The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) was established on this day in 1919. CPUSA provided legal aid to the Scottsboro Boys, helped poor Southern farmers form sharecropper unions, and promoted communist ideas within the U.S.

The party was established after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revolution, and initially operated underground due to the Palmer Raids, a series of anti-immigrant, anti-labor, and anti-communist raids conducted by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer.

CPUSA was an early opponent of segregation and racial discrimination, giving legal aid to the Scottsboro Boys and helping poor black farmers in the South organize sharecropper unions. Because of this, the party had a strong presence in Alabama in the 1930s. This history is detailed in "Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression" by historian Robin D.G. Kelley.

Hammer and Hoe pdf cpusa

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    • UnicodeHamSic [he/him]
      ·
      10 months ago

      They are comedians. When they say stalin was worse than Hitler just laugh and say it is a good bit. The ironic antisemitism will probably go down pretty well to a conservative audience. Just completely refuse to accept it is not some complicated tedious bit. Gaslight, girlboss, gatekeep.

    • YearOfTheCommieDesktop [they/them]
      ·
      10 months ago

      This makes me sad.

      meee too. I've gotten much more willing to just tell people they're wrong but it doesn't always feel good. One of like two frends I would talk politics with (a bernie guy) is now wayyyy deep in the redditor ukraine stuff. And I've come to be incredibly suspicious of anything remotely nationalist. shit is brain poison.