William Albertson

William Albertson (May 7, 1910 – February 19, 1972) was a 20th-century American leader in the Communist Party of the USA who battled federal and state courts, and who in 1964 was framed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which was only discovered posthumously in 1975. His widow made an out-of-court settlement in 1989 with the U.S. Government for $170,000.

Background William Albertson was born on May 7, 1910, in Odessa (then in the Russian Empire, now in Ukraine). On February 10, 1911, arrived in Philadelphia with his mother, Esther Dashevsky, from whom he received derivative citizenship (June 29, 1927). Starting in 1923, he attended Schenley High School in Pittsburgh. In September 1927, he began pre-med studies at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1928, he joined the Young Communist League of America. In 1929, he was expelled for activities with the university's "Liberal Club" for organizing a meeting in support of labor leader Tom Mooney.

By 1932, Albertson had moved to New York City, where he lived until 1947. He worked there as a labor union official and organizer through 1940.

In 1934, Albertson stood as Party candidate for House Representative from New York's 17th congressional district. On October 17, 1939, former Party co-founder Benjamin Gitlow named Albertson as a Party leader.

In 1942, he served a year as secretary and treasurer of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union Local 16, American Federation of Labor. ) During the same period, he supported the candidacy of Israel Amter for governor of New York on the Communist Party ticket.

In 1943, he served a year as labor secretary of the national CPUSA and also as member of the Party's New York State Committee.

In 1946, Albertson served as Assistant National Labor Secretary of the CPUSA.

In 1950, the Party transferred him as Trade Union Secretary of the CPUSA's District 7 (Detroit). Cvetic managed to work his testimony into an attack on former U.S. Vice President and presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace. As the New York Times reported, "A former undercover agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation testified today that Henry A. Wallace once conferred with two well known Pittsburgh Communists about support for his third-party Presidential campaign. Matthew Cvetic was the agent. He told the House Un-American Activities Committee that he himself was one of the pair of well-known Communist party members." Cvetic also named both Steve Nelson, who would face arrest with Albertson and four other third-tier Party leaders the following year.

On January 22, 1962, the State Department revoked the passports of Albertson and several other leaders of the Communist Party.

On August 17, 1951, the FBI held a fourth roundup of Party leaders since the Foley Square Trial which included Albertson and five others. who soon found themselves indicted by a federal grand jury. The New York Times detailed his arrest: Albertson was arrested near Flat Rock, Michigan, while driving with his wife and two children" by the FBI.

On September 13, 1957, D. Malcom Anderson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, asked U.S. District Judge to dismiss the indictment against five of the six Party leaders, including Steve Nelson and William Albertson, following discovery that one of the principal witnesses in the 1953 trial "may have lied."

New York State Matter of Albertson (Lubin)

In 1960, Albertson sued for unemployment insurance for work for the Communist Party. Albertson won in court, but the case went to the Court of Appeals of the State of New York on March 28. Representing him were Stephen C. Vladeck and Judith P. Vladeck (parents of David Vladeck and Anna Vladeck of Vladeck, Raskin & Clark) and Sylvan H. Elias. Representing the Communist Party was John J. Abt. Isador Lubin as Industrial Commissioner represented the Appellant. The court summarized the appeal as follows:

Two separate but related questions arise in this consolidated proceeding. We are first to decide whether, on the theory that his employment by the Communist Parties (N. Y. and U. S. A.) was not "covered employment", respondent Albertson is ineligible for unemployment insurance benefits. Second, we must determine whether the Industrial Commissioner was legally justified in suspending the registration of the Communist Parties themselves as "employers" within the meaning of the Unemployment Insurance Law.

On May 26, 1960, came the verdict. On the one hand:

We agree with the Appellate Division that Albertson is not to be denied an unemployment insurance award solely because part of his base period of employment was with the Communist organizations. Nothing was proven beyond that bare fact.

COINTELPRO, posthumous litigation, settlement COINTELPRO Redacted FBI policy manual on use of informants, which Albertson was branded following the FBI's "snitch jacket" On June 25, 1964, the FBI planted a fake document ("like an informant's report" ) with a forged signature of Albertson's to make the Party believe he was an FBI informant.

FBI files record for June 24, 1964:

At approximately 1:00 AM 6/25/64, ALBERTSON was return to his automobile by [REDACTED] in [REDACTED] car. At 3:30 AM, after locating [REDACTED] car, agents gained entry to this vehicle and place the informant report in the front seat where ALBERTSON had been seated. The Party announced the expulsion on the final eighth page of its midweek edition of its newspaper, The Daily Worker, following a "thorough investigation" based on "irrefutable evidence." The Times quoted the conclusion of The Daily Worker that "Because the facts accumulated remove every shadow of doubt that Albertson lived a life o duplicity and treachery–posing as a dedicated defender of the workers' interests while in actuality betraying them–the Communist Party of New York State has expelled him."

Next day, Albertson stated, "I was framed by the FBI." He announced, "I never was, I am not now, and I never will be any kind of a police agent." He asserted, "The history of the F.B.I. shows that they will frame anyone if it suits a particular objective." An FBI spokesman had "no comment whatsoever" about Albertson's allegation.

The "snitch jacket" also asked the FBI for a raise, leading the Party to believe that Albertson he had been a paid FBI informer: as a result, the Party withdrew its scholarship for the Albertson's son. "Over a period of months, Albertson and his wife were the subjects of crank calls and personal harassment tactics. They were forced to change jobs and to move."

Posthumous litigation COINTELPRO went after Albertson (here, a memo proposing to expose pregnancy of actress Jean Seberg, financial supporter of the Black Panther Party, hoping to "possibly cause her embarrassment or tarnish her image with the general public" In 1975, an FBI document released under the Freedom of Information Act revealed the FBI's 1964 act. The FOIA applicant was NBC News law correspondent Carl Stern. by Frank Donner of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in a forthcoming in the April–May issue of ACLU's Civil Liberties Review.

In the process, Alberton's widow received more than 30,000 pages of FBI documents about the Albertson family.