Unspecified Date
"Joining the Socialist Movement," by Emil Seidel [1944] Short excerpt from a previously unpublished memoir by the Socialist Mayor of Milwaukee, Emil Seidel, dealing with the socialist movement in that city during the decade of the 1890s. Seidel notes that he was brought into a non-party socialist club called the Vereinigung [Association] by a foreman at the metal fabrication plant where he worked. The group included 35 to 40 German-speaking socialists and was closely linked to the publishing ventures of Victor L. Berger, the daily Arbeiter Zeitung [Workers' Newspaper], which was replaced by the weekly Vorwärts [Forward]. Seidel relates an anecdote of a disillusioned Victor Berger attacking in print the People's Party's "free silver" plank of 1896 before turning down $10,000 from a Republican Party insider to print a 100,000 copy extra edition of the paper containing this editorial. Berger won trade union leader and orator Eugene Debs to socialism when Debs was serving a six month jail term in connection with the 1894 Pullman strike. A new organization called the Social Democracy resulted; Seidel states that he was the first person to sign up for membership in Branch One of the group when it was established in Milwaukee at a meeting addressed by Debs. This gave way to the Social Democratic Party of America in 1897. Seidel details the first slate of this new organization in Milwaukee, which stood in the city elections of 1898, drawing just over 2,400 votes.
MAY 1944
"Letter to Oakley C. Johnson and Ann Rivington in New York City from Rose Ruthenberg in Lakewood, Ohio, May 15, 1944." [excerpt] Note from the first wife of C.E. Ruthenberg to his biographers. Mrs. Ruthenberg provides detail about her situation during the 1918 incarceration of her husband, during which she was able to make ends meet due to the Socialist Party of Ohio continuing to pay C.E.'s salary of $30 per week. In exchange, Rose Ruthenberg worked in the office daily on clerical tasks, she states.
"Minutes of the Convention of the Communist Party, New York, May 20, 1944." Immediately prior to the convention founding the "Communist Political Association" there was a short pro forma convention of the Communist Party USA (technically the organization's 12th) held to officially dissolve the CPUSA to make room for establishment of the CPA. After singing "The Star Spangled Banner," the assembled 220 delegates and 173 alternates heard opening remarks by National Chairman William Z. Foster who set the stage for General Secretary Earl Browder, who made the formal motion for dissolution of the CPUSA. The convention approved Browder's motion unanimously before voting to adjourn. This document contains the full text of the official published minutes of this short gathering.
"Constitution of the Communist Political Association: Adopted by the Constitutional Convention, May 20-22, 1944." The basic document of organizational law for the Communist Party during its brief interlude as the "Communist Political Association." The completely new organizational structure called for in this document began at the local level with geographic "clubs," democratically electing officers annually as part of democratically elected state organizations. Governing the party would be a set of national officers, headed by (all democratically elected) a "President" and with an indeterminate number of "Vice-Presidents," a Secretary, a Treasurer, and an indeterminately sized "National Committee" -- which in turn was to democratically elect a "National Board" of indeterminate size. This National Organization was to have the power to establish regional District organizations, headed by (democratically elected) District Committees. The constitution stated "Every member is obligated to fight with all his strength against any and every effort, whether it comes from abroad or from within, to impose upon the American people the arbitrary will of any selfish minority group or party or clique or conspiracy, or to interfere with the unqualified right of the majority to direct the destinies of our country." For all such pious protestations of its adherence to democratic norms, in practice the 1944 Constitutional Convention elected the Nominating Committee's entire slate of 40 proposed members and 20 proposed alternates as a National Committee as well as a slate of officers without contest or dissent.
