🇾🇪❌🇸🇦- More missile and drone launches towards Saudi arabia from Yemen!

🌹 🇺🇸 🛠 Democratic Socialists of America: The sometimes overlooked stories of members of the Communist Party USA have lessons to teach the U.S. Left

Celebrating Red Lives

On an unseasonably cold May 21, the backroom of the Takoma Park Busboys and Poets warmed to a rendition of “Come On In This House.” DC Labor Chorus founder Elise Bryant and socialist scholar Kurt Stand introduced Jay Schaffner, editor of Red Lives: Our Years in the US Communist Party (1950–2000). Chris Townsend, a union member and leader for 47 years, also shared his experience with the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) during the panel discussion. In Red Lives’ three volumes, fifty writers who were (or still are) CPUSA members reclaim a half-century of party activities overlooked by the U.S. Left. In this first volume, they illuminate what it was like to grow up in the party, what drew them to it, and why they stayed.

For Schaffner, the CPUSA was proof that “something else was possible in this world” beyond the capitalist grind. Communists earned this proof as they worked and organized in factories, in their hometowns, or across the country. Townsend recounted his move to Tampa to search for work, only to be swept up into organizing a wall-to-wall unit for the Amalgamated Transit Union with other Communists. He also related a revelatory experience from the 1980s. Townsend and his comrades had been sent to Moscow in a party delegation. Townsend was their elected chair that day; they planned to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. There, they learned that New York Governor Mario Cuomo had come with his delegation to do the same. Townsend shared his 1987 photograph of Cuomo in Red Square. But, as communists, the CPUSA delegation had the right to go first. The moment proved that — Townsend paused — “In a socialist system, workers meant something.”

Townsend, Stand, and Schaffner shared how they had learned about communism or labor radicalism within the stultifying atmosphere of McCarthyism. For some, it was in moments of realization and radicalization sent out over the shortwave by Radio Moscow. For others, through books by Marx and Lenin, hidden in closets or paper bags by their parents. Reds, actor-director Warren Beatty’s film dramatization of Ten Days That Shook the World, was a touchstone for communist organizers. In the CPUSA, they found multiracial camaraderie and a place in a larger movement for justice and against capitalism.

But the work the CPUSA did in the second half of the 20th century has not inspired similar appreciation beyond scattered moments, such as the CPUSA’s role in the campaign to free Angela Davis in the early ’70s. As Schaffner explained, “Most histories of the CPUSA end in 1955.” Many New Left historians of the ’60s and ’70s had built their movement’s reputation by trying to bury the CPUSA’s. Works like Vivian Gornick’s 1977 The Romance of American Communism glorify the CPUSA’s organizing at its peak in the ’30s and ’40s.

https://democraticleft.dsausa.org/2026/07/07/celebrating-red-lives/

🔼 🇺🇸 🛢 Crude oil prices surge +7.3% to above $76/barrel after Yemeni Houthi militants attack a Saudi airport.

📎 KobeissiLetter

🇺🇸❌🇮🇷 — Reports of US strikes on Konarak, Chabahar and Bandar Abbas, southern Iran.

—❗️🇮🇷 🇮🇷 VHF Radio Channel 16:

‘Attention all vessels in Strait of Hormuz and Oman Sea. This is IRGC Navy; I repeat, this is IRGC Navy.

For your own safety and safety of your crew, do not approach the Strait. You will be fired upon. Turn around immediately or face the consequence.’

@Middle_East_Spectator

🛢📈 — Brent crude oil has exceeded $83, marking a 9% surge.

🇺🇸⚔️🇮🇷 Trump has officially informed Congress on the resumption of military operations against Iran.

@CIG_telegram

🇺🇸⚡️ — Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a WSJ op-ed says the Trump administration will "dismantle" the ICC because it threatens U.S. sovereignty and could prosecute American citizens and officials.

This is only the beginning.

Using all the tools at our government’s disposal, working beside every ally with whom we can make common cause, we will dismantle the ICC—brick by brick, if necessary.

🇺🇸🇷🇺⚡️ — President Trump will support the bipartisan Russia sanctions package championed by the late Senator Lindsey Graham, a White House official told CNN.

➡️ The bill would give Trump authority to impose heavy tariffs on countries purchasing Russian oil, uranium, and natural gas.

➡️ Lawmakers are now seeking to advance the legislation as a tribute to Graham, who made its passage one of his final priorities.

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️ — Democratic senators led by Kirsten Gillibrand have given the Trump administration one week to release the findings of the Pentagon's investigation into the February 28 strike on a girls' school in Minab, Iran, that killed more than 175 children and teachers, Reuters reports.

➡️ It has previously been reported that an initial U.S. military investigation found American forces were responsible after targeting officials relied on outdated intelligence.

➡️ The Pentagon says the investigation remains ongoing and had no updates to announce, while President Trump has continued to dispute U.S. involvement.

🇮🇷❌🇺🇸 — IRGC air defenses have shot down a MQ-1 Predator/MQ-1C Gray Eagle UCAV above the Strait of Hormuz.