Series I: The Communist Party U.S.A.

The news clippings, correspondence, and reading notes assembled here outline the internal development of the CPUSA and are particularly useful for the period 1919-1929. Party minutes, letters, and reports of 1928 and 1929 provide additional information on the labor situation in the needle trades and in mining and on intra Party affairs, in particular on the expulsion of the Lovestoneites in 1929. For the period after 1929 there are articles, newsclippings, and pamphlets illustrating the CPUSA's economic and political orientation. Some of the political activities of the CPUSA are suggested in these reading notes, articles, and news reports concerning the "united fronts" of the 1920s, the Farmer Labor movements of 1922-1925, Henry Wallace, and Vito Marcantonio.

Most of these files contain reports of interest to the CPUSA during World War II. There are, in addition, a report by Earl Browder to the CPUSA National Committee, 1939; a financial report of the Communist Political Association for 1944; and a statement concerning political tactics, 1946.

Material on the role of the Party in the labor movement in general is included in this section of the collection. Much of it is congressional testimony concerning communist influence in the Congress of Industrial Organizations and the National Labor Relations Board. The testimony is supplemented by interviews with CIO officials and articles by prominent communists outlining CPUSA labor policy. There are also articles, news reports, and CIO committee reports concerning the CIO's purge of communists in the years 1948-1950. Communist activity in specific unions is dealt with in Series II.

General aspects of the anticommunist campaign are treated in this section. Articles and reports concerning government actions against union officials associated with the CPUSA and business reports illustrating private harassment of communists and "left wingers" in the labor movement are included here.