First U.S. Communist Parties Founded; Greeted by Police, Repression
The first two American communist parties were founded on this day and the next in Chicago. Because of deep ideological differences, two rival parties were formed. Both parties were greeted by police interference and repression.
The birth of the two parties grew out of a split with the long-established Socialist Party, which had been a sizeable party with a number of elected officials across the country prior to World War I, but which was devastated by the wartime repression under President Woodrow Wilson. After the war, and with the example of the Communist-led Soviet Union where the Bolsheviks seized power in November 1917, many socialists believed that a more radical communist party was needed in the U. S.
The conflict came to a head in Chicago between August 30th and September 2nd in Chicago. On the first day, the radical Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party, led by the famous author and radical John Reed, arrived but were barred from the meeting. In fact, the Socialist Party leaders even called in the Chicago police to help expel the radical faction. (The police officers, in fact, were part of the police department’s Anarchist Squad.) On September 1st, a separate group of radicals formed the Communist Party. The next day, September 2nd, the Reed-led group formed the rival Communist Labor Party. Their stated goal was the get as far away as possible from the “corpse” of the Socialist Party.
Repression greeted the rival communist parties from the moment of their birth. The Chicago police, including the Anarchist Squad, raided the Communist Party meeting on September 1st and ordered the removal of red flags and their replacement with American flags. When S. B. Montgomery, a lawyer protested, he was arrested. On September 2nd, Dennis Batt, a Communist Party organizer, was arrested and charged with violating the newly-enacted Illinois Sedition Act.
In 1922, under orders from Moscow, the two parties merged and formed the Workers Party. On August 22, 1922 U.S Justice Department agents, aided by Michigan officers raided a secret party meeting in Bridgman, Michigan. The raid was botched, however, because word had leaked out and most of the top communists officials fled before the raid began.
Police raids, denial of freedom of assembly, and prosecutions under state sedition laws would harass the Communist Party over the next forty years.
Read about the history of American communist parties: Theodore Draper, The Roots of American Communism (1957)
And more: Philp Jaffe, Rise and Fall of American Communism (1975)
Learn about the history of the Socialist Party of America: Jack Ross, The Socialist Party of America: A Complete History (2015)
Learn more about the history of the American Communist Party here