Abraham "Abram" Jakira (1889? – 1931) was an American

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

political activist, newspaper editor, and

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

functionary. He is best remembered as one of the early Communist Party's factional leaders of the 1920s.

Biography

Early years

Abram Jakira is believed to have been born in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

in about 1889. Little is known of his life prior to his coming to the United States in 1912.

Political career

Jakira was an active member of the

Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of Ameri ...

and was supportive of the

Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party The Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party was an organized faction within the Socialist Party of America in 1919 which served as the core of the dual communist parties which emerged in the fall of that year—the Communist Party of America a ...

which emerged in 1919. Later that year he became a founding member of the

Communist Labor Party of America The Communist Labor Party of America (CLPA) was one of the organizational predecessors of the Communist Party USA. The group was established at the end of August 1919 following a three-way split of the Socialist Party of America. Although a legal ...

(CLP) and served as the Secretary of that organization's Russian-

language federation Language federations were formed in the late 19th and early 20th century by immigrants to the United States, primarily from Eastern and Southern Europe, who shared a commitment to some form of socialist politics. Some of these groups joined the So ...

. He served as a member of the editorial board of the CLP, in charge of production of the party's Russian-language "underground" (secret and illegal) newspaper and pamphlets. Jakira moved with the rest of the CLP into the new

United Communist Party of America The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...

(UCP) in May 1920. He was one of six members of that organization who prepared the UCP's program. In the summer of 1920, Jakira was named the organizer of the UCP's Russian Federation. During this period he used the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

"A. Dubner." He also later used the pseudonyms "A. Duboff," "Post," and "J. Miller" among other names. On April 29, 1920, the

U.S. Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

and the so-called "bomb squad" of the

New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

conducted a raid on an apartment which proved to be the national headquarters of the United Communist Party. Jakira was one of those arrested in the sensational raid. He was held and released on $5,000 bail in May 1921. Jakira briefly served on the governing Central Executive Committee of the UCP in June 1921, resigning due to "family matters" resulting from his need to regularly commute from

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

to party headquarters in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The United Communist Party and the old Communist Party of America united in the Summer of 1921 to form a new, unified organization also called the Communist Party of America. In this organization Jakira was one of the primaries in the so-called "Goose Caucus" group which, seeing open operations in the face of law enforcement pressure as potentially disastrous, advocated continuation of the secret form of organization then being employed by the party. Jakira was elected Executive Secretary of the CPA at the ill-fated August 1922 Bridgman Convention of the CPA, while also sitting on the governing Central Executive Committee of the party's "legal" and aboveground arm, the

Workers Party of America The Workers Party of America (WPA) was the name of the legal party organization used by the Communist Party USA from the last days of 1921 until the middle of 1929. Background As a legal political party, the Workers Party accepted affiliation fr ...

(WPA). In the six month interval which followed, the secret organization's size and influence withered, while the WPA, fueled particularly by an influx of new blood from the

Finnish Socialist Federation The Finnish Socialist Federation () was a language federation of the Socialist Party of America which united Finnish language-speaking immigrants in the United States in a national organization designed to conduct propaganda and education for social ...

, grew dramatically. Early in 1923 the decision was made to terminate the parallel underground organization which Jakira headed, leaving the "legal" WPA headed by

C.E. Ruthenberg Charles Emil Ruthenberg (July 9, 1882 – March 1, 1927) was an American Marxist politician and a founder and head of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Biography Early years Charles Emil Ruthenberg was born July 9, 1882, in Cleveland, Ohio, th ...

as the sole communist organization in the field. Called by one of his contemporaries "modest and friendly," Jakira was a factional loyalist to Workers (Communist) Party leaders Ruthenberg and

Jay Lovestone Jay Lovestone (15 December 1897 – 7 March 1990) was an American activist. He was at various times a member of the Socialist Party of America, a leader of the Communist Party USA, leader of a small oppositionist party, an anti-Communist and Centr ...

in the middle 1920s.Vera Buch Weisbord, ''A Radical Life.'' Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1977; pg. 153. In January 1924, Jakira was appointed the District Organizer of the WPA's Philadelphia district. He remained in that post for at least a year before taking on a similar role in

Western Pennsylvania Western Pennsylvania is a region in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, covering the western third of the state. Pittsburgh is the region's principal city, with a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million people, and serves as its economic ...

as DO of the

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

district, a position which he retained through the end of the decade."Party Organizers Endorse Comintern Address," ''The Daily Worker,'' vol. 6, no. 64 (May 22, 1929), pg. 1. Late in the spring of 1929 Communist Party Executive Secretary Jay Lovestone was deposed by the decision of the

Executive Committee of the Communist International The Executive Committee of the Communist International, commonly known by its acronym, ECCI (Russian acronym ИККИ), was the governing authority of the Comintern between the World Congresses of that body. The ECCI was established by the Foundin ...

, which aimed to end the ongoing factional war in the American part. Jakira was among the first four of the Communist Party's district organizers to publicly endorse this decision. Jakira was the Communist Party's District Organizer for the Pittsburgh district in 1928 and was influential in helping to organize the

National Miners Union The National Miners' Union (NMU) was a dual workers' association established in 1928 in the United States of America under the aegis of the Red International of Labour Unions (Profintern), the international trade union authority of the Communist ...

, a radical "

dual union Dual unionism is the development of a union or political organization parallel to and within an existing labor union. In some cases, the term may refer to the situation where two unions claim the right to organize the same workers. Dual unionism i ...

" established by the party through its

Trade Union Unity League The Trade Union Unity League (TUUL) was an industrial union umbrella organization under the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) between 1929 and 1935. The group was an American affiliate of the Red International of Labor Unions. The fo ...

arm late in that year. Thereafter, Jakira was named Assistant Secretary of the

International Labor Defense The International Labor Defense (ILD) (1925–1947) was a legal advocacy organization established in 1925 in the United States as the American section of the Comintern's International Red Aid network. The ILD defended Sacco and Vanzetti, was activ ...

, a mass organization initiated, financed, and controlled by the Communist Party.

Death and legacy

Abram Jakira died of

throat cancer Head and neck cancer develops from tissues in the lip and oral cavity (mouth), larynx (throat), salivary glands, nose, sinuses or the skin of the face. The most common types of head and neck cancers occur in the lip, mouth, and larynx. Symptoms ...

on March 20, 1931, in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

Footnotes

Works

* "Pittsburgh District Puts into Motion Plan for Recruiting of New Members and More Activity," ''The Daily Worker,'' vol. 3, no. 254 (November 9, 1926), pg. 4. {{DEFAULTSORT:Jakira, Abram 1880s births 1931 deaths Members of the Socialist Party of America American communists American Marxists Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Communist Party USA politicians New York (state) socialists