As the swastika flew over most of Europe and millions of German fascist troops drove toward Moscow in early 1941, Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels said, “we have put an end to 1776, 1789 and 1917,” referring to the American, French and Soviet revolutions.

The association of Italians with Communism in the United States has been obscured by the unfounded assertion that in 1927 Italian American radicalism along with Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti died. This perspective predominates despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

This is the Communist Party's 90th Anniversary year. Founded in 1919, the Communist Party has had an unparalleled history of struggle for jobs, justice, peace and socialism in this country.

In this episode, we play a portion of our recent interview with historian Gerald Meyer about his current article in the Columbia Journal of American Studies on radical painter Alice Neel.

The art of rebellion is a tradition as old as dissent itself. Radical writers, musicians, painters, actors, dancers and other creative activists have long used their artwork as a tool in the fight for social justice. If the very nature of expressive freedom lends itself toward a revolutionary voice, then it is arguable that the arts gave birth to radicalism, or in the least offered a vision toward its path.

When I found this story, it seemed almost the opposite of everything that my father had ever told me when I was growing up, and that in itself was compelling as well. It was the really the flip side, the hidden side of American history, especially of St. Louis history.

It's September 7th, 2009. On this episode, we celebrate Labor Day by playing a portion of our recent interview with labor historian and activist Rosemary Feurer, author of the groundbreaking book Radical Unionism in the Midwest, 1900-1950.

On September 4, 1949, an angry crowd surrounded the 20,000 friends of Paul Robeson who had come to hear him in an open-air concert at Peekskill, New York. After the event right-wing, anti-communist inspired mobs attacked supporters who were leaving the event. These attacks included smashing the windows of Pete Seeger’s automobile with several family members inside.

Alice Neel was someone I was aware of for some time, specifically since 2002, when there was a large exhibit of her work at the Whitney Museum in New York. I knew her name, of course, but I really didn’t know her work very well. A friend of mine said you have to go and check this out, so I did, and it just knocked my socks off.

Communists were not the only ones calling for socialism or fighting for practical reforms to alleviate the crisis, but Communists were by far the most important and successful in their efforts. They created a new, more cohesive left, both more militant and more flexible in strategy and tactics.

All Lenin’s theoretical contributions to Marxist economics were meant as interventions in the struggle for correct revolutionary practice; they were not dissertations developing Marxist economics as such. The contributions are far-ranging, but are located within a common perspective that characterized Lenin, namely his view of the revolution as a concrete project.

The old craft union oriented conservative labor history taught in the first half of the 20th century was essentially narrow political history of trade unions separate from social struggles and the larger political context. Philip S. Foner and others pioneered in the 1930s and 1940s the development of an anti-capitalist history of American labor.

Hollywood screenwriter Budd Schulberg passed away Wednesday at the age of 95, and the press is filled with obituaries noting his work and commenting on his most famous off-screen moment — as a "friendly witness" before the House Un-American Activities Committee "naming names" in the early 1950s. 


Vito Marcantonio defied the truism of American politics that in the United States a radical politician has only two possible fates – defeat or co-optation. Marcantonio was the most electorally successful radical politician in modern American history: between 1934 and 1950 he served seven terms in Congress.

World leaders, civilians and celebrities alike took time off their busy schedules on Saturday to pay tribute to the father of the South African nation on his 91st birthday, the South African Press Association reported.

Canadian readers of Political Affairs will find the new issue of Labour/Le Travail of interest. The current issue of the Labour Journal offers several invaluable, engaging articles on the history of the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) and more.

If the last 30 years were an era of reaction, then the coming decade could turn into an era of reform, even radical reform. Six months into the Obama presidency, I would say without hesitation that the landscape, atmosphere, conversation and agenda have strikingly changed compared to the previous eight years.

On April 28, 2009, the National Congress of Black Women recognized Sojourner Truth as the first African American woman represented by a bust in the US Capitol.[1] Almost all Americans know Sojourner Truth as a tireless fighter for African American and women’s rights.

Over dinner the other night, we were discussing the way the world had changed in our lifetime, let alone our parents’ lifetime. When my parents were born, the British Empire bestrode the world like a colossus: it was a truism that the sun in fact never did set on it.

On this episode we play our recent interview with authors Clarence Lang and Robbie Lieberman, editors of a new book titled Anticommunism and the African American Freedom Movement.