The Red Historian: 2016

“CP studies are now poised to go beyond the Cold War-revisionist dualism. Historians are likely to find a community-oriented social movement operating in concentric rings around a hierarchical, stratified political party. Perhaps the conclusion will be, as Klehr, Haynes, and Firsov proclaim with quite different intent, that ‘there are many worlds of American Communism.’” – Linn Shapiro, 1996[1]

Linn Shapiro went on to write Red Diapers: Growing Up in the Communist Left after her 1996 dissertation, but she never attempted to dive deeper into what she overtly described as a social movement that had various spheres of influence and activism. In this essay, I want to rationalize how such a movement can come into existence, and why this perspective is important for rationalizing the development of social radicalism in a general sense.

Social movements always have a center of gravity; a pivot point upon which its adherents and supporters can claim identity. Sometimes this center is an individual, such as Martin Luther King and the post-1958 non-violent Civil Rights Movement. Sometimes this center is a broad, national organization such as the Knights of Labor or the American Federation of Labor from 1886-1889. Historians are keen to pick up on these centers and utilize them as a focus for defining a social movement in general. But to stop at the center is to fall victim to its gravitational singularity—to assume, or presume, that the center is what defines the movement as a whole. This is not always true: One would be hard pressed to suggest that the Civil Rights Movement, while centered around the words and methodology of Dr. Martin Luther King, did not function with orbiting satellites that occasionally crossed paths with others. Just like their gravitational center, these satellites were a collective of individuals, organizations, both local and national, as well as political parties that sought to appeal to the interests of the masses.

This is an important concept to consider as we move forward, because it suggests that while movements are usually directed and defined by a pivoting nucleus, they also extend beyond this nucleus to engage with society in ways that the nucleus itself cannot. A prime example would be the American Communist movement from 1929 to 1945, the so called “heyday of American Communism.”[2] American Communism as a movement operated in workshops, political rallies, homes, communities, and unions across the United States; but it retained a gravitational center in the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA). This is not the same as saying the Party is what defined the movement—quite the contrary: This suggests that while the CPUSA created the foundation for Communist activism in the United States, the activism itself found manifestation in orbit of the CPUSA via various forms of local and national organizations as well as various groups of individuals. Like the electrons of an atom, they created the binding force that contained American Communism, an action that the nucleus itself cannot perform.

Social movements, whether political, economic, or civil, cannot be defined by one organization or another. While the gravitational center does indeed exist for many social movements, they also contain various elements that extend beyond the center to reach individuals that may not be attracted to the center’s pull in an overt way. The American Communist movement during its heyday managed to incorporate tens of thousands of individuals who would not directly consider themselves communists—rather they saw in the movement the potential to obtain real and practical change. A great example of this tendency was described by Frank Folsom in Impatient Armies of the Poor: The Story of Collective Action of the Unemployed:

“The most fully employed persons I met during the depression were the communists. They worked 10 or 12 hours a day—maybe 16, if you counted yakking time. Most got no pay. They were in on every protest I saw or heard of. If they didn’t start things themselves, they were Jonnies-on-the-spot. The communists brought misery out of hiding in workers’ neighborhoods.”^{^[3]}

Folsom, who was not a Communist Party member, saw potential and meaning in what the communists promoted in a time of dire economic straits, and increasing tension between workers and the State.

This is an important aspect of social history to consider, and I welcome thoughts and criticism about this model for rationalizing the development of a movement on a national, and perhaps even international, scale. Internationally, this model could also describe the Communist movement from 1917-1991, with various gravitational centers extending from Moscow, Beijing, and Havana, creating a system of concentric rings that functioned as various groups and individuals in nations around the world. But again, I would emphasize that the gravitational centers hold significance in an ideological way, as opposed to a direct and coordinated method or strategy that trickled down to the orbiting functionaries. To see it as direct and coordinated would delegitimize the works of individuals and groups in their respective regions, and it would ignore the work of historians and sociologists who have suggested that movements are more dynamic than their overt fronts.[4]

Ideally, future researchers and scholars can utilize this model to build upon the existing scholarship, and expose new ways of understanding various forms of social movements. I encourage others to participate in this discussion and perhaps bring in new ways to understand it, and shed light on the possibility of pursuing this approach in different kinds of social movements, both inside nation-states and more broadly on an international level.

[1] Linn Shapiro, “Red Feminism: American Communism and the Women’s Rights Tradition, 1919-1956,” Dissertation, American University, Washington D.C., 1996.

[2] This is in reference to Harvey Klehr’s book, The Heyday of American Communism. (New York: Basic Books, 1994)

[3] Quoted from Franklin Folsom, Impatient Armies of the Poor: The Story of Collective Action of the Unemployed; reprinted from T.H. Watkins, p. 117

[4] Hans Toch, The Social Psychology of Social Movements (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965); for a more specific example that countered the works of previous historians who assumed centrality in American Communism, see Jacob Zumoff, The Communist International and US Communism (London: Brill, 2015)

Well then,

I figured I'd make a post since it's been a while. Below is a comprehensive list of my dissertation resources, which obviously will expand, but for those out there interested in American Communism, this also serves as a comprehensive list of the key works and papers necessary to build a full picture. Some might note that the CPUSA collection at Tamiment is not there; this is primarily because everything in that collection has been gone through, at length, by many of the secondary sources I list. No need to research what others have already done....anywho: Enjoy!

Primary Sources

Reuther Library Collections

Al Fishman Papers, 1940-2008. Walter P. Reuther Library, WSU. Accession Number UP001654

Claude Williams Papers, 1929-1979. Walter P. Reuther Library, WSU. Accession Number LP000819

Carl Haessler Papers, 1908-1972. Walter P. Reuther Library, WSU. Accession Number LP000031

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Papers, 1956-1964. Walter P. Reuther Library, WSU. Accession Number LP000122

Ernest Goodman Papers, 1929-1997. Walter P. Reuther Library, WSU. Accession Number UP001152

Government Military Investigation Papers, 1933-1940. Walter P. Reuther Library, WSU. Accession Number LR001143

George Crockett Papers, 1944-1995. Walter P. Reuther Library, WSU. Accession Number UP000276

Helen Bowers Papers, 1934-1995. Walter P. Reuther Library, WSU. Accession Number LP001878

Henry Kraus Papers, 1926-1960. Walter P. Reuther Library, WSU. Accession Number LP000112

J. Edward Bailey III Papers, 1950-1989. Walter P. Reuther Library, WSU. Accession Number UP001588

Irwin L. Deshelter Papers, 1928-1984. Walter P. Reuther Library, WSU. Accession Number LP000301

Nat Ganley and Saul Wellman Papers, 1945-1953. Walter P. Reuther Library, WSU. Accession Number LP000308

Ronald Aronson Papers, 1977-2013. Walter P. Reuther Library, WSU. Accession Number WSP002445.

Sam Dolgoff Papers, 1907-1969. Walter P. Reuther Library, WSU. Accession Number LP000568

Wilbur and Mary Alice Baldinger Papers, 1929-1976. Walter P. Reuther Library, WSU. Accession Number UP000902

UCAPAWA Collection

Document: Attention Mr. Cleverly, dated July 30^th, 1937. The Norman Leonard Collection on the

Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers of America (FTA). Labor Archives & Research

Center, SFSU. Accession Number 1985/006. Box 267, Folder 11

Document: Grossman Letter. The Norman Leonard Collection on the FTA. Labor Archives &

Research Center, SFSU. Accession Number 1985/006. Box 267, Folder 11

Document: List of Demands, Dated March 30^th, 1937. The Norman Leonard Collection on the

FTA. Labor Archives & Research Center, SFSU. Accession Number 1985/006. Box 267, Folder 13

Document: N-L Collection Sumamry. The Norman Leonard Collection. Labor Archives &

Research Center, SFSU. Accession Number 1985/006

Document: NLRB Injunction Letter, dated March 16^th, 1937. The Norman Leonard Collection on the FTA. Labor Archives & Research Center, SFSU. Accession Number 1985/006. Box 267, Folder 14

Document: NLRB Decision, Dated March 30^th, 1937. The Norman Leonard Collection on the FTA.

Labor Archives & Research Center, SFSU. Accession Number 1985/006. Box 267, Folder 14

Document: To California Farmers, Dated April 10^th, 1937. The Norman Leonard Collection on the

FTA. Labor Archives & Research Center, SFSU. Accession Number 1985/006. Box 267, Folder 14

Document: UCAPAWA Contract Salinas. The Norman Leonard Collection on the FTA. Labor

Archives & Research Center, SFSU. Accession Number 1985/006. Box 267, Folder 10

Document: Wagner Act. The Norman Leonard Collection on the FTA. Labor Archives & Research

Center, SFSU. Accession Number 1985/006. Box 266, Folder 9

Document: Witness List. The Norman Leonard Collection on the FTA. Labor Archives &

Research Center, SFSU. Accession Number 1985/006. Box 267, Folder 11

Document: Worker Letter, dated August 15, 1937. The Norman Leonard Collection on the FTA.

Labor Archives & Research Center, SFSU. Accession Number 1985/006. Box 267, Folder 11

Oral Histories and Autobiographies

Artt, Michele. Interview by Joshua Morris for CPUSA Oral History Project. February 14^th, 2014 & March 28^th, 2015

Bob Treuhaft. Interview by Robert G. Larsen for Regional Oral History Office, UC Berkeley. Tape V, Side A. December 6^th, 1988

Brodine, Russel. Fiddle and Fight. NY: International Publishers, 2001

Cabron, Arturo. Interview by Joshua Morris for CPUSA Oral History Project. May 17^th, 2012

Cabron, Rossana. Interview by Joshua Morris for CPUSA Oral History Project. April 25^th, 2012

Cannon, James P. A History of American Trotskyism. New York: Pathfinder Publishing, 2002

Charney, George. A Long Journey. New York: Quadrangle Books, 1968

Davis, Benjamin J. Communist Councilman from Harlem. New York: International Publishers, 1990

Dennis, Peggy. The Autobiography of an American Communist. Washington D.C.: Library of Congress, 1977.

Healey, Dorothy Ray. Dorothy Healey Remembers. Interviews by UCLA Center for Oral History Research, UCLA, 1971-1973.

Lumpkin, Beatrice. Interview by Joshua Morris for CPUSA Oral History Project. September 19^th, 2011

----. Joy in the Struggle. New York: International Publishers, 2015

Marshall, Scott. Interview by Joshua Morris for CPUSA Oral History Project. May 9^th, 2012

Rivas, Luis. Interview by Joshua Morris for CPUSA Oral History Project. May 24^th, 2012

Ramirez, Armando. Interview by Joshua Morris for CPUSA Oral History Project. May 16^th, 2012

Ruben, Danny. Interview by Joshua Morris for CPUSA Oral History Project. February 24^th, 2012 & October 25^th, 2012

Smith, Betty. Interview by Joshua Morris for CPUSA Oral History Project. January 20^th, 2013

Verna, Rita. Interview by Joshua Morris for CPUSA Oral History Project. November 20^th, 2012

Weaver-Lopez, Cassandra. Interview by Joshua Morris for CPUSA Oral History Project. June 6^th, 2012

Periodicals and Congressional Reports and Party Texts

Communist Party Central Committee (1978). Highlights of a Fighting History: 60 Years of the Communist Party of the United States, Selected Documents. New York: International Publishers, 1979

The Communist (Periodical/Party Text). 1932-1950

Daily Worker (Periodical). 1932-1945

The Detroit News (Periodical). 1948-1970

Dennis, Eugene. “Defeat the Imperialist Drive Toward Fascism and War” in Political Affairs, Vol. 25, No. 9 (September, 1946)

Foster, William. Toward Soviet America. (NY: International Publishers, 1932)
-----. “Acceptance Speech, 1932” in May Acceptance Speeches of Communist Candidates for President and Vice President,
December, 1932. (accessed from Deering Library Special Collections, Political Pamphlets)
-----. “An Open Letter to John Fitzpatrick” in The Labor Herald, Vol. 2, No. 11: January 1924
-----. “Strike Strategy: A Pamphlet by the Trade Union Educational League, 1926.”
http://www.marxists.org/archive/foster/1926/strikestrategy/index.htm (accessed 4/27/15, 5:17pm)

“Resolution of the 13^th Plenum of the Central Committee”, The Communist, October 1931
“Thesis on Parliamentarianism, Resolution of the Communist International,” The Communist, February 1932
“Draft of Party Platform”, in The Communist, May 1932
“Results of 1931 and Prospects for 1932 in the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics” in The Communist International, Vol. IX, No.
2, Feb 1^st, 1932

Los Angeles Times (Periodical). 1935-1985

Jones, Claudia. “On the Right to Self-Determination for the Negro People in the Black Belt,” in Political Affairs, Vol. 24 (January, 1946)

"National Labor Relations Act, aka Wagner Act; Pub.L. 74-198, 49 Stat. 449, codified as amended at 29 U.S.C. § 151–169." Washington D.C., 1935.

New York Times (Periodical). 1935-1985

The Labor Herald. "Salinas Teamsters Dumped in NLRB Poll." October 5, 1948.

Winston, Henry. “Party Tasks Among the Negro People,” in Political Affairs, Vol. 24 (April, 1946)

U.S. Senate, Committee on Education and Labor. Report on Violations of Free Speech and the

Rights of Labor, 78^th Congress, 2^nd Session, Report #398, Printed 1948, pp. 130

Secondary Sources

Ansel, Corey. “American Trotskyist: The Heritage of James P. Cannon.” American Communist History 14, no. 1 (n.d.): 41–55.

Barrett, James R. William Foster and the Tragedy of American Radicalism. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2002.

Bates, Beth Tompkins. The Making of Black Detroit in the Age of Henry Ford. University of North Carolina Press, 2014.

Biondi, Martha. To Stand and Fight: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Postwar New York City. Harvard University Press, 2006.

Bonnet, Clarence E. History of Employers’ Associations in the United States. New York: Vantage Press, 1956.

Bracke, Maud. Which Socialism, Whose Detente? CEU Press, 2007.

Brown, Kathleen A., and Elizabeth Faue. “Social Bonds, Sexual Politics, and Political Community.” Left History 7, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 9–45.

Carson, Jenny. “Taking on Corporate Bullies: Cintas, Laundry Workers, and Organizing in the 1930s and Twenty-First Century.” Labor Studies Journal, September 9, 2010. doi:10.1177/0160449X10379642.

Carson, Jenny, and Nell Geiser. “The Democratic Initiative: The Promises and Limitations of Inudstrial Unionism for New York City’s Laundry Workers, 1930-1950.” Labor 8, no. 4 (2011): 65–87.

Clune, Lori. Executing the Rosenbergs: Death & Diplomacy in a Cold War World. First. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Davies, Carole Boyce. Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones. Duke University Press, 2008.

Davis, Angela Y. Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement. New York: Haymarket Books, 2016.

Deery, Phillip. Red Apple: Communism and McCarthyism in Cold War New York. New York: Fordham University Press, 2014.

Devinatz, Victor G. “Red Unionism During the Depression and Under McCarthyism: Reflections on Mine-Mill, the Workers Unity League, and the Minneapolis Teamsters.” American Communist History 13, no. 2–3 (2014): 189–98.

Draper, Theodore. American Communism and Soviet Russia. New York: Viking Press, 1957.

———. The Roots of American Communism. First. New York: Viking Press, 1957.

Faue, Elizabeth. Community of Suffering and Struggle. University of North Carolina Press, 1991.

Fernandez, Lila. Brown in the Windy City: Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in Postwar Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.

Gaido, Daniel, and Velia Luparello. “Strategy and Tactics in a Revolutionary Period: U.S. Trotskyism and the European Revolution, 1943-1946.” Science & Society 78, no. 4 (October 2012): 484–512.

Garcia, Mario T. Mexican Americans: Leadership, Ideology, and Identity, 1930-1960. Yale University Press, 1991.

Honey, Michael K. Southern Labor and Black Civil Rights: Organizing Memphis Workers. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, n.d.

Howe, Irving, and Lewis Coser. The American Communist Party: A Critical History. Second. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Inc, 1957.

Hurewitz, Daniel. Bohemian Los Angeles and the Making of Modern Politics. Berkley: University of California Press, 2008.

Isserman, Maurice. Which Side Were You On? The American Communist Party during the Second World War. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993.

Isserman, Maurice, and Michael Kazin. America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s. Third. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Johanningsmeier, Edward. Forgin American Communism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.

Johns, Michael. “Winning for Losing: A New Look at Harry Bridges and the ‘Big Strike’ of 1934.” American Communist History 13, no. 1 (n.d.): 1–24.

Johnson, Christopher H. Maurice Sugar: Law, Labor, and the Left in Detroit, 1912-1950. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1988.

Kaplan, Judy, and Linn Shapiro. Red Diapers: Growing Up in the Communist Left. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1998.

Keeran, Roger. The Communist Party and the Auto Workers Unions. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980.

Kelley, Robin. Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression. University of North Carolina Press, 1990.

Klehr, Harvey. The Heyday of American Communism. New York: Basic Books, 19941.

Klehr, Harvey, John Haynes, and Kyrill Anderson. The Soviet World of American Communism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.

Klehr, Harvey, John Haynes, and Anderson, Kyrill. The Secret World of American Communism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.

Korstad, Robert, and Nelson Lichtenstein. “Opportunities Found and Lost: Labor, Radicals, and the Early Civil Rights Movement.” The Journal of American History 75, no. 3 (December 1988): 786–811. doi:10.2307/1901530.

Korstad, Robert R., and James L. Leloudis. To Right These Wrongs: The North Carolina Fund and the Battle to End Poverty and Inequality in 1960s America. University of North Carolina Press, 2010.

Krochmal, Max. Blue Texas: The Making of a Multiracial Democratic Coalition in the Civil Rights Era. University of North Carolina Press, 2016.

Lewy, Guenther. The Cause That Failed: American Communism in American Political Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Lichenstein, Nelson. “The Communist Experience in American Trade Unions.” Industrial Relations 19, no. 2 (1980): 119–39.

Lichtenstein, Nelson. State of the Union. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002.

Luff, Jennifer. Commonsense Anticommunism: Labor and Civil Liberties Between the World Wars. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012.

Lyons, Paul. Philadelphia Communists, 1936-1956. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1982.

McDuffie, Erik S. Sojourning for Freedom: Black Women, American Communism, and the Making of Black Left Feminism. Duke University Press, 2011.

Metzgar, Jack. Striking Steel. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000.

Meyer, Gerald. “Alice Neel: American Commuist Artist.” American Communist History 13, no. 2–3 (2014): 179–88.

Mollenkopf, John. “New York: The Great Anomaly.” PS 19, no. 3 (Summer 1986): 591–97. doi:10.2307/419181.

Morris, Joshua. “The Shortest Straw: The CPUSA and Agricultural Unionism, 1934-1949.” Master’s Thesis, California State University, Pomona, 2010.

Murolo, Priscilla, and A.B. Chitty. From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend. New York: The New Press, 2001.

Murrell, Gary. The Most Dangerous Communist in the United States: A Biography of Herbert Aptheker. University of Massachusettes Press, 2015.

Naison, Mark. Communists in Harlem During the Depression. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2004.

Nash, Michael. Red Activists and Black Freedom: James and Esther Jackson and the Long Civil Rights Revolution. London: Routledge Press, 2010.

Ottanelli, Fraser. The Communist Party of the US, From Depression to World War II. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1991.

Painter, Nell Irving. Standing at Armageddeon. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1987.

———. The Narrative of Hosea Hudson: Life as a Negro Communist in the South. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1993.

Parrish, Michael. Anxious Decades. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1992.

Pintzuk, Edward. Reds, Racial Justice, and Civil Liberties. Minneapolis: MEP Publications, 1997.

Quint, Howard. The Forging of American Socialism. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1953.

Radosh, Ronald. “The Communist Party’s Role in the Folk Revival: From Woody Guthrie to Bob Dylan.” American Communist History 14, no. 1 (2015): 3–19.

Richmond, Al. A View from the Left: Memoirs of an American Revolutionary. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972.

Rosengarten, Theodore. All God’s Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Ruiz, Vicki. Cannery Women, Cannery Lives: Mexican Women, Unionization, and the California Food Processing Industry, 1930-1950. Alburquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1999.

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Schrecker, Ellen. “McCarthyism and the Decline of American Communism.” In New Studies in the Politics and Culture of U.S. Communism. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1993.

———. No Ivory Tower: McCarthyism and the Universities. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.

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