Denver Communists

Denver Communists supports the elimination of all border security measures in the United States; the defunding, disarming, and “defeat” of the police; transgender liberation; a Palestinian victory in the conflict in Gaza “by any means necessary”; and other radical-left positions. ²

Denver Communists criticizes left-wing organizations such as the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) as insufficiently radical and asserts that while it is willing to work with socialists when necessary, the group itself consists of “communists in the tradition of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, and Luxemburg.” ^{3 2}

Background

Denver Communists was founded in 2012 as a branch of the International Socialist Organization (ISO), a Trotskyist group best known for publishing the Socialist Worker newspaper. ⁴

When the ISO disbanded in 2019, Denver Communists became an independent organization. ² That same year, it joined the Seattle Revolutionary Socialists and Boston Revolutionary Socialists to create Firebrand, a nationwide revolutionary Communist organization dedicated to “revolutionary socialism, internationalism, liberation from all oppression, and the political independence of the working class.” ^{2 5}

Activism

In December 2022, the Denver Communists, Seattle Revolutionary Socialists, and Revolutionary Socialist Organizing Project released a statement opposing American and NATO arms shipments to Ukraine. ³ While the groups supported Ukrainian independence from Russia, they characterized the conflict as one of American imperialism versus Russian imperialism, and said that “support for the U.S. intervention would do a major disservice to our ability to build a strong Marxist current in the U.S.” ³

Beginning in June 2023, Denver Communists launched monthly demonstrations outside the Drip Café coffee shop in Denver, claiming that the café’s Christian nonprofit parent organization was anti-gay and discriminated against LGBT people. ^{6 7} The café’s manager, who had opened it to support job-training and employment programs for homeless people in the local community, said that the Denver Communists “blew it up and made all the false accusations that we hate gay people” before the coffee shop had even opened for business. ⁶

In February 2024, Denver Communists joined a march in Denver sponsored by the Colorado Palestine Coalition. The Denver Communists’ Instagram account posted a photo of their members carrying a “Globalize the Intifada” banner, with an accompanying post saying that “Only when the US is overthrown or so weakened that it cannot aid the Israeli state will Zionism end.” ⁸

In 2024, Denver Communists joined the “March on DNC” event sponsored by the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), an international movement founded by the leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines that combines elements of Marxism, Leninism, and Maoism. ⁹ In The Atlantic, left-of-center writer Michael Powell called the protests “impressively daft” and drew historic parallels with the violent protests at the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention that are widely seen to have helped elect Republican Richard Nixon. ¹⁰

Funding

The Denver Communists assess a $5 monthly membership fee. ¹¹ It also accepts donations through the Patreon crowdfunding site. ¹²