Once Secretary of the Illinois Socialist Party, J.O. Bentall was a major figure in Midwestern Socialism, a founder of the Communist Party in 1919, editor of the ‘Truth’ newspaper, a partisan of the Lovestone-Pepper faction, and later a leading member of the Communist Party-Opposition.

‘In Memory of J.O. Bentall’ from Workers Age. Vol. 2 No. 15. June 15, 1933.

C.P.-O. Leader Dies After Life Of Militancy New York City.

J.O. Bentall, one of the founders of the Communist Party of the United States and one of the organizers of the Communist Party (Opposition), died on Thursday, March 18, 1933 at the age of sixty-two, after an unsuccessful operation for bladder trouble at the Fordham Hospital in New York.

Comrade Bentall was one of the outstanding revolutionary figures in the American revolutionary movement. As secretary of the Socialist Party of Illinois, he was its candidate for Governor of Illinois. In the course of the Communist Party’s drive for the Labor party, Comrade Bentall ran as candidate for Congress on the Farmer-Labor Party ticket. Comrade Bentall drew nation-wide attention to his sterling abilities and loyalty as a revolutionary fighter thru his resistance to the government’s imperialist war preparations in 1917. He was found guilty on the charge of organizing draft resistance and his conviction was sustained by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Comrade Bentall served a three year sentence in the Federal penitentiary at Leavenworth.

In the Communist Party, Comrade Bentall held many positions of high responsibility. He was at one time district organizer of Philadelphia. His years of experience as editor of the “Duluth Truth” proved of great value to the party in its effort to extend its influence amongst the farming masses and in tying up their struggles with the struggles of those of the city workers. At the time of his death, Comrade Bentall was working on a book on the agrarian question.

When the split came in the party, Comrade Bentall was loyal to his convictions and militantly resisted the destructive sectarian line of the Communist International and fought the unprincipled party bureaucracy. He was elected a member of the national Committee of the Communist Party (Opposition).

At the funeral services held at the home of Comrade Bentall, Comrade Lovestone representing the national committee of the Communist Opposition evaluated the inestimable services of Comrade Bentall to the revolutionary movement, expressed heartfelt condolences of the organization to Mrs. Bentall and emphasized that the Communist Party (Opposition) would continue the struggle in which Comrade Bentall was so valiant a fighter and that in this struggle the efforts and activities of Comrade Bentall had proved and would continue to serve as a source of great inspiration and strength.

To the last, Comrade Bentall remained firm in his support of the Communist Opposition and in his belief in the vital necessity of our struggle. The crude attempts of the “Daily Worker” to extract a sort of “death-bed conversion” of Comrade Bentall are nothing but a shameless insult to the dead. Those who worked with Comrade Bentall and fought side by side with him know the direction of his convictions!

Workers Age was the continuation of Revolutionary Age, begun in 1929 and published in New York City by the Communist Party U.S.A. Majority Group, lead by Jay Lovestone and Ben Gitlow and aligned with Bukharin in the Soviet Union and the International Communist (Right) Opposition in the Communist International. Workers Age was a weekly published between 1932 and 1941. Writers and or editors for Workers Age included Lovestone, Gitlow, Will Herberg, Lyman Fraser, Geogre F. Miles, Bertram D. Wolfe, Charles S. Zimmerman, Lewis Corey (Louis Fraina), Albert Bell, William Kruse, Jack Rubenstein, Harry Winitsky, Jack MacDonald, Bert Miller, and Ben Davidson. During the run of Workers Age, the ‘Lovestonites’ name changed from Communist Party (Majority Group) (November 1929-September 1932) to the Communist Party of the USA (Opposition) (September 1932-May 1937) to the Independent Communist Labor League (May 1937-July 1938) to the Independent Labor League of America (July 1938-January 1941), and often referred to simply as ‘CPO’ (Communist Party Opposition). While those interested in the history of Lovestone and the ‘Right Opposition’ will find the paper essential, students of the labor movement of the 1930s will find a wealth of information in its pages as well. Though small in size, the CPO plaid a leading role in a number of important unions, particularly in industry dominated by Jewish and Yiddish-speaking labor, particularly with the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union Local 22, the International Fur & Leather Workers Union, the Doll and Toy Workers Union, and the United Shoe and Leather Workers Union, as well as having influence in the New York Teachers, United Autoworkers, and others.

For a PDF of the full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/workers-age/1933/v2n15-jun-15-1933-WA.pdf