The Fear Within: Spies, Commies, and American Democracy on Trial

The War on the North American Left-Wing Labor Movement From World War I Through the Post-World War II Period

“…If union leaders signed even though they were CPUSA members, they could be charged and convicted of perjury culminating in a prison term. Moreover, the 1949 Smith Act trials charging 12 of the CPUSA's national leaders with advocating the violent overthrow of the US government, ended with convictions and prison sentences of three to five years combined with a $10,000 fine per individual (Martelle 2011). Attacks on the CPUSA-led unions also came from within the US trade union movement with the CIO expelling these nine unions due to their opposition to the Marshall Plan and their backing of Henry Wallace, the Progressive Party presidential candidate, in the 1948 election as opposed to supporting Harry Truman, the Democratic Party candidate, who defeated Thomas Dewey by the slimmest of margins (Zieger 1997).…”