Control Of The Washington State Democratic Party example essay topic

The documents presented here are designed to be used in classes about Pacific Northwest history or US history. Although the documents deal specifically with events in Washington state, they are still potentially useful for a course about US history as a whole. As historian Richard Fried has observed, 'McCarthyism' is so often characterized in abstract terms that its meaning remains fuzzy. To sense the emotional bite of the Communist issue and to understand both how it affected life for those who ran afoul of it and how it shaped the nation's political culture, it is useful to look at specific cases. ' These documents allow students to explore such specific cases. Section II is a rather lengthy essay which tries to place the Cold War and Red Scare into historical perspective.

It also analyzes the effect of the Cold War on Washington's economy and describes the major events of the Red Scare in Washington state. Much of this information is presented very briefly in a timeline in Section. Teachers may wish to distribute photocopies of Section to orient students to the main events of Cold War and Red Scare and to allow the students to place the documents in a chronological framework. Teachers may also with to distribute copies of the glossary in Section IV to familiarize students with Cold War terminology. The bibliography in Section V suggests books and videocassettes about the Cold War and Red Scare that teachers may find useful. The documents in Section VII can be used in a vast number of ways.

Section VI offers suggestions for in-class and homework assignments based on the documents. The concordance in Section VII not only lists the source of each document, but also offers some possible discussion questions about many of the documents. II. The Cold War and Red Scare in Washington: Historical Context The Cold War created many aspects of modern Washington.

Military spending sustained Washington's rapid economic growth after WW II. Although federal hydropower projects and WW II had initially industrialized Washington state, the struggle against the Soviets ensured that federal money continued to pour into the state. The Cold War left a physical legacy across the state that can still be seen today. Military bases were created and expanded.

The production of plutonium at Hanford created radioactive waste that will exist for thousands of years. Even Seattle's most famous icon-the Space Needle-is a concrete monument to one aspect of the Cold War, the space race. In addition, the fear of communism fueled important political changes in Washington. The Red Scare, which was more intense in Washington than in most states, deprived communists of their First Amendment rights, permanently destroyed several radical political organizations, temporarily frightened many liberals into silence, and allowed conservatives to virtually dismantle Washington's state-level health care system for the poor. A. Radicalism and Anti-radicalism in Washington Politics The rise of the Communist Party in the 1930's and the Red Scare of the 1940's and 1950's were not unprecedented events in Washington history. Indeed, the ebb and flow of radical movements, and reactions against them, have profoundly shaped the political history of Washington state. In the 1880's, white laborers demanded higher wages and began to form Washington's first successful labor unions.

White working-class mobs also forcibly evicted Chinese immigrants from Seattle, Tacoma, and other coastal towns in this same period. The Populist and Progressive movements were both very strong in Washington around the turn of the century, partially because of aid they received from Washington's relatively sizable Socialist Party. Radical political activity reached a high-water point in the late 1910's, precipitating a forceful reaction against left-wing groups. Numerous radicals vehemently denounced US entry into the First World War, resisted the draft, and urged the US to recognize the Bolshevik government of Russia that came to power in 1917.

Despite efforts to quash the 'subversives' (including violent attempts such as the Everett Massacre), radicals remained very powerful in Washington until the failed Seattle General Strike of 1919. The Seattle walk-out, the nation's first general strike, convinced many conservatives that the US was on the verge of revolution and thus helped trigger the nation's first 'Red Scare. ' A few months after the Seattle strike, US Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer ordered J. Edgar Hoover to round up 'subversive aliens'-non-citizens who were Socialists, Communists, or Wobblies. Several prominent radicals in Washington state were captured in these 'Palmer raids' and deported to the USSR. In addition, most Washington businessmen vowed to de-unionize the state's economy. The economic downturn immediately after WW I dramatically increased Washington's unemployment, allowing employers to fend off strikes and break unions in most industries.

More conservative union leaders-led by Dave Beck of the Teamsters-used this opportunity to take control of the Washington labor movement in the early 1920's. These so-called 'business unionists' loudly proclaimed their acceptance of capitalism and ejected communists from their ranks. In many respects this first 'Red Scare' was quite different from the one that would follow in the late 1940's and 1950's. The first Red Scare focused on immigrants; the second primarily targeted US citizens. The first Red Scare also included many violent vigilante actions, while the second worked primarily through state and national government agencies. Nonetheless, Washington's anti-radicals learned several lessons from the first Red Scare that they would apply again in the 1940's.

Conservatives learned that branding ideas or policies as 'Red' was politically successful. Labor leaders such as Dave Beck learned they could make their unions more acceptable to corporate leaders by fighting radicals. By 1922 Washington radicals seemed thoroughly defeated. Washington's Communist Party dwindled to only a few dozen members, and the Wobblies and Socialists also virtually disappeared. Conservative Republicans controlled the governorship and 90% of the state legislature for the rest of the 1920's.

However, the economic catastrophe of the 1930's set off a new wave of radicalism in Washington. The Great Depression hit Washington's two largest industries-timber and agriculture-especially hard. The state's unemployment rate reached 30% in 1933. Discontent with capitalism was probably at all-time high in the early 1930's, but the Communist Party (CP) still made only limited gains in this period. The CP's growth in the early 1930's was inhibited by its focus on doctrinal purity, its refusal to cooperate with other leftist groups, and its denunciation of popular President Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt's Democratic Party was the initial political beneficiary of the Depression.

After decades of being the minority party in Washington state and the nation as a whole, Democrats swept to power in the 1930 and 1932 elections. The popularity of Roosevelt's New Deal reforms-especially hydroelectric projects and Social Security-kept Democrats in office. Although the New Deal was popular, it did not end the Depression. Washington's unemployment rate dropped to 17% in 1937 and then hovered around 20% for the rest of the decade. When reform failed to end the Depression, the CP's call for fundamental economic change became more appealing. Furthermore, the CP became less radical and changed its tactics in the mid-1930's, allowing the Party to reach a much wider constituency.

In 1935, frightened by the rise of fascism throughout Europe, the Soviet Union changed its foreign policy, abandoning isolationism and pursuing a 'United Front' (or 'Popular Front') with capitalist democracies. Communist parties across the globe followed suit and sought to forge anti-fascist alliances with liberals. The American CP swung its support behind the New Deal, which it saw as the best bulwark against the spread of fascism in America. During the 'United Front' period, the CP was not revolutionary, but reformist. At CP rallies in the late 1930's, one could usually find pictures of FDR hung beside posters declaring, 'Communism Is 20th Century Americanism. ' In addition, the Party no longer required members to disavow religion and proclaim faith in Marxist theory.

Not surprisingly, CP membership in Washington skyrocketed in the late 1930's. Washington's radical history made it an attractive recruiting ground for the CP. Indeed, Seattle and San Francisco were widely considered to be the strongest bases of CP support west of the Mississippi River. During the United Front, communists were elected to leadership positions in a handful of left-wing organizations. (These groups were called 'communist fronts' because many members did not know the leaders were communists. Many members did know, but didn't care.) The largest communist-controlled group in the state was the Washington Commonwealth Federation (WCF).

The WCF was formed by liberal Democrats in 1935, but most of its leaders were communists by 1937. The WCF functioned as the left wing of the Washington State Democratic Party. The WCF endorsed candidates in Democratic primaries, and its members went door to door campaigning for them. Through the efforts of the WCF, roughly five communists were elected to the Washington state legislature on the Democratic Party ticket in 1936 and ten in 1938.

(The WCF, however, endorsed more liberals than communists.) Although the WCF was somewhat powerful in the late 1930's, it never grew strong enough to take control of the Washington State Democratic Party away from the conservative and moderate supporters of Governor Clarence Martin. The Washington Pension Union (WPU), another fairly powerful communist front, had somewhat more success fighting Governor Martin. The WPU was formed by liberals and by angry senior citizens of all political stripes in 1937 after Governor Martin refused to raise the state's meager appropriation for Social Security. Led by the charismatic William Pennock, communists won control of most of the WPU's leadership posts in 1938. The WPU drafted and circulated Initiative 141 to guarantee that all Washingtonians over 65 had a minimum income of $40 per month. With 58% of voters supporting it, the measure passed in 1940.

Communists also helped build many of Washington's labor unions from the bottom up. Even dedicated anti-radicals such as Dave Beck occasionally hired communists because they were frequently the best, most tireless union organizers. But communists rarely achieved positions of power in American Federation of Labor (AFL) unions. They did, however, have substantial influence in some Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO) unions, especially the large International Longshore Workers Union led by Harry Bridges. The American CP suffered a tremendous setback in August 1939, when Stalin signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Later that year, as Germany conquered western Poland, the Soviets invaded eastern Poland and all of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.

The Soviet Union, once the most avowedly anti-fascist nation in Europe, was now openly abetting Hitler. After several weeks of confusion, the American CP reversed its 'line. ' The CP had previously supported FDR's preparations for war, but it now declared FDR to be a 'war-monger' and an 'imperialist. ' The CP denounced FDR's efforts to assist Britain when Nazi planes incessantly bombed the island nation. The WCF lost credibility with Washington voters when it followed CP's change of policy, and the organization soon dissolved. The WPU and communist-influenced unions lost many members but survived.

Overall, the CP's membership in Washington state declined by more than half in 1939 and 1940 as most Party members could not stomach the new tolerance of Hitler and were repulsed by the CP's willingness to follow a 'Party line' dictated in Moscow. Many people who left the Party in this period were so embittered that they later testified against the CP during the late 1940's and 1950's and welcomed the persecution of communists. The Nazi invasion of the USSR in mid-1941 revived the CP's call for a 'United Front' and restored much of the Party's lost popularity. As soon as the Soviets were invaded, the CP urged FDR to increase the aid given to the USSR and Britain. Many people were initially disgusted by the CP's second reversal of policy in two years, but once the US entered the war in December 1941, a large proportion of Americans were impressed by communists' unflagging dedication to the war effort.

The American CP abandoned its calls for social reform and became downright conservative. The CP cooperated with employers to put down strikes during wartime and urged people to work longer hours without pay increases. CP membership in Washington state rose, but never again reached the plateau of the late 1930's. The WPU once again became a power in the Democratic Party, and its efforts led to the election of a half-dozen communists to the Washington state legislature on the Democratic ticket in the early 1940's. When the US and USSR defeated Germany in mid-1945, the CP in Washington state prepared to resume its advocacy of social reform and reclaim its role as the left wing of the Democratic Party.

This strategy became increasingly untenable as the American-Soviet rivalry after the Second World War soon developed into a 'Cold War. '.