I suppose this is the time to bring up the fact that Alan Lomax was also a Communist, and many of the ideas that we carelessly bandy about concerning what a folksinger should be and what folk music is all about came to us through him--

The Communist Party was run from the top, and the views and actions of its members were dictated from the top--there was a strong and organized folk music section that was charged with using "the People's music" as a vehicle for transmitting the messages of the party, and it was very active--it would not be wrong to assume that all the communist party affiliated folk singers were subject to it's direction--hence MaColl's song--

I have known a good number of old time Communists, and to down to the last one, they have been caring, giving, committed and selfless humanitarians who simply saw evil in the world and wanted, more than anything else, to change it--They were drawn into the communist party for the best of reasons, and duped into acting out the definitely unhumanistic plans of Stalin and his inner circle--