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61-752: The League's policy objectives changed over time in accord with the shifting party line of the CPUSA. Beginning as an anti-fascist organization in 1935, the League turned to an anti-war position following the signing of the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939 and to a pro-war position after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. The organization was prominent in the defense of Republican Spain during

122-678: A legalist and pacified strategy, members of the workers' movement who disagreed with this strategy formed Arditi del Popolo . The Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGL) and the PSI refused to officially recognize the anti-fascist militia and maintained a non-violent, legalist strategy, while the Communist Party of Italy (PCd'I) ordered its members to quit the organization. The PCd'I organized some militant groups, but their actions were relatively minor. The Italian anarchist Severino Di Giovanni , who exiled himself to Argentina following

183-536: A series of prominent members of the League of American Writers left the group's ranks. Those exiting during this " Yanks Are Not Coming " period included Archibald MacLeish , Malcolm Cowley , Van Wyck Brooks , Thomas Mann , and Granville Hicks , among others. In January 1940, the League formed a Keep America Out of War Committee. This group's members included: Lillian Hellman , Dashiell Hammett , Lawrence A. Goldstone , Eleanor Flexner , Len Zinberg , Shaemas O'Sheel , and Sonia Raiziss , among others. A number of

244-608: A special correspondent for the Soviet Communist Party's daily, Pravda. At the end of December 1922, the Workers Council group was among the organizations which were united into the Workers Party of America (WPA), a new "legal political party" affiliated with the underground Communist Party of America, and Olgin thereby entered the formal communist movement for the first time. Olgin was named to

305-558: Is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II , where the Axis powers were opposed by many countries forming the Allies of World War II and dozens of resistance movements worldwide. Anti-fascism has been an element of movements across

366-652: Is not known whether some of these works were, in fact, translated by others. He wrote verse, essays, literary criticism and sociological studies. His books The Soul of the Russian Revolution and A Guide to Russian Literature and pamphlet Why Communism? achieved sales of nearly half a million in several languages. Olgin translated several volumes of Lenin 's collected works from Russian into English; Friedrich Engels ' The Peasant War in Germany from German into Yiddish ; John Reed 's Ten Days That Shook

427-773: The Italian Anarchist Union emerged between 1919 and 1921, to combat the nationalist and fascist surge of the post-World War I period. In the words of historian Eric Hobsbawm , as fascism developed and spread, a "nationalism of the left" developed in those nations threatened by Italian irredentism (e.g. in the Balkans , and Albania in particular). After the outbreak of World War II, the Albanian and Yugoslav resistances were instrumental in antifascist action and underground resistance. This combination of irreconcilable nationalisms and leftist partisans constitute

488-819: The Mecca Temple in New York City, attended by 400 invited "writer-delegates" in front of a total audience of nearly 5,000. Although later called a " front group ," the Communist Party's role in the League of American Writers was never secret. Earl Browder , General Secretary of the CPUSA, delivered the keynote address to the delegates of the First Congress of the League of American Writers at its opening session. Browder acknowledged that writers were typically "skeptical of all political parties, if not contemptuous." He continued: They find, however, in

549-563: The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , the Communists pursued a Popular Front approach, of building broad-based coalitions with liberal and even conservative anti-fascists. As fascism consolidated its power, and especially during World War II , anti-fascism largely took the form of partisan or resistance movements. In Italy, Mussolini's Fascist regime used the term anti-fascist to describe its opponents. Mussolini's secret police

610-868: The Soviet Union . In 1937, he went to Paris as delegation to the International Yiddish Culture Congress which founded the World Alliance for Jewish Culture (YCUF). While in Paris, he addressed the Writers Congress. Following his trip to Paris, Olgin's health began to decline. After almost two years' illness, during which Olgin continued his work for the Freiheit , as well as for the Daily Worker and as

671-681: The Spanish Civil War and in providing financial and moral support to writers in need in the United States and internationally. The organization ended its activities in 1943, with its members moving on to others with similar objectives. The League of American Writers was established by the First American Writers Congress, a gathering held from April 26–28, 1935. (According to member Myra Page , it started on May 1, 1935– May Day .) The organization

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732-584: The University of Heidelberg . He continued his studies there until 1910, when he returned to Russia. Traveling in Germany at the onset of World War I , he was unable to return to Russia, and immigrated to the United States in 1915. Shortly after arriving in the United States, Olgin became a regular contributor to the Jewish daily newspaper The Forward . Olgin became an American citizen in April 1920. He

793-489: The Versailles Treaty was responsible for the rise of Nazism and instead viewed fascist dynamism as the cause of conflict. Unlike fascism, these two types of anti-fascism did not promise a quick victory but an extended struggle against a powerful enemy. During World War II, both anti-fascisms responded to fascist aggression by creating a cult of heroism which relegated victims to a secondary position. However, after

854-490: The $ 5 remitted to the National Office; others stood as members at large and paid dues directly to New York. Although the League of American Writers was technically a "mass organization" of the CPUSA in the sense that it sought to unite party members with non-party individuals sharing the general Communist Party orientation, membership in the organization was limited by design to the literary elite. Several months after

915-518: The 1910s. Organization against fascism began around 1920. Fascism became the state ideology of Italy in 1922 and of Germany in 1933, spurring a large increase in anti-fascist action, including German resistance to Nazism and the Italian resistance movement . Anti-fascism was a major aspect of the Spanish Civil War , which foreshadowed World War II. Before World War II, the West had not taken seriously

976-627: The 1922 March on Rome , organized several bombings against the Italian fascist community. The Italian liberal anti-fascist Benedetto Croce wrote his Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals , which was published in 1925. Other notable Italian liberal anti-fascists around that time were Piero Gobetti and Carlo Rosselli . Moissaye Olgin Moissaye Joseph Olgin (24 March 1878 – 22 November 1939)

1037-647: The American correspondent for Pravda , he had apparently improved in health enough to appear at Madison Square Garden , on November 13, for his first public speech in several years. Following the speech, his health again declined, and he died at his home of a heart attack on November 22, 1939. He was buried in New Montefiore Cemetery near Farmingdale, New York . Olgin was the author of numerous books and pamphlets in seven languages: English, Russian, German, French, Polish, Hebrew and Yiddish. It

1098-437: The April 1935 founding congress, membership in the group was reported as only 125 — far fewer than the 400 who had attended the founding convention as delegates. "Applications for membership flow in, but the standard is kept high, membership is granted only to creative writers whose published work entitles them to a professional status," noted Isidor Schneider. According to the group's formal membership application, membership in

1159-675: The Arbeiter Stimme (Labor's Voice). He was the author of all the proclamations issued by the Central Committee of the Bund during the Revolution of 1905 while at the same time he prepared literary compositions for the illegal Jewish press. While editing newspapers and working with these underground organizations he also wrote books, short stories and literary essays. In 1907, he traveled to Germany to continue his studies at

1220-676: The CPUSA, the League of American Writers became advocates of American entry into World War II in defense of the Soviet Union. In another development in 1941, Attorney General Francis Biddle began tracking what were deemed to be subversive Soviet-controlled organizations, and in February 1943 the League of American Writers was placed on the Biddle List, which later became the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations . This effectively terminated it. The condemnation of it

1281-500: The Communist Party is a force, in every phase of the life of the masses, even that of poets, dramatists, novelists, and critics. Joining Browder in addressing the delegates to the organization's founding convention was CPUSA political committee member Clarence Hathaway , who greeted the Congress in the name of "the entire staff of The Daily Worker, " the official newspaper of the Communist Party. Other leading CPUSA activists addressing

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1342-475: The Jews may do none of those things." Hughes' speech was broadly democratic and did not include revolutionary sloganeering. The League of American Writers somewhat irregularly published a mimeographed newsletter for its members, The Bulletin of the League of American Writers. Circulation was small, with a press run of 700 copies cited in an issue from November 1937, and few specimens seem to have survived. In 1937

1403-529: The League of American Writers sent out surveys to over 1,000 American writers asking their position on the Spanish Civil War . Some 418 returned the survey forms, with 410 supporting the Loyalists to the Spanish Republic , 7 professing neutrality, and only one — Gertrude Atherton — supporting General Francisco Franco and his nationalist forces. In accord with the CPUSA's political line, no effort

1464-436: The League of American Writers, held in New York City in June 1939, once again opened with a Friday night public session at Carnegie Hall. Poet Langston Hughes delivered the keynote address, in which he likened the situation of American blacks to that of the Jewish minority in Germany , with but one difference: "Here we may speak openly about our problems, write about them, protest, and seek to better our conditions. In Germany

1525-507: The League of American Writers. A number of prominent writers were enlisted in the cause over the next several years, including Thomas Mann , John Steinbeck , Ernest Hemingway , Theodore Dreiser , James Farrell , Archibald MacLeish , Lillian Hellman , Nathanael West , Elsa Gidlow and William Carlos Williams . The participation of many of these literary luminaries in League affairs was often nominal, limited to signature of an occasional petition. This effort at gathering prominent figures

1586-467: The League was "open to all writers whose work has been published or used with reasonable frequency in channels of communication of more than local scope, including magazines, newspapers, the radio, the stage, and the screen." In addition, members had to accept and observe a set of 7 membership aims: 1. To enlist writers in all parts of the United States in a national cultural organization for peace and democracy and against fascism and reaction. 2. To defend

1647-450: The League's members were placed under surveillance by the United States government. Theodore Dreiser was honorary president of the League of American Writers in 1941. In the summer of 1941, the League again abruptly shifted its political position, ending its anti-war stance, with the German invasion of the USSR in the summer of 1941. Echoing another abrupt change of the political line of

1708-683: The People's Front in all countries. 7. To cooperate with similar organizations of writers in other countries. The League of American Writers was governed by Congresses held every two years. The organization also had a number of local chapters which conducted various fundraising activities and events designed to raise public awareness about matters of concern to the League. Chapters were maintained in New York City , Washington, DC , Boston , Chicago , San Francisco , and Minneapolis . The organization published an official newsletter, The Bulletin of

1769-588: The Workers Party. He ran for U.S. Congress in 1926, 1930, and 1934, and for New York Assembly again in 1927, 1929, 1933, and 1936. Although a bitter rival of Alexander Bittelman in the heated factional politics of the Jewish Federation in the early 1920s, by the middle of the decade, Olgin had emerged as a supporter of the political faction that was headed by William Z. Foster , Earl Browder , and his former foe. Olgin made several trips to

1830-553: The causes of the Russian Revolution , and first became active in the underground revolutionary movement during his studies at the University of Kyiv. His writings for Jewish and revolutionary publications earned him some fame among the many Russian Jews , who were heavily oppressed by the government of Tsar Nicholas II . He took part in a Jewish revolutionary student group known as "Freiheit" (Freedom). In 1901 Olgin

1891-407: The delegates to the conference instructed their executive committee to take the initiative in sponsoring a broad conference of left-wing authors ... A new organization committee was formed, which gradually involved more and more sympathetic writers into the leadership of the committee which issued the "Call for an American Writers Congress" at the beginning of 1935. The convention call for establishing

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1952-580: The earliest roots of European anti-fascism. Less militant forms of anti-fascism arose later. During the 1930s in Britain, "Christians – especially the Church of England – provided both a language of opposition to fascism and inspired anti-fascist action". French philosopher Georges Bataille believed that Friedrich Nietzsche was a forerunner of anti-fascism due to his derision for nationalism and racism. Michael Seidman argues that traditionally anti-fascism

2013-546: The early period, Communist, socialist, anarchist and Christian workers and intellectuals were involved. Until 1928, the period of the United front , there was significant collaboration between the Communists and non-Communist anti-fascists. In 1928, the Comintern instituted its ultra-left Third Period policies, ending co-operation with other left groups, and denouncing social democrats as " social fascists ". From 1934 until

2074-399: The film The Spanish Earth were shown to the audience. Communist Party General Secretary Earl Browder again spoke to the 1937 convention, emphasizing the CPUSA's " Popular Front " analysis that the world was divided into "two great warring camps, democracy against fascism" and leaving it to writers to "adjust their own work to the higher discipline of the whole struggle for democracy." Gone

2135-409: The first Congress of American Writers declared that capitalism was rapidly crumbling and sought to gather the "hundreds of poets, novelists, dramatists, critics, short story writers and journalists" who recognized "the necessity of personally helping to accelerate the destruction of capitalism and the establishment of a workers' government." The founding convention of the League was called to order at

2196-507: The gathering included Moissaye Olgin of the Yiddish-language Morning Freiheit , Joseph Freeman of The New Masses , and Alexander Trachtenberg of International Publishers , part of the CPUSA's publishing arm. The group declared itself to be "a voluntary association of writers dedicated to the preservation and extension of a truly democratic culture." Waldo Frank was elected the first president of

2257-449: The governing Bureau of the Jewish Federation of this new organization. Olgin was a member of the governing Central Executive Committee of the WPA and its Executive Council from the time of the organization's formation. Olgin was a frequent candidate for political office on behalf of the Communist Party. He first ran in 1924, when he was a candidate for New York State Assembly on the ticket of

2318-580: The great "Show Trials" in Moscow . He was replaced as President by Donald Ogden Stewart . The professional head of the organization as Executive Secretary from 1937 to 1942 was Communist Party stalwart Franklin Folsom . The League touted seven prominent Vice-Presidents during the last years of the 1930s, including Van Wyck Brooks , Erskine Caldwell , Malcolm Cowley , Paul DeKruif , Langston Hughes , Meridel LeSueur , and Upton Sinclair . The 3rd Congress of

2379-469: The ideological spectrum. The defeat of the Axis powers generally ended fascism as a state ideology. After World War II, the anti-fascist movement continued to be active in places where organized fascism continued or re-emerged. There was a resurgence of antifa in Germany in the 1980s, as a response to the invasion of the punk scene by neo-Nazis . This influenced the antifa movement in the United States in

2440-558: The late 1980s and 1990s, which was similarly carried by punks. In the 21st century, this greatly increased in prominence as a response to the resurgence of the radical right , especially after the election of Donald Trump . With the development and spread of Italian Fascism , i.e. the original fascism, the National Fascist Party 's ideology was met with increasingly militant opposition by Italian communists and socialists. Organizations such as Arditi del Popolo and

2501-552: The magazine of the IURW, International Literature, League of American Writers member Alan Calmer noted that the new organization sprung from a decision made at the 1934 convention of the Communist Party's John Reed Clubs : The chief malady of the revolutionary culture movement was characterized at the second national conference of the John Reed Clubs in 1934 as the old malady of sectarianism . ... Pointing to these handicaps,

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2562-863: The master negative held by the Rare Books and Special Collections Department at the university. Anti-fascist This is an accepted version of this page Central Europe Germany Italy Spain ( Spanish Civil War ) Albania Austria Baltic states Belgium Bulgaria Burma Czechia Denmark France Germany Greece Italy Japan Jewish Luxembourg Netherlands Norway Poland Romania Slovakia Spain Soviet Union Yugoslavia Germany Italy Netherlands Portugal Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom United States Anti-fascism

2623-426: The new life in which they participate, there is a political party which plays an increasingly influential role, the Communist Party. They find it necessary to define their attitudes towards this Party which actively participates in their chosen world. They see that this Party is a force in fine literature, as well as in strikes, in unemployment struggles, in battling for Negro rights, even in reactionary Congress ... Yes,

2684-583: The new organization. The governing Executive Council elected by the first Congress included Frank, Freeman, Trachtenberg, Michael Gold , Granville Hicks , Malcolm Cowley , Josephine Herbst , Albert Maltz , Kenneth Burke , Harold Clurman , Hart, Josephson, Lawson, Scheider, Seaver, Genevieve Taggard and Alfred Kreymborg . The League of American Writers was a dues based organization, with annual dues set at $ 5 per year, payable in advance on January 1 of each year. Participants who were members of local or regional chapters paid dues to that organization, with $ 2 of

2745-425: The political and social institutions that guarantee a healthy atmosphere for the perpetuation of culture ... 3. To stimulate the interest of other writers in our program ... 4. To support progressive trade union organization, especially among professionals and in the liberal arts. 5. To effect an alliance, in the interest of culture, between American writers and all progressive forces in the nation. 6. To support

2806-530: The political spectrum and holding many different political positions such as anarchism , communism , pacifism , republicanism , social democracy , socialism and syndicalism as well as centrist , conservative , liberal and nationalist viewpoints. Fascism, a far-right ultra-nationalistic ideology best known for its use by the Italian Fascists and the Nazis , became prominent beginning in

2867-541: The signing of the Nazi-Soviet Pact in the fall of 1939, the League of American Writers turned its official policy from one of advocacy of collective security against fascism in Europe to one of opposition to the so-called "imperialist war," in accord with a change in the political line of the Communist International and the CPUSA. This abrupt reversal was not cost-free to the organization, however, as

2928-584: The then extant communist movement. Olgin ceased contributing to The Forward at this same time. In April 1922, there was launched a new Yiddish-language newspaper, the Daily Freiheit (later the Morning Freiheit ). Olgin served as first editor of this publication, a position which he retained up until the time of his death. He also contributed frequently to the Communist Party's English-language newspaper, The Daily Worker, and served as

2989-540: The threat of fascism, and anti-fascism was sometimes associated with communism. However, the outbreak of World War II greatly changed Western perceptions, and fascism was seen as an existential threat by not only the communist Soviet Union but also by the liberal-democratic United States and United Kingdom. The Axis Powers of World War II were generally fascist, and the fight against them was characterized in anti-fascist terms. Resistance during World War II to fascism occurred in every occupied country, and came from across

3050-725: The war, conflict arose between the revolutionary and counterrevolutionary anti-fascisms; the victory of the Western Allies allowed them to restore the old regimes of liberal democracy in Western Europe, while Soviet victory in Eastern Europe allowed for the establishment of new revolutionary anti-fascist regimes there. Anti-fascist movements emerged first in Italy during the rise of Benito Mussolini , but they soon spread to other European countries and then globally. In

3111-604: Was a Ukrainian-born writer, journalist, and translator in the early 20th century. He began his career writing for the Jewish press in support of the Russian Revolution in 1910. During the First World War , he moved to the United States in 1915, settling in New York City, where he continued his career in journalism. Much of his work was in support of communism, and he was a founding member of the Workers Party . In 1922, he founded The Morning Freiheit , and served as its editor until his death in 1939. Moissaye Joseph Olgin

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3172-704: Was a leading member of the Jewish Socialist Federation of the Socialist Party of America and was influential in leading the JSF out of the party at a special convention of the organization held in September 1921. Together with other defecting members of the JSF, Olgin thereafter entered the fledgling Workers Council organization, a small group of revolutionary socialists which rejected the conspiratorial "underground" form of organization of

3233-748: Was affiliated with the International Union of Revolutionary Writers (IURW) as well as the International Association of Writers for the Defense of Culture and was the American equivalent of the British League of Writers. Initial members included: Alexander Trachtenberg of International Publishers , Franklin Folsom , Louis Untermeyer , Bromfelds, I.F. Stone , Millen Brand , Arthur Miller , Lillian Hellman , and Dashiell Hammett , and Myra Page . In an article in

3294-552: Was assisted by a muting the explicitly revolutionary language and communist tone of the organization by the time of its June 1937 second convention. The 1937 convention was a more subdued affair than the high-profile 1935 launch, with its opening at Carnegie Hall attended by 50 "writer-delegates." The keynote speech was delivered by Ernest Hemingway, newly returned from the Spanish Civil War . Hemingway denounced fascism as "a lie told by bullies" and declared that "a writer who will not lie cannot live or work under fascism." Excerpts from

3355-578: Was born on March 24, 1878, in Buki, Kyiv Governorate (then part of the Russian Empire ) to Chaim Aaron Novominsky and Tsipe (Gelman) Novominsky, both of whom were of ethnic Jewish origins. His father worked as a lumber camp employee. Olgin received a traditional education in Hebrew. After a short period of self-study, he began his studies at the University of Kyiv in 1900. He was sympathetic to

3416-424: Was confirmed in May 1948 and again in 1953 by Executive Order 10450 . Once the communist domination of the League of American Writers had been publicly declared, its Hollywood branch renamed itself as the Hollywood Writers’ Mobilization, led by John Howard Lawson . The archive of the League is housed at the Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley . The collection has been microfilmed , with

3477-408: Was elected chairman of the Students Central Committee. The tsarist regime ordered his arrest in April 1903 on a charge of organizing Jewish self-defense groups against anticipated pogroms . In 1904, Olgin left the University of Kyiv and went to Vilno as a member of the Vilno Committee of the Jewish Bund . There he was arrested but released on bail. He then became a member of the editorial board of

3538-420: Was made to contact writers known to be sympathetic to Leon Trotsky . When Max Eastman , a translator of Trotsky and opponent of Joseph Stalin , was inadvertently mailed a survey form, Eastman's reply was excluded at the insistence of Communist Party newspaper editor Moissaye Olgin . The other replies were distilled into a pamphlet published by the League of American Writers, entitled Writers Take Sides. With

3599-446: Was officially known as the Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti-Fascism . During the 1920s in the Kingdom of Italy , anti-fascists, many of them from the labor movement , fought against the violent Blackshirts and against the rise of the fascist leader Benito Mussolini. After the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) signed a pacification pact with Mussolini and his Fasces of Combat on 3 August 1921, and trade unions adopted

3660-426: Was seen as the purview of the political left but that in recent years this has been questioned. Seidman identifies two types of anti-fascism, namely revolutionary and counterrevolutionary: Seidman argues that despite the differences between these two strands of anti-fascism, there were similarities. They would both come to regard violent expansion as intrinsic to the fascist project. They both rejected any claim that

3721-411: Was talk of the collapse of capitalism and the duty of writers to speed its demise as participants in the class struggle; now the task at hand, in Browder's view, was the building of "broad unity of all democratic and progressive forces ... against the menace of fascist barbarism." Frank was replaced as President of the League in 1937, owing to his questioning of the evidence and verdicts being rendered at

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