John Williamson (1903–1974) was a

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-born radical best remembered as a top leader of the

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youth movement in the 1920s in the

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Biography

Early years

John Williamson was born on June 23, 1903, in

Glasgow, Scotland Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, the son of a marine engineer who was severely injured in an accident at sea shortly after his child was born. A woodworker and shipbuilder by trade, Williamson only had 8 years of formal education, later attending high school at night. He came to the United States in July 1913, settling in

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 ...

Political career

Influenced by a Scottish co-worker, Williamson joined the

Socialist Labor Party of America The Socialist Labor Party (SLP)"The name of this organization shall be Socialist Labor Party". Art. I, Sec. 1 of thadopted at the Eleventh National Convention (New York, July 1904; amended at the National Conventions 1908, 1912, 1916, 1920, 192 ...

(SLP) in August 1918. He was the SLP's State Secretary for Washington from 1921 to 1922. In his memoirs, Williamson recalls that he was deeply influenced by the move of the 1922 convention of the underground

Communist Party of America The Communist Party USA (CPUSA), officially the Communist Party of the United States of America, also referred to as the American Communist Party mainly during the 20th century, is a communist party in the United States. It was established ...

to move towards legality and mass work and he joined that group in November or December 1922. He was active in the party's youth section, the Young Workers League (YWL) and was active as an organizer for the league in Seattle and was a member of the movement's "Legal Political Party," the

Workers Party of America The Workers Party of America (WPA) was the name of the legal party organization used by the Communist Party USA from December 1921 until the middle of 1929. Background As a legal political party, the Workers Party accepted affiliation from indep ...

(WPA) from the time of its formation at the end of 1922. Williamson was elected a delegate to the 2nd National Convention of the YWL in May 1923 and he made the long trip to New York for the gathering. He was there elected to the governing National Executive Committee of the YWL, moving to the headquarters city of Chicago after the convention at the NEC's request. The NEC named Williamson its "National Industrial Organizer," attempting to build a mass movement of young communists among unionized workers. During this interval of organizational poverty, Williamson worked at various day jobs to make ends meet, conducting his political activities at night. Williamson was a delegate of the YWL to the 3rd National Convention of the WPA at the end of 1923 and was there voted to be one of two delegates to the 4th World Congress of the

Young Communist International The Young Communist International (YCI) was the parallel international youth organization affiliated with the Communist International (Comintern). History International socialist youth organization before World War I After failed efforts to fo ...

in Moscow. Throughout the 1920s, Williamson was a loyalist of the Chicago-centered majority faction of

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. After the 4th World Congress, Williamson returned home to Chicago, where he joined a 3-person Secretariat of the YWL, along with

Martin Abern Martin "Marty" Abern ( Martin Abramowitz; December 2, 1898 – April 1949) was a Marxist politician who was an important leader of the Communist youth movement of the 1920s as well as a founder of the American Trotskyist movement. Background Mar ...

and Oliver Carlson. In 1924 he was made the YWL's representative to the YCI in Moscow. His time there was short, as he returned in September 1924 to assume the role of head of the YWL, a job which he maintained until August 1928, when he was replaced by

Sam Darcy Samuel Adams Darcy (born Samuel Dardeck , also known as "Sam Darcy," 1905 – November 8, 2005) was an American political activist who was a prominent Communist leader in both New York and California. He was active in the organization of New Yo ...

for factional reasons. After his removal as Secretary of the YWL, Williamson was again named Industrial Organizer for the group. Williamson was a delegate to the 5th Enlarged Plenum of the

Executive Committee of the Communist International The Executive Committee of the Communist International, commonly known by its acronym, ECCI (Russian acronym ИККИ - for ), was the governing authority of the Comintern between the World Congresses of that body. The ECCI, established by the Fo ...

(ECCI), held in April 1925. In the fall of 1926, Williamson married Lenore Sarney, a Polish émigré who was active in the Young Communist movement.John Williamson, ''Dangerous Scot: The Life and Work of an American "Undesirable."'' New York: International Publishers, 1969; pg. 61. In 1930 their marriage came to an end, they remained friendly and Lenore remarried and subsequently settled in the Soviet Union.Williamson, ''Dangerous Scot'', pg. 80. From 1933 to 1940, Williamson was the CPUSA's District Organizer in Ohio, during which interval the membership of the district grew from 600 to 3,500.Louise Mitchell, "Mild Man with 'Dangerous Thoughts,'" ''The Worker,'' October 24, 1948. In 1935 Williamson met Mae Kuperman and in March 1936 they married. They would go on to have two boys, Robert (Bob) and Neil, and would remain together until his death.Williamson, ''Dangerous Scot'', pg. 122. Williamson was a supporter of James P. Cannon's faction during the period in which Cannon and William Z. Foster were at odds, but he managed to remain in the Communist Party after Cannon's expulsion for Trotskyism in 1928. That same year he spent 9 months in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

with his wife. He was released by the Young Communist League (successor to the YWL) for work in the adult party after the 5th National Convention of that organization, held in April 1929. From 1930, Williamson sat as a member of the governing Central Committee of the Communist Party.

Smith Act Conviction

In 1949, John Williamson was convicted under the

Smith Act The Alien Registration Act, popularly known as the Smith Act, 76th United States Congress, 3rd session, ch. 439, , is a United States federal statute that was enacted on June 28, 1940. It set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of ...

in an attempt by the

US Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of federal laws and the administration of justice. It is equ ...

to "decapitate" the leadership of the Communist Party USA. He served five years in prison and was promptly deported to the UK upon his release in 1955. There he was active in the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB ...

. Williamson suffered a serious heart attack in April 1963 and wrote a memoir of his life in the radical movement in 1965, a book eventually published by the Communist Party's

International Publishers International Publishers is a book publishing company based in New York City, specializing in Marxism, Marxist works of economics, political science, and history. Company history Establishment International Publishers Company, Inc., was founde ...

in 1969.

Footnotes

Sources

* ''The Young Worker'' (1922-1927) * ''The Worker/Daily Worker'' (1922-1938) * Early American Marxism website ( http://www.marxisthistory.org ) {{DEFAULTSORT:Williamson, John 1903 births 1974 deaths American Marxists Members of the Communist Party USA People convicted under the Smith Act Scottish emigrants to the United States