Communist, socialist activists push 20-hour workweek, property seizures as presence at protests grows

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Communist and socialist activists are increasingly joining broader liberal protest movements, where they are promoting a 20-hour workweek, rent caps, seizure of private property and confiscating wealth from billionaires.

The proposals, outlined in interviews with Fox News Digital at a recent Minneapolis demonstration, would mark a dramatic shift away from private ownership and free-market principles toward a worker-controlled model if they were ever to come to fruition and would fundamentally change the United States as we know it.

The exchanges reflect a broader pattern identified in Fox News Digital reporting, where far-left ideas once considered fringe are increasingly appearing alongside more mainstream protest movements, often within demonstrations billed as broadly focused on workers’ or immigrant rights as well as “No Kings” protests.

“We are building a party of professional class fighters, people who are seriously looking at the system of capitalism and coming to the conclusion that we need a revolution… on a socialist basis,” said Owen Phernetton, a member of the Revolutionary Communists of America. He was holding a copy of the group’s newspaper, The Communist, and was wearing a sweater that read “Communism Will Win.”

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“This means handing political and economic power to the working class.”

A May Day demonstration also highlighted how these different left-wing groups operated within the broader event, with some marching behind immigrant rights organizers while others worked the edges of the rally, distributing literature and engaging directly with bystanders.

Phernetton said their vision includes placing factories, mines and businesses under collective control, limiting rent to a fraction of workers’ income and using confiscated wealth to fund government-backed healthcare, education and housing.

Phernetton, who was walking along the edge of the main rally with fellow members who were distributing newspapers, said the changes would require a fundamental restructuring of the economy and called for taking wealth from the richest Americans.

“Their wealth should be expropriated and put to use for the working class,” he said, while arguing for decreasing the workday to only 20 hours a week without any loss in pay.

“I’d actually say that the productivity will increase if the economy operates on a planned basis,” he said when pressed about a potential productivity dip on reduced hours, adding that the working class would control all productivity.

Andy Koch, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), also argued that wealth and power should be shifted away from the ultra-wealthy.

“The country is run by billionaires, for billionaires,” he said.

But when asked about reports that some protest groups have received support from wealthy donors, Koch said he would welcome such funding.

“If one billionaire wants to donate to progressive pro-worker causes, that’s great,” he said.

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At another section of the march, a protester wearing a mask stood on the sidewalk with a small group holding copies of The Communist newspaper with the headline “Down with Trump’s War!” while openly engaging with bystanders as the demonstration passed.

“I’m a communist because the workers create all the value in society and we get to own none of it under capitalism,” she said. She argued that rent should be capped at 10% of income and dismissed the struggles of similar policies in cities like New York and California.

“The reason why rent control hasn’t worked is because it hasn’t been under workers’ control… under capitalism, it won’t work,” she said.

Cass Batica, another activist affiliated with the Revolutionary Communists of America, was standing among demonstrators carrying Soviet-style flags and believes capitalism should be replaced entirely.

“I came to the conclusion that capitalism is not the way to go. We need socialism, we need communism for the workers of the world,” Cass Batica said, pointing to the Soviet Union as an example.

The march that Batica and other far-left protesters attended was led by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), which gathered speakers in a public green space ahead of the march and displayed a large banner reading “Legalization for All, Sanctuary State Now.”

As speakers addressed the crowd, members of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization remained toward the rear and did not take part in the main program, offering insight into their strategy within the demonstration. When the march began, they fell in line behind the immigrant rights groups and moved with the broader crowd. None of them spoke at the podium.

Other activists operated more independently, positioning themselves along sidewalks rather than within the main body of the march.

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Not every far-left supporter was part of an organization, including Caleb Batts, 24, who was draped in a hybrid LGBTQ pride and Soviet-style flag and described himself as a Marxist-Leninist.

“I like the way [Lenin] structured the economy and I believe the growth they saw under it was amazing. I believe China has seen some of the same growth,” Batts, who said he is a business major, said.

“The capitalist revolution in the 18th century was good, it freed millions of people from slavery under feudalism, and I believe after about 250 years capitalism has run its course and it’s just not productive anymore. I believe we should evolve as a society into socialism because we can afford to.”

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Batts also said he does not believe borders should exist, a similar sentiment shared by members of groups such as the FRSO, who marched with banners calling for “No Deportations” and “ICE Out of Minnesota.”

“I believe that the most productive human society would be one without borders at all,” he said.

“My belief is that we need to develop into socialism with the workers owning the means of production, into communism with the government owning the means of production and then into anarchism, where we have a stateless, classless, moneyless society and work as neighborhoods.”

WATCH: Communist Party presence noted at Minneapolis May Day demonstration