Oliver Carlson (1899–1991) was founder of the Young Communist League of America among other Communist organizations and then served as an anti-communist government witness who specialized in Communist infiltration in Hollywood.

Background

Oliver Carlson was born on July 31, 1899, in

Gotland Gotland (, ; ''Gutland'' in Gutnish), also historically spelled Gottland or Gothland (), is Sweden's largest island. It is also a province, county, municipality, and diocese. The province includes the islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the ...

, Sweden. In 1919, he was a member of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society. He studied law for one year at the

University of Michigan at Ann Arbor , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

Career

YPSL

In 1914, Carlson joined the Young People's Socialist League (YPSL) while living in the

Muskegon Muskegon ( ') is a city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Muskegon County. Muskegon is known for fishing, sailing regattas, pleasure boating, and as a commercial and cruise ship port. It is a popular vacation destination because of the expan ...

and

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

, Michigan, areas. In 1918-1919, Carlson served as YPSL national secretary.

YWL and YCL

After the Communist Party formed in 1919 in the US, Carlson became a communist. During Winter 1920-1921, Carlson (as "H. Edwards") attended a second convention of the United Communist Party in

Kingston, New York Kingston is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, United States. It is north of New York City and south of Albany, New York, Albany. The city's metropolitan area is grouped with t ...

, which voted to establish the "Young People's Communist League." In April 1921, he attended a congress in Germany of the

Young Communist International The Young Communist International was the parallel international youth organization affiliated with the Communist International (Comintern). History International socialist youth organization before World War I After failed efforts to form an i ...

, where he received funding. The meeting then moved to Moscow, which Carlson (as "Tucker") attended. In January 1922, as 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 ...

formed, the Party agreed to found a National Organizing Committee (NOC) for the

Young Workers League The Young Communist League USA (YCLUSA) is a communist youth organization in the United States. The stated aim of the League is the development of its members into Communists, through studying Marxism–Leninism and through active participation ...

of America (YWL), with Carlson as secretary. The group started a second publication called ''Youth'', soon changed to ''The Young Worker'' with Carlson as both YWLA secretary and ''Young Worker'' editor,

Martin Abern Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austral ...

as secretary, and

Harry Gannes Harry Gannes (1900–1941), was a British-born American journalist, foreign editor of the ''Daily Worker'' during much of the 1930s, was a communist of national prominence."Red Editor Here Dies, Facing U.S. Charges," ''The New York Times'', Janua ...

as business manager. In May 1922, the Young Communist League of America (YCLA) formed at an underground gathering, to which

Max Bedacht Max Bedacht Sr. (October 13, 1883 – July 4, 1972) was a German-born American revolutionary socialist political activist, journalist, and functionary who helped establish the Communist Party of America. Bedacht is best remembered as the long-time ...

spoke. The group published ''Young Communist'' quarterly during 1922. In July 1922, Carlson visited to comrades in

Gary, Indiana Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city has been historically dominated by major industrial activity and is home to U.S. Steel's Gary Works, the largest steel mill complex in North America. Gary is located along the ...

. In January 1924, Carlson, now ex-editor, gauged circulation of the ''Young Worker'' at 7-8,000 copies per issue. After attending the 4th world congress of the Young Communist International, leadership shuffled, with three secretaries ( John Williamson, Martin Abern, and Carlson),

Max Shachtman Max Shachtman (; September 10, 1904 – November 4, 1972) was an American Marxist theorist. He went from being an associate of Leon Trotsky to a social democrat and mentor of senior assistants to AFL–CIO President George Meany. Beginnings S ...

as editor, and Abern and Carlson as heads of the education department (among other positions).

Communist Summer Schools

In 1925, Carlson became head of Communist Summer Schools, sponsored by the Workers Party of America. During Summer 1926, the Young Workers League of America (YWL) ran several pioneer camps and summer schools: Chicago, Waino, Wisconsin;

Waukegan, Illinois ''(Fortress or Trading Post)'' , image_flag = , image_seal = , blank_emblem_size = 150 , blank_emblem_type = Logo , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivisi ...

, and Winchedon, Massachusetts. During Summer 1927, the YWL ran four schools in Boston, a town in Ohio, Waino, and

Winlock, Washington Winlock () is a city in Lewis County, Washington, Lewis County, Washington (state), Washington, United States. The population was 1,472 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It was named after territorial army general, Winlock M. Miller, ...

. Carlson directed the Winlock school. During 1928, Carlson directed a YWL school in

Woodland, Washington Woodland is a city in Clark and Cowlitz counties in the State of Washington. Most residents live within Cowlitz County, in which the majority of the city lies. It is part of the 'Longview, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area'. The population ...

CLA

In 1928-9, Carlson joined the

Communist League of America The Communist League of America (Opposition) was founded by James P. Cannon, Max Shachtman and Martin Abern late in 1928 after their expulsion from the Communist Party USA for Trotskyism. The CLA(O) was the United States section of Leon Trotsky's I ...

(CLA), headed by James P. Cannon,

, and

. CLA members had been expelled from the

Communist Party USA 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 ...

for

Trotskyism 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 rev ...

as "Cannonites." He was one of the CLA "Musteites," other being

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 ...

, Arnold Johnson, J.B.S. Hardman, and Benjamin Mandel. By late 1931, Carlson was out and seeking readmission to the CLA: he would not gain re-admittance. (In 1934, the CLA folded into

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 ...

's American Workers Party to form the

Workers Party of the United States The Workers Party of the United States (WPUS) was established in December 1934 by a merger of the American Workers Party (AWP) led by A.J. Muste and the Trotskyist Communist League of America (CLA) led by James P. Cannon. The party was dissolved i ...

University of Chicago

In 1930, Carlson taught political science department at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, where "I made a special study of the propaganda techniques of the Communist movement both abroad and in this country." During 1939-1940, he studied "the problem of Communism" in the state of California, which he published as ''A Mirror for Californians'' in 1941. According to Carlson in 1947, "has a good deal of information about the Communist movement in California, and in one chapter dealing with Hollywood I devote a part of that chapter to a discussion of the Communist infiltration in Hollywood up to that time." Carlson then read several pages from a chapter in the book called "There Is No Town Called Hollywood." (A May 1941 review in ''The New York Times'' reports that the book focuses on four main actors in California history:

Denis Kearney Denis Kearney (1847–1907) was a California labor leader from Ireland who was active in the late 19th century and was known for his anti-Chinese activism. Called "a demagogue of extraordinary power," he frequently gave long and caustic speeches ...

Hiram Johnson Hiram Warren Johnson (September 2, 1866August 6, 1945) was an American attorney and politician who served as the Governor of California, 23rd governor of California from 1911 to 1917. Johnson achieved national prominence in the early 20th century ...

Upton Sinclair Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American writer, muckraker, political activist and the 1934 Democratic Party nominee for governor of California who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in seve ...

, and

Francis Townsend Francis Everett Townsend (; January 13, 1867 – September 1, 1960) was an American physician and political activist in California, In 1933 he devised an old-age pension scheme to help alleviate the Great Depression. Known as the " Townsend Pla ...

and also discusses Harry Bridges.)

HUAC

As early as 1944, Carlson's name appears among others listed by the Legislature of the State California as "friendly witnesses." Others include

Earl Warren Earl Warren (March 19, 1891 – July 9, 1974) was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as the 14th Chief Justice of the United States from 1953 to 1969. The Warren Court presided over a major shift in American constitution ...

. On October 24, 1947, during hearings before 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 ...

, Carlson described himself as a writer and teacher, residing in Los Angeles. He told the committee, "I specialize in the field of political science, more particularly in the field of propaganda techniques. I have worked in that field for about 20 years or more." He testified that the Communist Party had sent people from New York to "run" Hollywood. He named V.J. Jerome and

Eli Jacobson Eli most commonly refers to: * Eli (name), a given name, nickname and surname * Eli (biblical figure) Eli or ELI may also refer to: Film * ''Eli'' (2015 film), a Tamil film * ''Eli'' (2019 film), an American horror film Music * ''Eli'' (Jan ...

. He described Jacobson in detail: New Yorker, "charter member of the Communist Party," and associated in Los Angeles of film director Beryl La Cava and magazine editor Kyle Crichton. In the mid-1920s, Jacobson was a director of the

New York Workers School The New York Workers School, colloquially known as "Workers School," was an ideological training center of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) established in New York City for adult education in October 1923. For more than two decades the facility play ...

, whose teachers included:

Alexander Trachtenberg Alexander "Alex" Trachtenberg (23 November 1884 – 26 December 1966) was an American publisher of radical political books and pamphlets, founder and manager of International Publishers of New York. He was a longtime activist in the Socialist Part ...

, William Z. Foster,

Jack Stachel Jacob Abraham "Jack" Stachel (19001965) was an Americans, American Communist functionary who was a top official in the Communist Party USA, Communist Party from the middle 1920s until his death in the middle 1960s. Stachel is best remembered as one ...

, and William W. Weinstone. Regarding communism and teaching, Carlson testified that William Wolfe of the

ILGWU The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), whose members were employed in the women's clothing industry, was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membe ...

education department ran a People's Education Center, succeeded by Sidney Davison (sent from New York). Herbert Biberman taught there (Soviet theater), as did

Guy Endore Samuel Guy Endore (July 4, 1901 – February 12, 1970), born Samuel Goldstein and also known as Harry Relis, was an American novelist and screenwriter. During his career he produced a wide array of novels, screenplays, and pamphlets, both publish ...

Robert Lees. Advisors included Lees, Lawson, Healey, Herbert Sorrell,

Frank Tuttle Frank Wright Tuttle (August 6, 1892 – January 6, 1963) was a Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film director and writer who directed films from 1922 (''The Cradle Buster'') to 1959 (''Island of Lost Women''). Biography Frank Tuttle wa ...

, and Sondra Gorney.

Later life

In 1985, Carlson was living in

Carlsbad, California Carlsbad is a coastal city in the North County region of San Diego County, California, United States. The city is south of downtown Los Angeles and north of downtown San Diego. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 114,746. ...

Personal life and death

Mrs. Oliver Carlson was a sponsor of the Hollywood League of Women Shoppers, along with

Frances Farmer Frances Elena Farmer (September 19, 1913August 1, 1970) was an American actress and television hostess. She appeared in over a dozen feature films over the course of her career, though she garnered notoriety for sensationalized accounts of her l ...

Lillian Hellman Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American playwright, prose writer, memoirist and screenwriter known for her success on Broadway, as well as her communist sympathies and political activism. She was blacklisted aft ...

, Mrs.

Boris Karloff William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff (), was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstein'' (1931) (his 82nd film) established h ...

, and others. Oliver Carlson died aged 91 on March 4, 1991, in California.

Legacy

In addition to his works and congressional testimony, historian

Harvey Klehr Harvey Elliott Klehr (born December 25, 1945) is a professor of politics and history at Emory University. Klehr is known for his books on the subject of the American Communist movement, and on Soviet espionage in America (many written jointly with ...

interviewed Carlson, available the Harvey Klehr Papers at Emory University.

Works

Articles: * "The Road Before Us: Keynote Speech at the First National Convention of the Young Workers League, Brooklyn, NY" (May 13, 1922) * "Our First National Convention" (May 1922) * "New Internationalism" (1922) * "The Aims and Methods of Young Workers Education" (August 1927) * "Recollections of American Trotskyist Leaders" (1977) Pamphlets: * Pamphlet series on Communism for Catholic Information Society (which also published

Eugene Lyons Eugene Lyons (July 1, 1898 – January 7, 1985) was an American journalist and writer. A fellow traveler of Communism in his younger years, Lyons became highly critical of the Soviet Union after several years there as a correspondent of United ...

George S. Schuyler George Samuel Schuyler (; February 25, 1895 – August 31, 1977) was an American writer, journalist, and social commentator known for his conservatism after he had initially supported socialism. Early life George Samuel Schuyler was born in ...

William Henry Chamberlin William Henry Chamberlin (February 17, 1897 – September 12, 1969) was an American historian and journalist. He was the author of several books about the Cold War, communism, and foreign policy, including ''The Russian Revolution 1917-1921'' (19 ...

, Richard Ginder, Hermann Borchhardt, Liston M. Oak,

Aloysius Stepinac Aloysius Viktor Cardinal Stepinac ( hr, Alojzije Viktor Stepinac, 8 May 1898 – 10 February 1960) was a senior-ranking Yugoslav Croat prelate of the Catholic Church. A cardinal, Stepinac served as Archbishop of Zagreb from 1937 until his de ...

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 ...

Ralph de Toledano Ralph de Toledano (August 17, 1916 – February 3, 2007) was an American writer in the conservative movement in the United States throughout the second half of the 20th century. A friend of Richard Nixon, he was a journalist and editor of ''Newsw ...

Freda Utley Winifred Utley (23 January 1898 – 21 January 1978), commonly known as Freda Utley, was an English scholar, political activist and best-selling author. After visiting the Soviet Union in 1927 as a trade union activist, she joined the Communist ...

, and

Suzanne La Follette Suzanne Clara La Follette (June 24, 1893 – April 23, 1983) was an American journalist and author who advocated for libertarian feminism in the first half of the 20th century. As an editor she helped found several magazines. She was an early and a ...

): ** ''Red Star Over Hollywood'' (1947) ** ''Radio in the Red'' (1947) * Articles or pamphlets for Freeman: ** ''What Really Happened in Pasadena?'' (1951 ** ''A Slanted Guide to Library Selections'' (January 14, 1952) Books: * '' Hearst: Lord of

San Simeon San Simeon (Spanish: ''San Simeón'', meaning "St. Simon") is a village and Census-designated place on the Pacific coast of San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Its position along State Route 1 is about halfway between Los Angeles ...

'' with

Ernest Sutherland Bates Ernest Sutherland Bates (14 October 1879 – 4 December 1939) was an American academic and writer. He taught English and philosophy at Oberlin College from 1903 to 1905, the University of Arizona until 1915, and the University of Oregon from then ...

(1936) * ''

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

: A Candid Biography'' (1937) * ''A Mirror for Californians'' (1941) * ''Man Who Made news, James Gordon Bennett'' (1942) * ''How to Get into Politics; The Art of Winning Elections'' with Aldrich Blake (1946) * ''Handbook on Propaganda for the Alert Citizen'' (1953)

References

External sources

Getty images
Oliver Carlson (undated)
Inventory of the Communism: myth vs. reality motion picture film

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carlson, Oliver 1899 births 1991 deaths American Marxists American communists Members of the Communist Party USA People from Gotland Swedish emigrants to the United States

Background

Career

YPSL

YWL and YCL

Communist Summer Schools

CLA

University of Chicago

HUAC

Later life

Personal life and death

Legacy

Works

See also

References

External sources