The Daily Worker was a far left newspaper published in Chicago, founded by communists, socialists, union members, and other activists. Publication began in 1924. The publication generally promoted the prevailing views of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA); it also reflected a broader spectrum of left-wing opinion.

At its peak, the newspaper achieved a circulation of 35,000. Contributors to its pages included Robert Minor and Fred Ellis (cartoonists), Lester Rodney (sports editor), David Karr, Richard Wright, John L. Spivak, Peter Fryer, Woody Guthrie, and Louis F. Budenz. The newspaper ceased daily publication in 1958 and transitioned to weekly publication under various names until 2010. Several online news and opinion outlets now claim to be the legitimate successor to The Daily Worker.

All works of the Daily Worker prior to 1964 are now in the public domain due to the nonrenewal of their copyright status.

History

Origins

thumb|left|January 23, 1924, edition, covering the [[death of Vladimir Lenin.]]

The origins of the Daily Worker were with the weekly Ohio Socialist published by the Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919. The Ohio party joined the nascent Communist Labor Party of America (CLP) at the 1919 Emergency National Convention.

The Ohio Socialist only used whole numbers. Its final issue was #94 November 19, 1919. The Toiler continued this numbering, even though a typographical error made its debut issue #85 November 26, 1919. Beginning sometime in 1921 the volume number IV was added, perhaps reflecting the publications fourth year in print, though its issue numbers continued the whole number scheme. The final edition of the Toiler was Vol IV #207 January 28, 1922. The Worker continued the Toilers numbering during its run Vol. IV #208 February 2, 1922 to Vol. VI #310 January 12, 1924. The first edition of Daily worker was numbered Vol. I #311.

In 1927, the newspaper moved from Chicago to New York.

thumb|left|[[International Workers' Day|May Day parade float with statue reading the Daily Worker]]

Beginning in the popular front period of the 1930s, the paper broadened its coverage of the arts and entertainment. In 1935, it established a sports page, with contributions from David Karr, the page was edited and frequently written by Lester Rodney. The paper's sports coverage combined enthusiasm for baseball with the usual Marxist social critique of capitalist society and bourgeois attitudes. It advocated the desegregation of professional sports.

Post-World War II

After a short hiatus, the party published a weekend paper called The Worker from 1958 until 1968. A Tuesday edition called The Midweek Worker was added in 1961 and also continued until 1968, when production was accelerated.

Two newspapers and a merger

In 1968, the publication was resumed as a New York daily paper, now titled The Daily World. In 1986, the paper merged with the West Coast weekly paper, the People's World. The new People's Daily World published from 1987 until 1991, when daily publication was abandoned.

Contemporary claims of successors

The new paper was cut back to a weekly issue and was retitled People's Weekly World (later retitled to People's World as to de-emphasize the weekly component). Print publication of the People's World ceased in 2010 in favor of an online edition. , People's World claims that, "Peoplesworld.org is a daily news website of, for and by the 99% and the direct descendant of the Daily Worker." Its publisher is Long View Publishing Company. The online newspaper is a member of the International Labor Communications Association and is indexed in the Alternative Press Index. Its staff belong to the Newspaper Guild/CWA, AFL–CIO.

Another publication, both in print as The Worker and online as Daily Worker USA states that it is "Continuing The Daily Worker, Founded in 1924." The Worker is the Publication of the Central Committee of the Party of Communists USA, which itself claims to be the continuing the legacy of the old CPUSA, and The Worker has been printed and distributed since at least 2020.

Leadership

Editors

{| class="wikitable"

| 1924–1928 || J. Louis Engdahl || 120px

|-

| 1925–1936 || William F. Dunne || 120px

|-

| 1928–1930 || Robert Minor || 120px

|-

| 1931–1932 || William Weinstone || 120px

|-

| 1930, 1933–1940 || Clarence Hathaway|| 120px

|-

| 1940–1945 || Louis F. Budenz || 120px

|-

| 1945–1947 || Morris Childs || 120px

|-

| 1946–?, 1956–1958 || Si Gerson|| 120px

|-

| 1947–1958 || John Gates || 120px

|-

|}

Staff

1920s

  • Martin Abern
  • Maurice Becker, cartoonist
  • Max Bedacht, contributor
  • Alexander Bittelman, magazine editor
  • Ella Reeve Bloor
  • Jacob Burck, cartoonist
  • Walt Carmon, circulation manager
  • Ann Washington Craton, contributor
  • Whittaker Chambers
  • Kyle Crichton as "Robert Forsythe" (father of Robert Crichton)
  • Paul Crouch
  • Samuel Adams Darcy
  • Nicholas Dozenberg, business manager
  • William F. Dunne, editor
  • Fred Ellis, cartoonist
  • J. Louis Engdahl, editor
  • Lovett Fort-Whiteman, contributor
  • Harry Freeman
  • "Throw the bum out": official Communist Party line on Senator McCarthy. New York, Daily Worker, 1953–1954

See also

  • Earl Browder
  • Louis F. Budenz: editor in early 1940s
  • Jacob Burck: cartoonist in the 1920s and 1930s
  • Whittaker Chambers: foreign editor in the 1920s
  • Gus Hall
  • David Karr
  • People's World
  • Lester Rodney: sports writer/editor
  • "The Race" (Seinfeld): television episode prominently featuring the Daily Worker

References

Further reading

Articles

  • Fetter, Henry D. "The Party Line and the Color Line: The American Communist Party, the Daily Worker and Jackie Robinson." Journal of Sport History 28, no. 3 (Fall 2001).
  • Gottfried, Erika, "Shooting Back: The Daily Worker Photographs Collection," American Communist History, vol. 12, no. 1 (April 2013), pp. 41–69.
  • Lamb, Christopher and Rusinack, Kelly E. "Hitting From the Left: The Daily Worker's Assault on Baseball's Color Line". Gumpert, Gary and Drucker, Susan J., eds. Take Me Out to the Ballgame: Communicating Baseball. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2002.
  • Rusinack, Kelly E. "Baseball on the Radical Agenda: The Daily and Sunday Worker Journalistic Campaign to Desegregate Major League Baseball, 1933-1947". Dorinson, Joseph, and Woramund, Joram, eds. Jackie Robinson: Race, Sports, and the American Dream. New York: E. M. Swift, 1998.
  • Smith, Ronald A. "The Paul Robeson-Jackie Robinson Saga and a Political Collision". Journal of Sport History 6, no. 2 (1979).

Theses

  • Evans, William Barrett. "Revolutionist Thought in the Daily Worker, 1919-1939". Ph.D. diss. University of Washington, 1965.
  • Jeffries, Dexter. "Richard Wright and the ‘Daily Worker’: A Native Son’s Journalistic Apprenticeship". Ph.D. diss. City University of New York, 2000.
  • Rusinack, Kelly E. "Baseball on the Radical Agenda: The Daily and Sunday Worker on Desegregating Major League Baseball, 1933-1947". M.A. Thesis, Clemson University, South Carolina, 1995.
  • Shoemaker, Martha Mcardell. "Propaganda or Persuasion: The Communist Party and Its Campaign to Integrate Baseball". Master’s thesis. University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 1999.

Books

  • Hemingway, Andrew. Artists on the Left: American Artists and the Communist Movement, 1926-1956. New Haven, Yale University Press, 2002.
  • Schappes, Morris U. The Daily Worker: Heir to the Great Tradition. New York: Daily Worker, 1944.
  • Silber, Irwin. Press Box Red: The Story of Lester Rodney, the Communist Who Helped Break the Color Line in American Sports. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2003.
  • Daily Worker online at the Marxists Internet Archive
  • Guide to the Daily Worker and Daily World Photographs Collection PHOTOS.223 Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. New York University.
  • Partial series archive at the Online Books Page
  • The Daily Worker Cartoon Archive, Marxists Internet Archive. <small>—Selected political cartoons from 1924 and 1926, listed by artist.</small>
  • Daily Worker FBI files. File number 61-275 Volume 5. Heavily redacted files from roughly 1948–late 1950s. Retrieved May 16, 2005.
  • Baseball on the Radical Agenda by Kelly E. Rusinack.
  • A Sickening Red Tinge': The Daily Worker's Fight Against White Baseball" by Kelly Rusinack and Chris Lamb. Cultural Logic, Volume 3, Number 1, Fall 1999.
  • Front page of the Daily Worker Vol. 2 #216 Dec. 1, 1924