by:
Gordon Black
If ever
a political credo was vindicated by wider events, the stock market crash
of October 1929 reinforced the CP USA’s goal to overturn the
capitalist system. The
Crash personified capitalism at its most obvious failing, and was, as
well, Communism’s greatest chance to establish the case for a Marxist,
worker-based economy and political system.
By raising the political consciousness of the disaffected and
poverty-stricken unemployed, the Communists could foment the
revolutionary overthrow of the capitalistic system. Or could they? Could
Washington State, which had a relatively small population with a high
degree of industrialization, be the place to instigate change?
With its
dependence on resource extraction, Washington experienced slowdowns when
domestic and foreign export markets declined. By 1930, lumber production
in Western Washington fell by more than 25% and coal mining declined by
almost 12%. In the
farming-dependent counties of Eastern Washington, wheat-price declines
were matched by the falls in production and export.
Unemployment grew steadily. There are no adequate statistics but
commentators estimated that there were between 40,000 and 55,000 out of
work in Seattle by the spring of 1932 or at least 25 percent of the
workforce. Unemployment was just as common in other cities and in the
lumber areas of the state.[i]
The
response to the Depression from organized labor in Washington was
initially muted. Workers in industries or firms not organized were among
the first to lose their jobs but the cuts soon fell across all
employment sectors. The first response from the leadership of the
Washington State Federation of Labor was to blame immigration for rising
joblessness. However, by
the time of the Federation’s annual convention in June, 1930, the
organization had begun to see that the problems of unemployment,
including financial help for the jobless and their families, were
important topics deserving attention. Even so, labor leaders were ill
equipped to tackle the issue. American Federation of Labor (AFL) unions
in Washington had long regarded it an employer’s responsibility to
provide relief to unemployed workers; unions tended to focus narrowly on
safety, wages and workplace conditions rather than on the broader issues
of social and economic conditions
Of
course, Communists were not encumbered by a faith in any part of the
existing economic system. After
years of trying to organize inside AFL unions ("boring from
within"), the Comintern in 1928 had developed
a new policy of building party-controlled unions. The Trade Union
Unity League would be the Communist alternative to the AFL. When the
Depression hit, the Party also developed an organizing strategy aimed at
the unemployed. As part of a 13-point list of demands—which included
unemployment insurance equal to full wages, a seven-hour day and
recognition of the Soviet Union—the Communist Party called for the
formation of Unemployed Councils. Every local and district office of the
Trade Union Unity League was told to set up a council and instructions
on how:
Into these
Councils shall be drawn representatives of the revolutionary unions,
shop committees and reformist unions, as well as unorganized workers.
The councils shall be definitely affiliated to the respective TUUL.[ii]
In
cities like New York, Chicago, and Detroit, the Unemployed Councils made
an immediate impact, staging large attention- getting demonstrations in
the winter and spring of 1930 and in subsequent years building
neighborhood based Councils that fought for public assistance and
rallied neighbors to conduct rent strikes and resist evictions. But in
the Northwest
the Unemployed Councils were much less effective. Police
repression was one of the
problems. The Seattle Police Department maintained a policy of
permanent harassment all through the early years of the 1930s, arresting
Communists whenever they tried to hold a street meeting or a
demonstration, and routinely breaking up even in-door Party meetings.
Dozens of Party activists spent time in jail for the simple act of
trying to speak or attend a meeting. The usual charge was vagrancy, but
prosecutors also went after leaders with Criminal Syndicalism charges,
while those of foreign birth were threatened with deportation. The
American Civil Liberties Union and the International Labor Defense (the
CP legal team) managed to block most of the deportation orders affecting
Washington state Communists, but in Oregon the still more zealous
persecution of Reds resulted in some long prison terms and numerous
deportations. The Finnish community of Astoria was particularly hard
hit. The editors and staff of Toveri,
a Communist linked Finnish language newspaper, were arrested
and deported.[iii]
By the summer of
1931, the Unemployed Councils faced another obstacle, a rival
organization, the Unemployed Citizens’ League, formed
by socialists Hulet Wells and Carl
Branin, who directed the Seattle Labor College and published The
Vanguard,
a weekly newspaper. Wells and Branin set up the Unemployed
Citizens’ League as a self-help organization that provided practical
relief to destitute workers and their families. Within three months, The Vanguard reported a meeting involving representatives of 20
local UCLs from around Seattle. The organization was structured around
neighborhood commissaries where food, firewood and clothing were
dispensed. The self-help effort also included the operation of six shoe
repair shops and the cultivation of 450 acres.[iv]
The
UCL quickly overshadowed the Unemployed Councils and within months had
become a major social movement. In addition to services provided
directly by its own members, the UCL commissaries received aid from the
city of Seattle, King County, and sympathetic businesses. Between January 1 and July 12, 1932, the UCL self-help effort
in Seattle had provided relief to 79,935 men and wood to 63,886 men. The
cumulative labor provided in these endeavors and in the clerical effort
necessary to run the commissaries was 2,306,415 hours of labor,
according to Arthur Hillman
who studied the organization in 1932.[v]
Communists
were quick to attack the rival organization. Herbert Benjamin, a
national CP leader of the Unemployed Councils, labeled
the UCL a “social fascist” effort that would lead to betrayal
of the workers and urged Seattle Communist
Party officials to build the Unemployed Councils.
Usually
the plans of rival organizations are not aimed to make our struggle more
effective, but on the contrary, to weaken our struggle and resistance to
the hunger policy of the bosses. Those who sponsor such
rival organizations do so for the personal and political advantages
which they gain by this means. Most of such organizations base
themselves on a so-called ‘self-help’ program. That is, instead of
struggle to force the bosses and government, who control the wealth, to
provide adequate relief and unemployment insurance, they advocate that
we, workers, shall help each other by sharing our poverty.[vi]
While the
CP-backed Unemployed Councils offered a hopeful future of jobs, respect
and benefits in a classless society, they did not match the concrete
offerings of firewood and sustenance that the UCL commissaries were
providing free of monetary charge. Given the choice, it appeared that
most Seattle unemployed preferred the immediate relief attained through
wood and food than some vague promise of salvation through Marxism.
Besides, Wells and Branin, both experienced in labor issues, also worked
on a political agenda to get bills through the Legislature that would
provide unemployment insurance, a jobs program and cash relief.
A similar situation occurred in Bellingham, where a small coterie
belonging to the Communist Party (seven in number, according to Eugene
Dennett) soon found their efforts upstaged by an organization called the
People’s Councils, formed by Bellingham activist M.M. London.
Similar to the Unemployed Citizens League, the People's Councils
quickly coalesced into a strong movement that held mass meetings, staged
demonstrations and resisted evictions.
Elsewhere in the state, the ranks of the unemployed joined UCL
locals or the United Producers of Washington., an affiliated
organization.[vii]
Tensions erupted between Communists and these socialist
organizations when various groups representing the unemployed embarked
on a march to the State capitol in Olympia on July 4, 1932.
The goal was a show of support intended to change the mind of
Governor Roland Hartley, a traditional, pro-business Republican, who had
steadfastly denied state funds for workers’ relief efforts.
Hartley refused to meet the demonstrators, though he did meet a
smaller delegation, including Hulet Wells, two days later. Despite the
march’s obvious failure to affect state policy, it did provide visible
proof of Communist intent.
According to Eugene Dennett, three CP leaders “fresh from the
East”—Lowell Wakefield, Alan Max[viii]
and Hutchin R. Hutchins—attempted to assume control of the massed
demonstration gathered at Sylvester Park in downtown Olympia. Meanwhile, M.M. London led the UCL, United Producers and
People’s Councils members in the direction of the capitol. The
remainder of the crowd then marched under the Unemployed Councils’
banners “a considerable distance” behind the first group. Scuffles
broke out when both groups arrived at the capitol:
A
general fist fight followed and a dozen men were hurled six feet to the stone steps during the melee. . .The
unemployed retained control of the pedestal and a stormy meeting ensued,
with Communists heckling the speakers and creating a general disturbance.[ix]
By Dennett’s own account, he was forced by Wakefield and the
other CP leaders to publicly denounce London and his associates as
“social-fascist misleaders and betrayers of the workers.”
We never did
accept why the demonstrators did not flock to our standard.
We thought our program was so superior to theirs that we would have a
stronger appeal to all the demonstrators and we would win them to our
side. [x]
Even before the 1932 clash, Party activists had begun to develop a
second and ultimately more
successful strategy for dealing with the Unemployed Citizens League.
They would join! Although official policy required the building of
Unemployed Councils, Party members joined and became active in some of
the UCL units, initiating what became a protracted struggle for control
of that organization. Branin and the leadership of the UCL moved to
expel the Communists, and the
officers of the Ballard UCL were among those ejected for alleged
Communist sympathies. But as Hillman saw it, "the Victory for the
'safe and sane' elements was, however, short-lived."[xi]
In March
1933, the party began to publish the Voice
of Action, a weekly newspaper that would compete with the Vanguard for readers and for influence in the now sharply divided
unemployed movement. Persistence would pay off. Over the course of 1933,
the Party would become more and more influential and the UCL would
change focus, turning away from self-help activities and taking on the
roles of agitation and education that the Party advocated. The expanded
influence also paid off in a growing Party membership. Eugene Dennett
recalls that in Bellingham in just one year "the party had grown
from the seven original members to over 150 enthusiastic active
members."[xii]
In
Olympia, as nationally, the political tide was turning towards relief,
help and jobs programs. Franklin
D. Roosevelt campaigned in the 1932 election for programs to help the
unemployed. But just as the
Communists had derided the efforts of the Unemployed Citizens’
Leagues, so too were they critical of the new president and his
announced plans to help the unemployed.
In an editorial critical of Roosevelt, the Voice
of Action of August 7, 1933, fumed
since
taking the oath of office, there has been a continuous evasion of
doing anything for the working class. Instead, the Bankers were
provided for first – when the banking holiday was declared: huge
loans (gifts) were made to the railroads and Big Business: a military
system of forced labor camps was instituted in the form of Civilian
Conservation Corps under the original name of ‘Federal Unemployed
Reserves,’ and now there has been enacted the National Industrial
Recovery Act, giving to the President all of the powers of a DICTATOR.
But
as the New Deal emerged, Communists in Washington would also continue the
practice of “boring within” to achieve leading roles in the projects
relating to the unemployed. In the mid 1930s the Unemployed
Citizens League would be replaced by the Workers Alliance, an organization
that attempted to unionize and represent workers employed on WPA (Works
Progress Administration) projects. Similarly the Party would organize its
way into the Washington Commonwealth Federation, Washington Pension Union
and various labor unions.
The
early efforts with the unemployed set a pattern in which the Washington
State Communist Party, never a broad-based mass organization, achieved a
level of success far in excess of its membership, estimated to be between
3000 and 6000 at its peak in the late
Thirties.[xiii]
The party placed a relatively small yet highly effective group of
motivated, astute, politically-active individuals as leaders of other
left-leaning organizations. As such they were able to direct CP-inspired
goals from within organizations that garnered more popular support than
the Party could by itself. By gaining control of key positions within the
Unemployed Citizens’ League (UCL) in Seattle, Communists in Washington
may have achieved a greater degree of influence and, therefore, success
than was the case in other parts of the United States.[xiv]
