This report is an invaluable document for students of the U.S. Communist movement. The ‘Joint Unity Convention’ of sixty evenly split delegates between the ‘United Communist Party’ and ‘Communist Party of America’ was a milestone meeting in the creation of a single Communist Party. Held mostly out-of-doors near Woodstock, New York over two weeks in May, 1921, the convention finally created a Party out of the majority of adherents to the Third International in the U.S. The new leadership elected was also evenly split. From the old C.P.A. George Ashkenuzi, John J. Ballam, Charles Dirba, Joseph Stilson, J. Wilenkin; from the U.C.P. James P. Cannon, Ludwig E. Katterfeld, Joseph Zack Kornfeder, Jay Lovestone, William W. Weinstone. Charles Dirba was the first Executive Secretary.

‘The U.C.P. and the C.P. United: An Account of the Joint Unity Convention’ from The Communist (Communist Party of America, Section of the Communist International). Vol. 1 No. 1. July, 1921.

The long struggle, the inter-party fight between the U.C.P. and the C.P., the conflict between two opposing points of view on tactics, forms of organization and formulae of Communist principles converged and clashed and were thrashed out at the joint unity convention. Thirty U.C.P. delegates met an equal number of C.P. delegates. Although they had come to a convention to merge into and form one united party, the two delegations from the beginning held aloof from each other. The party lines held; each delegation met in separate caucus. There was no fraternization except for the good-natured banterings between individuals of both factions. With all there was no bitterness and little open hostility. Every delegate was impressed with the seriousness of the task which lay before him. Each delegation realized from the outset that somehow unity must be achieved and that at this convention there must be formed a single Communist party in America. The Third International had spoken and its mandate could no longer be postponed.

The complete story of this Convention could only be written by one who had participated in both caucuses, for the real problems and the real debates on all important questions, were first thrashed out in the caucus meetings. The speeches on the floor of the joint sessions were but the expression of the majority opinion of each caucus.

The first joint session was held in the open air, the delegates seated in a semi-circle, the U.C.P. delegates on the right and the C.P. delegates on the left, in a natural amphitheater with a boulder for the chairman’s desk. The session was opened with short introductory remarks by the representative of the Pan-American Agency, introducing the impartial chairman who had been decided upon in advance by the Unity Committee.

The report of the credentials committee showed thirty delegates from each side, and six fraternal delegates, who were seated without contests. The difficulties which this convention was to face all through its sessions were indicated at the outset by the attempt to elect a rules committee of five members in accordance with the agenda which had been previously agreed upon by the Unity Committee. A proposition, made by a delegate from the C.P. side, to elect this committee by secret ballot resulted in a deadlock. A compromise was reached by an agreement to elect two members of this committee from each side with the chairman as the fifth member. The rule which provided for the deciding of all questions by secret ballot upon the demand of a majority, the request for secret ballot to be taken by ballot, as proposed by the C.P. members of the committee and the chairman, resulted in the next deadlock.

Agreement was reached by the U.C.P. proposal to elect all standing committees by secret ballot. Three were nominated from each side and on all committees the six nominees received 30 votes each and were declared elected. The standing committees were: Program, Constitution, Press, Industrial, Education, Legal Organization, Resolution and Liquidation.

Then followed nearly two days of caucusing, during which the committees prepared their reports. The U.C.P. caucus was debating the report of its C.E.C. preparatory to presenting it to the joint convention session. The question of mass action, participation in parliamentary elections, factory committees, the relation between the language federations and the party, which were included in the “ultimatum” of the Pan-American Agency of the C.I. which the C.E.C. of the U.C.P. had adopted, were being thrashed out in the U.C.P. caucus. The fact that this “ultimatum” was not accepted as such by the E.C. of the C.I. made it necessary for the U.C.P. delegation to seriously debate these questions at length.

The C.P. rejected the interpretation placed upon these questions by the Agency.

Each district convention of the C.P. had thrashed out questions of program and the delegates of the C.P. were in fundamental agreement.

The C.P. program was accepted as a basis for the program committee’s report almost without change.

The next session of the Joint Unity Convention was held outdoors and opened with the reading of the reports of the U.C.P. and C.P. C.E.C.’s. Comrade Elk reported for the U.C.P. and Comrade Dobin for the C.P. The two reports showed better than volumes of argument the important differences between the two parties.

The U.C.P. report recounts the facts of the unity of the C.L.P. with the “Minority” faction of the C.P. in May, 1920, claiming that according to the reports of the delegates there that there were 11,000 members in the U.C.P., that the great majority of these left the party after this “unity” convention because they did not agree with the U.C.P. Program and Constitution adopted there. Then follows a tabulation of U.C.P. membership at the time of their convention, held last December, 1920.

It reports a membership of 5,700, organized in 667 underground groups-three being from Canada. For May 15, 1921, the reported membership of the U.C.P. is 5,927, divided among 771 groups. The membership dues figures given in the report covers the period from Jan. 1st to April 1st, 1921 (three months) and are as follows: Due Stamps, $8,023.65. Initiation Stamps, $1,005. showing an average of 3,566 U.C.P. members paying dues during the months of January. February and March.

The U.C.P. report on Organization shows 14 Districts with 12 paid District Organizers and three paid Sub-district Organizers.

The U.C.P. reported to have 35 publications under their control with a total monthly circulation of 1,642,0000, and to have distributed since January 1st, 1921, two million leaflets, and 105,000 pamphlets in seven languages besides English.

The U.C.P. report covers 32 closely typewritten pages containing a mass of detail covering every phase of U.C.P. activities in the minutest possible manner but not discussing the attitude of its C.E.C. towards the questions which have divided the two parties for the past two years.

The report of the C.E.C. of the C.P. opens with an itemized cash statement, signed by the auditing committee, a complete statement of assets and liabilities of the C.P., a condensed cash statement for July 1, 1920 to May 13, 1921, covering all Language Federations and subsidiary units. In the report on organization all membership figures are based upon dues received and show an average for January, February, March and April of 6,328 dues paying members of the C.P. The dues payments for February, March and April were $9,718.40 a .60, and the Initiation Fees (a $1.00) $702.

A complete report of Convention Assessment figures was made by districts showing $2,909. paid, 304 exemptions and 56 to be collected shows that the C. P. membership participating in the elections to be 6,178, exclusive of 333 members in Canada (now organized in the C.P. of C.) and 81 on the Pacific Coast. From January 1st, 1,300 C.P. members left for Russia and 870 new members joined the party.

The C.P. was divided into six districts with six paid District Organizers and four paid Sub-district Organizers.

The C.P. report on “Propaganda and Agitation” showed 19 papers under the control of its C.E.C. published in 7 languages besides English and having a monthly circulation of 999,000 copies per month.

Since the last C.P. convention (Feb. 1921) the C.P. distributed 2,183,000 leaflets in English; and published 11 books in 104,000 copies; and 9 pamphlets in 61,000 copies.

The C.P. report after giving a detailed account of the important decisions of their C.E.C. proceeds to the discussion of questions of principles and policy, mass action and armed insurrection; C.P. Nuclei, Shop Delegate System, and Factory Committees; Relations with the Pan-American Council of the R.L.U.I.; The question of participation in the Elections; the question reported at length stating the C.P. position on all of Language Federations and the Unity question were these questions together with definite recommendations to the Unity Convention.

During the entire afternoon and extra night session these two reports were discussed and debated; the issues raised by the reports forming the basis of the arguments. It was during the debate upon the two C.E.C. reports that the delegates from both the U.C.P. and the C.P. discovered that the long controversies and disagreements between both parties on the questions of program and principles had had the result of clarifying these issues. With few exceptions the delegates of both sides found themselves in agreement on all fundamental questions, especially the interpretation of mass action and armed insurrection and the role of the party in the proletarian revolution. This debate paved the way for the consideration of the Program Committee’s Report and showed clearly that the real problem for affecting the unity of both parties would be tested in the consideration of the Constitution Committee’s report.

The Program of the unified party which appears on another page in this issue, is almost wholly the old program of the C.P. which was used as the basis for drawing up the new program. The important additions were made in the section dealing with “Labor Unions and Labor Organizations” especially in those parts which treat of the “left wing” movement within the old unions, and the attitude toward the I.W.W. These sections, together with the adoption of the report of the Industrial Committee’s Report, having been adopted with little opposition and without a dissenting vote, show that the delegates were determined to make the united party a party of action, with a program adapted to the immediate struggle of the workers. Both parties had in the course of the past 12 months grown up and with the exception of a few delegates were almost entirely recovered from the infantile sickness of “leftism”.

The section of the program dealing with parliamentarism, definitely pledges the party to participate in the municipal, state and national elections and is more than a mere formal declaration, since it makes it obligatory upon the C.E.C. to organize the necessary machinery for such participation. Thus whatever there may be of anti-parliamentarism and syndicalist tendencies within the united party finds no expression in its official declarations.

The Negro Question, which some delegates wanted to have included in the program, is to be treated in the Party’s Manifesto, which for lack of time for preparation was referred to the C.E.C. to issue.

The unanimous adoption of the program as printed in this issue of the COMMUNIST proves beyond doubt that so far as our declaration of principles is concerned the two factions are now in fundamental agreement upon all the important questions of principle which formerly divided them. The questions of tactics will from now on be the major questions to be decided.

After two more days of caucus meetings, the convention met to hear the report of the Committee on Constitution. The clauses upon which the committee had split three to three deadlocked the convention by a vote of thirty U.C.P. delegates to thirty C.P. delegates. The clauses agreed upon by the committee were adopted with little debate. At eleven o’clock at night the Committee on Constitution had finished its report. No constitution had been adopted. The convention was hopelessly deadlocked. Neither side left their seats. No motions were made; no one took the floor. The chairman announced that he would entertain a motion to adjourn. This was answered by the humming of the “Internationale”. The chairman waited and then declared the session adjourned, and left the chair. But both delegations remained in session. The situation was tense. After a while the chairman announced the re-opening of the session and introduced the representative of the Pan-American Agency, who proposed the settlement of the deadlock on the constitution by the negotiation between the separate caucuses. A delegate from the U.C.P. side moved that a recess be taken which was unanimously voted. Both caucuses then met and negotiations were carried on between them during the night. It was finally agreed to elect a committee of ten, five from each caucus, who were to bring in recommendations on each clause of the constitution upon which the convention could not agree. This committee met during the following day. Each caucus confirmed the compromises reached upon each clause and the convention in joint session rapidly adopted them with very little discussion. The principle points at issue and the decisions regarding them have been already described in detail in No. 1. of the “OFFICIAL BULLETIN”.

With the adoption of the Constitution the party lines melted away. Comrades who after having been separated for years embraced each other; hands clasped hands; the delegates sang the “Internationale” with as much energy as could be mustered after the trying 48-hour continuous sessions. Unity had almost been achieved.

Almost because, while the convention had decided upon a C.E.C. to be composed of nine members, another deadlock occurred over the election of the ninth C.E.C. member. Two names was proposed as the “impartial” ninth man. These were voted for by secret ballot, with the result that both received thirty votes. Neither side was quite prepared to trust to the complete impartiality of the other. After further caucus meetings it was agreed to reconsider the clause in the Constitution providing for nine members on the C.E.C. A C.E.C. of ten members was accepted. Both “impartial” candidates were then unanimously elected. It was agreed to elect the delegates to the Third Congress of the Comintern at the convention, and the Joint Unity of the U.C.P. and C.P. wound up its work and adjourned.

The delegates, exhausted from the strenuous activity of two weeks, but happy at having successfully accomplished their difficult task, formed little groups regardless of former party lines, and left for their homes.

Of the many conventions held by the Communists in this country, the Joint Unity Convention just ended will prove to be the most momentous and the most far- reaching in its effect upon the communist movement in the U.S.

With the unity of the former U.C.P. and C.P. accomplished the Communist Party in America enters upon a new period. Many comrades may deplore the long factional fight in this country, and the resultant splits within the movement, as a dead loss and waste of energy, but the clarification of Communist principles and tactics which resulted from these splits are a distinct advantage which more than compensates for the apparent loss of revolutionary energy.

The experience gained will be felt when the Communist Party enters the period of revolutionary activity, such as now prevails in Germany. But these factional controversies, when carried beyond the point necessary for the establishing of communist understanding, tend to become barren and may easily result in sectarianism.

For after all, the test of our principles lies in action; in the application of the tactics and principles of communism to the needs of the exploited masses in the class struggle. From now on the Communist Party of America must bend all its energies to bring its program into life; to achieve and maintain that contact with the masses without which there can be no powerful and effective communist movement in this country.

The Joint Unity Convention has produced a program of action sufficient for the requirements of the class war in America. Every member of the Communist Party (formed at this Unity Convention) has behind him the necessary training to make of the C.P. the revolutionary vanguard of the working class.

All the problems arising out of the unity of the two former factions are by no means settled. There yet remains to be consummated the physical union of the separate units of both the former parties. To this task every comrade must bend his or her energies. The bit- not be expected to disappear over night, but these will terseness engendered by two years of factional strife can wear off as our comrades fight shoulder to shoulder within the unions and elsewhere in carrying out the party’s program.

Let every comrade resolve to support the new C.E.C. in its difficult task of bringing into life the new program and constitution of the C.P. of A.

LONG LIVE THECOMMUNIST PARTY OF AMERICA.

LONG LIVE THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL.

Emulating the Bolsheviks who changed the name of their party in 1918 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 as it responded to World War One and the Russian Revolution. This ‘The Communist’ began in July 1921 after the “Unity Convention” in Woodstock, New York which created the Communist Party of America, Section of the Communist International uniting the old CPA with the CLP-CPA party. With Ruthenberg mostly as editor the paper acted as the Party’s underground voice, reporting official party business and discussion. The Toiler served as the mass English-language paper. This ‘The Communist’ was laid to rest in December, 1922 with the creation of the above-ground Workers Party. An invaluable resource for students of the formation of the Communist Party in the US.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/thecommunist/thecommunist6/v1n01-jul-1921-com-CPA.pdf