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发帖数: 755 | 1 Chapter 5
Washington Commonwealth Federation & Washington Pension Union
By Jennifer Phipps
More than 1,100 delegates attend 1940 Seattle convention of the Washington
Commonwealth Federation. The WCF nominated candidates for state and local
offices, functioning as a leftwing caucus within the Democratic Party. (
February 8, 1940)Imagine the difficulties of today trying to organize such
disparate groups as welfare mothers, members of Democratic Party clubs, AFL-
affiliated members, militant radicals, civil rights activists, liberals and
labor unionists. Yet, that is what two politically-left organizations
accomplished in Washington State during the 1930s and 1940s. The Washington
Commonwealth Federation (WCF) and the Washington Pension Union (WPU) were
broadly successful political organizations with tens of thousands of members
and a great deal of influence. For the better part of a decade they
mobilized a broad coalition of progressive Washington State residents into a
political caucus that could at times dominate the state Democratic Party.
And they used that power to re-write laws and social policy. By the end of
the 1930s Washington State had some of the most liberal and comprehensive
pension and welfare policies in the nation.
Members of the Communist Party played a central role in both the Washington
Commonwealth Federation and the Washington Pension Union. Although neither
had been founded by the Party, by the late 1930s Party members were in key
positions and mostly able to control these mass organizations with their
broad spectrum of activists and supporters behind initiatives, candidates,
and issues that advocated a diverse reform agenda. The Party's influential
position reflected an important shift in strategy away from advocacy of
immediate revolution towards building Popular-Front relationships with
reformist organizations. Communists used the Popular-Front strategy after
1935 to broaden the base of the Party and build left coalitions. That year,
the Comintern declared that the first priority of the Communist Parties
everywhere was stopping the rise of fascism, and the way to do that was to
join with other progressive forces. Paul Buhle
680 delegates attend the first convention of the Washington Old Age Pension
Union. Within a few years the WPU will claim to have 30,000 members. James
Sullivan, Speaker of State House of Representatives, is elected president.
He will later testify that Communists forced him out of the WPU leadership.
(November 13, 1937)and Dan Georgakas note in the Encyclopedia of the
American Left the implications of the Popular-Front orientation for the CP:
“This policy entailed a strategic reorientation of major proportions. The
communists would work within non-Left, mass institutions, including the AFL
and labor or labor-farmer parties.”[i]
There was great opportunity in the strategy, but also tension. Communists
had to consider what it would take to keep these coalitions and their
supporters interested in their issues and then how to integrate these
concerns into Party strategy. During this time the Communist Party worked
very hard to balance the institutional pull of reformist proposals that
would speak to the broadest number of people with a core ideological belief
in the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism.
Opponents of WCF and WPU denounced the organizations as “Communist fronts.
” They were said to be nothing more than pawns or agents following orders
of their puppet masters in the Soviet Union. Detractors used the label “
Communist front” or “front group” with more and more frequency,
especially as momentum developed behind their initiatives. Until the WCF
and WPU dissolved, even dissenters within PF organizations agreed that
Communists were an important influence on the left wing of the Democratic
Party, and sometimes on public opinion. Perhaps the greatest source of
strength of the PFers as Washington Governor Arthur Langlie noted, was that
they worked “tirelessly for their issues.” Regardless of how their
detractors labeled them, Communists and Popular Front organizations
contributed to the passing of significant social policy for Washington state
residents beginning in the 1930s that remain with us today. | l*******u
发帖数: 12906 | 2 用爱疯看的真累
【在 s******g 的大作中提到】
: Chapter 5
: Washington Commonwealth Federation & Washington Pension Union
: By Jennifer Phipps
: More than 1,100 delegates attend 1940 Seattle convention of the Washington
: Commonwealth Federation. The WCF nominated candidates for state and local
: offices, functioning as a leftwing caucus within the Democratic Party. (
: February 8, 1940)Imagine the difficulties of today trying to organize such
: disparate groups as welfare mothers, members of Democratic Party clubs, AFL-
: affiliated members, militant radicals, civil rights activists, liberals and
: labor unionists. Yet, that is what two politically-left organizations
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