The Green Party contender is hobnobbing with China apologists and partners of Russia propaganda outlets.
DAVID CORN
Washington, DC, Bureau Chief
Cornel West will appear at a forum on the war in Ukraine with Lee Camp and Claudia De La Cruz.Mother Jones illustration; Nancy Kaszerman/Zuma; Wikimedia (2)
Cornel West, the celebrity academic(formerly of Harvard and Princeton), fiery antiracism campaigner, and current Green Party presidential candidate, has a long association with the Democratic Socialists of America, having served as the group’s honorary chairman. But as he campaigns for president, West is moving beyond the DSA and forging bonds with far-left activists who call for the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism, who support the Chinese and North Korean regimes, and who are associated with communist organizations and Russian state propaganda operations.
What has brought West into this circle is his opposition to US military assistance for Ukraine. In July, he posted a statement on social media blaming NATO and the United States for having “provoked Russia into a criminal invasion and occupation of Ukraine.” He called the Russia-launched conflict “a proxy war between the American Empire and the Russian Federation,” and he slammed the Democratic Party as “a party of war and Wall Street targeting Russia and China.”
West is currently scheduled to headline a Washington, DC, forum on October 3 that aims to spur opposition to the Biden administration’s support of the Ukrainian government’s fight against the Russian invasion. Part of a “global mobilization” of self-described peace groups, the event is being co-sponsored by an outfit long tied to communist organizations, and West will share the stage with speakers from the farthest side of the left, including some who have worked for Russian state media.
According to promotional material for the forum, the other participants will be Claudia De La Cruz, Eugene Puryear, Medea Benjamin, and Lee Camp.
De La Cruz is presently the 2024 presidential candidate of the small, far-left Party for Socialism and Liberation. The PSL split from the Marxist-Leninist Workers World Party in 2004, and one of its founders has declared, “We are communists.” The party calls for the “revolutionary” overthrow of capitalism and denounces “reformist hopes” for a “kinder, gentler” capitalism. The PSL has supported the North Korean regime and its pursuit of nuclear weapons and also hailed the Chinese Communist Party, defending it against various charges of human rights violations. Brian Becker, a co-founder of the PSL, used to co-host a show on Radio Sputnik, a Moscow-created propaganda network.
Puryear, a co-host of the forum, was the PSL’s vice presidential candidate in 2008 and 2016. He, too, once hosted a show on Radio Sputnik, which is the radio and digital outlet of Rossiya Segodnya (Russia Today), the Kremlin-controlled media agency that directs the RT television network. (RT America shut downshortly after Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.) Camp, a comedian and far-left podcaster, had a show on RT America until the cable network shuttered. He blamed the “US government war machine” for RT America’s demise.
Medea Benjamin, the other-co-host for the event, is a co-founder of Code Pink, a longtime opponent of US military intervention overseas. She is scheduled to co-host a fundraiser for West prior to the forum. Code Pink was the subject of a recent New York Times investigationthat reported that this antiwar group has received significant financial support from a pro-China tech mogul named Neville Roy Singham who lives in Shanghai and that the group has defended or downplayed China’s human rights violations.
The Times said that its reporters had “tracked hundreds of millions of dollars to groups linked to Mr. Singham that mix progressive advocacy with Chinese government talking points.” As an example, it noted that Code Pink “once criticized China’s rights record but now defends its internment of the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs, which human rights experts have labeled a crime against humanity.” Singham, who is married to Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans, also has funded the People’s Forum, a New York-based meeting space that hosts radical left lectures and events and that De La Cruz and another PSL activist have co-managed.
(After the Times article appeared, Code Pink, the People’s Forum, PSL, Benjamin, Evans, De La Cruz, Puryear, Camp, Becker, and others signed an open letter accusing the newspaper of engaging in “McCarthyism” and joining with “right-wing extremists” to use “intimidation tactics” to smear Code Pink, the People’s Forum, and other “advocates for change.” A spokesperson for Code Pink tells Mother Jones, “We do not spread talking points from foreign governments.” She adds, “The notion that we are influenced by external political entities or governments is not only false—it’s insulting. We’ve always been an independent voice for peace, and we refuse to be labeled otherwise… The Chinese government’s violation of [the Uyghurs’] human rights is of concern to us and we join the call for justice for the Uyghurs. At the same time, we call out the US government, which is using the human rights of the Uyghurs as a tool to drive war with China, instead of a human rights issue that needs to be addressed as such.” In a 2021 interview, though, Evans did seem to excuse or diminish the Chinese government’s harsh treatment of the Uyghurs.)
The October 3 panel opposing US military assistance to Ukraine is sponsored by Code Pink, Peace in Ukraine (a collection of antiwar groups), and the ANSWER Coalition. ANSWER is an antiwar outfit that emerged in the run-up to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and was organized by the Workers World Party, a small political sect that split from the Socialist Workers Party to support the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. The WWP, an advocate of socialist revolution and the abolition of private property, praised the regimes of Fidel Castro and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il. It campaigned against the war-crimes trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. ANSWER’s spokesperson at the time of its founding was Brian Becker, who went on to leave the WWP and form the PSL. He is currently the national coordinator of ANSWER. Last year, Becker gave an interview to Global Times, a propaganda outlet tied to the Chinese Communist Party, and hailed the CCP as “a source of great inspiration for people who seek a socialist and humanist alternative.”
With his participation in the October 3 event, West has allied himself with a small coterie of far-leftists, some of whom promote extremist ideology and some of whom have voiced support for authoritarian regimes or partnered with Russia-controlled media operations.
West and his campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
West and his backers might argue that he is merely joining forces with those who also oppose US policies that he deems dangerous. Yet when a presidential candidate takes a stage, he or she can expect to be judged by those who share the platform. The current line-up for this forum places West in the company of radicals, Chinese apologists, and chums of Russia’s propaganda machine. Given his status as a prominent public intellectual and academic, his headlining appearance boosts the standing of his co-speakers and the organizing outfits. Choosing to appear with these people is a significant campaign decision.
Interesting. Jill Stein, the previous US Green candidate for the presidency, was an open putlerite who attended a dinner in Moscow that celebrated the founding of RaT. Also at putler’s table was the QAnon turdarse Mike Flynn. An early example of the commies and alt-right aligning for putler.
The far left in the UK have been known as “Tankies” for many decades, because they supported the tanks going into Budapest in 1956 and Prague in 1968.
The Tankies are still active in the UK. JeremIRA CorbLenin is still the idealogical boss, along with George Galloway.
The US Tankies are led by Barmy Bernie Sanders, his sidekick Jeffrey Sachs, conspiracy lunatic RFK Jr and now this latest piece of dogshit; West, whose party is the fourth biggest in the U.S.
The alt-right/MAGA/Tankies speak as one : they love putler.
They all belong on the psych ward. Utter filth.
Greens used to be watermelons: green outside. Red inside. Now they are openly putinoid commie scum.
“Jill Stein … was an open putlerite”
I’m not sure about that. It’s true that she attended a Moscow gala celebrating the tenth anniversary of Russia Today, but she liked RT because they promoted her candidacy. They seated her at the head table w/ Putin for propaganda value, but she may not have known about that in advance. In 2022, she did condemn Putin’s attack on Ukraine.
(Of course, RT/Putin only promoted her candidacy in order to siphon votes away from Hillary Clinton, in order to help get their puppet elected. And it worked. But although she was a Russian tool, I’m pretty sure she was an unwitting tool.)
A cursory Google search proves she is a dirty, filthy putinoid skank with views no different from Trumpkov.
Thanks for that, Sir scradge1. I admit to not have been paying much attention to her since the 2016 election.
I think one difference from Trumpkov is that he’s pro-putler, while Dr. Stein is just anti-war. I mentioned above that she condemned Putin’s attack on Ukraine, while Trump has called Putin a “genius” for invading Ukraine. Here’s the rweet where she said:
“War is a racket & crime against humanity. We must condemn Putin’s attack on Ukraine & stand in solidarity with people caught in the crossfire between great powers run by oligarchs & nationalist warmongers.”
Damn – I really don’t like this new interface. I complained previously about losing the “Email me new comments” option, which was provided by a WordPress plug-in. I see now that that option is back, but (1) it doesn’t seem to work; I haven’t gotten email on any comments I’ve posted, and (2) it doesn’t pick up my saved info automatically; I need to click the envelope icon and enter it every time I comment.
“Democratic Socialists.”
The term is a non-sequitur. No socialists are democratic; their objective is total cradle to grave control, just like the putinaZis.
basically it means that these are capitalists who think that the system must be corrected by social measures to make it less brutal, more united and shock-absorbing… nothing shameful, nor ridiculous, nor stupid 😉
I’ve learned to be very wary with anything that has the world “socialist” in it. Some might even mean well, but they never do a good job at all, while others are hidden communists or hidden Nazis.
I clarify my point to make myself better understood
In France there is the Communist Party (communism is in theory revolutionary) but ours are reformers (which is ultimately the definition of socialists in France).
The socialists, initially in theory, want to achieve communism, but not in a brutal way, but rather through reforms. in fact, in reality, it is “social democrats”, that is to say capitalists (in my opinion the most robust and most adaptable system) who regulate the system, so that it is more united and protective.
therefore our retirement system for example, are not voracious pension funds which will destroy the economies of other countries and cause economic crises abroad. your system your organization – when you lose your job you lose your social security – in France we find that your system has very little intrinsic solidarity – it’s almost “cruel” 😉
men facing adversity want security, the army provides part of it mainly outside, the police inside, but it seems to us, to certain Europeans, that your system is really “very light” on other security to provide to further secure your ecosystem…
(the problem of communism – which in theory must lead to the disappearance of the state – but it always stops at the phase of the concentration of the powers of a small elite. we can also say that the dictatorship of the proletariat remains a dictatorship … and that it is hardly better than the dictatorship of the employers! I would add that the perception of being free – even more than real freedom – is important for man…)
by my words you understand that we have not experienced the trauma of the invasion which wanted to brutally show us the path to political happiness – hence probably a lesser sensitivity to this danger which is more visible for a Pole 😉
“by my words you understand that we have not experienced the trauma of the invasion which wanted to brutally show us the path to political happiness.”
Yes, you have, in WWII. But, people like Sarkozy and to some extent Macron have forgotten the bitter lesson. Especially, Sarkozy has succumbed to be a servant to another type of fascism, the one in the kremlin.
“when you lose your job you lose your social security”
If you’re using “social security” as a generic term, I’m not sure what you’re referring to. But if you’re referring to the US Social Security fund that we pay into via payroll deductions, it’s not true that it’s lost if you lose your job.
Lee Camp blamed the “US government war machine” for RT America’s demise.
Sure. You sick fuck.
exactly that
Like a planters truck hitting a low overpass, nuts everywhere.
Hahahaha, Sir Bill, sounds like you’re from Dixie
😁
😁
Our political system is a huge water treatment plant, in which the far right and far left represent the concentrated filth that was separated from the sludge.
A very interesting and spot on analogy Sir Facts.