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By People's World Editorial Board
One hundred years ago this weekend, on Sept. 1, 1919, 128 women and men, meeting in a hall in Chicago, founded the Communist Party of America. In their founding Manifesto, the members declared:
“The world is on the verge of a new era. Europe is in revolt. The masses of Asia are stirring uneasily. Capitalism is in collapse. The workers of the world are seeing a new life and securing new courage. Out of the night of war is coming a new day…. The class war rages fiercely in all nations. Everywhere the workers are in a desperate struggle against their capitalist masters. The call to action has come. The workers must answer the call!”
For a century, activists of the Communist Party USA have been answering that call—organizing workers to fight for their interests and struggling to win socialism in the United States.
Communists fought for labor and civil rights in historic campaigns of the 1920s and ’30s against the frame-ups of Sacco and Vanzetti and the Scottsboro defendants. The Communist Party helped found the International Labor Defense organization which led these struggles.
It was Communist organizers who helped found and lead many of the most militant unions in U.S. history, especially in the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) during the Great Depression.
CPUSA members sacrificed valiantly...
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