The previous month, Willey had traveled with 180 others from two dozen cities around the United States to Havana for the Cuba-U.S. Youth Exchange. Willey reported on the experience for the Militant. In both Cuba and Algeria, he was struck by the openness of many anti-imperialist-minded young people to the books, periodicals, and political contributions of the communist movement.

Over the last several years Willey, who is a member of the National Committee of the Socialist Workers Party, has been in the thick of a number of other important political events and party-building campaigns, including the effort to reinforce the party's base in the industrial unions. In 1999 and 2000 he helped lead the work of the communist movement in the coalfields of Southern Illinois and western Kentucky, working as an underground coal miner, and experiencing firsthand the initial signs of a social movement in the coal mining communities and in the miners union.

Willey joined the communist movement in 1993, in Detroit, Michigan, and was a founding member of the Young Socialists.  
 
 
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