lee pressman, communist lawyer, was the CIO's general counsel until 1948. he drafted much of US labor law of the 1940s. when the smith act came he refused to name names but later turned informant. his career embodied the era's pressures. #cpusa #neverforget

the trade union educational league (TUEL) and trade union unity league (TUUL) were CP-led labor organizations of the late 1920s and early 1930s. dual-unionist strategy was abandoned in 1935. but TUUL militants moved into AFL and CIO unions and built the CIO. #cpusa #laborhistory

the harlem 1935 march on the empire state building protested unemployment and discriminatory hiring. CP-led. it was one of the first 'don't buy where you can't work' campaigns that became a model for civil rights direct action. #civilrights #cpusa

the international labor defense (ILD), the CP's legal arm, defended thousands of workers and political prisoners in the 1930s. it took up the scottsboro boys, sharecroppers, immigrants facing deportation, and victims of klan violence. it was an early ACLU. #cpusa #civilrights

harry haywood, black communist theorist born in 1898, son of former slaves, joined the soviet party while in moscow in the 1920s. his book 'black bolshevik' (1978) is one of the great memoirs of american political life. read it. #civilrights #cpusa

the american communist party's negro question debate of the 1930s settled on supporting black self-determination in the southern 'black belt.' the framework was clumsy but it produced the first major US political party that systematically opposed jim crow. #civilrights #cpusa