Forging American Communism

A major figure in the history of 20th-century American radicalism, William Z. Foster (1881-1961) fought his way out of the slums of turn-of-the-century Philadelphia to become a professional revolutionary as well as a notorious and feared labour agitator. Drawing on private family papers, FBI files, and recently opened Russian archives, this biography traces Foster's early life as a world traveller, railroad worker, seaman, hobo, union activist, and radical journalist, and also probes the origins and implications of his ill-fated career as a leading communist official and three-time Presidential candidate. Even though Foster's long and eventful life ended in Moscow, where he was given a state funeral in Red Square, he was, as portrayed here, a thoroughly American radical. The book not only reveals the circumstances of Foster's poverty-stricken childhood in Philadelphia, but also describes his work and travels in the American West.
Also included are accounts of his early political career as a socialist, "wobbly" and anarcho-syndicalist, and of his activities as the architect of giant organizing campaigns by the American Federation of Labor, involving hundreds of thousands of workers in the meat-packing and steel industries. The author views Foster's influence in the American communist movement from the perspective of the history of American labour and unionism, but he also offers a realistic assessment of Foster's career in light of factional intrigues at the highest levels of the Communist Party.