"Circular to All Branches of the Russian Federation of the Communist Party of America from Oscar Tyverovsky, Secretary." [circa Sept. 15, 1919] In this communique from the first days after the split of the Socialist Party of America into 3 competing organizations, Secretary of the Russian Federation Oscar Tyverovsky offers the Communist Party of America's perspective of the dispute. Tyverovsky is harshly critical of the Communist Labor Party element for not joining with the Communist Party of America after the outcome of the Socialist Party convention became clear on its first day, Aug. 30, 1919. These delegates disregarded the fact that the CPA organizing committee had agreed to accept those delegates who would be willing to submit to the requirements governing the delegates of the Communist Convention, i.e., to pass the Mandate Commission." Instead, they formed their own dual communist political organization, the CLP -- a group which Tyverovsky characterizes as "a party of leaders without [the masses]." Tyverovsky notes that these "so-called communists" had admitted to their organization branches of the Russian Federation which recently been expelled by the Russian Federation "because of their Menshevik tactics and disorganizing activities." Instead of making known the real differences in the orientation of these two wings of the Russian Federation, Tyverovsky states that the CLP was instead exaggerating an artificial issue, the question of control over the Russian Soviet Government Bureau of Ludwig Martens (which the CLP supported and worked with and the CPA sought to subordinate to its own party control). The CLP also made use of their "backbiting, lying paper, Pravda" to slander the Russian Federation, Tyverovsky charges, adding that "we must stand fast at our post, not allowing the evil-doers to disrupt our ranks."

 

"Speech in Celebration of the 2nd Anniversary of the Russian Revolution: Hunts Point Place, New York City [excerpt]," by Benjamin Gitlow [Nov. 7, 1919] November 7, 1919, was the occasion of half a dozen or more celebratory meetings in New York City as well as in other large metropolitan areas across the country. One of the New York City meetings, in addition to being addressed in Russian by Ludwig Martens of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau and his office manager, Gregory Weinstein (a member of the CLP), heard a speech by Benjamin Gitlow -- soon to be a celebrated victim of government persecution. A stenographer employed by the Department of Justice's Bureau of Investigation transcribed the bulk of Gitlow's speech, which was preserved in the Bureau's archives and is reproduced here for the first time. "Two years ago today the Bolsheviki went into power in Russia, in 1917; and today in Russia the Bolsheviki are no longer in power, but the working class the world over is today in power in Russia," Gitlow tells the assembly. Capitalists the world over were afraid of the new Bolshevik government in Russia, according to Gitlow, because "they know that the workers' government of Russia is not a national government representing Russia alone, but that it is the government of the entire working class and that it is challenging today the entire world order of capitalism." " The workers the world over, despite the lies of their capitalist papers, despite the false promises of their crooked politicians, despite the sermons of their ministers, despite the wisdom of their college professors, must determine to follow the example of the Russian workers and do everything in their power to stop intervention in Russia," Gitlow declares.

 

"Report of the Red Raid in Buffalo, NY," by Myron J. Blackmon [night of Jan. 2/3, 1920] This is a fairly brief internal Bureau of Investigation report of the coordinated mass anti-Communist Raid of of January 2, 1920 as it manifested itself in Buffalo, New York. Special Agent in Charge Blackmon notes that the Department of Justice's Bureau of investigation had been "assisted by the local police and by former members of the American Protective League" in conducting the operation -- the latter of which had loaned personal automobiles with which to conduct the house by house raids of suspected Communist Party members. About 25 had been arrested in the initial sweep (with additional arrests over the course of the following week, not mentioned in this report). Difficulty had been had obtaining evidence with which to prove party membership, however, as the Lusk Committee had made an organized raid of its own in Buffalo just a few days previously, on Dec. 29, 1919. Consequently, most of those arrested were immediately released due to lack of evidence proving party membership. Six citizens had been turned over to local authorities for prosecution under the state Criminal Anarchy law, however, Blackmon notes.

 

"Radical Activities -- Buffalo Socialists: Report of a Meeting of Jewish Socialists in Buffalo, NY Attended by an Undercover Informant of the US Dept. of Justice's Bureau of Investigation, Jan. 11, 1920." This internal Bureau of Investigation surveillance report of an undercover spy working in Buffalo indicates that there was a spontaneous united front emerged to aid the the Communists arrested by the Department of Justice and local authorities during the first week of January 1920. Attending the meeting of a largely Jewish branch of Local Buffalo, Socialist Party, the undercover informant heard a plea and saw a collection for funds to aid the families of those arrested, as well as the unfortunate families of members of the anarchist Union of Russian Workers recently deported. Branch organizer Goldstein is quoted as saying: "It makes [no difference] whether or not you are a Syndicalist, a Communist, a Socialist, or a member of the Workman's Circle -- you should do what you can for the families of these men who have fought for our cause and who have in some cases been deported because of their activities." Goldstein additionally urged the assembled Socialists that "any of you who knows a member of the Communist Party who is in jail and can not get bail, should help that person out. Do not bail out as many men, however, as your funds will permit. Be careful to save enough so that in case you, yourself, are arrested you will be able to give bail. I just want to tell you that in case any of you are able to help out in the bailing of any of the Communists, if you will call at the Communist headquarters, one of the men...will be there and will be glad to help you in making arrangements." The local Socialist leader also cautioned, "We never know when our turn is coming, we may all be arrested before tomorrow night on a similar charge." Particular concern was expressed in private discussion over the case of local Communist Frederick "Fred" Schuman.

 

"Don't Be So Sure of Your Job!" (leaflet #2 of the United Communist Party) [circa July 1920] Aside from publishing newspapers and giving speeches to one another at various meetings and conventions, the only "revolutionary" activity conducted by the underground Communist movement of the early 1920s involved the periodic mass distribution of cheaply printed newsprint leaflets. These were printed in runs running into the hundreds of thousands and then stealthily scattered around various industrial cities of the north over the course of one or a few dark nights. This "leaflet no. 2" of the United Communist Party from the summer of 1920 attempts to turn the fear of unemployment into mass strike action: "Force the government to take care of [the unemployed]! Fight for shorter hours with no reduction of pay, so they can get back on the job! Fight for opening up trade with Soviet Russia, so there will be work!" These strikes would be met with opposition, the leaflet noted: "Of course, the courts will issue injunctions against us. The government will send troops against us. Soldiers, police, thugs, legionnaires, and vigilantes will be lined up against us." There was a solution, however, painted in rosy hues: "The Russian workers showed us what to do. They overthrew their BOSSES' government and set up a WORKERS' Government. They took over the industries and ran them ONLY for the workers. They threw out all idlers and bloodsuckers! They put an end to unemployment. They became the OWNERS OF THEIR JOBS!"

 

"Circular to All Units of the CPA on the "One Day's Pay" Campaign from Louis Shapiro ["L. Bain"], Executive Secretary, Aug. 8, 1920." Louis Shapiro is one of the least well known of the approximately 10 individuals who served as Executive Secretary of one of the various parties and factions of the American Communist movement during its first decade, having served briefly as head of the old CPA during the second half of 1920. This circular is a rather desperate plea for funds: the 2nd Convention of the CPA [July 13-18, 1920] had unanimously approved a campaign for the donation of "One Day's Pay for Organization." Shapiro declares that "To carry out our purpose of 'organization of the revolutionary vanguard of the proletariat' -- requires organizers. Organizes, in order to be able to devote their whole time for organizational purposes must have means.... A paragraph in the summary of our program states that 'The Communist Party shall systematically and persistently propagate to the workers the idea of the inevitability of a violent revolution and the USE OF FORCE as the only means of overthrowing the capitalist state.' Systematic and persistent propaganda to the workers must be done, to a large extent, by means of leaflets. But to issue leaflets means are needed." Shapiro urges immediate action: "You comrades, must get to work NOW." (This is not the language of an organization purportedly awash in untold millions of dollars of Comintern cash, it should be noted well, nor would shaking down $15,000 or whatever from the membership have been a high priority activity.)

 

"Letter to the Executive Committee of the Communist International in Moscow from Alfred Wagenknecht, Executive Secretary of the United Communist Party in New York, Jan. 12, 1921." This document was obtained by the Department of Justice in the April 29, 1921 raid on the national headquarters of the United Communist Party in New York. After obtaining it, there could have been little doubt about the organization's actual Comintern funding situation for the year. The document is the form of a report from two CLP/UCP delegates to the 2nd Convention, Alexander Bilan and Edward Lindgren. The two recount the official request for appropriation from the CI for the American movement ($210,000), which was reduced by the Small Bureau of ECCI to $110,000. This sum was to be divided as follows: $25,000 for general organizational work, $25,000 for defense (prisoner bail and legal fees), $25,000 for literature publication, $25,000 towards establishment of a daily English-language newspaper, and $10,000 for IWW defense. Of this $110,000 budgeted sum for the coming year until the next world Congress, $25,000 had been granted as an emergency appropriation to stem the UCP's "urgent need for money." This $25,000 had been readied in the form of gold; this had been "taken away" from Bilan and Lindgren at the last minute by a sub-committee of the Small Bureau, however, and turned over to a Comrade Matsen from Norway, who was to be in charge of getting the gold through the Allied blockade of Soviet Russia. However, "careless handling" of the gold had led to its loss by Matsen. Bilan and Lindgren reiterated that they took no responsibility for the loss of the first UCP appropriation for 1920-21, the mistake being one made by Matsen. Thus the reality of "Moscow Gold" and the United Communist Party of America as of Jan. 12, 1921: $110,000 budgeted, $25,000 appropriated, $0 delivered. And the Department of Justice's Bureau of Investigation knew this fact from this internal document no later than May 1921.

 

"Workingmen of America! Stand By Soviet Russia!" (leaflet of the Communist Party of America) [March 1921] Some 483,000 copies of this CPA leaflet were produced in an effort to rally the American working class to the defense of Soviet Russia. "Do not be fooled by the lying and prostitute capitalist press! Victorious Soviet Russia means a triumphant working class. If Soviet Russia is defeated, the whole advancing working class movement will be halted for years to come and black reaction will set in. Show the arrogant and murderous capitalists and imperialists of America, England, and France that we, the workingmen of America, are in full sympathy with Soviet Russia," the leaflet urges. Not only defensive action, but offensive revolutionary action is advocated: "Let us resolve to break the chains of wage slavery. Let us prepare for the overthrow of the hypocritical and bloody capitalist state and establish in its place the Soviet Republic of America. Let us destroy the REPUBLIC OF THE RICH and erect the REPUBLIC OF LABOR. Let us join hands with the Soviet Republics of the World in the glad confederation of free peoples united by the bonds of working class solidarity."

 

"Revolutionary Industrial Unionism versus Armed Insurrection." (leaflet of the Industrial Workers of the World) [circa April 1921] This is a rare document, a fairly thorough and quite explicit exposition of the revolutionary strategy of the Industrial Workers of the World, presented in comparison and contrast to the revolutionary strategy of the American Communist movement. The Communist strategy is regarded as being a product long on enthusiasm and short on thoughtful analysis: "Inspired by the success of the Russian Revolution, many who formerly put their faith in the ballot are now advocating armed insurrection in the United States. But these people ignore the difference between conditions in Russia at the time of the Revolution, and those now existing in this country." The leaflet notes that unlike in peasant Russia, with its small and weak capitalist strata, in the US capitalism had held sway for a number of years and grown large and strong. "To have a reasonable chance of success by armed insurrection the workers would need to have as large and well equipped an army as the capitalists," the leaflet declares, noting that "A good percentage of the workers would support the capitalists" and that those remaining "are unarmed and the great majority are untrained in the use of arms. They have no military organization. They have no means of securing arms." The result of the strategy of armed insurrection, pitting primitive hand-weapons against machine guns and poison gas, would be an unimaginable bloodbath and crushing of the workers. To this is contrasted the strategy for victory of the IWW: "It aims at the root of all capitalist power, control of industry. It advocates organization of the workers in industry in such a way that they can control industry. The power of the workers is neither political nor military, but Industrial. This is the greatest power in the world, it is the foundation that underlies all other forms of power." The leaflet declares that "The workers alone can carry on production" and observes that "in case of civil war between labor and capital, whichever side controls industry will win." Therefore, it is the steady growth of industrial organization that will prove decisive, in the IWW's view. In a revolutionary situation, transportation of enemy soldiers could be sabotaged and production of armaments halted by the direct action of the workers organized in Revolutionary Industrial Unions. "The best tactics on the part of the workers is to avoid armed insurrection unless it is actually forced upon them and work by all means in their power to increase their control of industry. In case of civil war, the success of the workers will be measured by the amount of control they exert over industry. Complete control of industry would mean complete and bloodless victory while lack of control would mean bloody slaughter and inevitable defeat," the IWW leaflet insists.

 

"Then and Now, April 6, 1917 - April 6, 1921." (leaflet of the Communist Party of America) [April 6, 1921] The date at the heart of this document, April 6, 1917, was the date of American entry into the European bloodbath, a war which left over 10 million dead and millions more wounded or maimed. On this the 4th anniversary of Wilson's about face on the question of American participation, the Communist Party asks the American working class to make an assessment of whether promises about the war were delivered upon and whether the escapade was worth the price. "The capitalists wanted war because they could greatly increase their profits. And increase them they did beyond those of any other country. The United States before the war was a debtor nation. Today the capitalists through their government in Washington hold a mortgage on almost every other country in the world," the leaflet declares. It adds: "But the capitalists didn't do the fighting. They stayed at home and hired out to their government for one dollar a year. Their sons were placed in positions that afforded security for life and limb. The working class was called upon to do the fighting and the paying and to produce the munitions of war." Conscription was instituted and Communist and IWW political objectors "were ground under the Iron Heel with the brutality of the Russian Tsars. The capitalist White Terror stalked through the land." The lessons of the world war are clear, the leaflet indicates: "There can be no peace while the few have the power to exploit the masses. The road to peace lies through world revolution." To this end: "The working class -- the overwhelming majority of the people - must become the ruling class. They must establish their own government -- the DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT -- THE WORKERS' GOVERNMENT IN THE FORM OF SOVIETS. This Workers' Government will suppress the counter-revolution of the capitalists. It will take over the factories and the railroads and the land. This Workers' Government will gradually introduce the Communist Society."

 

"May Day: Labor's International Holiday." (leaflet of the Communist Party of America) [distributed for May 1, 1921] Another in a series of CPA leaflets intended to agitate for insurrection. "The bosses - the capitalist class -- have organized to crush you. They openly declare that they intend to smash your unions - destroy your resistance -- reduce your wages and bring you to the level of serfs. This May Day you must demonstrate. Let us answer their challenge. Let us resolve this May Day to prepare for the REVOLUTION," the leaflet declares. Unless dramatic action were soon taken, the prospects facing American workers were grim, in the leaflet's estimation: "What are the prospects which confront us if the capitalist slave drivers remain in power? Nothing but new wars, slavery, billions upon billions of taxes, poverty, starvation, and perpetual oppression." No punches are pulled as to the means of the necessary change: "The Government of the US was established by FORCE; it is maintained by FORCE; it will be destroyed by FORCE." Only in Soviet Russia would the workers be celebrating May Day as "free men," the leaflet states. "This May Day let us resolve to PREPARE for the destruction of the capitalist government and the establishment of a WORKERS' GOVERNMENT -- The Dictatorship of the Proletariat -- in America. Let us ORGANIZE to build a SOVIET REPUBLIC in America. The road to working class freedom lies through REVOLUTION," the leaflet concludes.

 

"Appeal to American Workers." (leaflet of the American Bureau, International Council of Trade and Industrial Unions [RILU]) [May 1921] Before the role was filled by the Trade Union Educational League (TUEL), the program of the Red International of Labor Unions was advanced in the United States by the "American Bureau of the International Council of Trade and Industrial Unions." This is a rare early leaflet of the "American Bureau," produced in a run of 40,000 copies and distributed by the Communist Party. A grim situation faces the world, the leaflet indicates: "The specter of starvation haunts the entire world. Victors and vanquished of the late war alike tremble before it. This breakdown of the whole fabric of capitalism is accompanied by a savage drive upon the workers by the massed power of the employing class. The Master Class has declared war on Labor. This war rages in all countries." White terror was being employed around the world -- in the United States as well as Hungary; an open shop campaign had been launched to break American unions; 4 million American workers remained unemployed; new wars were plotted. In response, the leaflet advocates an opening of trade relations with Soviet Russia to provide a willing market for American products and to restore industry. Further, workers are urged that their own international organization is necessary to fight the international organization of the capitalists in the League of Nations. The International Council of Trade and Industrial Unions (RILU), based in Moscow, is just the organization needed by workers, the leaflet claims, standing in stark opposition to the "capitalist international" as well as the "yellow Amsterdam international," whose " traitorous leaders, whose hands are stained with the blood of 13 million workers." The social democratic Amsterdam International is cast in a particularly noxious light, as "agents of the bourgeoisie in the camp of the workers." American workers are urged to take up the issue of international affiliation at local union meetings and to influence their national unions to affiliate with RILU: "You cannot remain neutral. There can be no neutrality between the workers and the capitalists. You are for the dictatorship of the workers or you are for the dictatorship of the capitalists."

 

"Circular to All District Organizers, Sub-District Organizers, Section Organizers, and Respective Committees of the Communist Party of America from Ludwig Katterfeld, Executive Secretary, Aug. 6, 1921." This circular letter from new Executive Secretary of the unified CPA L.E. Katterfeld announces the recently concluded 3rd World Congress of the Comintern had adopted a manifesto which called upon Communist Parties around the world to "act in behalf of Soviet Russia through the present crisis." To this end, a new "legal" famine relief organization, the Friends of Soviet Russia, was to be formed (called "the B" in this document). Each District Committee was to elect a committee of 3 trustworthy members to be in charge of legal activities, one of whom was to be designated as Secretary. "The name will be turned over to the [American Labor Alliance], and information how to proceed will be sent him by the [American Labor Alliance] direct," Katterfeld states. "The first public activity for the [American Labor Alliance] will be to launch the [Friends of Soviet Russia], and help energetically in the campaign for relief of the famine stricken districts of Russia. In [the American Labor Alliance] we can affiliate only organizations that comply to certain strict requirements, but in [the Friends of Soviet Russia] we shall ask the cooperation of much wider masses, as is suggested in the call sent out by the Third Congress." Other Russian famine relief organizations are to be amalgamated in the new FSR organization, Katterfeld indicates. "The work is going full blast already. Speakers are being listed, application blanks, subscription lists, appeals, literature, etc. are being prepared, and will be sent as soon as we have the name and address of your legal secretary," Katterfeld notes.

 

"Financing of Ultra-Radical Propaganda in the United States," by Warren W. Grimes (Special Assistant to the Attorney General) [excerpts] (Aug. 20, 1921) Despite possession of documents indicating that the American Communist movement was impoverished and that budgeted Comintern funds were in the low 6 figures -- of which a considerable portion had gone missing -- the Department of Justice was not in the least deterred from making asinine overassessments of foreign funding of the American movement. This Aug. 20, 1921 report of Special Assistant to the Attorney General Warren W. Grimes (a top-ranking DoJ official of similar stature to J. Edgar Hoover) is the epitome of fantastic exaggeration. Despite the utter lack of corroborating evidence, Grimes declares that "authentic estimates from abroad" had indicated "Gold Shipments from Soviet Russia" to the American Communist Parties to the tune of $45 million for the 1919-21 period -- i.e., 1,406,250 troy ounces of the precious metal (@$32/troy oz.). An astounding $70,913.66 per day (including Sundays and holidays) was said to be at the disposal of the country's Communists from this source of funding alone, not to mention other sources of revenue and the "enormous expenditures of the American Agency of the Communist International in connection with the unity proceedings of the Communist Parties." Why not a pinch of this vast quantity of yellow metal had ever been seized by an agent of the Bureau of Investigation or why no paper trail of these vast financial transactions had ever been located is left unexplained. Grimes provides estimates of gross revenue for the full gamut of Left Wing organizations and publications.

 

"CPA D3 [Philadelphia] District Bulletin to All Sub-District, Section, Branch and Group Organizers from Anthony Bimba, District Organizer, Sept. 10, 1921." This internal bulletin sent out to local leaders of the Philadelphia district of the Communist Party of America by new DO Antanas "Anthony" Bimba further belies the farcical assertions emanating from the Justice Department that the CPA was an organization awash in tens of millions of dollars worth of "Moscow gold." This gross disparity between official claims and actual reality was no secret to the Justice Department -- this internal bulletin was provided to the DoJ at the time of its issuance by a Bureau of Investigation informant. To this end, Bimba specifically states that "The CEC at its last meeting reorganized the entire machinery of the Party in order to cut down expenses. Only one paid organizer will be kept in your District hereafter." The bulletin is filled with news of routine party business, such as the mention that the party's Industrial Organizers had sent out Registration Cards to the membership "so we can know the percentage of the members who can be utilized for work in the unions." Laxity in the purchase of party literature is noted. A concerted educational drive was beginning, Bimba notes, in which "Each group [primary party unit] must send one comrade at least to the theoretical class." Bukharin's ABC of Communism was to be the textbook for courses conducted in English and Russian, while the lack of a translations meant that Lenin's State and Revolution would be the book taught in classes working in Yiddish, German, Latvian, Polish, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian. Instructors for these theoretical classes were selected by the Philadelphia District Committee and the instructors would be meeting once a month themselves for training.

 

"Memorandum to William J. Burns, Director, Bureau of Investigation, and to the attention of J. Edgar Hoover, Special Assistant to the Attorney General, from Walter C. Foster, Special Agent in Charge, Philadelphia (and response)." [Sept. 20, 1921] This memo from the Special Agent in Charge of the Philadelphia District of the Bureau of Investigation passes on some ideas of the Philadelphia BoI agent who was given the task of coordinating anti-red activities, J.F. McDevitt. The magnitude and limitations of the government's spy apparatus are made clear: "In Philadelphia alone, we have more than 28 different organizations affiliated with the COMMUNIST PARTY OF AMERICA - UNIFIED, and with but one paid confidential informant, who only speaks the English language." This implies that nothing could be done to penetrate the Yiddish, German, Latvian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Russian, or Polish language apparatus of the organization in the Philadelphia district in a meaningful way. McDevitt suggests that each district of the BoI should concentrate upon one or two local languages used extensively in that locale, with the various language groups coordinated nationally -- for example, Russian in Philadelphia, Hungarian and Yiddish in New York, Italian and Irish in Boston, Lithuanian and Polish in Chicago, Spanish in New Orleans. In this way more careful attention might be paid to each specific group and "it would give the Department at a much smaller expense a good general idea of what is going on." Bureau of Investigation Director William Burns solicited Assistant to the Attorney General J. Edgar Hoover's comments on this suggestion, to which Hoover replied that the idea "has been in force and operation for some time, as we made an effort to have an informant in every one of the leading movements of the country, particularly those of a foreign nature."

 

"Circular to All Organizers of the Communist Party of America from the Central Executive Committee, Sept. 30, 1921." In the fall and winter of 1921-22, the American Communist movement hovered near financial insolvency. Paid functionaries were laid off and wages paid partially and irregularly due to the cash-flow crunch. In a desperate effort to maintain funds for continued operation, the unified Communist Party of America revisited the "One Day's Wages" idea first employed by the old CPA in August 1920. Each member of the CPA was required to contribute, in addition to regular monthly dues, one day's worth of wages as an additional tax payable to the organization. The entire party apparatus was put into action in September and early October in an effort to collect this extraordinary assessment. Full 100% fulfillment was sought, according to this circular sent out to all levels of the CPA's functionaries: "This means that every member must put in ONE DAY'S WAGES. No one is excused. Those that are unemployed shall put in one day's time collecting for the Party, and turn these funds into the treasury in lieu of the one day's wages." The reason for the emergency fundraising campaign was explicitly stated: "You all know of course WHY this special collection is made. You know that the language conferences cost the Party many thousands of dollars more than was received from the conference assessment. You know also that our activities for famine stricken Russia has diverted to that channel many thousands of dollars which would otherwise have come to the Party. You know furthermore that we have no 'Rich Uncle,' and that our organization MUST STAND ON ITS OWN FEET." This document, reflective of the reality of CPA finance in the period, fell into BoI hands through one of its informants just over a month after Assistant to the Attorney General William Grimes blithely stated in an official report that the American Communist movement was the recipient of $45 million in "Moscow gold" during its first three years of existence -- a sensational and delusional guess said to be based on ""authentic estimates from abroad" that archival documents indicate actually overshot the mark by approximately $44.95 million.

 

"'In Re: Workers Council.': Report of a Meeting Held in New York, Oct. 8, 1921," by Department of Justice Undercover Agent "P-134" This is an unusual document, the report of an undercover agent of the Department of Justice's Bureau of Investigation of an open meeting of the Workers' Council group in New York City. Agent "P-134" quotes Secretary of the Workers' Council J. Louis Engdahl as saying that "he is a Communist, and that the Workers Council is organizing for the purpose of establishing Socialist Soviet Republic in the US." He quotes Engdahl as saying that the primary mission of the group is to "help all the revolutionary classes unite into a true revolutionary Socialist organization." The meeting was also addressed by Benjamin Glassberg, Rose Weiss, Comrade Ligoria of the Italian movement, Alexander Trachtenberg, I. Cohen of the Independent YPSL, and Ludwig Lore of the Newyorker Volkszeitung. Agent "P-134" quotes Lore as admitting his membership in the Communist Party of America and declaring that "the American working class will not take any orders from a clique, namely, the [CEC] of the Communist Party of America, which is termed illegal and underground." Lore seems to have taken a similar independent position towards the Executive Committee of the Comintern, saying that regardless of "whether the 3rd International says that Workers Council is proper or not, they will go before the masses openly and preach Communism and the establishment of a Soviet Republic in the United States." Agent "P-134" states that Lore "also said the Workers Council will organize the class conscious revolutionary forces of this country regardless of what the orders from Moscow may be, and carry on their educational campaign organizing mass open organizations, whether it be legal or not..."

 

"The FLP Convention," by Robert M. Buck [events of July 3-6, 1923] Editor Robert Buck of The New Majority presents an editorial review of the happenings of the eventful July 3, 1923 convention that saw the formation (and subsequent disavowal) of the Federated Farmer-Labor Party (FFLP). The Farmer-Labor Party of the United States (FLPUS) was uniquely suited to serve as the umbrella organization for a British Labour Party-style federative organization, in Buck's view; it alone of the existing working class parties accepted memberships from affiliated organizations on a per capita basis -- the others being based solely upon individual memberships. This fact implied that the organization should first establish deep roots with affiliated unions rather than attempt to forge working agreements with "other groups having a definite and different philosophy than its own, until such time as it, the central organization, the Farmer-Labor Party, should have worked up substantial strength of its own," Buck states. Still, a section of the FLPUS sought alliance with other parties of the Left to consolidate their appeal to the working class, and the July 3 convention was called to attempt to reach a working agreement with these other Left organizations, particularly with the Socialist Party of America and the Workers Party of America. The SPA was " not ready for unity except with themselves" and declined to even send a fraternal delegate to the July 3 convention, leaving only the WPA as the target for united action. "Reports came into the party headquarters that the Workers Party was packing the conference with delegates from trade unions in which they had enough members to have their own people named as delegates," Buck states, but the FLPUS did not burden themselves with much concern about this, since the convention was perceived as preparatory and subject to the ratification of the various constituent organizations. However, "instead of a program for a plan to be carried back by the delegates to their several constituents," the gathering hastily moved upon a "plan for immediate organization, including the election of a new National Executive Committee, not in the future, but by that conference, then and there, which they had packed and which they controlled," Buck declares. The "guests" had failed to "behave themselves," and the FLPUS had moved to disassociate itself organizationally from the new FFLP. Instead of joint action between the FLPUS and the WPA, greater factional confusion had been the perverse result of the convention, with the formation of a "dual" Farmer-Labor Party in addition to the already existing organizations.

 

"Detroit Central Cans New Party: Refuses to Affiliate with FFLP as Not Representing Farmers or Labor," by Robert M. Buck [Aug. 4, 1923] While the Farmer-Labor Party of the United States generally maintained an almost religious silence towards other political organizations on the Left, the perceived hijacking of the group's July 1923 convention and establishment of a new organization bearing the FLP name was a bitter pill to swallow. A bit of factional mirth can be discerned in this New Majority news report of the new Federated Farmer-Labor Party's difficulty in maintaining adherents. The latest defection was that of the Detroit Federation of Labor, which after a 2 week investigation had overturned the decision of its Executive Board to affiliate. In its official statement of disassociation, the Detroit Federation stated: "The statement has been made that the Federated Farmer-Labor Party was organized by the rank and file of farmers and laborers and not formed from the top down by big officials. An analysis of the representation at the convention would seem to indicate that it was organized from the outside with a view of imposing it upon the labor movement." The claimed affiliated of membership appeared to be inflated, the Detroit Federation stated, adding: "The Detroit Federation of Labor would be very unwise if it would allow itself to be stampeded into an abortive attempt to organize a labor party, the reaction from which is apt to set back the organization of an actual farmer-labor party."

 

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