Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism

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Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism was formed after the Soviet coup of 1991 by Manning Marable, Carl Boice, Leslie Cagan, Charlene Mitchell, Angela Davis, Pete Seeger and numerous others who were expelled from (or left) the Communist Party for supporting Mikhail Gorbachev and the pro-democracy faction of the Russian government. Free of the CPUSA, the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS) founders hoped to unite the divided American Left, and received support from a number of well-known leftists, including Noam Chomsky. However, this dream soon ran into the classic problem of sectarianism, and CCDS floundered. Over the years, the political alignment of CCDS shifted dramatically, from its infancy in Reform Communism to become a democratic socialist organization, not very different from Democratic Socialists of America or the Socialist Party USA. However, without a clear vision of where the organization was going (i.e., merge with another group or strengthen their own) CCDS's originally strong organization has begun to disintegrate within the last few years. Some of their members, inspired by the CP's new leader, Sam Webb, returned to the CP. Others joined Ralph Nader and the Green Party and forgot about CCDS. Further, CCDS's main office in New York was damaged in the September 11th attack. CCDS will be holding its tenth anniversary convention in July, 2002, in San Francisco.

This page is part of the Field Guide to the Left.