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St. Paul, MINN. – From Times Square to here in Minnesota’s state capital, communist and socialist activists at the nationwide “No Kings” protests escalated their anti-America campaign and openly called for a nationwide economic strike on May 1, an international communist holiday known as May Day, as key Democratic activists joined their call.
At the rally here in St. Paul, organizers, speakers and activists distributed communist literature, waved flags from socialist governments and revolutionary movements and urged demonstrators to transform the day’s protests into a nationwide shutdown of work, school and commerce.
By early Sunday, Press TV, the propaganda arm of the Islamic Republic of Iran, leveraged news of the protests to tell readers, “Regime change begins at home’: No Kings, No War protests held across US.”
As Fox News Digital reported, about 500 organizations with an estimated combined annual revenue of about $3 billion sponsored and organized the demonstrations, creating a centralized protest apparatus even while organizers tried to market the activists as “grassroots.”
The network included traditional Democratic advocacy organizations, like Indivisible, MoveOn and the American Federation of Teachers, alongside openly socialist and communist groups such as the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Freedom Road Socialist Organization and local chapters of the Communist Party USA, including the Twin Cities Communist Party USA club, which endorsed the St. Paul rally.
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Offstage at the celebrity-filled “No Kings” protest in St. Paul, activists with the Party for Socialism and Liberation sold a manifesto, “Socialist Reconstruction: A Better Future for the United States,” filled with Marxist teachings.
Yards away, near the main stage, Kevin Dwire a candidate for the U.S. Senate from the Socialist Workers Party, sold copies of the “Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the 1847 work that would transform the next century’s global politics. The group says it is “part of the continuity of revolutionary Marxism,” tracing back to Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky.
In the middle of the lawn, flags for the Islamic Republic of Iran, Venezuela and Cuba flew next to a flag of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, a self-described Marxist group.
In the back of the lawn, a young man who identified himself only as “Mason” championed the teachings of the Revolutionary Communists of America. A young woman nearby sold copies of Socialist Alternative, which describes itself as a “revolutionary organization working to build a movement for a democratic, socialist society.”
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Across the country, from Los Angeles to New York City, pro-communist Americans marched alongside traditional center-left Democrats in an alliance that many mainstream media outlets largely portrayed simply as anti-Trump protests.
The ideological adherents themselves, however, were not shy about their beliefs.
In Times Square, members of the Revolutionary Communists of America chanted: “There is only one solution — communist revolution,” while waving red flags bearing the hammer and sickle.
The common refrain from these groups was a call for a nationwide strike on May 1, the traditional May Day holiday long embraced by communist and socialist movements as a day of mass political action.
At the St. Paul rally, that call received support from the stage.
Ezra Levin, the co-founder of Indivisible, the protest’s key organizer, joined the communist call for a national strike and urged protesters to prepare for economic disruption on May Day, similar to a shutdown that saw limited success in Minneapolis during protests on Jan. 23 against Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I want everyone here to put this on their calendar… It is a tactical goal, an escalation… It is an economic show of force, inspired by Minnesota’s own day of truth and action,” Levin told the crowd.
Levin continued: “On May 1, on May Day, we are saying, ‘No business as usual.’ No work, no school, no shopping. We’re going to show up and say we’re putting workers over billionaires and kings.’”
While Indivisible has participated in May Day coalitions before, the prominence of socialist organizations in the protest ecosystem illustrates the growing influence of the far left within networks that overlap with mainstream Democratic political organizing.
Indivisible Project, a nonprofit whose work is often marketed with just the first word of the group’s name, has received $5 million in recent years from billionaire George Soros’ Open Society philanthropy arm.
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Meanwhile, some of the openly pro-communist groups marching alongside Democratic activists are connected to a global activist network funded by Neville Roy Singham, an American-born tech tycoon now based in Shanghai, promoting messaging critical of U.S. democracy and sympathetic to China’s political model.
That network includes media and organizing hubs such as the People’s Forum, BreakThrough BT Media Inc.’s BreakThrough News, CodePink, the ANSWER Coalition and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which have received funding and support through the Singham network.
Over the years, Singham, who sold his tech company for approximately $800 million in 2017, has provided $22.4 million to People’s Forum, $1.3 million to CodePink and $1.1 million to BreakThrough BT Media Inc. The ANSWER Coalition and Party for Socialism and Liberation have received support through their relationships with the People’s Forum.
The network has funded conferences, media outlets and activist organizations promoting narratives that portray the United States as a “fascist” and “hyper-imperialist” power while defending the authoritarian governments of China, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The theme echoed throughout the protests, where demonstrators warned of rising “fascism” in the United States.
In the hours after the protests ended, the activist networks celebrated the demonstrations online. In Los Angeles, CodePink posted video showing its banner in the middle of a protest where demonstrators chanted: “Hey, hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go.”
BreakThrough News shared videos from protests in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Houston and Gainesville, Fla., declaring: “Massive demonstrations took place as part of the ‘No Kings Day.’”
The outlet blasted what it described as Trump’s “right-wing agenda of endless wars and deportations.”
The ANSWER Coalition circulated video showing Indivisible, CodePink and the Party for Socialism and Liberation marching together in Chicago, writing that the “people of Chicago take the streets to stand against Trump’s agenda.”
Indivisible Chicago responded with three fire emojis, revealing the emerging synchronicity between traditionally Democratic groups and openly pro-communist organizations.
The ANSWER Coalition operates out of the People’s Forum in New York City, which also celebrated the demonstrations online with the caption, putting its stamp on the day: “No Kings Day NYC.”
Leaders tied to some of these activist groups, including CodePink co-founders Jodie Evans and Medea Benjamin, have participated in delegations to Venezuela, Cuba, the Islamic Republic of Iran, North Korea and China, strengthening relationships with governments frequently at odds with U.S. foreign policy. Evans married Singham in 2017, as he started funding this network in the U.S.
Back in St. Paul, even some socialist activists expressed skepticism about those alliances.
Dwyer, the Socialist Workers Party leader selling copies of Marx’s manifesto, shook his head when discussing China’s political system. “China socialism is capitalism,” he said.
The young activist from the Revolutionary Communists of America also distanced himself from China’s government, describing it as a betrayal of communist ideals, while he openly embraced communist ideology. “We are against imperialism,” he told Fox News Digital.
As the rally wound down and crews dismantled stage equipment, the protest grounds began to empty.
A demonstrator propped a Party for Socialism and Liberation sign against a porta-toilet.
Nearby, two American flags lay discarded in the grass beside a heap of garbage bags, an emptied bag of Cheez-It visible among the trash.
Kyle Schmidbauer contributed to this report.
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