Albert Weisbord (1900–1977) was an American

political activist A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some ...

and

union organizer A union organizer (or union organiser in Commonwealth spelling) is a specific type of trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining ...

. He is best remembered, along his wife

Vera Buch Vera Wilhelmine Buch Weisbord (Forestville, Connecticut 19 August 1895 – Chicago 6 September 1987) was an American political activist and union organizer. Early life Vera Buch was born on 19 August 1895 Forestville, Connecticut. Her parents w ...

, as one of the primary union organizers of the seminal 1926 Passaic Textile Strike and as the founder of a small

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...

political organization of the 1930s called the Communist League of Struggle.

Biography

Early years

Albert Weisbord was born December 9, 1900, to a

Russian-Jewish The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...

family in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. His father was a manufacturer.Solon DeLeon with Irma C. Hayssen and Grace Poole (eds.), ''The American Labor Who's Who.'' New York: Hanford Press, 1925; pg. 245. Weisbord attended primary, grammar, and high school in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behi ...

. He worked variously as a newsboy, a clerk in a grocery store, as a worker in a clothing factory, and in a soda shop during his earlier years. Weisbord entered the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

in 1917, joining the Brooklyn Branch 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 ...

at that same time. He began teaching classes in the English language to immigrants to America at the Rand School of Social Science, an adult-educational offshoot of the Socialist Party, while he was still himself attending school. Weisbord graduated with a bachelor's degree from City College

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

in 1921. He was then accepted into

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

, graduating with honors in 1924.

Political career

Weisbord was initially a member of the

syndicalist Syndicalism is a revolutionary current within the left-wing of the labor movement that seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes with the eventual goal of gaining control over the means of pro ...

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines gener ...

(IWW), but he soon moved to the ranks of the

(SPA), an organization which believed in the efficacy of electoral politics to implement change. In the summer of 1921, the party's National Executive Committee asked him to conduct a speaking tour to help reorganize the Young People's Socialist League, the bulk of which had exited the SPA to join forces with the Communists. After going on tour to reorganize the locals, a national convention was held to relaunch a new YPSL (loyal to the Socialist Party) at Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The convention named Weisbord its National Director, a position which entitled him to a seat on the party's governing NEC. Weisbord remained as National Director of the Socialist Party's youth section until the middle of 1924. In June 1924, Weisbord was named assistant organizer of the Socialist Party's New England district. Later that year, he attended the meeting of the Conference for Progressive Political Action at which the Socialist Party joined with a number of unions to nominate Robert La Follette as an independent for

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal gove ...

. This experience was disillusioning for Weisbord, as he had wanted the Socialists to form a labor party to guide the workers toward socialist as had been done in England. Instead, he felt that the party was a

petty bourgeois ''Petite bourgeoisie'' (, literally 'small bourgeoisie'; also anglicised as petty bourgeoisie) is a French term that refers to a social class composed of semi-autonomous peasants and small-scale merchants whose politico-economic ideological s ...

organization moving toward

liberalism Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for ...

. Weisbord resigned from the SPA joined the Communist (Workers) Party in November 1924. While in the Party he gained fame for leading the textile strike in

Passaic, New Jersey Passaic ( or ) is a city in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city had a total population of 70,537, ranking as the 16th largest municipality in New Jersey and an increase of 656 from the 69, ...

, in 1926, an event of particular significance as the first attempt by Communists to lead a strike action by American factory workers. The radical Weisbord was seen as an inflammatory figure by the mill owners, and in August 1926 he was removed from leadership of the strikers.Weisbord, ''A Radical Life,'' pg. 137. His participation as a leader of the Passaic strike as a leader of the United Textile Workers "made" Weisbord as a public face of the Workers (Communist) Party and upon termination of the strike in the fall of 1926 he was sent on a speaking tour on behalf of the party, telling of his strike experiences to a general audience. In December 1926, Weisbord was dispatched to

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley of ...

on behalf of the

Red International of Labor Unions The Red International of Labor Unions (russian: Красный интернационал профсоюзов, translit=Krasnyi internatsional profsoyuzov, RILU), commonly known as the Profintern, was an international body established by the Comm ...

(Profintern). He carried with him $1,000 in gold coin as seed money for the Mexican union movement. Weisbord was sent to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

in the spring of 1928 as a delegate of the Communist Party's Trade Union Educational League (TUEL) to the World Congress of the Profintern that opened on March 10, 1928. His selection no doubt was intended in part as a faction-balancing measure, owing to Weisbord's status as one of the top Lovestone loyalists in the Communist Party's labor arm, TUEL being the main center for the opposition faction of

William Z. Foster William Zebulon Foster (February 25, 1881 – September 1, 1961) was a Political radicalism, radical American labor organizer and Communism, Communist politician, whose career included serving as General Secretary of the Communist Party US ...

. In the fall of 1928, Weisbord was the candidate of the Workers (Communist) Party for U.S. Senate from New Jersey."Weisbord Tours New England: Mill Leader to Speak on Red Program," ''Daily Worker,'' vol. 5, no. 252 (October 24, 1928), pg. 5. Weisbord also served as the secretary-treasurer of the National Textile Workers' Union, the Communist Party-sponsored dual union affiliated with the Trade Union Unity League. Following the political demise of Jay Lovestone and his associates in 1929, Weisbord grew increasingly disenchanted with the leadership of the Communist Party. He left the organization and briefly joined the

Communist League of America in 1930. On March 15, 1931, Weisbord and his wife launched an independent Marxist group, the Communist League of Struggle, which existed until 1937. This was the first split in the US Trotskyist movement. For the first three years the group asserted agreement with the policies of the Trotskyist

International Left Opposition International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

and regularly carried Trotskys articles, but in November 1934 Weisbord and the CLS openly broke with Trotsky.Weisbord, Alber
"We break with Trotsky"
in ''Class Struggle'' Vol. IV #11 November 1934 By the time the CLS dissolved in 1937 it had almost no membership left, and Weisbord concentrated on publishing his book, ''The Conquest of Power: Liberalism, Anarchism, Syndicalism, Socialism, Fascism, and Communism'' which was published by

Covici-Friede Pascal Avram "Pat" Covici (November 4, 1885–October 14, 1964) was a Romanian Jewish-American book publisher and editor, best known for his close associations with authors such as John Steinbeck, Saul Bellow, and many more noted American literary ...

that year. When

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

broke out, Weisbord supported the U.S. entry into the war, albeit in the interest of defeating imperialism.

Death and legacy

Albert Weisbord died in April 1977.

Footnotes

Works

Books and pamphlets

''Passaic: The Story of a Struggle against Starvation Wages and for the Right to Organize.''
Chicago: Daily World Publishing Co., November 1926.
''For a New Communist International.''
New York: Communist League of Struggle, 1933.

New York : Communist League of Struggle, 1934.
''The Conquest of Power: Liberalism, Anarchism, Syndicalism, Socialism, Fascism, and Communism.''
New York: Covici-Friede, 1937. *''Latin American actuality'' New York: Citadel Press, 1964.
''Critique of the New Draft Program of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.''
Chicago: E. Clemente & Sons, 1962.

Articles

* "Support the Central Executive Committee; Criticize Its Too Many Right Errors," ''The Daily Worker,'' vol. 5, no. 331 (January 24, 1929), pg. 3.

External links

The Albert and Vera Weisbord Archive
Weisbord.org. Retrieved February 25, 2010.

on th
Marxists Internet Archive
Retrieved December 2, 2020. {{DEFAULTSORT:Weisbord, Albert 1900 births 1977 deaths American people of Russian-Jewish descent Members of the Socialist Party of America Industrial Workers of the World members American socialists American Marxists American communists Members of the Communist Party USA Jewish socialists American trade union leaders Harvard Law School alumni Historians of anarchism Activists from New York City City College of New York alumni 20th-century American historians People from Brooklyn