National Labor Federation (NATLFED)

[wunderbar]

I understand they're a political cult and are (were?) a front for an underground party, but I had no idea they were still around until last weekend at the local Occupy event, when I was approached by a member of the Western Service Workers Association, one of many NATLFED front groups. I stupidly gave them my contact info because I had forgotten the WSWA/NATLFED connection, so I'll probably just ignore them if they try contacting me. Anyone have any experiences with this group?

[wunderbar]

Shit, I typed it out wrong, it's National Labor Federation. Can an admin change the title?

[RedZezz]

I volunteered for them for a while some years ago. I thought they were just some harmless liberal group at first. However, in order to volunteer, you need to go through mandatory classes about politics and their organization. I started to get some pretty bad vibes from them so I left.

However, if you make it clear you dont want them to call you, they will do so.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Which group is NATLFED a front of?

[RedZezz]

Communist Party USA - Provisional

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_USA_(Provisional)

[Rusty Shackleford]

They organize labor camps in the country. theres something like a dozen in CA. Most of their work involved food distribution. Mainly, they get truckloads of food and you sign up and get almost free food.

Its a great thing they are doing, though its not going to make revolution. Their whole line is to make a society within a society or a parallel society or something like that.


but yeah basically it is an underground CPP/PCP however it goes operation. They also organize the Western Farm Workers Association and an Eastern Farm Workers Association.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Isn't that like a food bank or something? That's a great idea, alternative culture and mutual aid et al.

[North Star]

They are a cult. They've even been busted by the NYPD for having arms caches. They do however carry out a lot of mass work, actually reaching out to communities by providing some services and going canvassing in working class areas. It's too bad there isn't a group that carries out that much mass work but is not a crazy cult that makes one live in communal conditions and work 18 hours a day. I strongly recommend this site from an ex-member who spent something like 15 years in NATLFED http://exnatlfed.wordpress.com/

[RED DAVE]

Communist Party USA - Provisional

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_USA_(Provisional (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_USA_%28Provisional))The link is missing the final parenthesis. This will take you there directly:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_USA_%28Provisional%29

This sounds like a really weird cult and something to be avoided.

RED DAVE

[Die Neue Zeit]

They are a cult. They've even been busted by the NYPD for having arms caches. They do however carry out a lot of mass work, actually reaching out to communities by providing some services and going canvassing in working class areas. It's too bad there isn't a group that carries out that much mass work but is not a crazy cult that makes one live in communal conditions and work 18 hours a day. I strongly recommend this site from an ex-member who spent something like 15 years in NATLFED http://exnatlfed.wordpress.com/

Thanks for clarifying, comrade. :(

[Os Cangaceiros]

Yeah, I lived in Suffolk County for a while (the area that their founder got his base in), and my mother brought home a calendar that the Eastern Farmworker's Association produced (some volunteers had given it to her). I was impressed at the time because it displayed an impressive degree of political literacy, and addressed topics not limited to advocacy for a specific group. But then I searched them on Google and found out that they were a front group for a political cult, led by a con man who's a small-time communist Jim Jones. Bummer!

They did produce a poster, though, which I thought was pretty cool...IIRC it was of a woman in a denim shirt and hardhat, arms crossed and smiling, standing in front of a construction project or something as the warm light of a glorious communist sun hit her face, with the words "DARE TO STRUGGLE, DARE TO WIN!" printed below. I hung it up in my room just because I don't encounter awesome stereotypical communist kitsch that often.

[North Star]

DNZ, in some ways they were one of the few groups in North America promoting anything resembling an alternative culture. Which is quite unfortunate. Apart from the WPA, there's isn't much on the radical left doing this kind of thing.

[Rusty Shackleford]

the thing is though that many of the workers that are a part of it, aside from the cadres and functionaries of the programs, are not politicized. at least from what i have heard. So even though the work is great and necessary for the working class, it doesn't build consciousness.

[North Star]

the thing is though that many of the workers that are a part of it, aside from the cadres and functionaries of the programs, are not politicized. at least from what i have heard. So even though the work is great and necessary for the working class, it doesn't build consciousness.

Well yeah that fits into their hyper-vanguard model. Attract workers but only give a select few the "truth" about the existence of the Provisional Communist Party and the story of the "genesis." A supposed secret international including the Communist Party of Cuba and the Sandinistas.

[Os Cangaceiros]

They are a cult. They've even been busted by the NYPD for having arms caches. They do however carry out a lot of mass work, actually reaching out to communities by providing some services and going canvassing in working class areas. It's too bad there isn't a group that carries out that much mass work but is not a crazy cult that makes one live in communal conditions and work 18 hours a day. I strongly recommend this site from an ex-member who spent something like 15 years in NATLFED http://exnatlfed.wordpress.com/

oh wow, I've actually checked that site out now, and whoa:



When a person commits to joining as a Party member, he/she becomes an interior cadre. A cadre is expected to devote all time to the organization.
Full-time cadres sleep 6-1/2 hours a day. The rest of their time is devoted to working in the Organization in whatever capacity assigned by leadership persons. During Gino’s leadership, sleeping arrangements were in communal environments, no private bedrooms, and cadres slept on foam mats on the floor. One of the reforms in 1996 included apartments or other permanent residences for cadres assigned to work out of the administrative entities.
There was no time off. Cadres worked 7 days a week, 365 days a year. A memorandum went out to all entities in the late 1970s canceling vacations as the Organization geared toward the impending revolution. Another former cadre has chosen to explain in the below comment the current policy on family visits.
Cadres that attempt to maintain relationships with family and friends are generally criticized for “becoming distracted from” fulfilling the organizational agenda. Some cadres with family members that were considered potential for recruitment to the Organization were allowed special visitation privileges. One rule that Gino implemented was that cadres had to raise at least three times the needed money before being allowed to visit family members. I do not know this policy is maintained.
Mail was opened and read by leadership cadres first, sometimes even withheld from the intended recipient. Letters were steamed open and glued back shut, with the police being blamed for the invasion of privacy. Gino’s personal staff assistants would steam open the letters in the 1A kitchen, as a teapot was constantly kept boiling (needed for his medical regimen every four hours). Again, please see the comments below about how this policy was revised.
Phone calls were rarely directly routed to the intended recipient; instead, messages were taken and sometimes delayed or not forwarded. I do not know the current policy.

One half expects to read "cadres are sometimes forced to drink funny-tasting Kool Aid."

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Well, Jim Jones did claim to be a Marxist-Leninist. (http://ruralpeople.atspace.org/nature_of_theoretical_task.htm)

[Os Cangaceiros]

He was a revolutionary hero (http://www.revleft.com/vb/group.php?groupid=696). :thumbup1:

[Savage]

Jones was the fucking reincarnation of Lenin