Dispatches from Chicago: Unmasking the Web of ‘Malign Foreign Influence’ Behind #MarchonDNC

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CHICAGO – Here in Union Park at the corner of N. Ashland Avenue and W. Washington Street in the city’s West Side, dozens of riled up Americans are descending from a charter bus that has snaked down I-94 South from Grand Rapids, Mich., joining thousands for a 12 p.m. protest, united behind banners attacking U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic National Committee convention anoints her the 2024 presidential nominee.

Fomented by hashtag campaigns like #KillerKamala, #MarchOnTheDNC and #CrashTheParty, these outside agitators aren’t far-right acolytes of former President Donald Trump. These protestors are demanding climate action, abortion rights, protections for transgender individuals and – most emphatically – a “ceasefire” in the war in Gaza.

Media reports from Politico to the Associated Press have already begun to generically cast these protestors simply as “pro-Palestinian demonstrators” or “thousands of activists” who represent  a “progressive” challenge to the Democratic establishment in a passionate fight for social justice and the cause of Palestine. There will be many well-intentioned people in the crowds.

However, in a new investigation that I am leading at the Pearl Project, a nonprofit journalism initiative named for my friend Daniel Pearl, murdered by militants in Pakistan in 2002 for being a Jewish grandson of Israel, I have discovered that these protests are not what they appear. I analyzed 234 organizations listed as “members” and “supporters” of the March on the DNC 2024, and put my findings into a public portal I’m calling the Malign Foreign Influence Index, capturing a dynamic law enforcement officials recognize as a threat to U.S. national security. Their efforts are so well orchestrated they have got press passes, a website and a digital “graphics toolkit,” with “main march hashtags” – #MarchOnDNC2024 #MarchOnDNC #StandWithPalestine #EndUSAidToIsrael – and a list of “others to consider.”

This isn’t a battle between “progressives” and centrists within the Democratic Party. Instead, these protests are the product of a deeply coordinated effort by an alliance of three units – self-described socialist organizations, far-left groups and anti-Israel Palestinian, Arab and Muslim organizations – who represent an insidious dynamic coined malign foreign influence.

Of 234 organizations in my initial analysis, 34 groups openly identify as some form of socialism – from “anti-revisionist Marxist-Leninist” to “Revolutionary Socialist” and even “building toward the creation of a new Communist Party” in the U.S. These groups, with names like “ANSWER,” “Freedom Socialist Party,” “International League of People’s Struggles,” the “New Afrikan Black Panther Party,” “World Workers Party,” “Denver Communists” and Keweenaw Socialists from Michigan, support the dictatorial governments in China, Russia, North Korea and Cuba, and they seek to replace capitalism with socialism in the U.S. and globally.

Another 165 groups are “socialist-adjacent” or pro-socialist, working closely with the openly socialist organizations and nations. For example, the “Korean Friendship Association USA” speaks highly of “Respected Supreme Leader Comrade Kim Jong Un,” the mercurial leader of the communist Workers’ Party of Korea, which the group lauds as “revolutionary.”

Finally, 35 groups are Muslim, Palestinian or Arab, many with sympathies for Hamas, like American Muslims for Palestine, Students for Justice in Palestine, the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights and the U.S. Palestinian Community Network. While innocuous sounding, they seek the destruction of the state of Israel “from the river to the sea” and now depicting Harris as chummy with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The goal of much of these protestors isn’t mere political reform but, as one organizer, the Party for Socialism and Revolution puts it, destruction of “the American state,” which its members call the “Empire.” In traditional proletariat honorifics, they call each other “comrades,” quote from the “Communist Manifesto” by the architect of revolutionary socialism, Karl Marx, and wave red flags rich with the communist symbolism of hammers, sickles and stars.

They are not the old-school activists in the Israeli-Palestinian debate. They are far more radical than the “yippies” who caused chaos in the 1968 Democratic Convention. Democrats would do well to draw serious lines between these protestors and their party. The “activists” certainly do. 

One of their goals is to undermine Harris and the Democratic Party – and interfere in our elections – through protests, media manipulation and social media amplification. 

I call them the myth of the marching millions, as a friend once described the efforts of many social causes to try to outsize their real presence. They aren’t huge in number but they stir up so much noise they feign like they number in the millions. For example, Students Allied for Freedom and Equality at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, made headlines by heckling Harris at a campaign stop in Michigan, yelling, “Kamala! Kamala! You can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!” And this network swarmed the streets in New York City in recent days to protest Harris.

The network’s connection to foreign influence is critical to understand. Many of the groups have direct ties to foreign adversaries, including China, North Korea, Russia and Iran, countries that have long sought to destabilize the U.S. by fomenting civil unrest. 

Last year, the New York Times documented the funding of one of the coalition members – CodePink – by a tech mogul, Neville Roy Singham, living in Shanghai, China, supporting pro-China socialist causes. He is married to CodePink cofounder Jodie Evans, whose sidekick, Medea Benjamin, is a regular fixture at the “pro-Palestinian” protests. 

Another troubling example is the “Hands Off Uhuru Fightback Coalition,” whose leaders face charges in a Tampa court in September for allegedly working with Russian intelligence to interfere in U.S. elections. In a statement that rings true today, Matthew G. Olsen, assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s National Security Division prosecuting the Uhuru case, said last year, “Russia’s foreign intelligence service allegedly weaponized our First Amendment rights – freedoms Russia denies its own citizens – to divide Americans and interfere in elections in the United States.” Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division called it “foreign malign influence.”

These groups are not merely focused on domestic issues; they harbor broader, international ambitions, for which they are willing to “disrupt the DNC,” even if it costs Harris votes – and potentially the presidency. Many of them seek to dismantle the current global order, with a particular focus on the Middle East and the destruction of Israel.

At the heart of this coalition lies a shared animosity towards the Democratic Party and, now, Harris. The Atlanta chapter of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression tells its followers Harris is “funding genocide and ignoring police terror.” “Workers Strike Back” tells Americans to “REJECT the New Warmonger-in-Chief.”

By presenting the protests as “grassroots,” the media has underplayed the powerful forces behind controversial messages, like “HAMAS IS COMING,” during the network’s recent protests in D.C., when the American flag was burnt and replaced by the Palestinian flag. By not dissecting their motives, the media has also given them a powerful bullhorn. These protests are not spontaneous uprisings of concerned citizens. They are carefully orchestrated campaigns designed to subvert U.S. elections and undermine American democracy.

These protestors seek to overthrow the current political order, or as one organizer, “Socialist Action,” says: “Permanent Revolution.” Their demands are absolute, and their tactics are ruthless. Democratic Party leaders must recognize that there is no winning with these groups. Their aim is to tear down what exists and rebuild it in their own intolerant image.

Andrew Fox, a former British military officer who did three tours of duty in Afghanistan, tells me: “These protestors are not just demonstrating; they are fomenting an insurgency designed to destabilize the U.S. and further the interests of foreign actors.”

Democratic Party leaders and Harris would be well served to refuse to be swayed by the loudest voices on the streets, who pledge to “Disrupt the DNC,” as “Workers Strike Back,” supporting “Left Antiwar Independent Candidate” Jill Stein, threatens to do. Firebrand, a self-described “communist organization” and coalition member, has guided its members to avoid playing a game of “lesser evilism” and refuse Harris’s candidacy. 

The fight against disinformation warfare is not easy, but it is necessary. By shining a light on the truth behind the myth of the marching millions, understanding details like who funds protests and rents charter buses to Chicago, we can make wise decisions, not misled by fear and chaos, but rather guided by transparency and facts. 

Asra Q. Nomani is a former Wall Street Journal reporter and the author of a book, “Woke Army: The Red-Green Alliance That Is Undermining America’s Freedom.” She is a founder of the Pearl Project, which is building the Malign Foreign Influence Index, examining the groups fomenting anti-Semitism. She has an MA in international communications, with a speciality in the study of propaganda. She can be reached at asra@asranomani.com and @AsraNomani.