Otto Huiswoud
Encyclopedia
Otto Eduard Geradus Majelia Huiswoud (1893 - 1961) was a Suriname
-born political activist who was a charter member of the Communist Party of America. Huiswoud is regarded as the first black
member of the American communist
movement. Huiswoud served briefly as the Communist Party's representative to the Executive Committee of the Communist International
in 1922 and was a leading black Comintern functionary during the decade of the 1920s.
, a South American
coastal city in what was then called Dutch Guiana
and is today the capital of the independent country of Suriname
. He was the son of Rudolf Huiswoud, a former slave who had gained his freedom as a boy of 11 and who learned the skills of a tailor
, working at the trade until his death in 1920. His mother, Jacqueline Bernard Huiswoud, originally hailed from the island of Curaçao
. Otto was the fifth child and the second son in a family of eight siblings.
As a boy Otto was educated in Roman Catholic schools, with the educational system of the day conducted in the Dutch language
and compulsory
for children aged 7 to 12. Otto remained in school for five years, gaining exposure during this time not only to Dutch, but also the French
and German
languages.
During his school years Huiswoud participated in the Roman Catholic Church
on Sundays as an altar boy. After school he worked as an apprentice to a carpenter
.
Following completion of his education, Otto began a second apprenticeship, this time working under a printer. Huiswoud was unhappy with his lot in life as a printer's apprentice, however, so in January 1910 the 16-year old convinced his father to allow him to depart to see the world and he shipped out on a banana
boat bound for Holland.
Due to the abysmal working conditions on board, Huiswoud and two of his Surinamese mates decided to jump ship when it was docked in New York, however. He settled in Brooklyn
, where he made ends meet by working at various jobs as a printer, cook, and janitor.
speakers in Union Square
, where he was introduced to socialist
arguments and literature
for the first time. By 1916 he had become a member of the Socialist Party of America
(SPA), participating actively in the Young People's Socialist League
at Cornell University
in Ithaca, New York
, where he studied agriculture
. Huiswoud would later also become a member of the Socialist Propaganda League
, a revolutionary socialist
organization which included the influential socialist writer S.J. Rutgers
, a Dutch
civil engineer
who had previously worked in the Dutch East Indies
.
During the summer of 1918, Huiswoud took a job working on a pleasure boat that was part of the Fall River Line
. Black crew members were not organized by the International Seamen's Union
, so Huiswoud took it upon himself to lead a walkout that led the company to negotiate for better pay and improved working conditions for its minority workers. News of the young leader of this Boston strike reached Socialist Party leaders, who offered Huiswoud a one year scholarship to attend the Rand School of Social Science
, the SPA's training school for party activists and trade union workers. Huiswoud accepted this offer and did not return to Cornell.
Between his attendance of the Rand School and his participation in the 21st Assembly Branch of the SPA, located in Harlem
, Huiswoud made the acquaintance of a number of influential figures in the history of American radicalism, including Japanese expatriate Sen Katayama
— later a high-ranking functionary in the Communist International — trade unionist and newspaper editor A. Philip Randolph
and his associate Chandler Owen
, Richard B. Moore
, Lovett Fort-Whiteman, Frank Crosswaith, and Edward Welsh.
Huiswoud found himself a supporter of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party
during the acrimonious factional war of 1919. He was one of 94 delegates to the June 1919 National Conference of the Left Wing, which elected a governing Left Wing National Council and participated in the formation of the Communist Party of America on September 1 of that year. Although not a delegate to either founding convention, according to Comintern records Huiswoud's party membership dated to 1919, and he has been recognized by historians as the first black member of the American Communist Party.
Through his connection to the radical black political leaders of Harlem, Huiswoud eventually made his way to membership in the African Blood Brotherhood
, a secret society established by Cyril Briggs
to promote black liberation and self-defense against racist aggression
. Although an active participant in the organization, Huiswoud was not among the group's founders, Cyril Briggs himself later recalled.
In the summer of 1922, Huiswoud was chosen as the candidate of the Workers Party of America — the new "legal" political arm of what was then the underground Communist Party — as its candidate for the New York State Legislature in its 22nd Assembly District.
. Huiswoud addressed the assembled delegates on the situation facing black workers in the United States. Huiswoud was elected head of the Congress's Negro Commission and was instrumental in helping draft the thesis of the Comintern on the so-called "Negro Question" as well as four resolutions, all of which Huiswoud presented on the floor of the Congress.
Owing to his presence in Moscow, in the first week of December 1922 Huiswoud briefly served as the Communist Party's representative to the Communist International when their regularly elected "CI Rep," L.E. Katterfeld, who was out on bail regarding a political case started against him in 1920, was forced to rush home to the United States to appear in court.
In February 1924, Huiswood attended the so-called "Negro Sanhedrin," a national anti-racism conference, as one of two official delegates of the African Blood Brotherhood. The two ABB delegates were joined by five others representing the Workers Party of America (name of the legalized Communist Party since the end of 1921).
In June 1924, Huiswoud was a delegate to the St. Paul Convention of the Farmer-Labor Party
, an attempt by the Workers Party of America to create and harness a mass political organization including the organized labor movement and disaffected farmers. At this gathering Huiswoud proposed a resolution calling for full social equality
for American blacks and an end to lynching
. A white Texas
farmer rose to oppose Huiswoud's proposal, declaring that American blacks did not truly desire social equality with caucasians, only material benefits. Huiswoud responded by taking to the floor to denounce the farmer, an action that threatened the fragile alliance that the communists were attempting to build and which was regarded as a serious breach of discipline. The affair ended with Huiswoud being quietly suspended from the Workers Party for one year.
In October 1925 the Workers (Communist) Party launched a new organization directed at American blacks to replace the by now defunct African Blood Brotherhood. The party's best-regarded black activists, including Huiswoud, Jim Ford
, Harry Haywood
, Cyril Briggs, Richard B. Moore were put to work as functionaries of this new group, called the American Negro Labor Congress
. The organization was headed by Lovett Fort-Whiteman, an individual with whom Huiswoud came into conflict, leading to Fort-Whiteman's ouster in 1927.
During the bitter internal factonal war which consumed the Workers (Communist) Party during the decade of the 1920s, Huiswoud was a consistent supporter of the New York-based faction of C.E. Ruthenberg
, John Pepper
, and Jay Lovestone
against the Midwest-based faction of William Z. Foster
, James P. Cannon
, and Alexander Bittelman
. With the New York group in control of the party apparatus for most of this period, Huiswoud remained one of the organization's top-ranking black leaders.
In March 1929, Huiswoud was elected as a delegate to the 6th National Convention of the Communist (Workers) Party, held in New York City. He was at that time the party's highest ranking black member, sitting on the governing Central Executive Committee and the Political Committee ("Polcom") which guided the party's day-to-day operations. Huiswoud additionally served as the Director of the Negro Department of the Communist Party at this time.
and his policies, which was under review by a special American Commission established by the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International. Although the delegates presented a united front arguing for a continuation of the Lovestone leadership, the powerful American Commission, which included such top Soviet leaders as Joseph Stalin
, Vyacheslav Molotov
, and Otto Kuusinen, ultimately decided to take decisive action against the factionalism which had plagued the American party throughout the decade of its existence by removing opposing factional leaders Lovestone and Alexander Bittelman
and sending them to work in other Communist Parties abroad.
Lovestone refused to accept this decision and returned home without authorization, resulting in his expulsion from the Communist Party and his eventual formation of a rival organization, the Communist Party (Majority Group). Huiswoud, on the other hand, ultimately chose to accept the decisions of the Comintern and remained at its service.
In July 1928 the Red International of Labor Unions (RILU), the world communist movement's international trade union organization, had established a "Negro Section" dedicated to coordinating the activities of black workers from the Caribbean region and Sub-Saharan Africa
. This would serve as the directing center for an organization called the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers (ITUCNW), established in Hamburg
, Germany
in July 1930. Headed by Trinidadian George Padmore
, Huiswoud was named the editor of the ITUCNW's monthly publication, The Negro Worker. Completing the core cadres of this Comintern initiative was the American-born James W. Ford, former Vice Presidential nominee of the Workers (Communist) Party.
. He was 67 years old at the time of his death.
Otto Huiswoud's papers, archived under the name of his wife, Hermina "Hermie" Dumont Huiswoud, reside at the Tamiment Library at New York University
in two archival boxes. Use of the collection is open to scholars without restriction.
Suriname
Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...
-born political activist who was a charter member of the Communist Party of America. Huiswoud is regarded as the first black
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
member of the American communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
movement. Huiswoud served briefly as the Communist Party's representative to the Executive Committee of the Communist International
Executive Committee of the Communist International
The Executive Committee of the Communist International, commonly known by its acronym, ECCI, was the governing authority of the Comintern between the World Congresses of that body...
in 1922 and was a leading black Comintern functionary during the decade of the 1920s.
Early years
Otto E. Huiswoud was born October 28, 1893, in ParamariboParamaribo
Paramaribo is the capital and largest city of Suriname, located on banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 250,000 people, more than half of Suriname's population...
, a South American
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
coastal city in what was then called Dutch Guiana
Dutch Guiana
Dutch Guiana, also known as Netherlands Guyana or Dutch Guyana , is the name given to various Dutch colonies on the northern coast of South America, created by the Dutch West India Company...
and is today the capital of the independent country of Suriname
Suriname
Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...
. He was the son of Rudolf Huiswoud, a former slave who had gained his freedom as a boy of 11 and who learned the skills of a tailor
Tailor
A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers,...
, working at the trade until his death in 1920. His mother, Jacqueline Bernard Huiswoud, originally hailed from the island of Curaçao
Curaçao
Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...
. Otto was the fifth child and the second son in a family of eight siblings.
As a boy Otto was educated in Roman Catholic schools, with the educational system of the day conducted in the Dutch language
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
and compulsory
Compulsory education
Compulsory education refers to a period of education that is required of all persons.-Antiquity to Medieval Era:Although Plato's The Republic is credited with having popularized the concept of compulsory education in Western intellectual thought, every parent in Judea since Moses's Covenant with...
for children aged 7 to 12. Otto remained in school for five years, gaining exposure during this time not only to Dutch, but also the French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
languages.
During his school years Huiswoud participated in the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
on Sundays as an altar boy. After school he worked as an apprentice to a carpenter
Carpenter
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
.
Following completion of his education, Otto began a second apprenticeship, this time working under a printer. Huiswoud was unhappy with his lot in life as a printer's apprentice, however, so in January 1910 the 16-year old convinced his father to allow him to depart to see the world and he shipped out on a banana
Banana
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
boat bound for Holland.
Due to the abysmal working conditions on board, Huiswoud and two of his Surinamese mates decided to jump ship when it was docked in New York, however. He settled in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, where he made ends meet by working at various jobs as a printer, cook, and janitor.
Early political career
In New York, Huiswoud was exposed to soapboxSoapbox
A soapbox is a raised platform on which one stands to make an impromptu speech, often about a political subject. The term originates from the days when speakers would elevate themselves by standing on a wooden crate originally used for shipment of soap or other dry goods from a manufacturer to a...
speakers in Union Square
Union Square
Union Square may refer to:Asia* Union Square * Union Square station on Dubai MetroCanada* Union Square, Nova ScotiaUnited States* Union Square, Baltimore, Maryland* Union Square * Union Square, San Francisco, California...
, where he was introduced to socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
arguments and literature
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
for the first time. By 1916 he had become a member of 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), participating actively in the Young People's Socialist League
Young People's Socialist League (1907)
The Young People's Socialist League , founded in 1907, was the official youth arm of the Socialist Party of America. Its political activities tend to concentrate on increasing the voter turnout of young democratic socialists and affecting the issues impacting that demographic group.- Foundation and...
at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in Ithaca, New York
Ithaca, New York
The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...
, where he studied agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
. Huiswoud would later also become a member of the Socialist Propaganda League
Socialist Propaganda League
The Socialist Propaganda League was a tiny socialist group active in London from circa 1911 to 1951.The League was formed as a result of an early dispute in the Socialist Party of Great Britain and of the optimistic belief of the Party’s founder members that the socialist revolution was near...
, a 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...
organization which included the influential socialist writer S.J. Rutgers
S. J. Rutgers
Sebald Justin Rutgers was a Dutch Marxist theoretician and journalist who played an important role in the Left Wing section of the Socialist Party of America. He was also a construction engineer who was active in building industry in the Soviet Union.-Early years:S.J. Rutgers was born in Leiden,...
, a Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
who had previously worked in the Dutch East Indies
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
.
During the summer of 1918, Huiswoud took a job working on a pleasure boat that was part of the Fall River Line
Fall River Line
The Fall River Line was a combination steamboat and railroad connection between New York City and Boston that operated between 1847 and 1937. It consisted of a railroad journey between Boston and Fall River, Massachusetts, where passengers would then board steamboats for the journey through...
. Black crew members were not organized by the International Seamen's Union
International Seamen's Union
The International Seamen's Union was an American maritime trade union which operated from 1892 until 1937. In its last few years, the union effectively split into the National Maritime Union and Seafarer's International Union.-The early years:...
, so Huiswoud took it upon himself to lead a walkout that led the company to negotiate for better pay and improved working conditions for its minority workers. News of the young leader of this Boston strike reached Socialist Party leaders, who offered Huiswoud a one year scholarship to attend the Rand School of Social Science
Rand School of Social Science
The Rand School of Social Science was formed in New York City by adherents of the Socialist Party of America in 1906. The school aimed to provide a broad education to workers, imparting a politicizing class-consciousness, and additionally served as a research bureau, a publisher, and the operator...
, the SPA's training school for party activists and trade union workers. Huiswoud accepted this offer and did not return to Cornell.
Between his attendance of the Rand School and his participation in the 21st Assembly Branch of the SPA, located in Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
, Huiswoud made the acquaintance of a number of influential figures in the history of American radicalism, including Japanese expatriate Sen Katayama
Sen Katayama
Sen Katayama , born Yabuki Sugataro , was an early member of the American Communist Party and co-founder, in 1922, of the Japan Communist Party....
— later a high-ranking functionary in the Communist International — trade unionist and newspaper editor A. Philip Randolph
A. Philip Randolph
Asa Philip Randolph was a leader in the African American civil-rights movement and the American labor movement. He organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first predominantly Negro labor union. In the early civil-rights movement, Randolph led the March on Washington...
and his associate Chandler Owen
Chandler Owen
Chandler Owen was an African-American writer, editor and early member of the Socialist Party of America. Born in North Carolina, he studied and worked in New York, then moved to Chicago for much of his career. He established his own public relations company in Chicago and wrote speeches for...
, Richard B. Moore
Richard B. Moore
Richard Benjamin Moore was an African Caribbean civil rights activist and prominent communist.-Early years:RIchard Benjamin Moore was a Barbadian writer born on August 9, 1893 in Barbados, West Indies to Richard Henry Moore and Josephine Thorne Moore. In Barbados, the Richard Henry and Josephine...
, Lovett Fort-Whiteman, Frank Crosswaith, and Edward Welsh.
Huiswoud found himself a supporter of 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...
during the acrimonious factional war of 1919. He was one of 94 delegates to the June 1919 National Conference of the Left Wing, which elected a governing Left Wing National Council and participated in the formation of the Communist Party of America on September 1 of that year. Although not a delegate to either founding convention, according to Comintern records Huiswoud's party membership dated to 1919, and he has been recognized by historians as the first black member of the American Communist Party.
Through his connection to the radical black political leaders of Harlem, Huiswoud eventually made his way to membership in the African Blood Brotherhood
African Blood Brotherhood
The African Blood Brotherhood for African Liberation and Redemption was a radical U.S. black liberation organization established in 1919 in New York City by journalist Cyril Briggs. The group was established as a propaganda organization built on the model of the secret society...
, a secret society established by Cyril Briggs
Cyril Briggs
Cyril Valentine Briggs was an African Caribbean and African-American writer and communist political activist born in the West Indies. He was influenced by political ideas which emerged during and after the First World War.Briggs was born in 1888 in Nevis, a Caribbean island of the West Indies...
to promote black liberation and self-defense against racist aggression
Red Summer of 1919
Red Summer describes the race riots that occurred in more than three dozen cities in the United States during the summer and early autumn of 1919. In most instances, whites attacked African Americans. In some cases groups of blacks fought back, notably in Chicago, where, along with Washington, D.C....
. Although an active participant in the organization, Huiswoud was not among the group's founders, Cyril Briggs himself later recalled.
In the summer of 1922, Huiswoud was chosen as the candidate of the Workers Party of America — the new "legal" political arm of what was then the underground Communist Party — as its candidate for the New York State Legislature in its 22nd Assembly District.
Comintern delegate
Huiswoud was an official delegate of the Workers Party of America to the 4th World Congress of the Comintern, held in Moscow from November 5 to December 5, 1922, attending its sessions together the Caribbean poet Claude McKayClaude McKay
Claude McKay was a Jamaican-American writer and poet. He was a seminal figure in the Harlem Renaissance and wrote three novels: Home to Harlem , a best-seller which won the Harmon Gold Award for Literature, Banjo , and Banana Bottom...
. Huiswoud addressed the assembled delegates on the situation facing black workers in the United States. Huiswoud was elected head of the Congress's Negro Commission and was instrumental in helping draft the thesis of the Comintern on the so-called "Negro Question" as well as four resolutions, all of which Huiswoud presented on the floor of the Congress.
Owing to his presence in Moscow, in the first week of December 1922 Huiswoud briefly served as the Communist Party's representative to the Communist International when their regularly elected "CI Rep," L.E. Katterfeld, who was out on bail regarding a political case started against him in 1920, was forced to rush home to the United States to appear in court.
Activity in the 1920s
Huiswoud returned to America in 1923, entering the country on March 1 legally as a passenger on a ship called the Ryndam and being entered on the books as a permanent resident of the United States. Huiswoud was set to work as a functionary in the African Blood Brotherhood, by then a mass organization of the Communist Party targeted towards black workers. Huiswoud served as the National Organizing Secretary of the group until the termination of the organization.In February 1924, Huiswood attended the so-called "Negro Sanhedrin," a national anti-racism conference, as one of two official delegates of the African Blood Brotherhood. The two ABB delegates were joined by five others representing the Workers Party of America (name of the legalized Communist Party since the end of 1921).
In June 1924, Huiswoud was a delegate to the St. Paul Convention of the Farmer-Labor Party
Farmer-Labor Party
The first modern Farmer–Labor Party in the United States emerged in Minnesota in 1918. Economic dislocation caused by American entry into World War I put agricultural prices and workers' wages into imbalance with rapidly escalating retail prices during the war years, and farmers and workers sought...
, an attempt by the Workers Party of America to create and harness a mass political organization including the organized labor movement and disaffected farmers. At this gathering Huiswoud proposed a resolution calling for full social equality
Social equality
Social equality is a social state of affairs in which all people within a specific society or isolated group have the same status in a certain respect. At the very least, social equality includes equal rights under the law, such as security, voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, and the...
for American blacks and an end to lynching
Lynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
. A white Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
farmer rose to oppose Huiswoud's proposal, declaring that American blacks did not truly desire social equality with caucasians, only material benefits. Huiswoud responded by taking to the floor to denounce the farmer, an action that threatened the fragile alliance that the communists were attempting to build and which was regarded as a serious breach of discipline. The affair ended with Huiswoud being quietly suspended from the Workers Party for one year.
In October 1925 the Workers (Communist) Party launched a new organization directed at American blacks to replace the by now defunct African Blood Brotherhood. The party's best-regarded black activists, including Huiswoud, Jim Ford
James W. Ford
James W. "Jim" Ford was the Vice-Presidential candidate for the Communist Party USA in 1932, 1936, and 1940. A party organizer from New York City, Ford was the first African-American to appear on a presidential ticket in the 20th century....
, Harry Haywood
Harry Haywood
Harry Haywood was a leading figure in both the Communist Party of the United States and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . He contributed major theory to Marxist thinking on the national question of African Americans in the United States...
, Cyril Briggs, Richard B. Moore were put to work as functionaries of this new group, called the American Negro Labor Congress
American Negro Labor Congress
The American Negro Labor Congress was established in 1925 by the Communist Party as a vehicle for advancing the rights of African-Americans, propagandizing for communism within the black community and recruiting African-American members for the party...
. The organization was headed by Lovett Fort-Whiteman, an individual with whom Huiswoud came into conflict, leading to Fort-Whiteman's ouster in 1927.
During the bitter internal factonal war which consumed the Workers (Communist) Party during the decade of the 1920s, Huiswoud was a consistent supporter of the New York-based faction of C.E. Ruthenberg
Charles Ruthenberg
Charles Emil Ruthenberg was an American Marxist politician and a founder and long-time head of the Communist Party USA .-Biography:Charles Emil Ruthenberg was born July 9, 1882 in Cleveland, Ohio...
, John Pepper
John Pepper
John Pepper, also known as József Pogány, born József Schwartz was a Hungarian-Jewish Communist politician, active in the radical movements of both Hungary and the United States. He later served as a functionary in the Communist International in Moscow, before being cashiered in 1929...
, and Jay Lovestone
Jay Lovestone
Jay Lovestone was at various times a member of the Socialist Party of America, a leader of the Communist Party USA, leader of a small oppositionist party, an anti-Communist and Central Intelligence Agency helper, and foreign policy advisor to the leadership of the AFL-CIO and various unions...
against the Midwest-based faction of William Z. Foster
William Z. Foster
William Foster was a radical American labor organizer and Marxist politician, whose career included a lengthy stint as General Secretary of the Communist Party USA...
, James P. Cannon
James P. Cannon
James Patrick "Jim" Cannon was an American Trotskyist and a leader of the Socialist Workers Party.Born on February 11, 1890 in Rosedale, Kansas, he joined the Socialist Party of America in 1908 and the Industrial Workers of the World in 1911...
, and Alexander Bittelman
Alexander Bittelman
Alexander "Alex" Bittelman was a Russian-born Jewish-American communist political activist, Marxist theorist , contributed a more complex analysis , and writer. A founding member of the Communist Party of America, Bittelman is best remembered as the chief factional lieutenant of William Z...
. With the New York group in control of the party apparatus for most of this period, Huiswoud remained one of the organization's top-ranking black leaders.
In March 1929, Huiswoud was elected as a delegate to the 6th National Convention of the Communist (Workers) Party, held in New York City. He was at that time the party's highest ranking black member, sitting on the governing Central Executive Committee and the Political Committee ("Polcom") which guided the party's day-to-day operations. Huiswoud additionally served as the Director of the Negro Department of the Communist Party at this time.
Return to Moscow
Following the 6th Convention, Huiswoud was chosen as one of ten delegates to travel to Moscow in support of National Secretary Jay LovestoneJay Lovestone
Jay Lovestone was at various times a member of the Socialist Party of America, a leader of the Communist Party USA, leader of a small oppositionist party, an anti-Communist and Central Intelligence Agency helper, and foreign policy advisor to the leadership of the AFL-CIO and various unions...
and his policies, which was under review by a special American Commission established by the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International. Although the delegates presented a united front arguing for a continuation of the Lovestone leadership, the powerful American Commission, which included such top Soviet leaders as Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
, Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...
, and Otto Kuusinen, ultimately decided to take decisive action against the factionalism which had plagued the American party throughout the decade of its existence by removing opposing factional leaders Lovestone and Alexander Bittelman
Alexander Bittelman
Alexander "Alex" Bittelman was a Russian-born Jewish-American communist political activist, Marxist theorist , contributed a more complex analysis , and writer. A founding member of the Communist Party of America, Bittelman is best remembered as the chief factional lieutenant of William Z...
and sending them to work in other Communist Parties abroad.
Lovestone refused to accept this decision and returned home without authorization, resulting in his expulsion from the Communist Party and his eventual formation of a rival organization, the Communist Party (Majority Group). Huiswoud, on the other hand, ultimately chose to accept the decisions of the Comintern and remained at its service.
In July 1928 the Red International of Labor Unions (RILU), the world communist movement's international trade union organization, had established a "Negro Section" dedicated to coordinating the activities of black workers from the Caribbean region and Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...
. This would serve as the directing center for an organization called the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers (ITUCNW), established in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in July 1930. Headed by Trinidadian George Padmore
George Padmore
George Padmore , born Malcolm Ivan Meredith Nurse, was a Trinidadian communist who became a leading Pan-Africanist in his later years.-Early years:...
, Huiswoud was named the editor of the ITUCNW's monthly publication, The Negro Worker. Completing the core cadres of this Comintern initiative was the American-born James W. Ford, former Vice Presidential nominee of the Workers (Communist) Party.
Death and legacy
Otto Huiswoud died February 20, 1961 in AmsterdamAmsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
. He was 67 years old at the time of his death.
Otto Huiswoud's papers, archived under the name of his wife, Hermina "Hermie" Dumont Huiswoud, reside at the Tamiment Library at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
in two archival boxes. Use of the collection is open to scholars without restriction.
Works
- "Dutch Guiana: A Study in Colonial Exploitation," The Messenger, vol. 2, no. 11 (1919), pp. 22-23.
- "The Negro and the Trade Unions," The Communist, vol. 8, no. 12 (December 1928), pp. 770-775.
- "World Aspects of the Negro Question," The Communist, vol. 9, no. 2 (February 1930), pp.132-147.
- How to Organize and Lead the Struggles of the Negro Toilers. (As "Charles Woodson.") Copenhagen: International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers, n.d. [c. 1935].
Further reading
- Maria Gertrudis van Enckevort, The Life and Work of Otto Huiswoud: Professional Revolutionary and Internationalist (1893–1961). PhD dissertation. Mona, Jamaica: University of the West Indies, 2000.
- Maria van Enckevort, "Otto Huiswoud: Political Praxis and Anti-Imperialism," Philipsburg, St. Maarten: St. Martin Studies, no. 1-2, 2006.
- Holger Weiss, "The Road to Hamburg and Beyond: African American Agency and the Making of a Radical African Atlantic, 1922-1930." Part One. | Part Two. | Part Three. Comintern Working Papers, Åbo Akademi University, 2007.
- Holger Weiss, "The Hamburg Committee, Moscow and the Making of a Radical African Atlantic, 1930-1933." Part One: The RILU and the ITUCNW. | Part Two: The ISH, the IRH and the ITUCNW. | Part Three: The LAI and the ITUCNW. Comintern Working Papers, Åbo Akademi University, 2010.
See also
- African Blood BrotherhoodAfrican Blood BrotherhoodThe African Blood Brotherhood for African Liberation and Redemption was a radical U.S. black liberation organization established in 1919 in New York City by journalist Cyril Briggs. The group was established as a propaganda organization built on the model of the secret society...
- American Negro Labor CongressAmerican Negro Labor CongressThe American Negro Labor Congress was established in 1925 by the Communist Party as a vehicle for advancing the rights of African-Americans, propagandizing for communism within the black community and recruiting African-American members for the party...
- The Communist Party and African-AmericansThe Communist Party and African-AmericansThe Communist Party USA, historically and currently committed to complete racial equality in the United States, played a significant role in defending the rights of African-Americans during its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s....