It’s the 21st Century, and Commie Camps still Exist
When I wrote my memoir Commies: A Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left and the Leftover Left, I had a chapter that I titled “Commie Camp,” about my years as both a camper and counselor in the now-defunct Camp Woodland in Phoenicia, New York. I wrote about how instead of Olympics, they had a “World Youth Festival,” modeled after the Soviet bloc’s festivals; of the dedication to the culture and politics of left-wing folk music; and of how counselors even used the camp’s premises to try and recruit older campers into the Communist Party’s youth movement.
I assumed that in the 21st century, those days of Red summer camps had come to an end. Alas, that is not the case. Evidently Gabe Zimmerman, the director of community outreach for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) who died standing by her side in the Tucson shootings, was a proud counselor in 2001 at one of these remaining camps, Camp Kinderland in Eastern Massachusetts.
According to an report in the weekly Jewish newspaper The Forward, the camp “is an idiosyncratic sort of place, a living relic of American Jewry’s red diaper past.” To say the least! After all, it had its beginnings in 1923, when Jewish Communists created it. For years its camp grounds were in Hopewell Junction, New York. Set on a large lake, the opposite side made up the camp grounds of the competing Jewish social-democratic camp, Kinder Ring, run by the Workmen’s Circle, a moderate fraternal organization of so-called “right-wing socialists,” who set up shop in 1927.
You came up with some names that I hadn’t heard in years, La Pasionara’s son is who murdered Trotsky in Mexico City for the NKGB. She was later ‘disappeared’ into the Gulags of Northern Russia and her son did 20 years in Mexican Prisons and when released went back to Russia. Emma Goldman had her citizenship taking away from her and sent back to Russia, by the time she got back she found that she really wasn’t a revolutionary and finally made it out of the country, died in Canada. Goldman just might have had something to do with the assassination of President McKinley by an anarchist its thought by law enforcement of the time.
“Red” Emma Goldman was a major league, serious anarchist. She was never a member of the Communist Party. In fact, after her Russian experience, she became an outspoken opponent of the Communist state in Russia. Why the CPUSA youth summer camp would name anything for “Red” Emma is a mystery.
There is much that is not completely understood about the history, culture and politics of the CP movement’s summer camps. I’m not sure that Dr. Radosh is telling us all he knows about the summer camps and his own involvement with them.
There appears to be much in Dr. Radosh’s past he would like to forget or reinvent. He claims his father was not a member of the Communist Party, only a fellow traveler. He was a fellow traveler of Joseph Stalin! How does he know that his father was not a “secret member” of the Communist Party? His uncle was a fighter for the Communist run International Brigade in Spain. Dr. Radosh took lessons on his string-instrument from Pete Seeger, while attending his favorite Communist Party summer camp. Remember, Dr. Radosh does not consider himself a “Red Diaper Baby.” If this is not a reinvention, what is?
Of course, there were the good and loyal “right wing socialist” summer camps. We don’t receive much information about them, because Dr. Radosh doesn’t know much about them. He wasn’t a welcomed guest.
“Why the CPUSA youth summer camp would name anything for “Red” Emma is a mystery.”
The CPUSA has deep admiration for anyone who sought to use violence to tear down liberty.
Rob:
You are unfamiliar with the history of Emma Goldman. She became a “persona non-grata” in the Communist movement. In 1923, after her stay in the USSR, and her exit interview with V.I. Lenin-where she expressed her deep disillusionment with the Bolsheviks–she wrote a book about her experiences entitled “My Disillusionment in Russia.”
Yes, I understand you are an anti-communist, but you don’t have the facts about Emma Goldman and her “anti-communism.”
Rob,
I suggest reading Emma Goldman’s autobiography. Her “violent” phase was in her early twenties; she actually reached a point where, hearing about some young idiots who were trying to build bombs, she reacted with horror. Then she had to look back and shake her head at herself.
The most violent thing she ever did was horsewhip a man who slandered her lover after he tried to murder Carnegie. I’m inclined to give her a pass on that one – not the murder, but the horsewhipping – on the grounds that love is not the most rational of emotions.
She really is a remarkable read. What you make of her is up to you, but she really is worth your while.
Didn’t Woodland have a reunion sometime in the past few years?
One correction: It’s Rep. Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords, not “Debbie Giffords.”
Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah, Here I Am at Camp Guevera
Surely, there must be a way to make a “Muslim v.s. the Infidel” attraction at one of the Disney venues? Lopping off of heads/hands and stonings re-enacted for authenticity. Children must learn that “Sharia” is “Good” after all.
Oy.
Just another example of how much leftist salivate for totalitarianism. Anyone else having a camp is indoctrinating mind numbed robots with their evil propaganda, but not them. No. They are doing the glorious work of the collective to bring about peace for all. My rage builds a little more each day.
Kind of ironic that a Jewish camp would name a building after Paul Robeson, given that when several Yiddish poets who had befriended him during one of his tours to the Soviet Union got caught in the purges Robeson was asked for, and refused, support.
Not sure why they’d name something after Roberto Clemente; he wasn’t even a left-hander.
They’re more communist than Jewish, clearly.
Hello Mullah, Hello Fatah….
Here we are now,
In Camp Ramallah
With communist regimes falling all over the world, it’s funny how the far-left simply will not admit that communism does not work. It will be interesting to see what happens in Cuba once Castro finally, finnally, dies. Will the Cubans seize the opportunity to finally do something with their government, or will one of Castro’s henchmen, like his brother Raul, simply take over and keep it the police state that it is? Don’t know, but it seems wierd that the Cuban people would continue supporting a regime that has failed them so badly for so many years. I do know one thing. If Castro dies and Cuba abandons communism, the far left in this country will have to go into group therapy, before they have a nervous breakdown.
it’s funny how the far-left simply will not admit that communism does not work.
The far-left is in no danger of decline. It’s extremely well-funded – think Tides Foundation, International ANSWER, Joyce Foundation (Obama was a Board member), George Soros, and hundreds of NGOs all staffed by graduates of the West’s far-left University liberal-arts departments. Our President spent the 80s in Chicago using his positions on the Boards of the Joyce Foundation and the Annenberg Chicago Challenge to shovel dollars to far-left activist groups (think ACORN and the Midwest Academy).
Some of these shady organizations profess various flavors of ‘progressivism’, but all aim for some form of antidemocratic authoritarianism (with their oh-so-smart cadres at the top, of course), none appear to have enemies on the left, and all enjoy Frances Fox Piven’s adulation (shared by our leftist MSM) for noble street activists employing barely-denied violence.
Precisely the sort of sea that the Communist fish swim in, with their never-ending yearning to try again and again till they ‘get it right’ this time, with no concern for the inevitable dead.
True…and even worse, today’s leftists are in bed with the jihadis.
What makes you think Communism doesn’t work. Leftist regimes in secure control invariably destroy the native culture, religion, economy, society, traditions, and ultimately, many of the natives themselves. Because Leftists persist in attempting to impose these regimes everywhere they can, logic demands that we conclude that the results-in-practice coincide with Leftist goals-in-theory. Once in while, a Leftist will let the underlying hatred for all existing civilizations and living populations slip out.
Like he say’s in “Commies”, they just know the next time they’ll get it right!
Ron, you are talking about me, my family, my camp, my organization – there are two sides you know (I am the one also at the Geller rally with the Constitution Flag in the front – gave it to Pam). The camp still exists and is dwindling in size and number of “radical chic” holdovers from a failed era. I and several others ran the WC Shule in Westchester – for 16 years with a strong love of America, Yiddishkeit, Israel, Zionism (I took heat from about a 1/3 for that – F.’em!) and progressive causes. That does not stop the majority of “us” from understanding that America is worth fighting for and dying for – it is a country founded on an IDEA – a SECULAR IDEA which is what I grew up with and still teach – THAT is what we were taught in “commie camp” – for all it’s faults, the camp (of which my father also attended as a poor Depression Era child from Brooklyn) produced an exceptional number of free thinkers and Patriots – many who served and died for Freedom and Democracy. If Kinderland shaped me – and it did – and Workmens Circle teaches and preaches American Exceptionalism through it’s shuln, then you have not reported accurately – get your facts straight – do not confuse Kinderland with Kindering or red diaper babies with failed policies. The world is not ready to drop borders and make peace – Islam is on the march again – we know, so we teach the Constitution and let the youth know that the price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance.
I’ll steal: Let Freedom Ring!
“camp buildings are named after leftist icons. . .Roberto Clemente”. . .Really?
“a living relic of American Jewry’s red diaper past.” PAST? Now that’s rich.
“American Jewry’s red diaper past”
The past is present and future.
Perhaps the Jews who are righteous among nations and friends of the American people can call their co-religionists to their senses.
I think there are thousands of marxist initiatives that haven’t been publicized. Ron’s piece describes one of them.
These people aren’t kidding around. There are tens if not hundreds of thousands of them in this country alone, funded by billionaires with virtually unlimited resources, whose only mission in life is to implement marxism. Thousands are in our own government. If that is all you did, you would be able to come up with an untold number of ways to undermine freedom, religion, capitalism, and American culture. It wouldn’t even be much of a challenge.
That’s why there seems to be an unending assault on the very culture itself. Politics is just a fraction of what they do. Every aspect of you daily life is affected…Christmas, sexual attitudes, family values, popular music, film and tv, the internet, what is taught in schools, and on and on.
In many ways, it’s a miracle that we aren’t under the communist boot already, because the amount of time they spend subverting freedom is at least a thousand times as much as the time we spend defending it.
Changing that ratio should be a primary goal of Americans who believe in the values that have made the US so great.
To be a Jew is not an accident of birth. It is an exercise of Free Will. At a minimum, a Jew believes in God, embraces the covenant of Abraham, and strives to uphold the Law of Moses. Does anyone seriously think that red-diaper lefties qualify to be called Jews? The legalistic, secular definition of “Jew” (child of a Jewish Mother) is an unholy definition, and is utterly unconnected with what it really means to be a Jew. At best, the lefties are apostates. At worst, they are anti-Jews, not Jews. Let’s keep our facts straight, people.
I don’t see much difference between far left camps as described by the author and those on the right ran by militia groups and fundamentalist Christians.
Pro-reason’s comments (#14) remind me of the great Red scare from the 1950s and 1960s when I was a kid; the old “commie under every bed” scenario. Yeah, they were subverting us back then and were going to place us under the communist boot. Kruschchev said they “would bury us.” Didn’t work out as he had planned.
It doesn’t appear that SteveB has ever explored the history of Communist subversions and takeovers that succeeded. So he can feign ignorance of the organized brutality that regularly enables their seizure and continued hold on power, as they reduce the citizenry to ill-rewarded drudgery. Denial must enhance his joy as he mocks the concerns of others. Maybe he’s been on one of the cheap tropical Cuban trips that the Canadians are so fond of…
Actually, I.S., I’ve studied the history of Communist subversions quite in depth. Perhaps you’re familiar with the 1950s writings of the late Dr. Tom Dooley who wrote about the Viet Minh and Pathet Lao movements in southeast Asia? There’s also the Communist takeover in the immediate post-war years of Czechoslovakia and Romania.
I’m not feigning ignorance of anything. As for concerns of others, some are legitimate and some are, well, ludicrous. For example, the John Birch Society has been predicting a Communist takeover since its founding in 1958. Hasn’t happened yet. And the Castro regime perhaps would have fallen years ago if it were not propped up the the American government’s anti-communist attitudes.
What’s your freakin point SBC? Either you understand that the totalitarian left is aligned with communism (and now Islamofascism) and it is still insidiously ruining our nation or you do not. To compare the communist re-education camps to “right wing” militia camps only demotrates to us your lefty-patented circular argument, left if good right is bad.
So, Steve – care to discuss, oh, say, Antonio Gramsci and his ideas and aims? How about Herbert Marcuse? Saul Alinsky? The Cloward-Piven duo? You’re a smart guy – you should know who these people are. And if you don’t here’s a hint: they’re not contestants on The Next Food Network Star.
We won’t hold our breath…
There is a substantial difference between the extreme rightist militia camps and the Communist summer youth camps. The militia camps are heavily outfitted with weapons–fire power. The Communist youth camps are heavily outfitted with folk music. This is “not a difference without a distinction.” The similarity between the two is routinized, ideological indoctrination.
It’s not foreigners who are subverting us.
It’s Americans abetted by foreigners. And it’s widespread; from global warming, to blocking energy development, to nationalizing industries, to the curriculum in schools, to attacks on religion, to attacks on capitalism, to efforts to marginalize the Constitution, to rewriting history, to the agenda of marxists in the universities, to the effort to nationalize health care, to fomenting conflicts among ethnic or social groups, to demonizeing success, to the liberal takeover of the entertainment industry, and many thousands of other efforts.
If you don’t see those as subservise, then you are either with them, hopelessly naive or hopelessy dumb.
“Didn’t work out as he had planned.”
Good thing that, especially after they tried so hard. The primary difference between Communist camps and Aryan Nazi camps, is, er nothing, except success. The Communist kamps were and are chic in way Nazi kamps never could be and they more successful. The primary difference between Communist kamps and Christian camps is the difference between evil and good.
“Evidently they were not smart enough to know that Goldman hated the Soviet Union….”
Judging from its webpage and Wikipedia write-up, Camp Kinderland moved away from its communist beginnings in the ‘50s, when the IWO was shut down by the government and the camp became an independent corporation, now described as leftist/socialist.
I would guess the camp staff is “smart enough” to revere Emma Goldman, a lifelong anarchist, as an icon of many on the left. Clearly, they are also smart enough to know that much of the American left never had an allegiance to the Soviet Union and virtually none now has an allegiance to its memory. And they are certainly smart enough to know that the choice needn’t be between communism and the right wing.
Your blog may not be for naught, however; it may yet stir up some trouble for the camp.
“Clearly, they are also smart enough to know that much of the American left never had an allegiance to the Soviet Union and virtually none now has an allegiance to its memory.”
*snort*
Riiiggghhhhttt… the whole “anti-anti-Communism” thing was just an illusion. The way Soviet propaganda become Democrat talking points was an illusion. Ted Kennedy’s offer to collaborate with the Soviets against Reagen? Yep, another illusion.
Never mind the documents and testimony in support of the above. The left was NEVER pro-Soviet. Nope.
Rob,
The Communist Party USA was pro-Soviet. This is not news. What is beyond your historical understanding is that a large part of the Left was anti-Stalinist, anti-Soviet. The US Socialists expelled the pro-Soviet Communists early on, in 1919. There has been an historical world-wide antipathy between Socialists and Communists ever since. This is the history your fellow ideological cohorts wish to suppress or falsify.
For the American right-wing,including the John Birch Society and its ideological fellow travelers like, Sarah Palin, Sharron Angle, Libertarian family members Ron and Rand Paul, most factions of the Tea Party, the armed and dangerous militias, the minutemen, and today’s Republicans, all the Left is cut from one cloth–pro-Soviet.
David Horowitz talks about being sent to Camp Cowochica (Communist Workers Childrens Camp)as a child. Wonder if it’s still going.
I wrote about how … counselors even used the camp’s premises to try and recruit older campers into the Communist Party’s youth movement.
This reminds me of something I saw a few years ago in a recent documentary called The Chocolate War. Here in Canada in 1947, store owners sharply raised the price of candy bars from 5 cents to 8 cents due to rising costs, particularly of sugar. This precipitated protests by young children who often couldn’t afford the extra pennies; presumably their allowances were only a nickel and getting their allowances increased was not possible for many. One kid even wrote a song with the lyrics that began: “I want a 5 cent candy bar”. This was apparently a truly grassroots movement and the song and the protests apparently spread spontaneously in a rather viral fashion.
What surprised me about the documentary was that a former organizer with a then-Marxist-oriented Canadian Federation of Labour actually admitted that this group actually seriously studied this spontaneous, innocent movement to see if there was some way they could infiltrate it to further their own agenda and persuade these young children to work on their behalf in advancing the cause of socialism.
I was – and still am – aghast that they would have sunk so low as to try to use young children and their innocent love of chocolate to further their aims. That is not to say that I was surprised by such actions, given the steps the Soviets took to propagandize their own children and make them into agents of the Party, just that I was appalled that their ideological brothers in a democracy would sink to such levels.
By the way, I just tried finding a downloadable copy of that documentary so that I could watch it again; I found a movie called The Chocolate War based on a book of the same name but this is NOT the documentary I saw. I can’t find the documentary at all….
When I was in grade school back in the sixties, there was a kid whose parents sent him to what they called a “peace camp” The whole family were a bunch of crack pot lefties (even as a grade school kid I thought they were strange). Anyway the kid was a real brat. He got away with everything because his parents were always bringing lawsuits and in part cause he was very bright and teachers made concessions for his bad behavior.