Alfred Wagenknecht

Alfred Wagenknecht in 1905

Alfred Wagenknecht (born August 15, 1881 in Görlitz , † August 26, 1956 in Illinois ) (alternative names: Paul Holt , A. B. Mayer , A. B. Martin , U. P. Duffy ; Wag ) was an American Marxist politician .

Life

At the age of three , Wagenknecht , who was born in Germany in 1884, left his country of birth with his parents and emigrated to the USA. His father, a shoemaker , feared the persecution of the labor movement and the social democracy in the German Empire . He grew up in Cleveland . Wagenknecht's political activity began in 1904 when he joined the Socialist Party of America (SPA) and worked for them as a press agent in Seattle .

Party career in the SPA

Wagenknecht in 1918

In the early days of his party career, he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1906 and 1912 . The year 1913 was of great importance for his party career, when he was appointed editor of a party newspaper in Everett and later as a national organizer on the central committee of his party. In 1914 Wagenknecht rose to the presidium. These relatively high party positions also brought him problems, so that in 1917, after the United States entered the First World War , he was sentenced to one year imprisonment for his anti-militarist attitudes - like Charles Ruthenberg and Charles Baker . In April 1919, Wagenknecht was elected to the board following a victory by the SPA's left wing. After some turmoil within the SPA in 1919, when the left wing, which Wagenknecht belonged to, tried to establish an opposing party executive, he organized a congress of the left, which resulted in the establishment of the Communist Labor Party of America (CLP).

Party politics within communist parties

This founding party congress took place on August 31, 1919 parallel to the SPA party event and was only set up as a counter-event after the left wing failed to take part in the official party congress in large numbers. Among other things, Wagenknecht had threatened that his left wing would even be able to storm the event. Wagenknecht was elected General Secretary and international delegate. His involvement in an officially approved CLP only lasted until the first days of January 1920. After that, the CLP was broken up and could only assemble in small underground groups. During this time Alfred Wagenknecht chose the code names Paul Holt , AB Mayer , AB Martin and UP Duffy . In addition to the CLP, there was a second Communist Party of America (CPA) in the United States at that time , which, like the CLP , wanted to belong to the Comintern . The Comintern issued instructions from the Soviet Union that both parties should unite; This happened for the CLP as well as parts of the CPA around Ruthenberg in 1920 under the name United Communist Party (UCP) at a secret unification party conference. Wagenknecht was allowed to keep the post of general secretary in the UCP, since he left Ruthenberg the office of editor-in-chief of the party newspaper The Communist . The UCP merged in May 1921 with the previously independent remnants of the CPA under their name. After the reunification of the UCP with the CPA, Wagenknecht's time as a top party politician ended.

Political activity after the merger of the UCP and the CPA

After the reunification of the communist parties, Wagenknecht became editor of the party newspaper The Toiler and a board member of the CPA and its legal arm, the Workers Party of America (WPA). Another top position was the general secretary post of Friends of Soviet Russia (FSR), the US counterpart to International Workers Aid . This organization was an amalgamation of 87 organizations that had set themselves the goal of addressing the humanitarian situation in the Soviet Union improve that as a result of the First world war and the October revolution following the civil war had greatly deteriorated. Through this office he was able to establish himself as the most successful fundraiser for the WPA. In 1924 Wagenknecht began a trip to the Philippines as WPA Director of Special Campaigns (in German: Director for Special Campaigns ) and representative of the Red Trade Union International (RGI) and the Trade Union Educational League . This happened on the basis of a decision by the Comintern that parties from imperialist countries should support their comrades in colonies for a possible revolution . In the Philippines Wagenknecht should establish a Philippine delegation, which at a union meeting of RGI in Chinese Guangzhou should attend. After the establishment of the International Labor Defense (ILD), the US branch of the International Red Aid , Wagenknecht also worked here as Secretary General in New York.

The Passaic textile strike

In 1926 Wagenknecht was responsible as a producer for the film The Passaic textile strike and also worked as an actor. This IWA film deals with a strike of 16,000 workers in Passaic , New Jersey , led by Wagenknecht and other Marxist trade unionists. It can be assigned to the genre of melodramas , which the early workers 'films depicted, as well as to the social realism that was to prevail in the 1930s, and is considered the only still intact workers' film.

death

Wagenknecht is buried in the Forest Home Cemetery . After his death, a full-page portrait was published in Political Affairs - the CPUSA's monthly party organ.

Political attitude

Wagenknecht saw himself as a well-trained and experienced communist . Within the communist currents, he oriented himself towards the Soviet Union and the Bolsheviks ruling there under Lenin , as well as towards the Comintern .

Contribution to books

An Appeal of the German communists: Destroy Hitler! Free Germany! Workers Library Publishers, New York: 1942.

literature

Theodore Draper: The Roots of American Communism . Viking Press, New York 1957, books.google.de

Web links

Alfred Wagenknecht in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Wagenknecht's biography at marxists.org (English)

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b note-like biography on politicalgraveyard.com; accessed on October 5, 2009
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Wagenknecht's biography. marxists.org; accessed on October 10, 2009 (English)
↑ Randi Storch: Red Chicago: American communism at its grassroots, 1928-35 . University of Illinois Press, Urbana 2007, ISBN 0-252-03206-3 , pp. 22 (American English, books.google.de ).
^ Philip S. Foner, History of the Labor Movement in the United States: Postwar Struggles 1918-1920 . International Publishers, New York 1988, ISBN 0-7178-0092-X , pp. 241 (American English, books.google.de ).
^ Draper: The Roots of American Communism, pp. 176f.
↑ Draper (p. 181)
^ The Friends of Soviet Russia . marxisthistory.org; accessed on October 30, 2009 (English)
^ Bryan D. Palmer: James P. Cannon and the origins of the American revolutionary left, 1890-1928 . University of Illinois Press, Urbana 2007, ISBN 0-252-03109-1 , pp. 211 (American English, books.google.de ).
^ ^A ^b William J. Pomeroy: The Philippines: colonialism, collaboration, and resistance . International Publishers, New York 1992, ISBN 0-7178-0692-8 , pp. 61 (American English, books.google.de ).
^ Richard H. Frost: The Mooney case . Stanford University Press, Stanford 1968, pp. 428 (American English, books.google.de ).
↑ Steven Joseph Ross: Working-class Hollywood: silent film and the shaping of class in America . Princeton University Press, Princeton 1998, ISBN 0-691-03234-3 , pp. 162 (American English, books.google.de ).
↑ Draper, p. 180

personal data
SURNAME	Wagenknecht, Alfred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Holt, Paul; Mayer, AB; Martin, AB; Duffy, UP; Dare
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American Marxist
DATE OF BIRTH	August 15, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH	Goerlitz
DATE OF DEATH	August 26, 1956
Place of death	Illinois

[politicalgraveyard-1] te-like biography on politicalgraveyard.com; accessed on October 5, 2009

[marxists.org-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Wagenknecht's biography. marxists.org; accessed on October 10, 2009 (English)

[3] Randi Storch: Red Chicago: American communism at its grassroots, 1928-35 . University of Illinois Press, Urbana 2007, ISBN 0-252-03206-3 , pp. 22 (American English, books.google.de ).

[4] Philip S. Foner, History of the Labor Movement in the United States: Postwar Struggles 1918-1920 . International Publishers, New York 1988, ISBN 0-7178-0092-X , pp. 241 (American English, books.google.de ).

[5] Draper: The Roots of American Communism, pp. 176f.

[6] Draper (p. 181)

[7] The Friends of Soviet Russia . marxisthistory.org; accessed on October 30, 2009 (English)

[8] Bryan D. Palmer: James P. Cannon and the origins of the American revolutionary left, 1890-1928 . University of Illinois Press, Urbana 2007, ISBN 0-252-03109-1 , pp. 211 (American English, books.google.de ).

[Philippinen-9] A ^b William J. Pomeroy: The Philippines: colonialism, collaboration, and resistance . International Publishers, New York 1992, ISBN 0-7178-0692-8 , pp. 61 (American English, books.google.de ).

[10] Richard H. Frost: The Mooney case . Stanford University Press, Stanford 1968, pp. 428 (American English, books.google.de ).

[11] Steven Joseph Ross: Working-class Hollywood: silent film and the shaping of class in America . Princeton University Press, Princeton 1998, ISBN 0-691-03234-3 , pp. 162 (American English, books.google.de ).

[12] Draper, p. 180