Max Bedacht

Max Bedacht Sr. (October 13, 1883 – July 4, 1972) was a German-born American revolutionary socialist political activist, journalist, and functionary who helped establish the Communist Party of America. Bedacht is best remembered as the long-time head of the International Workers Order, a Communist Party-sponsored fraternal benefit organization.

Biography

Early years

Max Bedacht Sr. was born in Munich, Germany to an ethnically German mother on October 13, 1883. He was the son of a single mother who worked as a domestic servant and was raised Catholic by a maternal aunt and uncle.

Early labor activities

Bedacht apprenticed and worked as a barber in Germany and Switzerland, working in the towns of Gossau and Herisau. He organized fellow journeymen barbers into a union during his European years. In 1905 he joined the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland. In 1907, Bedacht was elected president of the Swiss National Barbers' Union and edited the organization's newspaper. That same year he took part in his first labor action, a sympathy strike held for the striking chocolate workers on the banks of Lake Geneva.

Chicago convention of 1919

At the Chicago convention in August 1919, the Left Wing California delegation was challenged at the time the gathering was convened, placing the delegates in limbo, their fate held in the mercy of a committee firmly controlled by the "Regular" faction of National Executive Secretary Adolph Germer and James Oneal. The Credentials Committee, headed by Judge Jacob Panken of New York City, stalled the hearings on the California delegation until after the convention was underway and until it was clear that a safe majority of delegates were in the Regulars' camp.

As a result, although they were ultimately approved by the committee, the California delegation refused to take their seats in protest and went downstairs to attend the parallel convention of the Communist Labor Party (CLP) convened by NEC members Alfred Wagenknecht and L.E. Katterfeld. Bedacht was elected at the founding convention to the 5 member National Executive Committee which governed the CLP.

During the Palmer Raids in California and Chicago, Bedacht was arrested and tried for conspiracy. However, despite conviction, he avoided prison. Soon afterwards, he traveled to Europe and Russia as an international delegate for the Communist Party. and 5th World Congresses of the Communist International.

Activities: New York City

In 1929, Bedacht took over as liaison with the Soviet underground after the expulsion of Jay Lovestone from the Party in 1929.

In the summer of 1932, Bedacht invited Whittaker Chambers to join the Soviet underground. Chambers described Bedacht's approach as follows:

In 1934, he ran on the Communist ticket for U.S. Senator from New York and received 45,396 votes (1.23%).

In 1937, he said under oath in 1948, "I went to Spain with a committee of eight to the International Brigade in Spain. I think it was 1937."

International Workers Order

In the 1930s, Bedacht became general secretary of the International Workers Order (IWO), a Communist Party-affiliated insurance, mutual benefit, and fraternal organization (1930–1954), whose membership peaked in the late 1940s at 200,000 members. In the mid-1940s, Bedacht appeared under subpoena before the Special Committee on Un-American Activities of the US House of Representatives (or "Dies Committee").

Expulsion

In November 1948, Bedacht was expelled from the national CPUSA.

In November 1949, Bedacht appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Regarding his activities, he answered when asked: Mr. Tavenner: Will you please state for the committee the official positions which you have held in the past in the Communist Party of the United States? Mr. Bedacht: Almost everything up to secretary. I was never the editor of the Daily Worker.

Max Bedacht died in Jamaica, Queens on July 4, 1972. His Communist Party membership had been reinstated a few years prior.

Works

Books and pamphlets

In Memoriam: To our comrades Karl Liebknecht, 1871–1919, Rosa Luxemburg, 1871–1919, Martyrs to the German Revolution. San Francisco : Socialist Party of San Francisco, 1919 Principles of Communism: Engel's Original Draft of the Communist Manifesto. (Editor.) Chicago: Daily Worker Publishing Co., 1925 The Menace of Opportunism: A Contribution to the Bolshevization of the Workers (Communist) Party. Chicago: Daily Worker Publishing Co., 1926 Anti-Soviet Lies and the Five-Year Plan: The "Holy" Capitalist War Against the Soviet Union. New York: Workers Library Publishers, 1931 Karl Marx, 1883-1933 With Earl Browder and Sam Don. New York: Workers Library Publishers, 1933 Unity of the Workers' Fraternal Movement: A Speech. New York: Cultural Committee of the International Workers Order, 1936 Labor Fraternalism: The Fraternal Principles and Program of the IWO. New York: National Education Dept., International Workers Order, 1941 An Appeal of the German Communists: Destroy Hitler! Free Germany! With Alfred Wagenknecht. New York: Workers Library Publishers, 1942 The International Workers Order from the Fifth to the Sixth Convention: Report of the General Secretary Max Bedacht to the IWO Sixth National Convention, July 2–7, 1944, New York City. New York: International Workers Order, 1944 The Task Before Us: Address. New York: International Workers Order, 1944 Complete Equality: Democracy and the Negroes. New York: International Workers Order, 1945 Your Health — America's Wealth. New York: International Workers Order, 1945 On the Path of Life (memoirs), 1967

Articles

All articles listed here come from the Marxists Internet Archive except the 1926 Daily Worker article entitled "Eastman Drops His Mask." Communist Labor Party Mail Referendum for NEC Motions 3 and 4 (1919) Letter to the Central Executive Committee of the United Communist Party (1921) To the CEC of the CPA (PDF) (1926) Report on the 4th Comintern Congress to the CEC of the Workers Party of America (1921) Circular Letter to All District Organizers of the Unified CPA (1922) Letter to the Executive Committee of the Communist International in Moscow (1924) "Eastman Drops His Mask," The Daily Worker, vol. 3, no. 237 (October 20, 1926), pp. 1, 6 Editorial (1927)

Miscellaneous

Letter to Theodore Draper (1954)