Francis Xavier Waldron (August 10, 1905 – January 31, 1961), best known by 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 individu ...

Eugene Dennis and Tim Ryan, was an American

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

politician and union organizer, best remembered as the long-time 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 Rev ...

and as named party in ''

Dennis v. United States ''Dennis v. United States'', 341 U.S. 494 (1951), was a United States Supreme Court case relating to Eugene Dennis, General Secretary of the Communist Party USA. The Court ruled that Dennis did not have the right under the First Amendment to the U ...

'', a famous McCarthy Era Supreme Court case.

Biography

Early years

Francis Xavier Waldron was born on August 10, 1905, in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...

. He worked in various jobs and was a member of the

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 general ...

, for which he was active in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

as a union organizer.

Political career

Waldron joined the

Workers (Communist) Party 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 1926. In 1929, Waldron fled to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

to avoid criminal charges for his political activities under the

California Criminal Syndicalism Act The California Criminal Syndicalism ActStats. 1919 c. 188, p. 281; it was codified at California Penal Code §§ 11400 et seq.) was a law of California in 1919 under Governor William Stephens criminalizing syndicalism. It was enacted on April 30 ...

. Waldron returned to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

in 1935 and assumed the

Eugene Dennis. Dennis became

General Secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

of the party after the expulsion of

Earl Browder Earl Russell Browder (May 20, 1891 – June 27, 1973) was an American politician, communist activist and leader of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Browder was the General Secretary of the CPUSA during the 1930s and first half of the 1940s. Durin ...

and was a staunch supporter of the

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 ...

line. On July 20, 1948, Dennis and eleven other party leaders, including Party Chairman William Z. Foster were arrested and charged under the

Alien Registration Act The Alien Registration Act, popularly known as the Smith Act, 76th United States Congress, 3d session, ch. 439, , is a United States federal statute that was enacted on June 28, 1940. It set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of t ...

. Foster was not prosecuted due to ill health. As Dennis and his co-accused had never openly called for the violent overthrow of the United States government, the prosecution depended on passages from the works of

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

and

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...

that advocated revolutionary violence and on the testimony of former members of the party who claimed Dennis and others had privately advocated the use of violence. After a nine-month-long trial and the imprisonment of the defense lawyers for

contempt of court Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the cour ...

, Dennis and his co-defendants were found guilty and sentenced to five years imprisonment. They appealed to the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. Federal tribunals in the United States, federal court cases, and over Stat ...

, which ruled 6–2 against the defendants on June 4, 1951, in ''

'', . The Court later scaled back its Dennis opinion in ''

Yates v. United States ''Yates v. United States'', 354 U.S. 298 (1957), was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States that held that the First Amendment protected radical and reactionary speech, unless it posed a "clear and present danger." Background F ...

'' and rendered the broad conspiracy provisions of the Smith Act unenforceable. Eugene Dennis was imprisoned in the years 1951–1955, according to the verdict in his case.Деннис Юджин

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...

Dennis remained General Secretary until 1959 when he succeeded Foster as party chairman and held that position until his death in 1961.

Espionage connections

Though never charged with any act of

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tang ...

, Dennis was identified in the

Venona project The Venona project was a United States counterintelligence program initiated during World War II by the United States Army's Signal Intelligence Service (later absorbed by the National Security Agency), which ran from February 1, 1943, until Oc ...

as being a source for Soviet intelligence in the

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. In the transcripts, Dennis is referenced as a contact for a group of concealed Communists in the

Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...

and the

Office of War Information The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and othe ...

. Dennis is referenced in the following Venona transcripts: * 708 KGB Moscow to Mexico City, 8 December 1944 * 1714 KGB New York to Moscow, 5 December 1944 * 55 KGB New York to Moscow, 15 January 1945

Death

Dennis died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

on January 31, 1961. He was buried at the Waldheim Cemetery (now Forest Home Cemetery) in

Forest Park A forest park is a park whose main theme is its forest of trees. Forest parks are found both in the mountains and in the urban environment. Examples Chile * Forest Park, Santiago China * Gongqing Forest Park, Shanghai * Mufushan National Forest ...

, Illinois.

Writings

* ''The elections and the outlook for national unity.'', New York, Workers Library Publishers, 1944. * ''America at the crossroads: postwar problems and communist policy.'', New York, New century publishers, 1945. * ''Marxism-Leninism vs. revisionism.'', New York, New Century Publishers, 1946 (with William Z. Foster, Jacques Duclos, and John Williamson; foreword by Max Weiss). * ''The people against the trusts; build a democratic front to defeat reaction now and win a people’s victory in 1948.'', New York, New Century Publishers, 1946. * ''What America faces: the new war danger and the struggle for peace, democracy, and economic security.'', New York, New century publishers, 1946. * ''Let the people know the truth about the Communists which the un-American committee tried to suppress.'', New York, New century publishers, 1947.
''Eugene Dennis indicts the Wall Street conspirators.''
New York : National Office, Communist Party, 1948. * ''Ideas they cannot jail.'', New York, International Publishers, 1950. * ''Letters from prison. Selected by Peggy Dennis.'', New York, International Publishers, 1956. * ''The Communists take a new look.'', New York, New Century, 1956.