American League Against War and Fascism
The American League Against War and Fascism was an organization formed in 1933 by the
Organizational history
The American League was formed at the US Congress Against War, a gathering of activists arranged by the CPUSA in 1933.[1]
The American League Against War and Fascism, attempted to attract as broad a following as possible and included members of the Roosevelt administration.[2] By 1937, its Communist Party members boasted that 30 percent of the entire organized labor movement was represented in the League, and labor delegates occupied 413 of the 1416 seats at the national convention. African-Americans were also well represented in both the leadership and rank-and-file delegates.[citation needed]
In 1937 the organization changed its name to the American League for Peace and Democracy. Helen Silvermaster was associated with this group.[3]
At its peak in 1939, the American League claimed over 20,000 dues paying members, and 1,023 affiliated organizations, bringing its combined membership to around 7 million members.[4]
Dissolution
The American League dissolved after the 1939 signing of the
Members
Leaders included J. B. Matthews, and Rev. Harry F. Ward.
Prominent members included Earl Browder, Roger Baldwin, Paul Reid, William Spofford, H. W. L. Dana, Israel Amter, A. J. Muste, Dorothy Detzer, William Pickens, Oscar Ameringer, William Z. Foster, Devere Allen, Robert, Minor, and Elizabeth Bentley (later Soviet spy, later FBI informant).[6][7]
Publications
The League produced a monthly broadsheet entitled FIGHT Against War and Fascism,[8] published in New York City under the editorship of Liston M. Oak.[9]
See also
Footnotes
- ISSN 0149-0508.
- ISBN 978-1-62534-130-3.
- FBI
- ISBN 978-0-231-06532-0.
- ^ Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Fridrikh Igorevich Firsov, The Secret World of American Communism. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995, pgs. 10-11
- ^ "The Fight Against War and Fascism". The Fight Against War and Fascism. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
- ^ "Elizabeth Bentley". Vassar Encyclopedia. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
- NYU Libraries. New York University. Retrieved 26 September 2021. This is a complete archive.
- ^ "Liston Oak dies; leftist editor". The New York Times. Vol. CXIX, no. 40924. The New York Times Company. February 9, 1970. p. 39. Retrieved 26 September 2021.