Communist Party of Massachusetts Collection

Background on Communist Party of Massachusetts

The Communist Party of the USA, a Marxist-Leninist political organization, was founded in 1919 by the secession of the left wing of the Socialist Party of America. Despite the intense anti-Communist repression of the post-World War I years, the party spread rapidly across the country, partly as an underground movement, drawing strength within the ranks of organized labor, immigrant communities, and from opponents of racial segregation. Although hampered by internal factional disputes, the party grew into an active presence in Massachusetts by the late 1920s, rooted especially in Boston, Cambridge, and industrialized cities from Fall River and New Bedford to Springfield.

The economic dislocations of the Depression years of the 1930s propelled the party to its peak of influence in Massachusetts. The threat of Fascism in Europe galvanized party members to set aside factional disputes in favor of forming a broad popular front with other left organizations to forge coalitions centered on labor, social justice, and civil rights causes. The success they enjoyed, however, was relatively short-lived, curtailed by widespread rejection of the party's non-interventionist stance after the non-aggression pact between Germany and Soviet Union in August 1939. Although the party recovered somewhat after the German invasion of the Soviet Union and the formation of an American-Soviet alliance, it never again wielded the same influence, particularly after the renewal of severe governmental repression during the Cold War years and the resurgence of internal divisions.