I've taken to having a set of rules like the authors of coyote and roadrunner. The coyote can't catch the roadrunner, he needs to use Acme products, they have to fail, etc. The most relevant of which are that the communists must make an appearance, musy be placed in a positive light, must find something tame compared to conditions today barbaric (e.g. the MCs tuition is proportionally mild compared to today but someone who grew up in a commune is disgusted when they find out how much), and if a communist is to be depicted negatively they are either strange in affect of duplicitous.

I wrote this women-led multinational anarchist clan who wasn't supposed to have a big role, but I love them so much they'll probably stick around. They have no qualms about making light of the fact they adopted one of the MCs friends because they were running a gambling den in the back of an orphanage so they put on an event to circumvent (communist) police pressure.