The threat of communism is the newest rhetorical weapon of the Trump Administration. The president has been responding to the recent campaign wins of Democratic socialists in Philadelphia, Colorado, and New York as a communist-led “mortal threat to American liberty” that needs to be removed “like a cancer.” Inflamed propaganda used by Trump and others to miscategorize progressive politicians and groups with belligerent references to McCarthyism and the Second Red Scare of the 1950s ignores the facts of communism’s core ideology and the history and legacy of its place in America.

The Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) reached its zenith from 1936 to 1939, kicking off the era by helping to re-elect President Franklin D. Roosevelt with his expanded New Deal. Earl Browder served as general secretary of the party under a platform of “For Jobs, Security, Democracy, and Peace,” and is still remembered for his powerful presence and February 1930 speech for the unemployed at Philadelphia City Hall. World War II loomed, and local anti-war activists like decorated U.S. Marine Corps officer Smedley Butler grew concerned the Democratic Party might lead the United States into a foreign war.

Philadelphia was suffering from the Great Depression and reeling from the infamous Battle of Reyburn Plaza, where radical organizers of different races armed with makeshift weapons clashed with police over the abysmal economics of the city, leading to the arrests of hundreds and changing the dynamics of “interracial militancy.” The Spanish Civil War had just begun, attracting individuals into both the CPUSA and the Popular front. Many of those same people went on to volunteer to fight against fascism under the banner of the “Lincoln Brigade.”

The second general convention of The National Negro Congress in May 1937 brought to Philadelphia speakers such as Walter White of the N.A.A.C.P and T.J. Kennedy of the CPUSA. Up for discussion was the end of fascism, the CPUSA, and the first Garbage Riot of March 1937, which left a stench around the city as trash pilled up on street corners. Unbeknownst to them the second Garbage Riot in July 1938 was a little over a year away. At this time, a younger generation, disillusioned by the Great Depression, lack of jobs, abysmal women’s rights, racism, and politics, joined the Communist Party.

Come One, Come All

Philadelphia has always been a consequential city for the CPUSA. In 1857, Marxists marched with the unemployed for relief during the Panic of 1857. They also marched in New York and Chicago. In December 1869, the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor initially organized Philadelphia garment workers and later included other trades. The Knights of Labor expanded to Reading, Pennsylvania for its first assembly in 1878. It then went nationwide with a clear objective “to establish co-operative institutions such as will tend to supersede the wage system by the introduction of co-operative industrial system.” A few years later, the International Workingmen’s Association came to an end only days before the reorganization of the socialist Workingmen’s Party of America, rechristened the Socialist Labor Party in July 1876.

The Manifesto of the Communist Party, published in February 1848 by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, appealed to the labor class from European nations. It dissimilated mantras of “every class struggle is a political struggle” and “the emancipation of the working class must be the act of the working class itself” spread through publications such as Die Revolution, a German-American communist newspaper.

The turn of the century introduced the arrival of Marxist immigrants to the United States following the Russian Revolution in 1905. However, by the 1930s they were old. A younger Jewish generation of CPUSA were recruited at gatherings in Strawberry Mansion or at party headquarters at 5th and Spring Garden Streets. They liked what was transpiring in the Soviet Union and saw potential to do more within an American framework.

Communism on Campus

Oral histories of the 1930s, captured in the 1960s, reveal reasons behind joining the American communist party. Ethel Paine, a Black Communist, was inspired by activist Eslanda Goode Robeson, a supporter of communism. Tim Palen was brought in by a member who showed him what was happening in the Soviet Union and predicted the Wall Street crash of 1929. Milt Goldberg was approached at a Society of Friends Center by a couple of Swarthmore College students who commented he was “too advanced” for Quaker activities.

Jack Ryan was influenced by an older socialist factory worker who explained the ideology in simple terms. Individuals were recruited through campus events that explained the causes behind the economic crisis and inequality, often resulting in students returning to campus to argue with professors over the causes of the Great Depression. In Philadelphia Communists, 1936-1956, published in 1982 by Temple University Press, Arthur Liebman is quoted as saying this about campus communists: “Those who were attracted and became involved with the left, especially those who rose to leadership positions as student leftists, were not campus oddballs. They were generally the brightest, most dedicated students.”

Racial Composition

Within the Philadelphia branch of the CPUSA, there were tensions within the party. Membership mainly consisted of Jews followed by Blacks. However, Fred Garst described the branch as “a Jewish organization with a goyishe cup (gentile head) and a token Negro” with a smattering of Eastern European Catholics and white Protestants.

There were meetings, lectures, classes, and concerts. Discussions and get-togethers took place in homes, often multiple times in one day, to share food and resources with members in need. Gatherings at popular locations, such as the Horn & Hardhart Automat (aka “The Heel”) 219 S. Broad Street, provided political discussions during lunch. Over time, many proclaimed that communism felt more like a family that extended throughout the nation.

Yet, racial disparities, especially recruitment and obligations in majority Black neighborhoods, began to show. Some members thought Blacks were being used and patronized, while others thought they were not politically developed enough to be in the party. A few felt uncomfortable saying anything, believing they would be labeled as racial chauvinists.

African American members felt discomfort around members who had Black maids or the means to travel to Atlantic City and Miami Beach for vacation. This was compounded by each group’s struggles in the workplace, which was later mitigated by Edward Strong, an African American activist that was respected among Black communists. However, many whites in the party thought he was too color-conscious and nationalistic.

International Workers’ Day

Within the party, protests against the Second Italo-Ethiopian War and Spanish Civil War became cause célèbres, but the International Workers’ Day on May 1 (aka May Day) protests of 1938 attracted larger crowds. Its origin traced back to the 1820s and 1830s when demands for shorter workdays grew. The Mechanics Union of Philadelphia, often referred to as the first trade union in the world, successfully petitioned for a 10-hour workday in 1827. New York City followed a few years later during the Bakers’ Strike of 1834, eventually becoming part of a bigger movement that President Van Buren made into law.

Slowly, new demands began for an 8-hour day under the slogan, “8 hours work, 8 hours recreation, and 8 hours rest.” This movement used the American Civil War to further its cause. Marx wrote in 1867, “The first fruit of the Civil War was an agitation for the 8-hour day–a movement which ran with express speed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from New England to California.” The selection of May 1 for the protests was made in Paris in 1889.

Over the decades the event evolved becoming a yearly rallying point for various causes. In 1938, May Day attracted crowds of up to 30,000 people to City Hall and consisted of labor unions, activists, and CPUSA members under the banner of reform. Protesters called out big businesses, such as ESSO’s unfair treatment of American seamen, autocratic City management, and characters such as Hitler, Hirohito, and Neville Chamberlain. In 16 months Germany would invade Poland and officially start World War II.

The Molotov–Ribbentrop (Nazi–Soviet Non-Aggression Pact) of August 1939, congressional cuts to New Deal programs, and Franco’s victory in the Spanish Civil War all caused many members of CPUSA to question their membership. The slow decline lasted into the 1950s with the Second Red Scare, McCarthyism, and revelations of what was truly happening in the Soviet Union under Stalin.

In reality, many members were too busy to meet the demands of party life. The war kept them engaged, while the intellectual class pontificated on their causes. The working class began to look at the more intellectual party members as wasting time. Others became more nationalistic by selling war bonds or taking on new positions at work that developed into distrust and divisions. By the end of 1939, the political landscape had changed dramatically and the party suffered for it.

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