Workers' Council of the United States

Workers' Council of the United States
The bi-weekly organ of the Workers' Council group was a magazine by the same name.

The Workers' Council of the United States, commonly known as the "Workers' Council," was a short-lived organized faction of former Socialist Party of America members who had wanted the party to affiliate with the Comintern. Failing that, they agitated for the creation of an open communist party. While a small and short-lived group, it nevertheless played an important role in the creation of the Workers' Party of America, and included many individuals who would have prominent careers in radical and labor movements such as Moissaye Olgin, J. Louis Engdahl, Alexander Trachtenberg, William F. Kruse, and Melech Epstein.

Organizational history

The group began as the Committee for the Third International in 1920 as an internal group within the Socialist Party advocating affiliation with the Communist International. Meanwhile several ethnic federations were growing weary of the rightward shift of the party. The Finnish Socialist Federation voted to leave in December 1920. When the party convention decided against joining the Comintern at its June 1921 convention, the Czech federation left in late August, followed by the Yiddish language-speaking Jewish Socialist Federation in September. The Jewish federation would provide the bulk of the groups membership.

The Committee officially left the Socialist Party after the Jewish federation had seceded, and changed its name to the Workers Council of the United States. The new group advocated a completely legal Communist movement in the United States, a stand that only aggravated internal disharmony within the recently united Communist party of America.[1]

After a series of negotiations the Workers' Council, the American Labor Alliance (the CPs already existing legal front) and the Communist Party agreed to the creation of the Workers Party of America at a convention at Star Casino, New York on December 23-26, 1921. One of the stipulations for the Workers' Council joining the new organization was the creation of a daily Yiddish newspaper. This was paper, the Morgen Freiheit, was launched on April 22, 1922, with M.J. Olgin as editor.[2]

From April 1 to December 15, 1921 the Workers' Council published ten issues of a biweekly serial called The Workers' Council. The publication was initially edited by Benjamin Glassberg, who was succeeded by Louis Engdahl. At the time of the establishment of the Workers Party of America, this periodical was merged with The Toiler to form The Worker, which in 1924 expanded to daily frequency as the well-known publication, The Daily Worker.[3]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Theodore Draper, The Roots of American Communism. New York: Viking Press, 1957; pp. 330-334.
  2. ^ Draper, The Roots of American Communism, pp. 340-341.
  3. ^ Walter Goldwater, Radical Periodicals in America, 1890-1950. New Haven: Yale University Library, 1964; pp. 46-47.

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • The United States of America —     The United States of America     † Catholic Encyclopedia ► The United States of America     BOUNDARIES AND AREA     On the east the boundary is formed by the St. Croix River and an arbitrary line to the St. John, and on the north by the… …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Health insurance in the United States — The term health insurance is commonly used in the United States to describe any program that helps pay for medical expenses, whether through privately purchased insurance, social insurance or a non insurance social welfare program funded by the… …   Wikipedia

  • Nuclear weapons and the United States — United States Nuclear program start date 21 October 1939 First nuclear weapon test 16 July 1945 …   Wikipedia

  • Light rail in the United States — The use of light rail in the United States is low by European standards. According to the American Public Transportation Authority, of the 20 odd light rail systems in the United States only five (Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and …   Wikipedia

  • List of think tanks in the United States — This article is a list of think tanks in the United States.ListConservativeModern conservatism is associated with some of the foreign policy initiatives of think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the Project for the New… …   Wikipedia

  • Human rights in the United States — In 1776, Thomas Jefferson proposed a philosophy of human rights inherent to all people in the Declaration of Independence, asserting that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that… …   Wikipedia

  • Reconstruction Era of the United States — In the history of the United States, the term Reconstruction Era has two senses: the first covers the entire nation in the period 1865–1877 following the Civil War; the second one, used in this article, covers the transformation of the Southern… …   Wikipedia

  • Colonial history of the United States — Colonial America redirects here. For other uses, see Colonial America (disambiguation). History of the United States This article is part of a series …   Wikipedia

  • Native Americans in the United States — This article is about the indigenous people of the United States. For other indigenous people see Indigenous peoples by geographic regions Native Americans …   Wikipedia

  • Health care in the United States — ] Current estimates put U.S. health care spending at approximately 15.2% of GDP, second only to the tiny Marshall Islands among all United Nations member nations. The health share of GDP is expected to continue its historical upward trend,… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”