Ok, so the article actually says "He also organized for a communist front, the United Packinghouse Workers Union", --not that he organized them. But it was a union and not a "communist front". Find me a reliable, unbiased article that documents it as a "communist front". Problem is that to any self-respecting right wing extremist lying rag or person, any workers union qualifies as a "communist front". And that is mere extremist bias. They want corporations to have government, corporate laws, corporate attorneys, corporate lobbyists, corporate PACs, the A.L.E.C., and other organizations supporting and protecting corporations and business in general (biggest corporations first), but they don't want the other class. --workers, --to have any organization. Divide and conquer. Ya know? So they quickly call a workers' union a "communist front" as part of their extremist, biased strategy.
It says the Union was under investigation by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. But that committee, which has been described as a "Joseph McCarthy-type committee" was investigating all unions and looking under beds for communists. So if there was any such investigation of the Union, it means nothing until we see the findings of that investigation. Or does the right now advocate "guilty until proven innocent"?
The article goes on to say "Sanders moved to Vermont, where he headed the American People’s History Society, an organ for Marxist propaganda." But try to find any reliable information on the Society and what it was. The article doesn't bother to provide any links or even references to back its claim.
Next, it says "In the early ’70s, Sanders helped found the Liberty Union Party, which called for the nationalization of all US banks and the public takeover of all private utility companies."
Nationalization of the most important power and service in the nation, the banking industry, and the takeover of utility companies is something just about all genuine socialists advocate including myself. I've advocated it for many years, but I staunchly oppose communism. It failed and for good reason. A socialist is not a communist. In fact I challenge anyone to find a person outside of the whacky CPUSA who today advocates communism. It's over. And as I've shown, the NYP is a liar. They published a smear article that has been repeated in whole by a number of other right wing extremist rags and not by any reliable, balanced and objective publication.