FOR YEARS John Reed '10, who fought in the Russian revolution, who is buried in the Kremlin, and whose portrait hangs in an airless corner of Adams House, has been Harvard's most public Communist.

The heyday of Communism at "Little Moscow on the Charles" has passed and the Students for a Democratic Society have come of age. But the influence of the Communists in New Left groups remains a subject of much speculation not only among habitual red-baiters, but also among members of SDS.

Commenting on the influence of the Communist Party in SDS, a representative of Students for a Democratic Society said that to his knowledge there were only two or three Party members in the Harvard chapter.

A Harvard undergraduate who is a member of the Communist Party, USA, reported that an attempt had been made within SDS to pressure Communists into identifying themselves. The Communists, he said, remained anonymous both for personal and tactical reasons. The undergraduate had not become a spokesman for the Communist Party Boston Area Youth Club because there were numerous personal disadvantages; tactically, however, there are two sides to the problem.

What is the best way to recruit a potential member, he asked. Do you gain their confidence and then tell them you're a Communist, or do you warn them you're a Communist first? Obviously, the latter method has the disadvantage of building an unnecessary barrier. On the other hand, spokesmen are desperately needed to disseminate information about the Party and make it more accessible to potential recruits. "One of the reasons I joined the Party," this undergraduate admitted, "was to find out what it did. Until I joined, almost no one dared to tell me much about it."

In New York, the CP, USA, has been coming out with more and more campus spokesmen. Phyllis Kalb, a student at Brooklyn College, recently ran for student-body president as a member of the Communist Party and, out of 3500 votes lost by a piddling 27. Although Brooklyn College has long had a record as New York's most radical college, the statistics are still significant: many traditionally non-radical students voted for Miss Kalb because she had worked hard on campus activities, and because her program to solve student problems was well thought and attractive. "Most students were not really disturbed about my being a Communist," she said, "but rather asked questions about Communism and what the Party was like."

Miss Kalb said that since she became a spokesman, the number of students that had joined the Party club at Brooklyn College jumped from 2 to 17.

Michael Zagarelle, chairman of the National Youth Committee of CP, USA emphasized that if Communists identified themselves publicly, it would take a great deal of pressure off other radical (but non-Communist) groups which are presently being Red-baited. How could anyone say that SDS is a Communist front if the handful of Communists involved make their Party affiliation a matter of record, he asked?

Furthermore, Zagarelle continued, the Party is convinced that anti-Communism will only subside when people have a chance to confront Communists and discover that they also are human. "We feel it is our duty," Zagarelle said, "to confront anti-Communism in this country because it is the justification for U.S. foreign policy." The U.S. would not be in Vietnam today, he stressed, if it were not for the irrational American hatred of Communism.

Zagarelle added that although Red-baiting still exists in the universities, the frost is beginning to thaw. The consequences of "going public" are not as formidable as they used to be, he said.

The Harvard SDS representative claimed that SDS and SNCC have a greater influence on the Party than the Communists have on them. "We wouldn't dream of asking the Communists to leave SDS," he continued, "because we feel it is important for our membership to come in contact with Communists and learn that they aren't devils." The neurotic American phobia of Communism must be overcome, he continued. It is equally important, he said, that our membership learn to formulate their own ideology, distinct from the Communist ideology.

Many members of SDS, he continued, disagree with the Communist united front strategy because they feel it compromises their principles. "One is tempted to think," he continued, "that the Communist Party is more concerned with becoming the official Left of the Democratic Party, than it is with promoting revolution."

Packing or Backing?

One of the associations that the Communists have had to disprove in the last few years, Zagarelle continued, is that "we are out to take over other Leftist organizations." The "meeting packing methods" of the late 30's proved to be an abysmal failure in the long run because "you can't get people to trust or respect you by tricking them." Furthermore, he continued, "the Party gains nothing by sponging off the movement." Suppose the Party took over the leadership of SDS, he continued. "We'd only have to infiltrate the next organization that the SDS followers fled to." It is far more practical, Zagarelle contended, to allow diversity among radical groups and work within the membership of each group. History has proved, he continued, that the support from the rank and file is more important than control of the leadership.

The Work