Max Bedacht Sr. was a German-born American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 revolutionary socialist

Revolutionary socialism

The term revolutionary socialism refers to Socialist tendencies that advocate the need for fundamental social change through revolution by mass movements of the working class, as a strategy to achieve a socialist society...

 political activist, journalist, and functionary who helped establish the Communist Party of America. Bedacht is best remembered as the long-time head of the International Workers Order

International Workers Order

The International Workers Order was a Communist Party-affiliated insurance, mutual benefit and fraternal organization founded in 1930 and disbanded in 1954 as the result of legal action undertaken by the state of New York in 1951...

, a Communist Party

Communist Party USA

The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....

-sponsored fraternal benefit organization.

Early years

Max Bedacht, Sr. was born in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, Germany to an ethnically German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 mother on October 13, 1883. He was the son of a single mother who worked as a domestic servant and was raised a Catholic by a maternal aunt and uncle.

Early labor activities

Bedacht apprenticed and worked as a barber

Barber

A barber is someone whose occupation is to cut any type of hair, and to shave or trim the beards of men. The place of work of a barber is generally called a barbershop....

 in Germany and Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, working in the towns of Gosseau and Herisau. He organized fellow journeymen barbers into a union during his European years. In 1905 he joined the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland

Social Democratic Party of Switzerland

The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

. In 1907, Bedacht was elected president of the Swiss National Barbers' Union and edited the organization's newspaper. That same year he took part in his first labor action, a sympathy strike

Sympathy strike

Secondary action is industrial action by a trade union in support of a strike initiated by workers in another, separate enterprise...

 held for the striking chocolate

Chocolate

Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...

 workers on the banks of Lake Geneva

Lake Geneva

Lake Geneva or Lake Léman is a lake in Switzerland and France. It is one of the largest lakes in Western Europe. 59.53 % of it comes under the jurisdiction of Switzerland , and 40.47 % under France...

.

During a barbers' strike the following year, Bedacht rented a building for a cooperative

Cooperative

A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...

 barber shop in his name. In the settlement of the strike, the plan for the cooperative facility was abandoned, however, and Bedacht was sued for breach of contract

Breach of contract

Breach of contract is a legal cause of action in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other party's performance....

 by the building's landlord. While the union's members offered to pay the money for him, Bedacht decided to emigrate to the United States rather than allow this to take place.

Activities: New York City

Bedacht immigrated to the United States in 1908 and joined the Socialist Party of America

Socialist Party of America

The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...

 (SPA) during that same year. He lived and worked in Manhattan from 1910 to 1912, cutting hair by day while spending his evenings as a German-language socialist agitator. After this he spent a brief period in Detroit as editor of both German-language and English-language Socialist newspapers.

Activities: San Francisco

In June of 1913 he moved to San Francisco to become the editor of the German-language labor newspaper Vorwärts der Pacific Küste (Forward of the Pacific Coast), a job which he retained until the paper's termination in 1917 due to draconian postal regulations being placed on the foreign language press during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. He briefly moved to South Dakota

South Dakota

South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...

 to edit a paper called The New Era following the demise of the Vorwärts, but soon returned to San Francisco when he found that publication unviable, taking up the barbers' shears again.

Bedacht was long an adherent of the so-called impossibilist

Impossibilism

Impossibilism is an interpretation of Marxism. It emphasizes the limited value of reforms in overturning capitalism and insists on revolutionary political action as the only reliable method of bringing about socialism.-Origins of the concept:...

 wing of the Socialist Party

Socialist Party

Socialist Party is the name of several different political parties around the world that are explicitly called Socialist. All of these parties claim to uphold socialism, though they might belong to different branches of the socialist movement and might therefore have different interpretations of...

, placing his faith in socialist revolution rather than the ameliorative reform of elected officials. As was the case with many radicals in America, Bedacht was inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and was an early adherent of the 1919 Left Wing Manifesto

Left Wing Manifesto

The Left Wing Manifesto is the name rather confusingly bestowed upon two distinct programmatic documents of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party during the factional war in the Socialist Party of America of 1919...

 written by Louis C. Fraina

Louis C. Fraina

Louis C. Fraina was a founding member of the American Communist Party in 1919. After running afoul of the Communist International in 1921 over the alleged misappropriation of funds, Fraina left the organized radical movement, emerging in 1930 as a left wing public intellectual by the name of Lewis...

 and the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party

Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party

The Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party was an organized faction within the Socialist Party of America in 1919 which served as the core of the dual communist parties which emerged in the fall of that year — the Communist Party of America and the Communist Labor Party of America.-Precusors:A...

 which emerged in conjunction with that document. Bedacht was a Left Wing candidate for the SPA's governing National Executive Committee in 1919 and a delegate to the SPA's pivotal 1919 Emergency National Convention

1919 Emergency National Convention

The 1919 Emergency National Convention of the Socialist Party of America was held in Chicago from August 30 to September 5, 1919. It was a seminal gathering in the history of American radicalism, marked by the bolting of the party's organized left wing to establish the Communist Labor Party of...

.

Chicago convention of 1919

At the Chicago convention in August 1919, the Left Wing California delegation was challenged at the time the gathering was convened, placing the delegates in limbo, their fate held in the mercy of a committee firmly controlled by the "Regular" faction of National Executive Secretary Adolph Germer

Adolph Germer

Adoph Germer was an American socialist political functionary and union organizer. He is best remembered as National Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party of America from 1916 to 1919. It was during this period that the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party emerged as an organized faction...

 and James Oneal

James Oneal

James "Jim" Oneal , a founding member of the Socialist Party of America , was a prominent socialist journalist, historian, and party activist who played a decisive role in the bitter party splits of 1919-21 and 1934-36.-Early years:...

. The Credentials Committee, headed by Judge Jacob Panken

Jacob Panken

Jacob Panken was an American socialist politician, best remembered for his tenure as a New York municipal judge and frequent candidacies for high elected office on the ticket of the Socialist Party of America.-Early years:...

 of New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, stalled the hearings on the California delegation until after the convention was underway and until it was clear that a safe majority of delegates were in the Regulars' camp.
As a result, although they were ultimately approved by the committee, the California delegation refused to take their seats in protest and went downstairs to attend the parallel convention of the Communist Labor Party (CLP) convened by NEC members Alfred Wagenknecht

Alfred Wagenknecht

Alfred Wagenknecht was an American Marxist activist and political functionary. He is best remembered for having played a critical role in the establishment of the American Communist Party in 1919 as a leader of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party...

 and L.E. Katterfeld

L.E. Katterfeld

Ludwig Erwin Alfred "Dutch" Katterfeld , most commonly known as L.E. Katterfeld, was an American socialist politician, a founding member of the Communist Labor Party of America, a Comintern functionary, and a magazine editor.-Early life:L.E...

. Bedacht was elected at the founding convention to the 5 member National Executive Committee which governed the CLP.

During the Palmer Raids

Palmer Raids

The Palmer Raids were attempts by the United States Department of Justice to arrest and deport radical leftists, especially anarchists, from the United States. The raids and arrests occurred in November 1919 and January 1920 under the leadership of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer...

 in California and Chicago, Bedacht was arrested and tried for conspiracy. However, despite conviction he avoided prison. Soon afterwards, he traveled to Europe and Russia as an international delegate for the Communist Party.

In 1924, Bedacht was a delegate of the Workers Party to the 5th World Congress of the Communist International.

Bedacht lived in Chicago at ever lived at 3101 North Nordica Avenue, from 1923 to 1928, according to his testimony before HUAC in 1949.

Activities: New York City

In 1929, Bedacht took over as liaison with the Soviet underground after the expulsion of Jay Lovestone from the Party in 1929.

In the summer of July 1932, Bedacht invited Whittaker Chambers

Whittaker Chambers

Whittaker Chambers was born Jay Vivian Chambers and also known as David Whittaker Chambers , was an American writer and editor. After being a Communist Party USA member and Soviet spy, he later renounced communism and became an outspoken opponent later testifying in the perjury and espionage trial...

 to join the Soviet underground. Chambers described Bedacht's approch as follows:

"What are you doing now, Comrade Chambers?" Bedacht asked me. I said that I was editing the New Masses . "You were out of the party for a while, weren't you?" he asked . I said that I had been out of the party. "For some reason," he said, as if he strongly disapproved of the whole business, "they want you to go into one of the party's 'special institutions'." Bedacht always used that expression in referring to any of the Communist underground apparatuses. But it was a term new to me.

I asked what he meant. "It is a 'special institution'," he repeated. As I still looked blank, he added: "They want you to do underground work." [...]

Then I said: "I am sorry, but I have decided not to do it."

"You have no choice," said the little man. He meant, of course, that I was under the discipline of the party and that, if I did not go into the underground, I would go out of the party. "In fact," he added, "in a few minutes I am going to take you to someone from the 'special institution'."

In 1934, he ran on the Communist ticket for U.S. Senator from New York.
In 1937, he said under oath in 1948, "I went to Spain with a committee of eight to the International Brigade in Spain. I think it was 1937."

In 1939, Time Magazine cited Bedacht in connect with the arrest of Party leader Earl Browder

Earl Browder

Earl Russell Browder was an American communist and General Secretary of the Communist Party USA from 1934 to 1945. He was expelled from the party in 1946.- Early years :...

 on charges of indicted a Federal Grand Jury in New York City on two counts connected to passport: "Possible was the bagging by Frank Murphy

Frank Murphy

William Francis Murphy was a politician and jurist from Michigan. He served as First Assistant U.S. District Attorney, Eastern Michigan District , Recorder's Court Judge, Detroit . Mayor of Detroit , the last Governor-General of the Philippines , U.S...

 of such Reds as Executive Committeeman Max Bedacht, Publisher Alexander Trachtenberg

Alexander Trachtenberg

Alexander "Alex" Trachtenberg was an American publisher of radical political books and pamphlets and activist in the Socialist Party of America and later the Communist Party USA...

."

International Workers Order

In the 1940s, Bedacht became general secretary of the International Workers Order

International Workers Order

The International Workers Order was a Communist Party-affiliated insurance, mutual benefit and fraternal organization founded in 1930 and disbanded in 1954 as the result of legal action undertaken by the state of New York in 1951...

 (IWO), a Communist Party-affiliated insurance, mutual benefit, and fraternal organization (1930-1954), whose membership peaked 1946-1974 at 200,000 members. In the mid-1940s, Bedacht appeared under subpoena before the Special Committee on Un-American Activities of the US House of Representatives (or "Dies Committee").

Expulsion

In 1948, Bedacht was expelled from the national CPUSA.

In November 1949, Bedacht appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Regarding his activities, he answered when asked:

Mr. Tavenner: Will you please state for the committee the official positions which you have held in the past in the Communist Party of the United States?

Mr. Bedacht: Almost everything up to secretary. I was never the editor of the Daily Worker

Daily Worker

The Daily Worker was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, some attempts were made to make it appear that the paper reflected a...

.

Regarding his expulsion from the CPUSA, he held this exchange:

Mr. Tavenner: I believe you have recently been expelled from Communist Party, have you not?

Mr. Bedacht. Yes, sir.

Mr. Tavenner. On what grounds did this expulsion take place?

Mr. Bedacht: I don't know that I know myself, but, anyway, this committee is surely not a court of appeals against my expulsion, and my explanation for it would take quite a while, and you would have to listen to the other side, too.

Mr. Tavenner: I will not go into that. It was the result of a factional dispute within the party; is that substantially right?

Mr. Bedacht: You may say so.

Death and legacy

Bedacht was married and had four children, three girls and a boy. Eldest daughter Elsie worked for a time in the National Office of the Communist Party in the early 1930s.

Max Bedacht died on July 4, 1972.

Books and pamphlets

• In Memoriam: To our comrades Karl Liebknecht, 1871–1919, Rosa Luxemburg, 1871–1919, Martyrs to the German Revolution. San Francisco : Socialist Party of San Francisco, 1919
• Principles of Communism: Engel's Original Draft of the Communist Manifesto. (Editor.) Chicago: Daily Worker Publishing Co., 1925
• The Menace of Opportunism: A Contribution to the Bolshevization of the Workers (Communist) Party. Chicago: Daily Worker Publishing Co., 1926
• Anti-Soviet Lies and the Five-Year Plan: The "Holy" Capitalist War Against the Soviet Union. New York: Workers Library Publishers, 1931
• Karl Marx, 1883-1933 With Earl Browder and Sam Don. New York: Workers Library Publishers, 1933
• Unity of the Workers' Fraternal Movement: A Speech. New York: Cultural Committee of the International Workers Order, 1936
• Labor Fraternalism: The Fraternal Principles and Program of the IWO. New York: National Education Dept., International Workers Order, 1941
• An Appeal of the German Communists: Destroy Hitler! Free Germany! With Alfred Wagenknecht. New York: Workers Library Publishers, 1942
• The International Workers Order from the Fifth to the Sixth Convention: Report of the General Secretary Max Bedacht to the IWO Sixth National Convention, July 2–7, 1944, New York City. New York: International Workers Order, 1944
• The Task Before Us: Address. New York: International Workers Order, 1944
• Complete Equality: Democracy and the Negroes. New York: International Workers Order, 1945
• Your Health — America's Wealth. New York: International Workers Order, 1945
• On the Path of Life (memoirs), 1967

Articles

All articles listed here come from the Marxist Internet Archives except the 1926 Daily Worker article entitled "Eastman Drops His Mask."

• Communist Labor Party Mail Referendum for NEC Motions 3 and 4 (1919)
• Letter to the Central Executive Committee of the United Communist Party (1921)
• To the CEC of the CPA (PDF) (1926)
• Report on the 4th Comintern Congress to the CEC of the Workers Party of America (1921)
• Circular Letter to All District Organizers of the Unified CPA (1922)
• Letter to the Executive Committee of the Communist International in Moscow (1924)
• "Eastman Drops His Mask," The Daily Worker, vol. 3, no. 237 (October 20, 1926), pp. 1, 6
• Editorial (1927)

External sources

• Emory University: Manunscripts and Archives on Communism: Theodore Draper Papers
• Marxists Internet Archive: Max Bedacht Library