The Communist Party on the American Waterfront: Revolution, Reform, and the Quest for Power

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

In the early years of the Great Depression the Marine Workers Industrial Union was a colorful presence on the American Waterfront. In 1935 the MWIU seemed to vanish, closing its halls and stopping its publications. The author convincingly demonstrates that the MWIU did not vanish, instead it was ordered by the Moscow based Communist International to send its members into mainstream ALF unions and take over from the inside. Deliberately duplicated on the east coast, the Communists succeeded in destroying the International Seamens Union and creating the Communist dominated National Maritime Union.

Reviews

Vernon L. Pedersen has diligently mined a host of heretofore untapped and close archival sources to present the first thorough examination of the efforts of the Communist Party of the United States to organize maritime workers in the 1930s. His careful evaluation of their successes and failures offers both a correction to previous interpretations and revealing insights into the internal conflicts and rivalries in the Party and among those trying to organize a radical union. -- Harvey Klehr, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Politics and History, Emory University

Author Bio

Vernon L. Pedersen is a professor of history and the Head of the International Studies Department at the American University of Sharjah