[lbo-talk] Communist Party slams Allen West

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Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as
communistic by its opponents in power? Where is the opposition that
has not hurled back the branding reproach of communism, against the
more advanced opposition parties, as well as against its reactionary
adversaries? -  Manifesto of the Communist Party

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/75037.html

Communist Party slams Allen West

By DARIUS DIXON | 4/11/12 2:10 PM EDT Updated: 4/11/12 2:43 PM EDT

A top official of the Communist Party USA on Wednesday ripped Rep.
Allen West’s “sad ploy” for claiming that as many as 80 Democratic
members of the House are communists.

“I just think it’s an absurd way to cast a shadow over his colleagues.
It’s kind of a sad ploy,” Libero Della Piana, a vice-chairman of the
national Communist Party, said of the Florida Republican’s charge that
about 80 House Democrats were members of the radical party.

“It’s just guilt by association taken to an extreme,” he told
POLITICO. He also said there are no members of Congress who are
members of the Communist Party – not even avowed socialist Sen. Bernie
Sanders (I-Vt.).

(Also on POLITICO: West claims there are 80 communists in the House)

“I think it’s just absurd,” Della Piana said.

In a video clip of the event posted Wednesday, West was responding a
question from a constituent asking “What percentage of the American
legislature do you think are card-carrying Marxists?”

“That’s a fair question. I believe there’s about 78 to 81 members of
the Democratic Party that are members of the Communist Party,” West
says in the video. He went on to say, “It’s called the Congressional
Progressive Caucus,” according to a West spokesman, Tim Edson.

Della Piana also said that using the term “communist” as slander ran
counter to democratic principles.

(See also: Top 10 Allen West lines)

“We are supposed to live in a political democracy,” he said. “I didn’t
know that being a Communist in Congress was off-limits or out of
bounds. There aren’t any now and if there were in the future does that
mean that the voters don’t have a say? Can’t choose a Communist to be
in Congress?”

In fact, charges from the tea party that President Barack Obama and
other Democrats were enacting “socialist” policies has led to
increased interest in socialism, Della Piana said.

“I think a lot of Americans were opened up the idea of socialism
because of the tea party’s attack on it,” he said. “I think they put
it back on the agenda. By attacking every policy initiative of the
president as socialism, they put it back in the public debate… it
wasn’t exactly something the average American was talking abo

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