I am an attorney in Illinois. From 1979-1994 I volunteered full-time with affiliated organization of CCLP, which are all front groups for the Provisional Communist Party. I was pulled in when I was 18 through a group called the Coalition of Concerned Medical Professionals that was providing some free health care for farm workers on Long Island.

The previous writer agrees that CCLP is “Overbearing, pushy, cultish”. If this was all there was to criticize about their recruitment policies and process I would agree that it might be worthwhile to volunteer with them. But, CCLP is a front group for the Provisional Communist Party or National Labor Federation (Natlfed) and they have a very deliberate, manipulative, and deceptive recruitment process for members.

When someone volunteers with CCLP or any of the Natlfed front groups, information about their background, interests, political views, arrests, etc. is solicited from them. Some of this is formal while filling out what’s called a Volunteer Information Sheet (VIS) and some is informal – their team member on a canvass may initiate a conversation. All of this information is reported back to the person in charge of recruitment and the volunteer’s next encounter is planned. If the volunteer has a disagreement with the group’s political position, a conversation on why they’re right is planned. It may be formal, it may be informal. For instance, if you think that legal service organizations are the best way to address the lack of affordable legal services, they will have someone talk about the failures of legal service organizations in the past and why what CCLP is supposedly doing is better.

The process has a deliberate progression. It is called TVTV for tab volunteer, viable volunteer, tab cadre, viable cadre. First they want to get your agreement that there is a problem and that you will be part of the solution by making a scheduled time commitment. Then they work on getting you to agree that all other efforts are doomed to failure and that the only way to solve the inequality of the legal system is through a revolution. At that point they tell you that that is their real goal and ask you to expand your schedule to learn more about this. Then they start teaching you their doctrine that in a nutshell is that socialist revolution is the answer. The way to make this revolution is to organize unrecognized workers in the US into mutual benefit associations. That a revolutionary situation will eventually arise in the US (like during the Vietnam War) and the communities will turn to them for leadership and they will take power. Eventually they ask you to cut all ties with everyone else to commit your whole life to making the revolution as the only solution to all the world’s problems.

Most people if presented this at the beginning would not voluntarily give their life up to the movement. But, when done as a process, with each encounter planned, with each objection worked on whenever they see you, some do. Most people are responding to emotional and social influences – not the rational basis for the group. People are befriended, they are told they’re special, there is an easy black and white answer for all the world’s problem, there is an us and them, there is a promise that they’ll end up someone important running the country. Then when you add in that their whole existence becomes centered in the group as well as their entire support system, the rational basis for the work doesn’t matter that much. The full-time organizers seem like dedicated sincere people, and for the most part they are.

Granted most people won’t become full-time. It is more a matter of where someone is in their life, rather than who they are or having backbone. What statistics there are seem to indicate that if anything, members of high demand groups like this are more intelligent than the average population. If someone begins going through a transition period, like finishing school and having to get a job, a divorce, or losing a job, they are much more vulnerable to groups like this. They are not grounded and having a support system and easy answers becomes very appealing. I saw part-time people who went through divorce, befriended by the organizers and recruited within a couple of weeks as full-time people.

Once a person is full-time they commit to a military discipline because they think this is necessary to build a revolution. The group is highly centralized and subordinates must follow orders of ordinates. People are regularly screamed at and demeaned and they feel they must take it to maintain discipline. At times there has been physical abuse and sexual abuse as well. The people are cut-off from any other support system and increased abuse becomes more and more possible and probable.

If CCLP was the only organization through which one could do pro-bono work I can see why someone would want to volunteer with them. But there are many groups that you can do this through. The vast majority are open with their finances and keep metrics on what benefit they provides per volunteer hour and donated dollar. CCLP does not. They will tell you they provide more benefit dollar for dollar and hour for hour, but they have no facts to back this up. I remember an ordinate saying this and everyone just accepted it and started saying it as well. They are secretive about their finances and you don’t know exactly how the money is spent. Attorneys do not run them. The leadership is not held to the same ethical standards that an attorney is. This is a group where they believe the end justifies the means. Those in charge do not have a license in jeopardy and they do not know the professional standards of the law profession.

Before volunteering with this group I would read the wikipedia article on National Labor Federation and an essay at:
http://www.internet-encyclopedia.org/index.php/Criticism_of_NATLFED