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The Truth Goes Viral Again: Progressive Labor Leader Speaks Explicitly About Occupy Movement’s Communist Goals

Posted on | August 20, 2012 | 30 Comments

Leadership Institute intern Danielle Saul got video inside an Occupy DC meeting Sunday where union activist Mike Golash said:

“Progressive Labor is a revolutionary communist organization. Its objective is to make revolution in the United States, overthrow the capitalist system and build communism. . . . An organization has to be built which can bring down capitalism . . . a disciplined organization made up, not of a few people, but of millions and millions of people, can bring down capitalism.”

Hat tip to Danielle’s mom, Ginny Saul. How did I get scooped by Matthew Boyle of the Daily Caller on this, huh? Greedy capitalists!

UPDATE: Just interviewed Danielle Saul by phone. “There were three of us” who produced the video, Danielle said, naming Andrew McCaughey and Nicolas Tomboulides as her collaborators. Danielle explained that the Occupy DC meeting Sunday brought together various constituent groups involved in planning protests next month to mark the one-year anniversary of the Occupy movement.

Mike Golash was speaking on behalf of the Progressive Labor Party, a Maoist group which (if memory serves) was instrumental in fomenting the 1969 split in Students for a Democratic Society that led to the formation of the Weather Underground.

After Danielle sent out the video on Twitter late last night, she was contacted immediately by Boyle of the Daily Caller. When Danielle’s mom woke up early this morning, the video was already being played on Fox News, which amazed Danielle: “Who would have thought that it would have  gotten on Fox News?”

Who would have thought it? A guy I used to know, that’s who.

UPDATE II: A quick glance at Wikipedia clarifies the role that Progressive Labor played in the SDS split:

[The so-called “Weatherman” manifesto] had been written by an 11-member committee that included Mark Rudd, Bernardine Dohrn and John Jacobs, and represented the position of the Revolutionary Youth Movement (RYM) wing of SDS, most of which later turned into the Weather Underground Organization. The New Left Notes issue was full of the language of the Old Left of the 1930s; and was thus impenetrable and irrelevant to the majority of SDSers.
Once it became clear that the Worker Student Alliance (WSA) faction was the largest contingent with a majority of the delegates, the convention quickly fell into disarray, as the RYM and allied groups moved to expel Progressive Labor (PL) members and the WSA faction of SDS. The Black Panther representatives attacked PL and at the same time proved itself inclined towards sexism by advocating “pussy power.” The entire convention fell into something approaching chaos, or worse, farce.
The RYM and the National Office faction, led by Bernardine Dohrn, led a breakaway meeting from which PL and WSA members were barred. This group then voted by about 500 to 100 to expel PL from SDS, and then walked out of the conference hall with that 500.

This was a necessary clarification, and also an interesting history lesson. I had remembered that Progressive Labor was involved in the collapse of SDS, but had forgotten that the Maoists were, in fact, the target of the purge led by the RYM, also known as the “action faction,” which subsequently became the Weather Underground terrorist cell.

UPDATE III: The Progressive Labor Party is still in operation, more than 50 years after it was formed in 1961 by dissidents from the Communist Party USA who charged that CPUSA leader Gus Hall had taken “the capitalist road.” PL promoted conspiracy theories of JFK’s assassination as an “apparently well-planned execution,” and organized early protests against the Vietnam War. PLP’s Web site nowadays features headlines such as these:

Capitalism Equals Mass Racist Murder and War

Mexico: Building International
Unity and Communist Solidarity

Dark Knight Rises: Batman Spews
Anti-Communism to Save Capitalism

UPDATE IV: Linked by William J. Hoge and Walla Walla Tea Party Patriots — thanks! — and welcome, Instapundit readers!

UPDATE V: A Memeorandum thread with further commentary by Weasel Zippers, The Lonely Conservative and Gateway Pundit.

 

 


Category: #Occupy, Video

Comments

30 Responses to “The Truth Goes Viral Again: Progressive Labor Leader Speaks Explicitly About Occupy Movement’s Communist Goals”

  1. Beto_Ochoa
    August 20th, 2012 @ 9:18 am

    Joe Stalin had a very disciplined organization. Not as disciplined as Mao’s if numbers count.

  2. JeffS
    August 20th, 2012 @ 9:28 am

    The mask has long been off these creatures; now they are advertising.

  3. Walla Walla Tea Party Patriots
    August 20th, 2012 @ 9:32 am

    Linked.

  4. Stan Brewer
    August 20th, 2012 @ 9:40 am

    It is beyond me why people still continue to embrace a failed system of governing. Hasn’t the demise of the old Soviet Union and other communist states shown how not to run a government? But yet, these people think that Communism is the very ideal to strive to. All Communism has brought is death and self destruction to the untold millions who have died, because they were in the way of the people at the top. Don’t these same people realize that their own destruction will be at the very hands of the leaders that they helped to put into the positions? Talk about self-delusion, these people have it in spades.

  5. Capt. Whitebread
    August 20th, 2012 @ 9:41 am

    For one of two reasons, I think: 1) They think they’ve already won so there’s no reason to hide, 2)They’re desperate (or, if you prefer “demoralized as hell”) and think there’s nothing left to lose.

  6. JeffS
    August 20th, 2012 @ 9:48 am

    In a sense, (1) is possible. (2) is more likely, but killing Communism is like killing a vampire: it takes a lot of work.

  7. W. J. J. Hoge
    August 20th, 2012 @ 9:59 am

    Brava, Danielle Saul!

  8. Losing Control of the Narrative | hogewash
    August 20th, 2012 @ 10:00 am

    […] 2–An excellent example of viral truth may be found here. Brava, Danielle Saul! Share this:TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmailPrintLike this:Like5 bloggers like […]

  9. Garym
    August 20th, 2012 @ 10:01 am

    But Stan, you don’t understand? There are “smart” people trying to force failed policies on us now. “Smart” people will make (force) this work, whether you like it or not.
    Also, some Republican congressmen went swimming and another running for the senate misspoke about abortion. Doesn’t this just OUTRAGE you?

  10. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    August 20th, 2012 @ 10:55 am

    What a coincidence, Reds was on cable last night! I watched a few minutes–it still sucks as bad as when it first came out!

  11. McGehee
    August 20th, 2012 @ 11:05 am

    Indeed. Revolutionary theories always fail, and it’s always because the “right” people weren’t in charge. Obviously the problem isn’t that theory and reality cannot meet — it’s because the movement’s past leaders were insufficiently godlike to embody the theories correctly and thus force them across the theory/reality barrier.

  12. Garym
    August 20th, 2012 @ 11:21 am

    “Force” is the key word:
    http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/08/color-of-change-again-threatens-companies-participating-in-alec/

  13. 3 RC
    August 20th, 2012 @ 12:30 pm

    Free-market capitalism is what liberty looks like.

  14. Another aging Communist re-emerges still preaching Revolution | Grumpy Opinions
    August 20th, 2012 @ 1:44 pm

    […] The Truth Goes Viral Again: Progressive Labor Leader Speaks Explicitly About Occupy Movement’s Com… Leadership Institute intern Danielle Saul got video inside an Occupy DC meeting Sunday where union activist Mike Golash said: […]

  15. Ginny Saul
    August 20th, 2012 @ 2:13 pm

    Great job as always sir!!! We need to make people aware of the REAL plan for America. I hope people wake up

  16. mechanic540
    August 20th, 2012 @ 2:18 pm

    Its NOT the R or D that’s in front of the name Gartm,its the R & D that they do in office that supports Freedom and Free Markets that gets my support.

  17. richard mcenroe
    August 20th, 2012 @ 2:59 pm

    They believe they will have power in such a system. No other reason.

  18. observer
    August 20th, 2012 @ 3:18 pm

    wonder why these schmucks are still regenerating? because they operate in obscurity. if there had been a movie showing how lame they are, they would be verbotten to vulnerable youths. instead we have constant media references to great communists. see 85% of all literary and movie figures discussed in school books.

  19. Mike James
    August 20th, 2012 @ 3:38 pm

    The fact that it is, at best, a poor way to govern a society is of secondary importance. What is most important to Leftists is that communist doctrine is supremely useful for leveraging the worst, darkest parts of human nature for the purpose of taking power. Get it out of your head that communists are about good government. They are about seizing and holding onto power.

  20. Garym
    August 20th, 2012 @ 3:43 pm

    Absolutely. And just a few with the power at the top. These kind of people think that the only freedom you have is given to you by a benevolent government.

  21. Red
    August 20th, 2012 @ 4:08 pm

    Yeah. How do you stake a collective heart?

  22. Red
    August 20th, 2012 @ 4:12 pm

    We need to undeify the celebrities.

  23. Another aging Communist re-emerges still preaching Revolution | Unified Patriots
    August 20th, 2012 @ 6:33 pm

    […] The Truth Goes Viral Again: Progressive Labor Leader Speaks Explicitly About Occupy Movement’s Com… Leadership Institute intern Danielle Saul got video inside an Occupy DC meeting Sunday where union activist Mike Golash said: […]

  24. The Part The Media Left Out: Occupy Movement’s Goal Is Communism « American Glob
    August 20th, 2012 @ 7:48 pm

    […] Stacy McCain interviewed one of the video makers today by phone… Just interviewed Danielle Saul by phone. “There were three of us” who produced the video, Danielle said, naming Andrew McCaughey and Nicolas Tomboulides as her collaborators. Danielle explained that the Occupy DC meeting Sunday brought together various constituent groups involved in planning protests next month to mark the one-year anniversary of the Occupy movement. […]

  25. pst314
    August 20th, 2012 @ 10:04 pm

    That’s like saying “it’s beyond me why some people choose to become rapists, thieves and murderers.” 🙂

  26. Becca Lower
    August 20th, 2012 @ 10:10 pm

    Danielle is on #OTNN live right now! http://www.ownthenarrative.com/live

  27. Praelium
    August 20th, 2012 @ 10:40 pm

    Salve. Thank you for your excellent story and link. Thank you for welcoming Instapundit. Pope John Paul II fought against communism his whole life, because it killed 1/5 of the Polish citizens. When promoting Solidarity in 1979, he said, “The enemy is not communism but our own lethargy which permits the continued imposition of an alien form of political control on Poland” (Weigel, Witness 1999: 323).

    Laziness brings about losers like 0bama and makes one attracted to Feuerbach and Marx. Just as unions and television make people lazy, their opposites, podcasts and blogs, bring new energy.

  28. Ex-Union Boss ‘Progressive Labor Party’ Leader At Occupy DC: “Progressive Labor Is A “Revolutionary Communist Org” The “Objective: Overthrow Capitalist System, Build Communism” [Video]
    August 20th, 2012 @ 11:04 pm

    […] More here. […]

  29. Ex-Union Boss ‘Progressive Labor Party’ Leader At Occupy DC: “Progressive Labor Is A “Revolutionary Communist Org” The “Objective: Overthrow Capitalist System, Build Communism” [Video]
    August 20th, 2012 @ 11:07 pm

    […] Much more here. […]

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    August 26th, 2012 @ 1:54 pm

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