Includes the ‘Unity Agreement’ between the C.L.P. and Ruthenberg and Lovestone’s C.P.A.

The Communist (C.E.C. Faction). Vol. 2 No. 6. May 22, 1920.

Contents: New Offensive Against Soviet Russia, Lenin Versus the “Majority” Group, As to Party Funds, Agreement for a Unity Conference Between the Communist Party and Communist Labor Party, The Coming Elections by Louis C. Fraina, The American S. P. and the International by Louis C. Fraina, Statement by Chicago District Committee, The Counter-Revolution in Germany by Louis C. Fraina.

This ‘The Communist’ was a split from the Communist Party of America in April, 1920 by Charles Ruthenberg, Jay Lovestone, and others, referred to as the Central Executive Committee group, over the majority’s reluctance to unite with the Communist Labor Party as mandated by the Communist International. Laying the groundwork for the May 1920 Bridgman, Michigan convention that would form the United Communist Party, this version of ‘The Communist’ only lasted three issues. The new UCP stuck with tradition and called their official journal…’The Communist. Emulating the Bolsheviks who in 1918 changed the name of their party to the Communist Party, there were up to a dozen papers in the US named ‘The Communist’ in the splintered landscape of the US Left between 1919 and 1923. All them claimed adherence to the new Third International and sought that body’s endorsement. They were often published at the same time and in the same format, making it somewhat confusing to untangle their relationships.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/thecommunist/thecommunist4/v2n04-a-apr-25-1920.pdf