http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-261263250 April 2014 Last updated at 19:24 ET
The curious survival of the US Communist Party
By Aidan Lewis BBC News, New York
Party leaders hold a conference call with other board members around the country twice a month
Like fellow movements around the world, the US Communist Party suffered a crippling blow with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. But a small group of die-hard members persevered.
Not far from Wall Street, on the seventh floor of an elegant eight-storey building on West 23rd Street, is the headquarters of an improbable political survivor - the Communist Party USA.
The office is bright and modern. On one wall are black-and-white photo portraits of major figures in the party's history. The works of Marx, Engels and Lenin are stacked in bookshelves.
The building was bought to house the party in the 1970s before the surrounding neighbourhood of Chelsea became fashionable. "We got a great bargain on it," says secretary-treasurer Roberta Wood.
In a concession to capitalist reality, all but two floors are now rented out. The revenue supports People's World, an online publication that is the direct descendent of the party's long defunct newspaper, the Daily Worker.
The party claims 2,000-3,000 members nationally. It has just two salaried staff - Chairman Sam Webb and his deputy Jarvis Tyner, who was a vice-presidential candidate in the 1970s.
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