MIA : Library : Alberto Moreau

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Alberto Moreau

1897 – 1977

He was born Alberto Moise on December 15, 1897 in Salonika, at that time part of the Ottoman Empire. His parents were Sephardic Jews and Salonika was renowned at the time for the size and activism of the socialist movement in the Sephardic Jewish community. He was active in the socialist movement from an early age and was briefly jailed in 1915 for his opposition to World War I. He emigrated to the United States in 1916.

Initially, Moreau was involved in the leftwing of the US Socialist Party, working among its Spanish speaking members and supporters. He joined the Communist Party in 1920 and quickly became a leading figure among those working with the Spanish speaking community in New York City. He participated in the founding of the Workers (Communist) Party in 1925 and soon held a variety of positions within the organization. At the local level he was a Member of the New York City Central Committee, Member of the New York District Committee. Nationally, in 1929 he was Secretary of the Spanish Bureau of the Central Committee and then in 1930-31 Secretary of the Colonial Department of the Central Committee. He played a leading role in convincing the Party to make a priority of work among Latinos in the U.S.

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In 1927 he traveled to the Soviet Union and, upon his return, lectured on what he had seen there.

In 1928 he was the Workers (Communist) Party candidate for the New York State Assembly 17th District and the Party's Harlem Campaign Election Director. In 1929 he was again the Party's candidate for the New York State Assembly 17th District.

Moreau was active in a variety of Party mass organizations, including the Club Obrero Español, that he helped to found and where he regularly lectured. In 1929, together with Leon Slavin Ruiz, he authored the first US Communist pamphlet on Latin American immigrant workers in the United States: “Los Latino-Americanos en los Estados Unidos.”

Moreau was secretary of the US All-American Anti-Imperialist League and was a member of the US delegation to the Second World Congress Against Imperialism, held in Frankfurt in 1929.

In the early 1930s he began working in the apparatus of the Communist International, including as a member of the Secretariat of the Caribbean Bureau of Socorro Rojo Internacional. From its creation sometime in 1931, he was a member of the Comintern’s Caribbean Bureau and later its secretary from 1933-1935. The Bureau was responsible for the Communist Parties in Central America and the Caribbean, including Cuba, Venezuela and Colombia.

In 1932, he represented the Bureau at the 5th Plenum of the Communist Party of Cuba. In 1934 he did the same at the Party’s second congress. He was a member of the committee that produced the founding program of the Communist Party of Venezuela.

During this period he wrote extensively for the Communist press, including in The Communist, Daily Worker, Labor Defender, International Press Correspondence, The Negro Worker, Mundo Obrero, Vida Obrera, El Luchador del Caribe, El Trabajador Latinoamericano, and La Correspondencia Sudamericana. In additional to Albert Moreau, he wrote under the pseudonyms John Bell, Manuel Valencia and Alfredo Moreno.

In 1936 he returned to working for the Communist Party, USA primarily in the field of education, including as the director of the New York State Party School Commission. He reguarly taught courses at the New York Workers School, where he was Director of the Extension Division, and later, at the Jefferson School of Social Science.

Moreau continued to be an active Party leader for the rest of his life in various capacities, in the National Committee and on the NY District CP Committee, the Puerto Rican Commission, and the Latin American Commission.

He died in 1977 and his ashes were interred at Waldheim Cemetery, Chicago, near the graves of the Haymarket Martyrs.


Biographical Materials

1932 Autobiography [prepared for the Communist International]

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1927

“What I saw in Soviet Russia.” from Daily Worker, September 16, 1927

1928

Fundamentals Class in Spanish (1928)

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Centro Obrero from Grafico, May 6, 1928

Speed Plans for Big N.Y.C. Election Drive from Daily Worker, June 30, 1928

Activities Grow in Harlem Election Drive from Daily Worker, September 1, 1928

Una Conferencia en el Centro Obrero from Grafico, September 2, 1928

Communist Nominees Will Speak at Harlem Rally of Cooperative from Daily Worker, October 18, 1928

Wicks Calls Seamen to Support Militant Colombia Strikers from Daily Worker, December 10, 1928

Workers Score Yankee Tyranny. Wicks, Moreau Expose Bolivia War from Daily Worker, December 25, 1928

1929
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Anti-Imperial Meet Planned from the Daily Worker, February 11, 1929

Mass Meeting to Protest Montenegro Murder in Harlem Tonight at 8 from the Daily Worker, February 14, 1929

Hundreds Join Sandinista Ball to Assist Paper. Support ’Vida Obrera’ Fighting Paper from the Daily Worker, March 18, 1929

Mass Meeting for Toussaint from the Daily Worker, May 18, 1929

Anti-Imperialist Movement Huge from the Daily Worker, June 3, 1929

U.S. Warships to Help Perez. Anti-Imperialists for Latin American Revolt from the Daily Worker, June 22, 1929

Message of Sandino Read at Banquet from the Daily Worker, July 11, 1929

More Arrests in Outbreaks in Colombia. Anti-Imperialists Urge Support of Revolt from the Daily Worker, August 7, 1929

Mexico Puppets Deport Sandino to Br. Honduras from the Daily Worker, August 9, 1929

Workers School Studies Latin Labor Problems from the Daily Worker, August 27, 1929

Porto Ricans Support Party from the Daily Worker, August 30, 1929

Communist Candidates at Latin American Ball from the Daily Worker, September 24, 1929

1930

Anti-Imperialist League Re-Organized to Face Hot Struggles from the Daily Worker, May 27, 1930

Latin Workers for India Revolt from the Daily Worker, June 19, 1930

For Freedom of Philippines. Anti-Imperialist Group Demands Independence from the Daily Worker, June 20, 1930

1931

Protest Cuban Terror Friday! from the Daily Worker, March 25, 1931

1932

Lecture on El Salvador Sun. Moreau to Tell of Revolution from the Daily Worker, February 6, 1932

Lecture on Chaco War (1932)

1933

Students, Workers Protest Cuban Attrocities Tomorrow from the Daily Worker, May 12, 1933

1937

Education of Campers from the Daily Worker, June 25, 1937

1942

Moreau to Give Special Course at Workers School (1942)

1944

C.P. Instructors Take on Recruiting Quota of 150 by Lola Paine, from the Daily Worker, March 17, 1944

1976

Letter to Alberto Moreau from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Venezuela on his 80th birthday (1976)

1977

Alberto Moreau Dies; CP Leader and Teacher from the Daily World, July 30, 1977

Letter from Henry Winston on behalf of the CC of the CPUSA to Jennie Moreau on the death of Alberto Moreau

A tireless fighter for freedom and socialism

A moving tribute paid to a fallen Communist

In Memorium Comrade Alberto Moreau, 1897-1977, from the Party Affairs, September-October 1977

1978

Potash, Moreau interred by Haymarket grave site from the Daily World, August 8, 1978


Writings

Porto Rican Workers in New York (1927)

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Capitalist Press Lies About Sandino (1928)

Hoover to Make Latin America into Colony (1928)

Pledge Aid to Fruit Strikers! (1928)

The Iron Heel Steps on Nicaragua [Labor Defender, December 1928]

Work Among Latins in the U.S.: Four Million Immigrants Await Organization for Anti-Imperialist Struggle (1929)

Subscription Drive of Daily Worker Is Blow to Imperialist War Plans (1929)

Workers To Demand Freedom for Colombian Revolutionist (1929)

Death Blow to Factionalism, Says Moreau (1929)

The Civil War in Mexico (1929)

Los Latino-Americanos en los Estados Unidos. La Situacion de los Trabajadores en Norte America por Leon Slavin Ruiz y Alberto Moreau (1929)

The Struggle Against the War Danger in Latin America (1929)

Latin American Briefs (I) (1929)

Latin American Briefs (II) from the Daily Worker, August 14, 1929

Latin American Briefs (III) from the Daily Worker, August 19, 1929

Latin American Briefs (IV) (1929)

Latin American Briefs (V) (1929)

Latin American Briefs (VI) (1929)

Latin American Briefs (VII) (1929)

Latin American Briefs (VIII) (1929)

Latin American Briefs (IX) (1929)

The Mexican Communist Party Fights Opportunism (1929)

Not a Latin-American Party Member for Lovestone (1929)

Whither Sandino? (1929)

Letter to the Communist Party of Mexico regarding Russell Blackwell (1929)

New Wall Street President – Boss of Mexico (1929)

United States’ Imperialism Drinks the Red Blood of Black Haiti (1929)

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Down with Machado’s “Labor” Congress! (1930)

Imperialism’s Killers At Work [on the murder of Julio Antonio Mella] (1930)

Sandino Must Answer to Anti-Imperialists (1930)

Latin America Jobless Fight. Hundreds of Thousands Starving to Death (1930)

Mr. Hoover’s Commission on Haiti “Reports” (1930)

De La Liga Antimperialista Norteamericana [La Pluma, Julio 1930 (Montevideo])

Tasks of the Party in Porto Rico (1930)

Latin American Workers and Murder of Gonzales (1930)

Letter to the Parties of Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Brazil (1930)

War Clouds on the Mexican Horizon (1930)

The Latin American Revolts [Labor Defender, Vol. 5, No. 10, October 1930]

Support the Nicaraguan Workers and Peasants (1931)

Baldwin and Gandhi (1931)

Blood Stained Nitrates of Chile [The Communist, Vol. X, No. 5, May 1931]

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The Meaning of the Girardot Strike in Colombia (1931)

The Significance of August 23rd, Anti-Imperialist Day (1931)

Dictator Ibanez of Chile Is Overthrown (1931)

The “Debt Moratorium” for Latin America (1931)

What Happened in Chile (1931)

Protest Against the Fascist Regime of Montero in Chile (1932)

Informe del representante (del Buró del Caribe) en el PC de Cuba sobre la situación en la dirección del PCC (1933)

Report on the Second Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, Part I: Preparing for Soviet Power in Cuba; Part II: What Are the Revolutionary Tasks in Cuba?; Part III: Cuban Communists Discuss Work in Unions, Army (1934)

The Second Party Congress of the C.P. of Cuba (1934)

Octubre Rojo (1934)

Ercoli Writes on Civil War. Gives a Profound Analysis of the Struggle of the Spanish People from the Daily Worker, February 4, 1937

Report of the School Commission [Proceedings, 10th Convention, Communist Party New York State, 1938]

Party Education from the Daily Worker, February 27, 1943

Party Education from the Daily Worker, April 24, 1943

Paz y Democracia (1963)

An Unfortunate Omission [Political Affairs, February 1965]

Catholics and Marxists in Latin American [Political Affairs, July 1966]

Appraising the Middle East War [Political Affairs, October 1967]

The Revolutionary Process in Latin America: A Syllabus (1968)

Lenin on National Liberation (1970)

Viva Puerto Rico Libre! [World Magazine, September 26, 1970]

Chile and Revolution (1971)

Letter to the History Commission [Party Affairs, April 1975]

 

 


Last updated: 28 June 2018