It wasn't safe for the Bolsheviks or the CPC's Red Army, either, and they still did it. The conditions were especially bad in China when the Japanese invaded. They massacred entire villages if they even suspected they were providing aid to communists.

"If conservatives have the choice between abandoning conservatism or abandoning democracy, they will abandon democracy," applies to American liberals when given the choice between communism and reaction. MOVE, the BPP, and MLK were all opposed to by "white moderates" that would rather uphold white supremacy than allow black liberation if it means socialism.