Series X: General Files, 1892-2009, inclusive

Much of the activity of the Communist Party took place in the context of working within mass organizations; those established by the Party were often referred to as front organizations. Mass organizations were usually devoted to a single issue or constituency and had a broader membership and political appeal than the explicitly radical Communist Party. This strategy, known as popular front politics, sought broad alliances with leftists around a minimum reform program as opposed to a maximum radical or revolutionary program, in the hope of moving broad masses of people to the left. This subseries was likely compiled by the History Commission. Folders principally contain clippings, printed ephemera, and some internal Party documents. Notable individuals represented include Harry Bridges, Benjamin Gitlow, Dorothy Healy, folksinger Pete Seeger, and Henry Wallace. Popular front organizations represented include the Civil Rights Congress, International Labor Defense, League of American Writers, Southern Negro Youth Congress, and Workshop for People's Art.

This subseries contains biographical material on rank and file communist activists and CPUSA leaders. There are also several files on notable progressives not known or thought to be Communists. While the majority of the files consist of clippings and printed ephemera, some contain correspondence, biographical and autobiographical typescripts, oral history interview transcripts, various documents relating to civil liberties cases, and memorabilia. Phil Bart, onetime head of the Party's History Commission, is the principal correspondent; he may have been responsible for the compilation of this collection.

Philip Bart was a longtime Communist Party member and official. He served as the Party's Organizational Secretary (ca. 1963), and as the head of the History Commission (ca. 1979). The majority of this collection consists of clippings from the Communist Party Press, namely the Daily Worker, the Worker, and the Daily World, along with clippings from other periodicals. There is also a small amount of printed ephemera. Materials in this subseries focus on the growth of anti-communism after World War II, the political and legal attacks on the Communist Party and its members, the role of the House Un-American Activities Committee and the Subversive Activities Control Board, and the U.S. government's loyalty oath program.

The CPUSA closely followed events in the Middle East, was strongly critical of Israel and its relations with its Arab neighbors, and hoped that socialism would become the predominant current in the Arab world. The collection contains clippings from the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, and other leading mainstream newspapers, covering domestic and foreign politics in the Middle East, with a particular emphasis on Egypt and its short-lived union with Syria, the United Arab Republic.

These subject files were most likely compiled by Jim West. They document a range of subjects but primarily focus on organizations aligned with communist causes or on anti-communist organizations. The majority of these materials date from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.