I get that CPUSA has some bad reputation. This clip is a part of a call-in show. It features 4-5 calls from American hogs and the CPUSA guy responds to their questions. I think that this interview was interesting at least. I will post more information in a comment.
video link
https://www.c-span.org/video/?536104-4/joe-sims-communist-party-usa-campaign-2024=
Yeah, the reputation of CPUSA being full of feds is also a reflection of the extent to which the US state has repressed the organization. There are things I disagree with about the CPUSA’s politics and strategy, but state repression isn’t something that CPUSA members chose and it is unfair to most of its members. Sadly, I do think that it has still had a very real negative effect on the party and the way it has developed and who has remained. It is sad because it is a reflection of the tremendous impact the party once had.
Well, I think we’re getting back into the swing of things, but trust me when I say: many CPUSA members, especially older members, don’t reveal their membership specifically because of previous harassment, especially during the Cold War, but even during the 1990s and 2000s.
I remember hearing of one district that didn’t use the Internet till, say, 2011 or something; they just met in the woods or some place that was obscure, some rural place.
I think such things have ham-strung us, if anything, hence why some of the politics seems “conservative” compared to, say, perhaps PSL or FRSO.
I respect Nat’l Committee and what they’ve been through and they are very talented; hell, I love their books especially and their scholarship.
But it often seems like the right-wing conspiracy theory “that Communist Party members are literally behind the scenes guiding things rather than being open about what they do” … because, in some ways, they are. Like, local civil rights and trans rights and labor union heads are Communist Party members, they just don’t say so.
Also, I just saw in the video that Maurice Isserman was quoted. He’s a pretty anti-communist historian and, unfortunately, I’ve seen even leftists quoting him, at least at times. Well, perhaps they were liberals, not leftists, but you get what I mean.