From leading the Great Steel Strike of 1919 to longest-serving leader of American communism
“The only party that genuinely represents the interests of the workers is the revolutionary party.” — Pages from a Worker's Life, 1939
From leading the Great Steel Strike of 1919 to becoming the CPUSA's longest-serving leader. He rebuilt the party after Browder dissolved it in 1944 and authored major Marxist histories including History of the Communist Party of the United States.
Career timeline
- 1901Joins Socialist Party of America
- 1909Joins the IWW; Spokane free-speech fight
- 1912Founds the Syndicalist League of North America
- 1917–1918Organizes Chicago packinghouse workers; wins 8-hour day
- 1919Leads the Great Steel Strike of 250,000 workers
- 1920Founds the Trade Union Educational League
- 1921Joins Communist Party after 3rd Comintern Congress
- 1924First presidential campaign on Communist ticket
- 1929Becomes CPUSA Chairman; founds the TUUL
- 1935Elected to ECCI Presidium
- 1944–1945Fights Browder's dissolution; rebuilds CPUSA as General Secretary
- 1948Indicted under Smith Act; trial postponed
- 1957Retires as CPUSA Chairman Emeritus
- 1961Dies in Moscow; state funeral in Red Square
The labor organizer who read Trotsky's critique in Moscow and founded the American Trotskyist movement
“They had expelled the heart of their party; Trotsky had won over all the serious young activists, leaving only a dead husk.” — after the Socialist Party expelled the Trotskyists, 1937
A Kansas-born labor organizer of Irish descent, James P. Cannon helped found the Communist Party of America in 1919 and was elected to the Comintern Presidium in 1922. In 1928, after reading a misdirected critique of the Comintern by Trotsky in Moscow, he turned to the Left Opposition, was expelled from the CPA, and co-founded the Communist League of America. He led the landmark 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters strike, and in 1938 founded the Socialist Workers Party, becoming its first National Secretary. Imprisoned for 18 months under the Smith Act for opposing U.S. entry into World War II, he remained a central leader of the Fourth International and shaped the American Trotskyist tradition across four decades.
Career timeline
- 1908Joins the Socialist Party of America
- 1911Joins the IWW; organizes throughout the Midwest under 'Big Bill' Haywood
- 1919Founding member of the Communist Labor Party; District Secretary for KS, MO, NE
- 1922U.S. delegate to 4th Comintern Congress; elected to ECCI Presidium
- 1925Founds International Labor Defense; serves as its first national secretary
- 1928Expelled from CP for Trotskyism; co-founds the Communist League of America
- 1934Directs the historic Minneapolis Teamsters strike
- 1938Founds the Socialist Workers Party; elected first National Secretary
- 1944–1945Imprisoned 18 months under the Smith Act for anti-war stance
- 1953–1974Steps down as National Secretary, becomes national chairman emeritus; dies in Los Angeles
The CPUSA leader who declared Communism was 20th-century Americanism, and then dissolved his own party
“Communism is twentieth-century Americanism.” — July 4, 1938, beneath the Star-Spangled Banner and the red flag together
A Kansas-born CPUSA leader for 15 years from 1930, Earl Browder proclaimed 'Communism is 20th-century Americanism' and in 1944 dissolved the party into a 'Communist Political Association', a strategy known as 'Browderism.' Expelled in 1946, he broke definitively with the party.
Career timeline
- 1907Joins Socialist Party of America at age 16
- 1912Leaves Socialist Party in 1912 split; joins Syndicalist League of North America
- 1917–1918Arrested for anti-WWI activism under the Espionage Act; serves 2-year sentence
- 1920Joins the United Communist Party of America
- 1921Sent to Moscow as U.S. delegate to RILU founding congress
- 1926–1929Secretary of RILU's Pan-Pacific Trade Union Secretariat, based in Shanghai
- 1930Becomes Secretary of the CPUSA Political Bureau — de facto party leader
- 1932–1945General Secretary of the CPUSA Central Committee
- 1935Elected to the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI)
- 1936CPUSA candidate for U.S. President
- 1940Sentenced to 4 years for passport fraud; runs again for president
- 1942.05Released after 14 months by President Roosevelt's commutation
- 194412th CPUSA Convention dissolves the party; creates Communist Political Association
- 1945.0713th Convention repudiates Browderism and reconstitutes the CPUSA
- 1946.02Expelled from the CPUSA
- 1958Publishes Marx and America, arguing Marxism is inapplicable to U.S. conditions
