One of the ugly secrets of the early Communist Party concerns the death of Clarissa S. Ware. perhaps the most senior women Communist the early years of the Party. A destructive personal relationship developed in the top leadership of the C.P. as Research Department staffers Jay Lovestone, Clarissa Ware (divorced wife of party agricultural expert Harold Ware), Executive Secretary and party leader C.E. Ruthenberg, whose chief ally was Lovestone, in a contentious triangle with C.I. representative. For added drama, John Pepper also pursued comrade Ware. A pregnancy ensued and Ware, almost certainly under some pressure, died tragically on Sept. 27, 1923, of an infection contracted during an underground abortion, not complications from an ‘operation for pancreatitis.

‘Clarissa S. Ware’ from The Liberator. Vol. 6 No. 10. October, 1923.

DEATH has taken from the ranks of the revolutionary movement in this country Clarissa S. Ware, one of the editors of The Liberator, and a loyal, courageous member of the Workers Party.

Clarissa Ware was typical of the woman of the Communist society of tomorrow-frank, unafraid, intellectually capable, yet glorious in her womanhood.

Descending from Puritan forefathers with a family record running back to both Miles Standish and John Alden, she found in the revolutionary movement the escape from a life limited to the narrow struggle for wealth and place. To her the movement for a social order with other ideals was an opportunity to devote her special training gained through unusual educational opportunities to work which was inspiring and which brought happiness.

During the past three years she had been engaged in research work for the Communist movement. She was the author of a number of reports on American conditions which gained international significance. For the past year she had occupied the position of head of the Research Department of the Workers Party. The results of her investigations in that capacity appear in the literature recently published by the party and in many articles in “The Liberator,” “The Labor Herald,” “The Worker” and the labor press generally. She was author of a pamphlet on “The American Foreign Born Workers”- a defense of the foreign born workers against the exception laws directed against them. Her bulletin “A Review of the Week” was reprinted by scores of labor papers throughout the country.

Death came to her suddenly after an operation for pancreatitis. Her last words expressed her spirit-“I have made a good fight, haven’t I?”

‘Revolution on the Death of Clarissa S. Ware from Labor Herald. Vol. 2 No. 8. October, 1928.

WHEREAS, Our silent companion, Death, who is always near us, and most close where the battle is hottest, has taken from our midst one of our most active and beloved comrades, Clarissa S. Ware, a literary contributor to THE LABOR HERALD, author of the “Foreign Born Worker,” member of the Workers’ Party, and most sympathetic friend of the Russian Workers’ Republic;

Be it RESOLVED, That the delegates to the Second General Conference of the Trade Union Educational League, held in Chicago, Sept. 1-2, in expressing grief to her beloved ones, shall rise and stand in silence for a minute in honor to our late Comrade and true fighter in the interest of the proletariat, Clarissa S. Ware. Adopted.

PDF of full Liberator issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/culture/pubs/liberator/1923/10/v6n10-w66-oct-1923-liberator-hr.pdf

PDF of full Labor Herald issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/laborherald/v2n08-oct-1923.pdf