations and future visits to Cuba.

With respect,

Ed Asner, Co-Chair
, Danny Glover, Co-Chair, Jackson Browne
, James Cromwell, Mike Farrell, Richard Foos, Elliott Gould, Chrissie Hand
, Francisco Letelier, Esai Morales, Graham Nash
, Bonnie Raitt, Susan Sarandon, Pete Seeger, Martin Sheen
, Betty Sheinbaum, Stanley Sheinbaum, Andy Spahn, Oliver Stone
,Haskell Wexler

Peace Action Advisory Board

Peace Action Advisory Board as of 2014;

• Christine Ahn, Korea Policy Institute
• Medea Benjamin, Code Pink
• Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies
• Julian Bond, Chairman Emeritus of the NAACP
• Blanche Weisen Cook, Distinguished Professor of History, John Jay College
• David Cortright, Fourth Freedom Forum
• Daniel Ellsberg, Activist
• Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Retired Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit
• Bob King, President, United Auto Workers International
• The Rev. Michael A. Kinnamon, School of Theology and Ministry Seattle University
• Fred Mason, Maryland State & DC AFL-CIO
• Frances Fox Piven, Educator
• Pete Seeger, Songwriter and Folk Singer
• Cornel West, Center for African American Studies Princeton University
• Ann Wright, Former U.S. Army Colonel

Harry Bridges Project Advisory Board

As of 2014 Pete Seeger was still listed on the The Harry Bridges Project Advisory Board. The project was formed to promote the work an ideals of the late Harry Bridges, an iconic Bay Area labor leader and one time secret member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party USA.

External links

• Chicano Moratorium website
• Nobel Prize for Pete Campaign website

References

Template:Eugene V. Debs Award recipients Template:Endorsers of the Conference on Perspectives for Democracy and Socialism in the 90s