The Communist Party USA will not run a candidate for president, will not support progressive third-party bids but will instead throw its support behind the Democratic Party in an all-out effort to defeat President Bush and the Republican Congress.

The giveaway of the party's plan, is a frequent call for a ''united front'' to defeat Bush by major figures and spokesmen. This is the language employed by the party in the past when it has supported liberal candidates and issues not necessarily under party discipline.

As far back as April 17, Joelle Fishman, chairwoman of the party's political action committee, wrote in a report to the national board that Communists should not field a candidate of their own in 2004.

''Our presidential campaigns in the past were a great opportunity to project our program, and I'm sure we will find ourselves at that point some time in the future,'' she wrote. ''At this moment, we will convey our program best by working with all out might to build the broadest possible coalitions, fronts and networks that can defeat the undemocratic, imperialistic Bush war machine. This is our responsibility to our own class here and internationally.''

Fishman also mentioned discussions with the Green Party and other ''left'' organizations in which the Communists have argued against presidential and congressional candidates by third parties, adding, ''one united push is required to defeat the Republican stronghold.''

''The discussion will require a special approach with groups like the Campus Greens and the Peace and Freedom Party in California,'' she continued.

John Edwards * U.S. Senator (D-North Carolina)	Dennis Kucinich * Congressman (D-Ohio)	Al Sharpton * Civil Rights Activist (D-New York)	John Kerry * U.S. Senator (D-Massachusetts)

At a June 29 meeting in New York, the national committee approved a resolution making the defeat of Bush and the Republican majority in Congress the ''number one priority.''

''Discussion is also taking place within the Green Party about whether to run a presidential candidate this year,'' said a report to the national committee this summer. ''A section of Greens have come to agree that the defeat of Bush is the number one issue.''

However, not all of the Democratic presidential candidates energize the Communists. While the party has not yet weighed in on the candidacy of Gen. Wesley Clark, officials speak and write critically of Sen. Joe Lieberman, ''who has played an enabling role of the Bush administration by leading on compromises that undercut stronger Democratic proposals, especially in foreign policy.''

The party is also leery of John Edwards and Richard Gephardt because of their association with the less-progressive Democratic Leadership Council.

The party has nothing but praise for Sen. John Kerry, Bob Graham, Howard Dean, Al Sharpton and Carol Moseley Braun. But, judging from the accolades and laudatory comments, Dennis Kucinich, the co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, is by far the favorite Democratic candidate. His co-chairwoman is Barbara Lee, D-Calif., who has a career-long history of associations with Communist Party and extremist groups and individuals.

Lee is a long-time friend of Communist Party militant Angela Davis, a former Communist Party presidential candidate, and succeeded another radical from the city of Oakland, Rep. Ron ''Red'' Dellums. Lee paid her establishment political dues – first as an aide to Dellums and later as a California assemblywoman and state senator. However, less known is Lee's service on the national coordinating committee of the ''Committees of Correspondence,'' an organization that splintered from the Communist Party USA in 1991. Davis, the three-time Communist Party candidate for vice president of the United States, served by her side.

''The field of Democratic presidential hopefuls is not monolithic,'' explained a report by Fishman to the CPUSA national committee June 28. ''Rep. Kucinich (D-Ohio) and Rev. Al Sharpton are playing a radicalizing role Sharpton is campaigning for constitutional amendments to guarantee the right to vote, to education and to health care. Kucinich has pledged his first act as president will be to repeal NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and the WTO (World Trade Organization). He has introduced and co-sponsored legislation to form a Department of Peace, to abolish the death penalty and to end pre-emptive military policy, among many others.''

''It will take an extraordinary united all-people's front with a movement on the ground to defeat the Bush right-wing agenda in 2004,'' explained a report to the CPUSA national committee June 28, again written by Fishman. ''It can be done with the combination of the labor vote, the women's vote and African-American and Latino vote, combined with the youth vote, the peace vote, the environmental vote, the senior vote, the farm vote, etc., all of whom are pledged to work as they never have before.''

Kucinich's Progressive Caucus is a socialist-leaning bloc of about 60 votes or nearly 30 percent of the minority vote in the lower chamber. Until 1999, the website of the Progressive Caucus was hosted by the Democratic Socialists of America.

Following an expose of the link between the two organizations in WorldNetDaily, the Progressive Caucus established its own website under the auspices of the Congress. Another officer of the Progressive Caucus, and one of its guiding lights, is avowed socialist Rep. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent.

The Democratic Socialists of America's chief organizing goal is to work within the Democratic Party and remove the stigma attached to ''socialism'' in the eyes of most Americans.

''Stress our Democratic Party strategy and electoral work,'' explains an organizing document of the DSA. ''The Democratic Party is something the public understands, and association with it takes the edge off. Stressing our Democratic Party work will establish some distance from the radical subculture and help integrate you to the milieu of the young liberals.''

Nevertheless, the goal of the Democratic Socialists of America has never been deeply hidden. Prior to the cleanup of its website in 1999, the DSA included a song list featuring ''The Internationale,'' the worldwide anthem of communism and socialism. Another song on the site was ''Red Revolution'' sung to the tune of ''Red Robin.'' The lyrics went: ''When the Red Revolution brings its solution along, along, there'll be no more lootin' when we start shootin' that Wall Street throng. ...'' Another song removed after WorldNetDaily's expose was ''Are You Sleeping, Bourgeoisie?'' The lyrics went: ''Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping? Bourgeoisie, Bourgeoisie. And when the revolution comes, We'll kill you all with knives and guns, Bourgeoisie, Bourgeoisie.''