In 1919, the left wing of the Socialist Party was unjustly expelled prior to National Executive Committee elections for allegedly operating as a 'Party Within the Party.' Upon expulsion, the left wing was split in two; one faction immediately formed the Communist Party of America (which grew to 58,000 members not long after) and the other group, after trying and failing to win over some potential allies still in the Socialist Party, formed the much smaller Communist Labor Party of America (CLP). At the behest of the 3rd Communist International, these two parties would merge to form the Communist Party of the United States of America in 1919. Many members of the African Blood Brotherhood would also join the CPUSA.
Even though the parties had merged, the CLP and CPA still constituted their own respective factions within the party. The CLP faction was led by Jay Lovestone and the CPA faction was led by C.E. Ruthenberg. The 'Lovestoneites' (as they came to be called) thought that capitalism was stronger in America than it was elsewhere, and believed that the Party should wait for capitalism to erode instead of agitating for revolution. Eventually, in 1928, the Party would expel 100 Troskyites, and not long after, Jay Lovestone and his clique.
In 1929, the Great Depression began. This period of severe economic downturn and major disenfranchisement of workers would see the CPUSA grow exponentially, organizing hundreds of thousands of workers for demonstrations, union activities, electoral campaigns, and more. This included the election of the first two communists to the New York City Council. The Party's membership would peak at 80,000 in 1944.
Unfortunately, the 1930s and early 1940s would also be marked by the rise of right-opportunism in the CPUSA, which was led by Earl Browder. Browder would champion a policy of liquidationist collaborationism with the Roosevelt administration. Although there was opposition to Browderite revisionism (led by William Z. Foster) within the Party, Browder remained in control of influential party positions. Browder’s revisionism would reach its logical conclusion when he incorrectly surmised that Britain and the United States would support communism since they were in a (purely circumstantial) alliance with the Soviet Union. This led him to dissolve the CPUSA into the Communist Political Association in 1944, essentially abandoning the vanguard role of the Party. Fortunately, after a resolute struggle against Browderism, and an intervention by the French Communist Party, the CPUSA was reconstituted and Browder expelled.
The latter-half of the 1940s was mostly spent continuing the struggle against American imperialism and also cleaning up Browder’s mistakes. However, in 1948 the USA indicted 12 out of 13 National Board members under the Smith Act. 11 out of 12 of the defendants would go on to receive five-year sentences. The Second Red Scare-coupled with the influence of Khrushchev's revisionism–significantly weakened the Party's fighting power. Throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s, many Party members would be purged, which led to the formation of a number of new communist organizations. During the second-half of the 20th century, the Party would be led by Chairman Gus Hall until his death in 2000.
After the death of Gus Hall, Sam Webb became the National Chairman of the CPUSA until 2014. Webb's brand of revisionism was utterly liquidationist, and sought to rid the party of its Marxist-Leninist character and to abandon its communist commitments entirely. Webbite revisionism would even affirm 'israel's' right to exist. After Sam Webb stepped down, John Bachtell became the National Chairman in 2015, and he would eventually become the President of People's World, CPUSA’s publication. Currently, Rossana Cambron and Joe Sims are the co-chairs of the CPUSA, heading the Party's 32nd Convention in June, 2024.
The Black Panther Party was founded in 1966 by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton. The BPP was founded on the basis of African American community self-defense, and went on regular armed patrols around the city in order to hold cops accountable and challenge state violence. The Party really began to gain traction because of Fred Hampton, the leader of the Chicago chapter of the BPP. They also established a number of chapters in major cities around the United States throughout the sixties and seventies.
The Black Panthers were not limited to armed self-defense, however; from the late 60s onwards, the BPP organized a number of community-oriented social programs. These programs included providing free breakfast for children and operating community health clinics. The BPP also forged ties with other communist and anti-capitalist groups in the United States, including the American Indian Movement, the Young Lords, and the Young Patriot Party, among others. At its peak, the Black Panther Party had offices in 68 cities and around 5,000 members.
Because of the Party's revolutionary activities, the United States government began to retaliate by arresting BPP leaders. The most concentrated effort by the police and the federal government to bring down the Panthers was the notorious FBI-led COINTELPRO, which was launched in 1968. This fascist intelligence operation saw the murder of BPP member Bobby Hutton (who was unarmed when he was gunned down by police) and the assassination of Fred Hampton while he was sleeping.
In addition to unrelenting extra-judicial violence against the Panthers, COINTELPRO also tried to cause a split between the west and east coast branches of the Party, which were led by Huey P. Newton and Eldridge Cleaver, respectively. The FBI would forge letters and send them to either side, eventually leading Newton to expel Cleaver from the Party. This led to a horrible schism and the deaths of more Party members at the hands of the FBI. The Black Panther Party was formally disbanded in 1982, after more than a decade of withstanding state violence, including murder, imprisonment, and deception. In 1989, Huey P. Newton was murdered in Oakland, California.
However, the Panthers live on, both literally and metaphorically. Bobby Seale, David Hilliard, Kathleen Neal Cleaver, Elaine Brown, Mumia Abu-Jamal (imprisoned), Mutulu Shakur (imprisoned), and Bobby Rush are among the former members of the Black Panther Party that are still alive. Moreover, the immense legacy of the BPP continues to influence and provide the groundwork for many movements in the present-day. It is also important to understand that the Black Panther Party was faced with extraordinarily difficult circumstances, and we must take that into consideration not only when looking at its shortcomings, but also their achievements and success in serving the people and making headway for proletarian revolution.