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127-644: The Canwell Committee is remembered as one of a number of state-level investigative committees patterned after the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) of the United States Congress . The committee ultimately published two printed volumes collecting the testimony of witnesses before it. The committee was terminated by the Washington legislature in 1949, following the electoral defeat of its chairman and several of its members in

254-477: A fascist plot to seize the White House , known as the " Business Plot ". Contemporary newspapers widely reported the plot as a hoax. While historians have questioned whether a coup was actually close to execution, most agree that some sort of "wild scheme" was contemplated and discussed. It has been reported that while Dickstein served on this committee and the subsequent Special investigation Committee, he

381-544: A New York lecture by Laski, as part of gathering material for her novel, following which she changed the physical appearance of the fictional Toohey to fit that of the actual Laski. George Orwell , in his 1946 essay " Politics and the English Language " cited, as his first example of poor writing, a 53-word sentence with five negatives from Laski's "Essay in Freedom of Expression": "I am not, indeed, sure whether it

508-567: A Revolutionary War soldier and passed out copies of the United States Declaration of Independence to those in attendance. Rubin then "blew giant gum bubbles, while his co-witnesses taunted the committee with Nazi salutes ". Rubin attended another session dressed as Santa Claus . On another occasion, police stopped Hoffman at the building entrance and arrested him for wearing the United States flag. Hoffman quipped to

635-534: A Senate committee chaired by Bienz recommended the concurrent resolution and it passed the Senate on March 8, 1947, receiving 33 yes votes, 12 no votes and 1 abstention. The committee was made of up five Republicans and two Democrats, with a mix of representatives and senators. House Speaker Herbert M. Hamblen appointed Canwell as chair. The other Republican members were Stevens, Grant C. Sisson , R. L. Rutter Jr. , and Harold G. Kimball . The two Democrats were Bienz,

762-452: A coercive state, Laski believed in the evolution of co-operative states that were internationally bound and stressed social welfare . He also believed that since the capitalist class would not acquiesce in its own liquidation, the co-operative commonwealth was not likely to be attained without violence. He also had a commitment to civil liberties , free speech and association , and representative democracy . Initially, he believed that

889-426: A decisive role in constructing an image of a radical threat to the United States during the first Red Scare. U.S. Representative Hamilton Fish III (R-NY), who was a fervent anti-communist, introduced, on May 5, 1930, House Resolution 180, which proposed to establish a committee to investigate communist activities in the United States. The resulting committee, Special Committee to Investigate Communist Activities in

1016-674: A disabled sister, Mabel, who was one year younger. His elder brother was Neville Laski (the father of Marghanita Laski ), and his cousin Neville Blond was the founder of the Royal Court Theatre and the father of the author and publisher Anthony Blond. Laski attended the Manchester Grammar School . In 1911, he studied eugenics under Karl Pearson for six months at University College London (UCL). The same year, he met and married Frida Kerry ,

1143-566: A foreign power." Drafted as a concurrent resolution , it granted the committee the power to hold public hearings between the adjournment of the 1947 legislative session, reporting to the 1949 legislature. The measure was introduced in the Washington State Senate by Democrat Thomas H. Bienz . The concurrent resolution passed the House of Representatives on March 3, 1947, receiving 86 yes votes, 8 no votes and 5 abstentions. There

1270-732: A friend planted an explosive device in the men's lavatory at Oxted railway station , Surrey; it exploded but caused only slight damage. Laski failed his medical eligibility tests and so missed fighting in World War I . After graduation, he worked briefly at the Daily Herald under George Lansbury . His daughter Diana was born in 1916. In 1916, Laski was appointed as a lecturer of modern history at McGill University in Montreal and began to lecture at Harvard University . He also lectured at Yale in 1919 to 1920. For his outspoken support of

1397-613: A glowing faith that youth was generous and alive, eager and enthusiastic and fresh. That by helping young people he was helping the future and bringing nearer that brave world in which he so passionately believed. Laski's early work promoted pluralism , especially in the essays collected in Studies in the Problem of Sovereignty (1917), Authority in the Modern State (1919), and The Foundations of Sovereignty (1921). He argued that

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1524-634: A great sorrow and a shock. Laski educated the outspoken Chinese intellectual and journalist Chu Anping at LSE. Anping was later prosecuted by the Chinese Communist regime of the 1960s. Juan Perón , Argentine lieutenant general as well as left-wing populist and nationalist who served as the 35th and 45th president of Argentina, was also inspired by Laski and based many of his economic policies on Laski's postulates, including his welfare state project. Perón stated that Laski provided “theoretical support” to his policies, and that his Labour Party

1651-801: A group of roughly one hundred professors, members of the American Civil Liberties Union and prominent liberals including Stimson Bullitt , Max Savelle , Kenneth MacDonald and Benjamin H. Kizer. The Canwell Committee was also opposed by the Students for Wallace , the Washington Young Progressives and Local 401 of the American Federation of Teachers . Beginning on July 19, 1948, the Canwell Committee held its second hearings on

1778-586: A lecturer of eugenics. His marriage to Frida, a Gentile and eight years his senior, antagonised his family. He also repudiated his faith in Judaism by claiming that reason prevented him from believing in God. After studying for a degree in history at New College, Oxford , he graduated in 1914. He was awarded the Beit memorial prize during his time at New College. In April 1913, in the cause of women's suffrage , he and

1905-507: A meeting on April 22. In response, Canwell agreed to postpone the hearings until the end of the spring quarter and to provide Allen with details of the charges prior to the hearing so the university could investigate internally. In early June, Canwell gave Allen a list of the seven faculty members who the committee believed were or had been members of the Communist Party, along with the 33 faculty members who would be subpoenaed during

2032-583: A member until 1949. In 1944, he chaired the Labour Party Conference and served as the party's chair in 1945 to 1946. During the war, he supported Prime Minister Winston Churchill 's coalition government and gave countless speeches to encourage the battle against Nazi Germany . He suffered a nervous breakdown brought about by overwork. During the war, he repeatedly feuded with other Labour figures and with Churchill on matters great and small. He steadily lost his influence. In 1942, he drafted

2159-515: A nonviolent democratic transformation. Laski's position on democracy-threatening violence came under further attack from Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the 1945 UK general election , and the Labour Party had to disavow Laski, its own chairman. Laski was one of Britain's most influential intellectual spokesmen for Marxism in the interwar years . In particular, his teaching greatly inspired students, some of whom later became leaders of

2286-424: A note; he often referred to current controversies, even when the subject was Hobbes's theory of sovereignty. Ralph Miliband , another of Laski's student, praised his teaching: His lectures taught more, much more than political science. They taught a faith that ideas mattered, that knowledge was important and its pursuit exciting.... His seminars taught tolerance, the willingness to listen although one disagreed,

2413-451: A number of false statements. Hiss challenged Chambers to repeat his charges outside a Congressional committee, which Chambers did. Hiss then sued for libel, leading Chambers to produce copies of State Department documents which he claimed Hiss had given him in 1938. Hiss denied this before a grand jury, was indicted for perjury, and subsequently convicted and imprisoned. The present-day House of Representatives website on HUAC states, "But in

2540-668: A number of local groups – including the Commonwealth Builders, local chapters of the Workers Alliance of America , trade unions , technocrats and local Townsend clubs – banded together to form the Washington Commonwealth Federation (WCF), described as a "triple alliance of Liberals, Labor and Farm". The organization endorsed Democratic and independent candidates in statewide and municipal elections, including Hugh De Lacy ,

2667-612: A peerage. Born to a Jewish family, Laski was also a supporter of Zionism and supported the creation of a Jewish state . Laski was born in Manchester on 30 June 1893 to Nathan and Sarah Laski. Nathan Laski was a Lithuanian Jewish cotton merchant from Brest-Litovsk in what is now Belarus , as well as a local leader of the Liberal Party , while his mother was born in Manchester to Polish Jewish parents. He had

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2794-557: A positive influence over both political thought and action. Laski had a major long-term impact on support for socialism in India and other countries in Asia and Africa. He taught generations of future leaders at the LSE, including India's Jawaharlal Nehru . According to John Kenneth Galbraith , "the centre of Nehru's thinking was Laski" and "India the country most influenced by Laski's ideas". It

2921-594: A professor at the University of Washington . Although communists were officially banned from membership in the WCF, De Lacy's endorsement by the organization later fuelled concerns about communists at the university. There began to be tensions among left-leaning organizations and individuals during the late 1930s. A rivalry between top leaders Dave Beck and Harry Bridges became marred in anti-communist rhetoric in 1937, with Beck labelling Bridges "Red Harry". The same year,

3048-456: A role in bringing Franz Neumann to join the Institute. After fleeing Germany almost immediately after Adolf Hitler's rise to power , Neumann did graduate work in political science under Laski and Karl Mannheim at the LSE and wrote his dissertation on the rise and fall of the rule of law . It was on Laski's recommendation that Neumann was then invited to join the Institute in 1936. Laski

3175-565: A separate order to show cause on Stevens and Kimball, temporarily barring them from sitting on the committee. On January 31, the court ruled that a legislative committee could not function when the legislature was adjourned but, as no officers of the WPU had been subpoenaed, it could not issue an injunction. The WPU brought separate legal proceedings, seeking to prevent the Washington State Auditor from issuing payroll warrants for

3302-414: A standing (permanent) committee on January 3, 1945. Democratic Representative Edward J. Hart of New Jersey became the committee's first chairman. Under the mandate of Public Law 601, passed by the 79th Congress , the committee of nine representatives investigated suspected threats of subversion or propaganda that attacked "the form of government as guaranteed by our Constitution ". Under this mandate,

3429-554: A supporter of the investigation, and George F. Yantis , who had been appointed by Hamblen to moderate the committee. However, Yantis died in December 1947, before the committee began its public hearings. Although most politicians refused to comment on the formation of the committee, Troy publicly voiced support for its mission. The WPU and a nascent local chapter of the Progressive Citizens of America publicly opposed

3556-515: A system to investigate applicants for leave clearance, and step up Americanization and assimilation efforts largely coincided with WRA goals. In 1946, the committee considered opening investigations into the Ku Klux Klan , but decided against doing so, prompting white supremacist committee member John E. Rankin (D-Miss.) to remark, "After all, the KKK is an old American institution." Instead of

3683-409: Is also judged to be not only not overwhelming but entirely circumstantial. As a result, and also given how many documents remain classified, it is unlikely that a truly conclusive answer will ever be reached. In the wake of the downfall of McCarthy (who never served in the House, nor on HUAC; he was a U.S. Senator), the prestige of HUAC began a gradual decline in the late 1950s. By 1959, the committee

3810-624: Is mainly due to his influence that the LSE has a semi-mythological status in India. He was steady in his unremitting advocacy of the independence of India . He was a revered figure to Indian students at the LSE. One Prime Minister of India said "in every meeting of the Indian Cabinet there is a chair reserved for the ghost of Professor Harold Laski". His recommendation of K. R. Narayanan (later president of India) to Nehru (then Prime Minister of India), resulted in Nehru appointing Narayanan to

3937-659: Is not true to say that the Milton who once seemed not unlike a seventeenth-century Shelley had not become, out of an experience ever more bitter in each year, more alien (sic) to the founder of that Jesuit sect which nothing could induce him to tolerate." Orwell parodied it with "A not unblack dog was chasing a not unsmall rabbit across a not ungreen field." 67 of the Labour MPs elected in 1945 had been taught by Laski as university students, at Workers' Educational Association classes or on courses for wartime officers. When Laski died,

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4064-656: The Seattle Post Intelligencer and Ashley Holden of the Spokesman-Review both covered the story; U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall personally called both newspapers to quash the story. During taping for an oral history in 1997, Canwell said, "We wished to put the Hiss case in the record, and there's testimony by them about atomic scientists and others who were questionable characters." The only scientist whose name Canwell could remember

4191-566: The 1916 Everett massacre and the 1919 Centralia massacre . Although the Socialist Party of Washington was disbanded in 1909 following a decision of the national executive committee of the Socialist Party of America , many socialists continued to live and work in the state. Seattle was the site of a 1919 general strike which reinforced the national view of the state, particularly its labor movement, as radical. The Farmer–Labor Party received significant support from Washington voters in

4318-504: The American Association of University Professors , R. G. Tyler, spoke with the subpoenaed faculty prior to the hearing to offer the university's support of past members of the party if they were honest on the stand. Some faculty members doubted this, believing that some of the accused would be fired regardless of the university's stated position, and a group of nine professors announced on June 30 that they would not respond to

4445-692: The Boston Police Strike of 1919, Laski received severe criticism. He was briefly involved with the founding of The New School for Social Research in 1919, where he also lectured. Laski cultivated a large network of American friends centred at Harvard, whose law review he had edited. He was often invited to lecture in America and wrote for The New Republic . He became friends with Felix Frankfurter , Herbert Croly , Walter Lippmann , Edmund Wilson , and Charles A. Beard . His long friendship with Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

4572-705: The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) to form a Popular Front to bring down the Conservative government of Neville Chamberlain . In 1934 to 1945, he served as an alderman in the Fulham Borough Council and also the chairman of the libraries committee. Also in 1937, the Socialist League was rejected by the Labour Party and folded. He was elected as a member of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee and he remained

4699-603: The Government Operations Committee and its Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.S. Senate, not the House. The Overman Committee was a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee chaired by North Carolina Democratic Senator Lee Slater Overman that operated from September 1918 to June 1919. The subcommittee investigated German as well as " Bolshevik elements" in the United States. This subcommittee

4826-482: The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) by requesting copies of files created by its investigations into Washington residents. The bill established a Joint Legislative Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities to investigate individuals and organizations aiming to undermine the stability of American institutions, specifically "whose membership includes persons who are Communists, or any other organization known or suspected to be dominated or controlled by

4953-581: The House Un-American Activities Committee ( HUAC ), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives , created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having fascist and communist ties. It became a standing (permanent) committee in 1946, and from 1969 onwards it

5080-643: The Indian Foreign Service . In his memory, the Indian government established The Harold Laski Institute of Political Science in 1954 at Ahmedabad . Speaking at a meeting organised in Laski's memory by the Indian League at London on 3 May 1950, Nehru praised him as follows: It is difficult to realise that Professor Harold Laski is no more. Lovers of freedom all over the world pay tribute to

5207-586: The Institute for Social Research , now more commonly known as the Frankfurt School . In 1933, with almost all the Institute's members in exile, Laski was among a number of British socialists, including Sidney Webb and R. H. Tawney , who arranged for the establishment of a London office for the Institute's use. After the Institute moved to Columbia University in 1934, Laski was one of its sponsored guest lecturers invited to New York. Laski also played

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5334-601: The League of Nations would bring about an "international democratic system". From the late 1920s, his political beliefs became radicalised, and he believed that it was necessary to go beyond capitalism to "transcend the existing system of sovereign states ". Laski was dismayed by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939 and wrote a preface to the Left Book Club collection criticising it, titled Betrayal of

5461-545: The National Archives and Records Administration as records related to HUAC. In 1938, Hallie Flanagan , the head of the Federal Theatre Project , was subpoenaed to appear before the committee to answer the charge the project was overrun with communists. Flanagan was called to testify for only a part of one day, while an administrative clerk from the project was called in for two entire days. It

5588-562: The Potsdam Conference until after Attlee's position was clarified. He tried to bypass Attlee by directly dealing with Churchill. Laski tried to pre-empt foreign policy decisions by laying down guidelines for the new Labour government. Attlee rebuked him: You have no right whatever to speak on behalf of the Government. Foreign affairs are in the capable hands of Ernest Bevin . His task is quite sufficiently difficult without

5715-573: The UC Berkeley , Stanford , and other local colleges, and dragged them down the marble steps beneath the rotunda, leaving some seriously injured. Soviet affairs expert William Mandel , who had been subpoenaed to testify, angrily denounced the committee and the police in a blistering statement which was aired repeatedly for years thereafter on Pacifica Radio station KPFA in Berkeley . An anti-communist propaganda film, Operation Abolition ,

5842-481: The United States Supreme Court , which denied the petition to review. While waiting for the court ruling, Canwell commenced the hearings as scheduled on January 27. The aim of the hearings was to prove the WPU was subversive and its members were communists. The Canwell Committee called local and national witnesses, who were not permitted to be cross-examined by defense lawyers. The president of

5969-534: The War Relocation Authority (WRA) and news that some former inmates would be allowed to leave camp and Nisei soldiers to return to the West Coast, the committee investigated charges of fifth column activity in the camps. A number of anti-WRA arguments were presented in subsequent hearings, but Director Dillon Myer debunked the more inflammatory claims. The investigation was presented to

6096-790: The Washington Pension Union (WPU) was established by state senator James T. Sullivan , a member of the WCF, as a campaigning group when the issue of raising pensions was ignored by the Democratic governor and legislature. Governor Clarence D. Martin also angered the WCF for his role in the 1939 dismissal of Charles H. Fisher , president of the Western Washington College of Education , for charges advanced by conservative reporter Frank Ira Sefrit that included allowing members of "subversive organizations" to speak on campus. Concerns amongst Democrats about

6223-611: The 1920 election, as did progressive presidential candidate Robert M. La Follette 's 1924 campaign. The state's national reputation for a left-of-center political climate was demonstrated by a quip by then- Postmaster General , James Farley , that the United States consisted of "forty-seven states and the Soviet of Washington." The Communist Party first appeared on a statewide ballot in 1928 and five years later, Seattle mayor John F. Dore denounced local political candidates, Marion Zioncheck and John C. Stevenson , as communists. In 1935,

6350-636: The 1947 legislative session, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported in December 1946 that Republicans and a group of coalition Democrats had met to discuss an investigation into communism in the Democratic Party. House Concurrent Resolution No. 10 was quickly introduced in the Washington House of Representatives by two freshmen legislators, Albert F. Canwell and Sydney A. Stevens . The legislation – following

6477-600: The 1948 elections. Becoming a state only in 1889, Washington was a relative latecomer to the United States. Although the Republican Party would control the state government for the next four decades, a frontier radicalism was prevalent in the region. During the pre-World War I progressive era , local lumber workers joined the Industrial Workers of the World , leading to a successful 1917 lumber strike,

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6604-453: The 1960s progressed, increasingly becoming the target of political satirists and the defiance of a new generation of political activists. HUAC subpoenaed Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman of the Yippies in 1967, and again in the aftermath of the 1968 Democratic National Convention . The Yippies used the media attention to make a mockery of the proceedings. Rubin came to one session dressed as

6731-532: The 1990s, Soviet archives conclusively revealed that Hiss had been a spy on the Kremlin's payroll." However, in the 1990s, senior Soviet intelligence officials, after consulting their archive, stated they found nothing to support that theory. In 1995, the National Security Agency 's Venona papers have been alleged to have provided overwhelming evidence that he was a spy, but the same evidence

6858-410: The 77th Congress, and alleged that certain cultural traits – Japanese loyalty to the Emperor, the number of Japanese fishermen in the US, and the Buddhist faith – were evidence for Japanese espionage. With the exception of Rep. Herman Eberharter (D-Pa.), the members of the committee seemed to support internment, and its recommendations to expedite the impending segregation of "troublemakers", establish

6985-411: The American Youth for Democracy as he felt their communist origin was sufficiently obvious, and the hearings on the WPU would be recessed. The University of Washington's public relations committee met with the faculty senate in February 1948 to recommend that the university avoid publicity surrounding the Canwell Committee and to provide support where required. It became clear by late March, however, that

7112-420: The Communist Party on the faculty. Beginning in October 1947, there were an increase in stories about communist activities appearing in the local Seattle newspapers. An international vice president of the Building Service Employees International Union , Jess Fletcher, had accused officers of the union of radicalism in January and, by October, had been subpoened by the Canwell Committee to discuss communism within

7239-447: The Communist Party, and testified that the Seattle Labor School was communist, the International Workers Order and the Robert Marshall Foundation were under communist influence and University of Washington professor Ralph Gundlach "follow[ed] the Party Line". Two other former party members, Manning Johnson and Joseph Kornfeder , corroborated Budenz's testimony that the Communist Party's national committee had successfully infiltrated

7366-513: The Conservatives. The defence showed that over the years Laski had often bandied about loose threats of "revolution". The jury found for the newspaper within forty minutes of deliberations. Attlee gave Laski no role in the new Labour government. Even before the libel trial, Laski's relationship with Attlee had been strained. Laski had once called Attlee "uninteresting and uninspired" in the American press and even tried to remove him by asking for Attlee's resignation in an open letter. He tried to delay

7493-406: The Fish Committee and the McCormack–Dickstein Committee, to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having communist or fascist ties; however, it concentrated its efforts on communists. It was chaired by Martin Dies Jr. (D-Tex.), and therefore known as the Dies Committee. Its records are held by

7620-565: The House investigations, most studios produced a number of anti-communist and anti-Soviet propaganda films such as The Red Menace (August 1949), The Red Danube (October 1949), The Woman on Pier 13 (October 1949), Guilty of Treason (May 1950, about the ordeal and trial of Cardinal József Mindszenty ), I Was a Communist for the FBI (May 1951, Academy Award nominated for best documentary 1951, also serialized for radio), Red Planet Mars (May 1952), and John Wayne 's Big Jim McLain (August 1952). Universal-International Pictures

7747-425: The Klan, HUAC concentrated on investigating the possibility that the American Communist Party had infiltrated the Works Progress Administration , including the Federal Theatre Project and the Federal Writers' Project . Twenty years later, in 1965–1966, however, the committee did conduct an investigation into Klan activities under chairman Edwin Willis (D-La.). The House Committee on Un-American Activities became

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7874-556: The Ku Klux Klan. The resulting investigation resulted in numerous Klansmen remaining silent and giving evasive answers. The House of Representatives voted to cite seven Klan leaders, including Robert Shelton , for contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over Klan records. Shelton was found guilty, and was sentenced to one year in prison, plus a $ 1,000 fine. Following his conviction, three other Klan leaders, Robert Scoggin, Bob Jones , and Calvin Craig, also pleaded guilty. Scoggin and Jones were each sentenced to one year in prison, while Craig

8001-429: The Labour Party pamphlet The Old World and the New Society calling for the transformation of Britain into a socialist state by allowing its government to retain wartime economic planning and price controls into the postwar era . In the 1945 UK general election campaign, Churchill warned that Laski, as the Labour Party chairman, would be the power behind the throne in an Attlee government . While speaking for

8128-410: The Labour candidate in Nottinghamshire on 16 June 1945, Laski said, "If Labour did not obtain what it needed by general consent, we shall have to use violence even if it means revolution." The next day, accounts of Laski's speech appeared, and the Conservatives attacked the Labour Party for its chairman's advocacy of violence. Laski filed a libel suit against the Daily Express newspaper, which backed

8255-490: The Left . Between the beginning of World War II in 1939 and the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, which drew the United States into the war, Laski was a prominent voice advocating American support for the Allies , became a prolific author of articles in the American press , frequently undertook lecture tours in the United States and influenced prominent American friends including Felix Frankfurter , Edward R. Murrow , Max Lerner , and Eric Sevareid . In his last years, he

8382-401: The Lords. He felt betrayed by MacDonald in the crisis of 1931 and decided that a peaceful, democratic transition to socialism would be blocked by the violence of the opposition. In 1932, Laski joined the Socialist League , a left-wing faction of the Labour Party. In 1937, he was involved in the failed attempt by the Socialist League in co-operation with the Independent Labour Party (ILP) and

8509-539: The United States commonly known as the Fish Committee, undertook extensive investigations of people and organizations suspected of being involved with or supporting communist activities in the United States. Among the committee's targets were the American Civil Liberties Union and communist presidential candidate William Z. Foster . The committee recommended granting the United States Department of Justice more authority to investigate communists, and strengthening of immigration and deportation laws to keep communists out of

8636-444: The United States. From 1934 to 1937, the committee, now named the Special Committee on Un-American Activities Authorized to Investigate Nazi Propaganda and Certain Other Propaganda Activities, chaired by John William McCormack ( D - Mass. ) and Samuel Dickstein (D-NY), held public and private hearings and collected testimony filling 4,300 pages. The Special Committee was widely known as the McCormack–Dickstein committee. Its mandate

8763-456: The WCF had been infiltrated by communists after 1936. Eldredge named Burton James and Florence Bean James , directors of the Seattle Repertory Playhouse , as being closely affilitated with the party. The final witness was Agnes Bridges, the ex-wife of Harry Bridges, who testified that her ex-husband was a member of the Communist Party. Following her testimony, Canwell stated that anyone could choose to testify, although he had refused requests from

8890-481: The WPU and named Jerry J. O'Connell as a party member. There was also testimony from George Levich and Sonia Simone. Local witnesses who had been members of the Communist Party testified before their committee, often about their connections to the WPU or WCF, naming those who they claimed had been fellow members of the party. Former representative Kathryn Fogg testified that Gundlach and fellow professors Joseph Butterworth, Harold Eby , and De Lacy had been members of

9017-467: The WPU, William Pennock , was thrown out of the hearings on the first morning when he attempted to read a statement. The first witness was the former editor of the Daily Worker , Louis Budenz , who testified that it had been reported within the Communist Party that they had successfully infiltrated the WPU and two WCF publications were communist-controlled. He named De Lacy, Pennock, Bridges, Thomas Rabbitt , Richard Seller and Sarah Eldredge as members of

9144-458: The committee about Alger Hiss . Alger Hiss had not yet been prosecuted. Rushmore testified for three days including testimony about more than a dozen members of the Communist Party arrested following the federal investigations ). Rushmore also claimed that "moles" existed in the federal government. He named Harold Ware , Lee Pressman , Donald Hiss , John Abt , Charles Kramer , Nathan Gregory Silvermaster , and Joseph P. Lash . Fred Neindorff of

9271-553: The committee and proposed a state referendum on the creation of the committee until the state supreme court ruled that a concurrent resolution could not be the subject of a referendum. At the University of Washington, students in the American Youth for Democracy created a committee on academic freedom to protest the Canwell Committee. Following the adjournment of the legislature, the Canwell Committee decided to delegate

9398-475: The committee focused its investigations on real and suspected communists in positions of actual or supposed influence in the United States society. A significant step for HUAC was its investigation of the charges of espionage brought against Alger Hiss in 1948. This investigation ultimately resulted in Hiss's trial and conviction for perjury, and convinced many of the usefulness of congressional committees for uncovering communist subversion. The chief investigator

9525-585: The committee for five hours about a "Jewish Communist conspiracy" to take control of the US government. Moseley was supported by Donald Shea of the American Gentile League , whose statement was deleted from the public record as the committee found it so objectionable. The committee also put together an argument for the internment of Japanese Americans known as the "Yellow Report". Organized in response to rumors of Japanese Americans being coddled by

9652-524: The committee planned to investigate the university following a statement made by Bienz that there were "probably not less than 150 on the faculty who are Communists or sympathizers with the Communist party". Although Canwell disputed the comments, saying they could not yet provide a figure, the majority of the university's Board of Regents were prepared to fire any faculty member found to be engaged in subversive activities, which they communicated to Canwell at

9779-607: The committee was renamed as the Internal Security Committee in 1969. The House Committee on Internal Security was formally terminated on January 14, 1975, the day of the opening of the 94th Congress. The committee's files and staff were transferred on that day to the House Judiciary Committee. Source: Harold Laski Harold Joseph Laski (30 June 1893 – 24 March 1950) was an English political theorist and economist . He

9906-518: The committee's expenses. Russell Fluent , the state treasurer, agreed with the position and declared that his office would not pay the warrants, as the court had held that a legislative committee could not function during adjournment. In response, Canwell filed an action with the state supreme court to order payment of the committee's expenses. The court sided with Canwell, ruling that a legislative interim committee created by concurrent resolution could operate between legislative sessions. The WPU applied to

10033-418: The communist influences on their party were growing. In winter 1939, the University of Washington received similar criticisms to Fisher, particularly for inviting Harold Laski , a British Marxist, to speak on campus. Although no further action was taken, state senator Joseph Drumheller threatened to investigate the university. The Democratic attorney general, Smith Troy , asked the secretary of state to refuse

10160-605: The communist-aligned Democrats, particularly a group of legislators affiliated with the WCF. In an illustration of the Republican sweep, De Lacy was replaced by a former leader of the American Legion , Homer Jones , as voters elected a Republican senator and Republican-controlled state legislature. Following the election, state Democrats, led by Troy, Drumheller, Beck and state senator Earl Coe , vowed to investigate their party to expel any suspected communists. Prior to

10287-513: The emerging Cold War , and he was profoundly disillusioned with the anti-Soviet direction of American foreign policy . Laski contracted influenza and died in London on 24 March 1950, aged 56. Laski's biographer Michael Newman wrote: Convinced that the problems of his time were too urgent for leisurely academic reflection, Laski wrote too much, overestimated his influence, and sometimes failed to distinguish between analysis and polemic. But he

10414-466: The entertainment industry. In 1947, studio executives told the committee that wartime films—such as Mission to Moscow , The North Star , and Song of Russia —could be considered pro-Soviet propaganda , but claimed that the films were valuable in the context of the Allied war effort, and that they were made (in the case of Mission to Moscow ) at the request of White House officials. In response to

10541-403: The hearing as witnesses. Allen told the regents that following the hearings, a special committee of the faculty senate would determine if any members of staff should face charges before the faculty committee on tenure and academic freedom. In a press statement, Canwell further said that should any faculty refuse to testify, they could face contempt charges. The president of the university chapter of

10668-447: The industry. Eventually, more than 300 artists – including directors, radio commentators, actors, and particularly screenwriters – were boycotted by the studios. Some, like Charlie Chaplin , Orson Welles , Alan Lomax , Paul Robeson , and Yip Harburg , left the U.S or went underground to find work. Others like Dalton Trumbo wrote under pseudonyms or the names of colleagues. Only about ten percent succeeded in rebuilding careers within

10795-478: The infiltration of communists in the national defence and public schools. It had been indicated in March 1947 that the University of Washington would be a focus of the committee, prompting university president Raymond B. Allen to write the committee offering the university's full cooperation. One senior member of staff later testified that he had warned Allen at the time of this letter that there were several members of

10922-528: The investigation to a staff supervised by Canwell. He traveled to Washington, D.C. to speak with HUAC and then opened an office in the Seattle Armory in April 1947. The committee had a staff of seven, led by the investigators William J. Houston and John W. Whipple, which carried out a five month investigation. The committee kept a low profile during this time, with the exception of a comment by Canwell on

11049-513: The irresponsible statements of the kind you are making ... I can assure you there is widespread resentment in the Party at your activities and a period of silence on your part would be welcome. Although he continued to work for the Labour Party until he died, Laski never regained political influence. His pessimism deepened as he disagreed with the anti-Soviet policies of the Attlee government in

11176-493: The last years (1946–1950) near-incoherence and multiple contradictions. Laski's long-term impact on Britain is hard to quantify. Newman observes: "It has been widely held that his early books were the most profound and that he subsequently wrote far too much, with polemics displacing serious analysis." In an essay published a few years after Laski's death, Professor Alfred Cobban of University College London commented: Among recent political thinkers, it seems to me that one of

11303-413: The magnificent work that he did. We in India are particularly grateful for his staunch advocacy of India's freedom, and the great part he played in bringing it about. At no time did he falter or compromise on the principles he held dear, and a large number of persons drew splendid inspiration from him. Those who knew him personally counted that association as a rare privilege, and his passing away has come as

11430-462: The newly independent nations in Asia and Africa. He was perhaps the most prominent intellectual in the Labour Party, especially for those on the far left who shared his trust and hope in Joseph Stalin 's Soviet Union ; however, he was distrusted by the moderate Labour politicians who were in charge, such as Prime Minister Clement Attlee , and he was never given a major government position or

11557-497: The nominations of Communist Party candidates, a decision which was only overturned by the Washington Supreme Court . In 1940, following his resignation as president of the WPU, Sullivan joined with Drumheller in a Senate investigatory committee to determine whether the WPU's vice president, state senator Lenus Westman , was a communist. The 1946 state elections saw Republicans position themselves as running against

11684-606: The outbreak of the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine , arguing that they had not prevailed "upon an indefensible group among them to desist from using indefensible means for an end to which they were never proportionate." Laski's main political role came as a writer and lecturer on every topic of concern to the left at that time, including socialism , capitalism, working conditions , eugenics , women's suffrage , imperialism , decolonisation , disarmament , human rights , worker education, and Zionism . He

11811-639: The party. Sullivan, as founder of the WPU, testified that the union was taken under communist control in 1939 when the Workers Alliance was dissolved and Pennock and John Caughlan joined the WPU. He also said the Building Service union had been involved in the communist infiltration of the WPU, specifically naming William Dobbins. Other members of the WPU and the WCF testified similarly, with representative H. C. Armstrong naming fellow politicians Fogg, Rabbitt, Pennock, Ernest Olson , Ellsworth Wills and N. P. Atkinson . Howard Costigan testified that

11938-409: The press, "I regret that I have but one shirt to give for my country", paraphrasing the last words of revolutionary patriot Nathan Hale ; Rubin, who was wearing a matching Viet Cong flag, shouted that the police were communists for not arresting him as well. In 1965, Klan violence prompted President Lyndon B. Johnson and Georgia congressman Charles L. Weltner to call for a congressional probe of

12065-526: The same structure as a 1945 California resolution establishing the Joint Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities – was said to have been drafted by Canwell, although prosecuting attorney Charles O. Carroll later claimed that Post-Intelligencer reporter Fred Niendorff had told him that he was the author of the bill. Canwell had run for office on an anti-communist platform and upon entering office, he began coordinating with

12192-400: The state should not be considered supreme since people could and should have loyalties to local organisations, clubs, labour unions, and societies. The state should respect those allegiances and promote pluralism and decentralisation. Laski became a proponent of Marxism and believed in a planned economy based on the public ownership of the means of production . Instead of, as he saw it,

12319-558: The subject of subversion within the University of Washington. Witnesses included George Hewitt, who claimed he had taught University of Washington professor Melvin Rader at a "highly secret Communist school at Briehl's Farm, near Kingston, New York , for a period of about six weeks in the Summer of 1938 or 1939." Rader later pursued Hewitt for perjury. Canwell also invited anti-communists Howard Rushmore and J. B. Matthews to testify before

12446-501: The subpoenas. This group included Gundlach, Butterworth and Herbert J. Phillips, although Gundlach later decided to testify. Apart from the faculty, subpoenas were also served on the Jameses, actor Albert Ottenheimer , university counselor Ted Astley, former fellow Philip Hunt Davis and city sanitation inspector Rachmiel Forschmiedt. The investigations encountered opposition from the newly formed Washington Committee for Academic Freedom,

12573-474: The two, Rushmore and Matthews, Canwell explained, "Rushmore was principally brought out to testify on Hiss and the atomic scientists," while Matthews helped on the subject of universities. In November 1948, Canwell lost his re-election; the committee issued its final report in January 1949. House Committee on Un-American Activities The House Committee on Un-American Activities ( HCUA ), popularly

12700-564: The union. Reports into further allegations of communism within the union's Local No. 6 continued throughout the month, including that multiple employees had been fired. On January 11, 1948, Canwell Committee announced that it would convene its first hearings on subversion within the WPU at the Seattle Armory. The WPU responded by bringing a claim in the King County Superior Court to prevent the hearings and filed

12827-478: The values of ideas being confronted. And it was all immense fun, an exciting game that had meaning, and it was also a sieve of ideas, a gymnastics of the mind carried on with vigour and directed unobtrusively with superb craftsmanship. I think I know now why he gave himself so freely. Partly it was because he was human and warm and that he was so interested in people. But mainly it was because he loved students, and he loved students because they were young. Because he had

12954-514: The very few, perhaps the only one, who followed the traditional pattern, accepted the problems presented by his age, and devoted himself to the attempt to find an answer to them was Harold Laski. Though I am bound to say that I do not agree with his analysis or his conclusions, I think that he was trying to do the right kind of thing. And this, I suspect, is the reason why, practically alone among political thinkers in Great Britain, he exercised

13081-475: Was J. Robert Oppenheimer of the Manhattan Project . "There were numerous others," Canwell said, but he would have to go back and read the record to call "all their names" accurately. Asked to "characterize" Oppenheimer, Canwell said he agreed with conservative journalist Westbrook Pegler : he paid dues in the Communist Party, he was married to a communist, and sleeping with at least one other one. Of

13208-679: Was Robert E. Stripling , senior investigator Louis J. Russell , and investigators Alvin Williams Stokes , Courtney E. Owens , and Donald T. Appell. The director of research was Benjamin Mandel . In 1947, the committee held nine days of hearings into alleged communist propaganda and influence in the Hollywood motion picture industry. After conviction on contempt of Congress charges for refusal to answer some questions posed by committee members, " The Hollywood Ten " were blacklisted by

13335-639: Was a former Soviet spy, by then a senior editor of Time magazine. Chambers named more than a half dozen government officials including White as well as Alger Hiss (and Hiss' brother Donald). Most of these former officials refused to answer committee questions, citing the Fifth Amendment . White denied the allegations, and died of a heart attack a few days later. Hiss also denied all charges; doubts about his testimony though, especially those expressed by freshman Congressman Richard Nixon , led to further investigation that strongly suggested Hiss had made

13462-417: Was a serious thinker and a charismatic personality whose views have been distorted because he refused to accept Cold War orthodoxies. Columbia University professor Herbert A. Deane identified five distinct phases of Laski's thought that he never integrated. The first three were pluralist (1914–1924), Fabian (1925–1931), and Marxian (1932–1939). There followed a popular front approach (1940–1945), and in

13589-580: Was active in politics and served as the chairman of the British Labour Party from 1945 to 1946 and was a professor at the London School of Economics from 1926 to 1950. He first promoted pluralism by emphasising the importance of local voluntary communities such as trade unions. After 1930, he began to emphasize the need for a workers' revolution , which he hinted might be violent. Laski's position angered Labour leaders who promised

13716-709: Was always a Zionist at heart and always felt himself a part of the Jewish nation but viewed traditional Jewish religion as restrictive. In 1946, Laski said in a radio address that the Catholic Church opposed democracy, and said that "it is impossible to make peace with the Roman Catholic Church. It is one of the permanent enemies of all that is decent in the human spirit." In his final years, he became critical of what he saw as extremism in Israel at

13843-746: Was based on Laski's party model. Perón consistently cited Laski as one of his main political inspirations, along with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Christian socialism . Perón's ideological legacy is highly contested - denounced as a form of fascism by some, Peronism is variously defined as "Christian socialism, national socialism, demagogic dictatorship, plebiscitary presidential system, state socialism, non-Marxist collectivism, worker democracy or national capitalism". Contemporary scholars of Peronism such as Federico Finchelstein see it as "the synthesis of nationalism and non-Marxist Christian socialism". Judith Adler Hellman wrote on Perón and Peronism: "Rather than Mussolini's Italy, Perón's most frequently quoted model

13970-581: Was being denounced by former President Harry S. Truman as the "most un-American thing in the country today". Women Strike for Peace played a crucial role in bringing down the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). In May 1960, the committee held hearings in San Francisco City Hall which led to the infamous riot on May 13, when city police officers fire-hosed protesting students from

14097-419: Was cemented by weekly letters, which were later published. He knew many powerful figures and claimed to know many more. Critics have often commented on Laski's repeated exaggerations and self-promotion, which Holmes tolerated. His wife commented that he was "half-man, half-child, all his life". Laski returned to England in 1920 and began teaching government at the London School of Economics (LSE). In 1926, he

14224-470: Was disillusioned by the Cold War and the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état . George Orwell described him as a "socialist by allegiance, and a liberal by temperament". Laski tried to mobilise Britain's academics, teachers, and intellectuals behind the socialist cause, the Socialist League being one effort. He had some success but that element typically found itself marginalised in the Labour Party. Laski

14351-540: Was during this investigation that one of the committee members, Joe Starnes (D-Ala.), famously asked Flanagan whether the English Elizabethan era playwright Christopher Marlowe was a member of the Communist Party, and mused that ancient Greek tragedian " Mr. Euripides " preached class warfare . In 1939, the committee investigated people involved with pro-Nazi organizations such as Oscar C. Pfaus and George Van Horn Moseley . Moseley testified before

14478-544: Was fined $ 1,000. The charges against Marshall Kornegay, Robert Hudgins, and George Dorsett, were later dropped. Hearings in August 1966 called to investigate anti-Vietnam War activities were disrupted by hundreds of protesters, many from the Progressive Labor Party . The committee faced witnesses who were openly defiant. According to The Harvard Crimson : In the fifties, the most effective sanction

14605-479: Was known as the House Committee on Internal Security . When the House abolished the committee in 1975, its functions were transferred to the House Judiciary Committee . The committee's anti-communist investigations are often associated with McCarthyism , although Joseph McCarthy himself (as a U.S. Senator ) had no direct involvement with the House committee. McCarthy was the chairman of

14732-407: Was made professor of political science at the LSE. Laski was an executive member of the socialist Fabian Society from 1922 to 1936. In 1936, he co-founded the Left Book Club along with Victor Gollancz and John Strachey . He was a prolific writer and produced a number of books and essays throughout the 1920s and the 1930s. At the LSE in the 1930s, Laski developed a connection with scholars from

14859-528: Was much reference in the debates to a peoples' march organized by the WPU that had occurred two days before. At the time the Senate was considering the resolution, in a hearing before the Senate committee on higher education, two candidates to be appointed as regents of the University of Washington denied that "subversive activities" were taught by university faculty. Their appointments were opposed by Bienz, who claimed that he had seen reports of as many as 30 professors teaching subversive activities. A few days later,

14986-522: Was none other than Britain's new Labour Government, which was no more comfortable with Harold Laski than was the Peronist Movement with its left wing." Laski was an inspiration for Ellsworth Toohey , the antagonist in Ayn Rand 's novel The Fountainhead (1943). The posthumously published Journals of Ayn Rand , edited by David Harriman, include a detailed description of Rand attending

15113-645: Was not appointed to HUAC to "carry out measures planned by us together with him." Dickstein unsuccessfully attempted to expedite the deportation of Soviet defector Walter Krivitsky , while the Dies Committee kept him in the country. Dickstein stopped receiving NKVD payments in February 1940. On May 26, 1938, the House Committee on Un-American Activities was established as a special investigating committee, reorganized from its previous incarnations as

15240-719: Was originally concerned with investigating pro-German sentiments in the American liquor industry. After World War I ended in November 1918, and the German threat lessened, the subcommittee began investigating Bolshevism, which had appeared as a threat during the First Red Scare after the Russian Revolution in 1917. The subcommittee's hearing into Bolshevik propaganda, conducted February 11 to March 10, 1919, had

15367-535: Was paid $ 1,250 a month by the Soviet NKVD , which hoped to get secret congressional information on anti-communists and pro-fascists. A 1939 NKVD report stated Dickstein handed over "materials on the war budget for 1940, records of conferences of the budget subcommission, reports of the war minister, chief of staff and etc." However the NKVD was dissatisfied with the amount of information provided by Dickstein, after he

15494-642: Was produced by the committee from subpoenaed local news reports, and shown around the country during 1960 and 1961. In response, the Northern California ACLU produced a film called Operation Correction , which discussed falsehoods in the first film. Scenes from the hearings and protest were later featured in the Academy Award-nominated 1990 documentary Berkeley in the Sixties . The committee lost considerable prestige as

15621-522: Was regarded as a gifted lecturer but he would alienate his audience by humiliating those who asked questions. Despite this, he was liked by his students, and was especially influential among the Asian and African students who attended the LSE. Describing Laski's approach, Kingsley Martin wrote in 1968: He was still in his late twenties and looked like a schoolboy. His lectures on the history of political ideas were brilliant, eloquent, and delivered without

15748-476: Was terror. Almost any publicity from HUAC meant the 'blacklist'. Without a chance to clear his name, a witness would suddenly find himself without friends and without a job. But it is not easy to see how in 1969, a HUAC blacklist could terrorize an SDS activist. Witnesses like Jerry Rubin have openly boasted of their contempt for American institutions. A subpoena from HUAC would be unlikely to scandalize Abbie Hoffman or his friends. In an attempt to reinvent itself,

15875-460: Was the only major studio that did not purposefully produce such a film. On July 31, 1948, the committee heard testimony from Elizabeth Bentley , an American who had been working as a Soviet agent in New York . Among those whom she named as communists was Harry Dexter White , a senior U.S. Treasury department official. The committee subpoenaed Whittaker Chambers on August 3, 1948. Chambers, too,

16002-402: Was tireless in his speeches and pamphleteering and was always on call to help a Labour candidate. In between, he served on scores of committees and carried a full load as a professor and advisor to students. Laski plunged into Labour Party politics on his return to London in 1920. In 1923, he turned down the offer of a Parliament seat and cabinet position by Ramsay MacDonald and also a seat in

16129-477: Was to get "information on how foreign subversive propaganda entered the U.S. and the organizations that were spreading it." Its records are held by the National Archives and Records Administration as records related to HUAC. In 1934, the Special Committee subpoenaed most of the leaders of the fascist movement in the United States. Beginning in November 1934, the committee investigated allegations of

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