Clayton Van Lydegraf (May 6, 1915 – March 30, 1992) was a writer and activist of significant influence on the

New Left The New Left was a broad political movement that emerged from the counterculture of the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. It consisted of activists in the Western world who, in reaction to the era's liberal establishment, campaigned for freer ...

in the 1960s. He served as Secretary of the Communist Party in Washington State in the late 1940s. Van Lydegraf served as a leader of the

Progressive Labor Party (United States) The Progressive Labor Party (PLP) is an Anti-revisionism, anti-revisionist Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist communist party in the United States. It was established in January 1962 as the Progressive Labor Movement following a split in the ...

in Washington state in the 1960s before being expelled in the Spring of 1967. During this time, and expanding on his

Old Left The Old Left is an informal umbrella term used to describe the various left-wing political movements in the Western world prior to the 1960s. Many of these movements were Marxist movements that often took a more vanguardist approach to social ...

background, Van Lydegraf was involved with young

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

activists by 1966. His articles "The Movement and the Workers" and "The Object is to Win" were particularly influential. This latter is a noteworthy piece in the development of the ideas of the

Weather Underground The Weather Underground was a far-left Marxist militant organization first active in 1969, founded on the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan. Originally known as the Weathermen, or simply Weatherman, the group was organized as a f ...

. Over the years, he was active in a number of groups and causes including the Communist Party, the Progressive Labor Party, the

Peace and Freedom Party The Peace and Freedom Party (PFP) is a socialist political party in the United States which operates mostly in California. It was formed in 1966 from anti–Vietnam War and pro–civil rights movements. PFP operates both as an organization unt ...

, Draft Resistance- Seattle,

Students for a Democratic Society Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships a ...

(SDS),

American Friends Service Committee The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Religious Society of Friends ('' Quaker)-founded'' organization working for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world. AFSC was founded in 1917 as a combined effort by ...

, Anti-Fascist Front, Seattle Committee to End the

War in Vietnam The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

, and

trade unions A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

. He was also an advocate of working class power,

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

, revolutionary organization, and the

Black Panthers The Black Panther Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a Marxist–Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, California ...

. He took part in the preparations for the jailbreak of

Timothy Leary Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from "bold oracle" to "publicity hound". Accordin ...

while in the Weatherman organization but was privately critical of the action.Rudd, Mark. Underground. Pp. 225-7.

References

External links

* FBI records on Clayton Van Lydegraf Papers from Van Lydegraf dated 1944–1991 are housed at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

Special Collections Library.
Link to the Finding Aid for the Clayton Van Lydegraf Papers at the University of Washington Library's Special Collections
;The papers include: *"Excerpt from appearance before

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 19 ...

(HUAC) hearing", December 13, 1956, Seattle.
"U.S. Imperialism and the Fascist Danger", 1967. Second edition, 1969.
*"Statement to the San Francisco Grand Jury" January – February 1973. *"Our Constitutional Rights- A written statement submitted to the San Francisco Grand Jury", January - February 1973. {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Lydegraf, Clayton American activists 1915 births 1992 deaths 20th-century American non-fiction writers