National conventions of the Communist Party USA

The Communist Party USA has held thirty-one official conventions including nomination conventions and conventions held while the party was known as the Workers Party of America, the Workers (Communist) Party of America and the Communist Political Association. There were also a number of congresses held by the earlier (though often underground) organizational predecessors of the party, including the Communist Labor Party of America, the United Communist Party and two groups known as the Communist Party of America. The Communist Party's 31st National Convention took place in Chicago from June 13 - 15 in 2019.^[1]

Left-wing conference

A resolution for a national conference of left leaning organizations within the Socialist Party of America had been adopted by the Boston local in May 1919 and endorsed by a number of other locals. Admittance as left-wing was defined as endorsement of the left-wing program adopted by the Left Wing Section of Greater New York.^[2] When the conference met the delegates divided between a group around the periodical The Revolutionary Age that wanted to infiltrate the Socialist Party's convention in Chicago that September and those who wished to create a Communist Party immediately. The minority withdrew and formed the National Organization Committee for a Communist Party. This group was mainly made up of the suspended language federations and the Socialist Party of Michigan.

The majority formed a national left-wing council and attempted to arrange a take over of the Socialist Party's convention. However, by late August the majority decided to forgo this plan and joined with the National Organization Committee to create a new party at a convention in Chicago. A minority, led by Ben Gitlow and John Reed split with the majority and attempted to infiltrate the Socialist Party convention alone.^[3]

Communist Party of America (1919)

Convention	City	Date	Notes
Founding	Chicago	September 1–7, 1919	Manifesto and program. Constitution. Report to the Communist International; The Communist Vol. I #1 Sept 27, 1919
Second	New York	July 13–18, 1920	First after the departure of the Michigan and Ruthenberg factions; The Communist Vol. II #8 Aug 1, 1920
Third	New York	February 1921

Communist Labor Party/United Communist Party

Convention	City	Date	Notes
Founding	Chicago	August 31 – September 5, 1919	Founds Communist Labor Party; Minutes of the Founding Convention of the Communist Labor Party of America; Constitution of the Communist Labor Party of America at Early American Marxism
Joint Unity	Bridgman, Michigan	May 26–31, 1920	The CLP and the Ruthenberg group of the CPA merge into the United Communist Party Program and constitution of the United Communist Party of America.
Second	Kingston, New York	December 24, 1920 – January 2, 1921

Communist Party of America (1921)

Convention	City	Date	Notes
Joint Unity	Woodstock, New York	May 15–28, 1921	CPA and UCP merge
Second	Bridgman, Michigan	August 17–22, 1922	Raided by the Justice Department Reds in America; the present status of the revolutionary movement in the U. S. based on documents seized by the authorities in the raid upon the convention of the Communist party at Bridgman, Mich., Aug. 22, 1922, together with descriptions of numerous connections and associations of the Communists among the Radicals, Progressives, and Pinks
Third	New York	April 7, 1923	Dissolves underground CPA into aboveground Workers Party of America

Workers Party of America

Convention	City	Date	Notes
Founding	New York	December 23–26, 1921	Merges the Workers Council, the CPAs aboveground American Labor Alliance and other groups to form the Workers Party of America Program and constitution, Workers Party of America, adopted at national convention, New York City, December 24, 25, 26, 1921
Second	New York	December 24–26, 1922	Constitution of the Workers Party of America, as amended by the Second National Convention, New York December 24-25 and 26, 1922
Third	Chicago	December 30, 1923 – January 2, 1924	The second year of the Workers Party of America report of the Central Executive Committee to the Third National Convention held in Chicago, Ill., Dec. 30, 31, 1923 and Jan. 1, 2, 1924 : theses, program, resolutions. Program and constitution
Nominating	Chicago	July 10, 1924	Nominates William Z. Foster for President and Benjamin Gitlow for Vice President

Workers (Communist) Party of America

Convention	City	Date	Notes
Fourth	Chicago	August 21–30, 1925	Changes name to Workers (Communist) Party, Ruthenberg minority given control of party by Comintern representative The fourth national convention of the Workers (Communist) Party of America : Report of the Central Executive Committee to the 4th national convention ...; From the Third Through the Fourth Convention of the Workers (Communist) Party of America
Fifth	New York	August 31 – September 6, 1927	Confirms Jay Lovestone as Executive Secretary and Lovestone group as majority on party organs
Nominating	New York	May 25–27, 1928	Nominates William Z. Foster for President and Benjamin Gitlow for Vice President Acceptance speeches; The platform of the class struggle; national platform of the Workers (communist) party, 1928.

Communist Party USA

Convention	City	Date	Notes
Sixth	New York	March 4–10, 1929	Adopts current name. Lovestone faction wins majority, but replaced by Gitlow as Executive Secretary by the Comintern
Seventh	New York	June 21–25, 1930	Elects Earl Browder General Secretary
Nominating	Chicago	May 28–29, 1932	Nominates William Z. Foster for President and James Ford for Vice President
Eighth	Cleveland	April 2–8, 1934	Report of the Central Committee to the Eighth Convention of the Communist Party of the USA, Held in Cleveland, Ohio, April 2–8, 1934.
Ninth	New York	June 24–28, 1936	Report of the Central Committee to the ninth National Convention of the Communist Party of the U.S.A.; Democracy or Fascism report of the Central Committee to the ninth National Convention of the Communist Party of U.S.A., and speech in reply to discussion; Resolutions: ninth convention of the Communist Party of the U.S.A.
Tenth	New York	May 27–31, 1938	Report to the Tenth National Convention of the Communist Party on Behalf of the Central Committee.; Resolutions of the 10th convention of the Communist Party, U.S.A.
Eleventh	New York	May 30–June 2, 1940
Special	New York	November 16, 1940
Twelfth	New York	May 20–22, 1944	Changes name to Communist Political Association; The road ahead to victory and lasting peace,
Thirteenth	New York	July 26–28, 1945	Readopts current name; removes Browder as General Secretary, replaced by Eugene Dennis
Fourteenth	New York	August 2–6, 1948	Endorses Henry Agard Wallace for President; Eugene Dennis indicts the Wall Street conspirators.
Fifteenth	New York	December 28–30, 1950	What it means to be a Communist; On Guard against Browderism, Titoism, Trotskyism.
Sixteenth	New York	February 9–12, 1957
Seventeenth	New York	December 10–13, 1959
Eighteenth	New York	June 22–26, 1966
Nineteenth	New York	April 30 – May 4, 1969
Twentieth	New York	February 18–21, 1972	Toward Chicano liberation; the Communist Party position.
Twenty-first	Chicago	June 26–29, 1975
Twenty-second	Detroit	August 23–26, 1979	Resolution on the path to native American liberation : adopted at the 22nd Convention, CPUSA, August 23-26, 1979.
Twenty-third	Cleveland	November 10–13, 1983
Twenty-fourth	Chicago	August 13–16, 1987
Twenty-fifth	Cleveland	December 5–8, 1991	First convention after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the failed August coup
Twenty-sixth	Cleveland	March 1–3, 1996	First convention after the dissolution of the Soviet Union
Twenty-seventh	Milwaukee	July 6–8, 2001	First convention after the death of Gus Hall; "Bill of Rights Socialism" becomes policy; archived website
Twenty-eighth	Chicago	July 1–3, 2005	Archived web page
Twenty-ninth	New York	May 21–23, 2010	Convention web page
Thirtieth	Chicago	June 13–15, 2014	Convention web page
Thirty-first	Chicago	June 21-23, 2019	Convention web page
Thirty-second	Chicago	June 7-9, 2023	Convention web page

Footnotes

^ "Final Resolutions for the 31st National Convention". CPUSA. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
^ Revolutionary Age Vol. I #33 May 31, 1919.
^ Revolutionary Age Vol II #7 Aug 23, 1919.

William Z. Foster, History of the Communist Party of the United States. New York: International Publishers, 1952. Appendix A. Gives starting dates of all conventions up to 1951.

External links

Early American Marxism has extensive information about the earlier conventions.

[1] "Final Resolutions for the 31st National Convention". CPUSA. Retrieved 8 January 2023.

[2] Revolutionary Age Vol. I #33 May 31, 1919.

[3] Revolutionary Age Vol II #7 Aug 23, 1919.

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