Early American Marxism

Document Download Page for the Year

1921

JANUARY

“Hillquit Repeats His Error,” by Max Eastman [Jan. 1921] In the fall of 1920, Morris Hillquit responded to Max Eastman’s article entitled “Hillquit Excommunicates the Soviet,” which drew this additional lengthy round of polemical prose from The Liberator’s editor. Eastman accuses Hillquit of failing to accurately know or to accurately state the position of the Left Wing. “The essential point of the Communist position, in contrast to the position of the ‘Centrists,’ is its absolute and realistic belief in the theory of the class struggle, and the theory that all public institutions— whether alleged to be democratic or not— will prove upon every critical occasion to be weapons in the hands of the capitalist class,” Hillquit declares. All of Hillquit’s errors are held by Eastman to flow from this fundamental blunder. Eastman also upbraids Hillquit for failure to read and contemplate the writings of the Socialist Party’s Left Wing, which predated by years the Russian Revolution. The revolutionary Socialist perspective of the Communists is in no way “new,” as Hillquit claims, but rather a restatement of long-existing Marxian tenants. “The actual experience of a successful revolution has only confirmed the opinions of the revolutionary or thoroughgoing Marxian factions in all the Socialist parties of the world. It is transforming these factions from weak and seemingly ‘academic’ minorities into powerful and active majorities everywhere,” Eastman asserts. While Hillquit claims the Bolsheviks are both “dogmatic” and “opportunistic,” Eastman characterizes them as highly principled and unwilling to water down their revolutionary doctrine, but conscious that they are engaged in hand-to-hand combat with capitalism and thus willing to “grab every advantage, every probability of defeating the enemy” that comes to mind. Eastman then returns to the question of the Soviets v. the Constituent Assembly in Russia, arguing convincingly the long time theoretical support of the Bolsheviks for the institution of the Soviets and attempting to force Hillquit to “lay aside all his pride of authority and acknowledge that he was flatly and absolutely wrong” in asserting that the Bolsheviks’ support of the institution of the Soviets was hastily and opportunistically put forward only when they had won a majority in the All-Russian Congress of Soviets.

“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.

“BoI Informant’s Undercover Report of the UCP Legal Defense Convention, Chicago,” by “Mike Benton” [event of Jan. 9-10, 1921]” The Department of Justice’s Bureau of Investigation (forerunner of the FBI) managed to infiltrate the underground Communist movement with a small handful of secret informants, including “Mike Benton” from Mason City, Iowa—previously employed as a labor spy for one of the city’s brickmaking firms. On Jan. 9, 1921, “Benton” traveled to Chicago with leading Mason City radical Harry Keas, where he attended a convention of the United Communist Party’s legal defense organization, the National Defense Committee. Sixty-three delegates from all over the United States and Canada were in attendance, according to “Benton,” attending a marathon 13-hour session held in an inconspicuous hall attached to a saloon located at 228 W Oak Street. “Benton” notes that the various UCP leaders are “hard-boiled fellow that have been revolutionaries for the last 15 or 20 years, most of them have been indicted and some of them have got good beatings, been in jail serving sentence, and some will be tried in the future. They are all getting more radical every day. They are not working as openly as they used to do and all this radical propaganda is going to be handled through underground work.” “Benton” frantically warns his government handlers that “If the radicals are let alone with their propaganda for a couple of years we will have a mighty hard task to deal with them because they take men like William Z. Foster, National Secretary of the Steel Workers Union. He is just about to unite with the UCP. If he does he will pull over about 150,000 union members and with them and then the United Miners of America next.”

“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.

“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.”

Letter from Arnold Petersen to N. Lenin, January 15, 1921. Text of a massive (26 page) letter from the National Secretary of the Socialist Labor Party to V.I. Ul’ianov (N. Lenin) in Russia from a copy in the Comintern archive. As might be expected, Petersen is harshly critical of all other groups in the American left—the Socialist Party of America (reformist practitioners of a “species of fraud”), the Communist Parties (“Burlesque Bolsheviki” with a “predilection for repeating meaningless and undefined phrases because of their ‘revolutionary’ sound”), the IWW (“infested with police spies” and “in a state of decay”), and the AF of L (“officered by agents of the bourgeoisie”). Petersen defiantly defends the SLP’s dual unionism and militant hostility against the AF of L (“there is not the slightest reason to believe that any outside influence, however powerful, is going to make the SLP throw away the fruits of its toil of a quarter of a century”) as well as the use of the ballot as the main mechanism for revolutionary change (“not everything that has arisen during capitalism is a sham and a delusion”). Regardless of these differences, Petersen calls the existence of the Soviet Republic an “inspiration” and pledges that the SLP will do its utmost to bring about a revolutionary industrial republic in the United States.

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.

“The American Labor Alliance for Trade Relations With Russia.” [January 1921]. An unsigned report (Alexander Trachtenberg a likely author) outlining the origins and activies of the American Labor Alliance for Trade Relations With Russia. According to this account, the ALA had its roots in an anti-blockade organization called the American Women’s Emergency Committee, which called for New York trade unions to join the anti-blockade effort in October of 1921. A conference of the “Humanitarian Labor Alliance” was subsequently held in New York City, attended by 512 labor delegates. This Nov. 21, 1920 gathering passed a resolution on the Russian Blockade (see above) and elected a permanent Executive Committee, which changed the name of the organization to the (more descriptive) American Labor Alliance for Trade Relations With Russia.

“Financial Report, Soviet Russia Medical Relief Committee, Western District,” by Charles L. Drake [Jan. 15, 1921] This report by Director Charles Drake closes the book on the 4-1/2 month tenure of the Chicago office of the Soviet Russia Medical Relief Committee. The accounts presented here show the receipt of over $24,500, which was offset by about $14,000 in office, travel, salary, and other fundraising expenses. $9600 had been sent to New York to support the Society’s work, while over $800 remained on account at the time of the Chicago office’s Jan. 15, 1921 termination. The discontinuance of the Western Office comes at a time when the heaviest financial drain was being made for organization, and before opportunity has been given to reap the benefits that would more than justify the expenditures. Thousands and thousands of dollars would come in from the preparatory work already done were this office open to receive it. Those who know even the slightest about the collection of funds on a large scale will heartily appreciate the great financial results accomplished, especially those cognizant of the immense obstacles to be overcome. Systematized sabotage and organized antagonism maliciously opposed the work from the start—elements that would stop at nothing to destroy the work and prevent even the slightest relief reaching the dying women and children of Soviet Russia,”Drake asserts.

“Circular Letter on the Closing of the Chicago Office of the Soviet Russia Medical Relief Committee from Charles L. Drake.” [Jan. 15, 1921] The Soviet Russia Medical Relief Committee was the medical relief arm of the Communist-directed Friends of Soviet Russia organization. The group worked hand in glove with the Russian Soviet Government Bureau headed by Ludwig Martens, which served as the official purchasing agent for the fundraising organization. Undercover investigation by the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Investigation assured that authorities were well apprised of bitter criticism in the radical community of the ethics and accounting practices of Soviet Russia Medical Relief, charges levied with particular vehemence by the Anarchist-dominated Russian radical movement of the Detroit area. While the BoI believed that the “American Red Star League” organization which emerged in early 1921 was a parallel organization initiated as in response to the improprieties of the Soviet Russian Medical Relief Committee headed by A.M. Rovin and Boris Roustam-Bek, this document reveals an altogether different origin. Rather than an insurgent parallel organization motivated by accountability and fiscal reform, the Red Star League had its roots in the sudden decision of the New York main office to terminate its Chicago, headed by attorney Charles L. Drake. With the deportation of Martens and the shuttering of the Soviet Bureau clearing in the offing, the Soviet Medical Relief organization saw itself as left with no means of transporting its sanitary and medical supplies to Soviet Russia. The determination to shutter the Western Office was abrupt -- two days before Christmas a letter was sent by Secretary Joseph Michael to Drake in Chicago (reprinted here) instructing him to immediately terminate all engagements and close the office. Drake obtained an extension of this deadline to Friday, Jan. 15, 1921, which was the final day of operation of the Western Office of the Soviet Russia Medical Relief Committee. The American Red Star League seems to have been launched immediately thereafter, using the same physical office space being abandoned and with Drake taking on the role of Secretary and guiding figure of the new medical relief fundraising organization.

“Circular Letter to Trade Union Locals from the National Executive Committee of the World War Veterans, circa Jan. 25, 1921.” This widely circulated fundraising letter from the Left Wing ex-soldiers organization, the World War Veterans, gives new meaning to the term “doughboys.” The WWV’s efforts at Fort Dodge, Iowa against the open shop and in a Minneapolis counterdemonstrating against the Right Wing American Legion are played up, as is their intervention in Clinton, Iowa on behalf of a progressive city government. During the latter enterprise the macho toughguy WWV purportedly met American Legion force with force ("5 Vets cleaned up 11 bullies and cleaned ‘em right") and turned out 500 supporters to canvas door to door, effectively winning the election. The circular asks organized labor to “Give us your 5 million labor men of America, put $100,000 into our hands or at our disposal, and we will organize the ex-doughboys of America into a combat organization that will save America from the economic, industrial, financial, and political anarchy into which you know as well as we do that she is drifting.” The bottom line: “Whip your Central body into line and shoot us 250 bucks, a range for our organizers, and enjoy life again.”

“Letter to Henry J. Ryan, National Director, Americanism Commission, the American Legion in Indianapolis, IN, from J. Edgar Hoover, Special Assistant to the Attorney General in Washington, DC, January 31, 1921.” This short letter from J. Edgar Hoover to the head of the American Legion’s “Americanism Commission” emphasizes the way that the ultra-nationalist organization of former soldiers worked hand-in-glove with the anti-radical contingent of the Justice Department. Hoover passes along the text of a bill proposed to congress in Nov. 1919 by Attorney General Mitchell Palmer as a “proposal in order that there might be something concrete to work upon” in the way of anti-radical legislation. “Of course, legislation dealing with sedition and criminal anarchy must be carefully drafted so that it may not infringe upon the rights of free speech and freedom of the press. However, it should always be born in mind that while freedom of speech is a liberty it is not a license and that it must be exercised within reasonable bounds,” Hoover notes.

FEBRUARY

“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.

“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."

“The American Red Star League $10,000,000 Relief Fund to Save the Women and Children of Soviet Russia: A leaflet of the American Red Star League.” [leaflet, circa Feb. 1921] This leaflet by the new American Red Star League, a left wing rival medical relief organization to the American Red Cross, presents much of the case made by Irwin St. John Tucker in a longer pamphlet published by the Red Star League at about the same time. “Confronted with the terrific destitution in Europe as a result of wars and blockades, the working class of America has been asked to give generously for the relief of suffering in those countries. Millions of dollars have been raised in America for the relief of Europe. How much of this money has actually been of service to the working class? Two MILLION dollars’ worth of medical supplies desperately needed in Russia were burned by the American Red Cross in the Crimea to prevent it falling into the hands of the Workers’ Government. Supplies to the value of 10 MILLION dollars were allowed to rot at Archangel because the Red Cross would not permit the starving and dying Russians to use them.” Capitalist machinations in Russia, Hungary, Austria, Italy, and elsewhere had given a political coloration to the Red Cross’ work, while “under the leadership of Herbert Hoover a joint committee of relief organizations has been formed, which is openly using the funds collected for anti-labor propaganda,” the leaflet asserts. In response to this ideological orientation of the American Red Cross, the American Red Star League had been formed. “THE AMERICAN RED STAR LEAGUE is organized as First Aid to the Working Class in every country. Our first and most pressing duty is to save the women and children of Soviet Russia!” the leaflet declares. Financial contributions to the organization for its work are solicited.

“30,000 Babies Starving!! A leaflet of the American Red Star League,” by Charles L. Drake [circa Feb. 1921] This leaflet of the new American Red Star League makes use of a cable of the American Friends’ Service Committee from Moscow highlighting the shortage of milk, cod liver oil, and soap in Moscow which had resulted in an infant mortality rate estimated at an astronomical 40%. “America’s warehouses are full to bursting with good things. Let us send them to Russian babies! In the name of Humanity, ACT NOW!” the leaflet implores, noting that a $10 donation “will save 10 Russian babies.”

“The American Red Star League: First Aid to the Working Class.” [circa Feb. 1, 1921] “The ghastly failure of the present organized relief forces to be of any real service to the working class and their official refusal in many cases to help the workers where help is most needed has made necessary the organization of a relief force that will be of, by, and for the working class, and for the working class alone,” declares this leaflet of the newly-organized American Red Star League. This group is said to be “organized solely for the purpose of giving relief to members of the working class in acute need, everywhere in the world.” While aid to the working class in war ravaged Europe was clearly a priority, the leaflet notes that “such need is not confined to foreign countries. The anti-labor drive which has been begun by the moneyed powers in this country, headed by the United States Steel Corporation and assisted by every Chamber of Commerce, will lead to terrible conflicts and nationwide destitution.” The leaflet exhorts recipients to give financial donations to a $10 million Relief Fund: “The workers must be prepared now to aid their own distressed comrades. The want in Europe and Asia is terrible, appalling, and the official relief agencies use the contributions of Americans against the workers who are seeking to control their own governments. We must help them!”

“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.

“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.

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

“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.

“British Espionage in the United States: A Secret Memorandum Prepared by the United States Dept. of Justice, Feb. 15, 1921.” This secret US Department of Justice memorandum, forwarded under a cover letter by J. Edgar Hoover, reviews the activities of the British Intelligence Service in America. “There are several classes of investigation which the British were, and I assume still are, particularly interested in. These included Sinn Féin activities, Hindu activities, Negro activities (especially as they affect and became part of the activities of all darker peoples), International radical organizations and individuals, and radical affairs of all kinds in the United States,” the memo states. The memo dates Britain’s active pursuit of intelligence on radicalism in America to the spring of 1918, when Robert Nathan arrived from England. A lengthy list of known and suspected British agents is provided, including Marcus Garvey of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, Rev. R.D. Jonas, Louis Fraina, Big Jim Larkin, Santeri Nuorteva, and former Bureau of Investigation and Lusk Committee investigator Raymond W. Finch. Some of these identifications are dubious. With respect to Fraina, the memo states that “sometime ago, approximately 6 months,” an unnamed “prominent State Department official was advised by Sir Basil Thompson, head of the British Secret Service” that Fraina “had been in the employ of the British Secret Service, but at that time, he was not.” The memo states that “when Fraina returned to England after the Amsterdam conference of the 3rd International [Feb. 10-11, 1920] he was placed in jail. I have been confidentially informed that Fraina at this time was subjected to a thorough examination by the British authorities and whether or not he was actually placed upon a salary basis with them is unknown but he shortly thereafter departed for Russia where today he is in the intimate confidence of the Soviet authorities.” This specific account of Fraina’s path to Moscow is at odds with the existing literature (Draper, Buhle) as well as the State Dept. memo of March 5, 1920 and the Hicks/MID memo of Nov. 2, 1920, it should be noted.

“Statement of Ludwig C.A.K. Martens on the Activities of the Soviet Mission: Moscow— Feb. 24, 1921.” Upon arriving back in Moscow after being forced to leave the United States, former Russian emissary Ludwig Martens summarized the activities of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau which he headed in the Soviet press. Martens retrospectively categorizes the activity of the RSGB into three sections: Information, Commercial work, and Technical work. Martens feels the propagation of information about Soviet Russia had been successful, as had the development of technical information and assistance for his country. Commercial work was a mixed bag, in Martens’ estimation, the big failure to open up trade relations being only partially offset by the export of $750,000 worth of goods from Soviet Russia and by the execution of a number of successful purchase orders. Martens also emphasizes the importance of having made contact with the 3 million member Russian colony in America, the mass of which were “undoubtedly supporters of Soviet Russia.” Martens concludes that it is his conviction “that our return to America will take place in the very near future. The program put forward by the Republicans during the Presidential election contained a paragraph demanding the resumption of trade relations with all countries with which America is not in a state of war. This of course applies to Soviet Russia. I think that as soon as Harding becomes President of the USA, Soviet Russia will be given the opportunity of opening the necessary negotiations."

“The American Legion and Civil Service ‘Preference’ for Soldiers,” by Victor D. Berger [Feb. 24, 1921] This front page editorial by Congressman Victor Berger from the front page of his Milwaukee Leader takes on a local American Legion proposal to establish near-monopolistic preferences for veterans of the European war in Milwaukee civil service hiring. Berger notes that veterans already had a 5 point preference in civil service exams. Further, that veterans of the European war were “98%” conscripts rather than volunteers—and many of the 2% of volunteers joined up only due to the threat of being drafted. “These army men deserve a great deal of sympathy and even praise, because they did what they considered their duty—but they deserve no special honors or distinction or monopolistic privileges,” Berger states. Berger goes on to note the sordid history of the American Legion—the “Praetorian Guard of capitalism in America” which was initially employed as strikebreakers in the east before settling upon a policy of neutrality in the struggle between capital and labor. “the fact alone that the workingmen who join the American Legion - for a good time or getting a special advantage - bind themselves to become “neutrals” in the struggle of labor for better conditions, which is really their own struggle. This marks an immense advantage for the American capitalist class,” Berger declares.

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.”

“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.”

“Martens Files Libel Suit Against the Washington Post.” [event of March 2, 1921] Around the first of March, 1921, claims were made in the Washington Post against head of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau, Ludwig Martens, charging that he he was a member of the American Communist Party, had directed secret organizations aiming at the overthrow of the American government, had associated with and incited criminal anarchists, and that he was himself a German revolutionist. The Post additionally editorialized in favor of delivering Martens “over to the tender mercies of Noske, who knows how to deal with Sparticides, Bolsheviki, and their ilk.” Martens responded through his lawyer, former Senator Hardwick, who hired additional counsel in order to bring suit against the Post. “Their contention is that the above and other allegations by the Post are utterly false and are refuted by the official record of the Senate hearings,” this news account from the Socialist press declares. The Post’s editorial offensive against Martens was seen as part of a final effort by an increasingly desperate Department of Justice and the Lusk Committee of New York to justify their policy of repression of Martens and his Soviet Government Bureau in New York.

“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.

“Debate on the Press and the Society for Medical Aid to Soviet Russia at the 3rd Russian All-Colonial Congress: New York City,” by Bureau of Investigation Undercover Agent “P-132” [March 8, 1921] The Russian All-Colonial Congresses were ostensibly non-partisan biannual gatherings of the “Russian colony in the United States and Canada” sponsored by the anarchist Union of Russian Workers. This material is an extract from the report of the 3rd Russian All-Colonial Congress was provided by “P-132,” a Russian-speaking undercover Special Agent of the Bureau of Investigation (a full BoI employee who wrote his own reports, as opposed to a paid informer who funneled information to a reporting Special Agent). Topics of debate here are the ideological line to be pursued by the new official organ of the All-Colonial and the financial controversy over the Detroit branch of the Medical Aid to Soviet Russia organization. With regard to the press, the All-Colonial (Union of Russian Workers) had launched a paper called Amerikanskaia Izvestiia [American News] to replace the suppressed anarchist weeklies Rabochii i Krest'ianin and Khleb i Volia. Calls were made by anarchist delegates to the 3rd Congress for the publication to adopt an explicitly anarchist line. Delegate Mikhailov declares” “Comrades, you all know that we are Anarchists. Why should we cover up our beliefs and teachings by organizing schools and various educational societies? And that applies to Amerikanskaia Izvestiia. Once for all we ought to say clearly that it is an Anarchist newspaper and establish definitely its true character and purpose.” This perspective is opposed by Delegate Sivko, who states: “You are an Anarchist; well, I am a Communist, and if you demand the Anarchist policy I demand the Communist, and I will never consent that Anarchist propaganda be taught through Amerikanskaia Izvestiia.” Despite their control of the convention, the multi-tendency orientation of the newspaper was maintained by the final resolution of the 3rd All-Colonial Congress. That same evening a “special meeting or session” was held to deal with the alleged improprieties of the Medical Aid to Soviet Russia organization. At this “special session,” the same “Communist” delegate Sivko (probably a communist-anarchist as opposed to a CPA member) detailed the fraudulent practices which he uncovered in the Detroit organization of the Medical Aid for Soviet Russia organization. Rovin, Saks, Mendelsohn, and Boris Roustam-Bek are accused of having pocketed organizational funds, nearly $2,000 being unaccounted for by a snap audit. A parallel (anarchist) Medical Aid to Soviet Russia organization had been launched. Adding color is the comment by “P-132” that “during [Sivko's] speech several members of the Communist Party were trying to break up the meeting, but they were beaten up by members of the Union of Russian Workers, especially by Kiselev, who threw them down the stairs."

“Branstetter in Interview With Eugene V. Debs: Wilson Gag on Socialist Prisoner.” [Milwaukee Leader] [March 19, 1921] Following the November 1920 election, Atlanta prison authorities, apparently acting on directions of officials in the Wilson administration, seem to have cracked down on imprisoned Socialist leader Gene Debs, taking away his privilege to send or receive mail or to receive visitors. This period of holding Debs incommunicado was finally broken in March 1921 with a visit by Executive Secretary of the SPA Otto Branstetter to Debs in prison. Branstetter dispelled rumors that Debs had been physically mistreated, noting that “His guards have the deepest respect and even affection for him, and the matter of personal mistreatment is unthinkable.” Branstetter states that Debs’ “rights have been restored, at the discretion of the warden, and it seems as if the matter of his gagging is an ugly incident of the past, the last foul smelling act of the discredited Wilson regime.” The article also makes not that Debs’ fellow political prisoner in Atlanta Joseph Coldwell of Rhode Island, had refused an opportunity at parole on more than one occasion with the words, “While Gene is in, I will not voluntarily get out.”

“L.A.K. Martens Not Deported; Allowed to Go: Former Labor Secretary Now Gives New Explanation,” by Laurence Todd [March 22, 1921] This article distributed by the Federated Press notes that former Soviet representative in the United States Ludwig Martens had not been deported, as was implied in the press, but rather had been permitted to depart under his own volition and at his own expense. The article quotes outgoing Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson as saying in his defense, “The decision against Martens did not end Martens’ legal resources. He could still have recourse to the courts on habeas corpus proceedings. Under such circumstances it would have been months before Martens could have been deported, if at all. Consequently the Secretary of Labor permitted Martens to leave the United States without executing the deportation warrant on condition that he would leave not later than Jan. 22, 1921, and proceed to Russia at his own expense instead of at the expense of the United States.”

“Daugherty Acts on Debs Monday: Gene Returns to Cell from Capital Without Guards: Leaves Washington After Secret Conference with Attorney General on Case - Trial Judge Also Called: Prisoner Came and Left in Silence,” by Paul Hanna [March 25, 1921] This article distributed by the Federated Press details a surprising and largely unknown episode from the life of Eugene Debs—that in March 1921 he was permitted to leave the federal penitentiary in Atlanta without escort to travel by train to meet with new Attorney General Daugherty. “I could not go to see Debs, so Debs came to see me,” Daugherty told reporters after Debs had safely returned to Atlanta. “I wanted his own answer to certain questions and Debs gave them,” Daugherty said. Debs was sworn to silence on the trip, a promise which he did not violate."His sensational round trip from Atlanta to Washington is regarded as being in part a move by the administration to show the public that Eugene V. Debs is a man of spotless personal honor, no less than of unflinching devotion to his political principles. The administration has learned how to share in the drama of Debs, and to set off the villain’s role played by a prominent Democrat,” reporter Paul Hanna remarks. The Attorney General also sought the counsel of Judge Westenhaver of Ohio, who sentenced Debs to 10 years imprisonment on Sept. 11, 1918. Resolution of the call for amnesty in the case of Debs and all other political prisoners remaining from the late European war was expected shortly.

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.

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

“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 iterally didn'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!”

“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.”

“Debs Tried Out One Big Union of Railroads: Plan Weakened Craft Bodies, Says Foster,” by William Z. Foster [April 6, 1921] This article distributed by the Federated Press by the former syndicalist and future Communist leader emphasizes Foster’s anti-dual union perspective. While the spirit behind the effort of Gene Debs to establish a militant industrial union of railway workers in 1893 is embraced, Foster ultimately declares that the ARU’s “brilliant” early victory only lead to “overconfidence” and a smashing of the union. “The advent of the American Railway Union, as is always the case with dual organizations, did great harm to the railroad craft unions. All of them were weakened and some nearly destroyed. Thousands of their best members quit them to take part in the ARU, only to find themselves blacklisted out of the railroad service later because of the lost strike,” Foster declares. He adds that “The case of Debs himself is a striking example of the damage done. When he resigned his position as General Secretary-Treasurer and editor of the official journal of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen in order to form the ARU, he was a great force for progress in the old unions. Had Debs stayed with them he would have been a big factor in their future development. But he was lost to them, and that they have suffered much in consequence no unbiased observer will deny.” Foster does not recognize or emphasize that the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, from whence Debs sprung, was a fraternal and benefit society rather than a union per se—providing cultural opportunities and accident insurance rather than engaging in collective bargaining.

“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.

“W.D. Haywood Now in Russia, Chicago Rumor.” [Milwaukee Leader] [April 21, 1921] Official history of the life of William D. “Big Bill” Haywood emphasizes the fact that he was driven from the country by arbitrary and draconian judicial fiat. What is not emphasized, however, is the way that in fleeing from imprisonment Haywood broke faith and discipline with his former organization, the Industrial Workers of the World, and the codefendants with whom he was sentenced—who were engaged in trying to win their freedom as a group as political prisoners from the late European war. This news report from the pages of Victor Berger’s Milwaukee Leader breaks the news of Haywood’s flight from justice (using that term loosely) as part of a group of 7 delegates to the Founding Congress of the Red International of Trade Unions, who sailed from New York on March 31, 1921 for Stockholm. Haywood had failed to report back to Leavenworth Prison after the failure of his appeal before the US Supreme Court, prompting Chicago District Attorney Charles W. Clyne to engage the Department of Justice in a nationwide search for Haywood.

“Haywood Joins Communists; Quits IWW.” [Milwaukee Leader] [April 23, 1921] This Federated Press news account quotes unnamed friends of bail jumper Bill Haywood to the effect that Haywood “has joined the Communist Party and has definitely severed all connection with the IWW.” Haywood had “definitely aligned himself with the Communist Party” about the first of 1921, according to this account. Trying to keep hopes alive for a pardon of the mass of IWW political prisoners left in limbo by Haywood’s ill-timed and self-centered flight, attorney for the IWW prisoners Harry Weinberger said, “In my opinion the failure of Bill Haywood or of anyone else to appear for imprisonment can in no way affect the broad principle of political amnesty, which includes the Industrial Workers of the World, and which the administration should immediately put into effect.”

“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.

“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.

“Roger Baldwin Raps Haywood’s ‘Desertion.’” [Milwaukee Leader] [April 29, 1921] Roger Baldwin, Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, issued a sharp critique of Bill Haywood’s decision to jump bail and flee to Soviet Russia rather than return to Leavenworth Penitentiary in the Spring of 1921, following loss of his appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. Baldwin criticizes the “ordinary Communist propaganda, intended to justify Haywood’s desertion of the IWW defense organization and of his bondsmen, by stressing his new allegiance to the Communist Party, whose members are under a discipline which admits no personal judgment or other loyalties.” Baldwin continues that “We do not question Haywood’s motives. We do question the spirit and methods of a movement which has so little concern with loyalty to the elementary obligations of good faith to one’s fellows.”

“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.

MAY

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

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.

“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!”

“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.

“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.

“William D. Haywood, Communist Ambassador to Russia,” by David Karsner. [May 1, 1921] In 1921, the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed the conviction and 20 year sentence of IWW leader William D. Haywood under the so-called Espionage Act. Rather than return to the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, Haywood instead jumped bail and emigrated to Soviet Russia. This article, published in the illustrated Sunday supplement of the Socialist Party-affiliated New York Call assesses “Big Bill” Haywood’s career as a revolutionary labor leader and attempts to analyse the thinking behind Haywood’s decision to escape American justice for foreign shores. The author of this article, David Karsner, the editor of The Call’s Sunday magazine and the first biographer of Eugene Debs, was not unsympathetic to Haywood’s plight.

“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...

“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.

“1920 Financial Report of Charles H. Kerr & Co., Book Publishers.” [May 5, 1921] A mimeographed financial report sent out by America’s largest socialist publisher, Charles H. Kerr & Co. to its cooperative stockholders. Kerr anounces the forthcoming publication of The Shop Book, planned to be an occasional publication, to replace the suppressed International Socialist Review. It is noted that 1920 export trade was “almost entirely cut off” by the depreciation of the pound, which made it impossible for English booksellers to buy Kerr publications economically. In addition, “the price of paper, printing, and binding almost doubled,” resulting in a large increase in unsold inventories. One of three highlighted new publications, William Z. Foster’s The Railroaders’ Next Step, was actually published by the Trade Union Educational League—another sign of the waning influence of Kerr as the leading radical publisher in America. Includes a full financial report of Receipts v. Expenditures and Assets v. Liabilities.

“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.

“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.

JUNE

“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.”

“Moscow and the Socialist Party of the United States,” by Bertha Hale White. [June 11, 1921] White, one of the leading female members of the Socialist Party, writes in a pre-convention discussion bulletin that any discussion about SPA affiliation with the Third International in Moscow is moot, since the question has already been answered in no uncertain terms in the negative. Interesting for its discussion ofthe lengths taken by National Executive Secretary to make application to the Comintern for membership in 1920—as he was instructed to do by party referendum. White states the SPA must rebuild its shattered organization into a powerful force before being able to affiliate with Moscow on its own terms rather than be subject to conditions amounting to “tyranny.”.

“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).

“A Cook County Socialist Conference: Bureau of Investigation Report on the Special Meeting of Local Cook County, SPA: Machinists’ Hall, Chicago,” by August H. Loula [June 19, 1921]” This document reproduces the report of Chicago Bureau of Investigation August Loula concerning the bitterly contested June 19, 1921, meeting of Local Cook County, Socialist Party—a conclave which pitted SPA Executive Secretary Otto Branstetter and his supporters against the last enclave of a quasi-Communist Left Wing, headed by Louis Engdahl and Hyman Schneid. The meeting rejected a proposal recommending the Socialist Party’s affiliation with the Third International on the basis of the Comintern’s “21 points” by a vote of 50-74; this result prompted a walk out by 21 Bohemian delegates, who favored affiliation. A second resolution, declaring for reservation without reservations, was thereafter defeated by a vote of 36 to 44. A proposal favoring affiliation with the 2-1/2 International was severely trounced, the resolution garnering only 5 votes from the assembled delegates. Instead, a resolution was passed 59 to 24, stating that the Socialist Party should not affiliate with any international organization, but should instead spend its efforts building “a powerful, revolutionary, Socialist organization in this country.” A further proposal by Executive Secretary Branstetter, calling for the expulsion of those who continued to advocate affiliation with the 3rd International, died when the convention voted to adjourn rather than to take action. Instead a similar proposal was made by Branstetter a week later at the SPA’s annual convention, held in Detroit.”

“Account of the Executive Committee’s Work: Meetings of June 25-26, 1921 in the Kremlin.” This is a State Department translation from the Soviet press detailing the activities of the Executive Committee of the Communist International at the body’s final June session. This report, originally published in Krasnaia Gazeta [Red Newspaper], quotes President of the Comintern Grigorii Zinoviev’s summary about the work of the Executive Committee of the Comintern (ECCI) during its first 10 months of actual operation. An average of 3 meetings per month were held by ECCI, Zinoviev states, with an average of about 20 questions examined by the body each month. Zinoviev does not mention America, but rather singles out France, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland as the nations in which the “most lamentable conditions” exist regarding the discipline and subordination of Communists to their party and the actual tactics followed by these parties. England and America are lumped together as nations with “weak” Communist Parties needing to establish closer connections with their national proletariats.

JULY

“‘Farewell!’ to the Socialist Party: An Appeal to Its Remaining Members: Statement by the Committee for the Third International of the Socialist Party to the Members of the Socialist Party.” [Circa July 1921]. The Committee for the Third International was the organized faction for Left Wing realignment of the Socialist Party of America in 1920-21, after the departure of the great bulk of the Left Wing Section for the Communist Party of America, Communist Labor Party of America, and Proletarian Party of America. Headed by Secretary J. Louis Engdahl and including such future Communist leadership cadres as William F. Kruse, Benjamin Glassberg, Alexander Trachtenberg, J.B. Salutsky, and Moissaye Olgin, the Committee for the Third International formally left the SPA with this statement, published as a pamphlet in the aftermath of the June 25-29, 1921 Convention of the party. “A new home for constructive revolutionary Socialism must be built. Another political party of the working class must be established with the passing of the Socialist Party,” the farewell statement declared. In the interim, a formal organization called The Workers’ Council was established—a group which merged with the American Labor Alliance and elements of the majority underground CPA to form the Workers Party of America in December 1921.

“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.

“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.”

AUGUST

“The Need for Open Work,” by C.E. Ruthenberg [Aug. 192