Communist Party USA facts for kids

The Communist Party USA, officially known as the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a political party in the United States. It was started in 1919 after a group split from the Socialist Party of America, following the Russian Revolution.

The CPUSA's story is connected to the history of workers' rights in America and communist parties around the world. At first, the party had to operate secretly because of government crackdowns known as the First Red Scare. However, it became quite important in American politics during the first half of the 20th century. It played a big part in the labor movement from the 1920s to the 1940s, even helping to create the Congress of Industrial Organizations (a large group of labor unions).

The party was special because it openly spoke out against racial segregation and was anti-racist. For example, it supported the defense of the Scottsboro Boys in 1931, a famous case involving racial injustice. The CPUSA was most influential during the Great Depression, a time when many people were struggling. It helped organize workers and unemployed people to support important government programs like Social Security and the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which created jobs.

During World War II, when the U.S. teamed up with the Soviet Union, the CPUSA gained more influence, with about 70,000 members. Its leader, Earl Browder, supported President Franklin D. Roosevelt and even called communism "20th Century Americanism." After the war, as the Cold War began, the party struggled. It faced strong opposition during the period of McCarthyism, which was like a "Second Red Scare." The party's support for the Soviet Union and its opposition to U.S. policies like the Marshall Plan made it lose popularity. In 1956, when Nikita Khrushchev in the Soviet Union criticized Joseph Stalin, many members left the CPUSA. Membership dropped to just a few thousand, and the party became separated from other left-wing groups in America because of its continued support for the Soviet Union.

The CPUSA received money from the Soviet Union and often matched its public views to those of Moscow. The party also helped the Soviets with their information gathering in the United States. It used groups called "front organizations" to try and influence public opinion. When the Soviet Union started making big changes in the late 1980s (like glasnost and perestroika), the CPUSA opposed them. Because of this, the Soviet Union stopped sending money in 1991.

A Look at the Party's Past

Charter for a local unit of the CPUSA dated October 24, 1919. This document shows how local groups of the party were officially recognized in 1919.

In the early 1900s, the Communist Party was involved in many important struggles. Historians now see the party as both connected to the Soviet Union and a very active group within the American Left during the 1930s and 1940s. It was also the first political party in the U.S. to be fully integrated, meaning people of all races could join.

By August 1919, just months after it started, the Communist Party claimed to have 50,000 to 60,000 members. This included anarchists and other radical leftists. At that time, the older, more moderate Socialist Party of America had fewer members. The Communist Party also had sections that organized people based on their language and ethnic backgrounds, offering help and cultural activities. This group, called the International Workers Order (IWO), had up to 200,000 members at its peak.

The Great Depression Years

During the Great Depression, many Americans were drawn to the Communists' active work. They fought for the rights of African Americans, workers, and the unemployed. The party played a big part in the growth of labor unions in the 1930s. Others, worried about the rise of fascism in Spain and Germany, admired the Soviet Union's early opposition to these movements. Party membership grew from 7,500 at the start of the decade to 55,000 by its end.

Party members also supported the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). The Soviet Union's Communist Party and left-wing groups worldwide raised money for medical help. Many CPUSA members traveled to Spain to join the International Brigades, like the Lincoln Brigade, to fight against the nationalist uprising.

The Washington Commonwealth Federation newspaper after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. This shows the party's focus on peace after the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Germany.

The Communist Party strongly opposed fascism during a period called the Popular Front. Membership grew to about 66,000 by 1939. However, nearly 20,000 members left the party by 1943. After the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Germany in 1939 and later invaded eastern Poland, the Communist Party changed its focus from anti-fascism to promoting peace and opposing military preparations. They criticized British and French leaders and later President Roosevelt, saying he was leading a "war party." They used slogans like "The Yanks Are Not Coming." This policy changed again when Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941.

Challenges and Decline

The Communist Party's early successes in labor and organizing did not last. Over the decades, the effects of McCarthyism (the "Second Red Scare") and Nikita Khrushchev's 1956 "Secret Speech" (where he criticized Joseph Stalin's rule) weakened the party. Its close ties to the Soviet Union made most Americans see it as a foreign threat. By 1957, membership had dropped to less than 10,000. The party was also banned by the Communist Control Act of 1954, though this law was not fully enforced and parts of it were later found unconstitutional.

The party tried to recover by opposing the Vietnam War in the 1960s. However, its continued strong support for the Soviet Union made it seem out of touch to other left-wing groups in the U.S. Also, the party's members were getting older, which distanced it from the younger "New Left" movement.

In the mid-1980s, when Mikhail Gorbachev tried to change the Soviet system, the CPUSA disagreed with the Soviet leadership. In 1989, the Soviet Communist Party stopped giving money to the American Communist Party because of its opposition to Gorbachev's reforms. When the dissolution of the Soviet Union happened in 1991, the CPUSA debated whether to reject Marxism–Leninism. The majority decided to keep their Marxist views, causing a smaller group to leave and form a new organization. The party still follows Marxism–Leninism today. In 2014, their new constitution said they apply the "scientific outlook developed by Marx, Engels, Lenin and others in the context of our American history, culture, and traditions."

The 30th National Convention was held in Chicago in 2014. This image shows party members gathered at a major meeting.

The Communist Party is based in New York City. It used to publish newspapers like Morgen Freiheit (in Yiddish), People's World, and The Daily World. These newspapers later merged into the People's Weekly World, which is now an online-only publication called People's World. It is no longer an official party publication. The party's former magazine, Political Affairs, is also online. The party still has its own publishing house, International Publishers. In 2014, the party held its 30th National Convention in Chicago. In 2019, they celebrated their 100th year.

In 2021, the party announced it would run candidates in elections again, after a break of over thirty years. Steven Estrada, who ran for city council in Long Beach, California, was one of the first to run openly as a CPUSA member.

What the Party Believes In

Party Goals and Values

According to its constitution from 2014, the Communist Party is organized based on "democratic centralism," meaning decisions are made by the highest authority, the National Convention, which meets every four years. The party's rules state that it must fight for:

• Workers' unity
• Against all forms of national oppression, discrimination, and segregation
• Against all racist ideas and practices
• Against all forms of male dominance and discrimination against women
• Against all forms of discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.

The party's "Immediate Program" includes goals like a $15/hour minimum wage, national universal health care, and opposing the privatization of Social Security. They also support:

• Higher taxes on "the rich and corporations"
• Strong rules for the financial industry
• Public ownership of utilities
• More federal help for cities and states
• Opposing wars and military actions, like the Iraq War
• Opposing free trade agreements like NAFTA
• Nuclear disarmament and a smaller military budget
• Various civil rights protections
• Changes to how political campaigns are funded, including public funding
• Changes to election laws, like instant runoff voting.

"Bill of Rights Socialism"

The Communist Party sees socialism as an expansion of American democracy. They want to "build socialism in the United States based on the revolutionary traditions and struggles" of American history. They promote "Bill of Rights Socialism," which would "guarantee all the freedoms we have won over centuries of struggle." It would also add new rights, like freedom from unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, discrimination, and oppression.

The party explains that socialism would not take away people's personal belongings. Instead, it would only change the private ownership of major industries, banks, and large corporations. They believe it would also limit the "excessive luxuries of the super-rich."

The Communist Party does not aim to make all wages exactly equal. Instead, they believe that building socialism would mean "eliminating private wealth from stock speculation, from private ownership of large corporations, from the export of capital and jobs, and from the exploitation of large numbers of workers."

Improving Living Standards

A main concern for the Communist Party is the problem of unemployment, underemployment (not enough work), and job insecurity. They believe these issues are a natural result of a capitalist economy that focuses on making profits.

They state that "Millions of workers are unemployed, underemployed, or insecure in their jobs, even during economic upswings." They also note that "Most workers experience long years of stagnant and declining real wages, while health and education costs soar." Many people have to work multiple jobs to make ends meet. The party believes that "class struggle starts with the fight for wages, hours, benefits, working conditions, job security, and jobs." This struggle also includes many other ways of fighting for specific issues, like resisting faster work speeds, striking, and lobbying for laws that help workers.

Views on War and Global Issues

The Communist Party believes that U.S. foreign policy, especially from conservative groups, often serves the interests of large companies. They see the government acting to help "control by one section of the capitalist class over all others."

They argue that conservative policymakers have "demonized foreign opponents of the U.S." and used military force in smaller countries to test new equipment and break down resistance to U.S. military actions.

From their viewpoint, the Communist Party sees imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism. They believe the government creates "phony rationalizations" (false reasons) for economically driven actions to promote the interests of big businesses.

The Communist Party opposes foreign policy ideas like the Bush Doctrine, which claims the U.S. has the right to attack any country it wants. They reject the idea of endless war and the use of nuclear weapons. They also criticize how the U.S. government sometimes ignores international organizations like the United Nations if they don't support U.S. policies.

The party noted that many Americans opposed the Iraq War led by the Bush administration. They highlighted that "Thousands of grassroots peace committees [were] organized by ordinary Americans." There were large demonstrations, and many city councils and labor unions passed anti-war resolutions.

The party has consistently opposed U.S. involvement in the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the First Gulf War, and the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks. The Communist Party does not believe that the threat of terrorism can be solved through war.

Women and Minority Rights

Robert G. Thompson and Benjamin J. Davis leaving the courthouse during the Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders in 1949. They were prominent party leaders.

The Communist Party's constitution says that the U.S. working class includes people of all races, genders, ages, sexual orientations, and backgrounds. It includes both employed and unemployed people.

The Communist Party supports equal rights for women, equal pay for equal work, and the protection of reproductive rights. They also want to end sexism. The party has a Women's Equality Commission, which sees women's roles as important for building socialism.

Historically, the Communist Party was important in fighting for African Americans' rights and protesting lynchings in the South. Today, the party calls racism the "classic divide-and-conquer tactic." Local party groups have been active in African American and minority communities. The party helped create the Black Radical Congress in 1998 and the African Blood Brotherhood.

The Communist Party also played a role in organizing Mexican American workers in the Southwestern U.S. in the 1930s. They see Latino working-class people as another group facing racism and discrimination. They believe that Latino voters are essential for major left-wing progress.

The Communist Party believes that racial and ethnic discrimination harms everyone, not just minorities. They say it divides workers, distracts from class exploitation, and creates extra profits for the capitalist class. The party supports ending racial profiling and continuing to enforce civil rights laws and affirmative action.

Where the Party Found Support

The Communist Party's support was not spread evenly across the country. Instead, it was concentrated in specific communities at different times, depending on their organizing efforts.

Before World War II, the party had steady support in New York City, Chicago, and St. Louis County, Minnesota. Sometimes, it also had strong support in more rural areas like Sheridan County, Montana (22% of votes in 1932) or Ontonagon County, Michigan (5% in 1934). Even in the South, during the time of Jim Crow laws, the party had a notable presence in Alabama. For example, it gained 8% of the votes in rural Elmore County, Alabama, mainly because of its successful organizing of both Black and white sharecroppers through the Sharecroppers' Union.

Unlike other large groups, the Communist Party was a disciplined organization that asked for strong commitment from its members and often expelled those who didn't follow the rules. Membership stayed below 20,000 until 1933, then grew in the late 1930s, reaching 66,000 in 1939 and peaking at over 75,000 in 1947.

The party ran candidates in presidential, state, and local elections, not expecting to win, but hoping loyal supporters would vote for them. They ran active campaigns in presidential elections from 1924 to 1940 and in many other races from 1922 to 1944.

The Communist Party divided the country into districts that did not always follow state lines. They initially had 15 districts, each with a headquarters city, plus an "Agricultural District." They reorganized several times in the 1930s, increasing the number of districts.

How the Party Interacted with Other Groups

The Labor Movement

May Day parade with banners and flags in New York. The Communist Party often participated in labor parades to show support for workers' rights.

Since its beginning, the Communist Party has actively tried to be part of the labor movement. This was part of their goal to build a large movement of American workers to achieve their own freedom through a socialist revolution.

Soviet Funding and Information Sharing

From 1959 until 1989, the Communist Party received a lot of money from the Soviet Union. This funding, which grew to $3 million in 1987, showed the party's loyalty to Moscow's political views. From the Communist perspective, this was "fraternal assistance" between communist allies. From an anti-Communist view, it was an unwanted interference by one country in another's affairs. When the funding stopped in 1989, the party faced financial problems and had to reduce its newspaper publication.

There have been claims that Communist Party members were involved in sharing information with the Soviet Union. Some sources suggest that a secret part of the Communist Party helped Soviet intelligence activities.

In 1943, Joseph Stalin publicly ended the Comintern, an international organization of communist parties. However, Soviet messages showed instructions for handling intelligence sources within the Communist Party even after this.

Decrypted Soviet messages from World War II, known as the Venona cables, and other sources seem to confirm that some individuals, like Julius Rosenberg and Theodore Hall, shared information with the Soviets. Hall, a physicist, began passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviets when he was 19.

Opponents of the Communist Party, like J. Edgar Hoover (FBI director) and Joseph McCarthy, believed the party was a secret group loyal to a foreign power that helped Soviet intelligence. This view is supported by some historians and information from the Venona project and Soviet archives.

In 1993, experts copied secret party records from Moscow. These records showed a clear link between Soviet intelligence and information obtained by the Communist Party and its contacts in the U.S. government from the 1920s to the 1940s. Some documents revealed that the party actively recruited members from African American groups and rural farm workers. Other records showed that Soviet sympathizers had entered the State Department, and confidential letters from American ambassadors ended up in Soviet hands.

Counterintelligence Efforts

In 1952, Jack and Morris Childs, who were high-ranking officials in the American Communist Party, became informants for the FBI. They provided information about the CPUSA and monitored Soviet funding throughout the Cold War. They even traveled to Moscow and Beijing to meet Soviet and Chinese leaders. Both Jack and Morris Childs received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1987 for their intelligence work. Morris's son said, "The CIA could not believe the information the FBI had because the American Communist Party had links directly into the Kremlin."

African Americans and the Party

1976 presidential campaign poster. This poster shows Gus Hall and Jarvis Tyner, who ran as presidential and vice-presidential candidates for the Communist Party.

The Communist Party played a role in defending the rights of African Americans in the 1930s and 1940s. The Alabama Chapter of the Communist Party USA helped organize unemployed Black workers, the Alabama Sharecroppers' Union, and many campaigns against lynchings. The Alabama chapter also organized young activists who later became important in the civil rights movement, like Rosa Parks. Throughout its history, several of the party's leaders and thinkers have been African Americans, including Angela Davis and Jarvis Tyner. Many African American thinkers, artists, and writers were also members or supporters of the party.

The Gay Rights Movement

Harry Hay, an active member of the Communist Party, founded the Mattachine Society in the early 1950s, which was one of America's first gay rights organizations. However, at the time, the party did not officially support gay rights. Many party members saw homosexuality as something associated with fascism (following the Soviet Union's view). Hay was eventually expelled from the party. In 2004, the editors of Political Affairs (the party's magazine) published articles criticizing their earlier views on gay and lesbian rights and praised Hay's work.

The Communist Party officially supported LGBT rights in a statement in 2005 and reaffirmed it in 2006 during gay pride month.

The Peace Movement

The Communist Party opposed U.S. involvement in the early stages of World War II (until the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941), the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the invasion of Grenada, and American support for military dictatorships in Central America. However, some in the peace movement and the New Left rejected the Communist Party because they saw it as too rigid and too closely tied to the Soviet Union.

The Communist Party consistently opposed the U.S. war in Iraq from 2003 to 2011. The New York branch of the Communist Party is a member of United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), a large anti-war coalition.

Election Results

Presidential Candidates

Communist Party USA candidates for president and vice president

Year	President	Vice President	Votes	Percent	Name
1924	William Z. Foster	Benjamin Gitlow	38,669	0.1%	Workers Party of America
1928	William Z. Foster	Benjamin Gitlow	48,551	0.1%	Workers (Communist) Party of America
1932	William Z. Foster	James W. Ford	103,307	0.3%	Communist Party USA
1936	Earl Browder	James W. Ford	79,315	0.2%
1940	Earl Browder	James W. Ford	48,557	0.1%
1948	No candidate; endorsed Henry Wallace	No candidate; endorsed Glen H. Taylor	N/A
1952	No candidate; endorsed Vincent Hallinan	No candidate; endorsed Charlotta Bass
1968	Charlene Mitchell	Michael Zagarell	1,077	nil%
1972	Gus Hall	Jarvis Tyner	25,597	nil%
1976	Gus Hall	Jarvis Tyner	58,709	0.1%
1980	Gus Hall	Angela Davis	44,933	0.1%
1984	Gus Hall	Angela Davis	36,386	nil%

Best Results in Major Races

Party Leaders

Notable CPUSA Members

Images for kids

• 

  Gus Hall, a long-time leader of the Communist Party USA.

• 

  Angela Davis, a prominent activist and former Communist Party member.

• 

  Earl Browder, who served as Party Chairman from 1934–1945.

• 

  Charlene Mitchell, a civil rights activist and presidential candidate for the CPUSA.

• 

  Charlotta Bass, a journalist and political activist.

• 

  The official logo of the Communist Party USA.

• 

  The flag of the Communist Party USA.

• 

  Benjamin Gitlow, an early leader of the Communist Party.

• 

  Glen H. Taylor, a U.S. Senator who was endorsed by the CPUSA in 1948.

• 

  Henry A. Wallace, a former Vice President endorsed by the CPUSA in 1948.

• 

  James W. Ford, an African American labor organizer and vice-presidential candidate.

• 

  Jarvis Tyner, a current co-chair of the Communist Party USA.

• 
• 

  A May Day parade in New York, where the Communist Party often participated.

• 

  Michael Zagarell, a vice-presidential candidate for the CPUSA in 1968.

• 

  A newspaper headline from the Washington Commonwealth Federation after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

• 

  Vincent Hallinan, a lawyer and presidential candidate endorsed by the CPUSA in 1952.

• 

  William Z. Foster, a key leader and presidential candidate for the Communist Party.

See also

In Spanish: Partido Comunista de los Estados Unidos para niños

• English-language press of the Communist Party USA (list of newspapers and magazines)
• International Publishers (the party's publishing house)
• National conventions of the Communist Party USA
• Young Communist League USA (the party's youth group)
• List of Communist Party USA members who have held office in the United States

Archives

• "Communist Party of the United States of America Records", Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives, New York University Special Collections
• Communist Party of the United States of America Records, 1956–1960. At the Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.
• Communist Party of the United States of America, Washington State District Records, 1919–2003. At the Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.
• Marion S. Kinney Papers, 1930–1983. At the Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.