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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 |
| Merger of | Communist Party of America Communist Labor Party of America |
| Split from | Socialist Party of America |
| Headquarters | 235 W 23rd St, New York, New York 10011, Manhattan, New York |
| Newspaper | People's World[3] |
| Youth wing | Young Communist League[note 1] |
| Membership (2024 est.) | 5,000[4] |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Far-left[8] |
| International affiliation | IMCWP (since 1998) Comintern (until 1943) |
| Colors | Red |
| Slogan | "People and Planet Before Profits" |
| Members in elected offices | 0 |
| Party flag | |
 | |
| Website | |
| cpusa.org | |
| This article is part of a series on |
| Socialism in the United States |
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| Part of a series on |
| Communist parties |
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The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA),[9] is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revolution.[6][10]
The history of the CPUSA is closely related to the history of the American labor movement and the history of communist parties worldwide. Initially operating underground due to the Palmer Raids, which started during the First Red Scare, the party was influential in American politics in the first half of the 20th century. It also played a prominent role in the history of the labor movement from the 1920s through the 1940s, playing a key role in the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.[10] The party was unique among labor activist groups of the time in being outspokenly anti-racist and opposed to racial segregation after sponsoring the defense for the Scottsboro Boys in 1931. The party reached the apex of its influence in U.S. politics during the Great Depression, playing a prominent role in the political landscape as a militant grassroots network capable of effectively organizing and mobilizing workers and the unemployed in support of cornerstone New Deal programs, principally Social Security, unemployment insurance, and the Works Progress Administration.[11][12][13]
The transformative changes of the New Deal era combined with the U.S. alliance with the Soviet Union during World War II created an atmosphere in which the CPUSA wielded considerable influence with about 70,000 vetted party members.[14] Under the leadership of Earl Browder, the party was critically supportive of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and branded communism as "20th Century Americanism".[15] Envisioning itself as becoming engrained within the established political structure in the post-war era, the party was dissolved in 1944 to become the 'Communist Political Association.'[16] However, as Cold War hostility ensued, the party was restored but struggled to maintain its influence amidst the prevalence of McCarthyism (also known as the Second Red Scare). Its opposition to the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine failed to gain traction, and its endorsed candidate Henry A. Wallace of the Progressive Party under-performed in the 1948 presidential election. The party itself imploded following the public condemnation of Stalin by Nikita Khrushchev in 1956, with membership sinking to a few thousand who were increasingly alienated from the rest of the American Left for their support of the Soviet Union.[10]
The CPUSA received significant funding from the Soviet Union and crafted its public positions to match those of Moscow.[17] The CPUSA also used a covert apparatus to assist the Soviets with their intelligence activities in the United States and utilized a network of front organizations to shape public opinion.[18] The CPUSA opposed glasnost and perestroika in the Soviet Union. As a result, major funding from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ended in 1991.[19]
- ^ "CPUSA Organizational Chart". March 26, 2020.
- ^ The Soviet World of American Communism. Yale University Press. 2008. ISBN 978-0300138009.
- ^ "People's World". Library of Congress. OCLC 09168021. Retrieved January 21, 2019.
- ^ Gómez, Sergio (April 19, 2017). "Communist Party membership numbers climbing in the Trump era". People's World. People's World. Retrieved December 12, 2023.
- ^ "CPUSA Constitution". CPUSA Online. September 20, 2001. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ "Bill of Rights Socialism". CPUSA Online. May 1, 2016. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "The name of this organization shall be the Communist Party of the United States of America. Art. I of the "Constitution of the Communist Party of the United States of America".
- ^ a b c Goldfield, Michael (2009). "Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA)". In Ness, Immanuel (ed.). The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. pp. 1–9. doi:10.1002/9781405198073.wbierp0383. ISBN 978-1405198073.
- ^ Shannon, David A. (1967). "The Rise of the Communist Party USA during the Great Depression". Journal of American History, 54(2), 351–365.
- ^ Kann, Kenneth (2014). "Comrades and Critics: The Communist Party's Role in the New Deal Era". American Communist History, 13(2–3), 123–142.
- ^ Ottanelli, Fraser M. (1991). "From the Margins to the Mainstream: The Transformation of the Communist Party USA in the 1930s". The Journal of American-East European Relations, 1(2), 185–209.
- ^ Gregory, James. "Communist Party Membership by Districts 1922–1950". Civil Rights and Labor History Consortium. University of Washington.
- ^ Browder, Earl. (1936). "Communism and 20th Century Americanism." Political Affairs. p.123. In this seminal work, Browder himself brands communism as '20th Century Americanism,' outlining his perspective on the relationship between communism and American national identity.
- ^ Minutes of the Communist Party Convention, Saturday, May 20, 1944., Published in The Path to Peace, Progress and Prosperity: Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of the Communist Political Association, New York, May 20–22, 1944.
- ^ Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Kyrill M. Anderson, The Soviet World of American Communism, Yale University Press (1998); ISBN 0300071507; p. 148.
- ^ Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes and Kyrill M. Anderson, The Soviet World of American Communism, Yale University Press (1998); ISBN 0300071507; p. 74.
- ^ Klehr, Harvey (2017). The Communist Experience in America: A Political and Social History. Routledge. ISBN 978-1351484749.
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