this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2025
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The Deprogram Podcast

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"As revolutionaries, we don't have the right to say that we're tired of explaining. We must never stop explaining. We also know that when the people understand, they cannot but follow us. In any case, we, the people, have no enemies when it comes to peoples. Our only enemies are the imperialist regimes and organizations." Thomas Sankara, 1985

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Evidence of ACP-Led Brigading: What Leftist Communities Need to Know (lemmygrad.ml)
submitted 2 days ago by Mantiddies@lemmygrad.ml to c/thedeprogram@lemmygrad.ml
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I have recently made post about reporting any ACP (American Communist Party) infiltrators. Though in this post I want to provide evidence to you all on the Deprogram-Forum, and the rest of Lemmy-grad on how the ACP is deliberately brigading other leftists reddit-subs. The Attached Image is the evidence that this was a planned and organized brigade.

The call to brigade other leftists’ spaces, came from the chairman of the ACP himself, Haz Al-Din (his reddit username is Infrared Show). He posted this call on r/AskSocialists which is now a completely ACP-compromised subreddit. It was then reposted on r/LeftAgainstACP, and this is also how most of us found out.

Current situation Summary:

  • There were many attempts of the ACP trying to brigade leftists’ subs, and also even conservative subs (for rage bait I guess, or spreading more reactionary bs)

  • Many actual leftists made posts about it, and a call to ban them if you see them.

  • Thus far ACP people have tried to brigade or brigaded: r/AskSocialists (successfully), r/Socialism, r/TankieTheDeprogram (unsuccessfully), r/SocialistGaming (you could mostly find ACP apologist on my anti-ACP post in that sub, which are promptly banned).

  • When I searched ACP, in the reddit search bar I even saw that they were posting in r/ConservativeYouth, where the post was immediately removed from.

  • They also actively tried to target r/GenZeDong.

If you want to add more subs that have been infiltrated by the ACP, pls leave them below in the comments section.

The ACP

As a brief reminder the ACP is not our friend, nor are they actual leftists. Jackson Hinkle (among others) founded the ACP, and its current chairman is Haz Al Din. Midwestern Marx is also another ACP affiliated figure.

They claim to be Marxist–Leninist, but many critics argue they are not Marxist at all, instead promoting a blend of socially conservative, nationalist, and pro-authoritarian politics. Essentially Strasserims, Nazbolism. They are Nazis who use the USSR as an aesthetic branding.

They oppose much of what communism has stood for historically: they reject liberal-left “woke” politics, express support for nationalist and reactionary stances. In practice, their activities have centred on online propaganda (TikTok, Twitter), political positioning, and alignment with authoritarian regimes. They also call themselves** MAGA-Communists,** and socially conservative and claim that Marxism is historically conservative.

This is not Marxism, so please report them if you see them.

What can we do?

  • Support your mods in your favourite online spaces by reporting brigadiers.
  • Help inform other leftists , about why the ACP is bad.
  • Support and watch r/LeftAgainstACP for more information.
  • Share or create actual Marxist social media content, so that the ACP cannot dominate the conversation online. Support those creators who are successfully calling them out.
  • Make sure your discord servers have a verification-process

-Get organized in IRL, support unions and actual leftists’ parties.

If you have more solutions pls leave them below

Also this post is not meant to cause mass hysteria, its purpose is to document what the ACP has done yesterday and start a conversation.

Anyway, leave your thoughts, comments, and feedback below.

N.B: I am not going to add links here right now because I am not sure how it works with tracking on this platform, and I do not want to invite the ACP in.

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[–] poo_22@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

What's a better party?

[–] Catfish@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 20 hours ago

PSL

[–] amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 22 hours ago

What does your picture of a valuable communist party look like?

[–] Mzuark@lemmygrad.ml 12 points 1 day ago

Every major leftist community inevitably attracts fed or fash attention

[–] CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml 20 points 2 days ago (4 children)

The criticism of the ACP should be strengthened. I also have "pro-authoritarian" politics, 90% of us here have (and 100% of us here ought to have them). For example I think it's totally fine for China to execute CIA agents they uncover on their territory, but some would call that authoritarian. I think it was cool of Cuba to nationalize every industry in 1959 without compensation, but some would also call that authoritarian. Likewise I align with the "authoritarian regimes" of China, DPRK, Cuba, and many other maligned states in the world. This framing plays exactly into the ACP's hand: "ACP supports China but ACP is bad, therefore it must mean China is bad too!" I suspect on some level this is something ACP wants to happen.

Much stronger criticism is their stance regarding basically the entirety of communist history (which they either reject or try to reframe out of left field), and how much of a break they represent with basically all of communism so far. They are the ones making enemies with other communists, by claiming they know better than us and we're wrong and will be lined up against the wall when the american revolution comes. They talk big despite having nothing to show for it yet in practice.

The way their party works is basically a glorified tiktok house where supporters (members) send the influencers money so they can go on trips around the world and bring back instagram pictures of it. They show up for the photo op then bail without doing any work there. They are a complete break from communist internationalism there too because only the 'executive committee' ie the influencers (haz, helali, hinkle etc) ever go on these trips, they never bring any ACP members along with them.

They consistently lie, for example randomly putting the names of CPUSA chapters on their forming constitution and then these chapters quickly distancing themselves from apparently having signed that document. One of them that appeared on the document didn't even exist.

They completely misunderstand theory and quote-mine every interaction, and have discord servers where they coordinate these arguments. If you're anything on twitter it becomes blatant very quickly that most of them are 15 and think andrew tate was not edgy enough for them. They all share the same screenshot of a quote and if you press them even a little and demand they detail their thoughts they will bail but not before liking and retweeting their own tweet reply to signal to other patsocs to jump into the conversation. Their praxis is to berate and abuse marxists until they relent and agree with the ACP.

If we want to criticize their communism then we must judge them on marxist grounds not on vibes that they don't 'perform' the role to our satisfaction and tick enough boxes. Their theory is wrong because they purposely misunderstand it and thus show a worrying agenda, and everything else flows from that. Their mistaken theory cannot build effective communist praxis and we see this already in the way they consider only some workers to be actual workers. But it can certainly create some nice little himmlers.

And it's not just history, it has real consequences today. As I showed in the first paragraph, they are reframing what anti-imperialism and internationalism mean. Practically they are also known to be abusers, both physically and mentally and frankly I would not want to be around any of them.

I expect that leftAgainstACP community will eat itself soon. I've been invited to similar communities in the past and they end up imploding because they try to form a united front but it's a doomed idea. You can see the posts already on that subreddit: "stalinism and the ACP have nothing to do with marxism, here's why:" from yesterday, for example. Tbh I don't really like the fandom aspect of this entire thing, it feels more like they're trying to pit pros and antis, supporting people because they're on the 'right' side of the fence even if they have other terrible opinions, posting memes to laugh at, etc. The moment you have people in these anti-acp communities saying china sucks it's over, they've capitulated to western capital. Another post: "are pragmatic Social Democrats who are more concerned that withdrawing from NATO could precipitate a new global fascist movement and indirectly lead to a world war welcome?" (answers: yes welcome aboard.)

I didn't intend to finish this promoting something but if you want to do something online but still material against ACP write for the prolewiki pages on them. we are among the top results if you search for their names or terms and they are some of our most visited pages, and there is still so much to add and so many more pages to create. That will be infinitely more worthwhile in teaching newcomers to marxism, which is who the ACP targets, about the danger patsocs are to them.

[–] FidoOnegin@lemmygrad.ml 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

ACP isn't a party on a marxist sense. It's the fandom club surrounded Haz (real name, Ali Hammoud, from Dearborn). Everything from their little events thay call Conventions to their day to day operations has nothing to do with the practices of a normal socialist group/party.

Haz and his mates on the leadership weren't elected, it was a long shimmered personal project of Haz who somehow convinced himself that he could do entryism on CPUSA and steal that party. Just to find out the whole thing was going nowhere and was forced to start his own brand.

When confronted with the every day business of running a "party", Haz struggles to keep up with the meetings and agendas. Joins late to his party business dates and always gives random excuses like how he had to take a long shit or how some guy in the gym looked him funny.

This "party" is Marxist-Leninist in name. I've interviewed several former members and all give similar stories. They are pressed by an otherwise absent leadership to post photo-ops of themselves picking up trash or doing other voluntaristic community labor nobody in their communities asked for. No support is provided otherwise, they are expected to come up with their own supplies and money for these actions.

The whole intention behind the "party" isn't to build up a movement or organize the working class. But rather to reinforce the social standing of their leaders and maybe to be able to extract rent from the chapters that start their own businesses (yeah, I know, that's a stupid idea on so many parts).

So yes, there are many angles to attack ACP from a marxist position without having to engage on liberal "they are authoritarian" side.

[–] Mantiddies@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

Do you have the interviews recorded somehow, I think it would be great actually to use them for the wiki

[–] FidoOnegin@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 22 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Mantiddies@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 20 hours ago

thank you! So i guess its allowed to be used for a wiki?

[–] Kultronx@lemmygrad.ml 18 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Honestly, I stop using the word "authoritarian" completely, it has lost all meaning. When I want to use a similar word against Nazis/Liberals/Fascists, I find tyrannical is best.

[–] King_Simp@lemmygrad.ml 21 points 1 day ago

It's completely anti-historical materialist. It ignores the material and historical reasoning behind policy and engages in idealism, saying that x or y ideology is "authoritarian." It also inherently implies that there is a moral/ideological problem with authority. If I can repeat a sentiment from my namesake, there must be a tyranny of the revolution to preserve it.

[–] dRLY@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 1 day ago

They are the ones making enemies with other communists, by claiming they know better than us and we’re wrong and will be lined up against the wall when the american revolution comes.

If the said American revolution does come, then they can catch whatever lead that the regular MAGA folks send at them. Because I certainly wouldn't waste anything I have to try and save them. Especially since I know they would turn on any of us if they get close enough. Treat them the same as any fascist.

[–] Mantiddies@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 2 days ago

I did want to write something on the ACP for ProleWiki (though I think team work would be better on this), I also considered to write something about non-US parties, and groups for the wiki. Though I still need to sign up, and maybe create an organized call for those wiki texts.

[–] Mantiddies@lemmygrad.ml 17 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Apparently somebody found this on the ACP-discord yesterday (not sure if its somebody infiltrating the ACP).

[–] Horse@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 day ago

these people are such fucking losers lmao

[–] Tabitha@hexbear.net 4 points 1 day ago

wojak-nooo noooo not the game cube!!!

[–] Kultronx@lemmygrad.ml 17 points 1 day ago

incel khmer rouge incoming

[–] froggirl14@lemmygrad.ml 19 points 2 days ago

this is so embarassing lmao

[–] darkernations@lemmygrad.ml 30 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

I honestly don't see the threat. USAmericans don't need social conservatives dressed up in hammer and sickle aesthetics to have a license for reaction; their material conditions have long taught them they could gain from imperialist relations with the rest of the world, and this applies pretty much to most of the US political spectrum.

As an ML, to drive this point home: Jackson Hinkle who engages in domestic historical revisionism, virulently transphobic, wrong on the National Question, and all the ills of social conservatism and reaction, is less reactionary than Mamdani on Venezuela. This is not a defence of Jackson Hinkle. This is just to show how reactionary and imperialist the average USAmerican is.

[–] Kultronx@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I don't agree. They are distorters of Marxism and they are deceiving legitimate comrades and giving Communists a bad name.

[–] darkernations@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

@Kultronx@lemmygrad.ml @King_Simp@lemmygrad.ml

I have read that the ACP appeals to labour aristocrats and petite borugoisie who benefit from imperialism, so their nominal denunciation takes a form that puts blame on a type of elite that excludes them - much like all other USAmerican reactionary groups that would like to dress up as anti-imperialists. And those USAmerican political groups that don't even do this they then sound more anti-imperialist in comparison.

They come from similar material conditions (consider particular set of relations rather than stresses on quality of life) that the likes of the DSA, or democrats or republicans or myriad other political parties come from. I would argue they are to the Republican Party what the DSA or the CPUSA is to the Democratic party.

We are dialectical materialists. The material always comes before the idea. We should vehemently be attacking the political theory that arises to their politics - just like all the other political groups above - rather than have a "conspiratorial" approach because (1) that will be partly how one will be build a solid foundation of a political movement (2) you will be able to spot the feds (those who attempt to steer the political course) from a mile off

We have reactionary politics within lemmygrad itself - artisanal reactionary ideals, Western Marxist conceptions of perusasion, socdem tailism etc etc We attack the politics behind this and to do this we need a good understanding of theory (this is not innate; it is through the material process of engagement). In practice, what we choose to believe in is often filtered by our own personal material conditions; these conditions, however, are not immutable.

What are the strategic consequences of decisively rejecting the tripartite social theory advanced by Orwell, and adopting Marx’s all-encompassing one instead? The basic call to action looks something like this:

Stop accusing the masses of being “brainwashed.” Stop treating them as cattle, stop attempting to rouse them into action by scolding them with exposure to “unpleasant truths.”

Accept instead that they have been avoiding those truths for a reason. You were able to break through the propaganda barrier, and so could they if they really wanted to. Many of these people see you as the fool, and in many cases not without reason.

Understanding people as intelligent beings, craft a political strategy that convincingly makes the case for why they and their lot are very likely to benefit from joining your political project. Not in some utopian infinite timescale, but soon.

If you cannot make this case, then forget about convincing the person in question. Focus instead on finding other people to whom such a case can be made. This will lead you directly to class analysis.

https://redsails.org/masses-elites-and-rebels/

[–] Kultronx@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not really sure what you're getting at. I'm not American. I see these clowns online and they are getting more attention than established legitimate groups. F 'em.

[–] darkernations@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 1 day ago

Not really sure what you’re getting at.

If you would like me to clarify certain parts then happy to help. We should be dialectical materialist in our approach.

[–] King_Simp@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

We can agree on the Venezuala issue while still vehemently arguing against him and the ACP. The issue is not Americans as a whole [currently], but those who are class conscious. The ACP represents similar threats that Mamdami and the social democrats to, just in a different form. That being that they will take class consciousness and drain it, and leave those who need leaders either leaderless and dissolutioned or mindless, unconcious thralls who regurgite the "logic" of the revisionists

[–] darkernations@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

We can agree on the Venezuala issue while still vehemently arguing against him and the ACP. The issue is not Americans as a whole [currently], but those who are class conscious. The ACP represents similar threats that Mamdami and the social democrats to, just in a different form. That being that they will take class consciousness and drain it, and leave those who need leaders either leaderless and dissolutioned or mindless, unconcious thralls who regurgite the “logic” of the revisionists

What could you potentially offer that appeals to the material conditions of those that the ACP successfully target? I don't necessarily disagree with you, I think that we could maybe consider starting with the above paradigm where appropriate.

[–] King_Simp@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think the ACP targets people who want to... feel better about themselves, for lack of a better description. This isn't some denunciation, but just an observation.

There's a psychological thing I've started to notice, that humans wish to abdicate themselves of responsibility wherever possible. I'm unsure if this is a result of capitalism or just a general psychological quirk, but it is where a lot of failures to act and failures to think come from.

When I converted, I was a very Patriotic social democrat. Like full on Harry Truman doctrine and "speak softly and carry a big stick" level. I even made a post on r/asksocialists asking how to reconcile my patriotism with my [newfound] socialism. I did get a lot of good answers [and a few bad ones], but the thing I discovered about myself is that I was trying to get away from critically examining things. I definitely still do this in certain areas [even when I try not to] so I'm not judging anyone. My point is that I was acting out of discomfort.

I think people following the ACP most likely have some combination of beliefs or emotional reasons that make them suseptible.

1.A wish to keep the heros they used to have.

This was mine, and while I still have heros and people I idolize [although not to the same degree and definitely try to not let it influence my actual decision making], they aren't the Washingtons and Bismarks and such that I used to have.

  1. A wish to have the socially conservative values they have

3.A wish to be different

4.Communist autophobia

[This one I haven't confirmed personally, but I think part of it might be that they have always been told "communists are soy woke people who hate people for being white and just want to write yaoi in their commune all day" by the internet and such. But since they can't deny that the economic aspect of Marxism is right, they inherit this phobia into their own worldview in order to feel better about going against themselves.]

5."Reactionary" philosophy

[What I mean by this is not reactionary in the political sense. Not that they aren't also often reactionary, but that pat-socs look at the soviet union and such similar to how Maoists look at pre 76 China. They simply wish for a 1-1 return to the past, and that every policy Stalin and the CPSU had at the time is the exact same policy we should have now. It's a reaction to the present, rather than an analysis of it].

So I think when looking at ways to stem the ACP's influence, we should start here. There are the issues with petite bourgeois membership and such, but specifically the people we should be trying to reach probably already have the material conditions necessary to want to be a communist [besides those who are just edgy and wanna be nazbols cause they saw it in a hoi4 mod or something]

I think, materially speaking, the key things would be

1.Dont let the ACP lead or present their qualifications unchallenged. The ACP does like presenting their mutual aid stuff, so counter by actually investigating their mutual aid [not in person, that's not necessary i dont think.] and seeing if what they say is true, or helpful. If they're lying, spread the word. If they're not lying, then we should lead where applicable. Obviously parties shouldn't do this uncritically [probably better to stay at home and actually work on things rather than have your leaders gallivanting around the world], but communists don't tail, and leading has, historically, had the best results for hopes of victory.

2.This is cliche, but getting organized. The ACP does mostly operate through the internet, and that's a problem, but they shouldn't be able to do real, lasting damage through it. So organizing those most likely to join the ACP will help nip off their bud. Additionally, actually showing material action puts your ideology on the same playing feild in terms of concrete actions, which then leaves ideology.

3.Educate. I know this is also cliche, but being accommodating, helpful and educating people will help nip the ideological buds. Additionally, helping people think critically will [hopefully] help them not follow a guy who says gamers should be sent to prison and homeless people are the ruling class of America.

Online, the best way is to curate the space and have disipline, as with any revisionism.

Right now I am more worried about social democrats like Mamdani than I am the ACP. But the playbook is, IMO, the same. Educate, organize, criticize, and offer an alternative.

Please feel free to ask for more clarification, I would write more in depth but I am short on time right now. I hope this was at least somewhat helpful for your question, I know its not a perfect one.

[–] darkernations@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Thanks for the effort in your reply.

With regards to the social conservatism, immanent critique can go a long way if your world perspective can potentially offer material gains in the short term over the perceived material gains in being a social conservative.

https://redsails.org/on-dialectics/

I find that linking the emancipation of the "minority" to their emancipation ie it is not question of extending empathy to someone who is different to you (which is the most that intersectionalism can offer) but their oppression is linked to why the target audience is not free enough. For example, trans empancipation and breakdown of patriarchy is intrinsically linked to your cost of living crisis, why your kids can't medical care or why we have endless wars (assuming they care about the last three things). And in practice if we can't offer that material gain, there is a class barrier of your target that will be insurmountable until/if their material conditions change.

[–] KrupskayaPraxis@lemmygrad.ml 21 points 2 days ago

Just another attempt by the CIA to infiltrate

[–] Horse@lemmygrad.ml 13 points 2 days ago

i'm surprised soft hands haz is still a major figure in their terminally online org considering he is such an embarassment

[–] Ashes2ashes@lemmygrad.ml 22 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I don't know anything about this guy, but his post reads like someone who has never gotten offline.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 2 days ago

Very serious party. What THEY do have to show us?

[–] thelastaxolotl@hexbear.net 19 points 2 days ago (1 children)

GenZeDong is still active? also i dont know if he remembers but Haz used to post on Hexbear his streams, so he may send his people to lemmy

[–] Saymaz@lemmygrad.ml 20 points 2 days ago

They won't have a grad tag because none of the ACP chuds are ever making it through the sign up application process. 😂

[–] SigmaStalin@lemmygrad.ml -4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Wait are some parts of this post ai generated? I agree with the message but not the usage of ai to write posts (if it is ai that is, I suspect it is because it looks exactly like how chatgpt writes things)

[–] Mantiddies@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 2 days ago

Do you mean Haz?

[–] Cowbee@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 2 days ago

It doesn't look AI generated, but even if parts of it were, that doesn't make it more or less valid.