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| '''Christopher Joseph Helali''' (born October 18, 1989) is an American political activist who serves as International Secretary of the [[American Communist Party]] (ACP) and Head of the North American Executive Committee of the DPRK International Solidarity Group (DPRK ISG). In March 2026, he signed a contract to serve in Russia's military operation in [[Ukraine]]. In June 2026, he publicly requested [[Russia]]n citizenship from President [[Vladimir Putin]]. | | '''Christopher Joseph Helali''' is a American activist who served as the international secretary of the Party of Communists USA. He is now the international secretary for the American Communist Party. He is also a social studies teacher at Hanover High School in Vermont. |
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| == Early life and education == | | Initially a US Army officer, he trained at Fort Benning and won several medals for his military service, but then became a conscientious objector in 2015 and resigned. He left for Greece in 2015 to work with anarchist Syrian refugees and later went on a tour with the YPG in Syria fighting against ISIS.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Christopher Helali and Judy Bello|newspaper=The United National Anti-War Coalition|title=Interview with US Activist Who Fought ISIS With The Kurds in Syria|date=2020/07/02|url=https://unac.notowar.net/2020/07/02/interview-with-us-citizen-who-fought-isis-with-the-kurds-in-syria/}} https://unac.notowar.net/2020/07/02/interview-with-us-citizen-who-fought-isis-with-the-kurds-in-syria/</ref> |
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| Helali was born in [[Paxton, Massachusetts]], the son of an Iranian immigrant father and a Greek-American mother. He holds five degrees: a BA from the University of San Diego, an MA in Marxist Philosophy from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (China), an MTS from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, an MSc from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and an MALS from [[Dartmouth College]].
| | He won a scholarship to study Marxism at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China (as well as completing a religious studies degree) and joined the PCUSA. Helali eventually became their unsuccessful candidate for Congress in 2020 in Vermont (winning 1% of the vote) and later their international secretary, leaving this post seemingly just before the founding of the ACP. |
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| While studying in China on a government scholarship, Helali was simultaneously working illegally as an English teacher. After contacting an organizer of the [[1989 Tiananmen Square protests]], he attracted police attention, lost his position, and was subsequently banned from the country.
| | ==ACP membership== |
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| == Military service ==
| | Helali became a prominent figure in the ACP, traveling internationally to Russia and China. |
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| === U.S. Army Reserve (2011–2015) ===
| | In the 2024 US elections Helali won the position of High Bailiff in Vershire County, Vermont. The High Bailiff has the responsibility of arresting the county sheriff if they are charged of any wrongdoing, and of taking over their duties if they are incapacitated. |
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| Helali served in the [[U.S. Army Reserve]] from approximately 2011 to 2015. His [[Ballotpedia]] profile states he graduated U.S. Army Airborne School and received the German Armed Forces Badge for Military Proficiency in Gold. | | In 2026, Helali announced his decision to leave the ACP and seek Russian citizenship instead of being politically active in America. |
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| His discharge documents, filed in federal court (Case 2:21-cv-00141-cr, District of Vermont), show he held the rank of First Lieutenant (1LT) with specialty 56X ([[Chaplain]] Candidate). He received an honorable discharge on October 15, 2015 after a voluntary resignation citing conscientious objection.
| | ==Beef with ACP Leaks== |
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| In a podcast interview (circa 2020), Helali made several notable admissions:
| | Helali has often been defamed by [[ACP Leaks]] because of his past work in ejecting the Nazi [[Zoran Zoltaneous]] from the Korean Friendship Association. See [[Zoran Zoltaneous#Shitcoating left-wing organizations]]. |
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| * He was never deployed and never fired a weapon: "I never fired a bullet, never was deployed with the US Army."
| | ==References== |
| * He transferred to the Chaplain Corps to avoid Afghanistan: "They wanted to send me over to Afghanistan, and I got out of the pipeline by going to seminary."
| | <references /> |
| * He fabricated a religious calling: "I went to the military, I said, you know, I had a vision from Jesus."
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| === Syria — YPG/IRPGF (2017) ===
| | [[Category: ACP]] |
| | | [[Category: Communists]] |
| In January 2017, Helali traveled to [[Iraqi Kurdistan]], transited through [[PKK]] camps, and crossed into Syria to join the [[People's Protection Units|YPG]]. He co-founded the International Revolutionary People's Guerrilla Forces (IRPGF), an anarchist subunit of the [[International Freedom Battalion]] (IFB).
| | [[Category: Americans]] |
| | | [[Category: Russia]] |
| His frontline service lasted approximately 8–10 weeks during the approach to [[Raqqa]]. He has acknowledged he "never fought in the city itself" and that his injury was non-combat: "I fell off a roof at night time." In his most detailed account, he describes firing a weapon once — at a suspicious car whose occupant emerged waving a white flag.
| | [[Category: Broken citation]] |
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| In August 2017, a YPG-affiliated account stated the IRPGF had been "kicked out of Raqqa" for "empty propaganda" instead of fighting. The [[Syrian Democratic Forces]] separately denied knowledge of the IRPGF's queer subunit TQILA. The IRPGF dissolved in September 2018, while the IFB continued fighting through the [[Turkish military operation in Afrin|Battle of Afrin]], [[2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria|Operation Peace Spring]], and the [[Battle of Baghuz Fawqani]].
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| Despite this record, Helali has claimed in interviews to have participated in "a frontline assault on Raqqa" ([[Seven Days (newspaper)|Seven Days]]) and implied involvement in the city's fall. Raqqa fell on October 17, 2017 — by which time Helali had left Syria and enrolled at [[Dartmouth College]].
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| === Russia — military contract (2026) ===
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| In March 2026, Helali signed a contract to serve in Russia's military operation in Ukraine. On June 4, 2026, speaking at the [[St. Petersburg International Economic Forum]] (SPIEF), he announced he had sent a four-page letter to President Putin requesting Russian citizenship, citing his work in [[Donbas]] and support for Russian-American friendship. He stated: "I greatly appreciate everything Russia has done for me."
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| == IWW theft ==
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| In 2016, while serving as Branch Secretary-Treasurer of the [[Industrial Workers of the World|IWW]] Boston branch, Helali misappropriated approximately $4,510 from the treasury. The IWW General Executive Board issued a public statement. The branch was reimbursed through insurance. A Greek anarchist collective separately reported Helali had stolen funds from a comrade in Athens and was attempting to purchase property in a squatted building with money of uncertain origin.
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| == Personal conduct ==
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| In March 2019, the IWW Boston branch unanimously passed a resolution documenting allegations against Helali including reproductive coercion, child abandonment, financial theft, and domestic abuse from a former partner. The resolution was widely circulated and resulted in Helali being barred from multiple leftist publications and organizations.
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| At least three former partners across different countries have independently described similar patterns: rapid escalation to marriage and children, identity shifting to match the partner's values, financial exploitation, and insistence that only physical violence constitutes abuse.
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| Helali responded to these allegations through litigation rather than the requested restorative justice process, filing a restraining order in Vermont against the mother of his child — a state she had never visited. The order was denied. He subsequently filed a federal civil complaint (Case 2:21-cv-00141-cr, 2021), terminated in October 2023.
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| == Shifting identity ==
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| Helali's political, ethnic, religious, and gender presentation has shifted across documented contexts:
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| {| class="wikitable"
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| ! Period !! Political identity !! Ethnic/gender presentation
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| | 2011–2015 || Marxist, U.S. military officer || White cisman, Greek heritage
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| | ~2014 (China) || Marxist || "Half Greek, half Persian," atheist, genderqueer
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| | 2015–2017 (Boston) || Anarchist || Gender non-conforming, they/them pronouns; co-founded TQILA ("These Faggots Kill Fascists")
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| | 2017–2020 (Vermont) || Socialist || "Ethnic Kurd," anti-war farmer
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| | 2020–present || Marxist-Leninist, socially conservative || Attacked gender non-conforming people as "mentally unstable" (DPRK ISG founding, June 2024)
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| |}
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| He has acknowledged that his Kurdish identity is self-constructed: "I am the first in the family to identify as Iranian Kurd...my dad doesn't identify like that at all."
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| His accent has been documented progressively thickening across public appearances, from standard American English in a 2013 interview with [[Noam Chomsky]] to a markedly different presentation by 2017.
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| == Political career ==
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| === Party of Communists USA (2020–2024) ===
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| Helali ran for Congress in Vermont (2020, ~1%) and U.S. Senate (2022) on the PCUSA ticket. He served as International Secretary of the PCUSA Central Committee and established a Center for Marxist Education in [[Bethel, Vermont]].
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| === American Communist Party (2024–present) ===
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| On July 21, 2024, Helali co-founded the ACP with [[Jackson Hinkle]] and [[Haz al-Din]] in Chicago. He appeared on [[RT (TV network)|RT]] the same day. The Communist Workers' Platform USA described the ACP as "a thoroughly petty-bourgeois formation, led by streamers, political grifters, and ex-functionaries of the state."
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| On November 5, 2024, Helali was elected High Bailiff of [[Orange County, Vermont]] as a write-in candidate.
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| === DPRK International Solidarity Group ===
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| On June 25, 2024, Helali was appointed Head of the North American Executive Committee of the DPRK ISG at a meeting attended by DPRK ISG Chairman Alexander Mostov and Jackson Hinkle. A "Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation" between the DPRK ISG and ACP was signed on August 20, 2024.
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| The DPRK ISG was founded in Russia in 2020. Mostov received a commendation at [[DOSAAF]] headquarters in October 2023 for his "invaluable role in protecting the 'Russian World'" while embedded with Russian forces in Ukraine.
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| At the DPRK ISG founding meeting, Helali stated: "If a person is not able to determine whether he is a 'boy' or a 'girl', then how can he be trusted to resolve much more serious political issues?...I support the DPRK insofar as it is a stronghold of traditional values."
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| === International activities ===
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| {| class="wikitable"
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| ! Date !! Activity
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| | February 2024 || UN press conference organized by Russia's Permanent Mission
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| | July 2024 || Appeared on [[RT (TV network)|RT]] on day of ACP founding
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| | February 2025 || Attended funeral of [[Hezbollah]] leader [[Hassan Nasrallah]]
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| | March 2025 || Spoke at [[Houthi movement|Houthi]]-organized rally in [[Sana'a]], Yemen
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| | January 2026 || Volunteered as "martyrdom seeker" with Iran-backed [[Kata'ib Hezbollah|Hizbullah Brigades]]
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| | March 2026 || Signed contract for Russia's military operation in Ukraine; met DPRK ISG President Zheng Yutong in Beijing
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| | April 2026 || Spoke at Sovintern inaugural event in Moscow alongside [[Evo Morales]] and [[George Galloway]]
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| | June 2026 || Requested Russian citizenship from Putin at [[St. Petersburg International Economic Forum|SPIEF]]
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| |}
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| Helali was added to the [[Myrotvorets]] database on December 9, 2025.
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| == See also ==
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| * [[American Communist Party]]
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| * [[International Freedom Battalion]]
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| * [[IRPGF]]
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| * [[Jackson Hinkle]]
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| == External links ==
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| * [https://iww.org/content/2017-geb-statement-misuse-boston-gmb-funds-2016 IWW GEB statement on misuse of funds]
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| * [https://www.redstartv.org/blog/north_american_solidarity/1-0-9 DPRK ISG North American Executive Committee]
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| * [https://tass.com/society/2141289 TASS report on citizenship request (June 2026)]
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| [[Category:American communists]] | |
| [[Category:American Communist Party members]] | |
| [[Category:People from Paxton, Massachusetts]] | |
| [[Category:People from Vermont]]
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| [[Category:Dartmouth College alumni]]
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| [[Category:United States Army reservists]]
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| [[Category:People of the Syrian Civil War]]
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| [[Category:Foreign volunteers in the Russian invasion of Ukraine]] | |
Christopher Joseph Helali is a American activist who served as the international secretary of the Party of Communists USA. He is now the international secretary for the American Communist Party. He is also a social studies teacher at Hanover High School in Vermont.
Initially a US Army officer, he trained at Fort Benning and won several medals for his military service, but then became a conscientious objector in 2015 and resigned. He left for Greece in 2015 to work with anarchist Syrian refugees and later went on a tour with the YPG in Syria fighting against ISIS.[1]
He won a scholarship to study Marxism at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China (as well as completing a religious studies degree) and joined the PCUSA. Helali eventually became their unsuccessful candidate for Congress in 2020 in Vermont (winning 1% of the vote) and later their international secretary, leaving this post seemingly just before the founding of the ACP.
ACP membership
Helali became a prominent figure in the ACP, traveling internationally to Russia and China.
In the 2024 US elections Helali won the position of High Bailiff in Vershire County, Vermont. The High Bailiff has the responsibility of arresting the county sheriff if they are charged of any wrongdoing, and of taking over their duties if they are incapacitated.
In 2026, Helali announced his decision to leave the ACP and seek Russian citizenship instead of being politically active in America.
Beef with ACP Leaks
Helali has often been defamed by ACP Leaks because of his past work in ejecting the Nazi Zoran Zoltaneous from the Korean Friendship Association. See Zoran Zoltaneous#Shitcoating left-wing organizations.
References
