Backgrounder on CPUSA’s Libero Della Piana

Background

Libero Della Piana’s LinkedIn profile identifies him as the State Chair of the New York State Communist Party, a former volunteer during 2006 at Chris Owens for Congress (New York’s 11th District), and a former editor (2001-2002) at Dynamic, the magazine of the Young Communist League USA.

In early 1995, Della Piana was editor of RaceFile, a “bimonthly publication” of the Applied Research Center in Oakland, Calif. He has also written articles published in ColorLines Magazine’s RaceWire and at People’s World Weekly. He also posts on the New York State Communist Party blog.

Della Piana’s Friendster.com profile provides considerable background. He graduated from high school in 1989 from Rowland Hall/St. Marks School; other schools attended include Open Classroom, Washington Elementary; Bryant Jr. High; Telluride Institute (Cornell University), Miami University, and the College of West Africa (Monrovia, Liberia). In 1993 he graduated from Brown University with a Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts.

Of Brown, conservative blogger Todd Seavey wrote in July 2007

Instead, Brown often produces progressives and revolutionaries, including (from my era) organizing secretary of the Communist Party USA, Libero Della Piana — who was quoted recently in the New York Post, ironically enough, talking about how the West 23rd St. New York City hq of the Communist Party of New York State has become a highly valuable rental property (“Reds Earn Green,” as the Post puts it). Maybe the economy is unjust.

In his Friendster.com biographical narrative Della Piana wrote

I am a big Black Italian communist from Salt Lake City,
Utah. No joke. I went to school in Rhode Island and lived
for a long time in Oakland, California. I just moved from Oxford, OH
back to New York City where I finally found an apartment in
Harlem. [...] I am working on the peace struggles, the fight for
students rights, economic justice and other important
things.

I have traveled all over the world and have been involved a
lot in international youth radicalism and the World Federation of
Democratic Youth.

In February 2002, Della Piana was national coordinator of the Young Communist League, USA (Read his December 19, 2001, Athens, Greece speech “Youth & Students Reject Imperialism & War”.)

In his TakingITGlobal profile Della Piana wrote in December 2005

I live in New York City and have a long history of global youth movement activities. I attended the World Festivals of Youth and Students in 1997 in [Havana], 2001 in Algiers, and 2005 in Caracas. Not much of a youth anymore…

On public/privitized education

In August 1998, Libero Della Piana was a participant in the New Radio Project program “Cashing-In on Public Schools.” He was then the senior research associate at the Applied Research Center, “which has been studying privatization issues.”

Della Piana said

… that although privatizing education is, in practice, new, the idea has been around for a long time. [...]

This is, goes back to Milton Friedman and the Chicago School. And since the 50s, this has been his vision. He very clearly saw vouchers as a tool to destroy what he calls the public school monopoly, or the public monopoly of the education industry. And what it is, is that if you create a two-tiered system where some kids can buy out and go to private schools, then what you’ll do is, then, build that private school sector, more and more kids will pull out, and eventually the public schools will collapse.

Also see

• Race and Classroom: The Corporate Connection. An Interview with Libero Della Piana, Senior Research Associate, the Applied Research Center, Oakland, CA, CorpWatch, July 8, 1998.
• Della Piana’s What Can Be Done? and Reading, Writing, Race & Resegregation published Spring 1999 in ColorLines Magazine.

International perspective

Also see Della Piana’s Africa Today, October 25, 2007, at Political Affairs Magazine.