John Gates

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For other people named John Gates, see John Gates (disambiguation).
John Gates
Gates in 1948
Born
Solomon Regenstreif

(1913-09-28)September 28, 1913
New York City, U.S.
DiedMay 23, 1992(1992-05-23) (aged 78)
Miami Beach, Florida, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
OccupationBusinessman
Political partyCommunist Party USA
SpouseLillian Schwartz

John "Johnny" Gates, born Solomon Regenstreif (28 September 1913 – 23 May 1992) was an American

business man, best remembered as one of the individuals spearheading a failed attempt at liberalization of the Communist Party USA
in 1957.

Background

Solomon Regenstreif, better known by the

Jewish parents who hailed from Poland.[1]

Career

Active in the campaign to free the

city council of Youngstown.[1]

Spanish Civil War veteran

When the

Abraham Lincoln Brigade and fought in Spain. In March 1938, at the age of 24, Gates rose to the rank of battalion political commissar of the Lincoln-Washington Battalion. In this capacity, Gates gained a reputation as a strict disciplinarian. He later admitted he had gone somewhat overboard. In 1938, he was involved in the controversial decision to execute a deserter named Paul White who had left the lines before having a change of heart and returning, only to be executed for disciplinary reasons. The decision caused great dissension in the Lincoln Brigade's ranks, forcing the immediate declaration that no further executions would take place.[2]

Political career

Returning to the United States from Spain, Gates became the head of the Young Communist League.

The week after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Gates enlisted in the American armed forces.[3]

In the summer of 1948, Gates was one of 12 "kingpin Commies" (to borrow a colorful contemporary turn of phrase from Time magazine) indicted under the

convicted in 1949
and sentenced to five years in prison.

Following his release from prison in 1955, Gates was appointed as editor of the Communist Party's newspaper,

1956 Hungarian Revolution. Party leaders were particularly upset by his support of Howard Fast
, a prominent writer who was quite critical of the Soviet Union and soon after also left the Communist Party.

However, The Daily Worker was in deep trouble with significant losses in

circulation due to a general disenchantment with communism, by both workers and intellectuals, and pressure from McCarthyism
. Confronted with deep deficits and its inability to control Gates, on December 22, 1957, the Party suspended publication of the paper as a daily, the last daily issue appearing January 13, 1958.

Resignation

Gates resigned from the Party in January 1958, claiming that it had "ceased to be an effective force for democracy, peace, and socialism in the United States." He set to work writing his memoirs, The Story of an American Communist, tapping fellow ex-Communist pariah Earl Browder to write the book's introduction.

In a January 18, 1958, television interview with Mike Wallace, Gates attempted to illuminate his interlocutor on the nature of the power relationship between the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the American Communist movement:

[Y]ou have to understand how and why [the CPUSA] followed [Moscow's] line. It's not a matter that someone gave orders over there and we followed it over here. It's much more subtle than that. We followed that line because we thought it was right. It's more or less like a relationship between two people. One is an aggressive, brilliant personality and the other worships that person, and that person becomes sort of an idol for him and he tends to imitate and ape everything that he does. Well that kind of relationship is a bad relationship for both people."[3]

Gates cited the American Communist Party's failure to declare its independence from Moscow as decisive in his decision to leave the organization.

Following publication of his memoirs, Gates went to work as a senior research assistant for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU). In this capacity, Gates helped members with workers' compensation, unemployment, and Social Security claims. He retired from the union in 1987.[1]

Death

Johnny Gates died on May 23, 1992, in

Bronx, Irene Travis of Charlotte, North Carolina, and Marlene Seml of Boca Raton, Florida.[1]

Works

References

  1. ^ a b c d Bruce Lambert, "John Gates, 78, Former Editor Of The Daily Worker, Is Dead," New York Times, May 25, 1992, pg. 10.
  2. ^ "John Gates", Spartacus International.
  3. ^ a b "The Mike Wallace Interview. Guest: John Gates,", January 18, 1958.
  4. ^ "Communists: The Top Twelve". Time. 2 August 1948. Retrieved 20 July 2021.

Further reading

  • United States District Court. New York (Southern District). The Case of United States of America v. William Z. Foster, Eugene Dennis, John B. Williamson, Jacob Stachel, Robert G. Thompson, Benjamin J. Davis, Jr., Henry Winston, John Gates, Irving Potash, Gilbert Green, Carl Winter, Gus Hall. New York: National Civil Rights Congress, 1948.
  • Joseph R. Starobin, American Communism in Crisis, 1943-1957. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972.

External links

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