Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Biography
Scope and Content
Organization and Arrangement
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: Robert Duggan Communist Party Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1952-1971
Collection number: 1120
Creator: Duggan, Robert D.
Extent:
4 boxes (2 linear ft.)
1 oversize box
Abstract: The Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA) was organized in 1919 by the left wing of the Socialist Party and other groups. Under
the new communist international strategy of the united front, American Communists began to work through labor and other groups
to spread the Party's influence. By the late 1930s, the party reached 65,000 members, providing leadership in many organizations
and serving as the radical wedge of the New Deal. The Hitler-Stalin pact forced the party into an anti-war stance, and the
Cold War after 1945 further weakened its influence, as did McCarthyism, the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian Revolution,
and the revelation of Stalin's crimes in 1956. As the Cold War eased and third world liberation struggles began, a new radical
movement took shape in the 1960s, but the New Left groups rather than the Communist Party were the dominant forces. The continued
inflexibility of the Party as well as the repression of Czechoslovakia in 1968 led to the resignation of West Coast leader
Dorothy Healey in 1973 and the diffusion of many Party activists into other left groups. The collection consists of notes,
documents, publications, and ephemera of the Communist Party of the United States and its Southern California district, the
Southern California and national W.E.B. Du Bois clubs, and the new politics movement of the late 1960s.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library.
Department of Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Administrative Information
Restrictions on Access
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Advance notice required for access.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library,
Department of Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of
the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the
copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC
Regents do not hold the copyright.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Robert Duggan, purchase, 1972.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Robert Duggan Communist Party Collection (Collection 1120). Department of Special Collections, Charles
E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Biography
The Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA) was organized in 1919 by the left wing of the Socialist Party and other groups; internecine
struggles persisted, with the Workers Party of America predominant by 1922, which changed its name to the Communist Party,
USA in 1929; under the new communist international strategy of the united front, American Communists began to work through
labor and other groups to spread the Party's influence; by the late 1930s, the party reached 65,000 members, providing leadership
in many organizations and serving as the radical wedge of the New Deal; the Hitler-Stalin pact forced the party into an anti-war
stance, and the Cold War after 1945 further weakened its influence, as did McCarthyism, the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian
Revolution, and the revelation of Stalin's crimes in 1956; as the Cold War eased and third world liberation struggles began,
a new radical movement took shape in the 1960s, but the New Left groups rather than the Communist Party were the dominant
forces; the continued inflexibility of the Party as well as the repression of Czechoslovakia in 1968 led to the resignation
of West Coast leader Dorothy Healey in 1973 and the diffusion of many Party activists into other left groups.
Scope and Content
Collection consists of notes, documents, publications, and ephemera of the Communist Party of the United States and its Southern
California district, the Southern California and national W.E.B. Du Bois clubs, and the new politics movement of the late
1960s. Also includes materials from the Communist Party of Mexico, 2nd Congress (1967), the new politics convention in Chicago
(1967), and 6 posters and 4 drawings.
Organization and Arrangement
Arranged in the following series:
- Internal discussion documents of the Communist Party's 1966 national convention (Box 1).
- Political literature, Du Bois clubs, new politics movement, CPUSA youth conference, Communist Party of Mexico (Box 2).
- New politics 1968 convention, CPUSA documents (1967-68) national education in Marxism, ephemera and clippings (Boxes 3-4).
- Miscellaneous publications, 1952-71 (Box 4).
- Posters and drawings (Box 5).
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Subjects
Communist Party of the United States of America--Archival resources.
W.E.B. Du Bois Clubs of America.
Partido Comunista Mexicano.