Communist Labor Party

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See Communist Labour Party for other groups of the same name.

The Communist Labor Party together with the Communist Party of America was one of the predecessors of the Communist Party USA. It was formed August 31, 1919 by John Reed, Benjamin Gitlow and others who had been expelled from the Socialist Party of America. The Communist Party of America was formed the next day by five expelled SPA language federations and the Socialist Party of Michigan (which would eventually become the Proletarian Party of America).

The Communist International to which the Communist Labor Party had pledged its allegiance was not happy with two communist parties and insisted on a merger which was eventually effected in May, 1921 under the name Communist Party of America which was later changed to Communist Party USA.

A different organization of the same name, the Communist Labor Party (CLP), was formed in 1974 on the basis of a merger of the Communist League and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers. They disbanded in 1993 and reformed as the League of Revolutionaries for a New America.

[edit] References

• The Communist Party of the United States (1919 - 1946): 1. The Communist Labor Party of America. Organizational history and document archive at American Marxist History. Retrieved September 7, 2006.
• Chapter One Soviet World of American Communism
• Adapted from the Wikinfo article, "Communist Labor Party" http://www.wikinfo.org/wiki.php?title=Communist_Labor_Party April 19, 2004