“A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism.” – Karl Marx, Manifesto of the Communist Party In this episode, YCL members Jack and Emma speak with Bennett Shoop, a queer organizer for the Claudia Jones School for Political Education and member of the D.C. YCL, about radical LGBTQ+ history and theory. Shoop uses a Marxist analysis to draw the connections between homophobia, transphobia, the oppression of women, and racism; and the need for working class leadership in the struggle for equality. Shoop’s pamphlet Queer Against Capital can be read here.   https://podcasts.c ..read more

  “A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism.” —Karl Marx, Manifesto of the Communist Party The Specter podcast returns! Not to haunt, but to inform and inspire. In this episode, we interview Kooper Caraway, president of the South Dakota AFL-CIO. He discusses the youth-led upsurge in labor organizing and what’s motivating young activists today. Image:  International Day of Solidarity with Alabama Amazon Workers, Philadelphia, PA, Joe Piette, photo cropped and lightened (CC BY-SA 2.0).   https://podcasts.captivate.fm/media/2eb583a2-bd77-4ece-ba90-d10ee9d2654d/the-s ..read more

From Cuban Medical Internationalism during the COVID-19 pandemic to how the U.S. embargo on Cuba poses special challenges for Cuba and the rest of the world, Tony Ryan, co-founder of The National Network on Cuba and long-time activist and CPUSA member, joins The Specter for a second time to break it all down along with special guest Arianne Aquino, a revolutionary Filipino-American activist currently studying medicine in Cuba. Arianne and Tony discuss the ways in which Cuba is a global leader of medicine and a pioneer of providing low-income, BIPOC and LBTQ+ students from all over the world ..read more

In this week’s episode of The Specter, Aleena and Susie are joined by Jose Santiago, a life long Autism advocate and author, who helps us dive deep into the conversation on Neurodiversity and advocacy. Jose’s book, Lenses of Autism, can be purchased here as an eBook: https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/LensesofAutism Link to Jose’s website: https://www.josetheautismadvocate.org/ http://live-cpusa.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Neurodiversity_mixdown.mp3 ..read more

  Tony Pecinovsky sits down with the Edna Griffin Club in Iowa during Black History Month to give a presentation of his recent book, Let Them Tremble: Biographical Interventions Marking 100 Years of the Communist Party, USA. In this talk, he speaks on the life of Black Communist and former Chairman of the CPUSA, Henry Winston, and speaks about how important of a role he played in the movement during his tenure in the Party.   http://live-cpusa.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/tonyp_mixdown.mp3 Suggested reading through International Publishers: https://www.intpubnyc.c ..read more

The Specter speaks with Jaimee Swift, founder of Black Women Radicals, about the life of Black Communist, Claudia Jones. Jones was an immigrant from the British West Indies (now known as Trinidad), and spent most of her youth and adult life in Harlem, New York. She joined the Young Communist League at the age of 19 during the Scottsboro Case and went on to become a leader in the Communist Party, USA. As the executive secretary for the CPUSA’s women’s commission, Jones quickly became an astounding writer, journalist and also theoretician for the Party—known widely for her work in “An End to th ..read more

The Specter talks with comrades from the Communist Party in Washington, D.C., about their history in the youth and liberation movements during the 1970s and 1980s. The Young Workers Liberation League was a successor of the Du Bois Clubs of America and was officially established in 1970. Jaime, Gato, and Carl speak of their experiences as “shock troops” for the Free Angela Davis campaign, which eventually led to the founding of the National Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression (naarpr.org). They also discuss organizing in the Rainbow/PUSH coalition in the 1980s, participating in th ..read more

The communist party of Cyprus, known as the “Progressive Party of Working People” or by its Greek acronym “AKEL”, has fought for the unification of their island country for nearly a century. In this week’s episode of The Specter, special guest Vera Polycarpou, gives us an inside look into Cyprus’s struggle for unification and socialism. Vera currently serves as Head of the International Relations Bureau of AKEL and is a member of the party’s Central Committee. Vera previously served as head of AKEL’s delegation in the European Parliament from 2004 to 2015. U.S. imperialism often dominates the ..read more

The Specter sits down with Party co-chair Joe Sims to discuss the Communist Party’s historical involvement with the Black liberation movement. Sims goes into detail about his own involvement with the movement, specifically as a member of the Young Workers Liberation League and as editor of the Party’s theoretical journal Political Affairs, and his involvement with the international youth festivals and the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. They discuss current struggles in the fight against racism in the criminal justice system, the racial/social division of labor, voter suppres ..read more

In this episode of The Specter, Comrade Ian Goodrum explains how the coronavirus pandemic emerged in Wuhan and describes his experience as an American Communist living in China during the initial outbreak. China has been able to contain the virus, while the confirmed cases of infected persons and death toll continue to rise in the United States. Only a system which puts people before profits will be able to save humanity. The Specter is haunting podcast platforms!  Check us out  on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, and Stitcher.   https://www.cpusa.org/wp-conten ..read more