New Local Commission Launched in St. Louis

At the first meeting of VOC's St. Louis Local Commission on March 30, community leaders and local legislators discuss ways to counter a groundswell of collectivist activity driven by radical activists in their city.

On February 7-9, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) Executive Director Marion Smith flew to St. Louis, MO, at the invitation of Kim McGrath, the city’s Democratic Central Committeewoman, to investigate concerns about the growing presence of communists in local politics.

Smith met with a group of local business owners, union leaders, veterans, and Democratic Party officials who briefed him on the Workers Education Society, a far-left activist group that had infiltrated their party and whose president, Tony Pecinovsky, was running for the Board of Aldermen (city legislature). Pecinovsky — a member of the National Board of the Communist Party USA — had rallied local communist sympathizers and was polling within striking distance of the well-loved Democratic incumbent, Carol Howard.

Communist agitators had also sent hate mail to a local antique-store owner, demanded she remove an American flag from her storefront, then smashed her window with a brick — tied to a threatening note displaying the hammer-and-sickle and word “Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.” Pecinovsky eventually lost with 48% of the vote.

In response, VOC was invited to convene a “local commission” meeting on March 30, bringing together community leaders and local legislators to discuss next steps. Attendees included Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), Missouri House Representatives Tony Lovasco and Lacy Clay, and Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed.

In tandem, VOC hosted a professional development workshop for middle and high school teachers, and a public screening of the film Ashes in the Snow, which tells the story of Soviet deportations of Lithuanians and is based on the bestselling novel by Ruta Sepetys, a VOC advisor.

That evening, Marion Smith gave remarks at the Lithuanian Independence Celebration hosted by the Lithuanian American Community of Greater St. Louis, following a keynote by the consul general of the Republic of Lithuania in Chicago, Mantvydas Bekešius, and preceding remarks by Daiva Navarrette, honorary consul of Lithuania and co-founder of the Lithuanian World Arts Council.