Oliver Carlson

Oliver Carlson (1899–1991) was founder of the Young Communist League of America among other Communist organizations and then served as an anti-communist government witness who specialized in Communist infiltration in Hollywood.

Background Oliver Carlson was born on July 31, 1899, in Gotland, Sweden. In 1919, he was a member of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society. He studied law for one year at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Career

YPSL In 1914, Carlson joined the Young People's Socialist League (YPSL) while living in the Muskegon and Detroit, Michigan, areas.

In January 1924, Carlson, now ex-editor, gauged circulation of the Young Worker at 7-8,000 copies per issue.

CLA In 1928–29, Carlson joined the Communist League of America (CLA), headed by James P. Cannon, Max Shachtman, and Martin Abern. CLA members had been expelled from the Communist Party USA for Trotskyism as "Cannonites." He was one of the CLA "Musteites," other being Louis F. Budenz, Arnold Johnson, J.B.S. Hardman, and Benjamin Mandel. By late 1931, Carlson was out and seeking readmission to the CLA: he would not gain re-admittance. (In 1934, the CLA folded into A.J. Muste's American Workers Party to form the Workers Party of the United States.)

University of Chicago In 1930, Carlson taught political science department at the University of Chicago, where "I made a special study of the propaganda techniques of the Communist movement both abroad and in this country." )

HUAC As early as 1944, Carlson's name appears among others listed by the Legislature of the State California as "friendly witnesses". Others include Earl Warren.

On October 24, 1947, during hearings before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Carlson described himself as a writer and teacher, residing in Los Angeles. He told the committee, "I specialize in the field of political science, more particularly in the field of propaganda techniques. I have worked in that field for about 20 years or more." He testified that the Communist Party had sent people from New York to "run" Hollywood. He named V.J. Jerome and Eli Jacobson. He described Jacobson in detail: New Yorker, "charter member of the Communist Party," and associated in Los Angeles of film director Beryl La Cava and magazine editor Kyle Crichton. In the mid-1920s, Jacobson was a director of the New York Workers School, whose teachers included: Alexander Trachtenberg, William Z. Foster, Jack Stachel, and William W. Weinstone.

Regarding communism and teaching, Carlson testified that William Wolfe of the ILGWU education department ran a People's Education Center, succeeded by Sidney Davison (sent from New York). Herbert Biberman taught there (Soviet theater), as did Guy Endore Robert Lees. Advisors included Lees, Lawson, Healey, Herbert Sorrell, Frank Tuttle, and Sondra Gorney.

Later life In 1985, Carlson was living in Carlsbad, California.

Works Articles:

"The Road Before Us: Keynote Speech at the First National Convention of the Young Workers League, Brooklyn, NY" (May 13, 1922) "Our First National Convention" (May 1922) "New Internationalism" (1922) "Recollections of American Trotskyist Leaders" (1977)

Pamphlets: Pamphlet series on Communism for Catholic Information Society (which also published Eugene Lyons, George S. Schuyler, William Henry Chamberlin, Richard Ginder, Hermann Borchhardt, Liston M. Oak, Aloysius Stepinac, Isaac Don Levine, Ralph de Toledano, Freda Utley, and Suzanne La Follette): Red Star Over Hollywood (1947) Radio in the Red (1947) Articles or pamphlets for Freeman: What Really Happened in Pasadena? (1951 A Slanted Guide to Library Selections (January 14, 1952)

Books: Hearst: Lord of San Simeon with Ernest Sutherland Bates (1936) Brisbane: A Candid Biography (1937) A Mirror for Californians (1941) Man Who Made news, James Gordon Bennett (1942) How to Get into Politics; The Art of Winning Elections with Aldrich Blake (1946) Handbook on Propaganda for the Alert Citizen (1953)