Did Socialists Choose Democrat's VP Candidate?

It is a central theme of this blog that Barack Obama was promoted to the presidency of the United States, by several Marxist groups including Democratic Socialists of America.

While this sounds far - fetched to some, there is nothing new about socialists working inside the Democratic Party to put "their" candidates into very high positions.

The late Millie Jeffrey was a leader in the United Auto Workers and an high ranking Democrat for decades.

In 2000 President Bill Clinton presented Millie Jeffrey, with the nation's highest civilian honor bestowed by the U.S. Government, the Presidential Medal Of Freedom, with a citation, saying those awarded "have helped America to achieve freedom."


Millie Jeffrey, red dress

In the 1950 and 60s, Jeffrey was a Democratic Party National committeewoman from Michigan. In 1960, she helped campaign for John F Kennedy, as a member of the Democratic National Committee.

After mobilizing the Michigan Democratic Party behind JFK in 1960, she then reportedly pushed JFK to initiate the Peace Corps.

Millie Jeffrey quit the DNC in the late 60s to protest the Vietnam War and to work for Robert Kennedy.

Less publicized were the facts that Millie Jeffrey was also a long time leader of Democratic Socialists of America, a 'midwife' to the radical Students for a Democratic Society and a veteran of the communist infiltrated Womens International League for Peace and Freedom.

Jeffrey also traveled to the Soviet Union in 1969 and to the Peoples Republic of China in 1974.

According to Democratic Socialists of America member and prominent journalist Harold Meyerson, Millie Jeffrey remained highly influential inside the Democratic Party.

From DSA's Democratic Left, Spring 2004

In the early ‘70s, during her final years on the staff of the United Auto Workers, she helped found the National Women’s Political Caucus and launched a decade-long campaign to have Democratic National Convention delegate slots divided equally between men and women.''

From her perch on several Democratic Party commissions, and using the contacts she’d acquired in 40 years of liberal activism, Millie built enough support for this wild-eyed notion that it was adopted by the 1980 convention.

That wasn't all Millie Jeffrey achieved. She and a group of "co-conspirators" succeeded in placing left leaning Geraldine Ferraro on the Democrat ticket as the Party's first female vice Presidential candidate.

Millie then became “the unelected leader,” in the words of her co-conspirator Joanne Howes, of a committee of seven Democratic women promoting the idea of a female vice presidential candidate on the 1984 ticket. “By the fall of 1983,” recalls Howes, “we came to the conclusion that the right person was Gerry Ferraro” – then an obscure member of Congress from Queens. That required
augmenting Ferraro’s visibility and bona fides, and as a result of “Millie’s strategic thinking,” says Howes, the group successfully pressured the party and Walter Mondale to make Ferraro chair of the convention platform committee. The rest is herstory.

This is a good insight into how the US left works inside the "Democratic" Party. A small group of Party 'insiders', led by a well connected socialist, had a good shot at putting 'their' candidate into the Number 2 spot in the White House.

Let's all be thankful for Ronald Reagan.

In 20 years time, will Democratic Socialists of America, or their Communist Party and Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism allies finally admit their role in putting Barack Obama into the White House?

Socialist Bill Lucy Slams Arizona, Calls Obama "Friend"

Cross posted from KeyWiki Blog

From the Peoples World


Calling the recently passed Arizona anti-immigrant law a "most dreadful piece of legislation" and likening it to apartheid South Africa's passbook program, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists President Bill Lucy told the 700 delegates and guests at the organization's 39th convention in Detroit that the CBTU would be moving its 2011 convention from its scheduled location in Phoenix.

"We have to join in that fight," said Lucy, even though his organization may face severe penalties for breaking its hotel contract.

Lucy, who is also secretary-treasurer of the 1.6-million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and a long time member of the marxist Democratic Socialists of America said that the law targets immigrants who "have as much right to be here as any other nationality."

"People want a decent job and better life and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that," he said. "We need an immigration law to bring 12 million people out of the shadows and give them legitimacy. Yes we can!"

Lucy also went on to praise president Barack Obama a long time associate of Democratic Socialists of America.

"President Obama is our friend; we want to be seen with him day and night. He's our best chance" said Lucy.

Lucy reminded everyone that President Obama inherited the greatest mess since FDR. Our economy was "going down the sewer" until this president came into office, Lucy noted. Obama has the sensibilities and program to reclaim this country for regular people, he said, but he warned that "Republicans will never vote for anything that allows him to claim success bringing this country back."

Short Blog Holiday

Hi people. I have to take 3 days off to complete a long overdue project.

Please take the time to check out the 104 Obama files to the right, if you haven't already done so.

Also please note the PayPal button, if you'd like to help keep the information flowing.

See you soon.

Trevor L

Communist Front Wants Gitmo Closed

Cross posted from KeyWiki Blog

The Soviet Union's most important front organization the World Peace Council, is still active and as anti American as ever.

From the Communist Party of Australia's Guardian;


The President of the World Peace Council, Maria do Socorro Gomes has slammed the US government for maintaining in Cuba the Guantánamo naval base "against the will of the Cuban people."

In a Seminar on Peace for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases underway in Guantánamo, Socorro Gomes (a communist member of the Brazillian parliament) said the "Gitmo" base is an "insult to the Cuban people" and it should be closed.

Socorro Gomes demanded the unconditional return of the territory that was seized by the US through the Platt Amendment in 1903. “The naval base in Guantánamo, turned into jail and centre of tortures for eight years, reaffirms the hypocritical nature and the double standard of US policy, which has no moral to talk of democracy and human rights,” she said in the seminar attended by some 80 delegates.

According to Gomes the establishment of new bases in Honduras, Panama and Colombia proves the objective of those centres is to overthrow revolutionary movements and governments, and not the struggle against terrorism and drug trafficking, as Washington has put forward.

The Brazilian delegate demanded Washington lift the economic, financial and commercial blockade against Cuba and expressed her support for the release from jail of five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters "unfairly imprisoned" in that country.

Obama File 104 Radical Royalty - Obama's Federal Reserve Pick - Sarah Bloom Raskin

Obama file 103 here

A seat on the U.S Federal Reserve Board, carries tremendous power. The seven members of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. A full term is fourteen years. During that time, a board member can influence the financial policies of the world's most powerful economy. In some ways the seven men and women, have more power than Congress or even the President himself.

That's why appointments to the Federal Reserve Board deserve as much scrutiny as those to the Supreme Court.

President Barack Obama recently made three nominations to the Federal Reserve Board, Janet Yellen, Peter Diamond and Sarah Bloom Raskin.

Janet Yellen, Peter Diamond, Sarah Bloom Raskin

While most "Obama watchers" said little, some commentators from the left did take notice;

Democratic Socialists of America member, Larry Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute was pleased with the appointments;

I think these are all great choices, and ones that will move Fed policy in the needed direction -- responsive to the needs of middle-class and working families.

Of the three named, one stands out in particular- Sarah Bloom Raskin. That surname should ring alarm bells.

That's because Sarah Bloom married into what is perhaps the closest America has to a radical "royal family".

Sarah Bloom Raskin is the wife of Jamin (Jamie) Raskin, a legal academic, Maryland State Senator and the son of Marcus Raskin - founder of the deservedly notorious Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).

In 1963 Marcus Raskin and his partner, the late Richard Barnet founded their radical "think tank" in Washington DC. IPS quickly grew to become a highly influential, source of ideas, guidance and training for the U.S. and international left. Its critics claimed that IPS consistently supported policies that aided the foreign policy goals of the Soviet Union and weakened the position of the United States.

Since its founding, IPS has consistently followed a pro-socialist line on foreign policy, defense and the economy and has spawned a large number of spin-offs, other think tanks and public affairs organizations following the same radical agenda.

In 1978, in an article in National Review, Brian Crozier , director of the London-based Institute for the Study of Conflict described IPS as the "perfect intellectual front for Soviet activities which would be resisted if they were to originate openly from the KGB".

IPS became a place where leftist Congressmen, Senators and Capitol Hill staffers could mingle with third world radicals, East Bloc diplomats and even a few identified KGB agents.

The FBI was intensely interested in Raskin's institute, until IPS sued the agency and extracted a written agreement forbidding any further FBI surveillance - an agreement, I believe, that still stands today.

In the early 1990s IPS worked with Democratic Socialists of America and socialist Congressman Bernie Sanders to set up the now more than 80 strong Congressional Progressive Caucus. In 2003 IPS also helped set up the communist dominated "peace" umbrella organization, United for Peace and Justice.


Jamie Raskin admits that he grew up "in an environment of progressive politics".

An Harvard graduate and a "lifelong progressive Democrat", Jamie Raskin has brought "innovative ideas and a hands-on approach to government and politics at every level."

He has served on the Montgomery County Hate Crimes Commission, the Takoma Park Election Redistricting Task Force, and the Takoma Park Gun Policy Task Force.

In 1992, he served on President Clinton's Justice Department Transition Team for the Civil Rights Division. He was elected as a Kerry-Edwards Delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 2004.

A member of the board of FairVote, the nation’s leading electoral-reform group, Raskin is best known as "a champion of voters’ rights". In his 2003 book, “Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court versus The American People,” Raskin documented the Rehnquist Court majority’s "assault on voting rights" in the 2000 election, and "placed Bush v. Gore in the context of a series of Supreme Court decisions undermining the participatory rights of the people."

Focusing on the Rehnquist majority’s statement that the “individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote” for president, Raskin argued for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to vote (and to get one’s vote counted) to all Americans.

Raskin has served as a Washington-area Board Member for the Rev. Jesse Jackson's heavily communist infiltrated National Rainbow Coalition.

He has worked closely with far left Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. to advance a voting rights amendment in Congress, and with IPS affiliated Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton to "advance a voting rights agenda for the people of Washington, D.C."

Unsurprisingly Jamie Raskin has done pro bono legal work for SEIU, ACORN, Greenpeace and the radical led Students Against Sweatshops. He has written for two Democratic Socialists of America and IPS affiliated journals, The Nation and In These Times.

Raskin has also served on the board of Progressive Democrats of America, an IPS spinoff , which is effectively the activist wing of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

On March 10, 2006, IPS supporters, Yolande Fox and former Algerian Ambassador, Cherif Guellal hosted a book launch, in their Washington home, for Jamie Raskin's most recent book entitled "Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court Versus the American People" at their home in Georgetown, Washington, D.C.

Fox was a former Miss America (1951) from Alabama. Cherif Guellal was a former top lieutenant to Algerian revolutionary leader Ahmed Ben Bella - winner of the 1964 Lenin Peace Prize. Guellal also had ties to the British Fabian Socialist Society in the early 1960s. During the 1967, Six-Day War, Algeria severed diplomatic relations to protest United States support for Israel. Instead of returning to Algeria, Guellal became a Fellow at IPS.

Other attendees included Jamie's father and Marcus Raskin, , James L. Hudson and Ira Lowe.

Cherif Guellal, Marcus Raskin, James L. Hudson

Jim Hudson, a long time Washington "insider' was recently appointed by President Obama to the Directorship of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Ira Lowe is a trial lawyer and IPS supporter. He formerly represented IPS affiliate and Progressives for Obama founder Tom Hayden.

Incidentally, IPS Trustee , Democratic Socialists of America member and Progressives for Obama co-founder Barbara Ehrenreich said of Raskin's book "This brilliantly argued and meticulously researched book both alarms and inspires"

Sarah Bloom has no known direct ties to the Institute for Policy Studies, but she did work for IPS connected Washington law firm Arnold & Porter from 1988 to 1993.

A current Arnold & Porter partner , Jeremy Karpatkin, is a former Democratic Socialists of America youth organizer. In 1992, in Chicago Karpatkin directed field operations during the successful Senate run of far left Democratic Party operative Carol Moseley Braun. Coincidentally Barack Obama ran the Project Vote voter registration drive that year that helped Moseley Braun to win. In 2004 Obama took over the same Senate seat.


Nearly three decades earlier, pioneering trial lawyer Charles Halpern became involved with IPS through Arnold & Porter. The firm handled IPS's legal work and partner Thurman Porter had been an IPS trustee.

Halpern became corporate secretary to IPS, keeping minutes and records. he began to attend IPS seminars and parties at the Institute and at the home of founder Marcus Raskin, where he met radicals "like Paul Goodman and Ivan Ilich".

When Raskin and several other activists were arrested for conspiring to obstruct the military draft, Halpern helped with the defense. Halpern flew with Raskin to a meeting with the other defendants and their lawyers at the Greenwich Village home of radical lawyer and secret Communist Party USA member Leonard Boudin - father of Weather Underground terrorist Kathie Boudin. Fellow terrorist Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn would later raise Kathie Boudin's son Chesa Boudin after she was jailed for her terrorist crimes.

The radical Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) was founded in 1968 by Charles Halpern and three other lawyers, with the assistance of former Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, who chaired the CLASP board.

A veteran of several communist fronts, Goldberg was, in the late 1940s, a Chicago law partner of Abner Mikva. A life long time associate of communists and socialists and an IPS affiliate, Mikva went on to employ a young law clerk named Elena Kagan and to mentor and befriend a young Chicago lawyer named Barack Obama.

In 1999 Charles Halpern went on to found a New York based "think tank" Demos, an official partner organization of IPS. Among those recruited to set up and join the first board of Demos was a then obscure Illinois State senator named.......Barack Obama.

Several years later a young San Francisco communist named Van Jones was also recruited to serve on the Demos Board.

Strangely, Jones was suggested as a possible "Green Jobs Czar" for the Obama administration by Demos and IPS staffer Chuck Collins, in an article written several months before the 2008 Presidential elections.


Robert Kuttner is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos and serves on the board of the Economic Policy Institute with Larry Mishel. He is closely aligned to to Democratic Socialists of America, which has described Kuttner as a "socialist".

Kuttner was very pleased when Obama nominated Sarah Raskin to the Fed. He wrote in the Huffington Post March 14, 2010;

Obama has also just appointed three relative progressives to the Federal Reserve, including Sarah Bloom Raskin of Maryland, widely considered the best of the state financial regulators. There is not a single businessman or banker in the lot...

Will Sarah Bloom Raskin sail into fourteen years at the helm of the U.S. economy, on a pleasant face and zero scrutiny?

Or will Senate Republicans and the media do their job and ask some serious questions?

Obama file 105 here

The People Speak/Boo

A condescending leftist professor, hears the "voice of the people".

Sandra Soto, PhD, is a professor of “gender and women’s studies” at the University of Arizona. Here's the reaction she gets when she criticizes the Arizona immigration law, at a University of Arizona ceremony
.


From Breitbart

Post - American Bandstand

This is cool.

Klein on "The Manchurian President"

Aaaron LKlein discusses his best selling book, The Manchurian President.

Bravo Les Phillip

Les Phillip is running for Congress as a Republican in the 5th District of Alabama.

I wish more Republicans had the 'nads to run ads like this.

Bravo!



Thanks to Nick.

From the Communist Party USA Convention - Joelle Fishman on Defeating the "Extreme Right"

Cross posted from KeyWiki Blog

Joelle Fishman, from Connecticut is chair of the Communist Party USA's political action commission, the Party organ dedicated to coordinating the communist's electoral work with their labor union, "community organization" and Democratic Party allies.

She is also the daughter-in-law of WW2 era Soviet spy, Victor Perlo.

At the Communist Party convention over the weekend, Fishman told delegates that the "party plans to focus on key House and Senate races around the country" to "decisively defeat the extreme right..."

From the Peoples World

"The 2010 elections are the next step of our continuing project to decisively defeat the extreme right and expand democratic rights, including ridding the federal government of entrenched corporate interests," Joelle Fishman, chair of the party's political action commission told the delegates.

"Newt Gingrich is attempting to frame the 2010 elections with a new "Contract ON America," to whip up hysteria that government spending for social needs is against the interests of working people."

The CPUSA, like many progressive economists, has been saying that it is precisely massive government spending that can create the millions of jobs needed to solve the economic recession and cure deficit problems over the long term. The party says nothing less than a new WPA type program is needed immediately.

Fishman said there were many encouraging signs already in the electoral arena.

She noted how the International Association of Machinists played a critical role in Pennsylvania where voters turned Sen. Arlen Specter out in favor of Rep. Joe Sestak. Specter had double crossed the labor movement on election law reform by his waffling on support for the Employee Free Choice Act.

"In Western Pennsylvania, Republicans poured $10 million into capturing the seat held by Rep. John Murtha, but they did not succeed," said Fishman. "They rejected slanders against Democrat Mark Critz and attacks on Nancy Pelosi and President Obama."

Fishman also noted how conservative Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas was forced into a runoff election with labor-backed Bob Halter after she voted against health care reform.

The party plans to focus on key House and Senate races around the country, she said.

Up for election this year are 435 House seats and a third of the Senate seats. For the GOP to gain control of the House there would have to be a shift of 45 seats. For Republicans to gain control of the Senate 6 seats would have to shift.

The top "battleground states," according to Fishman, are California, Florida, Illinois, Missouri and Ohio, all states where there are large Communist Party organizations.

From the Communist Party USA Convention - Jarvis Tyner on Tea Party "Fascism"

Cross posted from KeyWiki Blog

Hatred for the "Tea Party" movement was very evident at the Communist Party USA convention over the weekend.

From the Peoples World



Speaking about the Tea Party movement today at the Communist Party's 29th National Convention in New York, Jarvis Tyner, the party's vice chairman declared, "If you can't smell the stench of fascism, you may need some aroma therapy."

The remarks were made during a morning session in which Tyner called upon the party to mobilize against what he said is a resurgence of racism that aims to derail the progressive movements in the country. Also during that morning session party leaders put forward a plan to make the 2010 elections the focus of the organization's work for the coming year.

Tyner said that a "new racist counteroffensive" after the election of the nation's first African American president threatens the progressive labor-led coalition that formed during the 2008 elections and is continuing to make its mark today.

"Once a Black president and a reformer was elected and presented his program, the fight against racism assumed an even greater importance because it, along with anti-communism, is the main weapon the right is using to defeat progressive change," he said.

Tyner blasted Sarah Palin for her insistence that Teabaggers are not racist but just "angry."

"You ever met a racist that wasn't angry?" he asked. He noted that the Teabaggers, an all white group, are lashing out at immigrants and calling for "taking back our country," not from corporate control but from the first African American president.

Citing not just Palin but also Rand Paul, the teabagger who won the GOP primary in Kentucky and the designers of Arizona's draconian anti-immigrant law, Tyner said "these people are to the right of George Bush" and that defeating racists was key to advancing the struggles of all workers.

From the Communist Party USA Convention - Sam Webb

Cross posted from KeyWiki Blog

Party Chairman Sam Webb opened the 29th Convention of the Communist Party USA, May 21 in New York.



From the Peoples World;

Saying the far-right political forces in the United States have launched a "new racist counteroffensive" in order to "strip away popular support for the first African American president," Webb said, "if unchallenged" it could lead to a "much uglier version of the Bush-Cheney administration." But if the "racist barrage runs into a powerful anti-racist response coming not only from people of color, but also from the white majority and white workers" it can be stopped.

"My guess," said Webb, "is that the Republican Party, which has turned into an instrument of unabashed racism ... will not be successful" in 2010 or in 2012.

Webb called on the delegates to step up their involvement in the fights for jobs, anti-racism and grassroots election work.

Webb also expanded on a vision for socialism. Calling it a "work in progress" Webb spent time on developing a vision for socialism based on U.S. culture, history, democracy and traditions. And that socialism has to be sustainable - environmentally/economically - and given the huge dangers of global warming, socialism is a necessity.

Make Mine Freedom (1948)

This is great. Imagine if they still taught this stuff in every school.

We're All Arizonans Now!

Cool ad from Arizona governor Jan Brewer.

McClintock Earns His Salary

Plain speaking California Republican Rep. Tom McClintock skewers Mexican president Felipe Calderon.

Good stuff.

Michigan Democrat Boss, Mark Brewer and the Socialists

Cross posted from KeyWiki Blog

Michigan Democratic Party chairman Mark Brewer, has come under attack by conservative commentator Kyle Olson, over an allegedly bogus new "Tea Party" group with leftist ties.

You have to live in Michigan and pay attention to the political news to understand how obnoxious the Michigan Democratic Party and its chairman Mark Brewer really are. While we all expect such behavior from hyper-partisan outfits, Brewer gives it a whole new meaning.

He was behind the famous “sleeping justice” ads – photos of a now-former Michigan Supreme Court justice allegedly sleeping during a hearing. He has now supposedly is putting up money for similar “evidence” against another conservative justice.

So it comes as no surprise that the entrance of a “new” political party in Michigan, The Tea Party, might have Democratic Party fingerprints all over it.

For a better part of the last decade, Michigan has been in the true-blue column. It was so hopeless in 2008 the McCain campaign actually pulled out of Michigan many weeks before Election Day.

And this year, given displeasure with Obama, the Democratic Congress and more so Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Republicans’ prospects look pretty good.

So leave it to Mark Brewer and the Democratic Party to pull out all the stops in their cynical ploy to cling to power.

OutsideLansing.com brings news that paid petition circulators are collecting signatures to create ‘The Tea Party.’ According to site proprietor Chet Zarko, the paid circulators have ties to the Democratic Party.

True Tea Party leaders have no knowledge of such an effort, which makes one think the stench wafting from the left side of the political spectrum is that of a rat.

Zarko’s follow-up research finds that the Soros-connected “Progressive Campaigns Inc.” is behind the signature gathering.

Situations like this were bound to happen, given the outrage seen in Americans today and the unhappiness with the Obama administration. But to see such a cynical campaign in the offing is no surprise, give the left appears to be behind it.

Guilty or not, Mark Brewer, is certainly no moderate Democrat. He is on the far left of the Party and is a key player, both his native state and nationally . Until 2009, Brewer was President of the Association of State Democratic Chairs and was DNC Vice-Chair 3 times, serving from 2003 until 2009. During that time, he led the Association of State Democratic Chairs to its endorsement of leftist Howard Dean as DNC Chair and he worked with Dean to implement his very successful 50-State Strategy.

Brewer was a delegate to the 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008 Democratic National Conventions and served as Chair of the Michigan delegations at all of those Conventions. He is a key ally of Michigan's leftist Senator, Debbie Stabenow, a friend and protege of Democratic Socialists of America leader and United Auto Workers official, the late Mildred Jeffrey.

Brewer himself is close to Democratic Socialists of America. He began worked for long time Michigan Congressman David Bonior in 1977 and was involved in every reelection campaign of the Congressman Bonior until 2000. Bonior has been a long time DSA supporter has become an member of the organization since leaving Congress - a fact which has not barred him from serving the Obama Administration.

The Michigan Democratic Party works closely with the Marxists of Democratic Socialists of America, especially in their Detroit stronghold. According to Seth A. Maxon of the DSA linked , Chicago based journal In These Times;

Democratic socialists in southeastern Michigan can do something most of their counterparts across the nation cannot: they can boast of electoral victories. Moreover, they possess a level of influence within the Michigan Democratic Party of which many American leftists dream. And they’ve done it all without compromising their beliefs or values.

Their success has come from working with, instead of against, local Democrats.

“It starts out with relationships,” says David Green, the chair of the Detroit chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America... He continues, “Mark Brewer, the chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, has a very good relationship with us. He’s spoken to our local several times. The chairs of the county parties, several of them are close friends as well.”

Michigan DSA held a meeting at the Kulick Community Center in Ferndale on Sunday, June 4th, 2006. The subject of the forum was “Democrats and Socialists: Building the Alternative.” The speakers were DSA steering committee member and Wayne State University Distinguished Professor Ron Aronson, Labor Notes editor Chris Kutalik and Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer.

Ron Aronson argued that in building an alternative to the dominant neo-liberal ideology, the Democratic Party must once again “become friendly” with many of the basic tenants of socialism—particularly those dealing with social provision (e.g., Social Security, national health insurance, public education). Mark Brewer argued that in order to avoid even more egregious setbacks for poor and working people, it is essential for socialists and Democrats to work together in the electoral arena. Chris Kutalik cited examples of direct worker actions on the job as a means of challenging capitalist hegemony and suggested that this may be preferable to participation electoral politics.

Brewer was back in November 2007, speaking at a Detroit DSA General Membership Meeting on the "prospects for the 2008 elections in Michigan as well as the upcoming presidential caucuses".

Michigan is the most a blighted state in the union , for a reason. Detroit based communists, socialists and unionists have infiltrated and dominated the state's Democratic Party for decades, with disastrous results. Mark Brewer and his socialist comrades mean to keep it "business as usual" at any cost.

Unless the Mark Brewer and his allies are defeated in November, the Obama Administration may well succeed in duplicating the "Michigan model" across the entire U.S.A.

Lord knows, they are trying.

The Covert Influence of the Communist Party USA

Cross posted from KeyWiki Blog

For a Party with only a few thousand members and supporters, centered in about a dozen major cities, the Communist Party USA has a significant amount of influence.


This is achieved by infiltrating and controlling much larger groups, including several major labor unions, sections of the Democratic Party, some Black and "mainstream" churches, the health care and "peace" movements and even Obama's "private army" Organizing for America!

Links to elected officials, including several members of Congress such as John Conyers in Michigan, Hilda Solis and Barbara Lee in California and Dennis Kucinich in Ohio are also carefully cultivated.

Dan Margolis has been chair of the New York State Communist Party USA. In addition he writes for the People's World, covering local New York City and state issues, as well as events at the United Nations.


Margolis has been active in New York City elections, including as the mid-Staten Island coordinator for the 2004 Democratic Party Congressional campaign.

Below are excerpts from a discussion paper Margolis wrote for the National Convention of the Communist Party USA which is due to begin in New York this weekend. The paper gives several examples of Party influence in New York, which can be safely assumed to be typical Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, Tuscon, St Louis, Boston, Seattle and other Party strongholds.

The main thing that the Communist Party can contribute, i.e. its main role, is in the field of strategy and tactics. It is entirely true, as the document noted, that anyone reading this would likely also be working on the fight for to support the health care plan that was put forward by Barack Obama, along with organizations like Organizing for America, HCAN, etc. But, because we have a background in the CPUSA and the YCL, we bring something different and special to this movement-a strategic concept of who the main players are, who the main enemies slowing down the process of change are, what is possible and so on.

Margolis notes that his local branch of Organizing for Obama, a claimed Party "friend" , was held together by Party comrades. He also calls on the party to fight for fully socialized health care;

When there were setbacks in the fight for health care, there was demoralization and frustration. Our Bronx club, which was instrumental in building an Organizing for America-based local organization, helped fight this feeling and, in the process, gained a good deal of experience. It can be said that, without the Communist Party, and solid leadership from one comrade in particular, the OFA group could have easily disbanded itself. Also, the Party was able and is able to play a leadership role in the question of what we're fighting for, and in what context: why not some kind of National Health Service, as in the U.K., right now, or for Medicare for All? Why was even the watered-down Senate bill a victory? How do any of these victories contribute to the forward motion of the struggle overall?

Putting all those questions together is a key role of the Party and YCL, as it helps to build the unity and forward motion of the progressive forces.

Margolis goes onto talk about working with local unions and Black Churches to support the President's jobs initiatives - which are mainly schemes to funnel taxpayers money into radical controlled organizations.;

Another example would be the upcoming jobs fight. We've said that this is the key struggle, and that puts us in agreement with all of the major players in the core forces. There is a national coalition in place for this battle, but how do we help build it? It is our job to help bring it to life, and to localize it, bring it to the grassroots. This is something different from place to place, and it takes a Communist Party to figure this out. In New York, we have a situation in which the Central Labor Council isn't playing a leading role in the city's labor movement. Most of the biggest unions in the city are outside the CLC. How do we bring them together in this fight? (And in so doing, how can we contribute to overall labor unity in this city?)

At the grassroots level, how do we pull organizations and people in our periphery into this coalition? In Brooklyn, we have to consider how we can bring the large Black churches into the fight. How can we utilize the organizational connections we have, the relationships with elected officials, to do so?

Not to forget the Communist Party's primary tactical goal - defeating the "ultra right" (Republicans) through supporting their allies the Democrats, "as part of an overall strategy on the road towards socialism".

On the electoral front, it would be good to have more of our own candidates running for office. But right now, this can't be our main electoral contribution. We have to be part of the fight to defeat what's left of the ultra right, and make sure they don't make a comeback in the mid-term elections. Others on the left see these elections either as ends in themselves or deviations from the "real" struggle. But the Communist Party can exercise a leadership role by helping to show the importance of electing or defending Democrats as part of an overall strategy on the road towards socialism.

The Communists have a plan. they always have a plan. They see great opportunities under the leadership of new AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka ;

We do have a plan, so to speak, as to which industries are our main national priorities, as well as place to place. We in New York have a special emphasis on the teachers, transit workers, health care workers, the public workers: these are the most organized and decisive sections of the New York City working class.

Also, I would take issue with the discussion of who "the left" is. We can't narrow it down simply to the 20 percent of the population that chose "socialism" on a single opinion poll that has, in my opinion, received way too much attention. We've seen the beginnings of a really new left: within the labor movement under Trumka, those who have come out for some form of health reform, the new jobs coalition, the movement of activists in Organizing for America, etc. These are the newly invigorated activists on the rising left with whom we want to be associated.

The Communists are masters of leverage, of covertly using their small numbers to achieve maximum impact in the political sphere.

The Communist Party USA is one of Obama's most important allies. It's impact should not be under-estimated.

KeyWiki Profiles "Pea Party Express " Endorsed Democrat, Walt Minnick

Cross posted from KeyWiki Blog


The Idaho "Tea Party Express" has bucked the trend to endorse an incumbent Democratic Congressman.

Writes conservative blogger Terresa Monroe-Hamilton;

The was with a sinking heart and something akin to grief that I heard the Tea Party Express endorse Walt Minnick here in Idaho. It should be noted that the Tea Party Express is not the actual Tea Party of Idaho – they are located in Boise and do not support Minnick.

Minnick is a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing the 1st congressional district of Idaho. He will be running for office in Idaho in 2010 against primarily two Conservative opponents: Raul Labrador and Vaughn Ward.

While Minnick has a business background and a reputation for fiscal responsibility (by Democratic standards), there is little in his record to merit endorsement by a movement known for its anti "Progressive" and pro liberty, pro Constitution outlook.

According to Monroe-Hamilton;

Minnick has had numerous stances that I consider to be Progressive in nature and is supported by Progressive groups in Idaho.

He is strongly supported by the Unions in Idaho. This would include the Teamsters, the Teachers’ Union (NEA), the Carpenters & Joiners Union and a list of others as well.

Minnick was a donor to Earthjustice, a legal group that uses litigation to force far left environmental policies through the courts, while destroying good paying jobs. Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm, (formerly the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund). In Earthjustice’s 2003 annual report, Minnick was listed as being a member of their “Advocates Circle,” their mid-level donor membership level.

He is a strong environmentalist and he is pro-choice with a strong record supporting NARAL and Planned Parenthood. Minnick served on the Governing Board of The Wilderness Society for 16 years as well.

Minnick has strong ties to Congressman Steny Hoyer. Hoyer has contributed substantially to Minnick’s campaigns through AMERIPAC: The Fund for a Greater America.

He seems to be getting contributions from the left and the right, but there are some heavy players on the left that give to Walt Minnick including the law firm of Arnold & Porter, LLP which is a left-wing law firm from DC. If you follow the ties that bind, this firm is connected to individuals such as Charles Halpern, Sarah Bloom Raskin, Thurman Arnold and Jeremy Karpatkin.

Check out Walt Minnick's KeyWiki profile here

Kiwi Komrades KeyWiki 'd

While our sister site KeyWiki, focuses largely on the U.S. left, we do cover some deserving cases from New Zealand and elsewhere.

Our KeyWiki profile of Marxist/Muslim Auckland University Law lecturer Mohsen al Attar has received over 800 "hits" and comes up second on Google rankings.

We've just begun two more profiles of prominent New Zealand socialists, Matt McCarten and Mike Treen.

Comrades Treen and McCarten run the radical Unite union from Auckland and between them have an impressive list of radical contacts in Australia, the United States, Venezuela and Bolivia.

Stand in awe of Mike's unswerving support for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and stirring defence of the Soviet Union. Thrill to Matt's soaring admiration for the noble ideals of Marxism-Leninism.

Don't take my word for it though, check out their pages and link to them on your blogs. Let's see how far we can drive their KeyWiki profiles up the Google rankings.

If you'd like us to profile more local activists, nominate your favorite Kiwi Komrade in the comments section below.

Cheers

Trevor L

"Come to the USA"

"Right wing racist" Ray Steven's immigration rant.

Weasel Words From a Would Be Tyrant

From radio station WBEZ, February 2001.

In the clip, Obama's regulatory czar Cass Sunstein talks about requiring Internet sites to automatically post links to opposing viewpoints.

Voluntarily of course, except if they don't, because then it will have to be mandatory, because private citizens are too irresponsible and partisan and Congress needs to step in to make things fairer, because fairness and equality are social goods, which must trump private concerns, don't you see....?



Thanks to Nick.

Telling it Like it is on the Campaign Trail

Two excellent US campaign ads.



Just love this guy.



Thanks to Kelcy.

Proud to Be a Tea....

Proud to be an offshore supporter.

Dr Donald Berwick, Yet Another Obama Socialist

In April President Barack Obama nominated Dr. Donald Berwick to be Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Department of Health and Human Services . Dr. Berwick currently serves as President and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and is a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health.

“Dr. Berwick has dedicated his career to improving outcomes for patients and providing better care at lower cost,” President Obama said. “That’s one of the core missions facing our next CMS Administrator, and I’m confident that Don will be an outstanding leader for the agency and the millions of Americans it serves.”

Berwick is also a partisan of state run health care, an advocate of government re-distribution of wealth and an ardent socialist, unless he was lying through his teeth when this clip was filmed.



Thanks to the Greene Opinion

“Computer Models, Climate Forecasts and other Dice Games.”

Great press release from Viv Forbes of the Australian based Carbon Sense Coalition

The Carbon Sense Coalition today called for an investigation into the IPCC/CSIRO computer models relied on for the scare forecasts of drought, floods and rising sea levels.

The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, challenged the IPCC claims that their computer forecasts have a 90% probability of being correct.

“The World Bank computers did not forecast the Global Financial Crisis.

“The British Met computers failed to forecast Europe’s frigid winter.

“Computers were unable to forecast the spread of swine flu or volcanic ash clouds.

“Since the introduction of its new computer program Queensland Health has been unable to pay their own employees properly.

“And the Australian Weather Bureau cannot forecast next month’s weather.

“Yet we are asked to believe that the IPCC computers are able to forecast global temperature, sea levels, hurricanes, droughts and diseases for a century ahead. They promise that, if we just stop using coal and oil, everything will be rosy.

“That is like betting our jobs, our industry and our energy and food supplies on a roll of the dice in the casino.

“There are about 20 Global Circulation Models using variable assumptions that claim to represent climate processes.

“Every model uses suspect or manipulated data and disputed processes and is fudged to fit past data and its forecasts reflect the biases of the builder.

“In twenty or so years of forecasting, not one has yet made a forecast that has proven to be correct. Moreover, no two forecasts agree.

“But we hope one gets it right soon so we can scrap the other 19 and so save a lot of money.

“Until then, all IPCC forecasts should be written in pencil.

“And we should ignore them.”

"Melt Up"

Must see! (If you can handle it).

A very credible and highly pessimistic view of US economic prospects from the National Inflation association.

I expect the regular inquiries I get about immigrating to New Zealand to quintuple after posting this vid.

Obama File 103 Barack Obama's "Respectable" Socialist Mentor - Abner Mikva

Obama file 102 here

President Barack Obama and his latest Supreme court nominee Elena Kagan have a friend in common -prominent former Congressman and Chicago lawyer, Abner Mikva.


Fresh out of Harvard law School Elena Kagan clerked for then Judge Mikva in Washington DC in 1986-87. In the 1990s Obama, Kagan and Mikva were all on the Faculty of the University of Chicago Law School.

Obama's relationship with Abner Mikva is long and deep, but has been subject to little scrutiny. After all Abner Mikva is no radical, he is a highly respected "liberal" and Chicago elder statesman.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times April 14, 2009;

Abner Mikva, a revered figure in Illinois politics, was an early Barack Obama booster and mentor. Mikva's backing--he is the gold standard for integrity in Illinois politics--was important in Obama establishing his credentials in the early days of his political career and in his U.S. Senate run.

Abner Mikva, was one of Obama's early admirers, beginning in 1990 when he tried to hire the first black president of the Harvard Law Review for a coveted clerkship. (Obama turned him down, saying he was going to move to Chicago and run for public office). "I thought that showed a lot of chutzpah on his part," says Mikva.

When the Obamas settled in Hyde Park and Obama became a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. Mikva, "whom Obama already knew from Washington", also taught there, and the two renewed their acquaintance and became close. "We would have lunch and breakfast together and talk about a lot of things, different issues,"

How the pair knew each other "from Washington", where Obama never lived or worked, or studied, is an interesting question.

When Obama, won the Presidency Mikva, summed up Obama’s victory as also a victory for Chicago;

Really what we’ll get out of this is, it will make clear once and for all Chicago is not just full of pork-barrel, sleazy politicians who know only Machine politics… We also will have a very special president.

Obama repaid those kind words by appointing Mikva's daughter Laurie Mikva, to the board of the Legal Services Corporation in June 2009.

But who is Abner Mikva really? This is a man who mentored the President of the United States and employed a possible Supreme Court Justice. Is there anything in Abner Mikva's background that should concern us?

After service in WW2, Abner Mikva studied law at the University of Chicago. In 1949 communist led students went on strike at the City College of New York. Twenty University of Chicago campus leaders met in April that year, to show support for their New York counterparts, Abner Mikva among them. Several of the 20 had communist connections including Elias Snitzer and Sid Socolar, both of whom later took the 5th Amendment during government security hearingswhen questioned over alleged Communist Party membership .


In 1947 leftist lawyer Arthur Golberg became senior partner with Abner Mikva in the Chicago law firm of Goldberg, Devoe, Shadur, & Mikva.

Arthur Goldberg sponsored several local Communist Party fronts, including the Chicago Conference on Race Relations, the Conference on Constitutional Liberties in America and the National Emergency Conference. He was also president of the Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, accurately described in government hearings a "the foremost legal bulwark of the Communist Party". Surprisingly these affiliations did not stop Goldberg later becoming a Supreme Court Justice and US Ambassador to the United Nations under Lyndon Johnson.

In the early 1950's George Anastaplo a classmate of Mikva's at the University of Chicago Law School sparked controversy, when he refused to deny Communist Party membership to a Character and Fitness Committee of the Illinois Bar. The Committee investigated and because he had not answered its questions, he was told he could not become a lawyer.

Mikva was one of the first to come to Anastaplo's aid.

In 1954 ''amicus curiae'' briefs were filed on Anastplo's behalf by two radical dominated organizations, the ACLU and the National Lawyers Guild. The ACLU brief, filed in the Supreme Court of Illinois was signed by Mikva and Leon Despres (a friend of Saul Alinsky, an associate of Leon Trotsky and later a mentor to Barack Obama). The NLG brief filed was signed by Pearl Hart, a veteran of several communist fronts, including the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights.

Mikva too, would work with Alinsky, the legendary father of "community organizing".

In the 1966 Democratic primary election, Abner Mikva, then an Illinois State legislator, challenged the Daley machine-backed incumbent Barrett O'Hara for the 2nd Congressional District. Abner Mikva was supported by "liberal, independent forces and The Woodlawn Organization". To avoid jeopardizing the organization's nonpartisan tax exemption, TWO staffers went on the Mikva campaign payroll. They even recruited the notorious Blackstone Rangers street gang to put up yard signs warning against bribes offered by the "machine" team. Saul Alinsky was organizing TWO at the time and believed that a Mikva victory, made possible by TWO's political muscle, could have been a springboard to bigger things on the South Side.

Alinsky was reportedly furious when Mikva narrowly lost the primary.

In January 1969, the Chicago radical newspaper, Hyde Park- Kenwood Voices, listed those who had helped produce its first 16 monthly issues as "writers, researchers, photographers, artists and clerical workers".

The list included Abner Mikva, who wrote a regular column for the paper.

The "Voices" was a mouthpiece for Students for a Democratic Society, Cuba sugar cane cutters, anti Vietnam War activists and radicals of every stripe.


Proprietors were David S. Canter and Don Rose. Canter was a Communist Party member and importer and distributor of Soviet literature. As such , e was once required to register as an official agent of the Soviet Union. Rose was equally as radical, but never a proven Party member. He was however a leader of the communist front Chicago Committee to defend the Bill of Rights.

After the "Voices" folded in the mid 1970s, Rose and Canter went on to mentor a promising young journalist named David Axelrod - the man who put Barack Obama in the White hose and now serves as the President's chief adviser.

In April 1975, the Communist Party controlled Chicago Peace Council convened a "Nationall conference for a drastic cutback in military spending" in Chicaqo;

The purpose of the National Conference is to mount a national campaign and a vigorous program of action which will speak to the hundreds of thousands who were part of the inspiring resistance to the war in Indo- China. The people of the U.S. can and must turn this country around...

Speakers at the conference included Richard Criley and Norman Roth of the Communist Party and the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights, Fr. Gerard Grant and Frank Rosen (also "Committee" members) , Ed Sadlowski of the United Steel Workers Union and later Democratic Socialists of America and of course Congressman Abner Mikva.


Mikva had been elected to Congress in 1968. In Washington, Mikva became involved with the far left Institute for Policy Studies. At the the time, the IPS was a magnet for "liberal" Democrats (and even a few Republicans), Marxists, third world radicals, Eastern Bloc diplomats and at least few known KGB agents and contacts. It was (and remains) a center of subversion in the heart of the nation's capital.

In 1983, IPS celebrated its 20th anniversary with a giant "bash" at the National Building Museum, attended by approximately 1,000 staffers, politicians and supporters. Abner Mikva, of course attended, while his wife Zoe handled arrangements for the function.

IPS held regular seminars and schools, attracting people from all over the US and abroad. Could it have been through IPS that Mikva first met Barack Obama in Washington? Certainly Obama was in the IPS "orbit". In 1999 IPS affiliate Charles Halpern recruited Obama from Chicago to help establish and serve as Trustee of the New York based "non-profit" Demos, an official IPS partner organization.

Coincidentally Obama's former "Green Jobs Czar" Van Jones was also a Demos Trustee.

After his Congressional career, Mikva served as a judge in Washington DC (where he employed Elena Kagan) and later as White House counsel under Bill Clinton.

After leaving the White House Mikva returned to his Chicago roots.

Not people to abandon old friends , Abner and Zoe Mikva sent a message ""Hooray for Progressives" to the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America 44th Annual Eugene V. Debs - Norman Thomas - Michael Harrington Dinner, held on May 10, 2002.


On Sunday October 29, 2006, the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights held a "Celebration of the The Dynamic Life of Frank Wilkinson (1914-2006)." Frank Wilkinson, a founder of the "Committee' had been a 40 year veteran of the Communist Party , before going on to join the almost as radical Democratic Socialists of America.

Abner Mikva served on the honoring committee with past or current Communist Party supporters Donna Wilkinson, Joan Elbert, Ruth Emerson, Yolanda Hall, Peggy Lipschutz, Bea Lumpkin, Frank Lumpkin, Harold Rogers, Mark Rogovin, Norman Roth, Emile Schepers, Studs Terkel and Tim Yeager.

Democratic Socialists of America members on the committee included Congressman Danny K. Davis, Timuel Black and Dr. Quentin Young - all coincidentally close friends and supporters of Barack Obama.

The left side of Chicago politics is so much part of the mainstream, it is almost "respectable". Democrats, communists and socialists work together, join each others front groups and even each others political parties.

Barack Obama, Abner Mikva are both steeped this culture. Elena Kagan is at least peripherally connected to it. young lawyers tend to clerk for those who share their outlook.

Chicago socialism has been a powerful force in Illinois politics since the election of far left mayor Harold Washington in 1983. Now it has spread to Capitol Hill and the White House and threatens to infect the entire country.

Obama file 104 here

Glenn Beck on Global Governance

Beck gets into the real meat - Global Governance.

Ultimately, this is what its all about folks.

Go Glenn!

Richmond Revolutionaries Serve Notice on Socialists

From the patriots of Richmond Virginia.

"Manchurian President" Video

Someone's done their own promotional vid for Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliotts's "Manchurian President".

Chris Christie Talks Blunt

Imagine if all politicians spoke like this man.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, take a bow.



Thanks to Nick.

Honesty in Wyoming

"For It"

Anti Islamic terrorism campaigner David Horowitz, speaking at the University of California - San Diego.

A young woman from the Muslim Students Association confronts Horowitz.

When pressed by Horowitz to reveal her true sympathies she does.

Chilling.



Hat Tip, Nick and Red State

Where Were They Wrong?

The John Birch Society used to take heaps of "stick" from the left and not much less from some elements of the right.

Time has a way of sorting out truth.

Here's JBS founder Robert Welch speaking in Los Angeles in 1974.

Can anyone tell me one thing he's got wrong?

Beck Exposes the "Big Boys"

Glenn Beck gets better and better as he digs deeper and deeper.

Beck demolishes John Kerry and Joe Lieberman's new disguised "Cap & Trade" Bill and exposes some of the key global players who stand to benefit from it.

He even looks arch arch global socialist Maurice Strong.

Way to go Glenn!









Back this man America. Where would you be without him?

Bert Corona and the Communist Roots of the "Immigrants Right" Movement"

Cross posted from KeyWiki Blog

Illegal immigration, especially from Mexico is once again a huge issue in the United States.

It is an issue that could provoke violence from both sides and has the potential to cause major social disruption if President Barack Obama presses forward with plans to grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants this year.

Like most radical social movements in the United States, the "immigrant rights" was initiated (and is maintained) by communist and socialist forces.

Communist Party and Democratic Socialists of America member David Bacon is a leading immigration rights activist. He made an interesting admission in an article published in the Communist Party's Political Affairs of March 2009. Commenting on the annual immigrant's May Day marches, Bacon wrote;

In a little over a month, hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, of people will fill the streets in city after city, town after town, across the US. This year these May Day marches of immigrant workers will make an important demand on the Obama administration: End the draconian enforcement policies of the Bush administration. Establish a new immigration policy based on human rights and recognition of the crucial economic and social contributions of immigrants to US society.

This year's marches will continue the recovery in the US of the celebration of May Day, recognized in the rest of the world as the day recognizing the contributions and achievements of working people. That recovery started on Monday, May 1, 2006, when over a million people filled the streets of Los Angeles, with hundreds of thousands more in Chicago, New York and cities and towns throughout the United States. Again on May Day in 2007 and 2008, immigrants and their supporters demonstrated and marched, from coast to coast...

The protests have seemed spontaneous, but they come as a result of years of organizing, educating and agitating - activities that have given immigrants confidence, and at least some organizations the credibility needed to mobilize direct mass action. This movement is the legacy of Bert Corona, immigrant rights pioneer and founder of many national Latino organizations. He trained thousands of immigrant activists, taught the value of political independence, and believed that immigrants themselves must conduct the fight for immigrant rights. Most of the leaders of the radical wing of today's immigrant rights movement were students or disciples of Corona.

Indeed, it all does go back to Bert Corona.

The son of a murdered Mexican revolutionary, Corona joined the Communist Party in Los Angeles in the late 1930s. He was particularly close to Harry Bridges, a leader of the Longshore Workers Union and a secret member of the Communist Party Central Committee. Coincidentally, Bridges was instrumental in persuading secret Chicago communist Frank Marshall Davis to move to Hawaii, where he went on to meet and mentor a young Barack Obama.


Corona later worked as a union organizer and helped set up a local branch of Saul Alinsky's Community Services Organization, where he began working with Farm Workers leader and Communist Party darling Cesar Chavez.

Corona was most closely identified with the work of La Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, or the National Mexican Brotherhood. Founded in 1951 in San Diego , the organization provided services to immigrants. Over the years, La Hermandad established chapters throughout the country and at one point boasted a membership of 30,000. The focus was organizing trade unions, defending undocumented workers, and providing social services to the undocumented. Corona helped establish its Los Angeles chapter. For the next four decades, he devoted much of his time to La Hermandad. He was the group's executive director when he died in 2001.

In Spring 1974 , La Hermandad held a conference at Northridge California , where representatives from ten states met to discuss problems confronting Mexicans in the United States who had no visas or citizenship documents. The first day, participants discussed how to defend persons detained by immigration authorities and how to help immigrants acquire disability and unemployment insurance and welfare.

The next day, participants discussed resolutions from the workshops. Corona stressed the need to establish a legislative program to campaign against bills that would crack down on the hiring of illegal immigrants and to "fight for humane immigration policies and practices".

Ever the "moderate" communist, Corona had to hold back some of the even more militant members of the organization. According to participant Carlos Ortega;

This conference helped us organize at our campus and in the local community. At the same time, La Hermandad was also going through some changes. There had been an influx of student activists, professionals, and community organizers. The ideological nature of these groups brought a strong Marxist appeal, which changed the focus of the organization as Corona knew it. The newer activists wanted to deemphasize the service aspect of the organization and focus on larger ideological issues. At Northridge, there was some support from students who wanted to push a more revolutionary agenda, but many of us were not convinced how this agenda--which had its merits--would bring immediate results for the undocumented and the poor. I threw my support to Corona and to the idea that organizing could not be accomplished by polishing leftist vocabulary but rather by working hard, speaking to one person at a time, and building an organization.'

By 1975, Corona had moved his operation to the San Fernando Valley, so he could continue to work with the undocumented. A group of students including Carlos Ortega brought Corona back on campus for a conference to clarify how students should organize and mobilize against deportation raids and repression in general.

"Present-day immigration policies and practices of the government are fundamental characteristics of the capitalist system," he said, "and the only possible way to confront those oppressing us is to organize as one, the alliance of students, workers, and the community." He added: "The student movement only has validity if directly linked with the workers' movement and the movement of people."

Corona, "more than any other person, furthered the ideological struggle against the nativists," says Rodolfo Acuna, professor of Chicano Studies at Cal State Northridge.

Corona made the issue of immigration and undocumented workers, in particular, a civil and human rights concern.

There is no evidence that Bert Corona ever left the Communist Party and though he worked inside the Democratic Party (He co-chaired bobby Kennedy's Southern California campaign in 1968) he remained close to the Communists until his death.

Through his Mexican American Political Association, Corona steered several young radicals into the Democratic Party , including Los Angeles mayor and Obama Transition Team member Antonio Villaraigosa and California State senator Gilbert Cedillo.

Corona's most important legacy however, is a radical movement that threatens the security and prosperity of several U.S. United States. If that movement succeeds it will destroy the very country that gave Bert Corona far more opportunities than Mexico ever could have.