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After his discharge from the army, Keith Eickman returned to Local 6, moved from the YCL to the CP, and attended CLS classes. He was expelled or dropped from the CP in 1953, during the white chauvinism campaign, which he later called “a hysteria within the CP.” The charge against him was that in a …

In the late 1940s, coincident with a Soviet campaign against national chauvinism in Eastern Europe, the U.S. party launched a campaign against white chauvinism, which it described as the key underlying feature of American capitalism’s success in keeping the working class divided.45 The campaign qui…

With the party under attack on all sides, and given harsh penalties under state law for homosexual behavior and smoking marijuana, the party feared that anyone charged under such laws might turn informer. One draft report noted, “Due to laws recently enacted in California re. homosexuals . . . (20 …

Left sectarianism was not the only basis for expulsions. In 1948 the party’s State Review Commission drafted a report on its work over the three years since the reorganization. Noting that its most important work had been “smashing” the left sectarian faction, the committee’s draft also reported on…

Other institutions joined the CLS in contributing to San Francisco’s postwar labor-left culture. People’s World continued to present reviews of art, music, literature, and film as well as sports and the party’s perspective on the news. Subscribers far outnumbered party members. In parts of San Fran…