IV again) -- The Communist Party of America, Section of the Communist International (a.k.a. "unified CPA") 2. -- "2nd National Convention" -- Bridgman, MI -- Aug. 17 - 22, 1922
The Bridgman Convention of 1922 was an absolute debacle, held in secret in a state with a strict "Criminal Syndicalist" Law. The gathering was penetrated by an agent of the Department of Justice, Francis Morrow (party names "Day" and "Ashworth"), who was elected as a delegate from Camden, NJ -- the raid resulting in a series of litigation that tied up the energy and resources of the American Communist movement for years.
The Bridgman Convention was held in gullies amidst wooded dunes on the estate of Karl Wolfskeel, less than a mile from Bridgman and about 12 miles from the neighboring towns of St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. The "Wolfskeel Summer Resort" had a number of cottages that were routinely rented out to campers, which served to house the 70 or so who attended the gathering. The location could be reached only by an unpaved road, which helped to maintain the site's isolation. The meeting was attended by "Ward Brooks" (aka Genrikh Valetskii, born Maximilian Horwitz) as the representative of the Communist International.
[fn. R.M. Whitney, Reds in America. (NY: Beckwith Press, 1924), pp. 20-21.]
The Bridgman Convention was called to order by Executive Secretary Jay Lovestone on behalf of the party's Central Executive Committee. The agenda of the gathering was crowded with discussions on a wide range of topics. Ben Gitlow and Caleb Harrison were chosen as chairmen of the convention, heading its various sessions and resolving matters of parliamentary procedure. Comintern Rep Valetskii delivered a keynote address to the gathering in German, during which he stated that while capitalism's economic prospects were improving, the consciousness of the workers was still growing and the class struggle sharpening. The Communist Party had emerged from its factional struggles stronger than before, having carefully studied various questions of tactics, Valetskii hopefully asserted.
Jay Lovestone reported on the progress of the party-related organizations the African Blood Brotherhood and The World War Veterans, while on Saturday, Aug. 19, William Z. Foster addressed the gathering on behalf of the Trade Union Educational League.
The agenda of the gathering was chiefly concerned with the issue of whether the underground CPA should be dissolved and was divided on the issue between a narrow majority favoring retention of the underground organization (the "Goose Caucus") and a slight minority favoring its termination (the "Liquidators"). The decision ultimately reached by the gathering (with the vote deciding the matter by the narrowest of margins) called for the continuation of a controlling underground Communist Party, but with the primary work of the movement centered in open, "legal" work.
Abram Jakira ["J. Miller"] was named Executive Secretary of the underground CPA by the convention.
Aware that there was a growing police presence in the little town of Bridgman, the convention was prematurely terminated (with no final decision reached on the status of the underground party) and its documents buried in two barrels. Early in the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 22, the gathering was sensationally raided by police, with the hidden cache of documents easily uncovered due to Morrow's penetration of the gathering. Some 17 members of the CPA were arrested on the site, with many other participants -- including Foster -- arrested later under warrants issued on the basis of documents seized in the Bridgman raid.
The following members of the CPA were arrested in conjunction with the Bridgman convention: Phillip Aronberg, Alex Bail, Eugene Bechtold, Earl R. Browder, William F. Dunne, Charles Erickson, William Z. Foster, Alex Georgian, Caleb Harrison, Charles Krumbein, Cyril Lambkin, Max Lerner, Elmer McMillin, John Mihelic, Seth Nordlin, Thomas J. O'Flaherty, William Reynolds, C.E. Ruthenberg, A. Severino, T.R. Sullivan, Norman H. Tallentire, and Joseph Zack [Kornfeder].
A legal defense organization called the "Labor Defense Council" emerged in the fall of 1922 to raise consciousness about the fate of the Bridgman defendants and funds for their trials. This group, of which William Z. Foster was National Secretary, included a 21-member National Committee, including such non-CPA figures as Roger N. Baldwin of the ACLU, Father John A. Ryan of the Catholic Welfare Council, Eugene V. Debs of the Socialist Party, and John Haynes Holmes.
After Bridgman, the CPA began to divide its Central Executive Committee into smaller and pivotal subcommittees, the "Organization Committee" or "ORCOM," which handled financial and personnel matters, and the "Political Committee," or "POLCOM," which handled resolutions, manifestos, and tactical decisions. A complete list of meetings of the CEC, POLCOM, and ORCOM in 1922 along with archival locations for the minutes of each has been prepared and is viewable as an html page here.