By: Trevor Loudon
New Zeal

Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie may be involved in a serious, but so far unreported, conflict of interest.

One of Ritchie’s responsibilities is to supervise the re-count of very closely contested state elections. With the power to decide which ballots may be counted as valid, Ritchie effectively has the power to decide the outcome of closely fought races.

This drew national attention in early 2009, when Ritchie handed a critical U.S. Senate seat to Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (the Minnesota affiliate of the Democratic Party) candidate and former comedian Al Franken, though Republican Norm Coleman had been ahead on election night.

Now Ritchie is set to supervise another tight re-count, a two-way race for the Minnesota governorship. The leading contender in this race is another far left Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (D.F.L.) member, far left former U.S. Senator Mark Dayton.

Yet while adjudicating the outcome of their races, Mark Ritchie serves on the advisory committee of a far left, D.F.L./Democratic Party/socialist affiliated organization with both Franken and Dayton.

The organization in question is Wellstone Action, an organization established to carry on the radical leftist agenda of the late D.F.L. Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone.

Mark Ritchie, Al Franken and Mark Dayton are listed as members of the Wellstone Action Advisory Committee, as are several leftist heavy hitters including:

• Julian Bond – A former president of the NAACP, Democratic Party activist and long time member of the Marxist leaning Democratic Socialists of America.
• Heather Booth – A leading Democratic Party activist and Democratic Socialists of America supporter.
• Robert Borosage – A trustee of the far-left Institute for Policy Studies.
• Peter Edelman – A leading Democratic Party activist and Democratic Socialists of America supporter.
• Keith Ellison – A Democratic Minnesota congressman and member of the Democratic Socialists of America/Institute for Policy Studies founded Congressional Progressive Caucus.
• Russ Feingold – A recently defeated Wisconsin Democratic Senator.
• Frances Fox Piven – A Democratic Socialists of America member and Institute for Policy Studies affiliate. Piven was an endorser of Progressives for Obama and an initiator of the famous Cloward-Piven Strategy which aimed to bring about socialism through deliberately overloading and bankrupting state welfare systems.
• Tom Harkin – A far left Institute for Policy Studies affiliated Democratic Senator from Iowa.
• Jim Hightower – A “progressive” activist and Progressives for Obama endorser.
• Gerald McEntee – President of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union and a Democratic Socialists of America supporter.
• Walter Mondale – A former Democratic presidential candidate from Minnesota.
• Antonio Villaraigosa – The far left Democratic mayor of Los Angeles and a former member of the Obama Transition Team.

That so many Democratic Socialists of America aligned radicals should be supporting the Wellstone agenda is no surprise.

In 1990, D.S.A.’s Democratic Left, November/December issue, page 5 stated:

Twin cities DSA in Minnesota continues its resurgence with ongoing support of Paul Wellstone’s campaign for the Senate seat currently held by Republican Rudy Boschwitz. Local activists are doing literature drops and helping to raise money for this watershed campaign… As a professor at Carlton College, Wellstone has mentored many DSA Youth Section activists… Contributions, made out to Wellstone for U.S. Senate, can be sent to the DSA national Office and will be forwarded to the campaign.

Mark Ritchie is clearly involved in an organization that is clearly pro-D.F.L./Democratic Party and is heavily influenced by D.S.A. and the Institute for Policy studies aligned socialists.

Mark Ritchie, campaigning 2008

The fact that Mark Ritchie helped put one fellow Wellstone Action Advisory Committee member Al Franken into the US Senate and may soon put another, Mark Dayton, into the Minnesota Governor’s mansion, should be ringing alarm bells all over the state.

Why is a man, with such close connections to two prominent candidates being entrusted with overseeing their electoral re-counts?

Talk about the fox guarding the chicken coop.

By: Trevor Loudon
New Zeal

This blog has long contended that the Communist Party USA and other Marxist groups have heavily infiltrated the Democratic Party.

This has enabled the Communist Party to both influence Democratic Party policy and to choose and promote Democratic candidates at all levels.

Writing on the Party website Political Affairs, comrade C.J. Atkins admits that Communists indeed do work inside the Democratic Party, including on state level policy committees.

Comrade Atkins also admits that Party members work in Democratic-aligned organizations including Organize for America, Progressive Democrats of America, the Campaign for America’s Future and the New York Working Families Party.

The context here is that Atkins believes that the Party is stigmatized by the “communist” label and should drop the name, in order to more easily and effectively work through the Democrats and other “mainstream” organizations.

Forces on the progressive left must organize as currents within the orbit of the Democratic Party, but as elements separate from it. This is the stance taken by the organized labor movement. And, if the CPUSA is honest with itself, we would see that this is an approach which we have already taken for quite some time as well. Our members participate in the Democratic primary process at the local level, volunteer in GOTV (Get Out The Vote) efforts, and many take part in the platform-drafting process in their local Democratic committees. More participate in Democratic-aligned outfits such as Organize for America, Progressive Democrats of America, or the Campaign for America’s Future.

However, by not formally affiliating with the Democratic Party organizationally (though many members do individually), the CPUSA and some of these other left formations are able to maintain the independence that allows them to join in the mass coalition efforts to defeat the ultra right without endorsing or accepting the corporate influence and control that prevails among too many top Democratic policy-makers.

All of this is to say, we have to consider the possibility that our current practice, which is broadly in agreement with the understanding of political independence summarized above, may not best be served by our continued adherence to a specifically party-type of organization. I would suggest that we ponder whether it may be appropriate to drop not only the “communist” half of our title, but the “party” half as well.

It is my belief that we could be more effectual operating as a socialist and working-class political organization which does not present itself as a “party” as such. By doing so, we could eliminate the ambiguities and confusion which sometimes arises when CPUSA members run as Democratic or independent candidates. Our members can freely participate in the Democratic Party process, with the Working Families Party or other independent political formations, etc. as appropriate to the circumstances and in accordance with collective judgment of the situation. The details of what such an organization would look like would of course have to be discussed in greater detail by the party as a whole, but it is a transformation worth considering.

So as should be clear, this article is both a call for change as well as a suggestion for the codification of existing practice. The CPUSA has done much to renew itself and join the 21st century. It is now time to move forward with this process and remove any obstacles that still stand in the way of fully participating in the broad democratic upsurge of our times. We are living in an era of change and must do everything to make sure we stay in tune with the movement of history.

The Communist Party USA works closely with the Communist parties of Cuba, China, Russia and with many in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

It’s loyalties do not lie with the United States of America, but with a re-energized and growing international communist movement.

The fact that the Communist Party USA has heavily infiltrated the Party of President Barack Obama, a man the Communists call a “friend,” should be very big news.

Why isn’t it?