DSA founding member recalls working for Soviet-linked party
The article discusses the historical and contemporary links between the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and communist organizations. It highlights a recent statement by Jay Schaffner, a former leader of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), who wrote about his past involvement with pro-Soviet communist groups and his subsequent role in founding the DSA in 1982. Schaffner emphasized the ideological continuity between past communist causes and current socialist movements and noted that the USSR was the first country to put a human in orbit, contrasting this with socialist Cuba’s proximity to the U.S.
The piece notes that the CPUSA was created by the Soviet Union in the 1920s to promote its geopolitical interests, and historical revelations about Stalin’s oppression caused divisions within the party. Schaffner’s own background includes organizing trips to socialist countries and leaving the CPUSA after the USSR’s collapse in 1991. He now proudly affiliates with the larger, growing DSA, which has over 120,000 members and has elected socialists across various levels of government.
The article also mentions that some scholars estimate that communism has caused the deaths of over 100 million people. It notes recent political activity involving DSA members, including a candidate who interned at a school linked to Hamas, and the election of DSA-supported candidates like Mayor Zohran Mamdani in New York. the piece portrays the historical and ongoing connections between modern socialist organizations in the U.S. and their communist roots.
The Democratic Socialists of America advertised writings on Tuesday by a former Communist Party USA leader recounting his time in the pro-Soviet group.
Jay Schaffner promised to fill a “gap in the historical record” on the party in a post on the DSA’s website foreshadowing “Red Lives: Our Years in the U.S. Communist Party (1950–2000).” The remarks further tie America’s so-called democratic socialists of today with explicitly communist causes as Republicans accuse the DSA of promoting the ideology.
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The Soviet Union created the CPUSA to advance its geopolitical interests by merging multiple communist groups in the 1920s, as noted by scholars and the party’s website. Schaffner noted that later revelations about oppression under the late Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin caused “division” within CPUSA.
“Growing up at this time, one would wonder what was happening in that part of the world where the economic, political, and social systems were entirely different from those in the United States,” Schaffner said about the 1960s. “It was not a matter of agreeing with those countries, but rather of acknowledging that they were different from ours and offering an alternative. No matter what the Cold War threw at the Soviet Union, it remained. The USSR was the first country to put a human being in orbit. And then, as the 1960s began, there was a new and different country — socialist Cuba — just 90 miles from U.S. shores.”
Schaffner formerly led a CPUSA-affiliated travel agency that “organized trips to the Soviet Union and other socialist countries,” according to New York University. The activist became a founding member of the DSA in 1982 and left his role at CPUSA’s National Committee in 1991 — the year the USSR collapsed, his profile on the leftist website Portside shows.
“Today, I am proud to be a member of the largest socialist organization that the United States has ever seen, an organization that is growing, that is part of today’s movements for social change, and that is electing democratic socialists to city councils, county governments, state legislatures, and to the halls of Congress,” Schaffner wrote. “That organization is Democratic Socialists of America, and it boasts more than a thousand members holding elective office from one end of the country to the other.”
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The DSA announced in July that it reached an all-time membership record of more than 120,000, making it the country’s largest socialist group. Schaffner is now a member of its New York chapter, which used vast campaigning support resources to elect New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Some scholars estimate communism killed more than 100 million people, according to the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
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