View source for National Labor Federation

{{Short description|Network of volunteer organizations}}
{{about|the alleged cult|the CPUSA|Communist Party USA}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox political party
| name               = National Labor Federation
| abbreviation       = NATLFED
| colorcode          = Red
| founders           = [[Gino Perente]]<br>Margaret Ribar
| founded            = {{start date|1972}}
| ideology           = [[Communism]]<br>[[LaRouchism]]<br>[[Community organizing]]<br>"Strata organizing"
| position           = [[Syncretic politics|Syncretic]]
}}
[[File:ESWA Boston storefront.jpg |thumb |right |Storefront of the Eastern Service Workers Association (ESWA), a NATLFED entity in the [[Roxbury, Massachusetts|Roxbury]] neighborhood of Boston in July 2007.]]
The '''National Labor Federation''' ('''NATLFED''') is a network of community associations, called "entities", that claim to organize workers who are excluded from collective bargaining protections by U.S. labor law. NATLFED was founded by [[Gino Perente]].<ref name=Tourish />

NATLFED entities keep a very low profile, operating with little public attention. Journalists who have discussed NATLFED entities have praised their social work,<ref name=Bryson>{{cite news |last1=Bryson |first1=George |title=Working It; Volunteers try to build an independent organization supporting low-paid employees |newspaper=Anchorage Daily News (Anchorage, AK) |date=April 18, 2003}}</ref><ref name=Curci>{{cite news |title=Determined advocacy |newspaper=Ashland Daily Tidings |date=March 17, 2007 |first1=Mark A. |last1=Curci |url=http://www.dailytidings.com/article/20070313/News/303139999 |access-date=February 3, 2015 |archive-date=February 3, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150203075529/http://www.dailytidings.com/article/20070313/News/303139999 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Bazar>{{cite news |last1=Bazar |first1=Emily |title=Migrant workers get refunds on rent charges |newspaper=Sacramento Bee |date=August 26, 2004}}</ref><ref name=Melendez>{{cite news |last1=Melendez |first1=Linda |url=http://www.theprospector.org/2003/12/wfwa-here-to-win-here-to-stay/ |title=WFWA 'here to win, here to stay' |newspaper=The Prospector (Yuba Community College) |date=November 24, 2003 |access-date=February 3, 2015 |archive-date=February 3, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150203074209/http://www.theprospector.org/2003/12/wfwa-here-to-win-here-to-stay/ |url-status=live }}</ref> raised concerns about their lack of transparency,<ref name=Moran /><ref name=Smith /><ref name=Leskovic>{{cite news |last1=Leskovic |first1=Nate |url=http://www.bostonunderground.info/article.php?id=210&issue=59 |title=Uncovering the Eastern Service Workers Association |newspaper=The Boston Underground |date=Winter 2007–2008 |access-date=February 26, 2018 |archive-date=April 11, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080411214529/http://www.bostonunderground.info/article.php?id=210&issue=59 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=Berliner2>{{cite news |last1=Berliner |first1=Uri |title=Labor Group: Saga of a Cult |newspaper=East Hampton Star |date=September 18, 1986}}</ref> and condemned the organization's exploitative treatment of volunteers.<ref name=Kifner /><ref name=Russakoff>{{cite news |last1=Russakoff |first1=Joe |url=http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/doorway.html |title=Doorway to a Cult? |newspaper=City Paper (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) |date=June 26 – July 3, 1987 |access-date=May 24, 2017 |archive-date=December 5, 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031205211852/http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/doorway.html |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=Solomon>{{cite web |last1=Solomon |first1=Alisa |url=http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/commie.html |title=Commie Fiends of Brooklyn |newspaper=The Village Voice |date=November 26, 1996 |access-date=May 24, 2017 |archive-date=August 15, 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030815092704/http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/commie.html |url-status=dead}}</ref>

NATLFED's entities deny any political affiliation,<ref name=Moran>{{cite news |last1=Moran |first1=Kevin |first2=Carrie |last2=Saldo |title=Past cult link dogs aid-for-poor group |work=North Adams Transcript |date=January 10, 2003 }}</ref><ref name=Whitnack /> but many former participants and outside observers say NATLFED is a [[Front organization|front]] for the '''Provisional Communist Party''', a [[communist party]] also founded by [[Gino Perente]].<ref name=FBI>{{cite web |publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation |url=https://archive.org/details/FBI_file_100_486889 |title=FBI file 10-486-889 on the National Labor Federation / NATLFED / Provisional Communist Party / Eastern Farm Workers Association / Eastern Service Workers Association, 1975-.}}</ref><ref name=Kifner /><ref name=Nickerson>{{cite news |last1=Nickerson |first1=Colin |url=http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/bostonan.html |title=Boston Antipoverty Group Linked to a Radical Wing of Communists |newspaper=The Boston Globe |date=March 1, 1984 |access-date=February 26, 2018 |archive-date=February 21, 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030221023747/http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/bostonan.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> Perente's party is officially named the '''Communist Party, United States of America (Provisional Wing)''' ['''CPUSA(PW)'''] and is also known as the '''Communist Party, United States of America (Provisional)''' ['''CPUSA(P)'''], '''Provisional Party''', '''Provisional Party of Communists''', '''Order of Lenin''',<ref name=Whitnack /> or simply '''the Formation'''. The CPUSA(PW) allegedly includes much of NATLFED's leadership.

The CPUSA(PW) is clandestine and has no party publications, conventions, or leadership elections. CPUSA(PW) members do not openly acknowledge its existence. Virtually all CPUSA(PW) members are full-time volunteers in NATLFED entities. Outside estimates cap membership at between 100 and 300 core members. CPUSA(PW) has virtually no identifiable offices or centers of operations.<ref name=Tourish /><ref name=Smith>{{cite news |last1=Smith |first1=Matt |url=https://www.sfweekly.com/archives/charitable-front/article_e8af5bd2-222d-5df4-859a-5552a9f4f27c.html |title=Charitable Front |newspaper=SF Weekly |date=December 9, 2009 |access-date=December 9, 2009}}</ref>

During Perente's lifetime he exercised full control over the party, communicating directly with members through long orations held at his office in [[Brooklyn]], New York,<ref name=Tourish /> through audiotapes of those speeches sent to members running the various NATLFED entities,<ref name=Tourish /> and through rare printed manuals, such as Perente's 1973 mimeographed ''The Essential Organizer''.<ref name=Seeber1973 />

== Ideology ==
NATLFED literature asserts the principle that "every man, woman and child is entitled to adequate and appropriate food, clothing, shelter and medical care as basic human rights."<ref name=NATLFED08calendar />

Carlotta Woolcock, an organizer for Northwest Seasonal Workers Association (NSWA), described its goal as providing "a voice for the poor and working people that is independent from the government", because what "most people vote for is the lesser of two evils offered them".<ref name=Curci />

Critics claim that NATLFED's focus on the poor is just cover for more sinister activity. Jeff Whitnack told ''The Boston Globe'', "They are like political [[Moonies]]. They use poor people as flypaper to attract members."<ref name=Nickerson />

== Practices ==
NATLFED consists of several dozen mutual benefit associations and organizers who canvass working-class neighborhoods and coordinate assistance programs operated by members and volunteers of the associations.<ref name=Plain>{{cite news |last1=Plain |first1=Robert |url=http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061218/NEWS/312189995 |title=JCFC offers heating help for the needy |newspaper=Mail Tribune (Medford, OR) |date=December 18, 2006}}</ref> According to the groups' literature, these benefit programs provide members with basic emergency food, clothing, medical and dental care, legal advice, child care, and job referrals.<ref name=Berliner1>{{cite news |last1=Berliner |first1=Uri |url=http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/opinions.html |title=Opinion Sharply Split on Farm Organization |newspaper=East Hampton Star |date=August 28, 1986 |access-date=May 24, 2017 |archive-date=November 30, 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031130014832/http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/opinions.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Since Perente's death in 1995 and the raid on its headquarters in 1996, there has been little information about how NATLFED is run, though Margaret Ribar is reported to have assumed leadership.<ref name=Solomon />

=== Secrecy ===
It is difficult to get information about NATLFED and its entities because the organization is institutionally secretive. An internal memo quoted in the ''East Bay Express'' in 1984 gave the following instructions on withholding information from outsiders:<ref name=Rauber>{{cite news |last1=Rauber |first1=Paul |url=http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/shadowpo.html |title=Shadow Politics |newspaper=East Bay Express |date=May 18, 1984 |access-date=May 24, 2017 |archive-date=February 21, 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030221013152/http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/shadowpo.html |url-status=dead}}</ref>

<blockquote>We regard outside inquiry from a position of distrust. [...] Never ask to know more than you need to know if you agree with the goals and strategy of the group. It's unfair to burden a comrade with unneeded information, and also unprofessional. The standard answer to any question you have not been instructed to answer is "It's not my department."</blockquote>

Some entity operations managers have been directed not to give interviews to reporters;<ref name=Rauber /> others have insisted that reporters volunteer with the organization to get a story on it;<ref name=Berliner1 /> and volunteers have given reporters a runaround.<ref name=Berliner2 /><ref name=Enriquez />

=== Strata organizing ===
NATLFED entitites support "strata organizing", which focuses on "unrecognized workers" who are unable to organize due to the "dubious benefits of the [[National Labor Relations Act]]."<ref name=Sociology /> Instead of conventional union organizing, NATLFED argues that "local community-based associations" must unite unrecognized workers with "current and former union workers, retired workers, local business leaders, professionals and others who share a common concern for the long-term future of our communities".<ref name=NATLFED08calendar>{{cite journal |title=US Workers Struggle (NATLFED 2008 calendar) |publisher=ad hoc Committee to construct NATLFED |location=New York |date=2007-09-01 |journal=NATLFED Calendar |number=2008 |author=ad hoc Committee to Construct the National Labor Federation |quote=Union workers are kept in separate bargaining units and not permitted to exercise time-honored methods of collective action based on community backing and mutual aid. As a result US workers labor for longer hours under more dangerous conditions for less pay and often without health and pension benefits. A new approach is needed. [....] The only thing that really makes sense is the local community-based associations that reach unrecognized workers and unite them with current and former union workers, retired workers, local business leaders, professionals and others who share a common concern for the long-term future of our communities.}}</ref>

NATLFED entities are not themselves labor unions.<ref name=Bryson /><ref name=Tourish /><ref name=Enriquez /> The various entities identify themselves with the labor movement for the purpose of attracting volunteers and supporters, but when describing their organization make clear that they do not advocate the formation of trade unions per se, calling themselves "labor organizations of a new type".{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

=== Cadre recruitment ===
NATLFED entities are managed by full-time volunteers, called cadre, many of whom have dedicated their lives to the movement.

NATLFED aggressively recruits new cadre from the ranks of volunteers who participate. NATLFED entities send speakers to churches, residential neighborhoods, shopping centers, university campuses, music festivals, and other venues to introduce themselves and solicit volunteers and resources.<ref name=Schwenk>{{cite news| author=Phillip Schwenk| url=http://media.www.dailypennsylvanian.com/media/storage/paper882/news/1991/10/29/Archive/Forum.On.Labor.Rights.Poorly.Attended-2184174.shtml| archive-url=https://archive.today/20110807123814/http://media.www.dailypennsylvanian.com/media/storage/paper882/news/1991/10/29/Archive/Forum.On.Labor.Rights.Poorly.Attended-2184174.shtml| url-status=dead| archive-date=2011-08-07| title=Forum on labor rights poorly attended| newspaper=The Daily Pennsylvanian| date=1991-10-29}}</ref> At these events, organizers read a brief introduction to the organization to new volunteers and try to schedule visits to their office and participation in volunteer-run activities.

NATLFED also has an elaborate system for persuading volunteers to further the organization's goals by assuming roles of authority themselves, and the social pressure they apply convinces some volunteers to de-emphasize goals of their own. Regular volunteers are periodically interviewed and asked to increase their commitment to the organization.<ref name=Rauber />

Former members claim that deception and psychological manipulation mix with the sensation some new recruits experience of an intellectual awakening as stories of past labor struggles explain the underside of U.S. history, and classes in [[Dialectical Materialism|dialectical materialism]] provide a coherent, if stilted, worldview. NATLFED converts' commitment is solidified by the emotional impact of working to exhaustion surrounded by others who constantly reinforce the group's message and beliefs.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

For recruitment purposes, NATLFED entities keep extensive records of their contacts on [[index card]]s.<ref name=Kahn1977 /> Drawers of these cards contain detailed information about any sort of contact the group has with volunteers, members, donors, and other supporters. Whitnack has claimed that this elaborate paperwork is unnecessary, inefficient, and intended to exhaust the volunteers, in order to keep them in a suggestible state.<ref name=Whitnack />

=== College campus recruitment ===
NATLFED recruits many of its members and volunteers from college campuses, through voluntary service programs, and by appeal to the larger community through speaking engagements and direct contact. For example, Western Service Workers Association (WSWA) member Mark Levine spoke to the 2004 [[American Sociological Association]] Conference about poverty and [[social stratification]].<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/016059760402800209 |title=ASA Conference 2004: Public Sociologies |first1=Bruce |last1=Russell, Sr. |volume=28 |issue=2 |doi=10.1177/016059760402800209 |journal=Humanity and Society |date=May 2004 |pages=190–207 |s2cid=143954022 |access-date=December 11, 2023 |archive-date=December 11, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231211195135/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/016059760402800209 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The Eastern Service Workers Association (ESWA) operates on numerous college and university campuses in the Northeast, quietly recruiting student volunteers through the service-learning offices available to all students. The ESWA is thriving in [[Boston, Massachusetts]], and [[Rochester, New York]], with assistance from several local churches and businesses that may not be aware of its practices or connection to NATLFED.<ref name=DailyRecord>{{cite news |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4180/is_20050414/ai_n13608155 |title=Eastern Service Workers Assn. celebrates planned construction of new Office Central |newspaper=Daily Record (Rochester, NY) |date=April 14, 2005 |access-date=December 11, 2023 |archive-date=April 2, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070402205640/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4180/is_20050414/ai_n13608155 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=Rochester>{{cite news |last1=Benjamin |first1=Cynthia |url=http://www.oralhealthtac.org/files/article1.pdf |title=Dental care is luxury for many locals |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 2, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070202051608/http://www.oralhealthtac.org/files/article1.pdf |newspaper=Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY) |date=October 2, 2004}}</ref>

=== Mutual benefit associations ===
Recruiters from the cadre start new entities armed with lists of contacts. The recruiters approach community and business leaders with their mission statement and ask for help with founding the entity. An organizing committee is created that includes community leaders willing to at least lend their names to the new effort, and the recruiters solicit donated office space until they can purchase an office.<ref name=Bryson />

The entities establish a program that provides services to members free of charge and soon start door-to-door campaigns to recruit volunteers and recruit low-income workers.<ref name=Bryson /><ref name=Seeber1973>{{Cite book |last1=Seeber |first1=Mary |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/perente/essential-organizer.pdf |title=The Essential Organizer: A Training Manual For Eastern Farm Workers Association |last2=Gardner |first2=Polly |publisher=National Labor Federation |year=1973 |pages=7 |access-date=January 9, 2021 |archive-date=January 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111051822/https://www.marxists.org/archive/perente/essential-organizer.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Available resources and the scope of the program vary, but usually include food, clothing, and holiday events for children. Some entities provide more involved services for members, such as medical, legal, and dental services for volunteers and low-income members. Critics of the organizations contend that the 11-point benefit program promises far more than the entities can deliver. Supporters use criticisms of the paucity of resources to motivate volunteers to take action to expand these resources.<ref name=Rauber />

Critics and supporters of the organizations agree that the cadre consumes some of the food, clothing and other goods collected for the poor.<ref name=Berliner2 /> Critics and some former members have claimed that the entities are highly inefficient—that the cadre consumes much of the cash, food and clothing they purport to collect for the poor.<ref name=Enriquez />

Volunteers for the entities canvass poor residential areas to recruit low-income members, knocking on doors and delivering a pitch that includes a brief explanation of organization, promises benefits, and asks for participation. Poor members are asked to contribute $0.62 per month as membership dues, an amount said to be the average hourly pay for workers at I. M. Young in 1972. New members also sign an authorization form giving the association vague authority to bargain on the member's behalf.<ref name=Berliner1 /><ref name=Erlich>{{cite journal| title=California Homemakers: The Domestic Workers Rebel| journal=The Nation|date=1974-09-28| author=John Erlich}}</ref><ref name=deBourbon>{{cite news |last1=de Bourbon |first1=Lisi |title=Western Mass. Labor Action: Its Veneer of Good Masks a Hidden Agenda |newspaper=The Williams Record |date=October 3, 1995 }}</ref> The groups also solicit resources (funds, food, clothing, medical services and legal aid) from professionals, business owners, and volunteers willing to contribute to the cause.

=== Governance and financial structure ===
NATLFED entities describe themselves as independent, locally chartered membership associations that accept only private donations that come "with no strings attached", and thus claim to be answerable only to their organizing committee and to their membership. For example, the Coalition of Concerned Legal Professionals (CCLP) writes:<ref name=Verdict0704>{{cite journal |title=Verdict |journal=Verdict |date=April 2007 |publisher=[[National Coalition of Concerned Legal Professionals]] |location=New York |first1=James L. |last1=Kaller}}</ref>

<blockquote>CCLP is not subject to the whims of constantly changing Congressional and Presidential administrations. Because CCLP does not receive federal funds, it can organize without being subject to arbitrary restrictions on representation, audits of client files, unpredictable fluctuations in income, and general harassment from LSC and OIG bureaucrats, all of which are the plight of an LSC-funded attorney in the 21st century. Unfortunately, the over 30-year history of the LSC shows that these conditions are likely to continue for the foreseeable future. CCLP does not focus merely on individual representation or the issue-oriented litigation which others rely on to gain backing.</blockquote>

=== Party membership and structure ===
NATLFED is substantially larger than the Communist Party, United States of America (Provisional Wing) [CPUSA(PW)].<ref name=Tourish /> Membership in the Party is by invitation, and invitation comes to volunteers in NATLFED entities as a revelation of the existence of the party, an explanation of the party's goals and strategy, and a brief "history" of the party, called the "genesis". This "genesis" is reportedly a narrative that includes claims that the party was part of a secret International including the [[Communist Party of Cuba]], the [[Sandinista]]s, and revolutionaries in [[Chile]] and [[El Salvador]], and that members of the [[Weather Underground]] were among its founders.<ref name="Whitnack"/>

The Party's secrecy makes appraisal of its internal structure and functioning difficult. Testimony from former members and contacts has led various observers to characterize the CPUSA (PW) as a "political cult". For example, party members are said to live communally and spend all their time working for [[NATLFED]] entities. The leadership reportedly maintains extensive files on members and limits contact with family members, while those who attempt to leave the group are said to be subjected to intense pressure and harassment.<ref name=Smith /><ref name=Klehr>{{cite book| author=Klehr, Harvey | title=Far Left of Center: The American Radical Left Today| publisher=Transaction Books|year=1990| isbn=0-88738-875-2}}</ref><ref name=Kifner>{{cite news |last1=Kifner |first1=John |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/18/nyregion/its-leader-dead-a-fringe-group-lives-on.html |title=Its leader dead, fringe group lives on for its own sake |newspaper=The New York Times |date=November 18, 1996 |access-date=December 11, 2023 |archive-date=December 11, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231211185942/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/18/nyregion/its-leader-dead-a-fringe-group-lives-on.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Enriquez>{{cite news |last1=Enriquez |first1=Alberto |title=Service Groups with Sinister Ties |newspaper=Mail Tribune (Medford, OR) |date=December 1996}}</ref> After Perente's death in 1995, leadership of the CPUSA (PW) was assumed by Margaret Ribar, who is reported to have relaxed some of those restrictions.<ref name=Smith /><ref name=Solomon />

The party has a Central Committee and is divided into cells, called "fractions", including a select "Military Fraction"<ref name=FBI /> that made news in 1996 after a raid on the party's New York headquarters resulted in the discovery of a weapons stockpile.<ref name="Kifner2">{{cite news |last1=Kifner |first1=John. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/13/nyregion/drawn-by-child-s-cries-police-uncover-arsenal.html |title=Drawn by Child's Cries Police Uncover Arsenal |newspaper=New York Times |date=November 13, 1996 |access-date=December 11, 2023 |archive-date=December 11, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231211185942/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/13/nyregion/drawn-by-child-s-cries-police-uncover-arsenal.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Cult allegations ===
NATLFED and its entities are often labeled a [[cult]], are listed on [[anti-cult movement|cult watch]] websites, and have been described as a cult by various journalists.<ref name=Smith /> For example, in 2003, NATLFED was described as "one of the country's most extreme and controlling political cults," according to "watchdog groups and government agencies".<ref name=Moran />

In a 1984 ''Public Eye'' article, the former NATLFED member Jeff Whitnack argues that the group's narrow and paranoid ideology, long working hours that sever volunteers' connections to the outside world, and deliberate schedule of mind-numbing work are all features of a cult.<ref name=Whitnack/> Later, ''Public Eye'' argued that it "no longer feels it is accurate to call Newman’s political network a cult", though "we still have strong criticisms of the group’s organizing style".<ref name=Whitnack />

In her 2016 memoir, former NATLFED member Sonja Larsen described NATLFED as cultlike:<ref name=Larsen2016 />

<blockquote>The sense of urgency. The time table. The secret language. The mythical elements. The sexual control. The lack of sleep. The control, internal and external, over thought and movement. The denial of self. There was a checklist, and I made a mark by nearly every line.</blockquote>

NATLFED supporters and organizers contest the label as loaded and misleading. For example, Western Massachusetts Labor Action (WMLA) newspaper editor Carol Rogers said, "we're definitely not a cult".<ref name=Moran />

== History ==
NATLFED emerged from [[Gino Perente]]'s organization the Eastern Farm Workers Association (EFWA).

Perente was by all accounts a charismatic person. He inspired volunteers with revolutionary positions and established discipline among the organizing drive's volunteers. Later accounts identified him as Gerald William Doeden, a former disc jockey from California with a less than pure reputation.<ref name=Whitnack>{{cite news |last1=Whitnack |first1=Jeff |url=https://politicalresearch.org/1984/07/19/cadre-or-cult |title=Cadre or Cult? Gino Perente, NATLFED & the Provisional Party |newspaper=Public Eye |date=1984 |volume=4 |number=3–4 |access-date=December 11, 2023 |archive-date=December 11, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231211123814/https://politicalresearch.org/1984/07/19/cadre-or-cult |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Kifner /><ref name=Hermann>{{cite web |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/2931846/USA-v-Reid-85CR2601-NCM-Government-Affidavits-001 |title=Affidavit of FBI Agent Neil Hermann |date=February 16, 1984 |access-date=September 10, 2017 |archive-date=October 25, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025195916/http://www.scribd.com/doc/2931846/USA-v-Reid-85CR2601-NCM-Government-Affidavits-001 |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Origins ===
In 1971 or 1972, Perente worked in the New York office of the [[United Farm Workers|United Farm Workers Organizing Committee]] and, according to [[Dolores Huerta]], "created a lot of problems for the union, attacking us in the press. Then he went off and formed his own group."<ref name=Russakoff />

In 1972, Perente founded the EFWA in [[Suffolk County, New York]]. He and his followers headed to migrant labor camps in rural [[Long Island, New York]], from an office in [[Bellport, New York]], to organize agricultural workers. The EFWA received press attention in its early days for attempting to organize farm workers at the I.M. Young company, a potato grower. Perente organized 800 farm workers with 30 full-time EFWA staff and 70 volunteers in December 1972, when the EFWA led a strike of potato workers.<ref name=Andelman>{{cite news |last1=Andelman |first1=David A |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/12/19/archives/li-migrant-farm-workers-backed-by-union-fighting-eviction-potato.html?searchResultPosition=1 |title=L. I. Farm Workers, Backed by Union, Fighting Eviction |newspaper=The New York Times |date=December 19, 1972 |access-date=May 24, 2017}}</ref> This was the first union of agricultural workers on the East Coast, but the [[United States Department of Labor|Department of Labor]] determined that EFWA was not a labor organization as defined by federal law.

The 1972 strike against I.M. Young remains a central part of the volunteer training process.<ref name=Bryson /> There is little further information about the EFWA's early years.

=== Growth ===
In the mid-1970s, Perente removed himself from public view, but encouraged his followers to expand the scope of the initial organizing drives in Sacramento and Long Island. He established an office in Brooklyn to direct the growing network he called the National Labor Federation (NATLFED), and refined an elaborate system to train and ensure the loyalty of volunteers by founding the Provisional Communist Party, a secret society of his associates. Perente gave lectures offering idiosyncratic interpretations of the writings of [[Karl Marx]], [[Vladimir Lenin]], and [[Joseph Stalin]] to audiences at the NATLFED office.<ref name=Kifner /><ref name=Tourish/>

Perente's movement used its core of volunteers to expand, sending recruiters to other cities and towns, starting about 20 mutual benefit associations and perhaps as many related support organizations by the late 1970s. The new organizing drives were built closely on the model of the EFWA, using its 1973 organizational handbook, ''The Essential Organizer''.<ref name=Seeber1973 />

In 1973, the California Homemakers Association (CHA) pressured Sacramento County and won wage increases for attendant care workers.<ref name=Erlich /> Subsequently, the county agreed to bargain with CHA over the terms of individual contracts with its home care workers. CHA organizer David Shapiro hailed the agreement as "the first time that household workers have achieved the right to bargain".<ref name=Bee>{{cite news| author=(No Byline)| newspaper=Sacramento Bee| title=Welfare homemakers win right to bargain| date=1974-03-11}}</ref>

In 1973, the NATLFED manuscript ''The Essential Organizer'' described the techniques of "systemic organizing", which purport to allow unrecognized workers to obtain needed benefits and learn how to build their own organizations.<ref name=Seeber1973 /> In 1978, the NATLFED manuscript ''Sociology and the Unrecognized Worker'' argued that most workers are not employed in large-scale factory operations and that new union organizing methods are therefore needed.<ref name=Sociology>{{cite book |title=Sociology and the Unrecognized Worker |year=1978 |publisher=National Labor Federation |oclc=29421713 |quote=Our strata is made up of people who circulate through many statuses during the course of a lifetime or even in a single year. Sometimes our members work in the fields, sometimes in domestic work, in a car wash, at service work, in a laundry or restaurant, are unemployed or on welfare. This demands that organizational emphasis be placed on the entire strata. Poverty programs, educational systems, etc., have generally pulled from our strata, the most beautiful, intelligent or healthy, others have fallen into our strata, leaving the basic statistical contours of the strata pretty much untouched. It is our aim to raise our strata as a whole. This demands the organization of the entire strata. [....] The National Labor Federation (NATLFED) is an organization of small worker associations encompassing over 20 organizing drives in various parts of the United States. Organizing drives exist in Oakland, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Orange County, San Diego and Redding, California under the auspices of the Western Service Workers Association, on Long Island and in Binghamton and Wayne County, New York under the auspices of the Eastern Farm Workers Association, in New Brunswick, Princeton, Atlantic City, New Jersey; Rochester, Albany, Buffalo, New York; Baltimore, Maryland; Philadelphia under the auspices of the Eastern Service Workers Association, Medford and Eugene, Oregon under the Northwest Seasonal Workers Association, in Massachusetts, under the Western Massachusetts Labor Alliance and in many other areas.}}</ref>

In the 1970s, Perente and NATLFED briefly worked with alleged cult leader [[Lyndon LaRouche]]'s [[National Caucus of Labor Committees]] (NCLC). During at least 1976 and 1977, Perente and NATLFED worked and considered merging with alleged cult leader [[Fred Newman (philosopher)|Fred Newman]]'s International Workers Party (IWP), but did not.<ref name=Kahn1977 />

In 1999, the Western Service Workers Association (WSWA) entity participated in demonstrations against [[Euthanasia|physician-assisted suicide]].<ref name=McCoy>{{cite web |first1=James |last1=McCoy |url=http://sdnewsnotes.com/ed/articles/1999/0699jm2.htm |title=Who They'll Kill First: San Diego Workers Group Understands The Enemy |publisher=San Diego News Notes |date=June 1999 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061022061400/http://www.sdnewsnotes.com/ed/articles/1999/0699jm2.htm |archive-date=2006-10-22 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 2004, members of the Western Farm Workers Association (WFWS) working in state-run migrant camps recovered illegal rent increases from the [[California Office of Migrant Services]]. The workers brought suit in 1996 and 1997 under the legal guidance and practical organizing participation of the Coalition of Concerned Legal Professionals (CCLP). WFWS member José Rodríguez said, "without organization, we could never have gotten money back".<ref name=Alvarado>{{cite news |last1=Alvarado |first1=Miguel |url=https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/migrant-farmworkers-win-victory-by-miguel-alvarado/ |title=Migrant Farmworkers Win Victory |newspaper=Znet |date=2004-06-13 |access-date=February 3, 2015 |archive-date=February 3, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150203062243/https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/migrant-farmworkers-win-victory-by-miguel-alvarado/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2006, the [[California State Legislature]] allocated $610,000 to settle ''Vega v. Mallory'', which alleged that migrant camp workers were overcharged for rent.<ref name="California">California State Assembly, [http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/05-06/bill/asm/ab_1751-1800/ab_1784_bill_20060808_enrolled.pdf Assembly Bill No. 1784 (2006)]{{dead link|date=August 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In 2006, the Jackson County Fuel Committee (JCFC) or Jackson County Workers Benefit Council (JCWBC) petitioned the Ashland City Council to halt utility cutoffs.<ref name=Jones2006Presentation>{{cite web |title=Presentation by Randy Jones, Operations Manager, Jackson County Fuel Committee to the Ashland City Council |date=February 21, 2006 |publisher=Ashland City Council |url=http://www.ashland.or.us/Files/2006-0221_PublicForum.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=July 19, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719093911/https://www.ashland.or.us/Files/2006-0221_PublicForum.pdf |access-date=April 24, 2008 }}</ref> This entity distributes 30-40 cords of firewood each year to people in [[Jackson County, Oregon]].<ref name=Plain />

In 2009 the party was reported to have been involved, again through some of its front groups, in a civic struggle around the proposed rebuilding of a hospital in a low-income area of [[San Francisco]].<ref name=Smith />

=== Public scrutiny and controversy ===
In the early 1980s, several journalists wrote highly critical articles about several groups in the federation. One such article, in ''[[The Christian Century|Christian Century]]'' magazine, described changes in the leadership of the Commission on Voluntary Service and Action (CVSA).<ref name=Lyles /> Originally a church-affiliated nonprofit organization, the CVSA had since 1946 annually printed a catalog of volunteer opportunities called ''Invest Yourself: a Catalog of Volunteer Opportunities''. A number of full-time NATLFED organizers had taken leadership positions on CVSA's board. In the early 1980s, when CVSA was struggling financially, NATLFED took responsibility and control of its operations, leaving some of the church leadership bitter.<ref name=Fager>{{cite news |last1=Fager |first1=Chuck |url=http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/edgerite.html |title=The Edge of Right |newspaper=City Paper (Philadelphia, PA) |date=October 22 – November 7, 1983 |access-date=May 24, 2017 |archive-date=December 5, 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031205212712/http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/edgerite.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> As many as 50 NATLFED entities were listed among about 200 service organizations in the catalog during the 1980s and 1990s. The number has since slowly declined; fewer than ten NATLFED entities were listed in the 2004 edition.

The political investigative magazine ''[[The Public Eye (magazine)|The Public Eye]]'' published two articles about NATLFED. The first, by Harvey Kahn in 1977,<ref name=Kahn1977>{{cite news |last1=Kahn |first1=Harvey |url=https://politicalresearch.org/1977/11/19/nclc-and-its-extended-political-community |title=NCLC and its extended political community |newspaper=Public Eye |date=1977 |volume=1 |number=1 |access-date=December 11, 2023 |archive-date=December 11, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231211123138/https://politicalresearch.org/1977/11/19/nclc-and-its-extended-political-community |url-status=live }}</ref> alleged an obscure but friendly relationship between NATLFED and [[Lyndon LaRouche]]'s [[National Caucus of Labor Committees]]. Tourish and Wohlforth report a similarly tenuous but longer-lived alliance between NATLFED and [[Fred Newman (philosopher)|Fred Newman]]'s new [[International Workers Party]] in the mid-1970s. Perente became head of the IWP-organized Nationwide Unemployment League, and soon dissolved it.<ref name=Tourish>{{cite book| last=Tourish| first=Dennis| author2=Tim Wohlforth| title=[[On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left]]|publisher=M. E. Sharpe| year=2000| isbn=0-7656-0639-9}} Chapter 12, "The Many Faces of Gino Perente"</ref>

''The Public Eye'' published a longer exposé by former volunteer Jeff Whitnack in 1984 in which Whitnack identified Perente as Doeden and interviewed some of Doeden's friends in California. Whitnack concluded that the whole operation was a scam punctuated with drama and hints of violence.<ref name=Whitnack />

In 2016, Random House Canada published former cadre Sonja Larsen's memoir ''Red Star Tattoo{{spaced ndash}}My Life as a Girl Revolutionary''. The book details her time growing up in field offices and moving to the organization's Brooklyn headquarters as a teenager in the 1980s. Larsen writes about her relationship with Perente/Doeden and the emotional, physical and sexual abuse of women she witnessed while living at the safe house around the time of the organization's revolutionary "countdown".<ref name=Larsen2016>{{Cite book|isbn = 978-0345815279|title = Red Star Tattoo: My Life as a Girl Revolutionary|last1 = Larsen|first1 = Sonja A.|year = 2016| publisher=Random House Canada }}</ref>

=== Police raids ===
On February 17, 1984, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] raided a law office and the National Office Central (NOC) headquarters at 1107 Carroll Street in [[Crown Heights, Brooklyn|Crown Heights]], Brooklyn, on tips that it "had planned a series of violent acts".<ref name=Hermann /><ref name=Rosenfeld>{{cite news |last1=Rosenfeld |first1=Neil S |url=http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/grouprai.html |title=Group Raided By FBI Called Harmless Cult |newspaper=Newsday |date=February 19, 1984 |access-date=May 24, 2017 |archive-date=December 19, 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031219174851/http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/grouprai.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> Kit Decious, Kathleen Paolo, and Daniel P. Foster, three lawyers among the organization's cadre, were convicted of felony [[larceny]] and possession of forged documents relating to the 1984 departure of Mia Prior, a member of ten years; they were disbarred in New York following their convictions in the 1980s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://wings.buffalo.edu/law/bclc/web/nyfoster.htm |title=Decision of Judge Watchler in People vs. Foster and Paolo |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070921124018/http://wings.buffalo.edu/law/bclc/web/nyfoster.htm |archive-date=2007-09-21 |publisher=Court of Appeals of New York, 73 N.Y.2d 596 |date=1989}}</ref> Paolo's conviction was overturned on appeal.

On November 11, 1996, the [[New York City Police Department]] raided the NOC again on an anonymous complaint that children were being abused in the office.<ref name=Hamblett /> The police seized 49 antique firearms and $42,000 in cash, and arrested 35 people.<ref name=Kifner /><ref name=Jones>{{cite news |last1=Jones |first1=Charisse |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/14/nyregion/grand-jury-seeks-reason-behind-a-group-s-arsenal.html |title=Grand jury seeks reason behind a group's arsenal |newspaper=The New York Times |date=November 14, 1996 |access-date=December 11, 2023 |archive-date=December 11, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231211194611/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/14/nyregion/grand-jury-seeks-reason-behind-a-group-s-arsenal.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=CNN>{{cite web | url=http://www.cnn.com/US/9611/13/city.militia/ | title=Communist weapons cache uncovered in Brooklyn | author=Peg Tyre | publisher=CNN.com | date=1996-11-13 | access-date=2007-08-29 | archive-date=December 1, 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201093205/http://www.cnn.com/US/9611/13/city.militia/ | url-status=live }} (online news story with photographs taken at time of 1996 raid)</ref> Newspapers around the country ran columns about the group. Two of the organizers, Susan Angus and Diane Garrett, were initially convicted of misdemeanor possession of weapons, but the appeals court overturned the convictions because the search was conducted without a warrant.<ref name=Hamblett>Hamblett, Mark.  "Emergency Exception Held No Basis for Search".  ''New York Law Journal''. January 5, 1999.</ref> No evidence of child abuse was ever produced, and press coverage died down rapidly.

Shortly after the 1996 raid, an anonymous website appeared created by "an informal network of people" who were "frightened for the current members who are our children, siblings, former friends, and coworkers." The site condemned NATLFED and archived many news articles and other stories about it. The site disappeared from its original host in 2004 and is mirrored on the [[Internet Archive#Wayback Machine|Wayback machine]] at [https://web.archive.org/web/20031127072003/http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/ http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/].

== Entities ==
NATLFED operates about 30 offices called "entities" around the U.S., concentrated in California and the Northeast. The Eastern Farm Workers Association (now in [[Bellport, New York]] and [[Syracuse, New York]]) and California Homemakers Association (in [[Sacramento, California]]) were founded in the early 1970s, and were followed by the Eastern Service Workers Association, Western Service Workers Association, the Commemoration Committee for the [[Black Panther Party]] in [[Oakland, California]], Western Massachusetts Labor Action in [[Pittsfield, Massachusetts]], Western Farm Workers Association in [[Stockton, California]], [[Yuba City, California]], and [[Hillsboro, Oregon]], Friends of Seasonal and Service Workers in [[Portland, Oregon]], and Northwest Seasonal Workers Association in [[Medford, Oregon]].

Since Perente's death, several new entities have opened, including Midwest Workers Association in [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], Alaska Workers Association in [[Anchorage, Alaska]],<ref name=Bryson /> and Mid-Ohio Workers Association in [[Columbus, Ohio]].

Most NATLFED entities produce regular newspapers to inform supporters and volunteers and generate advertising revenue. The Women's Press Collective (WPC), for example, prints the magazine ''Collective Endeavor'' about media reform and topics concerning women, and the Coalition of Concerned Legal Professionals (CCLP) and Coalition of Concerned Medical Professionals (CCMP) each publish the quarterly newsletters ''The Gavel'' and ''The Verdict''.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

=== Currently active ===
The organizations listed below appear to be current NATLFED entities.

* Alaska Workers Association (AWA)<ref name=Bryson /> in [[Anchorage, Alaska]]
* Bay Area Alternative Press (BAAP)<ref name=Rosenfeld /> in [[Berkeley, California]]
* Berkshire County Fuel Committee (BCFC)<ref name=Horner /><ref name=Lyles2>{{cite news |last1=Lyles |first1=Jean Caffey |title=The NATLFED entities |newspaper=The Christian Century |date=July 20{{ndash}}27, 1983 |page=677}}</ref> in [[Pittsfield, Massachusetts]]
* California Committee of Friends and Relatives of Prisoners (CCFRP)<ref name=InvY91>{{cite book| title=Invest Yourself: the catalog of volunteer opportunities: a guide to action |isbn = 0-9629322-0-5| date=1991| editor=Susan G. Angus| publisher=Commission on Voluntary Service and Action}}</ref> in [[California]]
* California Homemakers Association (CHA)<ref name=Rauber /> in [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]] and [[Santa Rosa, California]]
* Coalition of Concerned Legal Professionals <ref name=Fager /><ref name=Lyles2 /> (Sacramento, California, New York City, New York, Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania)  (publishes ''Verdict'' and ''The Gavel'')
* Coalition of Concerned Medical Professionals <ref name=Fager /> (Central Valley/Redding, Oakland, Sacramento, Stockton, California; Bellport, Riverhead, Brooklyn, New York)
* Commemoration Committee for the Black Panther Party (Oakland, California) (Publishes ''The Commemorator'') <ref name=InvY01>{{cite book| title=Invest Yourself: the catalog of volunteer opportunities: a guide to action | isbn = 0-9629322-5-6| date=2001| editor=Susan G. Angus| publisher=Commission on Voluntary Service and Action}}</ref>
* Commission on Voluntary Service and Action (CVSA)<ref name=Lyles>{{cite news |last1=Lyles |first1=Jean Caffey |url=http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/howthere.html |title=How the Revolutionaries Conned the Bureaucrats |newspaper=The Christian Century |date=July 20{{ndash}}27, 1983 |access-date=May 24, 2017 |archive-date=December 29, 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031229120654/http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/howthere.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> in [[New York City]], which publishes ''Invest Yourself: The  Catalog of Volunteer Opportunities''
* Committee for South African Solidarity (CSAS)<ref name=InvY01 /> in [[San Francisco, California|San Francisco]] and [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]], which publishes ''The South Africans Beacon''
* Eastern Farm Workers Association (EFWA)<ref name=Bryson /><ref name=Sansegundo>{{cite news |last1=Sansegundo |first1=Sheridan |url=http://politicalcults.blogspot.com/2006/12/east-hampton-star-gloats-over-times.html |title=The Real Obituary Unfolds |newspaper=East Hampton Star |date=March 25, 1995 |access-date=December 11, 2023 |archive-date=February 7, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207110653/http://politicalcults.blogspot.com/2006/12/east-hampton-star-gloats-over-times.html |url-status=dead}}</ref>(Bellport, Lyons, Riverhead, Sodus, Syracuse, New York)
* Eastern Service Workers Association (ESWA)<ref name=Sansegundo /><ref name=Ben-Ali>{{cite news |last1=Ben-Ali |first1=Russell |url=http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/jersey.html |title=Jersey Central to the Revolt that Wasn't |newspaper=Star-Ledger (New Jersey) |date=November 14, 1996 |access-date=December 11, 2023 |archive-date=June 29, 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030629045815/http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/jersey.html |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=More evidence surfaces suggesting cult activity |first1=Michael |last1=Chin |publisher=The Lamron |date=November 20, 2003 |url=http://www.geneseo.edu/~lamron/showarticle.php?id=254 |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 7, 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031207121521/http://www.geneseo.edu/~lamron/showarticle.php?id=254 |access-date=December 11, 2023 }}</ref> in [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]]; [[Roxbury, Massachusetts]]; [[Atlantic City, New Jersey]]; [[New Brunswick, New Jersey]]; [[South Amboy, New Jersey]]; [[Pleasantville, New Jersey]]; [[Somerset, New Jersey]]; [[Trenton, New Jersey]]; [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|Philadelphia]]; and [[Rochester, New York]]
* Friends of Seasonal and Service Workers (FSSW)<ref name=Enriquez /> in [[Portland, Oregon]]
* Jackson County Fuel Committee (JCFC) and Jackson County Workers Benefit Council (JCWBC)<ref name=Jones2006Presentation /><ref name=Lyles2 /><ref name=Enriquez /> in [[Ashland, Oregon]]
* Mid-Ohio Workers Association (MOWA) in [[Columbus, Ohio]]{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}
* Midwest Workers Association (MWA) in [[Chicago, Illinois]]{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}
* National Equal Justice Association (NEJA)<ref name=Lyles2 /><ref name=Sansegundo /> in [[San Diego, California|San Diego]]; [[San Francisco, California|San Francisco]]; [[New York City]]; and [[Riverhead, New York]]
* Northwest Seasonal Workers Association (NWSWA)<ref name=Enriquez /> in [[Medford, Oregon]]
* Physicians Organizing Committee (POC)<ref name=InvY01 /> in [[San Francisco, California]]
* Western Farm Workers Association (WFWA)<ref name=Bryson /> in [[Stockton, California]], [[Yuba City, California]], and [https://www.wfwahillsboro.org/ Hillsboro, Oregon]. 
* Western Massachusetts Labor Action (WMLA)<ref name=Horner /><ref name=Lyles2 /> in [[Pittsfield, Massachusetts]]
* Western Service Workers Association (WSWA)<ref name=Rauber /> in [[Anaheim, California]]; [[Oakland, California]]; [[Redding, California]]; [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]]; [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]]; [[San Diego, California|San Diego]]; [[Santa Ana, California]]; [[Santa Cruz, California]]; and [[Watsonville, California]]; 
* Women's Press Collective (WPC)<ref name=Sansegundo /><ref name=Resnick>{{cite news |last1=Resnick |first1=Joshua |url=http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/williams.html |title=Service Group Linked to "Cultic" Organization |newspaper=Williams Record (Williamston, MA) |date=October 3, 1995 |access-date=December 11, 2023 |archive-date=December 28, 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031228165122/http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/williams.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> in [[South Brooklyn]], New York, which publishes ''Collective Endeavor'' and should not be confused with the [[Women's Press Collective|Women's Press Collective of Oakland, California]]
* Workers Community Service Center (WCSC)<ref name=Lyles2 /> in [[Sacramento, California]]

=== Other names ===
The following names have been listed as NATLFED-run organizations in the past. Some are alternate names for active organizations and offices, others are likely defunct.

* Alianza Campesina (Modesto, CA)<ref name=xnatlfed_entity_list>[https://web.archive.org/web/20030427112445/http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/entities/address.html NATLFED: Locations of Headquarters and Entities], an anti-natlfed website, composed in 1996 and relying heavily on ''Invest Yourself'' listings, listed these organizations as NATLFED fronts.  Some of these may have never been more than names.</ref>
* Ashland Community Service Center<ref name=Enriquez /> (Ashland, OR)
* Association of Financial Aid Students<ref name=Fager />(Dayton, Shaker Heights, OH)
* Boston Committee for Community Arts (Boston, MA)<ref name=InvY91 />
* Carroll Street Properties  (New York; owner of NATLFED's Brooklyn Headquarters)<ref name=xnatlfed_entity_list />
* Citizens for Migrant Workers <ref name=Rosenfeld /><ref name=Lyles2 />(Northport, King's Park, NY)
* Citizens Relief Committee (Philadelphia, PA)<ref name=xnatlfed_entity_list />
* Committee for Community Health and Safety (Trenton, NJ)<ref name=Lyles2 />
* Committee of Friends and Relatives of Prisoners <ref name=Rosenfeld /> (Bellport, Riverhead, NY)
* Earth Shock Committee (Oakland, Watsonville, CA)<ref name=InvY91 />
* Finger Lakes Equal Justice Association (Rochester, NY)<ref name=Lyles2 />
* National Foundation for Alternative Resources<ref name=Lyles /> (NY)
* Gregorio Duarte Memorial Oakland Community Service and Health Center (Oakland, CA)<ref name=Lyles2 />
* Junior Eason Riverhead Community Service and Health Center<ref name=Lyles2 /><ref name=Smith1988>{{cite news |last1=Smith |first1=Don |url=http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/keymoves.html |title=Key moves due in health center case |newspaper=Newsday |date=February 16, 1988 |access-date=December 11, 2023 |archive-date=June 29, 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030629045919/http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/keymoves.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> (Riverhead, NY)
* Long Island Alternative Press<ref name=Rosenfeld /><ref name=Lyles2 />(King's Park/Smithtown, NY)
* Long Island Equal Justice Association<ref name=Rosenfeld /> (Riverhead, NY)
* New Jersey Labor Defense Committee (Trenton, NJ)<ref name=xnatlfed_entity_list />
* Philadelphia Committee on the Community Arts<ref name=Russakoff /> (Philadelphia, PA)
* Philadelphia Community Service Center (Philadelphia, PA)<ref name=xnatlfed_entity_list />
* Shasta County Community Service Center<ref name=Lyles2 /><ref name=Rauber /> (Central Valley/Redding, CA)
* Shasta County Food Committee<ref name=Rauber /> (Central Valley/Redding, CA)
* South/Central Los Angeles Benefits Office (Los Angeles, CA)<ref name=xnatlfed_entity_list />
* Suffolk Committee for Community Arts<ref name=Russakoff /> (Bellport, NY)
* Temporary Workers Organizing Committee<ref name=Lyles2 /><ref name=Ben-Ali /> (New Brunswick, NJ)
* [[Texas Farm Workers Union]]<ref name=Lyles2 /><ref name=Rauber /> (Pharr, Hildago, TX)
* Vivian Cooper Community Service Center/Trenton Community Service Center<ref name=Lyles2 /><ref name=Ben-Ali /> (Trenton, NJ)
* Workers Benefit Council (Alameda County, CA; Rochester, NY)<ref name=xnatlfed_entity_list />
* Writers and Scholars Institute (Princeton, NJ)<ref name=InvY91 />

=== Source of lists ===
[[File:Invest Yourself 1999 cover.jpg|thumb|right|''Invest Yourself:A Catalog of Volunteer Opportunities'', published by the Commission on Voluntary Service and Action, once listed about forty organizations affiliated with NATLFED.]]
NATLFED does not produce a public list of its entities, but the individual organizations have usually been open about their participation in the network.<ref name=Horner>{{cite news |last1=Horner |first1=Grier |url=http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/dedidrea.html |title=Dedicated and Dreamy |newspaper=The Berkshire Eagle |date=August 3–5, 1984 |access-date=December 11, 2023 |archive-date=April 27, 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030427102154/http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/articles/dedidrea.html |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=Bryson />

In a 1978 manuscript, NATFLED listed several of its "organizing drives".<ref name=Sociology /> Almost all the NATLFED entities were listed in the publication ''Invest Yourself'' between 1984 and the mid-1990s, using nearly identical descriptions:<ref name=Fager />

<blockquote>The descriptions of them—there are 38 in all—read very similarly: they are said to be "mutual benefits associations," providing the necessities of life to "the lowest paid strata" of unorganized workers, while applying a strategy of "systemic organizing&" to produce "permanent change" in their conditions. They all say as well that volunteers need no experience; they will be trained by professional organizers.</blockquote>

== Conclusions differ ==
The NATLFED network's various organizations have nearly identical rhetoric and training procedures, though they are spread out in many cities. Many of their donors and supporters speak up in defense of the services they provide for their communities. Former NATLFED cadre Robin Spellman-Fahlberg, who was an operations manager with Upstate NY EFWA for a decade, said in 2004 that in addition to helping in the most disenfranchised communities:<ref name="BostonIMC">Boston IMC discussion: [https://web.archive.org/web/20050318230300/http://boston.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/21362/index.php Watch out--Stalinist cult in Roxbury!]</ref>

<blockquote>There is also a hidden, for want of a better description, evil, side of NATLFED. When I was there, and from what I've heard continues to be the case, there were manipulative people in powerful positions. Full-timers were subjected to an increasingly severe mental abuse and subjugation. ... They felt the only way to help poor people was through Natlfed, that there was no possible success for them after leaving, and/or they were subject to physical threats if they did.</blockquote>

Other entity members share a more positive experience, such as Western Service Workers Association (WSWA) entity member Shari Beck:<ref>{{cite news |url=https://statehornet.com/2007/12/volunteer-organization-aids-low-income-people-families/ |title=Volunteer organization aids low-income people, families |first1=Jose |last1=Martinez |newspaper=State Hornet |date=December 12, 2007 |access-date=January 24, 2019 |archive-date=February 3, 2015 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20150203071553/http://www.statehornet.com/volunteer-organization-aids-low-income-people-families/article_c2836aa7-a403-550e-ab67-6e6f26c708a2.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

<blockquote>Shari Beck, a retired school teacher, has been volunteering at WSWA for the past three years. "Everybody who helps out can make things better," Beck said. "I feel like I'm doing something for the community." Beck, who volunteers alongside her husband, believes that by volunteering at WSWA, she has become more aware of things going on in her community. "We wanted to spend time in the community," Beck said.</blockquote>

== See also ==
* ''[[On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left]]''
* [[Gino Perente]]
* [[Lyndon LaRouche]]
* [[Fred Newman (philosopher)|Fred Newman]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* Anti-NATLFED websites:
** Archive of 1996 anti-NATLFED site: [https://web.archive.org/web/20030806233602/http://users.rcn.com/xnatlfed/ The Truth about NATLFED]
** Archive of 2006 anti-NATLFED site (in blog format): [https://web.archive.org/web/20110614230722/http://politicalcults.blogspot.com/ Political Cults]
** FBI file [https://archive.org/details/FBI_file_100_486889 100-486-889 on NATLFED/EFWA/ESWA/Provisional Communist Party]
* NATLFED websites:
** [http://eswaboston.org/ Website of Eastern Service Workers Association (ESWA) in Boston]
** [http://californiahomemakers.org/ Website of California Homemakers Association (CHA) in Santa Rosa]

{{Communist parties in the United States}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Clandestine groups]]
[[Category:Front organizations]]
[[Category:Marxist–Leninist parties in the United States]]
[[Category:National Labor Federation| ]]