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Finding Aid to the People's World Research Files
larc.ms.0399
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Table of contents
Title: People's World Research Files
Date (inclusive): 1929-1996
Creator:
People's World (San Francisco, Calif.) .
Creator:
Working Group (Oakland, Calif.)
Extent:
36.25 cubic feet
(39 cartons)
Collection number: larc.ms.0399
Accession number: 1986/073, 1990/013, 1992/003, 1992/049, 1994/037
Repository:
Labor Archives and Research Center
J. Paul Leonard Library, Room 460
San Francisco State University
1630 Holloway Ave
San Francisco, CA 94132-1722
(415) 405-5571
larc@sfsu.edu
Abstract: Consists of text subject files of the People's World.
Physical Location: Materials are stored onsite.
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English.
Collection is open for research.
Photographs, artifacts, ephemera, audiotapes, and oversized material have been removed to the appropriate Labor Archives collections.
[Identification of item], People's World Research Files, larc.ms.0399, Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State
University.
Copyright has not been assigned to the Labor Archives and Research Center. All requests for permission to publish or quote
from materials must be submitted in writing to the Director of the Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf
of the Labor Archives and Research Center as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission
of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.
The People's World Photograph Collection, which included research files, was originally donated by the staff of the newspaper
on June 6, 1986 (1986/073). There have been four additional accessions (1990/013, 1992/003, 1992/049, and 1994/037).
Processing on this collection was completed by Labor Archives and Research Center staff in 2019.
The West Coast-based
People's World was founded on January 1, 1938 as a daily grassroots newspaper affiliated with the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Published
in San Francisco,
People's World circulated up and down the West Coast and was financed entirely by subscription. Its self-stated purpose was to represent
the interests, causes and struggles of the common people under the banner "For Security, Democracy and Peace." The paper's
articles and photographs heralded social change, focusing on such issues as equality, civil rights, labor, and immigration.
In the late 1950s, in response to strong anti-Communist propaganda led by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, the readership of
People's World declined and the paper was forced to go to a weekly schedule. In 1986 it returned to being a daily after it merged with
Daily World. The resulting
People's Daily World continued to serve as the political voice of the Communist Party.
Scope and Content of Collection
Consists of the research files of the newspaper
People's World, organized by subjects and individual's names and primarily comprises newspaper clippings and ephemera. Some folders do contain
primary source materials including speeches, notes, and interviews. Issues addressed include social and political events of
local, national and world-wide scope, such as the Communist Party in the U.S., especially California; labor union activities;
the Independent Progressive Party and the peace movement; poverty conditions; discrimination against African Americans, Jews,
Japanese; and life in the Soviet Union.
To a large degree, original order has been maintained. The materials are arranged into two series: Series 1: Subject Files,
and Series 2: Biographical Files
Subjects and Indexing Terms
San Francisco (Calif.) -- Newspapers.
Communism -- United States -- Newspapers.
Radicalism -- United States -- Newspapers.
Underground press publications -- California -- San Francisco.
People's World. (San Francisco, Calif.).
Newsclippings.
Ephemera.