Jay Schaffner (1952-), was an activist and a leading official in the W.E.B. Du Bois Clubs of America, and its successor, the Young Workers Liberation League (YWLL), founded in 1979 (The YWLL changed its name to the Young Communist League in 1983), both youth groups affiliated with the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), of which he was also a member from 1968-1991, holding a variety of posts, including being a member of the National Organization Bureau and the Central Committee. Schaffner was also a CPUSA activist in Illinois in the late 1960s-early 1970s. In 1976 he attended the the congress of the Communist Youth of Greece, the youth group of the Greek communist party. From 1983-1991 Schaffner led the New York City-based Anniversary Tours, a travel agency associated with the CPUSA that organized trips to the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. and befor that, of Voices of the Future, a youth travel and speakers bureau. Schaffner left the Communist Party in 1991 and was a founding member of the Committees of Correspondence (COC), founded in 1991, which in 2000 changed its name to the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS), which is a democratic socialist group largely formed by dissident members of the CPUSA, and has served as its New York Coordinator (1991-1993) and National Treasurer (1993-2003)and shas been a member of its executive board (1991-2005). He is also (1991 to date, i.e., 2010) a staff member of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 802, which represents musicians in New York City, Nassau and Suffolk counties, and is also one of the moderators of the progressive listserv, Portside.
From the guide to the Jay Schaffner Papers, 1950s-2010, bulk 1970-1990, (Tamiment Library / Wagner Archives)
