I Was a Communist Party Activist for Decades — and I Don’t Regret It
The Communist Party USA had its share of bureaucrats, morons, sectarians, and incompetents, writes longtime leftist Michael Myerson. But it also included some of the best, most principled, courageous, and heroic fighters for social justice in US history.
The Communist Party holds a banner at an anti-Vietnam War demonstration in Washington, DC, November 15, 1969. (Leif Skoogfors / CORBIS / Corbis via Getty Images)
My good friend Bob Kaufman once advised me, “It’s not paranoia if you’re being persecuted.” It’s advice I have had the opportunity to recall on several occasions over the course of my life.
So there I was, sitting in a luxurious hotel ballroom in Toronto, with several hundred chairs set up auditorium-style, listening to speakers drone on. It’s December 1984 at a meeting of the World Peace Council (WPC), an initiative of the Soviets which advocated for nuclear disarmament, anti-imperialism, and peaceful coexistence around the world. I was the director of the American section, the US Peace Council (USPC).
One-on-one, most of the folks in the room had interesting things to say, but the WPC had established a style that demanded formalistic speech — more proclamations than actual talking. During these meetings, I often recalled the Ring Lardner quote: “‘Shut up!’ he explained.”
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