"Letter to John Reed and Ben Gitlow in New York from Alfred Wagenknecht in Cleveland, circa mid-Sept. 1919." Short note from the head of the Communist Labor Party to the editors of the CLP's labor publication, Voice of Labor in New York. Wagenknecht indicates that discretion is the better part of valor with respect to impeding enlistment in the army through the pages of The Ohio Socialist, when mailing privileges and a potential jail term would be in the offing. But "don't call me an angle-worm -- backboneless," he asks, noting that "it will please you to learn that the Communists are AFRAID to publish their platform and program. Ruthenberg said to me the other day that they would probably have to circulate it SECRETLY." Little did he know that in just more than three months the CLP, too, would be driven underground...

 

"Make the Party a 'Party of Action,'" by C.E. Ruthenberg [published April 25, 1920] In the popular imagination, the pivotal issue behind C.E. Ruthenberg and his co-thinkers bolting the old Communist Party of America in April of 1920 was related to division with the Russian Federation over the issue of merger with the Communist Labor Party. As this article by Ruthenberg from the pages of his group's official organ indicates, this had virtually nothing to do with the matter. Instead, this article illustrates, the cause of the split was a long-running feud in the ranks of the party over the matter of construction of a mass party vs. a theoretically pure party, matters of personality (alliances and antipathies), as well as the tactical maneuvering of inner-party politics in the run-up to the 2nd Convention. Chief burrs under Ruthenberg's saddle were the failure of the CEC majority to discipline Nicholas Hourwich for violating the instructions of the Executive Council and misrepresenting the situation to illicitly obtain money from the Boston District organization for an unauthorized trip to Europe, the capture of the majority on the Executive Council by removal of his ally Jay Lovestone for missing two meetings and inserting his opponent Hourwich in his place, and the move of the CEC majority to remove Chicago District Organizer Leonid Belsky ostensibly over matters of party discipline. In response, it was Ruthenberg who broke discipline, refusing to accept majority decisions of the Executive Council and Central Executive Committee, organizing a faction, and issuing an ultimatum to the CEC majority not to change District Organizers prior to the convention so that matters might be finally resolved in that venue, and preserving his own control over the party press. Instead, the CEC majority refused to bow to the ultimatum of Ruthenberg and his factional allies (who included CEC member "J. Kasbeck," the DOs of Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, and Chicago as well as the heads of the Polish, South Slavic, German, Ukrainian, and Estonian Federations). It was this that prompted the split, not hard-line posturing against unity with the CLP in defiance of Comintern instructions.

 

"Report to the Executive Committee of the Communist International from the United Communist Party, Sept. 14, 1920." This report to the Communist International rescued from Department of Justice files covers a broad range of matters. It notes that a represented membership of 10.644 was claimed by delegates to the May 1920 Joint Unity Convention which formed the party, although "the task of drawing into it all the elements represented at the convention is not yet complete, as the available membership figures indicate a membership at the present moment of about 7,000." (Actually paid UCP membership for the 3rd Quarter of 1920 was 3,466). The party's publications are detailed at length and shop organizations, legal political work, the prosecutions, and the IWW are discussed briefly. With respect to ongoing unity difficulties with the "faction of the former Communist Party of America" that "still remains outside of the United Communist Party," a set of 4 programmatic differences are detailed. The unity efforts of the Comintern's representative, the yet-unidentified "Comrade Linde," are said to have been met with a rebuff, with the CEC of the CPA "refusing to enter into any discussion of the question." To this end the report states that an explicit unity mandate from the CI "would be a material gain to the American movement." The report provides another stone to the massive and growing mountain of evidence refuting the fantastic 1995 assertion of Harvey Klehr and John Haynes that the early American Communist movement was the recipient of "several million dollars" worth of Comintern aid: "We do not know what the resources of the International are and its policy is in regard to furnishing assistance to sections of the International. If the Executive Committee is in a position to furnish us aid, we believe that the importance of the work in the United States warrants it doing so." The document notes that "After our unity convention [May 26-31, 1920] $25,000 was made available from an outside sources [sic.]. This amount together with our monthly income from the membership of about $10,000 will be exhausted by the end of September [1920] and we will then have to depend upon our own resources unless other funds reach us." A plea is made for a $150,000 appropriation to fund a smorgasbord of enterprises -- a blue-sky first proposal, as opposed to funds actually allocated, disbursed, and received -- these being a fraction of this amount for the entire one year life of the UCP.

 

"Report of the United Communist Party's District Organizer 10 [San Francisco] to Exec. Sec. Alfred Wagenknecht in New York, March 7, 1921," by W. Costley. This is terrific stuff, a colorful local report that social historians will be able to sink their teeth in, chronicling the affairs of the United Communist Party's California District Organizer, W. Costley. Costley is outspoken in his advocacy of open, legal political action: "...To my way of thinking the results are not commensurate with the time and expense put into the work. I attribute the slow growth of the movement here to the fact that the right sort of open work up to the present has not been done, because we have had no comrades capable of doing it. I find myself so busy doing the routine work of the office and attending on men whom I know are good timber. But this is slow work when you have to spend time and money in calling on a party three or four times before you catch him and when you finally see him he has to read up and decide what he will do." Instead, at open meetings great numbers might be addressed and directed into party work simultaneously, Costley notes, with literature sales covering the cost of the operation. Costley bemoans the attitude of the Finns in not wanting to jump into the UCP and transfer ownership of their halls to the party: "It made me as mad to the bone to see them have the psychology of the bourgeoisie deeply embedded in their systems, and I told them so. And I told them furthermore that they were covering themselves with disgrace by refusing to enlist in the ranks NOW, and every moment of delay was a discredit to them." He expresses a wish to begin open work and suggests "Albric" [Bertram Wolfe] as a potential candidate for the DO position. He also seeks to launch a free speech fight in Oakland, to pave the way for a return of Bob Minor and other radical speakers.

 

"Red Headquarters Are Raided Here; Revolt Plan Bared: Bomb Squad and Federal Agents Seize Literature Calling for May Day Revolution: Two Found in Apartment: Documents Indicate They are High Officials of Russia's Third International: Third Arrested in Theatre: Is Delegate to "Underground Convention" -- Papers Show Moscow Directed Conspiracy Here." [April 30, 1921] Unsigned New York Times report of the April 29, 1921 raid on the National Headquarters of the United Communist Party in New York City. The melodramatic reporter's account here is amended with numerous footnotes by Tim Davenport comparing assertions made to the documentary evidence present in Bureau of Investigation agent reports and files. The most interesting aspect of the report is its function as a record of the way the Bureau of Investigation saw the United Communist Party: a group comprised of a majority of Russians, Poles, and Italians, often illiterate, with "a surprisingly large number of Negroes" and particular strength in the mining districts of Pennsylvania and West Virginia -- a band plotting bloody insurrection at the behest of Moscow. This was a manifestation of popular fear and prejudice rather than objective reality but is nonetheless an important snapshot of official mentalité driving the repression.

 

"The Story of the National Defense Committee in New York." [1922] One of the American Communist movement's first and most effective mass organizations was the National Defense Committee, an organization that jointly provided legal assistance and financial relief to victims of anti-radical repression conducted by state and federal police authorities in the 1919-1922 period. This is the full text of a pamphlet issued in 1922 in conjunction with a series of fundraising events of the LDC in New York City. It provides interesting detail about a series of legal cases in New York, including those of Ignatz Mizher (CPA); Carl Paivio and Gus Alonen (IWW); Ben Gitlow (CLP); Harry Winitsky (CPA); Jim Larkin (CLP); C.E. Ruthenberg and I.E. Ferguson (UCP); Abram Jakira, Israel Amter, and Edward Lindgren (UCP); Minnie Kalnin, Anna Leisman, and T. Jerson (CPA); Paul Manko (CPA); and deportation operations. The multiparty, civil liberties orientation of the radical NDC should be clear. Particularly noteworthy is the charge made that routine certificates of reasonable doubt, which would have allowed defendants to remain free during the appeals process in the series of novel and virtually unprecedented cases, were systematically denied by the legal authorities, with those convicted sent immediately to prison for lengthy terms. Includes supplemental footnotes detailing the disposition of the various cases.

 

"Communists Absorb Selves: 'Lefts' Pick Still Another Alias In Drive to Pack St. Paul Convention." [May 24, 1924] This unsigned news report from the pages of the New York Socialist Party weekly The New Leader illustrates the depth of antipathy felt towards the Communist movement by the majority of the Socialist Party in the run up to the Farmer-Labor Party conventions of the summer of 1924. The lead mockingly notes that "A new 'Labor Party' consisting of Communists united with Communists and consolidated, federated, amalgamated, and joined with Communists, was launched here Sunday when a group of Communists met, declared themselves the 'United Farmer-Labor Party of New York State'" and describes the refusal of the Schenectady Trades Assembly to send delegates to the gathering, which was ultimately attended by 92 people. "So far as is known, did not have a single delegate from a bona fide Labor organization," the report indicates, sarcastically adding that among the 16 members of the executive of the new organization "are such well known American 'trade unionists' as Ludwig Lore, Harry M. Winitsky, Juliet Stuart Poyntz, William Weinstone, [Charles] Krumbein, Noah London, [J.] Jampolsky, and [Benjamin] Lifshitz."

 

"Socialist Party Due to Make Greatest Gains in its Entire History, Eugene Debs Declares:
National Chairman of the Socialist Party Outlines Political Situation..." by Eugene V. Debs [June 14, 1924] This article by Eugene Debs for the members of the Socialist Party, written from a sanitarium in Colorado, consists of two parts -- a brief historical overview of the SPA leading up to the forthcoming St. Paul and Cleveland conventions aiming to establish a Labor Party in America, and a plea for funds. Debs sees the volition for a unified Labor Party in America as a sort of vindication of the Socialist Party's 27 years of agitation for independent political action by the working class, noting that both conservative unionists on the right and communists on the left had been influenced by the SP's teachings on the matter. "For myself, I earnestly hope a united Labor Party, based upon the principles of industrial democracy and cornerstoned in the interest of the working class, may issue from these conventions; but whether it does nor not we must preserve strictly the identity and guard rigidly the integrity of the Socialist Party as an uncompromising revolutionary political organization of the workers in their struggle for emancipation," Debs notes, thus indicating a willingness to make common cause with the communists in the Labor Party task. As for funds, the message is simple, the Socialist Party's "membership has been greatly reduced and its treasury utterly bankrupted." An appeal is made to loyalty, honor, and sense of obligation for all members to immediately pay their back dues and the 50 cent to $5 voluntary convention assessment to the National Office.

 

"Amerikan kommunistinen liike ja suomalaiset siinä," by Henry Puro [1928] ***LARGE FILE (3.7 megs), FAST INTERNET RECOMMENDED.*** Non-machine readable pdf of an 18 page historical article by Finnish-American Communist leader Henry Puro, from the pages of a 25-year anniversary volume publshed by the Työmies Society of Superior, WI. This material is in the Finnish language. If anyone can lend assistance by producing an English translation of this document, Anglophonic scholars of Finnish-American radicalism now and long into the future would be deeply appreciative. Please do contact me: MutantPop@aol.com. Thanks!

 

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