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The joke about Joe McCarthy's 'hundreds of communists' in the CIA was that in fact, there probly WERE hundreds of CIA operatives in the CPUSA, working undercover to neutralize the party.

And leave us not forget the large number of US journalists who sent 'insights' to the agency over the decades...

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I love the idea of more author interviews. The book culture has suffered so greatly in recent decades, with the vanishing of newspapers and their book columns, etc., that this would be striking a blow in the right direction. Go for it!

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I found this fascinating. I knew about this issue in broad strokes but not in this much gory detail.

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It's valuable to bring the anti-apartheid protests of the mid-80s back into the conversation as a certain Howard student named Kamala Harris was among our ranks.

I wonder what would she have to say to the Vice President about Gaza?

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The African-American Labor Center was another CIA front to influence African trade unions against socialism and left ideology. It tried to develop "third force" trade unionism in countries in Africa that had progressive trade unions, including in South Africa. I wonder if Jeff Schuhrke's book covers that? And also whether it covers the CIA work in the Middle East, undermining left-wing and progressive organizations and promoting religious organizations that now dominate throughout the Middle East?

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Yes. Buy it!

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I hope you'll add my book to your list, Looking Backward from the Tricentennial. At https://fastforpeace.org/looking-backward/ there are free downloads, including a link to stream the audio book (since I know your time is limited).

Presented as fiction, the novel's protagonist wakes up in 2076, where he learns how the American Union staged a nonviolent revolution in the present day. As a union of concerned citizens (not just workers) dedicated to addressing MLK's triple evils of poverty, racism, and militarism, they crowdsource a people's legislative assembly to write good policy for the United States. Then, as a union of swing voters, they use game theory to shepherd its passage through Congress—collectively bargaining for a better social contract. Like Edward Bellamy's classic, Looking Backward (2000-1887), most of the book is conversational chapters discussing history, theory, or practical implementation of the American Union model. We the people need a better way to organize for political power... and that's a union.

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