Communist Party USA

American political party

This article is about the Communist Party USA. For the 2024 splinter party, see American Communist Party (2024). For similarly named groups, see American Communist Party.

Communist Party of the United States of America

Presidium| National Convention[1]
Co-chairs| Joe Sims
Rossana Cambron
Founder| C. E. Ruthenberg[2]
Alfred Wagenknecht
Founded| September 1, 1919; 105 years ago (1919-09-01)
Merger of| Communist Party of America
Communist Labor Party of America
United Toilers of America
Workers Party of America
Split from| Socialist Party of America
Preceded by| Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party
Headquarters| 235 W 23rd St, New York, New York 10011
Newspaper| People's World[3]
Youth wing| Young Communist League[note 1]
Membership|  ~20,000 (2024)[4]
75,338 (peak; December 1947)[5]
Ideology|

* Communism[6]
* Marxism[7]
* Bill of Rights socialism[8]

Political position| Far-left[9]
International affiliation| IMCWP (since 1998)
Comintern (until 1943)
Colors|   Red
Slogan| "People and Planet Before Profits"
Members in elected offices| 0
Party flag
Website
www.cpusa.org

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The Communist Party USA (CPUSA), officially the Communist Party of the United States of America and sometimes referred to as the American Communist Party, is a communist party in the United States. It was established in 1919 in the wake of the Russian Revolution, emerging from the left wing of the Socialist Party of America (SPA). The CPUSA sought to establish socialism in the U.S. via the principles of Marxism–Leninism, aligning itself with the Communist International (Comintern), which was controlled by the Soviet Union.

The CPUSA's early years were marked by factional struggles and clandestine activities. The U.S. government viewed the party as a subversive threat, leading to mass arrests and deportations in the Palmer Raids of 1919–1920. Despite this, the CPUSA expanded its influence, particularly among industrial workers, immigrants, and African Americans. In the 1920s, the party remained a small but militant force. During the Great Depression in the 1930s, the CPUSA grew in prominence under the leadership of William Z. Foster and later Earl Browder as it played a key role in labor organizing and anti-fascist movements. The party's involvement in strikes helped establish it as a formidable force within the American labor movement, particularly through the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). In the mid-1930s, the CPUSA followed the Comintern's "popular front" line, which emphasized alliances with progressives and liberals. The party softened its revolutionary rhetoric, and supported President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policies. This shift allowed the CPUSA to gain broader acceptance, and its membership surged, reaching an estimated 70,000 members by the late 1930s. On the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the CPUSA initially opposed U.S. involvement, but reversed its stance after Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, fervently supporting the war effort. The Popular Front era of CPUSA lasted until 1945, when Earl Browder was ousted from the party and replaced by William Z. Foster.

As the CPUSA's role in Soviet Espionage activities became more widely known, the Party suffered dramatically at onset of the Cold War. The Second Red Scare saw the party prosecuted under the Smith Act, which criminalized advocacy of violent revolution and led to high-profile trials of its leaders. This decimated the CPUSA, reducing its membership to under 10,000 by the mid-1950s. The Khrushchev Thaw and revelations of Joseph Stalin's crimes also led to internal divisions, with many members leaving the party in disillusionment. The CPUSA struggled to maintain relevance during the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. While it supported civil rights, labor activism, and anti–Vietnam War efforts, it faced competition from New Left organizations, which rejected the party's rigid adherence to Soviet communism. The Sino-Soviet split further fractured the communist movement, with some former CPUSA members defecting to Maoist or Trotskyist groups. Under the leadership of Gus Hall (1959–2000), the CPUSA remained loyal to the Soviet Union even as other communist parties distanced themselves from Moscow's policies, which marginalized it within the American left. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 dealt a devastating blow to the party, leading to financial difficulties and a further decline in membership.

In the 21st century, the CPUSA abandoned its traditional Leninist framework and embraced a more democratic socialist orientation. It has focused on labor rights, racial justice, environmental activism, and opposition to corporate capitalism. While the party still upholds Marxist principles, it no longer advocates for revolution against the U.S. government, instead working within progressive movements and electoral politics. The CPUSA publishes the newspaper People's World and continues to engage in leftist activism, though its influence remains marginal compared to other progressive organizations.

## Modern membership

[edit]

In 2011, CPUSA claimed 2,000 members.[10] In 2017 and 2018, CPUSA claimed 5,000 members.[11][12] In 2019, former Party member Daniel Rosenberg claimed that "nearly half" of new joiners since 2000 had "paid no dues" and merely signed up for the mailing list.[13]: 54  In 2023, CPUSA claimed 15,000 members.[14] In 2024, CPUSA claimed 20,000 members.[4]

## History

[edit]

Main article: History of the Communist Party USA

Charter for a local unit of the CPUSA, dated October 24, 1919

During the first half of the 20th century, the Communist Party was influential in various struggles. Historian Ellen Schrecker concludes that decades of recent scholarship[note 2] offer "a more nuanced portrayal of the party as both a Stalinist sect tied to a vicious regime and the most dynamic organization within the American Left during the 1930s and '40s."[15] It was also the first political party in the United States to be "fully"[clarification needed] racially integrated.[16]

By August 1919, only months after its founding, the Communist Party claimed to have 50,000 to 60,000 members. Its members also included anarchists and other radical leftists. At the time, the older and more moderate Socialist Party of America, suffering from criminal prosecutions for its antiwar stance during World War I, had declined to 40,000 members. The sections of the Communist Party's International Workers Order (IWO) organized for communism around linguistic and ethnic lines, providing mutual aid and tailoring cultural activities to an IWO membership that peaked at 200,000 at its height.[17]

During the Great Depression, some Americans were attracted by the visible activism of Communists on behalf of a wide range of social and economic causes, including the rights of African Americans, workers, and the unemployed.[18] The Communist Party played a significant role in the resurgence of organized labor in the 1930s.[19] Others, alarmed by the rise of the Falangists in Spain and the Nazis in Germany, admired the Soviet Union's early and staunch opposition to fascism. Party membership swelled from 7,500 at the start of the decade to 55,000 by its end.[20]

Party members also rallied to the defense of the Spanish Republic during this period after a nationalist military uprising moved to overthrow it, resulting in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939).[21] The Communist Party of the Soviet Union, along with leftists throughout the world, raised funds for medical relief while many of its members made their way to Spain with the aid of the party to join the Lincoln Brigade, one of the International Brigades.[22][21]

The Washington Commonwealth Federation newspaper after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact

The Communist Party was adamantly opposed to fascism during the Popular Front period. Although membership in the party rose to about 66,000 by 1939,[23][21] nearly 20,000 members left the party by 1943.[21] While general secretary Browder at first attacked Germany for its September 1, 1939 invasion of western Poland, on September 11 the Communist Party received a communique from Moscow denouncing the Polish government.[24] Between September 14–16, party leaders bickered about the direction to take.[24]

New York City Councilmen Peter V. Cacchione and Benjamin J. Davis Jr., two of the only elected officials of the Communist Party, served during and after World War II

On September 17, the Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland and occupied the Polish territory assigned to it by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, followed by coordination with German forces in Poland.[25][26] The Communist Party then turned the focus of its public activities from anti-fascism to advocating peace, opposing military preparations. The party criticized British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French leader Édouard Daladier, but it did not at first attack President Roosevelt, reasoning that this could devastate American Communism, blaming instead Roosevelt's advisors.[27] The party spread the slogans "The Yanks Are Not Coming" and "Hands Off," set up a "perpetual peace vigil" across the street from the White House, and announced that Roosevelt was the head of the "war party of the American bourgeoisie."[28] The party was active in the isolationist America First Committee.[29] In October and November, after the Soviets invaded Finland and forced mutual assistance pacts from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the Communist Party considered Russian security sufficient justification to support the actions.[30] The Comintern and its leader Georgi Dimitrov demanded that Browder change the party's support for Roosevelt.[30] On October 23, the party began attacking Roosevelt.[28] The party changed this policy again after Hitler broke the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact by attacking the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.

In August 1940, after NKVD agent Ramón Mercader killed Trotsky with an ice axe, Browder perpetuated Moscow's line that the killer, who had been dating one of Trotsky's secretaries, was a disillusioned follower.[31]

The National Committee of the Communist Party in 1948, most of whom had been arrested earlier that year under the Smith Act

The Communist Party's early labor and organizing successes did not last long. As the decades progressed, the combined effects of McCarthyism (also known as the Second Red Scare) and Nikita Khrushchev's 1956 "Secret Speech" in which he denounced the previous decades of Joseph Stalin's rule and the adversities of the continuing Cold War mentality, steadily weakened the party's internal structure and confidence. Party membership in the Communist International and its close adherence to the political positions of the Soviet Union gave most Americans the impression that the party was not only a threatening, subversive domestic entity, but that it was also a foreign agent that espoused an ideology which was fundamentally alien and threatening to the American way of life. Internal and external crises swirled together, to the point when members who did not end up in prison for party activities either tended to disappear quietly from its ranks, or they tended to adopt more moderate political positions which were at odds with the party line. By 1957, membership had dwindled to less than 10,000, of whom some 1,500 were informants for the FBI.[32] The party was also banned by the Communist Control Act of 1954, although it was never really enforced and Congress later repealed most provisions of the act, also with some declared unconstitutional via the court system.[33]

The party attempted to recover with its opposition to the Vietnam War during the civil rights movement in the 1960s, but its continued uncritical support for an increasingly stultified and militaristic Soviet Union further alienated it from the rest of the left-wing in the United States, which saw this supportive role as outdated and even dangerous. At the same time, the party's aging membership demographics distanced it from the New Left in the United States.[34]

With the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev and his effort to radically alter the Soviet economic and political system from the mid-1980s, the Communist Party finally became estranged from the leadership of the Soviet Union itself. In 1989, the Soviet Communist Party cut off major funding to the Communist Party USA due to its opposition to glasnost and perestroika. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the party held its convention and attempted to resolve the issue of whether the party should reject Marxism–Leninism. The majority reasserted the party's now purely Marxist outlook, prompting a minority faction which urged social democrats to exit the now reduced party. The party has since adopted Marxism–Leninism within its program.[35] In 2014, the new draft of the party constitution declared: "We apply the scientific outlook developed by Marx, Engels, Lenin and others in the context of our American history, culture, and traditions."[36]

The 30th National Convention was held in Chicago in 2014.

The Communist Party is based in New York City. From 1922 to 1988, it published Morgen Freiheit, a daily newspaper written in Yiddish.[37][38] For decades, its West Coast newspaper was the People's World and its East Coast newspaper was The Daily World.[39] The two newspapers merged in 1986 into the People's Weekly World. The People's Weekly World has since become an online only publication called People's World. It has since ceased being an official Communist Party publication as the party does not fund its publication.[40] The party's former theoretical journal Political Affairs is now also published exclusively online, but the party still maintains International Publishers as its publishing house. In June 2014, the party held its 30th National Convention in Chicago.[41]

The party announced on April 7, 2021, that it intended to run candidates in elections again, after a hiatus of over thirty years.[42] Steven Estrada, who ran for city council in Long Beach, was one of the first candidates to run as an open member of the CPUSA again (although Long Beach local elections are officially non-partisan).[43] Estrada received 8.5% of the vote.[44]

In July 2024, dissenting members of the CPUSA formed their own party, the American Communist Party, citing the CPUSA's support for the Democratic Party and alleged abandonment of Marxism–Leninism, with online political commentators Haz Al-Din as its founding Chairman and Jackson Hinkle as a founding Plenary Committee member.[45][46] The party, Al-Din, and Hinkle have drawn criticism for populist tactics such as MAGA Communism.[47]

## Beliefs

[edit]

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### Constitution program

[edit]

According to the constitution of the party adopted at the 30th National Convention in 2014, the Communist Party operates on the principle of democratic centralism,[48] its highest authority being the quadrennial National Convention. Article VI, Section 3 of the 2001 Constitution laid out certain positions as non-negotiable:[49]

> [S]truggle for the unity of the working class, against all forms of national oppression, national chauvinism, discrimination and segregation, against all racist ideologies and practices, ... against all manifestations of male supremacy and discrimination against women, ... against homophobia and all manifestations of discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people.

Among the points in the party's "Immediate Program" are a $15/hour minimum wage for all workers, national universal health care, and opposition to privatization of Social Security. Economic measures such as increased taxes on "the rich and corporations, strong regulation of the financial industry, regulation and public ownership of utilities," and increased federal aid to cities and states are also included in the Immediate Program, as are opposition to the Iraq War and other military interventions; opposition to free trade treaties such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); nuclear disarmament and a reduced military budget; various civil rights provisions; campaign finance reform including public financing of campaigns; and election law reform, including instant runoff voting.[50]

### Bill of rights socialism

[edit]

Main article: Bill of Rights socialism

The Communist Party emphasizes a vision of socialism as an extension of American democracy. Seeking to "build socialism in the United States based on the revolutionary traditions and struggles" of American history, the party promotes a conception of "Bill of Rights Socialism" that will "guarantee all the freedoms we have won over centuries of struggle and also extend the Bill of Rights to include freedom from unemployment" as well as freedom "from poverty, from illiteracy, and from discrimination and oppression."[51]

Reiterating the idea of property rights in socialist society as it is outlined in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels's Communist Manifesto (1848),[52] the Communist Party emphasizes:

> Many myths have been propagated about socialism. Contrary to right-wing claims, socialism would not take away the personal private property of workers, only the private ownership of major industries, financial institutions, and other large corporations, and the excessive luxuries of the super-rich.[51]

Rather than making all wages entirely equal, the Communist Party holds that building socialism would entail "eliminating private wealth from stock speculation, from private ownership of large corporations, from the export of capital and jobs, and from the exploitation of large numbers of workers."[51]

### Living standards

[edit]

Among the primary concerns of the Communist Party are the problems of unemployment, underemployment and job insecurity, which the party considers the natural result of the profit-driven incentives of the capitalist economy:

> Millions of workers are unemployed, underemployed, or insecure in their jobs, even during economic upswings and periods of 'recovery' from recessions. Most workers experience long years of stagnant and declining real wages, while health and education costs soar. Many workers are forced to work second and third jobs to make ends meet. Most workers now average four different occupations during their lifetime, many involuntarily moved from job to job and career to career. Often, retirement-age workers are forced to continue working just to provide health care for themselves and their families. Millions of people continuously live below the poverty level; many suffer homelessness and hunger. Public and private programs to alleviate poverty and hunger do not reach everyone, and are inadequate even for those they do reach. With capitalist globalization, jobs move from place to place as capitalists export factories and even entire industries to other countries in a relentless search for the lowest wages.[51]

The Communist Party believes that "class struggle starts with the fight for wages, hours, benefits, working conditions, job security, and jobs. But it also includes an endless variety of other forms for fighting specific battles: resisting speed-up, picketing, contract negotiations, strikes, demonstrations, lobbying for pro-labor legislation, elections, and even general strikes".[51] The Communist Party's national programs considers workers who struggle "against the capitalist class or any part of it on any issue with the aim of improving or defending their lives" part of the class struggle.[51]

### Imperialism and war

[edit]

The Communist Party maintains that developments within the foreign policy of the United States—as reflected in the rise of neoconservatives and other groups associated with right-wing politics—have developed in tandem with the interests of large-scale capital such as the multinational corporations. The state thereby becomes thrust into a proxy role that is essentially inclined to help facilitate "control by one section of the capitalist class over all others and over the whole of society".[51]

Accordingly, the Communist Party holds that right-wing policymakers such as the neoconservatives, steering the state away from working-class interests on behalf of a disproportionately powerful capitalist class, have "demonized foreign opponents of the U.S., covertly funded the right-wing-initiated civil war in Nicaragua, and gave weapons to the Saddam Hussein dictatorship in Iraq. They picked small countries to invade, including Panama and Grenada, testing new military equipment and strategy, and breaking down resistance at home and abroad to U.S. military invasion as a policy option".[51]

From its ideological framework, the Communist Party understands imperialism as the pinnacle of capitalist development: the state, working on behalf of the few who wield disproportionate power, assumes the role of proffering "phony rationalizations" for economically driven imperial ambition as a means to promote the sectional economic interests of big business.[51]

In opposition to what it considers the ultimate agenda of the conservative wing of American politics, the Communist Party rejects foreign policy proposals such as the Bush Doctrine, rejecting the right of the American government to attack "any country it wants, to conduct war without end until it succeeds everywhere, and even to use 'tactical' nuclear weapons and militarize space. Whoever does not support the U.S. policy is condemned as an opponent. Whenever international organizations, such as the United Nations, do not support U.S. government policies, they are reluctantly tolerated until the U.S. government is able to subordinate or ignore them".[51]

Juxtaposing the support from the Republicans and the right-wing of the Democratic Party for the Bush administration-led invasion of Iraq with the many millions of Americans who opposed the invasion of Iraq from its beginning, the Communist Party notes the spirit of opposition towards the war coming from the American public:

> Thousands of grassroots peace committees [were] organized by ordinary Americans ... neighborhoods, small towns and universities expressing opposition in countless creative ways. Thousands of actions, vigils, teach-ins and newspaper advertisements were organized. The largest demonstrations were held since the Vietnam War. 500,000 marched in New York after the war started. Students at over 500 universities conducted a Day of Action for "Books not Bombs."

> Over 150 anti-war resolutions were passed by city councils. Resolutions were passed by thousands of local unions and community organizations. Local and national actions were organized on the Internet, including the "Virtual March on Washington DC" .... Elected officials were flooded with millions of calls, emails and letters.

> In an unprecedented development, large sections of the US labor movement officially opposed the war. In contrast, it took years to build labor opposition to the Vietnam War. ... For example in Chicago, labor leaders formed Labor United for Peace, Justice and Prosperity. They concluded that mass education of their members was essential to counter false propaganda, and that the fight for the peace, economic security and democratic rights was interrelated.[53]

The party has consistently opposed American involvement in the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the First Gulf War and the post-September 11 conflicts in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The Communist Party does not believe that the threat of terrorism can be resolved through war.[54]

### Women and minorities

[edit]

Robert G. Thompson and Benjamin J. Davis leaving the courthouse during the Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders in 1949–1958

The Communist Party Constitution defines the U.S. working class as "multiracial and multinational. It unites men and women, young and old, gay and straight, native-born and immigrant, urban and rural." The party further expands its interpretation to include the employed and unemployed, organized and unorganized, and of all occupations.[48]

The Communist Party seeks equal rights for women, equal pay for equal work and the protection of reproductive rights, together with putting an end to sexism.[55] They support the right of abortion and social services to provide access to it, arguing that unplanned pregnancy is prejudiced against poor women.[56] The party's ranks include a Women's Equality Commission, which recognizes the role of women as an asset in moving towards building socialism.[57]

Historically significant in American history as an early fighter for African Americans' rights and playing a leading role in protesting the lynchings of African Americans in the South, the Communist Party in its national program today calls racism the "classic divide-and-conquer tactic".[note 3][58] From its New York City base, the Communist Party's Ben Davis Club and other Communist Party organizations have been involved in local activism in Harlem and other African American and minority communities.[59] The Communist Party was instrumental in the founding of the progressive Black Radical Congress in 1998, as well as the African Blood Brotherhood.[60]

Historically significant in Latino working class history as a successful organizer of the Mexican American working class in the Southwestern United States in the 1930s, the Communist Party regards working-class Latino people as another oppressed group targeted by overt racism as well as systemic discrimination in areas such as education and sees the participation of Latino voters in a general mass movement in both party-based and nonpartisan work as an essential goal for major left-wing progress.[61]

The Communist Party holds that racial and ethnic discrimination not only harms minorities, but is pernicious to working-class people of all backgrounds as any discriminatory practices between demographic sections of the working class constitute an inherently divisive practice responsible for "obstructing the development of working-class consciousness, driving wedges in class unity to divert attention from class exploitation, and creating extra profits for the capitalist class".[62][note 4]

The Communist Party supports an end to racial profiling.[50] The party supports continued enforcement of civil rights laws as well as affirmative action.[50]

## Geography

[edit]

The Communist Party garnered support in particular communities, developing a unique geography. Instead of a broad nationwide support, support for the party was concentrated in different communities at different times, depending on the organizing strategy at that moment.

Before World War II, the Communist Party had relatively stable support in New York City, Chicago and St. Louis County, Minnesota. However, at times the party also had strongholds in more rural counties such as Sheridan County, Montana (22% in 1932), Iron County, Wisconsin (4% in 1932), or Ontonagon County, Michigan (5% in 1934).[63] Even in the South at the height of Jim Crow, the Communist Party had a significant presence in Alabama. Despite the disenfranchisement of African Americans, the party gained 8% of the votes in rural Elmore County. This was mostly due to the successful biracial organizing of sharecroppers through the Sharecroppers' Union.[63][64]

Unlike open mass organizations like the Socialist Party or the NAACP, the Communist Party was a disciplined organization that demanded strenuous commitments and frequently expelled members. Membership levels remained below 20,000 until 1933 and then surged upward in the late 1930s, reaching 66,000 in 1939 and reaching its peak membership of over 75,000 in 1947.[65]

The party fielded candidates in presidential and many state and local elections not expecting to win, but expecting loyalists to vote the party ticket. The party mounted symbolic yet energetic campaigns during each presidential election from 1924 through 1940 and many gubernatorial and congressional races from 1922 to 1944.

The Communist Party organized the country into districts that did not coincide with state lines, initially dividing it into 15 districts identified with a headquarters city with an additional "Agricultural District". Several reorganizations in the 1930s expanded the number of districts.[66]

The Party has always been headquartered in New York and that city accounted for a significant portion of national membership, usually at least one-third, sometimes approaching half of the total. In 1930, 3,084 out of 6,822 members lived in District 1 (New York state). In 1939, 25,327 out of 66,000 total membership were New Yorkers; and 25,000 out of 54,000 in 1949. District 8, headquartered in Chicago usually accounted for about 10% of members in the 1920s and early 1930s, but then was overtaken by District 13 (California) starting in the late 1930s. [67]

## Relations with other groups

[edit]

### United States labor movement

[edit]

Main articles: Communists in the United States labor movement (1919–1937) and Communists in the United States labor movement (1937–1950)

May Day parade with banners and flags, New York

The Communist Party has sought to play an active role in the labor movement since its origins as part of its effort to build a mass movement of American workers to bring about their own liberation through socialist revolution.

### Soviet funding and espionage

[edit]

From 1959 until 1989, when Gus Hall condemned the initiatives taken by Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union, the Communist Party received a substantial subsidy from the Soviets. There is at least one receipt signed by Gus Hall in the KGB archives.[68][69] Starting with $75,000 in 1959, this was increased gradually to $3 million in 1987. This substantial amount reflected the party's loyalty to the Moscow line, in contrast to the Italian and later Spanish and British Communist parties, whose Eurocommunism deviated from the orthodox line in the late 1970s. Releases from the Soviet archives show that all national Communist parties that conformed to the Soviet line were funded in the same fashion. From the Communist point of view, this international funding arose from the internationalist nature of communism itself as fraternal assistance was considered the duty of communists in any one country to give aid to their allies in other countries. From the anti-Communist point of view, this funding represented an unwarranted interference by one country in the affairs of another. The cutoff of funds in 1989 resulted in a financial crisis, which forced the party to cut back publication in 1990 of the party newspaper, the People's Daily World, to weekly publication, the People's Weekly World (see references below).

Somewhat more controversial than mere funding is the alleged involvement of Communist members in espionage for the Soviet Union. Whittaker Chambers alleged that Sandor Goldberger—also known as Josef Peters, who commonly wrote under the name J. Peters—headed the Communist Party's underground secret apparatus from 1932 to 1938 and pioneered its role as an auxiliary to Soviet intelligence activities.[70] Bernard Schuster, Organizational Secretary of the New York District of the Communist Party, is claimed to have been the operational recruiter and conduit for members of the party into the ranks of the secret apparatus, or "Group A line".

Stalin publicly disbanded the Comintern in 1943. A Moscow NKVD message to all stations on September 12, 1943, detailed instructions for handling intelligence sources within the Communist Party after the disestablishment of the Comintern.

There are a number of decrypted World War II Soviet messages between NKVD offices in the United States and Moscow, also known as the Venona cables. The Venona cables and other published sources appear to confirm that Julius Rosenberg was responsible for espionage. Theodore Hall, a Harvard-trained physicist who did not join the party until 1952, began passing information on the atomic bomb to the Soviets soon after he was hired at Los Alamos at age 19. Hall, who was known as Mlad by his KGB handlers, escaped prosecution. Hall's wife, aware of his espionage, claims that their NKVD handler had advised them to plead innocent, as the Rosenbergs did, if formally charged.[71]

It was the belief of opponents of the Communist Party such as J. Edgar Hoover, longtime director of the FBI; and Joseph McCarthy, for whom McCarthyism is named; and other anti-Communists that the Communist Party constituted an active conspiracy, was secretive, loyal to a foreign power and whose members assisted Soviet intelligence in the clandestine infiltration of American government. This is the traditionalist view of some in the field of Communist studies such as Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes, since supported by several memoirs of ex-Soviet KGB officers and information obtained from the Venona project and Soviet archives.[72][73][74]

At one time, this view was shared by the majority of the Congress. In the "Findings and declarations of fact" section of the Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950 (50 U.S.C. Chap. 23 Sub. IV Sec. 841), it stated:

> [T]he Communist Party, although purportedly a political party, is in fact an instrumentality of a conspiracy to overthrow the Government of the United States. It constitutes an authoritarian dictatorship within a republic ... the policies and programs of the Communist Party are secretly prescribed for it by the foreign leaders ... to carry into action slavishly the assignments given. ... [T]he Communist Party acknowledges no constitutional or statutory limitations. ... The peril inherent in its operation arises [from] its dedication to the proposition that the present constitutional Government of the United States ultimately must be brought to ruin by any available means, including resort to force and violence ... its role as the agency of a hostile foreign power renders its existence a clear present and continuing danger.[75]

In 1993, experts from the Library of Congress traveled to Moscow to copy previously secret archives of the party records, sent to the Soviet Union for safekeeping by party organizers. The records provided an irrefutable link between Soviet intelligence and information obtained by the Communist Party and its contacts in the United States government from the 1920s through the 1940s. Some documents revealed that the Communist Party was actively involved in secretly recruiting party members from African American groups and rural farm workers. Other party records contained further evidence that Soviet sympathizers had indeed infiltrated the State Department, beginning in the 1930s. Included in Communist Party archival records were confidential letters from two American ambassadors in Europe to Roosevelt and a senior State Department official. Thanks to an official in the Department of State sympathetic to the party, the confidential correspondence, concerning political and economic matters in Europe, ended up in the hands of Soviet intelligence.[72][76][77]

#### Counterintelligence

[edit]

In 1952, Jack and Morris Childs, together codenamed SOLO, became FBI informants. As high-ranking officials in the party, they informed on the CPUSA for the rest of the Cold War, monitoring the Soviet funding.[78][79] They also traveled to Moscow and Beijing to meet USSR and PRC leadership.[80] Jack and Morris Childs both received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1987 for their intelligence work. Morris's son stated, "The CIA could not believe the information the FBI had because the Communist Party of the USA had links directly into the Kremlin."[81]

According to intelligence analyst Darren E. Tromblay, the SOLO operation, and the Ad Hoc Committee, were part of "developing geopolitical awareness" by the FBI about factors such as the Sino-Soviet split.[82] The Ad Hoc Committee was a group within CPUSA that circulated a pro-Maoist bulletin in the voice of a "dedicated but rebellious comrade." Allegedly an operation, it caused a schism within the CPUSA.[83]

### Criminal prosecutions

[edit]

Further information: Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders

When the Communist Party was formed in 1919, the United States government was engaged in prosecution of socialists who had opposed World War I and military service. This prosecution was continued in 1919 and January 1920 in the Palmer Raids as part of the First Red Scare. Rank and file foreign-born members of the Communist Party were targeted and as many as possible were arrested and deported while leaders were prosecuted and, in some cases, sentenced to prison terms. In the late 1930s, with the authorization of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the FBI began investigating both domestic Nazis and Communists. In 1940, Congress passed the Smith Act, which made it illegal to advocate, abet, or teach the desirability of overthrowing the government.

In 1949, the federal government put Eugene Dennis, William Z. Foster and ten other Communist Party leaders on trial for advocating the violent overthrow of the government. Because the prosecution could not show that any of the defendants had openly called for violence or been involved in accumulating weapons for a proposed revolution, it relied on the testimony of former members of the party that the defendants had privately advocated the overthrow of the government and on quotations from the work of Marx, Lenin and other revolutionary figures of the past.[84] During the course of the trial, the judge held several of the defendants and all of their counsel in contempt of court. All of the remaining eleven defendants were found guilty, and the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of their convictions by a 6–2 vote in Dennis v. United States, 341 U.S. 494 (1951). The government then proceeded with the prosecutions of more than 140 members of the party.[85]

Panicked by these arrests and fearing that the party was dangerously compromised by informants, Dennis and other party leaders decided to go underground and to disband many affiliated groups. The move heightened the political isolation of the leadership while making it nearly impossible for the party to function. The widespread support of action against communists and their associates began to abate after Senator Joseph McCarthy overreached himself in the Army–McCarthy hearings, producing a backlash. The end of the Korean War in 1953 also led to a lessening of anxieties about subversion. The Supreme Court brought a halt to the Smith Act prosecutions in 1957 in its decision in Yates v. United States, 354 U.S. 298 (1957), which required that the government prove that the defendant had actually taken concrete steps toward the forcible overthrow of the government, rather than merely advocating it in theory.

### African Americans

[edit]

Main article: Communist Party USA and African Americans

1976 presidential campaign poster

The Communist Party played a role in defending the rights of African Americans during its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s. The Alabama Chapter of the Communist Party USA helped organize the unemployed Black workers, the Alabama Sharecroppers' Union and numerous anti-lynching campaigns. Further, the Alabama chapter organized young activists that would later go on to be prominent members in the civil rights movement, such as Rosa Parks.[64] Throughout its history several of the party's leaders and political thinkers have been African Americans. James Ford, Charlene Mitchell, Angela Davis and Jarvis Tyner, the current executive vice chair of the party, all ran as presidential or vice presidential candidates on the party ticket. Others like Benjamin J. Davis, William L. Patterson, Harry Haywood, James Jackson, Henry Winston, Claude Lightfoot, Alphaeus Hunton, Doxey Wilkerson, Claudia Jones, and John Pittman contributed in important ways to the party's approaches to major issues from human and civil rights, peace, women's equality, the national question, working class unity, socialist thought, cultural struggle, and more. African American thinkers, artists and writers such as Claude McKay, Richard Wright, Ann Petry, W. E. B. Du Bois, Shirley Graham Du Bois, Lloyd Brown, Charles White, Elizabeth Catlett, Paul Robeson, Gwendolyn Brooks, and others were one-time members or supporters of the party, and the Communist Party also had a close alliance with Harlem Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr.[86]

### Gay rights movement

[edit]

Harry Hay developed his political views as an active member of the Communist Party. Hay founded in the early 1950s the Mattachine Society, America's second gay rights organization. However, gay rights were not seen as something the party should associate with organizationally.[citation needed] Many party members saw homosexuality as something done by those with fascist tendencies (following the lead of the Soviet Union in criminalizing the practice for that reason). Hay was expelled from the party as an ideological risk.[citation needed] In 2004, more than a decade after the fall of the Soviet Union and after Russia had legalized male homosexual relations, the editors of Political Affairs published articles detailing their self-criticism of the party's early views of gay and lesbian rights and praised Hay's work.[87]

The Communist Party endorsed LGBT rights in a 2005 statement.[88] The party affirmed the resolution with a statement a year later in honor of gay pride month in June 2006.[89]

### United States peace movement

[edit]

The Communist Party opposed the United States involvement in the early stages of World War II (until June 22, 1941, the date of the German invasion of the Soviet Union), the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the invasion of Grenada, and American support for anti-Communist military dictatorships and movements in Central America. Meanwhile, some in the peace movement and the New Left rejected the Communist Party for what it saw as the party's bureaucratic rigidity and for its close association with the Soviet Union.

The Communist Party was consistently opposed to the United States' 2003–2011 war in Iraq.[90] United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) includes the New York branch of the Communist Party as a member group, with Communist Judith LeBlanc serving as the co-chair of UFPJ from 2007 to 2009.[91]

## Election results

[edit]

Main articles: List of Communist Party USA election results and List of Communist Party USA members who have held office in the United States

### Presidential tickets

[edit]

Communist Party USA candidates for president and vice president  Year  | President  | Vice president  | Votes  | Percent  | Name

|
|
|
|
|

1924 |
William Z. Foster |
Benjamin Gitlow | 38,669 | 0.1% | Workers Party of America
1928 |
William Z. Foster |
Benjamin Gitlow | 48,551 | 0.1% | Workers (Communist)
Party of America
1932 |
William Z. Foster |

James W. Ford

| 103,307 | 0.3% | Communist Party USA
1936 |
Earl Browder |

James W. Ford

| 79,315 | 0.2%
1940 |
Earl Browder |

James W. Ford

| 48,557 | 0.1%
1948 |
No candidate;
endorsed Henry Wallace |
No candidate;
endorsed Glen H. Taylor | N/A
1952 |
No candidate;
endorsed Vincent Hallinan |
No candidate;
endorsed Charlotta Bass
1968 |
Charlene Mitchell |
Michael Zagarell | 1,077 | nil%
1972 |
Gus Hall |
Jarvis Tyner | 25,597 | nil%
1976 |
Gus Hall |
Jarvis Tyner | 58,709 | 0.1%
1980 |
Gus Hall |
Angela Davis | 44,933 | 0.1%
1984 |
Gus Hall |
Angela Davis | 36,386 | nil%

### Best results in major races

[edit]

Office  | Percent  | District  | Year  | Candidate

|
|
|
|

President  | 1.5%  | Florida  | 1928 | William Z. Foster
0.8%  | Montana  | 1932 | Earl Browder
0.6%  | New York  | 1936
US Senate  | 1.2%  | New York  | 1934 | Max Bedacht
0.6%  | New York  | 1932 | William Weinstone
0.4%  | Illinois  | 1932 | William E. Browder
US House  | 6.2%  | California District 5  | 1934 | Alexander Noral
5.2%  | California District 5  | 1936 | Lawrence Ross
4.8%  | California District 13  | 1936 | Emma Cutler

## Party leaders

[edit]

Party leaders of the Communist Party USA  Name  | Period  | Title

|
|

Charles Ruthenberg[92] | 1919–1927  | Executive Secretary of old CPA (1919–1920); Executive Secretary of WPA/W(C)P (May 1922 – 1927)
Alfred Wagenknecht | 1919–1921  | Executive Secretary of CLP (1919–1920); of UCP (1920–1921)
Charles Dirba | 1920–1921  | Executive Secretary of old CPA (1920–1921); of unified CPA (May 30, 1921 – July 27, 1921)
Louis Shapiro | 1920  | Executive Secretary of old CPA
L.E. Katterfeld | 1921  | Executive Secretary of unified CPA
William Weinstone | 1921–1922  | Executive Secretary of unified CPA
Jay Lovestone | 1922; 1927–1929  | Executive Secretary of unified CPA (February 22, 1922 – August 22, 1922); of W(C)P/CPUSA (1927–1929)
James P. Cannon[93] | 1921–1922  | National Chairman of WPA
Caleb Harrison | 1921–1922  | Executive Secretary of WPA
Abram Jakira | 1922–1923  | Executive Secretary of unified CPA
William Z. Foster[94] | 1929–1934; 1945–1957  | Party Chairman
Earl Browder | 1934–1945  | Party Chairman
Eugene Dennis | 1945–1959  | General Secretary
Gus Hall | 1959–2000  | General Secretary
Sam Webb | 2000–2014  | Chairman
John Bachtell | 2014–2019  | Chairman
Rossana Cambron  | 2019–present  | Co-chair
Joe Sims | 2019–present  | Co-chair

## Notable CPUSA members

[edit]

Well-known organizers and other members of the party  Name  | Years active  | Title  | Notes

|
|
|

Angela Davis | 1969–1991  | Member, California Communist Party  | A supporter of the Communist Party until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 following the revolutions of 1989, which ended communism in most countries worldwide. Davis then created the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, a former reformist faction within the Communist Party, which is now independent and promotes democratic socialism.
Charles E. Taylor | ?  | Member, Montana Communist Party; State Senator  | Started a left-wing newspaper called "Producers News" in Sheridan County, Montana after being sent there by the Nonpartisan League of North Dakota. The newspaper slandered members of the community, sparking a libel case and newspaper war.[95][96]
Dorothy Ray Healey | 1920s–1973  | Member, California Communist Party  | An early supporter of the Communist Party, she became disillusioned with the leadership of Gus Hall and furthermore was against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Healey criticized CPUSA orthodoxy after the crimes of Stalin were exposed by Nikita Khrushchev. She eventually left the party and joined the New America Movement, an organization promoting new-left activism.
Elizabeth Benson  | 1939–1968[97] | Party Organizer  | A child prodigy, Benson moved to Houston at the age of 22 to organize the area for the national party.[98] Benson is best known for leading Texas organizing during the 1939 convention in San Antonio, where 5,000 people surrounded the building and rioted at the opening ceremonies. Benson and several others were escorted out by police.
Emma Tenayuca | 1936–1939(?)  | Party Organizer  | Emma Tenayuca (December 21, 1916 – July 23, 1999), also known as Emma Beatrice Tenayuca, was an American labor leader, union organizer and educator. She is best known for her work organizing Mexican workers in Texas during the 1930s, particularly for leading the 1938 San Antonio pecan shellers strike.
Homer Brooks  | 1938–1943  | Texas State Party Chair; 1938 Candidate for Governor  | First husband of Emma Tenayuca. Brooks faced a draft evasion charge that became an exercise in red-baiting. He was sentenced to 60 days in prison, but the charge was overturned.[98]
Richard Durham | 1940s  | Member  | Creator and writer of the Destination Freedom radio series in Chicago. Durham was a CPUSA member while writing for New Masses, the Chicago Defender, the Chicago Star, and the Illinois Standard newspapers.[99][100][101]
Tupac Shakur | ?  | Member, Baltimore Young Communist League[102][103] | Known for his career as a rapper and actor, Tupac Shakur was at one time a member of the Young Communist League in Baltimore. He found the platform of the party appealing, having grown up in poverty. Shakur also dated the daughter of the director of the local Communist Party.[103]

## See also

[edit]

* American Communist Party (2024)
* English-language press of the Communist Party USA (annotated list of titles)
* History of Soviet espionage in the United States
* International Publishers
* Jencks v. United States
* Language federation
* National conventions of the Communist Party USA
* Non-English press of the Communist Party USA (annotated list of titles)
* Progressive Labor Party (United States)
* Revolutionary Communist Party, USA
* Socialist Workers Party (United States)
* W.E.B. Du Bois Clubs of America
* Young Communist League USA
* List of Communist Party USA members who have held office in the United States

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ The party voted to dissolve its youth wing in 2015 and voted to re-establish it in 2019. Final Resolutions for the 31st National Convention. June 10, 2019.
2. ^ She mentions James Barrett, Maurice Isserman, Robin D. G. Kelley, Randi Storch and Kate Weigand.
3. ^ See also The Communist Party and African-Americans and the article on the Scottsboro Boys for the Communist Party's work in promoting minority rights and involvement in the historically significant case of the Scottsboro Boys in the 1930s.
4. ^ See also Executive Vice Chair Jarvis Tyner's ideological essay "The National Question". CPUSA Online. August 1, 2003. Retrieved April 7, 2009.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "CPUSA Organizational Chart". Communist Party USA. March 26, 2020.
2. ^ The Soviet World of American Communism. Yale University Press. 2008. ISBN 978-0-300-13800-9.
3. ^ "People's World". Library of Congress. OCLC 09168021. Retrieved January 21, 2019.
4. ^ a b "Joe Sims on Communist Party USA and Campaign 2024". C-Span. June 7, 2024. At 8m45s "When we are mailing today, we are mailing to close to 20,000 people". Retrieved February 23, 2025.
5. ^ "Communist Party Membership by Districts 1922-1950 - Mapping American Social Movements Project". depts.washington.edu. Retrieved August 2, 2025.
6. ^ USA, Communist Party (July 25, 2025). "CPUSA Constitution". Communist Party USA. Retrieved August 2, 2025.
7. ^ USA, Communist Party (July 25, 2025). "CPUSA Constitution". Communist Party USA. Retrieved August 2, 2025.
8. ^ "Bill of Rights Socialism". CPUSA Online. May 1, 2016. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
9. ^ Pierard, Richard (1998). "American Extremists: Militias, Supremacists, Klansmen, Communists, & Others. By John George and Laird Wilcox. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Press, 1996. 443 pp. $18.95". Journal of Church and State. 40 (4). Oxford Journals: 912–913\. doi:10.1093/jcs/40.4.912.
10. ^ Berger, Joseph (May 22, 2011). "Workers of the World, Please See Our Web Site". New York Times. "All three have greatly shrunk from their heydays. The Socialist Party has about 1,000 members nationally. The Communists claim 2,000. The Democratic Socialists, which for many years included luminaries like Michael Harrington and Irving Howe, have about 6,000."
11. ^ Gómez, Sergio (April 19, 2017). "Communist Party membership numbers climbing in the Trump era". People's World. Communist Party USA. "Of the country's 300 million inhabitants, the organization currently has some 5,000 members nationwide."
12. ^ Lifang (April 15, 2018). "Interview: U.S. Communist Party leader says Marxism "vibrant, philosophical" outlook". Xinhua News Agency. "Founded in 1919, the CPUSA has some 5,000 members spread across the country. The party has been active in a range of political and social movements from the labor workers' rights to the environmental protection and peace issues, according to Bachtell."
13. ^ Rosenberg, Daniel (April 22, 2019). "From Crisis to Split: The Communist Party USA, 1989–1991". American Communist History. 18 (1–2): 1–55\. doi:10.1080/14743892.2019.1599627. "The CPUSA rented out most of the floors in its Manhattan headquarters to private companies, drawing valued income. Party clubs assumed increasingly virtual form. Facebook, Twitter, and website outreach seemingly bore fruit, producing online adherents. The Party carefully charted "likes" and "shares." Nearly half the online joiners paid no dues. Most "likes" came from outside the United States."1–2&rft.pages=1-55&rft.date=2019-04-22&rft_id=info:doi/10.1080/14743892.2019.1599627&rft.aulast=Rosenberg&rft.aufirst=Daniel&rft_id=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14743892.2019.1599627&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Communist+Party+USA" class="Z3988">
14. ^ Santana, Rebecca; Swenson, Ali (June 28, 2023). "Trump wants to keep 'communists' and 'Marxists' out of the US. Here's what the law says". AP News. "Communist Party USA has about 15,000 people on its membership list, said party co-chair Joe Sims. The list is "pruned regularly," he said, but some of that group may not be active members."
15. ^ Ellen Schrecker, "Soviet Espionage in America: An Oft-Told tale", Reviews in American History, Volume 38, Number 2, June 2010 p. 359. Schrecker goes on to explore why the Left dared to spy.
16. ^ Rose, Steve (January 24, 2016). "Racial harmony in a Marxist utopia: how the Soviet Union capitalised on US discrimination". The Guardian. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
17. ^ Klehr, Harvey (1984). The Heyday of American Communism: The Depression Decade. Basic Books. pp. 3–5 (number of members). ISBN 978-0465029457.
18. ^ Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward, Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail, (New York:Vintage Books, 1978), ISBN 0394726979, pp. 52–58
19. ^ Hedges, Chris (2018). America: The Farewell Tour. Simon & Schuster. p. 109\. ISBN 978-1501152672. "The breakdown of capitalism saw a short-lived revival of organized labor during the 1930s, often led by the Communist Party."
20. ^ "Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History". gilderlehrman.org. August 15, 2012.
21. ^ a b c d Crain, Caleb (April 11, 2016). "The American Soldiers of the Spanish Civil War". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
22. ^ "Soviet Union and the Spanish Civil War". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
23. ^ Soviet and American Communist Parties in Revelations from the Russian Archives, Library of Congress, January 4, 1996. Retrieved August 29, 2006.
24. ^ a b Ryan JG (1997). Earl Browder: the failure of American communism. University of Alabama Press. p. 162\. ISBN 978-0-585-28017-2.
25. ^ Roberts, Geoffrey (2006). Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953. Yale University Press. p. 44\. ISBN 978-0-300-11204-7.
26. ^ Sanford, George (2005). Katyn and the Soviet Massacre of 1940: Truth, Justice And Memory. London, New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-33873-5.
27. ^ Ryan JG (1997). Earl Browder: the failure of American communism. University of Alabama Press. pp. 164–165\. ISBN 978-0-585-28017-2.
28. ^ a b Ryan JG (1997). Earl Browder: the failure of American communism. University of Alabama Press. p. 168\. ISBN 978-0-585-28017-2.
29. ^ Selig Adler (1957). The isolationist impulse: its twentieth-century reaction. pp. 269–270, 274.ISBN 9780837178226
30. ^ a b Ryan JG (1997). Earl Browder: the failure of American communism. University of Alabama Press. p. 166\. ISBN 978-0-585-28017-2.
31. ^ Ryan JG (1997). Earl Browder: the failure of American communism. University of Alabama Press. p. 189\. ISBN 978-0-585-28017-2.
32. ^ Gentry, Kurt, J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets. W. W. Norton & Company 1991. P. 442. ISBN 0393024040.
33. ^ Click, Kane Madison. "Communist Control Act of 1954". www.mtsu.edu. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
34. ^ Naison, Mark. "The Communist Party USA and Radical Organizations, 1953–1960" (PDF).
35. ^ Constitution of the Communist Party of the United States of America. Communist Party of the United States of America. 2001. Archived from the original on January 21, 2014.
36. ^ "New CPUSA Constitution (final draft)."
37. ^ Klehr, Harvey; Haynes, John Earl; Gurvitz, David (February 15, 2017). "Two Worlds of a Soviet Spy – The Astonishing Life Story of Joseph Katz". Commentary Magazine. Commentary, Inc. Retrieved June 4, 2017.
38. ^ Henry Felix Srebrnik, Dreams of Nationhood: American Jewish Communists and the Soviet Birobidzhan Project, 1924–1951. Brighton, MA: Academic Studies Press, 2010; p. 2.
39. ^ Yates v. United States, 354 U.S. 298 (1957)
40. ^ "About People's World". People's World. August 25, 2009.
41. ^ "Opening of the Communist Party's 30th national convention". People's World. June 13, 2014. Retrieved June 16, 2014.
42. ^ "It's time to run candidates: A call for discussion and action". April 9, 2021.
43. ^ "Steven Estrada for District One". Steven Estrada for District One. Archived from the original on April 26, 2021. Retrieved April 26, 2021.
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50. ^ a b c "Communist Party Immediate Program for the Crisis". Archived July 8, 2009, at the Portuguese Web Archive. Retrieved August 29, 2006.
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52. ^ See Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto, Chapter 2.
53. ^ Bachtell, John. "The Movements Against War and Capitalist Globalization". CPUSA Online. July 17, 2003. Retrieved April 15, 2009. "CPUSA Online – the movements against war and capitalist globalization". Archived from the original on November 7, 2003. Retrieved April 15, 2009.
54. ^ "War Will Not End Terrorism". CPUSA Online. October 8, 2001. Retrieved April 6, 2009.
55. ^ Myles, Dee. "Remarks on the Fight for Women's Equality". Speech given at the 27th National Convention of the CPUSA. Communist Party USA. CPUSA Online. July 7, 2001. Retrieved April 7, 2009.
56. ^ Kern, Michelle (June 27, 2016). "What is the CPUSA's position on abortion rights?". Cpusa.org. Retrieved August 22, 2018.
57. ^ Trowbdrige, Carolyn. "Communist Party Salutes Women". CPUSA Online. March 8, 2009. Retrieved April 7, 2009.
58. ^ Section 3d: "The Working Class, Class Struggle, Democratic Struggle, and Forces for Progress: The Working Class and Trade Union Movement Democratic Struggle and its Relation to Class Struggle Special Oppression and Exploitation. Multiracial, Multinational Unity for Full Equality and Against Racism". CPUSA Online. May 19, 2006. Retrieved April 7, 2009.
59. ^ "CPUSA Members Mark 5th Anniversary of the War: Ben Davis Club Remembers Those Lost". CPUSA Online. March 20, 2008. Retrieved April 7, 2009. "CPUSA Online – CPUSA members mark 5th anniversary of the war". Archived from the original on July 19, 2009. Retrieved April 7, 2009.
60. ^ "Blacks and the CPUSA (by L. Proyect)". www.columbia.edu. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
61. ^ García, Mario T. Mexican Americans: Leadership, Ideology, and Identity, 1930–1960. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1991. ISBN 978-0300049848.
62. ^ "CPUSA Constitution". Amended July 8, 2001, at the 27th National Convention, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Retrieved August 29, 2006.
63. ^ a b "Communist Party votes by county". depts.washington.edu. Retrieved July 20, 2017.
64. ^ a b Kelley, Robin D.G. (1990). Hammer and hoe : Alabama Communists during the Great Depression (2nd ed.). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. pp. 2–10. ISBN 0807819212.
65. ^ "Communist Party membership by Districts 1922–1950 – Mapping American Social Movements". depts.washington.edu. Retrieved December 9, 2022.
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68. ^ Klehr, Harvey; Haynes, John Earl; Anderson, Kyrill M. (2008). The Soviet World of American Communism. Yale University Press. p. 155\. ISBN 978-0300138009.
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72. ^ a b Haynes, John Earl, and Klehr, Harvey, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America, Yale University Press (2000).
73. ^ Schecter, Jerrold and Leona, Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History, Potomac Books (2002).
74. ^ Sudoplatov, Pavel Anatoli, Schecter, Jerrold L., and Schecter, Leona P., Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness – A Soviet Spymaster, Little Brown, Boston (1994).
75. ^ "Title 50 > Chapter 23 > Subchapter IV > § 841. Findings and declarations of fact". U.S. Code collection on the site of Cornell University. Retrieved August 30, 2006.
76. ^ Retrieved Papers Shed Light On Communist Activities In U.S., Associated Press, January 31, 2001.
77. ^ Weinstein, Allen, and Vassiliev, Alexander, The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America – the Stalin Era (New York: Random House, 1999).
78. ^ Klehr, Harvey (July 3, 2017). "Opinion | American Reds, Soviet Stooges". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
79. ^ Babcock, Charles R. (September 17, 1981). "Soviet Secrets Fed to FBI for More Than 25 Years". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
80. ^ "The SOLO File: Declassified Documents Detail 'The FBI's Most Valued Secret Agents of the Cold War'". nsarchive2.gwu.edu. Retrieved November 15, 2021.
81. ^ "Carl N. Freyman, 85". Chicago Tribune. June 4, 2001. Retrieved November 15, 2021.
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83. ^ Tromblay, Darren E. (2015). The U.S. Domestic Intelligence Enterprise: History, Development, and Operations. CRC Press. pp. 384–387\. ISBN 978-1482247749.
84. ^ Taylor, Clarence (2011). "The First Wave of Suspensions and Dismissals". Reds at the Blackboard: Communism, Civil Rights, and the New York City Teachers Union. Columbia University Press. pp. 141–142\. ISBN 978-0231526487. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
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86. ^ Mink, Gwendolyn, and Alice O'Connor. Poverty in the United States: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, and Policy. ABC-CLIO, 2004, p. 194. ISBN 978-1576075975.
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88. ^ "Communist Party, USA: Resolution on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Rights". Convention Resolution on July 20, 2005. CPUSA Online. Retrieved August 20, 2012
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90. ^ "No to Bush's War!". CPUSA Online. Archived on the Internet Archive on April 7, 2003.
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93. ^ "The James P. Cannon Library".
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## Further reading

[edit]

For a selection of the most important titles, see bibliography on American Communism.

* Arnesen, Eric, "Civil Rights and the Cold War at Home: Postwar Activism, Anticommunism, and the Decline of the Left", American Communist History (2012), 11#1 pp 5–44.
* Draper, Theodore, The Roots of American Communism. New York: Viking, 1957.
* Draper, Theodore, American Communism and Soviet Russia: The Formative Period. New York: Viking, 1960.
* Draper, Theodore, The Roots of American Communism. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers (Originally published by Viking Press in 1957). ISBN 0765805138.
* Howe, Irving and Lewis Coser, The American Communist Party: A Critical History. Boston: Beacon Press, 1957.
* Isserman, Maurice, Which Side Were You On?: The American Communist Party During the Second World War. Wesleyan University Press, 1982 and 1987.
* Jaffe, Philip J., Rise and Fall of American Communism. Horizon Press, 1975.
* Klehr, Harvey. The Heyday of American Communism: The Depression Decade, Basic Books, 1984.
* Klehr, Harvey and Haynes, John Earl, The American Communist Movement: Storming Heaven Itself, Twayne Publishers (Macmillan), 1992.
* Klehr, Harvey, John Earl Haynes, and Fridrikh Igorevich Firsov. The Secret World of American Communism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.
* Klehr, Harvey, Kyrill M. Anderson, and John Earl Haynes. The Soviet World of American Communism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.
* Lewy, Guenter, The Cause That Failed: Communism in American Political Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
* McDuffie, Erik S., Sojourning for Freedom: Black Women, American Communism, and the Making of Black Left Feminism. Durham: Duke University Press, 2011
* Ottanelli, Fraser M., The Communist Party of the United States: From the Depression to World War II. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1991.
* Maurice Spector, James P. Cannon, and the Origins of Canadian Trotskyism, 1890–1928. Urbana, IL: Illinois University Press, 2007
* Palmer, Bryan, James P. Cannon and the Origins of the American Revolutionary Left, 1890–1928. Urbana, IL: Illinois University Press, 2007.
* Service, Robert. Comrades!: a history of world communism (2007).
* Shannon, David A., The Decline of American Communism: A History of the Communist Party of the United States since 1945. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1959.
* Starobin, Joseph R., American Communism in Crisis, 1943–1957. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972.
* Zumoff, Jacob A. The Communist International and US Communism, 1919–1929. [2014] Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2015.

### Archives

[edit]

* "Communist Party of the United States of America Records", Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives, New York University Special Collections
* Communist Party of the United States of America Records, 1956–1960. At the Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.
* Communist Party of the United States of America, Washington State District Records, 1919–2003. At the Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.
* Marion S. Kinney Papers, 1930–1983. At the Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.

## External links

[edit]

* Media related to Communist Party USA at Wikimedia Commons
* Young Communist League USA – youth group
* People's World – weekly newspaper
* Communism in Washington State History and Memory Project
* Manifesto and program. Constitution. Report to the Communist International – first pamphlet of the Communist Party of America
* Communist Party USA History and Geography-maps
* Manifesto to the Workers of America (1922). Milwaukee: Labor Press Syndicate.
* Tamiment Library Poster and Broadside Collection - United States: Communist Party (US): undated
* FBI files on the CPUSA on the Internet Archive

* v
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Communist Party USA

Nominees|

| Presidential|

* William Z. Foster (1924; 1928; 1932)
* Earl Browder (1936; 1940)
* Charlene Mitchell (1968)
* Gus Hall (1972; 1976; 1980; 1984)

|

Vice Presidential|

* Benjamin Gitlow (1924; 1928)
* James W. Ford (1932; 1936; 1940)
* Mike Zagarell (1968)
* Jarvis Tyner (1972; 1976)
* Angela Davis (1980; 1984)

Leaders|

* C. E. Ruthenberg (1919–1920; 1922–1927)
* Alfred Wagenknecht (1919–1921)
* Charles Dirba (1920–1921)
* Louis Shapiro (late 1920)
* L. E. Katterfeld (1921)
* William Weinstone (1921–1922)
* Jay Lovestone (1922; 1927–1929)
* James P. Cannon (1921–1922)
* Caleb Harrison (1921–1922)
* Abram Jakira (1922–1923)
* William Z. Foster (1929–1934)
* Earl Browder (1934–1945)
* Eugene Dennis (1945–1959)
* William Z. Foster (1945–1957)
* Gus Hall (1959–2000)
* Sam Webb (2000–2014)
* John Bachtell (2014–2019)
* Rossana Cambron & Joe Sims (2019–present)

Prominent members|

* Bernard Ades
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* Claude Lightfoot
* Steve Nelson
* Karl Emil Nygard
* William L. Patterson
* Paul Robeson
* Tupac Shakur
* Charles E. Taylor
* Emma Tenayuca
* Richard Wright

Litigation|

* Albertson v. Subversive Activities Control Board
* Aptheker v. Secretary of State
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* De Jonge v. Oregon
* Dennis v. United States
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* Smith Act trials
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State parties|

| Current|

* Georgia
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|

Defunct|

* Alabama
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Related articles|

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XV International Brigade – Abraham Lincoln

Commanders|

* János Gálicz (Jan–Feb 1937)
* Vladimir Ćopić (Feb–Jul 1937)
* Klaus Becker (Jul–Aug 1937)
* Vladimir Ćopić (Aug 1937–Mar 1938)
* Robert Hale Merriman (Mar–Apr 1938)
* Vladimir Ćopić (Apr–May 1938)
* José Antonio Valledor Álvarez (May–Sep 1938)

Battalions|

* British Battalion
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People|

* William Aalto
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Current communist parties in the United States

Marxist–Leninist
(including Maoist and Hoxhaist parties)|

* American Communist Party
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* Communist Party USA (Provisional)
* Freedom Road Socialist Organization
* New Afrikan Black Panther Party
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Trotskyist|

* Freedom Socialist Party
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* Solidarity
* Spartacist League

Other|

* African People's Socialist Party
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* Revolutionary Black Panther Party
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* Communism portal
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* e

Historical left-wing third-party U.S. presidential tickets

This group includes only pre-1996 parties that fielded a candidate that won greater 0.1% of the popular vote in at least one presidential election

Presidential
tickets that
won at least
one percent of
the national
popular vote
(candidate(s) /
running mate(s))|

| Greenback|

* Peter Cooper/Samuel F. Cary (1876)
* James B. Weaver/Barzillai J. Chambers (1880)
* Benjamin Butler/Absolom M. West (1884)

|

Union Labor|

* Alson Streeter/Charles E. Cunningham (1888)

Populist|

* James B. Weaver/James G. Field (1892)
* William Jennings Bryan/Thomas E. Watson (1896)

Socialist|

* Eugene V. Debs/Ben Hanford (1904 and 1908)
* Eugene V. Debs/Emil Seidel (1912)
* Allan L. Benson/George R. Kirkpatrick (1916)
* Eugene V. Debs/Seymour Stedman (1920)
* Norman Thomas/James H. Maurer (1932)

Bull Moose|

* Theodore Roosevelt/Hiram Johnson (1912)

Progressive (1924)|

* Robert M. La Follette/Burton K. Wheeler (1924)

Progressive (1948)|

* Henry A. Wallace/Glen H. Taylor (1948)

Other notable
left-wing parties|

* Socialist Labor Party of America
* Social Democratic Party of America
* Independence Party
* Farmer–Labor Party
* Communist Party USA
* Socialist Workers Party
* Liberty Party
* People's Party
* Citizens Party
* New Alliance Party

* Third-party performances in presidential elections
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Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
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National|

* United States
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* BnF data
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* 2
* 3
* Israel

People|

* Trove

Other|

* IdRef
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