The Communist Party of America—1921
1921
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List of 1921 meetings of the Central Executive Committee of the old CPA. Includes specific archival citations for meeting minutes of each session in the Comintern Archive (f. 515, op. 1).
List of 1921 meetings of the Central Executive Committee of the unified CPA. Includes specific archival citations for meeting minutes of each session in the Comintern Archive (f. 515, op. 1).
JANUARY
“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.
“Minutes of the Special 2nd Convention of the United Communist Party of America: Kingston, NY—Dec. 24, 1920 to Jan. 2, 1921." Despite pseudonyms and secrecy, the Bureau of Investigation of the United States Department of Justice still managed to obtain a seat at the convention, when their confidential informant, Pittsburgh District Organizer “Ryan” was elected a delegate. This connection enabled to DoJ to obtain a copy of the secret minutes of the gathering, which were preserved in DoJ files. These minutes are published for the first time here. The Credentials Committee approved the credentials of 42 delegates, representing a paid membership of 5,801 spread across the 9 geographic districts of the UCP. The minutes indicate a very democratic debate over the organization’s program and new constitution, with parliamentary procedure employed and motions made from the floor. Tactics with respect to party members also in the the Finnish Socialist Federation, which was unhappy with the Socialist Party and headed for a split. A financial statement for November 1920 showed a positive balance of accounts for the month, powered by over $5,000 in “special donations.” A heavy Midwestern geographic presence is indicated in the financial report to the convention, which showed over 1750 of the 3200 UCP dues stamps sold in November 1920 coming from the Chicago and Cleveland districts alone. By way of contrast, fewer than 100 stamps were sold to the organization’s three westernmost districts, combined.
“Fourth Statement on Unity Proceedings,” by Charles Dirba [Jan. 5, 1921] The last of four typeset leaflets prepared for the rank and file of the Communist Party of America detailing the status of unity negotiations with the rival United Communist Party. Dirba notes that the CI’s deadline for unity has passed without action and that “the responsibility for this lies entirely upon the UCP. They have refused and they still refuse to abide by the decisions of the Comintern providing for a joint unity convention on the basis of proportional representation.” Includes text of (1) UCP to CPA, Dec. 18 (very lengthy reply to the CPA’s challenge to supply specifics to back up its charges of systematic membership manipulation. While its citation of external estimates of CPA membership strength in various cities is not compelling, its specific charges of inflation of the Lithuanian Federation membership by including participants in legal work as members of the underground organization, though only nominally organized as such, seems to have merit. The additional point seems well taken that the ceaseless torrent of epithets slung by the CPA toward the CLP and UCP has undermined unity efforts. “Your slanderous and unscrupulous attack upon the UCP, which you have made through your official papers and through your paid organizers trying to poison the minds of the membership by shouting ‘centrists’ and ‘provocateurs,’ belie your present protestations of the unity spirit,” the UCP declares.); (2) CPA to UCP, Dec. 22 (insistence upon CI’s terms for unity and declaration that the UCP’s failure to accept these terms constituted a “breach of discipline and a flagrant violation of the mandate of the CI.”); (3) UCP Convention to CPA, circa Dec. 24 (convention invitation of the CPA to attend a joint unity convention based upon equal representation of the parties, with not more than 25 delegates per side due to security reasons); (4) CPA to UCP Convention, circa Dec. 25 (rejection of proposed Unity Convention based on equal representation with reiteration that only the proportional representation plan of the CI was possible. Bringing this matter before the UCP Kingston Convention is urged); (5) UCP Convention to CPA, circa Dec. 26 (repetition of the “concession” to hold a convention with equal representation; request that the CEC of the CPA immediate convene its elected convention delegates to consider this offer); (6) CPA to UCP, circa Dec. 27 (rejection of convention based upon equal participation, reiteration of Comintern guidelines); (7) UCP Convention to CPA, circa Dec. 28 (request to distribute a letter to each individual convention delegate detailing the UCP’s offer for a joint convention with 25 delegates per side); (8) CPA to UCP Convention, circa Dec. 31 (flat rejection to “submit your outrageous statement to our delegates individually” and statement that “the United Communist Party must obey the mandate of the Communist International.”)
“Open Letter to the Central Executive Committee of the CPA, Jan. 11, 1921” by Maximilian Cohen. Outvoted on the Central Executive Committee of the CPA by a majority who paid little heed to the Comintern’s directive to unite with the United Communist Party by Jan. 1, 1921, Maximilian Cohen issued this aggressive challenge to the CEC’s line regarding unity, which he viewed as being intent on “crushing” the rival Communist organization. Instead of printing this letter in the party press and opening its pages to a debate of the issue, as Cohen requested, the CEC majority instead initiated expulsion proceedings against him. This strong pro-unity critique of CPA policy is interesting both as an analysis of the politics of Communist unity in 1920-21 and as an object lesson of the limits of intraparty dissent within the old CPA.
“Notice of a Hearing of Expulsion for Maximilian Cohen in New York from Charles Dirba, Executive Sec. CPA, Jan. 12, 1921.” One of the most outspoken pro-unity figures in the Communist Party of America was New York dentist Maximilian Cohen. Cohen’s outspoken opposition to the policy of delay and obfuscation practiced by the majority of the Central Executive Committee brought about a disciplinary attack. Charges were preferred against Cohen, who was accused of having addressed a party meeting and charged the CEC was suppressing unity communications, censoring the flow of information to the membership about its actions, maintaining a black list of pro-unity members, and stating that the CEC majority was intent upon smashing the rival United Communist Party of America. A meeting was scheduled to hear the case against Cohen the next evening.
“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.
“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.
“Socialists of Buffalo as One Man Swing Over to Left: The Largest Meeting of Party Members Ever Held Endorses Program Promulgated by Left Wing of Local New York.” [event of April 13, 1919] This article from Buffalo Socialist Party weekly The New Age chronicles the move of the Buffalo party into the ranks of the fledgling Left Wing movement at a meeting held April 13, 1919. A special meeting held to consider the Left Wing program of Local New York, which was approved by a unanimous vote according to the article. The resolution sought the elimination of social reform agenda, declaring instead that “the party must teach, propagate, and agitate exclusively for the overthrown of capitalism, and the establishment of Socialism through a proletarian dictatorship.” Demands were made for a party-owned press, repudiation of the Berne international in favor of a new international incorporating the Bolshekiks of Russia and the Spartacans of Germany, and for the immediate convocation of an Emergency National Convention of the Socialist Party.
“Unemployment.” (leaflet of the Communist Party of America) [circa Jan. 15, 1921] ** REFINES ESTIMATED DATE OF PUBLICATION AND ALTERS TYPOGRAPHY. ** This leaflet of the “illegal” underground CPA observes that “a terrific industrial slump has hit this country.” Retailers were overstocked, manufacturers were unable to get orders and were cutting back production and jobs accordingly, and farmers were forced to dump their products on the market at prices below the actual cost of production. “The working class could very easily consume more food, more clothing, more of all the products that they have produced. But under the present capitalist system of production commodities are produced for profit and not primarily for use. The workers get back in wages only about one-fifth of what they produce. The rest, after deducting the portion used by the capitalist class and their henchmen, is held for export to foreign markets. This surplus must be sold for profit to foreign countries.” However, foreign markets were in disarray and were unable to absorb this surplus production and a major crisis was impending. There was only one solution, the leaflet states: “The only way in which you can put an end to this profit system which keeps you in poverty, misery, and degradation, and gives all the good things of life to the rich, is to conquer political power for your class, and make the working class the ruling class in society. You must first destroy the present capitalist government and establish a workers’ or Soviet government in its place by force—just as did the workers and peasants of Russia!” The call for the use of armed force by the working class is repeated: “The capitalist government cannot be destroyed by peaceful means, such as the ballot box. The ballot box is itself an instrument of capitalist domination, cleverly developed so as to fool the workers into believing that they gain their ends through parliamentary action. Nor can you abolish the capitalist system by seizing the factories without at the same time seizing the political power.... The only way to overthrow the capitalist government is by means of MASS ACTION—demonstrations, protests, mass strikes, general strikes, political strikes, and culminating finally in open collision with the capitalist state—armed insurrection and civil war.”
“An Appeal to the Executive Committee of the Communist International,” by Maximilian Cohen [Jan. 16, 1921] Expelled from the Communist Party of America for violation of party discipline by campaigning for unity with the United Communist Party, Max Cohen made his appeal to the organization that was demanding just such a merger. Cohen explicitly identifies a cause of the ongoing organizational feud: “Behind the question of unity...lies the fundamental question of the future form of organization which the united party shall take — i.e., the old question of foreign language federations. Only through the solution of the ’federation problem’ will the key to unity be found. Therein lies the secret of the feuds and the schisms, and the bitterness of the quarrels in the past.” Cohen insists that it is up to ECCI to resolve fundamental difference between the two organizations on the place of the Federations to make unity possible. “Looking at the national language federations as a transitory form of organization, quite necessary in the beginning of the Communist movement when the American elements were not yet ripe for helping to build a Communist Party, the question we know have to face is: have these organizations begun to outlive their usefulness now that the American workers, or the vanguard of them, are slowly but surely coming in?” Cohen asks.
“Minutes of the Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of America: New York City—Jan. 11-16, 1921.” The Central Executive Committee of the old Communist Party of America held frequent extremely lengthy plenums—taking up evenings for the better part of a week. This plenum dealt with the issue of Maximilian Cohen, accused of violating party discipline and misrepresenting the position of the CEC with respect to proposed merger with the United Communist Party. For his transgressions Cohen was summarily suspended from the CEC and an investigating committee appointed on the first day of the plenum—he was expelled from the CEC and the CPA itself on the last. The CEC also heard the report of Karlis Jansons [“Scott”] on behalf of the American Agency—a body appointed to organize sections of the RILU and Comintern in Canada and Mexico; this group of three (including Louis Fraina and Sen Katayama) attempted to assert authority in the merger discussions, which was rebuffed by the CEC of the CPA. Includes details about party finances and membership for the second half of 1920 (approximately $42,200 received and a paid membership averaging about 7,100, according to the figures). Also included are brief reports from the 6 functioning districts of the CPA. The Executive Secretary of the CPA at this time was Charles Dirba, Editor of party publications was John Ballam.
“Letter to the American Agency of the Comintern from the Central Executive Committee of the United Communist Party in New York, January 17, 1921.” Facing a Joint Unity Convention for which delegates were to be apportioned by actually paid membership for July-October 1920—a period in which the UCP averaged a somewhat inflated 4,561 and the CPA averaged 7,552—the UCP suddenly turned about face, terminating their shrill “Unity Now” line and becoming unmistakably obstructionist. This letter from UCP Executive Secretary Alfred Wagenknecht on behalf of the CEC to the American Agency declares that unity under the proportional representation terms set by the Comintern is “impossible,” since it was found to be “impossible to get correct membership figures from the Communist Party.” Instead, “the United Communist Party proposed a unity convention on the basis of equal representation. This alone can break the deadlock,” Wagenknecht declared. He dishonestly added that “we denounce the insistence of the leaders of the Communist Party on the execution of the letter [calling for proportional representation] as a subterfuge behind which they want to hide their determination to prevent unity.” In reality, the archival evidence indicates that the CPA provided the UCP with a “clean” membership count, which the UCP summarily rejected when they realized that they would enter the forthcoming convention controlling just 38% of the delegates.
“Letter to Maximilian Cohen in New York from the CPA Executive Secretary Charles Dirba Notifying Him of His Expulsion.” [Jan. 17, 1921] As an advocate of prompt unity with the rival Communist Labor Party of America, New York dentist and CPA Central Executive Committee member Max Cohen was a black sheep in the pasture. Brought up on charges of violation of party discipline, on Jan. 16, 1921 Cohen was tried and convicted of “flagrant breach of party discipline and intentional misrepresentation of the activities of the CEC.” This letter from Executive Secretary of the CPA Charles Dirba to Cohen passes along the full report of the three member investigating committee. Cohen his found to have stated that the CEC was suppressing news on the unity question and otherwise standing in the way of unity, that it was arranging caucuses in 4 of the 6 districts in order to prevent the election of unity-favoring delegates so as to crush the UCP, was making use of technicalities to hamper unity, and was otherwise preventing him (Cohen) from stating his views on unity in the party press. The investigating committee found that Cohen’s own “Open Letter to the CEC of the CP” had corroborated these charges. Cohen was expelled from the party and wound up being assigned to organization work in Central America by the Comintern in the aftermath.
Letter to the Executive Committee of the Communist International in Moscow from the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of America in New York, Jan. 19, 1921. With the Executive Committee of the Communist International putting on maximum pressure to united the divided American Communist movement into a single organization, the anti-unity majority of the Communist Party of America found its continued obstructionism increasingly difficult to explain. This letter from New York to ECCI attempts to explain why the latest deadline for unity (Jan. 1, 1921) set by the Comintern was ignored. Onus for the failure is placed upon the rival United Communist Party, which is said to have "refused, and still refuses" to abide by ECCI's instructions for a unity convention delegated on the basis of average actual paid membership for the period July through October 1920. Instead, the CPA insists, the UCP sought majority control of the CEC of the forthcoming united organization — and thus decision-making authority over structure and personnel. Copies of correspondence between the CEC of the CPA and ECCI's representative "Charles E. Scott" (Karlis Janson) is included.
Memorandum to the Executive Committee of the Communist International in Moscow from the Communist Unity Committee in New York City, Jan. 21, 1921. With both the CPA and the UCP attempting to sabotage American Communist unity on the Communist International's terms, each for their own reason, it was left to pro-unity elements from both parties to provide unbiased information and to attempt to build consensus from the bottom up. The Communist Unity Committee was the organized expression of these pro-unity forces. This letter to the Comintern indicates that from an initial membership of about 55,000 in the fall of 1919, the combined Communist parties "have now hardly 15,000 members." The letter relates the existence within the 20,000 or so members of a Socialist Party a left wing group who enthusiastically support the Russian Revolution and who seek to join the 3rd International. "The Socialist Party is disintegrating rapidly. The Communist parties, what there is of them, are not in a position to carry on the work, since they are composed mainly of foreign speaking elements, and make no effort to reach the American workman in a manner that he can understand," the letter advises. The ground is ready for an organization of 50,000 or so "class-conscious elements" to join in a new, legal organization, the letter opines. It adds: "Only this work must be done openly, above ground, avoiding the legal restrictions of the 48 separate states, to as great an extent as may be found necessary. Secret agitation here will only invite spying, corruption, and eventual disintegration.”
Memorandum to the Executive Committee of the Communist International in Moscow from the Communist Unity Committee in New York City, Jan. 21, 1921.Membership Bulletin of the United Communist Party, January 27, 1921. Mimeographed bulletin circulated by the governing Central Executive Committee of the United Communist Party to the party’s rank and file, informing the membership of the decisions of the recently-completed 2nd National Convention. After long having advocated union with the rival Communist Party of America, the UCP leadership — facing force merger as a minority based on its lesser actual paid membership — now spreads anti-unity propaganda. It announces the “interesting news” that had “come to light” that no member of the UCP’s CEC would be allowed on the CEC of the united organization, nor was any member of the former UCP “to be given any responsible position in the united party.” A new party program and constitution had been adopted for the UCP at its 2nd Convention [Kingston, NY: Dec. 24, 1920-Jan. 2, 1921] and members were instructed “to make a study” of these documents. Activity on behalf of the unemployed was emphasized, and mass meetings of the unemployed were to be called. These were to be allowed o elect governing officers, “but you are also to see to it that members of our party are slated for these positions and elected to them,” the document instructs.
FEBRUARY
Memorandum on the Present Situation of the Communist Movement of America: Adopted by the Communist Unity Committee for Submission to the Executive Committee of the Third Communist International. [c. Feb. 1, 1921] Lengthy set of theses to the Executive Committee of the Comintern on the unity situation in America representing the official perspective of the Communist Unity Committee, a group headed by Alexander Bittelman and containing members of both the Communist Party of America and the United Communist Party. Both Central Executive Committees are blamed for the failure of the American Communists organizations to unite in accord with Comintern directives. Origins of the split are linked to language, with English-speaking elements seeking postponement of formation of a Communist Party in America until after the 1919 Emergency National Convention of the Socialist Party so as to maximize the number of English-speaking revolutionary socialists brought into the fledgling communist movement. Upon formation of the dual organizations, the CEC of the CPA is said to have “almost unanimously adopted the position that, since the CLP is by its composition, leadership, and program a centrist organization,” therefore rendering unity impossible. This feeling had been attenuated by the protracted underground period, which many CEC leaders had felt had largely purged CLP ranks of its former centrist elements. In March and April 1920 pro-unity factions in both organizations had virtually achieved organic unity of the rival groups, only to be sabotaged by the leaderships of both parties. In the aftermath, the anti-unity CPA majority conducted a purge against pro-unity elements following the July 1920 2nd Convention of the organization. Meanwhile, the UCP embraced the theory that “all evils come from the foreign language groups” and came to exert an ever more divisive role on the American movement. The Communist Unity Committee, representing the pro-unity factions within each party, casts itself here as a force for a united party bringing together both English-speaking and Foreign language elements. “The ruling groups of both parties have neither the conception nor the ability to build and lead such a party,” the document notes.
Memorandum to the Executive Committee of the Communist International in Moscow from the Communist Unity Committee in New York City, Jan. 21, 1921. Basically this document is the introduction TO the above Memorandum adopted by the Comintern
“Summary of the Central Executive Committee’s Report to the Extraordinary 3rd Convention of the Communist Party of America.” An extended excerpt of the report delivered by the CEC to the delegates at the February 1921 convention of the CPA held in Brooklyn and published in the organization’s membership bulletin. This obscure document was saved for posterity in the pages of the theoretical journal of the British Communist Party, where it was published it for the edification of the members of the CPGB. Excellent detail on the old CPA’s organizational size and finances in the aftermath of the departure of C.E. Ruthenberg, I.E. Ferguson, and others to join the CLP in forming the United Communist Party of America. Includes copious footnotes for the contemporary reader by Tim Davenport.
“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.
“Unemployment.” (leaflet of the Communist Party of America) [circa Feb. 1921] This leaflet of the “illegal" underground CPA observes that “a terrific industrial slump has hit this country.” Retailers were overstocked, manufacturers were unable to get orders and were cutting back production and jobs accordingly, and farmers were forced to dump their products on the market at prices below the actual cost of production. “The working class could very easily consume more food, more clothing, more of all the products that they have produced. But under the present capitalist system of production commodities are produced for profit and not primarily for use. The workers get back in wages only about one-fifth of what they produce. The rest, after deducting the portion used by the capitalist class and their henchmen, is held for export to foreign markets. This surplus must be sold for profit to foreign countries." However, foreign markets were in disarray and were unable to absorb this surplus production and a major crisis was impending. There was only one solution, the leaflet states: “The only way in which you can put an end to this profit system which keeps you in poverty, misery, and degradation, and gives all the good things of life to the rich, is to conquer political power for your class, and make the working class the ruling class in society. You must first destroy the present capitalist government and establish a workers’ or Soviet government in its place by force—just as did the workers and peasants of Russia!” The call for the use of armed force by the working class is repeated: “The capitalist government cannot be destroyed by peaceful means, such as the ballot box. The ballot box is itself an instrument of capitalist domination, cleverly developed so as to fool the workers into believing that they gain their ends through parliamentary action. Nor can you abolish the capitalist system by seizing the factories without at the same time seizing the political power.... The only way to overthrow the capitalist government is by means of MASS ACTION—demonstrations, protests, mass strikes, general strikes, political strikes, and culminating finally in open collision with the capitalist state—armed insurrection and civil war."
“Membership Bulletin No. 1 - 1921 of the United Communist Party.” [circa Feb. 1, 1921]" Internal membership bulletin of the United Communist Party detailing activities of the governing Central Executive Committee of the organization, with one copy mimeographed for each local group, to be distributed by District Organizers to group leaders, read at a meeting, and then destroyed. Karlis Janson ("Scott") had returned from Moscow with a mandate to establish a Pan-American Bureau and RILU Bureau in America. Payment of one day's wages on February 26, 1921 is scheduled in the guise of a "Communist Saturday," borrowed from the Soviet subbotniki of the period. Leaflets and pamphlets are approved for publication with every section of the party instructed to host a for-profit social event on the party's behalf to raise funds for the necessary expenses. The UCP's Federation strategy is detailed, to wit: "Party groups be strengthened and increased in these federations with a view of taking over the propaganda machinery of these federations and eventually dissolving these federations." A wage-related fight with the still unidentified Chicago-based CEC members "Flat" and "Adams" burns hot, with the disaffected pair refusing further party work, suspended from the CEC, and ordered to attend the next session of that body.
“Bibliography: Press of the Communist International (Till February 1st, 1921).” There was an explosion of interest and activity in the revolutionary socialist movement around the world during the first 2 years of the Communist International which resulted in a vast literature emerging. This document lists the official CI and English-language portions of an extensive bibliography which appeared in the pages of the official organ of the Comintern. Of particular note is the list of languages in which the underground official organs of the CPA and UCP appeared. For the CPA, in addition to English: Latvian, Ukrainian, and Polish—Russian not mentioned. The CPA also published an underground Yiddish organ called Die Rot Fahne. For the UCP, in addition to English: Hungarian, Yiddish, Latvian, Polish, Russian, Finnish, Croatian. From June 1920 the Russian language Novyi Mir, previously a legal publication, had been published on an illegal basis, the bibliography notes. The bibliography is not perfect, scholars should be made aware, listing two defunct publications of the former CLP—Voice of Labor (first variant) and The Class Struggle. Also interesting are the claimed circulation figures of the English language legal organs of the two parties: 5,000 for the CPA’s The Workers Challenge and 15,000 for the UCP’s The Toiler.
“In the Matter of Abraham Zanan, Under Telegraphic Warrant of Arrest: Philadelphia—Feb. 11, 1921.” (Interview of Abraham Zanan of the CPA by A.G. Benkhart, Immigrant Inspector.) Attempting a social history of the early American Communist movement is problematic. While there are many hundreds, even thousands, of Slavic and Baltic and Hungarian names and addresses recorded in the voluminous records of the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Investigation—readily available on microfilm as part of the National Archives and Records Administration’s collection M-1085—these are ultimately faceless mentions of individuals deported from or absorbed into America without leaving a trace. Those interrogation transcripts which are extant, a fraction of the larger whole, tend to be uninformative , the prisoners understandably tending to lie and obfuscate in the interest of self-preservation rather than to truthfully enlighten their interrogators. This particular document, however, provides a significant glimpse at the history of American Communist Party life “from below,” from the perspective of a committed rank and file member. Abraham Zanan answered the questions of Immigration Inspector A.G. Benkhart fully and truthfully because he was (somewhat lamentedly) seeking deportation to Soviet Russia. Zanan was a 20 year old unemployed garment cutter from Philadelphia, a member of the Young Peoples Socialist League (youth section of the Socialist Party) from 1915 and the Yiddish language federation of the Socialist Party of America not long thereafter, a founding member of the Communist Party of America who departed the old CPA with the Ruthenberg group in 1920 to membership in the United Communist Party. Zanan provides details of group life in the UCP, with meetings held at rotating homes at irregular intervals, rare activity in distributing the leaflets of the organization, the organization collecting its 75 cent monthly dues without the use of receipt stamps or party cards. Zanan attempts to explain to the inspector the UCP’s position on force and violence, that it was both defensive and inevitable in the struggle for state power. He takes umbrage to the government’s assertion that he and his party are “Anarchist” or against all organized government—these being, along with the charge advocacy of force and violence, the sole statutory rationale for state repression of the Communists. Unable to find employment in his trade for a protracted period and not seeking to be a burden to his family, Zanan turned himself in to the authorities on Feb. 3, 1921, and confessed his party membership, believing himself to be a fugitive from justice since the unsuccessful raid of his home during the so-called Palmer Raids of Jan. 2/3, 1920. He sought deportation to Soviet Russia, believing that he might there find employment and make a living, despite the testimony of his mother and uncle, included here, to keep the “good boy” Zanan in America.
“Report on the United Communist Party,” by BoI Undercover Employee “P-140” [Feb. 15, 1921] This report of a Hungarian employee of the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Investigation paints the United Communist Party of America in most alarming tones: “I beg to report that I established the fact that it is the intention of the United Communist Party to try to establish within this year the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.” The unidentified “P-140” emphatically declares: “It is namely known that the local factions of the Third International are receiving from Moscow all the directions. It is the intention of the Communists of Europe to celebrate the 1st of May with a general strike and the Communists of America adopted the same program. I was informed by the people who are members of the Communist Party to the effect that the laborers of this province are provided with arms.” “P-140” also sensationally adds: “I will also mention a few new points in connection with my investigation of the Wall Street explosion. I was always positive that the outrage was done by the communists, but now I obtained proofs to that effect. The young man who is known only under the name of “Rudy” told me that a great deal of this affair is known to the “comrades” in Detroit, who are the most revolutionary elements.” Slightly unhinged and factually erroneous reports like this one stoked the fires of the engine of repression, culminating in the mass arrests in Philadelphia during the night of April 25/26 and the raid of UCP headquarters in New York City on April 29, 1921.
“Bases of the Protest of the [CPA] Minority Against the Extension of Appointments to Local Organizers." [c. Feb. 15, 1921] Text of a typewritten factional document by a previously undocumented faction of the underground Communist Party of America, which included members in five of the party's six functioning districts. At issue was the question of appointment versus election of local leaders, with the majority at the 3rd Convention of the CPA deciding to replace democratic election of the two lowest levels of party leaders with centralized appointment. The pro-democracy faction behind this document contended that such a system was a violation of the Comintern's principle of democratic centralism, which was to be established on the basis of "the election of upper party units by those immediately below." The dissident minority details its thinking as follows: "Being appointed by secondary representatives of the CEC by the Sub-District Organizers, the local organizers will represent neither the CEC nor the membership. We are greatly lacking now in comrades qualified to act as organizers in the various Party units. Through the elections in the lower Party units there was an opportunity for new comrades to develop from the rank and file. The appointments will make this practically impossible." An appeal is made to the Communist International to overturn this organizational decision of the American Communist Party.
“Statement to the Members of the Communist Party of America and United Communist Party from the American Agency of ECCI, Feb. 17, 1921.” Unable to bring the two parties to an immediate unity convention, the designated “American Agency” of the Executive Committee of the Communist International proposed the formation of a six member “National Council,” formed on an equal basis. The parties were to terminate their dueling official organs and the National Council was to issue a joint official organ on behalf of “The Communist Party of America (Unified)”—a publication which would be produced under the authority of two editors, one hailing from the UCP and the other from the CPA. This proposal for unity put forward by the American Agency (Janson, Fraina, and Katayama) was accepted with revisions by the CEC of the United Communist Party, but rejected by the Communist Party of America, probably because it merged the two groups on a basis of organizational equality rather than according to organizational size. “We shall accordingly report to the Executive Committee that we cannot break the deadlock, and we shall make definite concrete suggestions to the Communist International on how to break the deadlock and how to realize actual unity—unity of a character which shall give factional control to neither party,” the statement declared. Members were urged not to make factional hay from the impasse, to stay in their current organizations, and to be patient and allow the CI “time to act, finally and authoritatively.”
MARCH
“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.”
“The Case of John P. Anderson: An Investigation by the Communist Party of America,” by Charles Dirba [Hearing held March 22, 1921, transmitted April 14, 1921.] One final debunking document that effectively deals a coup-de-grace to the strange and utterly unsubstantiated theory of a purported “$3 million” Comintern subsidy to the American Communist movement in 1920 (Hayes/Klehr/Firsov, 1995).... John Anderson (née Kristap Beika) was a Latvian Federationist sent to Moscow by the suspended Federations of the Socialist Party in the summer of 1919—effectively the CPA’s first “man in Moscow.” In January 1920 Anderson and CLP representative John Reed signed a document in Soviet Russia agreeing to merge the two American parties. Before they headed home, the Comintern issued each a significant quantity of jewels and valuta for the American movement—cumulative value in the range of $30,000 to $50,000—to help support the American Communist movement. Neither Reed nor Anderson made it home with jewels intact, Reed being arrested in Finland and Anderson failing to cross the Latvian frontier. Late in 1920, home in America, the Comintern representatives of the United Communist Party demanded the Communist Party account for Anderson’s $25,000 in missing gems, which they were no doubt angling to collect for their own use. The appropriation of gems to the American movement seems to have been news to the CPA and a party trial ensued, the minutes of which constitute this document. Anderson explains how he checked the gems in the office of a military unit, which issued receipts that Anderson took back to the Ian Berzin and Gustav Klinger at the Comintern. The Latvian reds crossing the border with the rocks met with catastrophe, captured in the woods by white forces and summarily executed. Anderson tells his convincing tale, bitterly adding his reasoning for not joining the CPA when he finally made it home to the United States early in the summer of 1920: “When I landed in the US I found the tactics of the CP more resembling a religious sect than a political party, and I considered joining the party as a useless waste of time and energy.” Copious footnotes by Tim Davenport—quite an interesting document...
“Organization Rules of the Young Communist League of America (Adopted by the National Committee of the YCL)” [circa March 1921] According to the literature, there was no organized youth section of the American Communist movement until a founding convention of the Young Communist League held at Bethel, CT on April 20, 1922. This document from the Comintern Archive indicates that fully a year earlier the United Communist Party was moving to establish just such an organization at a First National Convention “in the near future.” This document sets down the basic structure of the organization that was to follow—the “Young Communist League of America—Section of the Young Communist International.” The YCLA was to be an underground organization build on the UCP model, with local groups of no more than 10 members which elected their own group organizer, who in turn participated in the “city central unit.” Dues were to be 25 cents a month, the initiation fee was to be 50 cents, and the organization was to work for “the communist education of the young workers; active participation in the struggle to overthrow capitalism; (defense of the proletarian dictatorship and the workers soviets after the seizure of power); reorganization of labor; and the cultural development of the working youth along the lines of communist principles.” Based upon this and a programmatic document in the archives, it now seems likely that some sort of formal underground American communist youth organization existed in 1921—earlier than previously believed.
“Constitution of the [old] Communist Party of America, Section of the Communist International,” as published in the March 1, 1921, issue of The Communist by the old (preunification) CPA. This document of organizational law was adopted by the 3rd Convention of the old CPA, held in Brooklyn, New York, during February 1921 and attended by about 30 delegates. This constitution outlines the structure of the organization and its relationship to its component Language Federations, who were characterized as being subject to the “dictatorship and control of the Party.”
“Membership Bulletin No. 2 - 1921 of the United Communist Party.” [circa March 1, 1921] Mimeographed bulletin for members of the underground United Communist Party of America—to have been distributed to group (cell) leaders, read once at the weekly meeting, and destroyed. The announcement is made that Canadian connections with the UCP are being severed and the work of organizing a Communist Party of Canada turned over to the Comintern’s “ American Agency” (Fraina, Janson, Katayama). The new “ Red Star League” started by Charles Drake in Chicago after closure of that office of the Soviet Russia Medical Relief Committee is deemed “ reactionary” and party members are instructed to “ ask all workers not to support this league in any way.” Former CEC members from Chicago “ Adams” and “ Flat” (pseudonyms still unidentified) are suspended for 3 months for breach of discipline. A disciplinary investigation is to be launched with respect to party members participating in the Communist Unity Committee. It is announced that the UCP is now maintaining a legal press in English, Yiddish, Croatian, Armenian, Czech, Italian, and Estonian. (Note that no such Russian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, or Finnish press exists). It is noted that while criticism of party decisions is permitted, members withholding the purchase of dues stamps, special stamps, or refusing to sell party literature due to such opposition are “ in rebellion against the Party can not hold Party membership.” A list of recently published and forthcoming pamphlets is presented, including material in English, Yiddish, German, Finnish, Ukrainian, and Croatian. The CEC announces its decision to “ permeate” the American Labor Alliance for Trade with Soviet Russia (ALA) and the German-language Arbeiter Bilundgs Vereine [Workers’ Educational Associations]. Increased sale of both legal and illegal literature is insisted upon.
NJ Court Frees Communist [Walter Gabriel — event of March 3, 1921] Excerpt from The Toiler on the freeing of Walter Gabriel, NY Communist leader, from jail. Arrested as part of the events leading up to the Palmer Raids the same year.
“Special Report on Undercover Operations in the UCP by the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Investigation at Mason City, IA,” by Special Agent H.W. Hess [March 4, 1921]” This extensive report by Bureau of Investigation Special Agent H.W. Hess reviews the information gathered by the undercover operations of the Bureau. B.C. Keeler of the Mason City Brick & Tile Co. had placed his undercover operative ("Mike Benton") at the service of the BoI; this individual had worked himself into the good graces of the local organization of the United Communist Party, headed by cartoonist and writer Harry Keas, a founding member of the Communist Labor Party. The BoI believes that “Carl Alton,” UCP District Organizer for the Chicago District, was a pseudonym for Ludwig Katterfeld—an assertion which has not been positively confirmed at this time. Also figuring largely in the Chicago District of the UCP were Edgar Owens of Moline, IL, and Harry Keas of Mason City, IA. A Dec. 12, 1920 visit to the district by CEC member Edward Lindgren is recounted; Lindgren is represented as having made the (preposterous) claims that “the Russian government would have 5,000 agents in this country within 6 months; that the Russian Soviet Government was appropriating $120,000 per year in the support of the United Communist Party.” This document includes an extensive set of footnotes by Tim Davenport clarifying various esoteric points and misstatements.”
“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.
“Letter to Attorney General of the US Harry Daugherty in Washington, DC from Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover in Washington, DC.” [March 16, 1921] New Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover lost little time in preferring charges against the American Red Star League, which he did with this letter to new Attorney General Harry Daugherty a short time after the installation of the new Republican administration of which he was a part. Hoover was provided with printed material of the Red Star League by the mayor of Portland, Oregon, who noted the group’s charge that Hoover had aided anti-labor forces during the conduct of his activities as American food administrator in Europe. Hoover writes to Daugherty of the American Red Star League: “I am certain there is no method on earth by which these people can send either shipments or money into Russia, and aside from the bold character of its literature, my impression is that this group will stand investigation from the point of view of fraud.” Such an investigation followed, resulting in a report issued by special assistant to the Attorney General Warren W. Grimes around the 1st of May 1921.
“J.P. Cannon Meeting at Pittsburgh,” by Pittsburg SDO “Ryan” [event of March 27, 1921] One of the most highly placed Department of Justice spies in the early American Communist movement was the Pittsburgh Sub-District Organizer of the United Communist Party, pseudonym "Ryan." Ryan's reports provided the Bureau of Investigation with sufficient information to track one UCP organizer back to party headquarters in New York City, where they were successfully raided—although whether the BoI actually realized they were raiding party headquarters rather than the apartment of a top-level member remains less clear. In this report, "Ryan" details a visit by UCP labor leader James P. Cannon—whom "Ryan" himself introduced to the crowd of about 75. A second, open "public forum" was held in the evening in front of about 35 people, including members of the IWW, on the topic "The Need for an Active Political Party." According to "Ryan" Cannon "pointed out that this is the purpose of the Communists to form revolutionary groups within the unions, and to keep them revolutionary, so that when the time for action comes these communists are prepared to take the lead."
APRIL
“The Story of Alex Howat,” by James P. Cannon.” [April 1921] Article from the legal Communist monthly The Liberator on Alexander Howat, one of the most important left-wing labor leaders of the day as President of District 14 of the United Mine Workers of America. Cannon deals at length with his fellow Kansan’s protracted battle with the Southwestern Coal Operators’ Association, who had made use of the Kansas legislature to establish an Industrial Court as a mechanism for suppressing labor discord. Lack of support by the UMWA for Howat’s cause was alleged to be a contributing factor in the mine owners’ uninterrupted battle with Howat.
“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.
“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! It’s almost as if the inflation-era nominal ruble values listed in document RTsKhIDNI f. 495, op. 82, d. 1, l. ? were misinterpreted in a tendentious 1995 Yale University Press document collection. Reality: According to Executive Secretary Alfred Wagenknecht’s report 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. This was the SUM TOTAL of its funding up to the May 1921 Unity Convention. The document hers shows line items for Comintern and other external subsidies were a shade over $18,000 for the quarter—about double the organization’s dues stamp revenue for the period. Let there be no mistake: this represented a substantial percentage of the UCP’s total income. But the hysterically overhyped 1920 “Document 1” in the collection by Messrs. Haynes, Klehr, and Firsov is hereby shown to have been gleefully misinterpreted by hanging judges intent on politicizing archival documents. Whether a formal public apology will be forthcoming to the guy that two of the trio slagged in their follow up polemic In Denial for challenging their dubious claim remains to be seen. Here is what they said in print about that poor fellow: He literally didn&38217;t know what he was talkng about. (pg. 73) Karma!
“May Day of Revolution.” [UCP leaflet written by Israel Amter] [distributed for May 1, 1921]” This 1921 May Day leaflet of the United Communist Party features the purple prose of Israel Amter, author of a legendary and laughable leaflet of similar vintage which attempted to use hysterical verbiage to singlehandedly create a revolutionary situation out of a Brooklyn streetcar strike. The concert violinist Amter shrilly declares: “We, American Workers, will no more stand the tyranny of the bosses and of their government. We have had enough. The United States Government stands for the bosses against the Workers! It uses the law-making bodies, the courts and its troops against the Workers. THEN WE MUST DESTROY THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT! We must overthrow it and put in its place a Workers’ Government. We must uphold the Workers’ Government with a strong army, to crush the bosses and all who support them! We must prepare for the Revolution - there is no other way! May Day of Revolution is here! * * * LET US PREPARE FOR THE REVOLUTION!”
“Report of the CEC of the United Communist Party on the Case of ‘Adams’ and ‘Flat.’” [circa April 1, 1921] Official statement by the governing Central Executive Committee of the United Communist Party of America to its membership concerning the recent battle between the CEC majority and dissident Chicago members, as yet unidentified, using the pseudonyms “Adams” and “Flat.” According to the report, indiscipline began at the Dec. 1920-Jan. 1921 Kingston Convention, at which “Adams” and “Flat” attempted to resign when two of their factional allies failed to gain election to the CEC. This resignation was rejected by the convention. The pair then are said to have put the Chicago district ahead of the party as a whole by reporting directly to a Chicago District Convention on national affairs and by submitting to the discipline of that convention, which had the pair return to New York City to serve on the Editorial Board of the UCP. When the CEC attempted to change editorial policy at its publications and print a notice of the same, “Adams” and “Flat” are said to have resented the intrusion and to have resigned their editorial positions. The pair were upbraided for their “childish and irresponsible flouting of discipline” at a meeting of the CEC and threatened to make a factional issue of the dispute. A hearing was held before the CEC about this discipline issue at which the pair were asked about whether they would abide by the majority of the CEC’s decision, which the Chicagoans refused to answer. The CEC decided to remove the pair from the CEC for their actions and to suspend them from the party for 3 months. Also included here is a brief summary of a CEC’ special committee’s findings on the testimony of Jay Lovestone in the Harry Winitsky trial. Lovestone is found to have been “ordered to take the stand by the proper authorities, with instructions not to divulge any Party information, nor to hurt the defendant’s [Harry Winitsky’s] case. Comrade Beacon [Lovestone] complied with these instructions closely. The committee found no basis for charges.” Lovestone is criticized for not having made “what is today regarded as a proper Communist stand.”
“Statement to the Executive Committee of the Communist International by Suspended UCP Members ‘Flat’ and ‘Adams.’” [circa April 1, 1921] One still obscure chapter of the history of American Communism’s underground period relates to the factional fisticuffs between two Chicago-based members of the Central Executive Committee, pseudonyms “Flat” and “Adams,” and the majority faction which dominated that governing body. The two still unidentified Chicagoans were elected to the CEC by the Dec. 1920-Jan. 1921 Kingston, New York Convention. They became embroiled in a fight over unequal compensation for members of the CEC, with extra per diem expenses allowed to Alfred Wagenknecht and L.E. Katterfeld, who each had families and who justified their additional compensation by their need to maintain dual residences. “Flat” and “Adams” attempted to take the fight to the party press but were denied space, causing them to return home to Chicago in a huff without permission. This resulted in their being cashiered from the CEC and suspended from the UCP for three months for the violation of party discipline. The suspended Chicagoans raise other additional matters of difference with the CEC majority, including what they see as an “artificial territorial division of the country into numerous districts” which spreads the party’s resources thin, as well as an overprinting and insufficient verification of distribution of party literature. Excessive wages to party workers are declared to be “ a danger to the Party as they may attract undesirable elements.
“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.”
“Report to UCP Executive Secretary Alfred Wagenknecht in New York from William Costley, UCP DO10 in San Francisco, April 6, 1921.” This report from the United Communist Party’s San Francisco District Organizer, William Costley, deals in large part with the UCP’s relationship with American blacks—a fact which is particularly interesting given the fact that DO Costley was himself a black American. “You tell me to take those [blacks] in the party that are qualified. There are none hereabouts,” Costley remarks, adding that a single correspondent in El Paso, Texas was “the only one I would pass.” Costley tells Wagenknecht that “the Negroes are not a reading people, the most progressive communities have no general bookstore, there is non operated by them in the US. If you want them, special literature must be written from them. They practically know nothing of the class struggle and pending worldwide revolt of the working class. But they can be depended on to get in strong when the time comes for action.” Costley also notes that German UCP groups (primary party units) in the bay area had collected $150 for the defense fund, which would be reported in his subsequent financial statement to the center.
“Soviet Russia Called by Communist Worst Tyranny in World.” [Milwaukee Leader on Morris Zucker] [April 8, 1921] This short article from the pages of the Milwaukee Leader sheds a bit of additional light on the strange case of Morris Zucker, an active member of the Left Wing Section of Local New York who upon being released from prison left for Soviet Russia without passport or papers, becoming quickly entangled with the Soviet Secret Police upon arrival. Once release from prison and expelled from the country, Zucker bitterly denounced the Soviet regime in the mainstream press of the day. This article notes that Zucker left the United States in Sept. 1920 and arrived in Soviet Russia only in November—and that he was arrested by the Cheka (as an accused spy) after only 3 days in the country. “Conditions steadily are becoming worse. What little foreign trade Russia is able to get is of no help to the people, who everywhere are the victims of tyranny and go about in a hopeless attitude because of the great and constant red terror,” Zucker is quoted as declaring from Estonia.
“Draft of a CPA Appeal and Protest to the CI on the Ultimatum of the American Agency As Presented by ‘Scott’ [Janson].” [April 11, 1921] Archival document outlining the position of the Communist Party of America towards the so-called “American Agency” of the Communist International, a 3-person committee assigned the task of brokering unity between the feuding Communist Party of America and United Communist Party. The CPA were put off by the fact that it was the UCP member Karlis Janson (”Scott”) who was the sole individual around to implement the Comintern’s unity plan, with CPA member Louis Fraina and non-factional member Sen Katayama out of the country in Mexico. The CI plan for a convention of 60 delegates, consisting of 30 from each party, is strongly opposed. “We cannot understand what new or special conditions have arisen under which a change from the previous decision of the EC of the CI for proportional representation is made necessary,” the appeal declares, adding that the CPA does “recognize that the American Agency should have full power to enforce unity, but object to the AA using its power to enforce conditions which are contrary to the express conditions and decisions of the EC of the CI.” Further objection is made to the plan for appointment of an Executive Secretary for the soon-to-be united organization, which is held to be a first occurrence in the annals of the Comintern. “The charge that the Federations in the CP of A are autonomous is absolutely false,” the document ads. The Comintern is asked to reject the American Agency’s unity plan and to restore a unity convention delegated by actual paid membership of the two participant organizations. “Whatever your final decision will be we pledge our party to carry them out implicitly,” the CPA hastens to add.
“Letter to ‘Comrade Stepan’ in Moscow from Charles Dirba in New York, April 12, 1921.” Letter from the Executive Secretary of the Communist Party of America to the party’s “man on the ground” in Moscow, the as-yet-unidentified “Comrade Stepan.” With a Comintern deadline for unification of the two rival American parties just weeks away, Dirba remains insistent that the Comintern’s “American Agency” (UCP member Karlis Janson, CPA member Louis Fraina, and non-party representative Sen Katayama) had “overstepped [their] authority” by issuing an ultimatum mandating a joint unity convention on the basis of equal 30 member delegations. Dirba places the blame for the undermining of the larger CPA’s justifiable claim to dominate the proceeding upon Janson (pseudonym “Scott”), supported by Katayama (pseudonym “Yavki”). With respect to Fraina, Dirba notes that “his relations to the Party have been rather strained ever since he without any authority had vouched for Dr. Nosovitsky and brought him into the Amsterdam Conference in the beginning of 1920. He was officially censured for this act by the CEC. Besides there was quite a little friction between him and the CEC on account of his failure to return to this country promptly. The CEC passed two times a decision calling upon Louis [Fraina] to return immediately, none of which was carried out.” Dirba provides information for “Stepan” to present to ECCI, including the group’s average paid membership figure of 6,717 for the four months Dec. 1920 to March 1921—figures which “do not include many exemptions, which are very heavy at this time of unemployment.”
“New Offensive Against Soviet Russia: Communication of the Amsterdam Sub-Bureau of the Third International.” [c. April 15, 1921] This communication of the short-lived Western European Bureau of the Communist International was published and distributed as a leaflet by the underground Communist Party of America. A new military assault against Soviet Russia is being prepared by world imperialism, led by Great Britain and France via Poland, the Amsterdam Bureau declares. Simultaneously Petrograd is menaced by White Finland, while the Ukraine remains under attack. In the East, the ongoing Japanese intervention in Siberia threatens the fledgling Soviet regime with a battle on two fronts. “The fate of the world is now to be decided: enslavement or freedom,” the Amsterdam Bureau proclaims. It makes an explicit appeal “to all workers and to the transport workers in the very first place, to boycott all ships and goods from and for Japan. So long as the policy of intervention in Siberia is maintained, class-conscious workers should not touch any goods destined for Japan, or coming from Japan, nor should manufacture or handle the transport of such goods.” With Britain judged the “mainstay” of the anti-Soviet conspiracy, “it is in the British workers, therefore, that a most important part in this struggle will fall,” the Amsterdam Bureau asserts. “Letter to ‘Comrade Stepan’ in Moscow from Charles Dirba in New York, April 16, 1921.” Supplement to the letter of April 12, 1921 sent by Executive Secretary of the Communist Party of America Charles Dirba to his “man in Moscow,” the still unidentified “Comrade Stepan,” about ongoing changes in the factional battle over unity with the rival United Communist Party. Dirba indicates a hardening of the CPA’s position against the unity ultimatum issued by the Comintern’s 3 member “American Agency” of Janson, Fraina, and Katayama, declaring “I was wrong when I wrote in my letter of the 12th that it is possible that we may be compelled to accept the whole ultimatum in words, having all the time in mind our present appeal, and expecting that the decision of the CI will repudiate the action of the American Agency before the Convention is held. This is out of the question.... [The members] have plainly stated, and insist very strongly, that the CEC must not give in any further, must reject and stick to the rejection of all the other points of the Agency’s ultimatum.” Intent on fighting externally-enforced unity conditions to the last trench, Dirba reckons that the American Agency “overstepped their power by putting up conditions not necessary and not essential to unity, and now, maintaining them, they will be absolutely violating the instructions of the CI, giving them full power to unite both parties.” By way of contrast the rival UCP has accepted the American Agency’s unity ultimatum in full and without reservations, Dirba reveals. “Circular Fundraising Letter of the American Red Star League by Charles L. Drake, Secretary.”
“Dept. of Justice General Intelligence Division Report on UCP Propaganda Mailed to Detroit, MI—April 7-14, 1921” by J.S. Apelman. Department of Justice intelligence report for the Detroit district by Bureau of Investigation agent J.S. Apelman. Apelman’s report makes clear the level of the DoJ’s penetration of the Detroit district of the UCP. The “Electrical Installment Company” of Detroit, documented to be owned by Nathan Kosin and Benjamin Singerman (Singer), “is used by the radicals of this city as a distributing point for their literature, especially literature issued by the United Communist Party.” Apelman details the seizure of 5 literature shipments from March and April 1921, quoting the shocking revolutionary prose from the South Slavic edition of Communist #10 at considerable length. Apelman also directly quotes the slogans on 9 of the 16 stickers manufactured by the UCP for their May Day 1921 propaganda blitz. This organized campaign proved to be a ludicrous debacle that resulted in 79 arrests, due largely to federal penetration of the Philadelphia, Pittsburgh UCP organizations, probable penetration of the St. Louis organization, and possible penetration in other districts of the UCP.
“In Re: United States versus William D. Haywood et al.,” by Louis Loebl [April 23, 1921] Report of Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Louis Loebl on the unexpected decision of William D. “Big Bill” Haywood to jump bail and gain asylum in Soviet Russia. Haywood and other members of the Industrial Workers of the World had been out on bond pending appeal of a 20 year federal prison sentence. Loebl reports that the IWW declared its ignorance of knowing beforehand Haywood’s intentions, and that they had learned of their former leader’s decision only from published accounts in the mainstream press on the afternoon of April 21, when the story broke. The Federated Press, a left wing news service, was investigated by the BoI in an attempt to determine the source and the timing of the information about Haywood’s escape. Loebl indicates that the Federated Press had received a telegram on the evening of April 20 detailing Haywood’s departure for Moscow, via Stockholm and Riga, aboard the Oscar II. The Federated Press then transmitted the information to 23 newspapers subscribing to its press service only in its dispatch of April 22, i.e. after the story had already broke. Haywood had subsequently severed all connections with the IWW and joined the Communist Party, E.J. Costello of the Federated Press had later reported.
“May Day! Red Labor Day!” [distributed for May 1, 1921] Leaflet of the underground United Communist Party of America in celebration of May Day 1921, issued over the signature of a front group, the “American Freedom Foundation” and seemingly targeted to a trade union audience. The leaflet notes that the “bosses are united in a league to smash the Workers,” eradicating the unions in favor of the open shop. Meanwhile in Soviet Russia the workers had gained freedom, while civil war swept Germany and Italy and rebellion percolated in India, Persia, Egypt, Korea, Turkey, and Asia Minor. “Revolt is in the air: REVOLUTION is the watchword!” the leaflet proclaims. Therefore, “this year, we must all get out and demonstrate. This year, all the organized and unorganized and the unemployed must get together in a tremendous demonstration. Your union must help the demonstration, Brothers and Fellow Workers!” the leaflet insists.
1921 May Day Propaganda Stickers of the United Communist Party.” [distributed for May 1, 1921] Rough approximations of five propaganda stickers produced by the United Communist Party with an aim to their surreptitiously mass posting in celebration of May Day 1921. Slogans include: “Unemployed: Mobilize May 1st,” “Workers, the U.S. is Yours — TAKE IT,” “Hail Soviet America, May Day,” “Workers, Show Your Power, Demonstrate May 1,” and “Overthrow Capitalism, Long Live Communism.” The propaganda stickers do not seem to have had the intended effect of bringing millions of workers in the streets intent upon the overthrow of capitalism but would have looked pretty rad on the skateboard decks of the day, had there been skateboards in 1921.
“May Day of Revolution.” [UCP leaflet written by Israel Amter] [distributed for May 1, 1921]” This 1921 May Day leaflet of the United Communist Party features the purple prose of Israel Amter, author of a legendary and laughable leaflet of similar vintage which attempted to use hysterical verbiage to singlehandedly create a revolutionary situation out of a Brooklyn streetcar strike. The concert violinist Amter shrilly declares: “We, American Workers, will no more stand the tyranny of the bosses and of their government. We have had enough. The United States Government stands for the bosses against the Workers! It uses the law-making bodies, the courts and its troops against the Workers. THEN WE MUST DESTROY THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT! We must overthrow it and put in its place a Workers’ Government. We must uphold the Workers’ Government with a strong army, to crush the bosses and all who support them! We must prepare for the Revolution - there is no other way! May Day of Revolution is here! * * * LET US PREPARE FOR THE REVOLUTION!”
“May Day Labor’s International Holiday.” (leaflet of the CPA) [circa April 25, 1921] ** NEW EDITION - Fills in previously illegible words ** 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.
“The United Communist Party in Pittsburgh,” by H.J. Lenon and SDO “Ryan” [April 25-27, 1921] Report of Bureau of Investigation Special Agent H.J. Lenon incorporating reports of his key informer, the United Communist Party’s Pittsburgh Sub-District Organizer, pseudonym “Ryan” (as yet unidentified). “Ryan” puts into motion an operation which would shortly pay results in a raid on the UCP’s secret headquarters in New York City when he identifies UCP CEC member Edward Lindgren as having arrived in Pittsburgh for an estimated two week training session on April 25. Lindgren and “Ryan” planned to drive to East McKeesport, PA to pick up May Day leaflets and stickers for distribution. Kept abreast of all Lindgren’s doings by their spy “Ryan,” an unscheduled return of Lindgren to the city on April 27 to attend a meeting of the Central Executive Committee provided the opportunity for the BoI to follow him back to the location of secret party headquarters, located in the apartment of Helen Ware.
“On Linn A.E. Gale: Excerpt from General Intelligence Bulletin for Week Ending April 30, 1921,” by Gus T. Jones. Short excerpt from the weekly report of the Bureau of Investigation’s San Antonio District Superintendent, Gus T. Jones, detailing the fate of draft resister and Communist magazine publisher Linn A.E. Gale. Jones notes that Gale arrived at the guardhouse of Fort Sam Houston on April 28, 1921 and had immediately “given the Military Intelligence a long statement concerning radical activities and persons in Mexico and in fact has betrayed all his former associates in the belief that this will cause lenience on trial.” Gale remained in custody to face charges of desertion.
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“Membership Bulletin of the United Communist Party.” [circa May 5, 1921] Summary of activities of the United Communist Party compiled by the center for the benefit of the organization’s underground membership. The distribution of “nearly 2 million” May Day leaflets and stickers by “several thousand comrades” is claimed. Attempting to spin a catastrophic failure of organizational security as a triumph, the UCP leadership declares that “raids upon two of our workplaces here [in New York] gave the enemy very little information that will harm us, as our vital centers are well covered and safe. They resulted in publicity worth tens of thousands of dollars to our movement.” The raids did not compromise safehouse names and addresses, the bulletin notes. The success of the UCP’s 1921 May Day event in New York City relative to similar parallel activities hosted by the rival Communist Party of America and Socialist Party is puffed up into evidence that the UCP had emerged as “the acknowledged ‘vanguard of the class-conscious workers’ of the US.” The bulletin also notes that “The UCP now has affiliations in 20 languages. A special Negro group is also affiliated and others are in process of formation.”
“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&38217;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.
“In Re: Communist Activites—John E. Siebert, aliases Lindgren, Flynn, Landy, Lang, and Smith.”, by Al Weitsman [Events of April 29, 1921] Department of Justice Bureau of Investigation report by one of the Special Agents assigned to trail United Communist Party organizer “John Siebert” (believed by them to be the real name of Edward Lindgren), who had been shadowed to New York by an agent of the Bureau from Pittsburgh. This account provided additional fine detail about events leading up to his arrest. Most interesting for the fact that even though there was a major, multi-state effort to trail Lindgren, set in motion by an informer in the top ranks of the Pittsburgh UCP organization, and despite reams of surveillance reports on the American Communist movement, the Bureau of Investigation still did not know Lindgren’s real name. Evidence that the constantly changing pseudonyms of the underground movement did their work in keeping the hundreds of agents and informers of the Bureau of Investigation off balance.
“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.
“Re: A. Jakira (formerly reported as Jakera and Jackera and Iakira): United Communist Party: National Secretary”, by C.J. Scully [April 30, 1921] A summary of Bureau of Investigation file information on Abram Jakira, recently arrested at the headquarters of the UCP, prepared by New York City Special Agent in Charge C.J. Scully. Scully’s synopsis of file material includes the verbatim quotation of an extensive report by Special Agent M.J. Davis that illuminates the technical aspect of the Communist Labor Party’s literature production in 1919 (as well as the operating procedure of the DoJ’s Bureau of Investigation). A flyer entitled “HANDS OFF SOVIET RUSSIA” was printed for Jakira and the CLP by the Chatham Printing Co., proprietor of which was Alexander Trachtenberg. Trachtenberg’s bookkeeper, Abraham Goodman, was an informant for the Department of Justice and brought the leaflet to their attention, keeping the Bureau of Investigation apprised of the shop’s doings on behalf of the radical movement. This work was said to have been paid for cash-in-advance and kept off the books by Trachtenberg so as to avoid a paper trail. Abram Jakira was the recipient and distributor of the finished printed publications; the Department of Justice was intent on proving that he was but a transmission mechanism for funding from the office of Ludwig Martens (the Russian Soviet Government Bureau). Trachtenberg initially denied having produced the “HANDS OFF SOVIET RUSSIA” leaflet at all, a claim which bookkeeper Abraham Goodman pronounced to be a lie in a further interview with the Bureau. The story is picked up in a later file item, in which four agents of the Bureau of Investigation served a search warrant on Trachtenberg’s print shop, and found there 10,000 party cards printed for the Communist Party of America, postcards printed for the CLP, a Yiddish language edition of The Class Struggle (a CLP publication), and leaflets for the Newark branch of the CLP. In the course of his interview with the BoI, Trachtenberg implicated the print shop of CLP member Eugene Krug for having printed the Ukrainian language official organ of the CLP—although a still later document in this series indicates the the DoJ already had an informer in that establishment as well.
“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.
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“In Re: Communist Activities—Special Report”, by C.J. Scully [May 1, 1921] A summary of the operation which netted the arrest of Edward Lindgren, Abram Jakira, and Israel Amter in a raid on the National Headquarters of the United Communist Party. This account is written by the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Office of the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Investigation—the commander at the desk rather than the agents on the street. As such, Scully is in position to provide the important tidbit that the operation to trail Lindgren from Pennsylvania to New York related to a belief that he was leaving “to attend a convention of Communist deputies.” Rather than tracking Lindgren back to UCP headquarters, the secret police believed that he was leading them to the site of a convention—thus the scale of the operation and the eagerness to launch an immediate raid. Two other things bear mention about this report: first, it once again indicates the extreme difficulty that literally HUNDREDS of BoI agents, undercover operatives, and informants had in connecting the thousands of ever-changing party pseudonyms with the actual individuals. Even after days of tracking him, based on top level intelligence inside the Pittsburgh UCP apparatus, it was an extremely lengthy process for the authorities to positively identify the man they called “Flynn” and later tentatively identified as “Siebert” as Edward Lindgren. One sees such difficulty again and again in the Bureau of Investigation’s files. Secondly, the ease of a warranteless raid on a residence by the New York Police’s Bomb Squad stands in marked contrast to the difficulty the BoI had in seizing and opening the mail deposiited by Lindgren in a postal mail box. Requests needed to be made of postal officials to hold this mail and then a formal search warrant obtained—an altogether different standard of legality and privacy rights than that afforded the domicile.
“Don’t Be So Sure of Your Job!” (leaflet of the United Communist Party) [circa May 1921] ** REVISES ESTIMATED DATE OF PUBLICATION. **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 spring of 1921 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!”
“Membership Series by Federation for the (old) Communist Party of America, July 1920 to Jan. 1921.” For those of you who like your history crunchy instead of fluffy, here are two pages worth printing out and saving. This is an outstanding membership series for seven core months of the old Communist Party of America, as presented by Executive Secretary Charles Dirba to the May 1921 Unity Convention held at Woodstock, NY. Each of the seven months is divided among the six language federations of the old CPA (these being from big to small: Lithuanian, Russian, Ukrainian, Latvian, Polish, Jewish) as well as the handful of "Non-Federation" (i.e. English language) members. Percentages and quarterly averages have been tabulated and a page of explanatory commentary provided by Tim Davenport. In round figures, membership of the old CPA stood at 7,000 in this period, about a third of which were members of the Lithuanian Federation and about a quarter of which were members of the Russian Federation. There were a shade over 200 "Non-Federation" members in the period.
“Spies and Traitors! [re: Morris Zucker]” [Published circa May 1, 1921] This is a short, unsigned news snippet from the 16th and final issue of the United Communist Party’ s official organ making note of the return of Morris Zucker from Soviet Russia. Zucker, formerly a leading figure in the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party and a founding member of the Communist Labor Party, traveled to Russia in November 1920 and soon ran afoul of the Cheka, who imprisoned him as a suspected spy, only releasing him towards the first of April 1921 on condition of his immediate departure from the country. Zucker is characterized as a “traitor to the workers” and a “turncoat,” since “he comes back a ‘disillusioned’ man! It is his intention to agitate against the Russian Government!” The short news item closes with a rather ominous warning: “Is Zucker a traitor and spy? If he is, let him take care!” Includes a brief biographical footnote on Morris Zucker.
“The American Red Star League: A Report by the Bureau of Investigation,” by Warren W. Grimes [circa May 1, 1921] This is the final report of the Department of Justice on an investigation set in motion by Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover on March 16, 1921. Hoover had charged that the American Red Star League was raising money under false pretenses, as he was certain “there is no method on earth by which these people can send either shipments or money into Russia.” In response, the Bureau of Investigation had analyzed the claims and activities of the American Red Star League, a radical competitor to the American Red Cross to see if charges of fraud could be sustained. Grimes indicates that the American Red Star League had been “created after numerous protests by local communists against the misappropriation of funds collected by the Soviet Russia Medical Relief Society” headed by A.M. Rovin and Boris Roustam-Bek. “The affairs of that Society were turned over to a committee of the United Communist Party of Detroit and Chicago,” Grimes states, with Charles L. Drake, formerly head of the Western Office of the Soviet Russian Medical Relief Society, and Mrs. Moses Stroud the most active individuals behind the new organization. Officers of the American Red Star League included Drake as Secretary, Illinois labor leader Duncan McDonald as President, Swan Johnson as Treasurer, Rev. Irwin St. John Tucker as organizer, Dr. R.B. Green as medical adviser, and Lincoln Steffens as lecturer. Grimes concludes: “From the information at hand, I can find nothing tangible on which to base an assumption of fraud or, in fact, a violation of any law. Inevitably, of course, there will be irregularities—there always have been in organizations of this kind. The Soviet Russia Medical Relief Society experienced them—and this very scheme grew out of those irregularities. But the evidence shows that both organizations have at least made shipments. While the ’Declaration of Principles’ and the personnel of the directorate clearly indicate the likelihood of both questionable faith and propaganda opportunities which undoubtedly will be worked to the limit; and while the activities of the organization and its officers should and will be followed closely, there appears nothing on which the Department could take extraordinary action at present.”
“May Day: Labor’s International Holiday.” This is the text of a 1921 May Day leaflet of the pre-unification Communist Party of America. One of the most inflammatory revolutionary documents produced by the American Communist Movement, this leaflet explicitly calls for American workers to use “force against force” en route to “destruction of the capitalist government” and the establishment of “The Dictatorship of the Proletariat” in America. Printed on two sides of a single newsprint sheet, records in the Comintern archive indicate a print run of this document in excess of 500,000. Despite this, specimens of this leaflet are extreme rarities today.
“Stedman’s Red Raid,” by Robert Minor. [May 1, 1921] Full text of a pamphlet produced by the UCP’s Toiler Publishing Association detailing a particularly disgusting footnote to the 1919 split of the Socialist Party. Minor indicates that in the immediate aftermath of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer’s anti-red raid of January 2, 1920, Socialist Party attorneys Seymour Stedman and Lazaras Davidow attempted to expropriate the assets of the Socialist Party of Michigan under the flimsy pretext that as “Communists” the expelled Michiganites of the party’s holding company were participants in a criminal organization which “advocated the overthrow of the government by force and violence.” At bottom of this scheme was a Detroit headquarters building owned by the Michigan party, represented by Minor as having approximately $90,000 of equity. Stedman issued a Bill of Complaint paralleling the criminal charges of the state against the unfortunate Michigan party members already jailed for alleged violation of the state’s Criminal Syndicalism law. He then red-baited the members of the legitimate holding company on the stand in an attempt to have the property awarded to a hastily gathered and miniscule Michigan “organization” retaining ties to the national SPA. Minor states that when they were at last confronted about their uncomradely behavior by concerned Socialist Party members, Stedman and Davidow thereafter lied and mislead their inquisitors as to their actions and had a further smoke screen laid by SPA National Executive Secretary Otto Branstetter with a fallacious news release of his own to the socialist press. A sordid tale of greed, deceit, and foul play...
“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 running 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 ***CORRECTED VERSION*** This file was posted last week; this corrects a misspelling of the surname of the agent who shadowed Edward Lindgren from Pittsburgh to New York City. This operation lead to a raid on the National Headquarters of the United Communist Party, housed in the apartment of Helen Ware.
“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 running 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.
“CPA Condensed Cash Statement, Feb. to May 1921, Including Federations, But Not Including Payments to and from the National Office and the Federations: Presented to the Joint Unity Convention, Woodstock, NY - May 15, 1921”. This is a very esoteric budget document, but specialists in the history of the early American Communist movement will probably immediately recognize its import. For me, at least, this document has led to a fundamental rethinking about the nature of the old CPA, for it shows that the organization truly was a “federation of federations.” Five of the old CPA’s 6 Language Federations possessed assets at least twice the size of the National Office of the organization. The same 5 possessed printing plant in excess of the National Office. Three of them retained substantial real estate holdings. Three of them spent more money than the National Office on literature production, and a fourth spent approximately the same amount as the National Office. These were clearly fully functioning political organizations in their own right, not tiny social groups of members speaking a common language. It is little wonder that the “Federation Issue” stood so large on the landscape as the primary issue impeding merger efforts between the UCP and the old CPA for so long and fueling the Central Caucus split that erupted in late November of 1921.
“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.
“The Ripening of Revolution in the United States,” by Max Bedacht [circa May 20, 1921] This article was first prepared for publication in Pravda by the United Communist Party’s representative to the Comintern, Max Bedacht; later reprinted in the pages the unified CPA’s legal English weekly, The Toiler. Bedacht observes that “the world war let loose the Social Revolution, and released everywhere the forces of proletarian upheaval. Capitalism everywhere is facing bankruptcy.” One country seemed at first glance exempt from this trend, however—the United States of America. But American prosperity was illusory, Bedacht argues: “this colossus of American capitalism stands on the clay feet of a thoroughly disorganized capitalist world economy, and is built upon the slumbering volcano of a discontented working class.... The bankruptcy of the capitalist countries of Europe presses down on it like a heavy load and poisons its very existence.” Unemployment was rampant and strikes increasing in frequency and volume, Bedacht believes. He concludes that America “will not lag behind in the revolutionary development either. It will destroy capitalism more thoroughly and rapidly, it will, after a sharp but decisive revolutionary struggle in the not far distant future, pave the way to communist development, will leave behind its elder revolutionary brethren thanks to its economic ripeness, and, instead of being the bogey of the world revolution, will become its ministering angel.”
“The White Terror.” (Unsigned Reportage from The Toiler, May 21, 1921). News report from the semi-legal press of the United Communist Party detailing assorted acts of police illegality and malfeasance. Lead importance is given to the arrest of Abraham Jakira, Israel Amter, and Edward Lindgren of the UCP on April 29, 1921—arrests made without warrant. Held on $50,000 bail, at their hearings a week later the trio was brought before a judge, who dismissed the charges for insufficient evidence. The three were arrested again on the courthouse steps, again without warrant, and held pending completion of a pending grand jury hearing. In addition, four women were arrested in New York for distributing May Day leaftlets and held on Criminal Anarchy charges, while in Philadelphia houses were entered and 48 arrests made and property seized—again without warrants. One group of police got drunk on seized wine and made gun plays on one another, according to the report. In Chicago, two were arrested for displaying the Red Flag.
“’Open Civil War,’” by Cameron H. King [May 23, 1921] Socialist Party Regular Cameron King, editor of the Oakland World (a paper which had briefly shifted to the Communist Labor Party before being regained by the Socialist Party of California) takes aim at the new organized Left Wing faction in the Socialist Party—the Committee for the Third International. Noting that this group claims to support the Communist International’s 21 Points for admission in their entirety, King emphasizes the content of points 6 and 12, which call for the “revolutionary overthrow of capitalism” and which characterizes the current period as “an epoch of open civil war.” Acceptance of “open civil war” would make its adherents “outlaws under the criminal syndicalist statutes” in California and 34 other states, King warns. If the new Left Wing really does believe in such things, “we can see no good reason why they should not leave the Socialist Party and join one of the 2 or 3 Communist groups,” King asserts. King observes that “none of these Communist groups has any economic or political strength,” a fact which he attributes to the communist organizations meeting “secretly, ‘underground’ name and purpose camouflaged, and they are, in consequence, utterly impotent and ineffective.” A similar fate would await the Socialist Party if it were to “follow the Communist tactics” and act as a “militarily disciplined brigade in an open civil war here and now,” since “it would be suppressed and wrecked just as the Communists have been suppressed and wrecked.”
“Unity Achieved! To All Members of the CP and the UCP Now United in the Communist Party of America, Section of the Communist International.” [Late May 1921] Communique of the newly unified CPA to its membership regarding the decisions of the Joint Unity Convention held at Woodstock, NY, May 15-28, 1921. An enumeration of the primary differences between the two organizations (size of CEC, relationship of center to the Language Federations, election vs. appointment of party officials, etc.) and details of their final resolution. Published in a free bulletin to the membership along with the new organization’s constitution and the Report of the Liquidation Committee. (These supplemental documents published separately below).
“Constitution of the Communist Party of America: Approved at the Joint Unity Convention of the United Communist Party and the Communist Party of America, May 1921.” Full text of the Constitution of the newly unified Communist Party of America, which amalgamated the two rival American Communist Parties into a single organization. This document was negotiated and ratified by a gathering of 60 delegates (30 from each of the old parties) held in Woodstock, New York, during the second half of May, 1921. Although the party once again split in November-December 1921 and was to some great extent supplanted by the legal Workers Party of America at the end of December, this was the basic document of party law for the underground CPA of 1921-22.
“Report of the Liquidation Committee.” [Late May 1921] Report of a joint committee consisting of members of the old Communist Party of America and the United Communist Party of America detailing specific measures to be taken for the amalgamation of the two party organizations into one organic whole. The directives of this Liquidation Committee were binding, approved by the Joint Unity Convention of May 1921.The new Central Executive Committee was formally given the task of determining the geographic boundaries of the new party’s districts; District Executive Committees consisting of the new DOs and old DOs and SDOs of both parties were established to determine the new subdistricts; language branches were to be combined; cash turned in; assets tallied and reported to the new CEC; and the party press immediately unified.
The UCP and the CP United: An Account of the Joint Unity Convention.” [Woodstock, NY - May 15-28, 1921] This is an official account of the Joint Unity Convention which brought together the United Communist Party and the old Communist Party of America to form the “Communist Party of America (Section of the Communist International),” first published on the front page of the official organ of that organization. Although it is difficult to determine, probable author was a member of the old CPA. The most interesting tidbits include the fact that it was Ludwig Katterfeld rather than Executive Secretary Alfred Wagenknecht who delivered the report of the CEC of the UCP; that some sessions were held outdoors in a “natural amphitheatre with a boulder for the chairman’s desk,” indicating the premise that this was structured as a working retreat in the Catskills is sound; and stellar first-hand description of the impasse which the convention faced over matters of constitutional organization structure and the solution at which the gathering eventually arrived.
JUNE
Report on The Liberator to the Editorial Committee and CEC of the unified Communist Party of America,” by Alfred Wagenknecht [circa June 1921] Short description of the negotiation process leading to the 1921 takeover of Max Eastman's financially-strapped monthly, The Liberator, by the Communist Party of America. Previous negotiations had taken place between the United Communist Party and The Liberator seeking to have the magazine turned over to the party. Some, however, sought for the publication to maintain an independent existence as an “ artistic-poetic magazine similar to The Masses." Wagenknecht indicates that Eastman vaguely favored the latter course but was “ at present in an ‘I-don’t-care’ state of mind, due mainly to the fact that he is tired of his position on the magazine and is busy producing a book.” In addition, the editorial board of the magazine was in disarray due to Eastman's lack of interest in the managerial task. “ Under these circumstances this may be the opportune time to take over” the magazine, Wagenknecht indicates. He seeks establishment of a formal committee by the CEC to conduct negotiations to this effect.
Shall Capitalism “Get Gale or Shall the Workers Free Him? Send Money Now for the Defense of Linn A.E. Gale, Publisher of Gale’s International Monthly of Revolutionary Communism. [circa June 1921] Text of an ultra-rare leaflet published by the Gale Defense Committee, preserved for posterity by the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Investigation. Now held over for prosecution at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, draft resister Linn Gale was said to have been for the previous three years the author of “innumerable articles for the Radical press of almost every country explaining the sinister intrigues of the interventionists and the diabolical conspiracy to embroil the United States in war with Mexico for the sake of profits for the oil magnates and the munitions makers.” The circular calls for money for Gale’s San Antonio-based legal defense, protest meetings against Gale’s prosecution, and letters to prominent politicians. Includes a short biography of Linn Gale as a footnote. “The Tulsa Massacre!”—leaftlet of the unified Communist Party of America [June 1921] Full text of a shrill revolutionary leaflet issued in the wake of the extreme racist terror levied on June 1, 1921 against the black population of Tulsa, Oklahoma. “There is only one appeal that will stop the fiendish and bloody outrages—that is the appeal to organized force. The only language that the bloodthirsty capitalist of America can understand is the language of ORGANIZED POWER,” the leaflet declares. “For the Government of the US is nothing but the organized expression of the WILL of the CAPITALIST CLASS. The Government of the US is nothing else but a ruthless DICTATORSHIP of the RICH over the POOR. It is in the interest of both the Negro and the White WORKERS to destroy this CAPITALIST GOVERNMENT, root and branch. Shoulder to shoulder, and heart to heart, the workers of ALL races must UNITE to establish in this country a WORKERS’ GOVERNMENT—THE SOVIET REPUBLIC OF AMERICA.” The leaflet does not absolve the white working class from culpability for the standing state of affairs: “If the Negro worker can be used against the White worker, who is to blame? We have refused to allow our colored brothers to join our unions. We have repeated all the idiotic accusations against their race. We have foolishly allowed ourselves to be swayed by race prejudice. We have failed to ORGANIZE the Negro workers. We have refused to treat him as our own, our equal BROTHER in the CLASS STRUGGLE. WE ARE TO BLAME.” “Minutes of the Central Executive Committee, (unified) Communist Party of America: New York City—May 30-June 3, 1921.” The minutes of the first plenum of the CEC of the unified CPA, which brought together 5 members of each the old Communist Party of America and the United Communist Party of America to establish the structure of the new organization. Charles Dirba (ex-old CPA) is elected Executive Secretary of the new CPA, Ludwig Katterfeld (ex-UCP) is elected Assistant Secretary. The new CEC spends much of its time and energy establishing boundaries for the new district system, arriving at a 9 District system which most closely resembles the boundaries of the old-CPA (which had 8 districts in theory, of which 6 were functioning in practice). The paid District Organizer positions also are bitterly contested. The CEC also carefully considers and ultimately approves its own procedural rules, which are appended to the minutes document. All known “real names” and their former organizational affiliations are included in the edited version of the minutes here, which make the document comprehensible to non-specialists in the underground period. The initial 10 members of the CEC of the unified CPA were: George Ashkenuzi, John Ballam, Charles Dirba, Joseph Stilson, and J. Wilenkin (ex-old CPA); also Ludwig Katterfeld, Jay Lovestone, William Weinstone, Joseph Zack (Kornfeder), and the yet-inidentified “Post” (ex-UCP). “Minutes of the Central Executive Committee, (unified) Communist Party of America: New York City—June 7-15, 1921.” Minutes of the 2nd session of the CEC of the newly unified Communist Party of America (the CEC of the unified CPA met in nearly continuous sessions). A great deal of effort is expended on seriatim consideration of committee reports on the party program and ground rules for CEC decision making. Proposal of CEC member George Ashkenuzi to call an emergency convention to break the 5-5 deadlock on the CEC voted down. Committee of 3 elected to meet with SP Left Wingers to organize them into a caucus at the forthcoming SPA convention. This committee was instructed to “have the Left Wing delegates work unqualifiedly for the 21 Points” of the Comintern. There was a general tendency of the CEC session to refer controversial matters back to sub-committees (Organizational Committee, Secretarial Committee, etc.) for further discussion. On June 13, James P. Cannon arrived to take his place on the CEC, replacing his substitute, Will Weinstone. Weinstone was later elected Librarian, in charge of gathering publications for the Comintern. Joseph Stilson was instructed not to accept the editorship of the Lithuanian organ of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers. Financial coverage of Armenian paper’s deficit continued. Bitter debate over the forthcoming District 2 [New York] Conference is alluded to. A passage stricken from the minutes makes it clear that CEC member and NY DO George Ashkenuzi was at the center of the storm. When it came to electing the paid District Organizers, a series of 5-5 votes along straight factional lines resulted. “Post”[Abram Jakira?] assigned to editorial staff of the Russian legal paper. Cannon added to Editorial Committee. Circular Letter to Division Superintendents of the Bureau of Investigation from Special Assistant to the Attorney General Warren G. Grimes in the name of Chief of the BoI Lewis J. Baley, June 30, 1921. The defects of the underground model of organization for the Communist Party of America in terms of constructing a sustainable, growing organization are well know. This internal document of the Bureau of Investigation is interesting as a demonstration that this organizational cost had a benefit — the organization's constantly-changing pseudonyms befuddled the Department of Justice sleuths in their efforts to determine real life identities. “ There is considerable confusion as to the identity of ‘Charles E. Scott,'” Grimes acknowledges in this memo to BoI Division Superintendents. The pseudonym had been identified as that of Nicholas Hourwich, L.E. Katterfeld, and Alfred Wagenknecht, Grimes continues — however, recent descriptions of Scott “ do not tally with the descriptions on file of any of these three men. In addition, the pseudonym of Executive Secretary “ Paul Holt” had been attached to four different real life identities — three of them wrong. A plea is made for “ every possible effort is to be made by the offices in your division to straighten out the matter.” “The Communist Party and its Tasks,” by C.E. Ruthenberg [July 1921] Although imprisoned in New York state, Communist Party leader C.E. Ruthenberg still managed to publish this pseudonymous article in the official organ of the newly united Communist Party of America. Ruthenberg reveals here the almost total annihilation of the Communist Labor Party prior to its 1920 merger with a dissident minority wing of the old CPA—reduced to “less than a thousand of the original ten or fifteen thousand members.” Ruthenberg attributes the previous two years of factional war, now seemingly ended by the merger, to the premature “hip-hip-hurrah” establishment of the American Communist Party. The draconian actions of the leadership of the Socialist Party of America had driven “thousands of members who did not belong there” into the Communist movement, weakening both the Socialist and Communist movements in the process. Ruthenberg urges that revolutionary verbiage be eschewed, and that effort be made in particular to lead and guide a movement mobilizing the unemployed. By establishing a program towards the unemployed and mobilizing unemployed workers into mass meetings and mass demonstrations in support of that agenda, the Communist movement would bring the unemployed into conflict with the “mailed fist of the capitalist government,” ultimately creating a pool of alienated workers which could be moved to action for the overthrow of the state when a revolutionary situation presented itself. Ruthenberg advised the development of meaningful slogans and to use similar tactics in the labor movement, for the liberation of political prisoners, and in opposition to militarism as well as with regard to the unemployed. “BoI Informant’s Report on the Cleveland District Conference of the unified CPA,” by “Ryan”—“Hill” [July 3-4, 1921] An invaluable participant’s account of the first Cleveland District Conference of the newly unified Communist Party of America by the Bureau of Investigation’s top informant inside the organization, the Pittsburgh Sub-District Organizer hailing from the former UCP who used the pseudonyms “Ryan” and “Hill.” The BoI informer describes traveling to Cleveland with Joseph Stilson and 3 other delegates by train to reach the convention, which was attended by 9 delegates from the former UCP, 8 delegates from the former CPA, and 2 fraternal delegates. Security procedures were in place, including 3 lookouts, “Ryan-Hill” indicates. The election of a new District Executive Committee (DEC) for the newly unified District organization was the prime subject of concern, and “Ryan-Hill” describes the way in which he and 4 other leading members of the former-UCP agreed upon a slate of 4 former-UCP candidates for the 5 member DEC; these names were then passed along to the other delegates hailing from the former-UCP and the caucus carried the day with its slate. Thus, even at a small meeting such as this, a caucus within a caucus and bloc voting along party lines was the mechanism of election, rather than honest discussion and open elections. “Ryan-Hill,” the Bureau of Investigation informer, describes how Stilson suspected delegate Joseph Verba of being a spy, leading to a search for evidence and a shouting match. Extract from the Justice Department Memorandum Brief ‘The Origin, Growth, and Activities of the United Communist Party of America', by Warren W. Grimes [July 13, 1921] This is an 8,000 word extract of one of the earliest internal Justice Department histories of the underground American Communist movement, prepared by Warren W. Grimes, special assistant to the Attorney General. Grimes dates the history of the Left Wing to the 1st Russian All-Colonial Convention, held in New York City at the beginning of February 1918. Also worthy of mention in Grimes’ telling was the formulation of the Communist Propaganda League on Nov. 7, 1918, and the launch of The Revolutionary Age in Boston two days later. The formal establishment of the organized Left Wing Section is dated to February 1919, with the total membership strength of 8 left wing language federations of the Socialist Party pegged at 25,000 — a figure far lower (and probably more accurate) than the officially-claimed numbers. The CLP is differentiated by Grimes from the rival old CPA in that its “ controlling elements appear to have been English-speaking.” As for the CLP: “ The history of the party is the story of internal discord and administrative strife,” Grimes succinctly states. Moving to the United Communist Party, Grimes gives the organization's membership at the time of formation at “ 6,725 in good standing” and provides a complete and accurate list of the territories encompassed in the organization's 11 districts. A somewhat imperfect list of pseudonyms of officers is also given. Of particular interest in the report is a long list of pamphlets, including those issued in non-English languages, which the fledgling American Communist movement “ assisted in the distribution of, or approved.” With respect to finances, Grimes indicates that the early CLP was “ managed on a more businesslike basis” than the rival old CPA. Sources of revenue and expenditure are detailed. The April 29, 1921 raid on what was actually UCP headquarters at 170 Bleeker Street, NYC, is mentioned and some of the documents seized in that raid detailed. Organizational strife continued between the UCP and the old CPA, Grimes notes, in which “ both parties freely indulged in ‘padding’ membership and falsifying records, particularly when reports were made to Moscow or conferences were held to endeavor to effect unity.” He adds that “ the Russian Federation of the Communist Party was the particular offender and therefore the object of open attack.” The May 15, 1921 Communist unity convention — infiltrated by a BoI agent — is noted and the Overlook Mountain House lodge near Kingston, NY definitively identified as the location of the gathering. “Letter to Rachele Ragozin in Brooklyn from C.E. Ruthenberg at Sing Sing Penitentiary, Ossining, NY, July 17, 1921.” [excerpt] C.E. Ruthenberg's prison writings will never be mistaken for those of Antonio Gramsci. Hundreds of pages of correspondence flowed back and forth between he and his beloved girlfriend, Rachele Ragozin, who visited him weekly. Both were smitten and their voluminous communications (limited in length and frequency by prison regulations) were almost eerily apolitical. This letter from Ruthenberg to Ragozin is interesting for its self-critical self-analysis. Ruthenberg writes: "I am, I think, naturally rather rational and, possibly, cold, in my judgments and actions. I do not really give way to unreasoning anger and my enthusiasms are usually tempered with cool judgment. Because of these qualities I have rather felt myself alien among people who could let themselves go, who could be angry beyond control, who could manifest friendship beyond reserve, who seemed to be able to give themselves wholly in their emotions..." The love of their relationship has "made me more human, I think," Ruthenberg reckons, able now to appreciate "simpler human relations, to be social, to laugh a little in mere jolly friendship, to be, not only the cold and efficient human machine, but to be human." “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.” “The Need for Open Work,” by C.E. Ruthenberg [Aug. 1921] This is a very interesting article from the official organ of the unified Communist Party of America—not just for its fascinating content, but also for the fact that it was written by Ruthenberg from behind New York prison bars. Ruthenberg (writing under his 1920-21 party name, “David Damon”) relates the fact that the United Communist Party during 1920-21 had “created an open organization which was known as an auxiliary of the party. In some cities the authorities and the White Guard organizations of the capitalist class charged that this organization was but the camouflaged UCP, but no attack was made upon it and its work was not interfered with.” This bode well for a similar organization to be created in conjunction with the newly unified party. Ruthenberg indicates that given the openly stated party belief that “the use of armed force in the struggle to overthrow the capitalist state is an inevitable phase of the Proletarian Revolution,” there would always remain a place for the underground organization. This form was inadequate to the task of building class-conscious, mass support for the cause of revolution among the working class. “Prestige, confidence, leadership can only be established by winning it upon the field of action, in such a way that the workers recognize and see the men and the organization which are seeking to become their leaders in the class struggle. To accomplish this would be indeed a difficult task for a secret, remote, unseen organization such as an underground organization must be of necessity,” Ruthenberg writes. He also notes that “the greater part of petty, soul-destroying bickering which has helped so much to keep the Communist Movement in this country sterile, has been due to the fact that the conditions of underground work threw the membership inward upon itself, in place of outward in an attack upon the capitalist class.” “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. “Brutal Officer Attacks Workers’ Meeting,” by P.S. Kerr [event of Aug. 7, 1921] On Sunday, Aug. 7, 1921, the International Workers’ Association held a picnic in a park near Buffalo, New York. Without provocation a speaker was interrupted by a local constable with “a volley of vile oaths, and a threat to pump the speaker full of lead if he continued.” The constable is said to have “manhandled” the speaker and ordered him from the grounds, which provoked several in the crowd to free him from the constable’s clutches. A woman was thrown to the ground and the speaker taken again by the constable; when the woman and another man remonstrated, the man was “ knocked unconscious for a space of 15 minutes by the constable with a pair of brass knuckles or a blackjack.” Two more constables bearing shotguns were summoned. The sheriff was quick to address the crowd and disavow the violent doings, saying his office had nothing to do with the affair. Neither the district attorney nor local justices of the peace would charge the violent and illegal actions of the rogue constable the next day, according to Kerr. “No justice is expected in the case. Had the assault been committed by a working man, how different it would have been The conviction of a police officer for assaulting a wage-worker is indeed rare in the annals of jurisprudence,” Kerr declares. “Some Important CEC Decisions." [article in CPA Official Bulletin, circa Aug. 15, 1921] This summary of key decisions of the governing Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of America in June and July 1921 was sent out to the membership of the party in a printed official bulletin. Party officials of the newly unified are listed, with all pseudonyms solved here. L.E. Katterfeld was named to replace Charles Dirba as Executive Secretary, with Dirba formally rebuked for circulating an unauthorized inflammatory explanation of his July 29 resignation among federation groups. Oscar Tyverovsky was named the CPA’s representative to the Comintern, with Max Bedacht recalled. James Cannon resigned as editor of The Toiler, replaced by Jay Lovestone—who headed the party’s editorial department, assisted by John Ballam. Sixty cent monthly dues were no longer to be collected via federation channels but rather by regular party channels funneling money to professional District Organizers of the newly reorganized districts. Harry Wicks was denied admission as an undesirable member, while Max Cohen and Alex Bittelman were similarly refused readmission by CEC vote due clearly to lingering personal antipathy. The belated arrival of CI Rep Shachno Epstein is noted and the Comintern’s advocacy though him of an English language daily newspaper, increased trade union work, and a de-emphasis of “our slogans regarding armed insurrection” in propaganda to the masses. “Language Federations." [
article in CPA Official Bulletin,
circa Aug. 15, 1921] Brief review of the foreign language federation situation in the newly established unified Communist Party of America. The new organization included groups conducting their business in an astounding 21 different languages, the article reports, including several languages largely ignored in the literature, such as Armenian, Turkish, Japanese, and Spanish. A membership of 250 was deemed sufficient under the constitution for the organization of a formal “Federation Language Bureau.” The article notes that ten such groups existed: Croatian, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, and Yiddish. National Conferences had been called to organize each of these 10 language groups, and the Bureaus of each were “expected” to issue the monthly official organ of the CPA, The Communist, in their own language. Similar parallel versions were also planned in Armenian, Czech, Estonian, and Italian—making a total of 15 planned editions of the central organ. These costly and cumbersome parallel underground periodicals were to be distributed by party members to workers speaking these languages “no matter whether he himself can read it or not.” Few specimens have survived and the extent to which these well laid plans were actually put into effect is largely unknown. “What Shall We Do in the Unions?” by Joseph Zack Kornfeder [circa Sept. 1, 1921] Lengthy statement of proposed policy for the unified Communist Party of America by Joseph Zack, active in the industrial organizing arm of the party. [Note: Zack wrote here under the pseudonym “J.P. Collins”—a pseudonym incorrectly attached to J.P. Cannon in 1957 by Theodore Draper and as recently as 2007 in a book on Cannon by Bryan Palmer.] Zack blames that backwards level of the American trade union movement not on its multinational nature, but rather on the conscious failure of the AFL to organize unskilled and black workers, and its concentration on the antiquated craft union system. Zack calls for the Communist Party to work at raising the class consciousness of the American working class and to help batter down barriers to participation in the unions such as racial barriers, high initiation fees, and undemocratic forms of union organization. The Communist Party must get serious about this, Zack declares: “The days when mere attendance at group meetings and occasional leaflet distribution was considered sufficient are over. Every member who is eligible must join a labor union. Those that cannot join a labor union must join the workers’ organization in their territory. Every member must serve as a link between the Party and the masses.” Zack calls for the establishment of foreign language speaking nuclei in each industrial unit: “Russian miners should be place in Russian miners’ nuclei, Polish workers into Polish nuclei, etc. They shall be connected with all the other language or English nuclei in their trade union or industries. Each of the language nuclei should organize the sympathizers in its language.” Zack declares there to be 4 principal sorts of party sympathizers: “(1) the communist sympathizer, those workers who agree with the main points of our program; (2) the revolutionary syndicalists; (3) the Left Socialist element; (4) the anarchists. In this country, due to the backwardness of many sections of the labor movement, even less conscious elements than the above mentioned could be used to great advantage on many occasions.” Of these, he asserts the revolutionary syndicalists of the IWW to be the most important, and the winning of \the IWW activists to the Communist banner thus the most critical. “The only way for the IWW’s functioning effectively is to work as a minority within the organized labor movement, not by worshiping three letters but by doing everything to put across their program,” Zack declares. “Letters to Oscar Tyverovsky in Moscow from Charles Dirba (Sept. 3, 1921) and John Ballam (Sept. 2, 1921).” An account of the factional situation in America provided to the Central Caucus faction’s man in Moscow, Oscar Tyverovsky, representative of the CPA to the Executive Committee of the Communist International. Here the decision to establish a Legal Political Party by the CEC Majority Group is given distinctly less emphasis than their factional machinations with respect to District Organizers and the conferences of the language federations. It is no so much the content of the policy initiatives sought by the CEC Majority Group that cause distress so much as the brazenness and tone of the group towards the former members of the old CPA and the timing and details of the move to a LPP. Includes copious explanatory footnotes. “Letter to Sen Katayama from Charles Dirba, Sept. 6-9, 1921.” This is a fascinating primary source document, an account of the issues behind the “Central Caucus faction” split which erupted late in November of 1921, written by a leading participant, Charles Dirba. Dirba was the Executive Secretary of the unified CPA from the time of its formation at the end of May 1921. As Dirba makes clear, this shotgun marriage of the old CPA (of which he was a part) to the United Communist Party was tumultuous from the start—a Central Executive Committee initially divided 5 to 5 along factional lines became a 6-4 working majority when Russian Federationist and editor J. Wilenkin began voting with the former UCP group. Dirba details the transgressions of this majority faction in this letter to Sen Katayama of the “American Agency” of the Comintern, a three member committee without a mandate in this factional situation. Dirba makes clear that while the issue of the rush to transform the American Labor Alliance into a full fledged Legal Political Party was paramount, there were other significant issues which sparked the CEC minority, including patronage issues and a rather crude effort to manipulate the composition of the Jewish and Russian language federations through procedural shenanigans. Document has been rendered into readable English with copious footnotes provided. “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. “Cable to Ludwig Katterfeld in New York from Robert Minor in Moscow, September 14,1921”. Short cable, converted from telegraphese to punctuated English here. Minor passes along hard numbers for Comintern funding, noting a grant of $33,000 for "Party work specified items" for a forthcoming quarter—presumably the 4th quarter of 1921. In addition, a conditional grant of $50,000 is promised for establishment of an English daily if the Party can raise $10,000 on its own. As the Daily Worker was not established until January 1924, it seems unlikely that these latter funds were actually disbursed. Scholars should additionally be cautioned that the budgeting of $33,000 for the American unified CPA does not mean that this figure was actually disbursed or that disbursed funds were ever received. The unified CPA went through a highly critical budget crunch in the 1st quarter of 1922. The party was torn asunder by the split of the Central Caucus faction in Nov.-Dec. 1921, and dues collections plummeted. The Party treasury was completely depleted—indicating a likelihood that the funds detailed in this message were not received in the United States in an expeditious manner.
“Stand By the Miners of Mingo!” [leaflet of the unified CPA - circa Sept. 25 1921] ** MINOR UPDATE: FILLS IN ONE ILLEGIBLE WORD. ** This agitational leaflet of the Communist Party of America demands that the American working class stand by the striking mineworkers of West Virginia in their hour of need in their long-running and violent strike. “Troops, airplanes, bombs, machine guns, and all the hellish devices of capitalist warfare have been rushed into the Mingo area. These have supposedly been sent to save ‘law and order,’ but they have actually been sent to crush the workers,” the leaflet asserts. “Their fight is your fight! They are fighting against the vicious US Steel trust that runs the entire strike area. They are fighting against a most tyrannical wage-slavery. Their defeat will be your disaster,” the leaflet declares. “A defeat at Mingo will go a long way toward driving the whole American working class into lower wages, longer hours, and endless drudgery,” the leaflet warns. “We must everywhere organize meetings and demonstrations to help the Mingo fighters, financially and morally. Let every union local and labor body force the Federal government to compel the profit-hungry coal magnates to go into conference with the miners,” the leaflet insists. “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. “An Opinion on Tactics,” by Max Eastman [October 1921] Two years after the September 1919 split of the Socialist Party of America, the American workers seemed to be even less friendly to communism than they were at the time of the break, according to co-founder of The Liberator Max Eastman. Eastman reckoned that the reason from this step backwards was “simple and obvious”: While the Communist movement was based around the idea that the world was in a period of the “breakdown of capitalism,” such was not the case in the USA. “We are not in the period of the breakdown of capitalism, and yet we are employing tactics that could never be appropriate in any other period—tactics which have no practical relation to the period we are in—that of preliminary propaganda.” Eastman sharply criticized the CPA for having established “elaborately conspiratorial organization excellently adapted to promote treasonable and seditious enterprises, although they have no such enterprises on foot.” Unless the artificial and inappropriate underground tactics were abandoned there would be no way to build close relations between the party and the mass of American workers, Eastman declared. “Weekly Radical Report for Pittsburgh, PA for the Week Ending Oct. 1, 1921. [Extract],” by H.J. Lenon An extended section of the weekly report by Department of Justic Bureau of Investigation Special Agent H.J. Lenon on radical activities in Pittsburgh—in this case those of the unified Communist Party of America. There can be no doubt to any careful reader of this report that the DoJ’s penetration of the highest level of the UCP in Pittsburgh through an undercover operative or particularly thorough informer was carried over into the Pittsburgh organization of the unified CPA. This extensive report containing copius detail from “read and destroy” bulletins of the National Office to the District organizations. “The Communist Party is in bad FINANCIAL condition,” Lenon declares, adding that the party had initiated a number of changes for reasons of economy, including the discontinuation and consolidation of newspapers, the reduction of wages of party workers, and the elimination of party offices. Further, disorganization was rampant within the party’s ranks: “We find a badly SPLIT up organization developing more wings than the SP had. Here we have the LEGAL, ILLEGAL, POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, and a mixture of everything. The party organizes and disorganizes at will, leaving in its wake a mass of confusion...” This dysfunctional organization was comically ineffectual: “Most of their activity centralizes around districts where the leaders reside, like Cleveland, Pittsburgh, New York, Chicago, Detroit. In cities where the SP has any strength the Communists usually spend most of their time fighting with the SP. It is always easy to detect the Communists in action, for they always condemn the SP, agitate for the Soviet Republic, etc., also use plenty of the Bolsheviki terms of expression. Supposed to be underground but they LOVE TO RECOMMEND THE COMMUNIST TACTICS. Mostly all intellectuals in the red movement like to display their extreme Bolsheviki radicalism. Being a red Communist is something that will not be underground.” “A Letter to the Communist Party of America, Oct. 9, 1921,” by Grigorii Zinoviev. The head of the Communist International sent this note to the American Communist Party urging the immediate formation of a legal political party. “It is necessary to fight for every inch,” Zinoviev states, urging that the example of the Russian Bolsheviks be followed in establishing a seemingly innocuous legal organization to propagandize the basic ideas of Communism or even simply the ideas of the class struggle. Russian comrades in America would be taking great responsibilities upon themselves if they stood in the way of this unquestioned directive of the Comintern, Zinoviev warned. “To the CEC of the CPA in New York from Max Bedacht in New York,” [late October 1921]. The decision of the Communist Party of America to establish a parallel “Legal Political Party” came at the beheast of the 3rd World Congress of the Communist International [June 22-Aug. 12, 1921] and a supplementary meeting of the American delegation with Lenin held in the Kremlin on July 7, 1921. Bedacht reported to the CEC of the American Party in New York at its meeting of Sept. 1, at which—based largely upon Bedacht’s depiction of Lenin as emphatically in favor of a legal party—the CEC resolved to create such an organization “parallel with the underground organization and controlled by it.” Bedacht was directly contradicted by an ex-old CPA member pseudonym “Stepan” at the October 5 meeting of the CEC, however, and this written statement about the meeting with Lenin was a byproduct of the CEC’s investigative process attempting to rectify the contradiction in testimony between the two. Bedacht notes that Nicholas Hourwich and he constituted a committee of 2 to prepare a proposal on legal activity in America for the ECCI. It was Bedacht who drafted the document on July 6(without input from Hourwich) and delivered it at the meeting of the full delegation with Lenin on the next day. At the meeting, attended by Bedacht, Hourwich, Bill Haywood, Robert Minor, Oscar Tyverovsky, “Stepan,” and “Gorney,” Lenin “immediately went to the point. First he told us of the necessity of the establishment of a daily press. He made it clear at all times that this was expected of us. Then he opened the question of a legal party. He told us of the absolute necessity of the formation of such a body and he even suggested a name for it. Maybe if the other delegate tries hard enough to remember he will recollect that Comrade Lenin suggested ’Anti-Capitalist Party’ in contradistinction to all other parties which are pro-capitalist.” Lenin and Bedacht were both surprised at the apparent unanimity of the American delegation with regard to establishing a Legal Political Party, but Bedacht bitterly notes that “the opponents of the decisions of the congress did not have the courage to speak up in this conference [with Lenin] although they do not seem to lack the courage to now lie about the proceedings in this conference.” “The Workers League.” [unsigned article in The Toiler, Oct. 1, 1921] This article in a primary English-language legal organ of the Communist Party of America announces the formation of “a new political party of labor”—the Workers League. This New York City-based forerunner of the Workers Party of America was not intended to engage in parliamentarism as a means of winning state power through the ballot box. Rather: “While the Socialist Party is committed to bourgeois parliamentarism and political reform, the Workers League refuses to stimulate illusions in the minds of the workers as to the possibility of improving their long under the present economic order and with parliamentary activity as an instrument. The Workers League enters politics to unmask it. It seeks to enter Congress and other legislative bodies not to urge reform but to voice the wrath of the workers at their terrible situation. With the parliamentary tribune as a sounding board it plans to spread forth over the country the message of international solidarity, the challenge of the irreconcilable class conflict.” “Answers to Questions”, by Steven Ross [“Charles Wallace”/“Stepan”] [Oct. 13, 1921]. A conference between Lenin and the members of the American delegates to the 3rd Congress of the Comintern and the Profintern late in the summer of 1921 was a matter of heated debate, pitting Max Bedacht (ex-UCP), who contended that Lenin issued an instruction for the CPA to immediately establish a Legal Political Party in America against Seven Ross [“Charles Wallace”] (ex-old CPA), who contended that Lenin said no such thing. This is Ross&38217; reply to a questionnaire issued by the CEC entitled “Questions to International Delegates,” attempting to rectify the discrepancy in the testimony between Bedacht and Ross. JULY
AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
“Circular Letter to All Districts and Federations from John Ballam, Secretary of Central Caucus, Summarizing the Results of Meeting of Oct. 24-25, 1921.” This document may be aptly characterized as an internal bulletin from the “Central Caucus” to its adherents—dissidents in the unified Communist Party of America hailing from the old Communist Party of America who organized factionally in September 1921 and quickly departed the party en masse, declaring themselves to be the legitimate bearer of the Communist Party of America’s mantle. This report details what amounts to an expanded plenum of the Central Caucus, including not only the regularly attending representatives of the Russian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Jewish, Latvian, and Polish Federations, but also its de facto District Organizers (”Caucus leaders”) from the Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh districts. The October statement to the Comintern by the minority of the unified CPA’s CEC—John Ballam, Charles Dirba, and George Ashkenuzi—was the basis for discussion of the meeting. A summary of the views of each of the Federation representatives and district Caucus leaders is providing, showing that the Lithuanian Federation was the least irreconcilable to the majority of the CEC of the unified Party and its line, stating that they “Cannot oppose Comintern on question of [a Legal Political Party] but absolutely against form proposed by CEC” and urging that “no action to be taken which would give reason for being thrown out of Comintern.” The statement of the 3 CEC Members was taken up by the meeting seriatim and amended, and was to be then signed and prepared for distribution to the “entire membership.”
NOVEMBER
“Our Agrarian Problem”, by Harold Ware [Nov. 1921] Harold Ware (party name “H.R. Harrow”) was a son of Ella Reeve Bloor and the first agrarian expert of the American Communist movement. Ware lends the eye of a Marxist sociologist to the American agricultural situation, identifying four primary agricultural regions: East, Midwest, South, and West. He analyzes two of them in this article published in the underground official organ of the unified CPA. The West Ware finds to be typified by large agricultual units making use of modern production technology and employing large numbers of migratory workers during the harvest season — true proletarians, Ware says. “Because the proletarian elements are most important in the west we must cooperate with the IWW in their activities among the farm workers. In spite of our general differences of policy we must recognize that the IWW alone is active in the agrarian field.” In the East there is an altogether different production norm, Ware states, typified by small and highly productive farms worked by “semi-proletarians.” Ware advocates the establishment of a Party “Agrarian Bureau” to coordinate work among the proletarian and semi-proletarian agricultural workers, with “Section-Agrarian Organizers” hitting the road on behalf of this institution. He also calls for establishment of a Communist agricultural newspaper and a party agrarian school to train volunteer city workers in agricultural methods so that they might be employed in agrarian organizing. “American imperialism may cause the longest, bitterest struggle in history before admitting defeat. Military campaigns will have fertile farm sections for their objectives. The critical battles will be for Food. We must win the producers of food to our side or the proletarian victory will be seriously delayed if not defeated,” Ware declares.
“Keysquare for ’1921 Money Order Code’ used by the unified Communist Party of America, Nov. 1921-Feb. 1922”, Cryptanalysis by John K. Taber and Tim Davenport. The United Communist Party in 1920-21 and its successor, the unified Communist Party of America in 1921-22, used a simple single letter replacement code appearing on the page as fractions. By way of example, a “D” might have been written as “3/21”—corresponding to the letter located at keysquare coordinates line 3 and column 21. A series of no fewer than four “keysquares” for coding and decoding were used during the period. This is a substantially solved keysquare that was used by the “majority” CPA at the tail end of 1921 and early in 1922 to make its messages to and from Moscow harder to comprehend if intercepted by the Bureau of Investigation’s General Intelligence Division or the Army’s Military Intelligence Department. The original source of the keysquare appears to have been the fine print of a money order form, beginning “WHEN PAYABLE IN BOLIVIA, CHILE, COSTA RICA, DENMARK, FRANCE, GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, HONDURAS...”
“Letter to Leo Laukki in Moscow from Alfred S. Edwards in Boston.” [circa Nov. 1921]. A very interesting politically-charged letter from a Latvian-American radical who helped found the Socialist Publishing Society in Dec. 1916 to a compatriot in Moscow, detailing the transgressions of the majority group of the Central Executive Committee. The CEC majority—“mensheviks,” in Edwards’ view—had done nothing to organize units of the party in the army and navy, had done nothing to agitate among the unemployed, had been woefully inadequate in participating in the daily struggles of the working class, and had failed to organize party nuclei in shops and unions, and had done nothing to fight centrism in the Party. Instead, the Party was dominated by an enormous and costly paid bureaucracy that was intent upon liquidation of the underground Communist Party in favor of a parliamentary orientation and communism of “the respectable, rose-water kind.” The greatest achievement of the CEC was the establishment of the Friends of Soviet Russia, Edwards indicates, although the American Labor Alliance had been allowed to atrophy into nothingness—an “excellent form of organization” in the charge of a leadership group that didn’t know how to do the work, Edwards states. Edwards applauds a recent article by Lenin indicating that 99% of the mensheviks who joined the Russian Communist Party after the revolution needed to be stricken from the ranks and states that “50% of our CEC” (that is, the former members of the United Communist Party) are similarly mensheviks who until recently supported the 2 1/2 or even the Second International. Edwards urges Laukki to inform Tyverovsky as to the state of affairs and to use the information for “enlightening the comrades on the present situation in America.”
“Save the Party! An Appeal to All Members of the Communist Party!.” [circa Nov. 1921] This is “Statement No. 1” of the Central Caucus Faction of John Ballam, Charles Dirba, and George Ashkenudzie—a detailed catalog of the transgressions of the CPA’s Central Executive Committee majority group. These faults included the arbitrary and reckless formation of a Legal Political Party with mandatory participation of all members of the underground—an “insane” and “suicidal” policy that would result in a liquidation of the Communist Party; a disregard of the constitutionally-established rights of language federations; a factional “crushing policy” on the part of the 7 member CEC majority, exemplified by the splitting of districts and factional removal of (ex-old CPA) District Organizers and Sub-District Organizers without cause; and a profligate spending of party funds that resulted in a $20,000 debt for the organization. An emergency convention of the unified CPA was called for to resolve these issues and all party members were called upon to discuss these issues and to issue resolutions to force the CEC majority into action.
“Convention Call to Organize the Workers’ Party of America” [circa Nov. 1921]. This is a document issued in the fall of 1921 (circa November) formally calling for the formation of a Legal Political Party at convention in New York City on December 23. The call was signed by the CPA-associated American Labor Alliance, the radical SP-offshoot The Workers’ Council of the USA, the Jewish Socialist Federation, and the Workers’ Educational Association.
“Make It a Party of Action! A Declaration of the Central Executive Committee to the Membership.” [circa November 1921] Full text of a 4 page leaflet of a statement by the majority group of the Central Executive Committee of the CPA to the rank and file on the heated factional situation developing in the party. Citing the directive of the Comintern expressed at the Third World Congress that it is the duty of the American Party “to try all ways and means to get out of their illegalized condition into the open, among the wide masses” the CEC here notes that “It is necessary to build a machinery that can make the fullest use of all legal possibilities"—a “legal political organization which would centralize the legal activities of the Party.” An opposition had appeared, however, a faction which in “both in the content of their criticism and in their methods...show themselves incapable of understanding or applying the tactics of the Communist International.” Already “19 members who refused to recognized its authority, flagrantly violated its instructions, and threatened its representatives with violence” had been suspended. A circular letter of the Russian Federation is quoted to illustrate the factional activies of the opposition in the party and the exhortation is made that “every member knows that without a solid, united, and well disciplined party, victory over capitalism is impossible.” Similar factional troubles relating to the editor of the Lithuanian Federation’s underground official organ is detailed at some length and the withholding of funds by opponents of the current policy is noted. “The CEC declares that it will stop these destructive activities by decisive action. It will brook no disruption of the Party. The day for disruption is over! We must build a united and invincible front! We must build a party of revolutionary action!”
“American Agricultural Problems,” by Harold M. Ware [Nov. 12, 1921] During 1921, Harold Ware, the radical son of Ella Reeve Bloor, himself a small-scale farmer in Pennsylvania, abandoned his farm and went on the road incognito in order to experience the life of a migrant farmworker first-hand. “In the jungles and box cars I learned from one stiff after another of the battle of the migratory workers for a chance to organize, to find work, and to live,” Ware writes, noting that. This is a summary of his assorted adventures on the road, a survey of American agriculture in the crash year of 1921 ranging from the tenant cotton farms of the South to cattle ranching of the Southwest to the the industrialized farming of California to the grain fields of the Northern Plains and Midwest to the rich agriculture of the East. The situation in the South was most critical, in Ware’s estimation, based upon tenant farming in which the impoverished farmers, often negro, were extended credit to finance operations and living expenses in the coming year, at usurious rates of interest. In the spring of 1921, cotton prices had dropped precipitously, causing a contraction of credit and absolute destitution among the tenant farmers. The industrialized agriculture of California was the most favorable to organization, in Ware’s view, for it was here that the IWW had made its greatest inroads in organizing agricultural workers for higher pay and shorter hours. Small farmers of the Northern Plains had been virtually wiped out by drought and plummeting agricultural prices, Ware says. North Dakota was something of a special case, Ware notes, in which farmers had been successfully organized for parliamentary action in their common interests in reaction to protracted exploitation by “the grain gamblers of Minnesota.” Throughout, Ware sees average American farmers as an intermediate “semi-proletarian” class, producing the greater part of their output on the basis of their own labor and making use of hired labor only to assist during the peak period of harvest. The decline of agricultural prices was creating a tendency towards cooperation in the face of negative market pressures. “They have not learned that a loose marketing organization can never function effectively against the highly organized capitalist machinery. They will learn eventually that they must organize as a class, as working farmers, literally as producers. There are a large number of farmers in the South-Central states north of the Black Belt, both tenant and mortgaged owners, who are aware that the entire economic system of agriculture is at fault,” Ware declares.
“Circular Letter to Districts and Federations of the Central Caucus from John Ballam, Secretary, Nov. 13, 1921.” An internal bulletin of the Central Caucus faction, compiled by its Secretary, John Ballam. Ballam notes that the Statement of the 3 CEC Members had been sent to all districts and translated and transmitted by the officials of the faction’s 6 federation caucuses—Russian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Jewish, Latvian, and Polish. Ballam notes that arch-Legal Party advocate Max Bedacht had been named the editor of the underground organ and internal bulletin of the unified CPA and that in the coming week “ALL FEDERATIONS WILL BE NOTIFIED TO ‘RAISE THEIR BRANCHES INTO LPP IN SYSTEMATIC MANNER, LANGUAGE BY LANGUAGE.’” The actual split was near at hand; groups of the Polish Federation had ceased paying dues to the unified CPA, some Yiddish-language party groups were refusing to obey directives to “raise” their branches from the underground despite threats of expulsion from the unified CPA. The Central Caucus (that is to say, the directing council of federation representatives of the faction)had decided to immediately send a representative to Soviet Russia to argue its case, Ballam notes—although another archival document indicates that no representative was actually sent at this time in connection with this decision. The document includes district-by-district and federation-by-federation summaries of the activity of the Central Caucus faction.
“Letter to the Bureau of the Jewish Federation, CPA from Abram Jakira, Secretary of the CPA, November 13, 1922.” ** NEW EDITION: PROVIDES IDENTIFICATION OF “ARKADIEFF” AS SHACHNO EPSTEIN, CHANGES FOOTNOTES. ** This letter from the head of the underground CPA, Abram Jakira, emphasizes that not every individual coming from Moscow to work in the Communist Party of America bore the Comintern’s cachet. “Comrade Arkadieff” [Shachno Epstein] had written to Jakira complaining that he had been excluded from sessions the Central Executive Committee of the party and shunted aside. Instead, he apparently represented himself as a Comintern plenipotentiary in charge of the Jewish Federation. Jakira makes Epstein’s status clear to the Jewish Bureau under which he worked in no uncertain terms: “Com. Arkadieff [Epstein] declares that the Executive of the CI sent him for work in America. That is quite true. But thereupon he draws incorrect and unsupported conclusions. He believes that he is not under the discipline of the American party. That is sheerest nonsense. No one can work in the CP of A without being 100 percent under the discipline of the CEC. That a member of the CP of Russia was sent by way of the CI to work in the CP of A does not in the least denote that he is a representative of the CI, or has anything to do with the CI.” Jakira seeks to put an end to the “foolish legend” that Epstein had an sort of mission to perform for the Comintern and to place him under CPA discipline. “Please inform Com. Arkadieff [Epstein] that he either must work under the discipline of the Party or there will be no room for him in the American Party,” Jakira warns.
“The Communists Answer,” by Jay Lovestone [Nov. 26, 1921] Member of the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of America Jay Lovestone (writing as “R.B. Nelson”) vigorously replies to charges levied by the Workers’ Council group that the CPA went underground of its own volition, due to the “revolutionary romanticism” of many of its leading members—a decision which lead to a separation from the masses of American labor and to the fostering of a false sense of security. Lovestone replies that the decision to go underground was in no way a choice: “While the ‘above-boarders’ of the Workers’ Council were striving to win over the traitorous Socialist Party to a ‘real, revolutionary international’ (whatever that could have meant after 40,000 to 60,000 suspected of being Communists were expelled), the American Communists were openly fighting as Communists and were being jailed for scores of years of penal servitude.” It was through the arrest and jailing of thousands in Dec. 1919 and Jan. 1920 that finally the communists “were driven to cover for protection and worked underground in order to save their organization,” Lovestone declares, adding that “Since then the communists have tried their best to work in the open.” The underground form of organization was not an end in and of itself, Lovestone states, noting that the Comintern itself declared for the need of parallel legal and illegal organizations in each country. The Comintern had never supported sectarian and “splendid-isolationist” policies, Lovestone declares and he states his belief that the inconsistent positions of the Workers’ Council group “shows clearly that our Left Wing Socialist comrades were not in the past and are not even today ready to accept fully the principles and tactics of the Third International.”
DECEMBER
“Report of the Communist Party of America to the Executive Committee of the Communist International”, by L.E. Katterfeld [December 1921]. A lengthy and detailed report on the situation facing the communist movement in the United States. Katterfeld notes that “it is necessary to build a machinery that can make the fullest use of all legal possibilities” and unveils the forthcoming Workers Party of America — which sprung from the American Labor Alliance. This turn brought about a “new alignment in the Central Executive Committee,” Katterfeld states, including the resignation of Executive Secretary Charles Dirba and an organized campaign to withhold dues from the central party organization. “The overwhelming majority of the membership, comprising all of the former United Communist Party and over half of the former Communist Party, are cooperating fully” with the plans of the CEC, Katterfeld declares. Katterfeld reports on the political campaign of the party in New York municipal elections, the work of the Friends of Soviet Russia in raising funds for famine relief, Party finances and membership, and the work of the Party press and in the trade union movement. An interesting esoteric point is Katterfeld’s remark that the “very critical” financial situation of the CPA “was made acute through the expense for holding 10 different national Language Federation conventions, to which the Party HAD to agree as one of the conditions for achieving unity... Those language conferences cost about $15,000.” Katterfeld makes an inflated claim of CPA membership of “between 12,000 and 13,000” — as opposed to actual statistics showing an average paid membership of 8,588 for the five months BEFORE the Central Caucus split.
“Appeal of the Minority Members of the CEC of the Communist Party of America Against the Policies of the CEC on the Question of the Formation of a Legal Political Party in the United States.” [Circa December 1921]. The formal appeal of the CEC minority (i.e. the Central Caucus faction) to the Communist International seeking a halt to the actions of the CEC majority’s actions with regard to establishment of a legal political party. While stating their agreement with the notion of legal political action and their willingness to adhere to the final decision of the ECCI in the matter, this appeal outlines the case of the minority: that the CEC majority had misrepresented the position of the ECCI and Lenin himself on the Legal Political Party; that its action in forcing the entire underground party into the open legal organization would put it at grave danger of arrest and destruction; that the duplication of legal and underground personnel would inevitably result in liquidation of the underground organization; that the proposed transformation of the American Labor Alliance for Trade with Soviet Russia into a full fledged Legal Political Party was counter to the Unity Agreement joining the old CPA with the UCP in May 1921 and artificial—as the ALA had no mass membership outside of the underground CPA; that the CEC majority had failed to call an emergency convention of the party to work out details of this drastic change of the party line, thus resulting in confusion and a lack of confidence among the rank and file in the party leadership; that major preparatory work among the working class needed to be done before any Legal Political Party could be considered. For good measure, a litany of the offenses of the CEC Majority on other matters are tagged on the end, ranging from botched opportunities for mass propaganda to apathy to engagement in a policy of factional “crushing” of the former members of the old CPA.
“Report of Campaign Committee, Workers’ League Campaign, Dec. 1, 1921” by Edward Lindgren. While the Communist Party boycotted the 1920 elections, it made a first tentative step as a political party proper in the New York City elections of November 1921. The vehicle for its electoral campaign was a legal political party called “The Workers’ League.” This is a post-election report of the activities of the Workers’ League by the organization’s secretary, Edward Lindgren. Lindgren notes bitterly that “hostility and indifference” sprung up immediately within the party from the time of the August 26, 1921 nominating convention of the Workers’ League, which put forward a ticket headed by Benjamin Gitlow for Mayor and including Edward Lindgren for Controller, Harry Winitsky for President of the Board of Aldermen, and Rose Pastor Stokes, Charles Brower, and Jacob Hartman as Borough Presidents. A “lack of discipline” which was “beyond description” crippled the organization’s momentum and morale, while the erstwhile allies of the Workers’ League—including the Workers’ Council, and Finnish, Jewish, and Hungarian Socialist Federations, did nothing to aid in fundraising. The attempt to garner signatures to gain ballot access was an outright debacle, forcing the organization to spend $1200 to employ professional signature-gatherers, who did in 10 days what the organization was unable to accomplish in 5 weeks. While a speakers bureau was built from scratch, a lasting achievement for the organization, many of these individuals failed to appear at the meetings which they were assigned, causing Lindgren great consternation. Still other qualified speakers refused their services to the party due to disagreement with the immediate demands of the Workers’ League’s program, Lindgren indicated. As a result, barely over 3,000 votes had been cast for the various candidates of the League, which ended the campaign about $3,000 in debt. While this first foray into electoral politics was a debacle, Lindgren provided a set of recommendations for future action. This document includes a full financial statement and preliminary vote counts for the varous candidates of the Workers’ League.
“Letter to James P. Cannon in New York from Ludwig Katterfeld in Moscow, Dec. 10, 1921.” This letter from the American Representative on the Executive Committee of the Communist International Ludwig Katterfeld to James Cannon in America has an intimate and personal tone, rather unlike most of the surviving correspondence between Moscow and New York. “Everything is all hunky dory, as far as our business [the CPA “majority”] is concerned,” Katterfeld writes, adding that funding prospects from the Comintern for the American party in the coming year were promising. He indicates that the American party’s decision to move forward with a parallel Legal Political Party has been warmly received by ECCI but he cautions that “you MUST heed the advice to hold a private conference of your own sales force [convention of the underground CPA] before entering into the public competition with others [the WPA]. There’ll be some heads chopped off if you don’t.” This message was not received in time to postpone the founding convention of the WPA until February, as the Comintern had insisted—but no heads rolled for the failure. Katterfeld indicates that CPA Executive Secretary Will Weinstone “seems to be asleep at the switch there. Please feed him a little cayenne pepper to wake him up.” He also obliquely alludes to the demise of Nicholas Hourwich [Nikolai Gurvich] as a factor in American politics in the Comintern, stating that “ The old geyser that used to befoul the landscape here has stopped spouting, or rather has been stopped.”
“Draft of a Note to V.I. Ul’ianov (N. Lenin) from Robert Minor in Moscow, December 2, 1921” Robert Minor, the CPA majority group&38217;s representative on the Executive Committee of the Communist International, was recalled by his party in November 1921 to bring documents from Moscow and the power of his personality to fight the Central Caucus opposition. He was replaced by Ludwig Katterfeld effective Nov. 23, 1921. Before he left for America, Minor wrote this note to Lenin, seeking a brief meeting and to introduce his successor at ECCI. Minor outlines the controversy in the CPA and notes that he will be returning "with all possible speed" with a resolution from ECCI supporting the position of the CPA majority as well as a thesis on legal work in America written by Otto Kuusinen, Karl Radek, and Nikolai Bukharin.
Convention Call to Organize the Workers Party of America.[Dec. 16, 1921] New edition. Document formally announcing the convention to establish a Legal Political Party for the Communist Party of America at convention in New York City to be held December 23-26, 1921. The call was signed by the CPA-associated American Labor Alliance, the radical SP-offshoot The Workers' Council of the USA, the Jewish Socialist Federation, and the Workers' Educational Association.
“Minutes of the First Session of the Founding Convention of the Workers Party of America: New York—Dec. 23, 1921.” This terse record of the first day of the founding convention of the WPA is useful for its reckoning of the delegate strength of the various constituent organizations. Leading the list is the Workers Council and Arbeiter Bildings Verein groups, with 13 delegates each; the Finnish Socialist Federation and Jewish Socialist Federation, with 12 each; and the Jewish Section of the American Labor Alliance (i.e. the CPA), with 10. Three fraternal delegates were on hand from the Proletarian Party, while the African Blood Brotherhood was represented by 2 fraternal delegates. A total of 94 voting delegates were passed by the Credentials Committee. Caleb Harrison was elected permanent chair of the convention and Margaret Prevey of Ohio permanent vice chair. A proposed order of business was adopted, committees were elected, and the convention adjourned itself in favor of committee work.
“Speech to the Founding Convention of the Workers Party of America,” by William F. Dunne [Dec. 26, 1921]. Speech of this Montana trade union activist and publisher of the Butte Bulletin to the founding convention of the WPA in New York. Dunne charges that the Socialist Party’s obsession with chasing ballots was misplaced and had led to a “divorce” of that organization from the American working class. The IWW on the other hand, contained “the very cream of the revolutionary elements in this country”“about 2/3 of the organization’s membership would be in sympathy with the aims and purposes of the Workers Party of America, Dunne estimated. The WPA would attract these elements, Dunne believed, although he cautioned against overconfidence and an unwillingness to admit the possibility of present mistakes or the fact that mistakes had been made in the past.
“Constitution of the Workers Party of America: Adopted at National Convention, New York City, Dec. 24- 26, 1921.” Full text of the initial set of organizational rules governing the so-called “Legal Political Party” attached to the the underground CPA. The unit of local organization is the branch, consisting of at least 5 members; multiple branches in any one city being joined by a City Central Committee with delegates based on branch size. National governance by annual conventions, which elect a 17 member Central Executive Committee. The CEC in turn selects the Executive Secretary and chooses District Organizers. Primary governance of the organization via District Conventions, which each elect 6 to a District Executive Committee, which includes the DO to make 7. Branches consisting of members speaking a common non-English language were to form “Language Branches,” the sum total for each to be a “Language Section” (formerly Federations). Language Sections were to be governed by an annual Language Section Conference, which was to elect an executive Language Bureau—candidates subject to the approval of the CEC. The Language Sections and their governing Bureaus were to have no power of suspension or expulsion, those prerogatives limited to the CEC.