Simon W. Gerson (January 23, 1909 – December 26, 2004) was a top leader of 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 ...

. In particular, he was considered its leading expert on campaigns and election. He was perhaps most famous for being the party's appointee to fill the

New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five Borough (New York City), boroughs. The council serves as a check against the Mayor of New York City, mayor in a may ...

vacancy left by the death of Peter Cacchione, but with the council refusing to seat him. He was also an editor for ''

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 ...

''.

Life

Simon W. Gerson was born on January 23, 1909, 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 ...

. Both of his parents were both members 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 ...

, but his mother later became a member of the

and supported

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 ...

's presidential campaigns while his father supported

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 ...

' campaigns. He joined the

Young Communist League USA 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 ...

while attending 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 ...

and was expelled from the college in 1928 for leading

antimilitarism Antimilitarism (also spelt anti-militarism) is a doctrine that opposes war, relying heavily on a critical theory of imperialism and was an explicit goal of the First and Second International. Whereas pacifism is the doctrine that disputes (especia ...

activities. Gerson worked as a city hall reporter and executive editor for 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 ...

'' and also worked for its successor the '' Daily World''. In 1938, he was selected to serve as executive assistant to

Stanley M. Isaacs Stanley M. Isaacs (1882–1962) was a Republican Party (United States), Republican politician from New York City who served as Manhattan Borough President from 1938 to 1941 and later as a member of the New York City Council from 1942 to 1962. He ...

, the borough president of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, making him the first communist to hold any appointed office in New York City. He served in the

Pacific theater The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

during

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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Peter Cacchione, a Communist member of the

, died in 1947, and Gerson was nominated by the Communists to replace him, but the council refused to fill the vacancy. He ran for a seat on the city council in the 1948 election with the nominations of the Communist and American Labor parties. He received 118,000 votes on the Communist ballot line and 132,000 votes on the American Labor ballot line, but lost the election. He later served as

Gus Hall Gus Hall (born Arvo Kustaa Halberg; October 8, 1910 – October 13, 2000) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and a perennial candidate for president of the United States. He was the Communist Party nominee in the ...

's campaign manager during the 1980 presidential election. Si Gerson was married to Sophie Melvin, a union organiser involved in the

Loray Mill Strike The Loray Mill strike of 1929 in Gastonia, North Carolina, was a notable strike action in the labor history of the United States. Though largely unsuccessful in attaining its goals of better working conditions and wages, the strike was considered ...

.John A. Salmond, ''Gastonia, 1929: The Story of the Loray Mill Strike.'' UNC Press Books, 1995 Gerson's papers were donated to the

Tamiment Library The Tamiment Library is a research library at New York University that documents radical and left history, with strengths in the histories of communism, socialism, anarchism, the New Left, the Civil Rights Movement, and utopian experiments. Th ...

after his death.

Works

* ''Pete: The Story of Peter V. Cacchione, New York's First Communist Councilman'' (International Publishers, 1976) * ''Do We Have Free Elections'' (International Publishers) * ''After Fifty Years: Revisiting the U.S.S.R.'' (International Publishers, 1978)

References

External links

People's Weekly World Biography

Guide to the Simon W. Gerson papers at the Tamiment Library

Obituary by Shaun Richman
1909 births 2004 deaths American male journalists 20th-century American journalists American communists {{US-journalist-1900s-stub