More than one thousand communists, socialists, and fellow travelers rallied on March 18 in Lafayette Square, next to the White House, and then marched across town in support of Russia, China, Cuba, and causes such as reparations for blacks and massive defense cuts. I was there covering the rally, taking dozens of pictures, in order to prove to my fellow Americans that communism is not dead but very much alive.

Similar events were scheduled to take place in more than a dozen U.S. cities.

Noting the reports of only a few thousand communists in America, the late Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky wrote in his book Judgment in Moscow, “One should not forget that back in 1917, Lenin also started out with only forty thousand comrades.”

At the March 18 event, I counted not one or two, but almost a dozen socialist and communist groups. Brian Becker, the National Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition, singled me out in the crowd and denounced me as the “right-wing media” for taking pictures of him and his comrades. I have covered his role in the “anti-war” movement for years and was evicted from one of his events.