by Christian Gomez
For the past 20 years, unbeknownst to most, the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) has been a small but highly influential and vocal Marxist-Leninist organization. This past spring, its decades-long, extremist, far-left revolutionary propaganda came to fruition with a horrific act of violence in the nation’s capital that made international headlines. Yet despite the tragedy, the media has been largely silent about what the PSL is and the threat it poses to both our communities and law enforcement throughout the country.
On the night of May 21, 2025, a young couple had just left the Young Diplomats Reception, hosted by the American Jewish Committee at the Lillian & Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum, in Washington, D.C. The couple — Yaron Lischinsky, a 30-year-old German-Israeli, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, an American Jew, 26 — met while working at the Israeli Embassy in Washington.
Raised by a Jewish father and a Christian mother, Yaron was also a devout Christian, “according to Ronen Shoval, the dean of the Argaman Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem, where Mr. Lischinsky participated in a yearlong program in classical liberal conservative thought after earning a master’s degree in government and diplomacy,” The New York Times reported.
The couple were also expected to get engaged. Yaron had just bought an engagement ring, and the two were only four days away from flying out to Jerusalem, where Sarah would meet his parents for the first time and likely receive a proposal.
But just outside the museum, a man pulled out a Heckler & Koch VP9 SK, a 9mm semi-automatic handgun, and opened fire on the couple, even as Sarah was reportedly crawling away to safety. The gunman fired a total of 21 times. The victims were found unresponsive and not breathing, and died shortly afterward.
The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) identified the suspect as 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago. He was apprehended by event security staff, and shouted, “Free, free Palestine!” while in their custody. MPD revealed that Rodriguez had purchased a ticket roughly three hours before the event and been pacing up and down the street outside the museum before shooting the victims.
According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice, Rodriguez was “charged … with the murder of foreign officials, causing death through the use of a firearm, and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. He is also charged with two counts of first-degree murder under the D.C. criminal code.”
Yaron and Sarah’s lives were cut short. They will never get married, nor enjoy the blessings of having a family and raising children. What would motivate someone to ruthlessly murder these two young embassy employees in cold blood?
Rodriguez was no stranger to radical extremist views. In 2017, he participated in an anti-police protest in Chicago organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation — a far-left communist organization openly hostile to local law enforcement and known for its militant “anti-Imperialist” and “anti-Zionist” stance toward Israel. From posts made on Rodriguez’ X account, he appears to have participated in multiple PSL-organized protests in Chicago between late 2017 and early 2018.
Shortly after Rodriguez’ PSL affiliation was reported, the group immediately tried to distance itself from the shooter while simultaneously confirming his prior “association.” In a tweet from its official X account on May 22, 2025, the PSL wrote:
We reject any attempt to associate the PSL with the DC shooting. Elias Rodriguez is not a member of the PSL. He had a brief association with one branch of the PSL that ended in 2017. We know of no contact with him in over 7 years. We have nothing to do with this shooting and do not support it.
It is unclear what the PSL meant by Rodriguez’ association having “ended in 2017.” Did he simply not renew his PSL membership, or stop paying his membership dues? His continued participation in protests organized by both the PSL and the ANSWER Coalition — the PSL’s front group — in Chicago in early 2018 does not help the PSL’s case. The fact remains that Rodriguez, as the PSL confessed, “had a brief association with … the PSL.” The significance of this confession cannot be overstated.
Almost immediately after the horrific terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, when Hamas fighters from Gaza entered and attacked Israel, killing 1,195 Israelis and foreign nationals (including 815 civilians) and taking 251 hostages, the PSL was one of the first and most vocal groups in the United States to side with Hamas and condemn Israel’s military retaliation.
Together with its front organization, the ANSWER Coalition, the PSL has organized multiple protests in support of Hamas and Gaza in cities across the United States, including Atlanta, Chicago, Boise, Baltimore, Denver, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. At these demonstrations, multiple people can be seen holding up pre-printed yellow signs with bold black letters that read “Free Palestine,” “When People Are Occupied, Resistance Is Justified,” “Solidarity With the Palestinian People’s Struggle,” and “Resistance Against Occupation Is a Human Right,” among other statements. And at the bottom of all these identical pre-printed signs is a long black bar with yellow letters inside that say either “Party for Socialism and Liberation” or “AnswerCoalition.ORG.”
The PSL and ANSWER Coalition have organized many anti-police protests with identical pre-printed signs that read “Arrest Killer Cops,” “The Whole System is Guilty,” and other slogans.
Examples of photos and videos of these protests with their distinguishable pre-printed yellow signs can be found all throughout the media and in the online photo databases of The Associated Press, Reuters, and Getty Images. Yet despite the overwhelming trove of photographs, the very mainstream media outlets that publish articles with those photos seldom mention the PSL and ANSWER Coalition, much less explain what they are and what they believe. The groups’ names are omitted from the vast majority of articles and news reports that include photos and videos with their signs in view. Instead, readers and viewers are led to believe that those protests are organic and spontaneous grassroots demonstrations, rather than the astroturf and meticulously organized communist campaigns that they are.
PS Who?
So, what is the PSL?
The Party for Socialism and Liberation is an avowed Marxist-Leninist political party founded in 2004. It was born from a split within the Workers World Party (WWP), the details of which are not clear. (Our article profiling the WWP is published in the 2020 Special Report of the LECF Intelligence Brief.)
Nevertheless, the PSL traces its origins to Sam Marcy (1911-1998), the founder of the WWP. Originally a member of the U.S.-based Trotskyite Socialist Workers Party (SWP), Marcy broke with Trotskyism during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, when the Soviet military intervened to suppress the uprising. Whereas Trotskyites supported the Hungarian workers, Marcy defended the Soviet intervention, labeling the revolt a “counter-revolution.”
In 1959, Marcy founded the Workers World Party as an unapologetic communist organization in the United States. The WWP rejected the Communist Party USA’s “popular front” approach of working together with liberals and Democrats. Instead, the WWP favored militant pro-communist slogans such as “Victory to the Viet Cong!” and uncompromising street politics calling for “revolution.” Over time, the WWP gained a reputation among communists for being Stalinist apologists and openly supporting the most totalitarian communist regimes. In addition to supporting the USSR, Marcy and the WWP were vocal defenders of Communist China, Cuba, North Korea, and the Soviet-backed communist regimes in Eastern Europe, such as Nicolae Ceaușescu’s Romania.
For reasons unknown to those outside its inner circle of cadres, what became known as the PSL split out of the WWP in 2004. However, the split does not appear to have been over any ideological differences. From the outset, the PSL maintained continuity with the WWP’spro-Soviet, unapologetically Marxist-Leninist, and militant ideological outlook that is deeply critical of both liberal reformisms, such as that embraced by the CPUSA, and Trotskyism, as advocated by the SWP.
According to “The Program of the Party for Socialism and Liberation,” adopted by the First Congress of the PSL in February 2010, “The Party for Socialism and Liberation exists to carry out the struggle for socialism in the United States, the center of world capitalism and imperialism.” It promotes a very negative view of the U.S. military and local law enforcement, writing: “The military is the enforcer and protector of U.S. capitalism and its global empire, similar to the role played by the racist, anti-worker police and prison system inside the United States.”
Leaning into foreign policy, the program proclaims: “For socialists in the advanced capitalist countries, opposition to imperialist war and support for the right of self-determination of countries targeted by one’s ‘own’ ruling class must be a top priority.” And that is exactly what Rodriguez did. He didn’t target a Wall Street banker or business owner; he targeted and murdered representatives working on behalf of the Israeli government, which the PSL views as the major immediate impediment to Palestinian “self-determination.”
On October 7, 2023, the day of the attack on Israel, the PSL released an official statement, published in Liberation, its official propaganda newspaper. The statement read, in part:
Resistance to apartheid and fascist-type oppression is not a crime! It is the inevitable outcome for all people who demand self-determination rather than living with the boot-heel of the oppressors on their necks.
The people of the United States are going into the streets right now to say “free Palestine!”, “cut all U.S. aid for the apartheid regime” and “free all Palestinian political prisoners!”
… Less than a year ago, a new, far-right government came into office in Israel. Regardless of which party is in power, the Israeli government has always imposed occupation and apartheid. But the new administration — which includes openly genocidal, fascist senior ministers who control the police and prison system — is intent on taking this to unprecedented heights. [Bold in original; italics added.]
Notice the incendiary rhetoric typical of the far-Left labeling anyone and anything to the right of it as “far-right” and “fascist,” intended to justify any act of “resistance.” The PSL’s statement concluded with a call to action:
Shortly after the war broke out, Lloyd Austin pledged that, “Over the coming days the Department of Defense will work to ensure that Israel has what it needs.” The U.S. government is just as complicit in this massacre as Israel. Now is the time to mobilize and demand freedom for Palestine!
And in revolutionary fashion, Rodriguez demanded “freedom for Palestine” with shouting and the barrel of a gun.
It’s these kinds of reckless and inflammatory remarks by the PSL and other subversive communist groups that motivate those indoctrinated by leftist ideology to carry out real acts of violence in cities and communities across the country. Rodriguez was not in Gaza, and his victims were not military targets. They were innocent civilians. But to the PSL, as it said in its statement, “Regardless of which party is in power, the Israeli government has always imposed occupation and apartheid.” In other words, it doesn’t matter which political party one may support in Israel, all Israelis are guilty.
One does not have to agree with Israel’s wartime actions in Gaza to recognize that the murder of two young embassy employees is a heinous act and not a lawful way to express one’s disagreement with the Israeli government or show support for Gaza. The murder of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim did not advance the cause of “Free Palestine,” help those who live in Gaza, or weaken Israel’s military. If anything, this cold-blooded murder and act of domestic terrorism has placed a much-needed spotlight on the PSL that has been long overdue.
Conclusion
Rather than ignoring ideologically far-left and communist groups, law-enforcement agencies should take notice of their extremist and violent rhetoric, which risks inspiring more would-be murderers and assassins. This fact is further underscored by the recent politically motivated assassination of Christian-conservative influencer Charlie Kirk while peacefully addressing students at Utah Valley University.
The PSL is a small but dangerous revolutionary organization that leverages protest movements to intimidate and undermine local police, spread foreign and terrorist-aligned propaganda, and radicalize young people. Awareness of its history, ideology, and tactics is critical for ensuring public safety and countering subversive activities.
Far-left, communist, socialist, and Antifa-linked rhetoric should no longer be ignored as harmless or crazy fringe talk. It’s time local and state law-enforcement agencies place the PSL, ANSWER Coalition, WWP, Antifa, and other far-left groups under greater scrutiny before their list of victims grows longer.