Harry Winitsky

Harry Mordecai Winitsky (1898–1939) was an American left wing political activist who was a founding member of the Communist Party of America. Winitsky is best remembered as one of the chief defendants of the New York "Criminal Anarchism" prosecutions that were part of the First Red Scare of 1919–1920. Winitsky served two years in prison of a 5 to 10-year sentence beginning in March 1920. Released on bail in 1922, Winitsky was ultimately pardoned by New York Governor Al Smith in January 1924. Winitsky left the Communist Party USA in 1929.

Biography

Early years

Harry Winitsky was born January 25, 1898, in New York City, the son of a painter who had emigrated to the United States from Tsarist Russia.

As a boy, Winitsky attended public schools in New York City. Upon graduation, he stayed in New York to enroll at Columbia University, which he attended in 1917. — a position which drew him to the attention of law enforcement authorities, many of whom considered the Communist Party an illegal and seditious organization. Paid stenographers were assigned to transcribe Winitsky's public utterances, with a view to generating evidence for an eventual prosecution.

The indictments against Winitsky and his comrades charged under the New York law — Benjamin Gitlow, who preceded him, as well as James Larkin, Isaac Ferguson, and C.E. Ruthenberg, who followed — was based upon the publication and dissemination of the Manifesto of the Left Wing of the Socialist Party in The Revolutionary Age on July 5, 1919.

Winitsky's trial commenced on March 19, 1920, before Judge Weeks in the Criminal Branch of the New York Supreme Court and was completed on March 26. The jury remained out only a few hours before returning with a guilty verdict. John R. Voorhis, President of the elections board, stated that "We could not possibly permit the names of these men to go on the ballot. It would be a pretty state of affairs to allow felons and criminals to become eligible for office and take their places beside decent men and women." By the end of October, though, the New York Court of Appeals had reversed the decision, and their names did not appear on the ballot in November.

Winitsky was freed on bail in May 1922.

In 1929, Winitsky left the Communist Party USA to cast his lot with expelled party leader Jay Lovestone and his so-called Communist Party USA (Majority Group). Winitsky was not long in this organization, however, as a few years later he rejoined the Socialist Party of America, remaining active in that organization until the time of his death.

Winitsky died of heart disease on September 10, 1939, in the Morrisania Hospital in The Bronx. He had been living at 2690 Morris Avenue. Winitsky was just 41 years old at the time of his death and was survived by his widow and three brothers: Irving, William, and Benjamin Wynn.

Norman Thomas, frequent Presidential candidate of the Socialist Party, was the chief speaker at Winitsky's funeral, held in New York City.

Footnotes

Works "Speech by Harry Winitsky, Executive Secretary of the Communist Party of New York: Delivered at a Meeting Held at 175 E Broadway, NYC, December 22, 1919." Corvallis, OR: 1000 Flowers Publishing, 2005. "The Facts Speak for Themselves," The Revolutionary Age [New York], v. 1, no. 8 (Feb. 15, 1930), pp. 14–15.