Former CPUSA leader reflects on Soviet-linked past while championing DSA growth

Jay Schaffner, who once headed a CPUSA-affiliated travel agency and served on the party’s National Committee until 1991, authored a retrospective for the Democratic Socialists of America’s website. He explained that the Communist Party USA was established in the 1920s to advance Soviet geopolitical goals and that later disclosures about Stalin’s oppression created divisions within the organization. Reflecting on the 1960s, Schaffner said the United States observed a different economic and political model abroad, citing the Soviet space achievement and Cuba’s revolution.

He now identifies as a proud member of the DSA, which recently reported a membership surge to over 120,000 and boasts more than a thousand elected officials nationwide. Schaffner’s New York chapter helped elect Mayor Zohran Mamdani, illustrating the group’s growing influence. The piece also mentions scholars who estimate communism’s death toll at more than 100 million people.