I've met some CP people in the past (in Berkeley and New York, where else?). I remember back in the 1970s, they were much like very liberal and pro-labor Democrats, sometimes with utopian conceptions of what might replace capitalism. They had good things to say about the USSR, natch. One referred to Joan Baez as singing a "racist" song ("The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," originally by The Band). The true reason for this slam, I thought, was that Baez had criticized the USSR.
When I was active in the campus union (a branch of AFSCME), there was a somewhat covert fight going on between the CP people and the "Schactmanites" (Draperites?). I think the latter were better in terms of long-term politics, but the former were less sectarian in style.
Neither group had any spies. Not even FBI ones. -- Jim Devine "The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side." -- James Baldwin