1919

Communist Party USA Founded

The Communist Party USA, a Marxist-Leninist political organization, grew out of the Left Wing of the Socialist Party of America (SPA). The 1918 October Revolution brought many members who valued revolutionary socialism to the SPA, leading to the emergence of a Left Wing group. The Left Wing of the SPA was unable to decide whether to form a new Communist Party or to try to take over the Socialist Party, so it split into two factions, the Communist Labor Party of America (CLP) and the Communist Party of America (CPA).
Both of these new communist parties held their founding conventions in Chicago in early September 1919. The 125 attendees of the CPA meeting approved a constitution and program, as well as an organizational structure.
 
The CPA and the CLP immediately came under suspicion of being responsible for many anti-government actions in 1919. The Palmer raids, an effort to detain and deport radical leftists, began in November as a result of the Red Scare, and forced the Communists underground. The two parties eventually merged in 1921 under pressure from the Communist International, an association of communist organizations from around the world.

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