ACB Legal Defense Fund

The American Council of Bolsheviks (ACB) is a Communist Party in it's pre-congress planning stage. First and foremost we want to say, that we have unfortunately been sued by leaders of an organization we used to belong to. We split off from the Party of Communists USA (PCUSA) in August of 2022 after a long drawn out battle over the leadership clique that now runs PCUSA for violating democratic centralism and unilterally endorsing support for the Russian Special Military Operation in Ukraine from a minority position in the PCUSA. This happened less than a month after a major committment to stop breaking internal rules after it was revealed that members of this clique had violated multiple rules in the past including the modification of its party constitution without a national congress by the PCUSA General Secretary Angelo D'Angelo. Ultimately the clique forced the exit of many communists in its ranks who could not support breaking of principles any longer in matters of organization, and in not supporting bourgeois governments in war efforts.

In late February of 2023 PCUSA reorganizaed Ideological Fightback into a private for-profit corporation registered in NY. Following this it has filed a lawsuit in Federal Court in the Western District of Kentucky. It seeks total damages in the sum of $375,000, a book of David Dragunsky's memoirs, and a PCUSA banner. It alleges that there are a list of corporate laws that were broken by ACB members. The accusations all of the following paragraph. False designation of origin and unfair competition, trade secret appropration, trademark infringement, conversion (of property, social media accounts, domains that were already offered to them, book, banner), breach of fiducary duty (duty of a corporate officer to the company they work for), and defamation (personal social media posts by ACB members criticizing PCUSA.)

It is clear to anyone who is a communist in any party that party members are not corporate officers, and communist parties are not private corporations. However we must respond in federal court or we will receive a default judgement by the court. So we have to hire a lawyer who handles this type of work. We have found an experienced lawyer to represent us and we have set the fundraising goal to the estimate we were given.

While we are saddened and frustrated that the important political work we are tasked with is being sidetracked by this lawsuit, we will not give up on our goal of rebuilding a unified communist party in America. We will fight this lawsuit and based on what is in it we are confident we will win.

I am a founding member of the ACB and a member of its leading body the provisional central committee as well as a member of the board for American Workers for Peace and Prosperity which is also named in the lawsuit. The money for this fundraiser will be deposited directly into our bank account and under authorization of the ACB's provisional central committee the funds will be used to pay for the legal services we need.

Solidarity!