Benjamin Mandel (October 2, 1891 – August 8, 1973) "Bert Miller" was a New York city school teacher and communist activist who later became an ex-communist director of research for the
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
(HUAC) and the
Senate Internal Security Subcommittee
The United States Senate's Special Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, 1951–77, known more commonly as the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS) and sometimes the M ...
(SIS).
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Background
Benjamin Mandel was born in on October 2, 1891, in New York City.
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Career
Mandel became a New York City schoolteacher and then organization secretary for the New York district of the Teachers Union
The New York City Teachers Union or "TU" (1916–1964) was the first New York labor union for teachers, formed as "AFT Local 5" of the American Federation of Teachers, which found itself hounded throughout its history due largely to co-membership ...
.[
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Bert Miller
Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA)
Mandel used the name "Bert Miller" when he joined the 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 ...
in the 1920s. On April 6, 1923, name appears in the letterhead of the 1922 Labor Defense Council in support of Bridgman Raid
The 1922 Bridgman Convention was a secret conclave of the underground Communist Party of America (CPA) held in August 1922 near the small town of Bridgman, Michigan, about outside of the city of Chicago on the banks of Lake Michigan. The conventi ...
defendants (and forerunner of 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 ...
or ILD) as a local committee member. Other members included Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (August 7, 1890 – September 5, 1964) was a labor leader, activist, and feminist who played a leading role in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Flynn was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union ...
, Freda Kirchwey
Mary Frederika "Freda" Kirchwey (September 26, 1893 – January 3, 1976) was an American journalist, editor, and publisher strongly committed throughout her career to liberal causes (anti-Fascist, pro-Soviet, anti-anti-communist). From 1933 t ...
, Eugene V. Debs
Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American socialism, socialist, political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and five times the candidate ...
, Norman Thomas
Norman Mattoon Thomas (November 20, 1884 – December 19, 1968) was an American Presbyterian minister who achieved fame as a socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America.
Early years
Thomas was the ...
, Mary Heaton Vorse, J.B. Matthews
Joseph Brown "Doc" Matthews Sr. (1894–1966), best known as J. B. Matthews, was an American linguist, educator, writer, and political activist. A committed pacifist, he became a self-described " fellow traveler" of the Communist Party USA i ...
, and Nerma Berman (wife of Soviet spy Isaiah Oggins
Isaiah Oggins (also known as Ysai or Cy) (July 22, 1898 – 1947) was an American-born communist and spy for the Soviet secret police. After working in Europe and the Far East, Oggins was arrested, served eight years in the GULAG detention system ...
).[
]
In 1925 he resigned his position as a teacher to work full-time for the Party. Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer-editor, who, after early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), defected from the Soviet underground (1938), ...
remembered that "Bert Miller" signed his Party card in 1925.[
]
In 1925–26, Bert Miller studied under Professor Scott Nearing
Scott Nearing (August 6, 1883 – August 24, 1983) was an American radical economist, educator, writer, political activist, pacifist, vegetarian and advocate of simple living.
Biography
Early years
Nearing was born in Morris Run, Tioga County, ...
in his Research Study Group for a forthcoming book called ''The Law of Social Revolution'' (1926). Classmates included Whittaker Chambers, Dale Zysman
Jack Hardy (sometimes Richard Enmale), born Dale Zysman (November 18, 1901 - July 2, 1993?), was a 20th-Century Communist author labor leader as "Jack Hardy" and a teacher and board member of the New York City Teachers Union under his birth name " ...
(vice president of the Teachers' Union), Bertram Wolfe
Bertram David Wolfe (January 19, 1896 – February 21, 1977) was an American scholar, leading communist, and later a leading anti-communist. He authored many works related to communism, including biographical studies of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Sta ...
, Ben Davidson
Benjamin Earl Davidson (June 14, 1940 – July 2, 2012) was an American football player, a defensive end best known for his play with the Oakland Raiders in the American Football League (AFL). Earlier in his career, he was with the Green Bay ...
(later co-founder of the Liberal Party of New York
The Liberal Party of New York is a political party in New York. Its platform supports a standard set of socially liberal policies, including abortion rights, increased spending on education, and universal health care.
History
The Liberal Party wa ...
) and his wife Eve Dorf,[
] Sam Krieger
Samuel Krieger (1902-1981) was an American union organizer, IWW member, Teamsters member, and communist.
Life
Background
Samuel Krieger was born in Russia on August 20, 1902. He came with his family to the United States at age two. He grew u ...
, Alfred J. Brooks, Myra Page
Dorothy Markey (born Dorothy Page Gary, 1897–1993), known by the pen name Myra Page, was a 20th-century American communist writer, journalist, union activist, and teacher.
Background
Page was born Dorothy Page Gary on October 1, 1897, ...
, and Rachel Ragozin
Rachel () was a Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban. Her older sister was Leah, Jacob's first wife. Her au ...
.
In 1926, Bert Miller ignited the 1926 Passaic textile strike, as related by Benjamin Gitlow
Benjamin Gitlow (December 22, 1891 – July 19, 1965) was a prominent American socialist politician of the early 20th century and a founding member of the Communist Party USA. During the end of the 1930s, Gitlow turned to conservatism and wrote t ...
in his 1939 memoir: The man who started the ball rolling was Bert Miller, industrial organizer of District Two of the Party, which then included most of industrial New Jersey and Connecticut as well as New York City. Comrade Miller called to my attention the fact that the Botany Mills of Passaic had announced a wage cut of ten percent, beginning with October, 1925. I immediately instructed Miller to get in touch with our New Jersey comrades and explore the matter further, agreeing with him that on its face the situation seemed favorable enough for initiating agitation for a strike in retaliation for the wage cut. Miller was a veteran of the Party since its underground days and carried out his assignment expeditiously. His report convinced me that there was ample ground for developing a successful strike.[
]
Albert Weisbord
Albert Weisbord (1900–1977) was an American political activist and union organizer. He is best remembered, along his wife Vera Buch, as one of the primary union organizers of the seminal 1926 Passaic Textile Strike and as the founder of a sma ...
, main leader of the Passaic strike, recalled later and critically of both Miller ("the innocent") and the Communist Party: In New York I contacted Bert Miller, a teacher made suddenly "industrial" organizer of the Party, who, as a newcomer in the office, tried to live up to a job he knew very little about...
I was just now, in 1924, that ignorant, unsuspicious me had to enter into that nest of intrigue, without the lightest inkling of the kind of leadership under which I was enlisting...
I soon found the approximately 400 strikers in meeting in a small hall near the mill... We built up a picket line, drew up our demands and created a semblance of organization. They no longer felt lost or abandoned... They wanted to see membership applications and membership dues books... Back in New York I reported all this to Miller. This innocent agreed that I should get application and membership cards printed. He was not aware that on this matter he would be bitterly assailed by the Foster-Cannon leadership for dual unionism and would open up a major struggle with the Party...
The worthlessness of the C.P. leaders did not in the least make me undervalue the great worth of the tens of thousands of devoted foreign-born workers and militant American-born youth who were the members and followers of that party... At the moment for me the important link in the chain was the innocent Bert Miller, acting on this own while the "bigs" were tied up with other matters, especially the N.Y. District Organizer Weinstone who was very busy intriguing with Cannon on how to form a new faction to end factions! Weinstone’s sloth and Miller’s ignorance were to help me much.
In 1926, Bert Miller also became business manager of the ''Daily Worker
The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, attempts were m ...
'' communist newspaper. His name first appears on the masthead in the November 26, 1926 issue, and appeared throughout 1926 and 1927 – the publication of "business manager" dropped from the masthead in 1928. Whittaker Chambers recalled: In those days, Bert Miller was a harassed soul. As business manager of the ''Daily Worker'', the future research director of the House Committee on Un-American Activities had to meet a weekly payroll and find money to pay the paper, print, and other bills. Money was very hard to find, and his life was a weekly crisis. Thus, my chief recollection of Bert Miller from the past is less than a face than as a weary plaint: money.
Bert suffered other grievances, too. In his business office, he presided over a number of young women Communists, one of whom was a remarkably pretty Hungarian girl. He often protested that his girls were terrified towalk through the ''Daily Worker'' office (as they sometimes had to) because, while they wriggled their way past he crowded chairs, each of the editors in turn reached back and pinched them.
In 1927, Mandel was elected to the Party's Central Committee at its fifth congress in 1927. In 1929, he was re-elected as a "candidate member" at its sixth convention in March 1929. Later that year, he was expelled with followers of 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 ...
(known at the Lovestoneites
The Lovestoneites, led by former General Secretary of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) Jay Lovestone, were a small American oppositionist Communism, communist movement of the 1930s. The organization emerged from a factional fight in the CPUSA in 19 ...
) as an "incurable right-wing deviationist".
Communist Party (Opposition) (CPO)
As of the first issue (November 1, 1929), Bert Miller appeared on the editorial board of ''Revolutionary Age
''The Revolutionary Age'' was an American radical newspaper edited by Louis C. Fraina and published from November 1918 until August 1919. Originally the publication of Local Boston, Socialist Party, the paper evolved into the ''de facto'' nationa ...
'', organ of the Communist Party (Majority) formed by Jay Lovestone, i.e., he joined Lovestone's Communist Party (Majority Group). Other editors included: Benjamin Gitlow
Benjamin Gitlow (December 22, 1891 – July 19, 1965) was a prominent American socialist politician of the early 20th century and a founding member of the Communist Party USA. During the end of the 1930s, Gitlow turned to conservatism and wrote t ...
, editor; Bertram Wolfe
Bertram David Wolfe (January 19, 1896 – February 21, 1977) was an American scholar, leading communist, and later a leading anti-communist. He authored many works related to communism, including biographical studies of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Sta ...
, associate editor; and editorial board members J.O. Bixby, Ellen Dawson
Ellen "Nellie" Dawson Kanki (14 December 1900 - 17 April 1967), best known as Ellen Dawson, was a Scottish-American political activist and trade union organizer in the textile industry. Dawson is best remembered as an active participant in three ...
, Will Herberg, William Miller, R. Pires, Jack Rubinstein, Frank Vrataric, Ed Welsh, W.J. White, Herbert Zam, and Charles S. Zimmerman.[
]
Miller was also one of the original teachers at the New Workers School of the Lovestoneites, as advertised in the November 15 issue[
] and detailed in a December 15 article.[
]
In April 1930, Miller spoke in Philadelphia to some 300 workers regarding "The Crisis in the Communist Party of the USA."
During 1930, Miller joined the Conference for Progressive Labor Action
The Conference for Progressive Labor Action (CPLA) was a left-wing American political organization established in May 1929 by A. J. Muste, the director of Brookwood Labor College. The organization was established to promote industrial unionism an ...
.
In June 1931, the Communist League of Struggle (Adhering to the International Left Opposition), attached Miller as a Lovestone leader: Do you think that it is an accident that out of your ranks, trained by Lovestone, have sprung OPEN RENEGADES from Communism, Bert Miller and Company? Can you not see that Bert Miller but does what Lovestone is planning to do -- later, that Miller is but the vanguard of Lovestone himself?
... In spite of intrigue on the part of the official Communist Party, the Lovestone group and its allies, Bert Miller and Ludwig Lore
Ludwig Lore (June 26, 1875July 8, 1942) was an American socialist magazine editor, newspaper writer, lecturer, and politician, best remembered for his tenure as editor of the socialist ''New Yorker Volkszeitung'' and role as a factional leader in ...
-- about 250 attended the Albert Weisbord
Albert Weisbord (1900–1977) was an American political activist and union organizer. He is best remembered, along his wife Vera Buch, as one of the primary union organizers of the seminal 1926 Passaic Textile Strike and as the founder of a sma ...
-Louis F. Budenz
Louis Francis Budenz (pronounced "byew-DENZ"; July 17, 1891 – April 27, 1972) was an American activist and writer, as well as a Soviet espionage agent and head of the ''Buben group'' of spies. He began as a labor activist and became a member ...
debate at the Labor Temple, Saturday, May 2. The topic was "Shall the Workers Support the Conference for Progressive Labor Action in Preference to the Communists?"... After the posters, leaflets and advertisements announcing the debate were released, pressure to kill the debate opened. According to reports, 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 ...
who was scheduled to debate Muste a week later, threatened to withdraw if Muste debated Weisbord first. Under the Party's pressure, Muste decided not to debate Weisbord and assigned Budenz in his stead. This was the time for Miller, the "communist" watch-dog and advisor to the C.P.L.A. to step in with his "expert" advice. Lore also advised Budenz not to go through with the arrangements.
By August 1931, the Lovestoneites were commenting angrily in ''Revolutionary Age'': "As soon as this group of comrades entered the CPLA and began to function, a differentiation began to take place: Bert Miller, Levich, and Lawrence began to move rapidly to the extreme right, while the rest of the comrades under the leadership of Comrade Benjamin, took up a sharp struggle against social reformism and against Miller and his friends as well." Miller's push for this group caused Benjamin Gitlow to split with the Lovestoneites
The Lovestoneites, led by former General Secretary of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) Jay Lovestone, were a small American oppositionist Communism, communist movement of the 1930s. The organization emerged from a factional fight in the CPUSA in 19 ...
, who insisted that "Stalin's policies were a hundred percent correct."
By October 1931, ''Revolutionary Age'' was calling Miller, Gitlow, and others "traitors": ON WORKERS SOLIDARITY
A fine day of celebration for these traitors, who, together with Gitlow, Budenz, Bert Miller and Zimmerman and the smaller fry of Lovestone renegades, are trying to break the strike of the textile workers. Labor Day is a day that symbolizes the attempted sell-out of their militant struggles. It is a day of hatred of the system that makes use of such scum from Green, Woll to Gitlow, Budenz, Muste and the smaller gang of pickpockets, who pose as "labor leaders."
August 22, 1931 , I. Amter
In 1931, Miller's name appeared as a national officer of the Joint Committee on Unemployment, headed by John Dewey
John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the f ...
. On November 19, 1931, "Benjamin Mandel" attended a protest against Italian foreign minister Dino Grandi
Dino Grandi (4 June 1895 – 21 May 1988), 1st Conte di Mordano, was an Italian Fascist politician, minister of justice, minister of foreign affairs and president of parliament.
Early life
Born at Mordano, province of Bologna, Grandi was a gr ...
, a "Fascist diplomat": as part of deputation from the Committee for International Anti-Fascist Protest, Mandel joined A.J. Muste
Abraham Johannes Muste ( ; January 8, 1885 – February 11, 1967) was a Dutch-born American clergyman and political activist. He is best remembered for his work in the labor movement, pacifist movement, antiwar movement, and civil rights movemen ...
, Roger Baldwin, and several Italian-Americans. On December 2, 1931, "Benjamin Mandel" as "organizer for the Brotherhood of Brooklyn Edison Employees" as well as observer for the Conference for Progressive Labor Action
The Conference for Progressive Labor Action (CPLA) was a left-wing American political organization established in May 1929 by A. J. Muste, the director of Brookwood Labor College. The organization was established to promote industrial unionism an ...
, joined a group of nine led by Rev. Eliot White, formerly of the Grace Episcopal Church, to distribute union literature, when they found themselves attacked by hundreds of people. In its December 1931 issue, ''Labor Age'' described Mandel as "labor organizer and writer... active in the White Plains Road Laborers Strike last summer... now helping the Brooklyn Edison Employes organization campaign."[
]
In 1932, Mandel had called for a bar to admittance of communists during a meeting to discuss the ongoing Harlan County coal strike that had started in 1931 (see Harlan County War
The Harlan County War, or Bloody Harlan, was a series of coal industry skirmishes, executions, bombings and strikes (both attempted and realized) that took place in Harlan County, Kentucky, during the 1930s. The incidents involved coal miners ...
): "No communists are admitted here", was the greeting at the door, which met the delegate of the C.L.S., who tried to attend the "broad united front of labor", called by the I.W.W. General Defense Committee for the Harlan Kentucky miners on January 6. Of course it had to be the unspeakable Bert Miller, who handed out this information. All sorts of liberals, anarchists, and what not were gathered together, but the Communists were not even allowed to enter the hall!"
On March 6, 1932, Mandel joined a committee that supported the $375 million Costigan-La Follettee-Lewis relief bill, itself part of a $3 billion federal bill to provide housing credit, end sales taxes, and increases surtaxes and estate taxes.
Benjamin Mandel
On July 17, 1932, a new joint committee on unemployment in New York state formed under Bishop Francis J. McConnell of the Methodist Baptist Church in Manhattan. Committee members included: Sidney E. Goldstein, Stephen S. Wise, Mary Fox, Alfred Bernheim, Darwin J. Meserole, Howard Y. Williams, A.J. Muste
Abraham Johannes Muste ( ; January 8, 1885 – February 11, 1967) was a Dutch-born American clergyman and political activist. He is best remembered for his work in the labor movement, pacifist movement, antiwar movement, and civil rights movemen ...
, J.B. Matthews
Joseph Brown "Doc" Matthews Sr. (1894–1966), best known as J. B. Matthews, was an American linguist, educator, writer, and political activist. A committed pacifist, he became a self-described " fellow traveler" of the Communist Party USA i ...
, William Spofford, Winifred Chappell, Abraham Lefkowitz
Abraham Lefkowitz (17 October 1884 in Revish, Hungary – 7 November 1956 in New York City, United States) was a co-founder of the American Federation of Teachers, of the New York City Teachers Union in 1916 and the New York City Teachers Guild, ...
, Sidney Hillman
Sidney Hillman (March 23, 1887 – July 10, 1946) was an American labor leader. He was the head of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and was a key figure in the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and in marshaling labor' ...
, Paul Blanshard
Paul Beecher Blanshard (August 27, 1892 – January 27, 1980) was an American author, assistant editor of ''The Nation'' magazine, lawyer, socialist, secular humanist, and from 1949 an outspoken critic of Catholicism.
Early life and educa ...
, Jack Altman, Helen Alfred, Walter White Walter White most often refers to:
* Walter White (''Breaking Bad''), character in the television series ''Breaking Bad''
* Walter Francis White (1893–1955), American leader of the NAACP
Walter White may also refer to:
Fictional characters
...
, and LeRoy E. Bowman.
Dies Committee and Rapp Coudert
By the later 1930s, "Bert Miller" the former communist had become a dedicated anti-communist and by 1939 had resurfaced fully as "Benjamin Mandel" to help J.B. Matthews
Joseph Brown "Doc" Matthews Sr. (1894–1966), best known as J. B. Matthews, was an American linguist, educator, writer, and political activist. A committed pacifist, he became a self-described " fellow traveler" of the Communist Party USA i ...
as a researcher for the Dies Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
until 1945. He also worked with the New York legislature during the Rapp-Courdert inquiry into the presence of Communist teachers in New York schools.[
(In 1939, after ]Isaac Don Levine
Isaac Don Levine (January 19, 1892 – February 15, 1981) was a 20th-century Russian-born American journalist and anticommunist writer, who is known as a specialist on the Soviet Union.
He worked with Soviet ex-spy Walter Krivitsky in a 1939 exp ...
had introduced them, Walter Krivitsky
Walter Germanovich Krivitsky (Ва́льтер Ге́рманович Криви́цкий; June 28, 1899 – February 10, 1941) was a Soviet intelligence officer who revealed plans of signing the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact after he defected to ...
told Chambers that "Ben Mandel" of the Dies Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
was "Bert Miller" of the Communist Party.)
In 1940 during Rapp-Coudert Committee investigations, "Benjamin Mandel" became connected with Communist activities under the name "Bert Miller." The same year, Matthews connected "Benjamin Mandel" with "Bert Miller" during the testimony of Leonard Emil Mins before the Dies Committee.
On August 7, 1941, Mandel himself testified before Dies Committee regarding the China Aid Council, a subsidiary of the American League for Peace and Democracy The American League Against War and Fascism was an organization formed in 1933 by the Communist Party USA and pacifists united by their concern as Nazism and Fascism rose in Europe. In 1937 the name of the group was changed to the American League fo ...
. He named Dr. Owen Lattimore
Owen Lattimore (July 29, 1900 – May 31, 1989) was an American Orientalist and writer. He was an influential scholar of China and Central Asia, especially Mongolia. Although he never earned a college degree, in the 1930s he was editor of ''Pacif ...
, Frederick V. Field, and others.
From 1945 to 1947, Mandel worked for the U.S. Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...
in handling "security."
HUAC
In 1947, Mandel returned to former Dies Committee, now renamed the House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
(HUAC), "to assist the committee in the Hiss-Chambers
Chambers may refer to:
Places
Canada:
*Chambers Township, Ontario
United States:
*Chambers County, Alabama
* Chambers, Arizona, an unincorporated community in Apache County
* Chambers, Nebraska
* Chambers, West Virginia
* Chambers Township, Hol ...
case." He has been characterized, along with U.S. Representative J. Parnell Thomas
John Parnell Thomas (January 16, 1895 – November 19, 1970) was a stockbroker and politician. He was elected to seven terms as a United States House of Representatives, U.S. Representative from New Jersey as a Republican Party (United States), Re ...
and HUAC chief investigator Robert E. Stripling Robert E. Stripling (circa 1910–1991) was a 20th-century civil servant, best known as chief investigator of the United States House of Representatives, House Dies Committee and its successor the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), parti ...
as one of the "choreographers of the hearings."
During the Hiss Case, Mandel participated in questioning during hearings. Mandel stated "A picture of Hiss shows his hand cupped to his ear," to which Chambers replied, "He is deaf in one ear." Mandel asked, "How is it that he (Hiss) never wrote anything publicly," to which Chambers answered, "He was never in the open Communist Party." Mandel checked for "George Crosley" as a government employee and received the negative findings from one Ernest S. Griffith, director of Legislative Reference Service. He also partook in the search for the Ford car sold by Hiss to William Rosen.
On May 2, 1949, Steele spoke with Congressman Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
and Walter S. Steele (publisher of ''The National Republic'' magazine and member of the American Coalition of Patriotic, Civic and Fraternal Societies, founded by John B. Trevor Sr.
John Bond Trevor Sr. (1878–1956) was an American lawyer and influential lobbyist for immigration restrictions. A wealthy nativist, he was an architect of the Immigration Act of 1924, which banned Asian immigration and established quotas that st ...
)) at a Knights of Columbus
The Knights of Columbus (K of C) is a global Catholic fraternal service order founded by Michael J. McGivney on March 29, 1882. Membership is limited to practicing Catholic men. It is led by Patrick E. Kelly, the order's 14th Supreme Knight. ...
annual town hall.
SISS
In 1951, Mandel left HUAC[ and became research director in the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, and stayed in that position until his retirement in 1967.] During his SIS years, he took an active role in connect the influence of the Communist Party and communist-influenced labor unions (e.g., CIO) in the Teachers' Union and among teachers (e.g., see "Mandel" in 1952 hearings).[
In May 1951, ]Benjamin Gitlow
Benjamin Gitlow (December 22, 1891 – July 19, 1965) was a prominent American socialist politician of the early 20th century and a founding member of the Communist Party USA. During the end of the 1930s, Gitlow turned to conservatism and wrote t ...
told the Senate's Subversive Activities Control Board that he had "repeatedly discussed" the board with its research director Mandel as well as another former Communist associate Joseph Zack Kornfeder
Joseph Zack Kornfeder (1898–1963), sometimes surnamed "Kornfedder" in the press, was an Austro-Hungarian-born American who was a founding member and top leader of the Communist Party of America in 1919, Communist Party USA leader, and Cominte ...
. Gitlow said, "I discussed the conduct of this case. I discussed the attorneys in the case. I discussed the members of the panel."
In 1953, Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
criticized Mandel in her column: I was sent a column the other day by a gentleman which he had clipped from a paper and felt was very convincing. The column was written by Benjamin Mandel, a former research director of the House Un-American Activities Committee and at present a member of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee. Mr. Mandel was writing as a guest columnist for Mr. C. Brown.
Mr. Mandel in his column took all liberals and intellectuals to task for sitting in judgment on Congressional committees investigating Communist activities. Most of the column pointed out the "faults of liberals" and of course, being human beings, I don't suppose they are perfect but it seemed to me this column was very slanted in its reasoning.
Unquestionably, critical self-examination should be of value to liberals and intellectuals, but I have no doubt it would be of value to those who conduct Congressional investigations also.
In 1956, TASS
The Russian News Agency TASS (russian: Информацио́нное аге́нтство Росси́и ТАСС, translit=Informatsionnoye agentstvo Rossii, or Information agency of Russia), abbreviated TASS (russian: ТАСС, label=none) ...
deputy bureau chief Harry Freeman testified before SISS. Mandel read a passage from Whittaker Chambers' 1952 memoir ''Witness'' about Freeman at the ''Daily Worker''. In retort, Freeman reminded SISS that Mandel was there, too, as business manager. On October 25, 1967, lawyers for the National Conference for New Politics (NCNP) and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), also referred to as the Freedom Democratic Party, was an American political party created in 1964 as a branch of the populist Freedom Democratic organization in the state of Mississippi during the ...
(MFDP) filed an order to take immediate sworn statements about documents from Senator James O. Eastland
James Oliver Eastland (November 28, 1904 February 19, 1986) was an American attorney, plantation owner, and politician from Mississippi. A Democratic Party (United States), Democrat, he served in the United States Senate in 1941 and again from 1 ...
and subcommittee staffers, J.G. Sourwine and Mandel to enjoin any further distribution or use of the files. In 1959, I.F. Stone
Isidor Feinstein "I. F." Stone (December 24, 1907 – June 18, 1989) was an American investigative journalist, writer, and author.
Known for his politically progressive views, Stone is best remembered for ''I. F. Stone's Weekly'' (1953–1971), ...
named Mandel as "another powerful Lovestoneite," while researcher Robert W. Iversen
Robert William Iversen (1920–1988) was an American historian who wrote ''The Communists and the Schools'' in 1959, which discusses the Teachers Union, Local 5 of the American Federation of Teachers in New York City; the book is often cited by sch ...
noted Mandel in his book ''The Communists & the Schools'', and Theodore Draper
Theodore H. Draper (September 11, 1912 – February 21, 2006) was an American historian and political writer. Draper is best known for the 14 books he completed during his life, including work regarded as seminal on the formative period of the Ame ...
consulted him for his book ''American Communism and Soviet Russia''.
On November 1, 1967, Mandel announced his retirement. He continued to consult to that subcommittee for some years.
Mandel, following Matthews before him, supplied information about "suspect clergy" to Carl McIntire
Carl Curtis McIntire, Jr. (May 17, 1906 – March 19, 2002), known as Carl McIntire, was a founder and minister in the Bible Presbyterian Church, founder and long-time president of the International Council of Christian Churches and the Ame ...
(1906–2002), a founder and minister in the Bible Presbyterian Church
The Bible Presbyterian Church is an American Protestant denomination in the Calvinist tradition.
History
Origin
The Bible Presbyterian Church was formed in 1937, predominantly through the efforts of such conservative Presbyterian clergymen as ...
, founder and long-time president of the International Council of Christian Churches
The International Council of Christian Churches (Abbreviation: ICCC) was founded on 12 August 1948 at the English Reformed Church, Amsterdam, as a fundamentalist Christian group of constituent national churches with opposition to the more liberal- ...
and the American Council of Christian Churches The American Council of Christian Churches (ACCC) is a fundamentalist organization set up in opposition to the Federal Council of Churches (now National Council of Churches).
The council's motto is Jude 3, "Earnestly contending for the Faith".
His ...
, and a popular religious radio broadcaster, who proudly identified himself as a fundamentalist
Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that is characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguishing ...
.
Personal and death
Mandel married Margaret Rees.[
He believed in exposing the Communist Party in the U.S. and explained in 1951: ]You've got to assume there is a present communist conspiracy, and it is obvious the communists want every additional scrap of atomic information they can lay hands on.
There are two ways to meet this conspiracy. One is to have a secret polic. The other is to develop the evidence in the American way, in open hearings and with sworn testimony. The goal should never be to railroad the people; always to respect civil liberties.
Mandel died age 82 on August 8, 1973, at the Mar-Salle Convalescent Home at 2131 O Street NW, Washington, DC.[
]
Works
According to his ''Washington Post'' obituary, Mandel was co-author of the book ''I Was a Soviet Worker'', published in the U.S. in 1936 and in the U.K. in 1937, but neither "Mandel" nor "Miller" appears in the book.
As Bert Miller:
* "Giant Power," ''The Communist'' (August 1928)
* "Gandhi Betrays," ''Labor Age'' (May 1931)
* "Book Review: Kautsky at the Crossroads" ''Labor Age'' (July 1932)
* ''I Was a Soviet Worker'' (1936)
** ''I Was a Soviet Worker'' (1937)
As Benjamin Mandel:
* "The Battle of White Plains," ''Labor Age'' (August 1931)
* "And These Are Our Rulers," ''Labor Age'' (September 1931)
* "America Welcomes Grandi," ''Labor Age'' (December 1931)[
* "Roosevelt: Jingo-Liberal," ''Labor Age'' (June 1932)
* "After Roosevelt - What?" ''Colliers'' (~1932-1934)
* "Evaluation of the World Trade Union Federation" (1946?)
* "A Handbook for Americans: The Communist Party: What It Is, How It Works" (1955)][
]
See also
* Communist Party of the United States 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 ...
* 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 ...
* Teachers Union
The New York City Teachers Union or "TU" (1916–1964) was the first New York labor union for teachers, formed as "AFT Local 5" of the American Federation of Teachers, which found itself hounded throughout its history due largely to co-membership ...
* J.B. Matthews
Joseph Brown "Doc" Matthews Sr. (1894–1966), best known as J. B. Matthews, was an American linguist, educator, writer, and political activist. A committed pacifist, he became a self-described " fellow traveler" of the Communist Party USA i ...
* House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
* Senate Internal Security Subcommittee
The United States Senate's Special Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, 1951–77, known more commonly as the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS) and sometimes the M ...
* Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer-editor, who, after early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), defected from the Soviet underground (1938), ...
* Alger Hiss
Alger Hiss (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was an American government official accused in 1948 of having spied for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Statutes of limitations had expired for espionage, but he was convicted of perjury in con ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mandel, Benjamin
Right Opposition
American communists
1891 births
1973 deaths
McCarthyism
Schoolteachers from New York (state)
20th-century American educators
Members of the Communist Party USA