"Letter to Alfred Wagenknecht in Brooklyn from Max Bedacht in San Francisco, Jan. 21, 1920." The Palmer Raids of Jan. 1920 cut the organizational centers of the Communist and other radical organizations off from their affiliates in the field. This letter from member of the Communist Labor Party's NEC Max Bedacht to CLP Executive Secretary notes the recent receipt of a letter which broke a silence of "some weeks." Bedacht relates the story of the Wilson regime's repression in California. While himself under Grand Jury indictment and out on bail, Bedacht calls San Francisco "an oasis in the desert of the United States," noting only one arrest. Across the bay in Oakland, on the other hand, state political thuggery was in full swing: "There were wholesale arrests there. Local 'authorities' there are completely under the control of the Chamber of Commerce, which in turn rules through the American Legion. We have all hands full here to help comrades from jail." Bedacht notes that hosts of foreign-speaking members of the Socialist Party had been swept up in Palmer's net and held for deportation on the basis of their names appearing on the books of the CLP -- due to the fact that CLP organizers brought with them the old books of the Socialist Party! "The SP is doing absolutely nothing for them, so we will have to look out for them also," Bedacht notes, adding that $90,000 in property is already tied up for bail in the case in which he was himself embroiled alone. Bedacht asks for a report from Wagenknecht on the situation in New York and elsewhere.

 

"Letter to Max Bedacht in San Francisco from Alfred Wagenknecht in Brooklyn, Jan. 30, 1920." Reply of National Executive Secretary Wagenknecht to the Jan. 21, 1920 request of NEC member Max Bedacht for a status report of the Communist Labor Party in the wake of the Palmer raids. Repression was especially severe in the Northeast, with New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts especially hard hit, Wagenknecht notes. In Illinois the entire local, state, and national CLP apparatus had been arrested and the headquarters of the Communist Party of America was shut down under continuing police occupation. Wagenknecht relates a report he had heard that the CPA would reestablish headquarters shortly in New York City. The CLP had 8 members remaining in custody at Ellis Island, 2 awaiting bail in Illinois, and others held at Deer Island, near Boston. The situation for the CPA and the Union of Russian Workers was more difficult, with a number of their members held at Ellis Island and elsewhere.

 

"Letter to Alfred Wagenknecht in Brooklyn from Bishop Willam Montgomery Brown in Galion, OH - Feb. 4, 1920." The Palmer Raids of January 1920 unleashed a wave of fear among American radicals, as leading figures were jailed, party organizations disrupted, and dissent stifled. Membership rolls plummeted for all organizations of the American left, particularly those of the Communist movement. This letter from "Bad Bishop" William Montgomery Brown to Executive Secretary of the Communist Labor Party Alfred Wagenknecht demonstrates the sort of fear instilled in the left wing public by the secret police terror of the Wilson administration. Brown and his wife, despite professing a continuing belief in Marxian socialism, resign from the CLP with this letter due to "he fact that we are old and feeble and that the feebleness of Mrs. Brown is increased by the fear of my imprisonment." Brown states that he will again join the organized Communist movement when he can do so without fear of arrest. He encloses "the usual monthly check, but with the distinct understanding that you will use the money for the promotion of a knowledge of Marxian socialism only, in some way which comes within the boundary of the law and does not pass beyond it. If the Communist Labor Party knows of no such way, please return the check."

 

"Report to the Executive Committee of UCP of America by a Delegate from the Communist Labor Party to the 2nd Congress of the Communist International," by Alexander Bilan [circa September 1920] Report to the governing CEC of the United Communist Party on the proceedings of the 2nd World Congress of the Comintern and their implications for the American movement. Bilan relates the political situation within the 5 member delegation to the Congress and sharply criticizes CPA courier John Anderson (née Kristap Beika) for failing to deliver the "material support given him for the united Communist Party" -- in the name of the CI, he calls for an inquiry. Outside of that -- the implications noted in a lengthy footnote by Tim Davenport -- Bilan's report is fascinating as one of the most explicit expressions of the need for preparedness for armed struggle put forward by the American Communist movement. Due to the coordinated international nature of World Imperialism, a disciplined and centralized structure is called for, Bilan declares, one in which "Communists in all countries shall subordinate themselves in general tactical questions and in discipline to the Executive of the Communist International" in illegal, underground "fighting organizations." The Communists needed to carry out a twofold task, revolutionizing the working masses and preparing themselves to "be ready to lead the masses in the advent of an outbreak." "Strict discipline has to be inaugurated to train the members to carry out and obey the orders given by the Party," which had to secretly penetrate ever facet of state and society. "The Communist Commonwealth can only be established through the application of Proletarian Dictatorship, which means that there will be a necessity to organize a Red Army to combat the counterrevolutionary forces and to safeguard the achievements of the revolution. Therefore, the Communists have to be acquainted with the techniques and strategies of modern warfare. At least, every Communist has to know how to handle a gun and how to form a fighting line. This is calling for the establishment of gymnasiums and shooting galleries for services," Bilan states. He additionally calls for the establishment of a youth section and relates Comintern instructions for the publication of specific literature by the party, for the publication of which "the United Communist Party will receive all support from the Executive of the Communist International."

 

"Official Decision of the Third International in the Fraina Case." [Sept. 30, 1920] Official version (from a photostatic original of the document) of the Sept. 30, 1920 decision of ECCI declaring Louis C. Fraina to be "innocent" of the charges levied against him by Santeri Nuorteva of being an agent in the employ of the United States Department of Justice. The Investigating Committee of 3, consisting of the Communist Labor Party of America's Alexander Bilan, Rosmer from France, and Rudniansky from Hungary, decreed: "1) Neither the former nor the new accusations brought by Nuorteva against Fraina give cause for altering the previous decision of the committee. Nuorteva's evidence consists of his personal opinion only. He offers no real arguments to prove any of his accusations. 2) On the basis of his personal opinion, Nuorteva openly spreads the story (even in the capitalist press) that Fraina is a police spy, that the program of the Communist Party of America was written by a police spy, etc. Such proceedings are absolutely contrary to the attitude of a true socialist." Nuorteva was ordered to cease an desist in his accusations against Fraina, and further, to issue a retraction of his charges in the press.

 

"Letter to the Executive Committee of the Communist International in Moscow from the Central Executive Committee of the United Communist Party in New York, October 27, 1920." Having received a definite order from the Communist International to unite with the Communist Party of America, the United Communist Party began to make its case for controlling votes in the body which would give birth to the united organization -- despite the smaller size the UCP relative to its rival. The UCP's latest unity gambit to the CPA had been the convocation of the convention with a delegate ratio matching the vote ratio accorded the two organizations at the recently-concluded 2nd Congress of the Comintern; that is, 6 votes for the UCP to 4 votes for the CPA. Alternative possibilities are suggested to the Comintern, including the addition of 5 CPA members to the 10 member CEC of the UCP or the formation of a 13 member CEC, with 7 members hailing from the UCP to 6 from the CPA. This matter was of critical importance due to the question of federation control, the CEC of the UCP argued, characterizing itself as an active and centralized organization and its rival as a "federation of federations" with an amorphous membership. The argument was made that the UCP better represented "American" workers and was more in accord with the theses of the Comintern on the importance of legal work, lending additional credence to the UCP's demand for disproportionately strong voting strength in the unity convention.

 

"The Young Communist League of America. Resolution Adopted by the 2nd Convention of the United Communist Party, Kingston, NY -- January 1921." The 2nd Convention of the UCP for the first time set in motion the establishment of a formal Communist youth organization in the United States. This is the text of the Convention Resolution which established the "Young Communist League, Section of the Young Communist International." The resolution stated that "The Party shall recognize the importance of a young people's movement. It is the duty of the Party to prepare them with all the means at its disposal. An intensive cooperation between both organizations is an absolute necessity." To this end financial support and organizational effort by the organizations District Organizers was pledged, space in the official organ committed to youth matters, and literature planned. An additional legal organization "to carry on the legal work of the Young Communist League of America" and to provide "education, recreational, and social facilities" was called for in the resolution, presaging the establishment of a parallel Workers Party of America and Young Workers League in 1922.

 

"Report of Hungarian Organizer," by J. Burok" [January 12, 1921] In October of 1920, the United Communist Party and the legal Hungarian-language Communist paper Elöre sent organizer J. Burok on the road to firm up connections for distribution of the Hungarian language press and to establish groups for the underground UCP. Burok established a total of 15 groups during his 11 1/2 week mission -- 5 in Pittsburgh, 4 in Chicago, 2 in Detroit, and 1 each in Cleveland, Newark, Milwuakee, and West Pullman, IL. This is the report which Burok wrote upon completion of his task. The document was originally composed in Hungarian but was seized by the Department of Justice in the April 29, 1921 raid on the New York apartment of Helen Ware (the Lindren/Jakira/Amter case). The Federal agents translated the document into English and relegated it to their archives, thus preserving the information for future historians. Burok complains that existing branches of another left wing membership organization, the American Hungarian Workers Federation, reduced the number of groups he was able to form -- the cost of monthly dues to both organizations being prohibitive. Burok recommended a drastic reduction of the UCP dues rate for members of such organizations.

 

"Circular Letter to All District Organizers of the United Communist Party of America From Executive Secretary Alfred Wagenknecht, February 1, 1921." A cover letter for the first two copies of the organ of Alexander Bittelman's "Communist Unity Committee," sent out by Executive Secretary Wagenknecht of the United Communist Party so that the UCP's DOs might "be better able to meet the propaganda of this 'third party' committee." Wagenknecht relates Bittelman's saga -- failing to be able to keep the Jewish federation neutral in the CPA/CLP split, then joining the UCP. Bittelman was offered the job of editor of the UCP's legal Jewish newspaper, but he declined, seeking to edit a narrow theoretical journal instead. Wagenknecht says he then led 15 Jewish members out of the UCP and into the CPA -- which accepted the rank-and-filers and refused membership to Bittelman. Outside of both organizations, Bittelman established his "Communist Unity Committee" so as to "establish a leadership for himself," Wagenknecht says.

 

"Financial Report of the National Office, United Communist Party of America. As of April 1, 1921." Although a few conservative spinmeisters will doubtlessly remain in denial, here's what the archives actually show were the quarterly revenue and expenses of the United Communist Party in Q1 of 1921. The legendary "several million dollars in valuables" said to have been funneled to the American Communist movement in 1920 seem to have...... vanished! Plain and simple, the inflation-era nominal ruble values (tsennosti) listed in document RTsKhIDNI f. 495, op. 82, d. 1, l. ? were ineptly misinterpreted in The Secret World of American Communism [Yale, 1995, listed as "Document 1"]. A fairly vast number of archival documents demonstrating the financially-strapped condition of the American Communist movement in 1920-21 were blythly ignored by the authors of this collection, Messrs. Haynes, Klehr, and Firsov. An HOAC newsgroup poster challenging their dubious assertion was brutally run down on page 73 of Haynes' and Klehr's 2003 diatriabe, In Denial. Whoops! Now we know: According official figures provided in the report of Executive Secretary Alfred Wagenknecht's to the May 1921 Unity Convention at Woodstock, New York (source of this document), the UCP received $25,000 out of $50,000 disbursed in Moscow, the rest failing to arrive. This was the SUM TOTAL of the UCP's funding up to the time of the May 1921 Unity Convention. This document shows line items for Comintern and other external subsidies totalling a shade over $18,000 for the quarter -- about double the organization's dues stamp revenue for the period. (Another document for the old CPA shows a single subsidy of $19,500 received in the 10 1/2 months from July 1920 until the May 1921 convention). Let there be no mistake: this represented a very significant percentage of the early American Communist movement's total income, something in the range of 1/3 to 1/2 for the UCP, though far less than that for the old CPA. Now compare this reality to the claims made...

 

"Report to the 2nd World Congress of the Young Communist International by the Young Communist League of America and the United Communist Party of America, April 1921." This document by Young Communist League of American national organizer "H. Edwards" fully substantiates the theory that there was a communist youth section in America one year previous to the "April 1922" date claimed in the literature. Edwards gives the April 1921 Jena World Congress of the YCI a brief synopsis of the history of the radical youth movement in America. After the split of the Socialist Party in 1919, the SP's Young People's Socialist League was similarly effecte. "Edwards" states that "many of the younger comrades left the League and the remaining part of the League as a whole decided to remain independent of any party while the controversy between the two Communist parties was going on." The SP regulars fought to gain control of the organization, League members were unclear of their mission, financial crisis set in, and the YPSL's national organization dissolved. "Only a few of the local or sectional organizations of it managed to remain more or less intact," says "Edwards." While the CPA and CLP indicated support in principle of a youth section, it was not until the 2nd Convention of the United Communist Party in January 1921 that real work began to organize a Young Communist League of America. In the subsequent three months, leaflets and a pamphlet were prepared, provisional rules drawn up, and organizational work done in the main cities with a UCP presence, resulting in the organization of "about 20 groups." "At the earliest possible moment a national convention of the YCL will be called, at which time the members will outline the ways, means, and policies of the organization and elect their own officials," the national organizer stated.

 

"Department of Justice Surveillance Report of the Activities of Edward Lindgren, April 23-28, 1921." by Clarence D. McKean. This Department of Justice Bureau of Investigation report reveals two interesting facts about the underground American Communist movement. First: how was an illegal organization able to distribute illegal literature, fliers with print runs runniing into the hundreds of thousands? "It was decided to distribute the May Day leaflets at the discretion of the distributors, with the limitation that the literature must be put out some time after dark Friday night [April 29] and before daylight the following morning." Such bulk literature drops in the dead of night must have been terrifically ineffective. Second, the encyclopedic contents of every meeting which Lindgren attended, detailed in this document, make it clear that the UCP apparatus was penetrated by a DoJ agent at the very highest level in Pittsburgh -- either the DO or the SDO. Further: it was this top-level penetration in Pittsburgh that set in motion the raid and arrest of Lindgren, Jakira, and Amter in New York City. "Much of the information contained in this report was received from a confidential source; therefore, the Bureau Offices furnished with copies are respectfully requested to handle the information contained herein in such a manner as not to embarrass our informant," Agent McKean notes. The arrest was made far, far away from where the tail picked up -- the secret agent's identity was preserved.

 

"Department of Justice Surveillance Report of the Activities of Edward Lindgren, April 27-30, 1921," by Dan E. Tatom This Bureau of Investigation document records the first-hand account of the activities of the Pittsburgh-based agent who followed UCP leader Edward Lindgren from Pittsburgh to New York by train, en route to a sensational raid on UCP headquarters and Lindgren's arrest. Agent Tatom stayed in another berth of the same railway sleeper car used by Lindgren and kept him under close observation throughout the trip. He missed connections with his relief in the crowded Pennsylvania station in New York City on the next day, but managed to tag with Lindgren through the streets of New York until Lindgren stopped and the location could be phoned in to headquarters. Tatom then helped follow Lindgren as he made a multi-box mail drop of illegal newspapers, peeling off the surveillance at one mailbox to have the mail carrier band and and hold Lindgren's mail until a search warrant could be obtained. This is indicatiive that there were legal constraints on seizing and opening mail to which the DoJ/BoI was subject.

 

"Department of Justice Surveillance Report of the Activities of Edward Lindgren, Abram Jakira, and Israel Amter, April 29-30, 1921," by Edward Anderson. Warrants? We don't need no stinking warrants... Surveillance and arrest report in the case of Lindgren, Jakira, and Amter. Having trailed the UCP National Organizer from Pittsburgh to New York City by train, DoJ gumshoes and the NYC Bomb Squad saw their quarry, Edward Lingren, pass a package to Abram Jakira; they followed him as he carried it to the apartment of Helen Ware. "Agents noticed a number of suspicious characters going into this house, so Detective Murphy called up Sergeant Gegan of the Bomb squad, who said that he would be right over to raid the place." A valuable trove of United Communist Party documents and literature was seized in the raid (kindly saved for posterity by the fuzz), and Lindgren, Amter, and Jakira carted off to jail, where they were held initially without bail, later set at $50,000. It turns out that they had discovered and raided the national headquarters of the UCP, although the federales probably never realized it at the time.

 

"Report of CEC to UCP Convention and to the Joint Convention of the United Communist Party and the Communist Party for Unity," by Alfred Wagenknecht [May 15, 1921] Extensive extracts of the report of the CEC of the UCP to the Joint Unity Convention in Woodstock, NY, held from May 15-28, 1921. Internal UCP documents of the underground period tend to be terse and vacuous -- this report is exceptional for its expansiveness and attention to detail, making it THE seminal document of the UCP. Wagenknecht once and for all slaughters the myth of "several million dollars" of support rendered in 1920 to the American Communist movement by Moscow. He says, "...The UCP was also promised financial support amounting to $100,000 for specific purposes such as defense, publishing the CI magazine, starting a daily paper, organizing work, etc. Fifty thousand dollars of this was sent, but only $25,000 arrived here. A donation of $10,000 was to come to the UCP to be given to the IWW defense." (According to the CPA's report to the same gathering, they received absolutely nothing from Moscow.) The other big news revealed in this document is that the raid of Helen Ware's apartment in New York City, resulting in the arrests of Edward Lindgren, Abram Jakira, and Israel Amter, was on the NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS of the UCP. Wagenknecht stoically underplays the magnitude of the loss, which included subscription lists and a vast number of documents containing contact addresses kept in a code which the DoJ broke. Wagenknecht details the boundaries of the UCP's districts and delves into the Party's position on a wide range of strategic and tactical matters, not sparing the CPA from harsh criticism.

 

"General Report of the [old] Communist Party of America to the Joint Unity Convention," by Charles Dirba [May 15, 1921] Extensive extracts of the report of the CEC of the old CPA to the Joint Unity Convention in Woodstock, NY, held from May 15-28, 1921. Dirba emphasizes the old CPA's work establishing shop nuclei and its oft-times difficult relationship with the "Pan-American Council" of the Red International of Trade Unions as well as the "American Agency" sent by the Comintern to help unite the American movement and initiate Communist Parties elsewhere in the Americas. The old CPA's Federation structure is eloquently and effectively detailed and defended by Dirba, who upbraids the UCP for "lack of a true understanding of democratic centralization" which contributed to the "failure of the UCP in language organization and propaganda, resulting in the chaotic conditions within their party." Dirba defends the CPA's commitment to unrelentingly propagandize among the workers the inevitability of armed insurrection as a means for overthrowing the bourgeois order and accuses the UCP of "Serratianism" (you'll never see that word again) for waffling on the issue. Detailed figures are provided for the old CPA's publications and membership statistics given (by district and by federaton) for the first quarter of 1921. The old CPA's largest language group was its Lithuanian federation, followed by its Russian, Ukrainian, and Latvian language groups.

 

"CPA Financial Report to the May 1921 Joint Unity Convention," prepared by Charles Dirba [May 15, 1921] This is the major portion of the financial report of the Executive Secretary of the old Communist Party of America to the convention in Woodstock, NY. The statement shows receipts and expenditures of approximately $40,000 for the 3 1/2 month interval of the report and just over $80,000 for the 10 1/2 months dating from July 1, 1920. Of this, it appears from this statement that $19,500, or roughly one-quarter of revenue, came from a Comintern grant. These figures, it should be noted, represent the operating budget of the National Office alone; a companion document which will be posted next week will show that the CPA's semi-autonomous federations controlled assets and produced literature on a scale substantially larger than that of the National Office. Particularly vigorous were three of the old CPA's Federations -- the Lithuanian, the Polish, and the Ukrainian -- which published extensively and owned significant facilities and machinery. The relative proportion of Comintern aid to the size of the entire operation of the old CPA was thus further dilluted.

 

"The Proletarian Party of America," by Warren W. Grimes [July 20, 1921] The American secret police apparatus maintained a substantial network of professional agents and undercover spies observing and reporting upon a range of left wing and labor organizations in the early 1920s, running the gamut from unions to the Civil Liberties Bureau to the Socialist Party to parties of the revolutionary left. This document is a section of a report by a "Special Assistant to the Attorney General" examining the organizational nature and biographies of the two principal leaders of the Proletarian Party of America. The biographies of Dennis Batt and John Keracher are useful synopses of secret police reports, gathered by the "General Intelligence Division" of the Department of Justice's "Bureau of Investigation." A large section of Grimes' report, microanalyzing the program of the Proletarian Party, has been deleted from this version, but his conclusions remain: The PPA is described as a "novel case" which "has made consistent efforts, in its program and activities, to avoid the use of terms as well as clearly expressed tactics which would make it objectionable.... If the failure to use direct terms in the program is intended as camouflage...the attempt is futile, for where they have avoided using the express terms "forcible" or "mass action" and so forth, they have not been able to avoid the "dictatorship of the proletariat," the "Third International," the overthrow of the "capitalist state," the use of armed citizenry against the police and army, which are legal agencies of organized government employed according to law on works opposed to the accomplishment of communist aims, and so forth."

 

"Minutes of the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of America, January 1922." [Revised Edition] A seemingly fragmentary minute of undated January deliberations of the governing Central Executive Committee of the CPA. The CPA was in possession of a Comintern ruling that held "the tactics of the majority of the CEC [on the establishment of a Legal Political Party] to be absolutely correct." Robert Minor had attended the Jan. 7-12, 1922 "Emergency Convention" of the "Communist Party of America" of the Central Caucus faction and read the letter to the convention and again to the leadership of the organization. The three top leaders of the faction -- Charles Dirba, George Ashkenuzi, and "Johnson" -- had "answered that they will not obey the decision of the Comintern and will fight the [WPA]. They also informed Com. [Minor] that they hold themselves to be the [Communist Party of America]" and that they sent a delegate to Russia to argue their case. As a result, a campaign of publicity was launched and CEC members Bittelman, Zack, and Weinstone were sent on tour of the various districts to publicize the Comintern's decision. The CEC also established a new Party-wide wage scale, based on location, character of work, and number of dependents, ranging from $25-35 single, $30-40 one dependent, and $40-45 for employees with multiple dependents.

 

"From Recent Mails: Report to ECCI No. 2," by L.E. Katterfeld [Jan. 18, 1922]. Periodic report by the CPA's representative to ECCI to his coleagues on ongoing events in America. Katterfeld reports the arrival of Max Bedacht in Moscow on Famine Relief and Party business and the safe arrival of Robert Minor in the United States. He notes the controversy in America over the Nuorteva case, documents the achivements of the Friends of Soviet Russia in raising funds and in-kind contributions for Russian famine relief, and comments upon the controversy within the IWW over that organization's position towards the Comintern and the Red International of Labor Unions in the wake of that organization's bitter disavowal of the Moscow-based organizations.

 

"Minutes of the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of America, March 1922." An apparently complete set of minutes of the governing CEC of the underground CPA for the month of March 1922. The body met 8 times during the month and dealt with a wide range of topics. Highlights include: (A) decision to circulate a photostatic copy of the Comintern letter resolving the Central Caucus faction split in favor of the CPA majority (3/8), (B) declaration by Executive Secretary Jay Lovestone that "the treasury is totally empty, that the needs were pressing, no funds coming in from the districts and that the outlook for improvement was very dark." (3/8); (C) appointment of Morris Kushinsky as the Philadelphia District Organizer (3/8); (D) an attempt to name Abram Jakira the Detroit DO (3/8), which was rejected by Jakira. The CEC then demanded a letter of explanation (3/14). Jakira continued to strenuously object and the CEC resolved to establish a voluntary (unpaid) DO for the district (3/23). Further tidbits: (E) Rep to the CI Katterfeld in Moscow was instructed to "try to secure an appropriation of at least 25 [thousand dollars]" (3/10); (F) a per capita convention assessment of $1 was levied to support the forthcoming 2nd Convention of the CPA and a 1-for-200 members representation agree upon ((3/10); (G) Katterfeld recalled from Moscow, to be replaced by Bedacht (3/10); (H) a forthcoming miners' strike was prepared for (3/14 and passim); (I) division of work in writing the theses for the 2nd [Bridgman] convention was made (3/16); (J) an attempt to censure Bittelman for editorial misconduct failed and Minor and Cannon resigned from the Editorial Board in protest -- Bittelman also attempted to resign, but his resignation was rejected on a tie vote (3/16); and (K) Joseph Zack Kornfeder and Joseph Stilson were appointed as a committee to investigate and reorganize the CPA's Russian and Jewish Bureaus (3/23, 3/29).

 

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