Has a takeover of the CPUSA been tried?

[cantwealljustgetalong]

I'm sure most revolutionary socialists would agree that the CPUSA is a reformist joke, and as irrelevant as they are, they are the most visible face of communism in the US. has there ever been a concerted effort to take it over? has there recently been one?

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

I don't think they are anywhere near the most visible face, they just have the most generic name. The party is also saddled with an incredible amount of baggage. If you just want the name, take it. There are plenty of instances where competing parties have used the same name.

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

I know that there is something called Gus Hall action group.
I don't know much about Gus Hall but I've heard he embraced the Khrushchevite line so going back to that doesn't mean much.
I think that at this point building up a new party would be an easier job than changing the CPUSA's line.

Edit: here is the link to that Gus Hall group: http://gushallactionclub.blogspot.com/
Has been inactive for a while though.

[Zeus the Moose]

There are groups that are either inside the CPUSA or orient to it which take the position of opposing the current leadership from the left. The Gus Hall Action Group mentioned above might be one of those, as is a website called "Marxism-Leninism Today (http://www.mltoday.com/)." However, to give you an idea of where the "left" in this debate is, MLToday is talking about how the current CPUSA leadership has betrayed the original concept of Dimitrov's Popular Front, and taken it to a thoroughly opportunist direction. While they are, in a sense, correct on that, the fact that the people on the "left" of the debate are claiming adherence to the Popular Front concept really shows how far to the right this whole thing is.

[ed miliband]

the cpusa is just behaving like any existing "official" "communist" party would, whether wrt the democrats, or the labour party, or whatever.

there is nothing to save.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

There is a group around Alan Maki, who have been expelled from the CPUSA who have been trying to recapture it and there is a group in Texas, the "Houston Communist Party" with the same aim. Most leftists outside the orbit of the CP would say its a lost cause. There are already aa fair number of other socialist groups with a far better activist approach. The only thing the CP has going for it is literally the name "Communist" which still attracts some radicalyzing youth, until they find out its CINO.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

There are various groups within the CPUSA that want to try and "return" the party to a communist position, but even most of those are to the right of the majority of us on here. Interestingly enough about a year and a half ago I was approached by someone who wanted to create a secret group within the party to slowly turn the party towards revolutionary socialism! I thought it would be a waste of time, I think he has too now.

[el_chavista]

Will the real Communist Party please stand up? (http://marxistupdate.blogspot.com/2012/07/houston-communist-party-beset-on-all.html)

[ed miliband]

the "real" communist party is not a party but the "real movement which abolishes the present state of things".

[Questionable]

Why are people so concerned with "reclaiming" the CPUSA? It wouldn't mean anything. It wouldn't change the political situation in America. It would just mean one more party is going around calling itself the communist party.

[The Douche]

the "real" communist party is not a party but the "real movement which abolishes the present state of things".

Shit, that sounds like a hell of a party to me.

[Os Cangaceiros]

I don't think they are anywhere near the most visible face, they just have the most generic name. The party is also saddled with an incredible amount of baggage. If you just want the name, take it. There are plenty of instances where competing parties have used the same name.

Well, at one point the CP-USA was a genuine worker's party, so it has that going for it. I can't think of any other American party that can say the same, except for the IWW, but that's not a party.

All of that was a very long time ago, though. It eventually just became a shill for Moscow before imploding, like other Communist parties.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

I don't think what they were 80 years ago is relevant to anyone now. The only thing they have going for them is their website being the first result when googling communist party from a computer in the US. Followed by a bunch of pictures of that dumb tshirt design from a few years back.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Yeah, I agree, it's not very relevant now. It's just that it's a shame seeing what it's become, considering the fact that it's very early history probably ranks with the IWW and perhaps the early CIO as highlights of the USA's organized labor movement. People who read this site probably know all about that, though.

[Prometeo liberado]

I know that there is something called Gus Hall action group.
I don't know much about Gus Hall but I've heard he embraced the Khrushchevite line so going back to that doesn't mean much.
I think that at this point building up a new party would be an easier job than changing the CPUSA's line.

Edit: here is the link to that Gus Hall group: http://gushallactionclub.blogspot.com/
Has been inactive for a while though.

Oh yeah, these people are out of Minnesota I believe. And as far as the whole Krushchev thing goes, well back in the day the CPUSA was getting something like 2-3 million a year(that's $$) from the country formerly known as the Soviet Union. They could have had Mickey-Goddamn-Mouse as the General Sec. and they would have towed the line. Shit they paid for Gus's house! Taking over the party under that name is not going to happen. There are still the issues of property that is under the Party's name and that's their primary concern. Who will control it and how to liquidate it.

[Ostrinski]

We should just take their logo and run.

They have a nice symbol.

[cantwealljustgetalong]

I feel the criticism that the CPUSA is totally irrelevant and there are much better orgs out there, but it would be nice if when people outside of the Left talk to "The Communists," they weren't fucking clowns. did you see the Glenn Beck interview with Sam Webb? I'm not saying I expected a fair interview out of Beck, but Webb was like a deer in headlights with virtually nothing to say against the most basic redbashing.

[Astarte]

The reason why the CPUSA is so impotent is for the same reason why Webb supposedly foundered (actually I don't think he did that badly) while "talking" to Glenn Beck. The inner most leadership of the CPUSA is VERY OLD, and hangs onto the reins of whatever "power" there is in the apparatus tightly because it is something better to do than play dominoes or bingo. Webb is an old man, Glenn Beck is a hyper-active pseudo-fascist "free-market" pig who constantly cut Webb off during their "debate" . I would expect the CPUSA to move left as the oldest layers of the inner-party give way to Nature; but don't expect it to take up orthodox Marxism-Leninism again.

[jookyle]

Ever since the revisionists took hold of the party there have been factions that have tried to retake the party and return it to an actual communist. The factions that have been even little successful have been expelled from the party before anything of consequence has happened. From what I know, there is a strong faction in the party at the moment who are trying to retake the party but so far, they haven't been able to; and I'm sure if they came close they would be removed from the party.