Workers Party of America


The Workers Party of America was the name of the legal party organization used by the Communist Party USA from December 1921 until the middle of 1929.

Background

As a legal political party, the Workers Party accepted affiliation from independent socialist groups such as the African Blood Brotherhood, the Jewish Socialist Federation and the Workers' Council of the United States. In the meantime, the underground Communist Party, with overlapping membership, conducted political agitation. By 1923, the aboveground party sought to engage the Socialist Party of America in united front actions, but it was rebuffed. Both the WPA and the SPA engaged in separate labor party efforts, prior to the presidential election of 1924. The SPA participated in the Conference for Progressive Political Action, which dissolved itself into the Progressive Party. The WPA succeeded in dominating the national Farmer–Labor Party, but that organization quickly returned to its constituent parts. At its 1925 convention, the group renamed itself the Workers (Communist) Party and in 1929 the Communist Party, USA. The party's youth affiliate was named the Young Workers League, Young Workers (Communist) League and Young Communist League in tandem with the parent organization.
As the Communist International entered the Third Period, the principle of a leftist united front was abandoned in favor of a single above-ground Communist Party. The above-ground Workers Party and underground party were thus gradually merged in a series of party conferences in the late 1920s into the Communist Party USA.

Convention of Establishment & Principles

The convention for the establishment of the party took place on December 23–26, 1921 at the Labor Temple on East 84th Street, New York with 150 delegates.
Accompanying the convention call was a statement of principles which read:

Leadership

A complete roster of the Workers Party's executive officials elected at its founding convention is not available. Those elected at the December 1922 convention are as follows:

Executive Secretary:

Executive Council (11):

Central Executive Committee (25):

Publications

Before the party established its own publishing house for books and pamphlets, the Workers Party and Workers Party published a number of items under its own imprint, or in association with the Daily Worker.

Books

Pamphlets

  • New York, Lyceum and Literature Dept., Workers Party 1922Workers, unite for the struggle against the bosses: manifesto of the Workers Party of America. New York: The Party, 1922
  • by N. Lenin New York City: Literature Dept., Workers Party of America, 1922
  • by John Pepper New York: Workers Party of America.
  • n.l., n.d.
  • by Jay Lovestone New York: Workers Party of America, n.d. .
  • by Jay Lovestone Chicago, Workers Party of America, n.d. .
  • by James P. Cannon New York: Workers Party of America 1923.
  • by Clarissa Ware New York, Workers party of America 1923 .
  • Chicago, Workers party of America 1923.
  • by John Pepper Workers Party of America, New York .
  • by Charles E. Ruthenberg Chicago, Ill.: Workers Party of America, 1923.
  • Chicago: Literature Dept., Workers Party of America 1924.
  • Chicago: Literature Dept., Workers Party of America 1924.Nikolai Lenin: his life and work by Grigory Zinovyev Chicago: Workers Party of America, Mourning ed., Jan., 1924.Zyciorys i dzialanosc Mikolaja Lenina by Grigory Zinovyev Chicago: Polskiej Sekcji Robotniczej Partji Ameryki 1924.
  • Chicago: Literature Dept., Workers Party of America, 1924..
  • by Charles E. Ruthenberg. Literature Department, Workers Party of America, Chicago. 1924.
  • by Alexander Bittelman Chicago: Literature Department, Workers Party of America, 1924.
  • by Earl Browder Chicago, Ill.: Literature Dept., Workers Party of America, 1924.
  • . by Jay Lovestone Chicago: Literature Department, Workers Party of America, 1924.
  • Chicago; Published for the Workers Party of America by the Daily Worker Pub. Co. Feb 1925.
  • by Earl Browder Chicago: Published for the Workers Party of America by the Daily worker publishing company, 1925.
  • translated by Max Bedacht Chicago: Published for the Workers Party of America by the Daily worker 1925..
  • by William F. Dunne Chicago, Ill.: Published for the Workers Party of America by the Daily Worker Pub. Co., 1925.
  • ed. by Manuel Gomez Chicago: Published for Workers Party of America by Daily Worker Pub. Co., 1925.
  • by Joseph Stalin Chicago: Published for the Workers Party of America by the Daily Worker Pub. Co., 1925.
  • by Joseph Stalin, Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinovyev Chicago: Published for the Workers Party of America by the Daily Worker Pub. Co., 1925.
  • by Jay Lovestone Chicago: Literature Department, Workers Party of America, n.d. .
  • Chicago: Daily Worker Publishing Co., 1925.
  • by Charles E. Ruthenberg Chicago, Ill.: Published for the Workers Party of America by the Daily Worker Pub. Co., 1925.
  • by Charles E. Ruthenberg Chicago, Ill: Workers Party 1925.
  • Chicago: Published for the Workers Party by the Daily Worker Publishing Co. 1925.
  • by Albert Weisbord Chicago; Published for the Workers Party by the Daily Worker Pub. Co., November 1926.A souvenir: the Paris Commune in historical pictures. Chicago, Ill.: Workers Party of America, 1926.
  • by John Pepper Chicago: Workers Party of America, 1926.
  • by Mike Gold, J Ramirez and Rudolph Liebich : Local Chicago Workers Party of America, 1920s.
  • T. J. O'Flaherty, Chicago, Pub. by Workers Party of America, Dist. no. 8.

Other parties with similar names