William Z. Foster
William Z. Foster (February 25, 1881-September 1, 1961) was the Communist Party USA leader who went to prison for six months for organizing the International Unemployment Day march.[1]
NAACP
"By 1922, the Communists in America had received their orders from the Communist International to exploit Negroes in the Communist program against the peace and security of the United States. In 1923, the NAACP began to receive grants from the Garland Fund which was a major source for the financing of Communist Party enterprises. (Officials of the Fund included Communists William Z. Foster, Benjamin Gitlow, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Scott Nearing, and Robert W. Dunn, along with prominent leftwingers Roger Baldwin, Sidney Hillman, Ernest Gruening, Morris Ernst, Mary E. McDowell, Harry F. Ward, Judah L. Magnes, Freda Kirchwey, Emanuel Celler, Paul H. Douglas, Moorfield Storey, and Oswald Garrison Vilard). The grants continued until, at least, 1934."[2]
Arrested, Smith Act
Leading Communist Party USA members arrested under the Smith Act were;
- Benjamin J. Davis, Jr. – Chairman of the CPUSA's Legislative Committee and Council-member of New York City
- Eugene Dennis – CPUSA General Secretary
- William Z. Foster – CPUSA National Secretary (indicted; but not tried due to illness)
- John Gates – Leader of the Young Communist League
- Gil Green – Member of the National Board
- Gus Hall – Member of the CPUSA National Board
- Irving Potash – Furriers Union official
- Jack Stachel – Editor of the Daily Worker
- Robert G. Thompson – Lead of the New York branch of CPUSA
- John Williamson – Member of the CPUSA Central Committee
- Henry Winston – Member of the CPUSA National Board
- Carl Winter – Lead of the Michigan branch of CPUSA
Communist Party splits
When the Communist Party USA, entered its period of crisis following the Khrushchev report to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) on the crimes of Stalin, there arose within the Party in the U.S. at least four different factions. The first of these was the right wing, led by Daily Worker editor John Gates, Fred Fine, and others. The second was the center grouping, led by Eugene Dennis, the Party’s general secretary. The third was the “left,” led by William Z. Foster, Robert G. Thompson, and Benjamin Davis, Jr. The fourth was the so-called “ultra-Left,” which called itself the Marxist-Leninist Caucus. It was this grouping, out of which grew the Provisional Organizing Committee to Reconstitute the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party, with which Noel Ignatin was associated.[3]