It seems most likely to be inspired by the Farmers Holiday Association, an ultra-militant group of midwestern farmers who organized a variety of blockades and strikes in an effort to boost commodity prices and stop farm foreclosures. While there weren't any phony ministers in the group that I know of, they were armed and they played hard ball -- they once invaded an Iowa courtroom during a foreclosure proceeding, dragged the judge off the bench and into the street, beat him bloody, and very nearly lynched him. They weren't connected with the CPUSA in any way, but they were seen by many in the party as a possible nucleus for the proposed "Farmer-Labor Party" that became a CP goal in the late 1930s.
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