Communists for Kerry
Communists for Kerry is a tax-exempt 527 group founded in the Summer of 2004 by the Hellgate Republican Club of New York, now itself disbanded. Its name is intended to be satirical; none of its members belong to any communist organizations.
Reportedly inspired by Billionaires for Bush, this political parody group describes its mission as "to inform voters with satire and irony, how political candidates make decisions based on the failed social economic principles of communism." In character, the group fervently supports John Kerry in his presidential bid, through violent revolution if necessary.
Activities[edit]
Its members held demonstrations in New York on irregular occasions dressed as such figures as Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, and an Ivan Lenin, based on Vladimir Lenin.[1]
The Communists for Kerry were present in full soviet attire at the 2004 republican national convention, singing the soviet national anthem and shouting socialist slogans.[2][3][4]
Some of the group's slogans included "The welfare state = the shining city on the hill!", "Eradicate SMALL business! We need BIG government!", "End the two Americas! Create one homogeneous welfare state!", and "Green Cards to Guantanamo Bay prisoners!".
In September 2004, an Australian chapter of the group was opened, claiming, "John Kerry" is pronounced "Mark Latham" in Australian. The group is willing to help anyone form their own chapter. As of October 12, 2004, it is unclear what the group will do after Howard's winning a majority government. In mid-October 2004, the group announced the opening of a French chapter in connection with Protest Warrior.
The group refers to the American Civil Liberties Union as the "secret police."
Media coverage[edit]
The group was subject of a three hour long interview by the American russian-language television station RTN (now part of the Russian Media Group[5]).[6][7] Its satirical demonstrations during the 2004 anti-Bush protests were noted and reported on by various news outlets among them MTV, BBC and the Washington Post.[8][9][10][11][12]
- Falsely portrayed in media
Communists for Kerry was falsely portrayed as a serious pro-Kerry group several times in the mass media.
During the 2004 presidential campaign, Fox News portrayed the group as a serious organization which actually supported Kerry.[13] In a published story, Fox quoted a "Communists for Kerry" member stating that both he and North Korea supported "Comrade Kerry". The story continued, "It is unclear whether the Kerry campaign has welcomed the Communists' endorsement." Fox later apologized. [1] [14]
The Washington Post reported of an anti-Bush protest, stating "Kerry might prefer to eschew the four-member "Communists for Kerry" contingent, whose placards advocated a "France First!" foreign policy." [2]
Also, in Time magazine's April 25, 2005 cover feature on Ann Coulter, a photograph of a Communists for Kerry demonstration was captioned, "Protesters blast Coulter at the G.O.P. Convention in New York City last year." [3] The photograph showed a protester holding a placard in which a picture of Coulter's face was painted over in red with an "x" over her mouth and the word "enemy" on her forehead. The placard had the slogan, "Neo-Imperialist Criminal" and the web address for Communists for Kerry. Time's caption has since been retracted and corrected to, "Pro-G.O.P protesters at the Republican Convention in New York City last year" in Time's online archives. [4]
Current activities[edit]
At the end of the 2004 elections, the CFK site was turned into the "Museum Of The Failed 2004 Revolution" and most of the CFK group is now on a new site, The People's Cube. A tribute to the CfK street theater group was published on youtube.[15]
References[edit]
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBcGXT27BxM
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PqqVxAmvVA
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ6T-I5RFNY
- ↑ http://www.scotsman.com/news/world/100-000-march-in-manhattan-against-bush-1-551163
- ↑ http://www.russianmediagroup.com/index.html
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20050313210211/http://communistsforkerry.com/GPU/viewtopic.php?t=201
- ↑ RTN Morning Show (in English) with Boris Tenzer, 1 november 2004
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20041209102506/http://www.mtv.com/chooseorlose/headlines/news.jhtml?id=1490667
- ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3610896.stm
- ↑ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45279-2004Aug29.html
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20050212031017/http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?pt=tjsWvZIeCFWyba7Vsn1Huh%3D%3D
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20050309084918/http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200408u/cd2004-08-31
- ↑ http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/10/2/55747/-
- ↑ http://www.foxnews.com/story/2004/10/03/some-voters-still-flip-flopping.html
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6zUycG8znM
External links[edit]
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