So, what I’m going to say is oral history from old communist party members who were in the Party at the same time as Gerald Horne and knew him. It also relates to the party commission known as the “committee of correspondence”, of whom famous names such as Angela Davis, Pete Seeger, were members of or closely associated to. The CoC during the 70s and 80s was home of the CPUSA’s communist intelligentsia and upper members being prepared for leadership roles (meaning that a lot of them were working directly for the Party on the payroll as cadre)

So in 1991, in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the CPUSA was called into a national congress to hash out what the fuck to do now that the international communist movement collapsed along with the Soviets. That is to say, the Communists found themselves isolated in a newly born world where the capitalists had won the cold war - leaving them rudderless and directionless. This congress was to decide the new direction of the Party.

To put it briefly, the majority of the Party under comrade Gus Hall voted to continue as the Communist Party and follow the ideology of Marxism-Leninism. 1/3 of the Party under the Committee of correspondence voted to abandon Marxism-Leninism and the organizational framework of the leninist party, and adopt a multi-tendency democratic-socialist ideology. After being defeated they staged a symbolic walkout, splitting from the party all together. They then left the building the party was holding the congress and crossed the street to a different building and held the first inaugural meeting of the newly formed “Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism”.

That is to say the CoC knew they didn’t have enough votes to oust the Communists and distort the CPUSA into a social fascist party formation, and planned out their loss and subsequent walk-out as a public stunt to undermine party unity and sew the seeds of doubt within the remaining members.

I’ll have to ask the old timers again for a direct answer on whether or not he was a member, but they stated Horne was a close associate and friend to many of the CoC splitters before the split and shared their ideological strains more often than the party ideology. I’ll stress again this is oral history as a lot of this wasn’t recorded history normally, and while I trust the word of my comrades - this is unverifiable in the usual intellectual methods.