American League Against War and Fascism
Encyclopedia
The American League Against War and Fascism was an organization formed in 1933 by the Communist Party USA and pacifists
united by their concern as Nazism
and Fascism
rose in Europe
. In 1937 the name of the group was changed to the American League for Peace and Democracy.
In 1937 the organization changed its name to the American League for Peace and Democracy. Helen Silvermaster was associated with this group. The League dissolved after the 1939 signing of the Hitler-Stalin pact discouraged its non-communist members. Its communist elements then influenced the founding of the American Peace Mobilization
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Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
united by their concern as Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
and Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
rose in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. In 1937 the name of the group was changed to the American League for Peace and Democracy.
1937 name change
The American League Against War and Fascism, though it attempted to attract as broad a following as possible and included many members of Roosevelt's Cabinets, was based primarily in the working class and its leadership was largely socialist and communist. By 1937, its Communist Party members boasted that 30 percent of the entire organized labor movement was represented in the League, and labor delegates occupied 413 of the 1416 seats at the national convention. Afro-Americans were also well represented in both the leadership and rank-and-file delegates.In 1937 the organization changed its name to the American League for Peace and Democracy. Helen Silvermaster was associated with this group. The League dissolved after the 1939 signing of the Hitler-Stalin pact discouraged its non-communist members. Its communist elements then influenced the founding of the American Peace Mobilization
American Peace Mobilization
The American Peace Mobilization was a peace group, officially cited in 1947 by United States Attorney General Tom C. Clark on the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations for 1948, as directed by President Harry S...
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