San Francisco Workers' School

The San Francisco Workers' School was an ideological training center of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) established in San Francisco for adult education in 1934. "It was a typical specimen of a Communist school, such as would come under investigation by federal and state authorities for decades afterward.".^[1] in the 1940, it emerged as the California Labor School.

San Francisco Workers' School

Successor	California Labor School
Formation	1934
Dissolved	circa 1942
Purpose	educational, propagandist, indoctrinal
Headquarters	121 Haight Street, San Francisco
Services	ideological training center of CPUSA, adult education
Key people	Samuel Adams Darcy, Benjamin Ellisberg, Langston Hughes, Lincoln Steffens, Anita Whitney
Affiliations	Communist Party USA

History

In 1934, Anita Whitney, Samuel Adams Darcy, Benjamin Ellisberg, Lincoln Steffens, and Steffens' wife Ella Winter supported the establishment of the San Francisco Worker's School, housed at CPUSA headquarters at 121 Haight Street in San Francisco.^[1]

The school drew inspiration from the Jack London Memorial Institute (founded 1917^[2]).

Organization

Like similar workers' schools in New York and Chicago, it held classes at night (after normal work hours) and taught the basics of Communism.^[1]

Administrators

(forthcoming)

Advisory board

According to Tenney Committee report of 1947,^[3] the following people served on an advisory board for the school:

• Langston Hughes
• Lincoln Steffens
• Anita Whitney

According to a 1953 HUAC hearing,^[4] in 1934 the advisory board comprised:

• Langston Hughes (writer)
• Ella Winter (writer)
• Lincoln Steffens (writer and husband of Ella Winter)
• George Morris (editor, Western Worker)
• Sam Darcy (CPUSA district organizer)
• Beatrice Kinkead
• Anita Whitney
• Dr. M.H. Crawford
• Benjamin Ellsberg (Ornamental Plasterers' Union AFL)
• Sam Diner (Needle Trades Workers' Industrial Union - NTWIU )
• Harry Jackson (Marine Workers' Industrial Union - MWIU)
• Neil Hickey (Trade Union Unity League - TUUL)
• Leo Gallagher (labor lawyer)

Teachers

According to Stephen Schwartz,^[1] the following people taught at the school:

• Kenneth Rexroth - Art
• Samuel Adams Darcy - unknown
• Elaine Black - unknown
• Karl Hama (Party name for Goso Yoneda) - unknown
• Sam Goodwin - unknown
• Louise Todd Lambert - unknown

Courses

According to Stephen Schwartz,^[1] the following courses were taught at the school:

• Principles of Communism
• Marxian Economics
• National and Colonial Problems
• History of the Social and Communist Movements
• Self-Defense in Courts (4-session)
• Organizing the Working Class (only for CPUSA and YCL members)

Publications

The school published a journal called Writers' Workshop, edited by activist, novelist, historian Alexander Saxton.^[5][6]

Impact

(forthcoming)

Legacy

"The early San Francisco Workers School morphed into the Tom Mooney School, and then reappeared as CLS" (the California Labor School).^[6]

See also

• Rand School of Social Science (1906)
• Work People's College (1907)
• Brookwood Labor College (1921)
• New York Workers School (1923)
  • New Workers School (1929)
  • Jefferson School of Social Science (1944)
• Highlander Research and Education Center (formerly Highlander Folk School) (1932)
  • Commonwealth College (Arkansas) (1923-1940)
  • Southern Appalachian Labor School (since 1977)
• California Labor School (formerly Tom Mooney Labor School) (1942)
• Seattle Labor School (1946–1949)^[7]
• Continuing education
• Los Angeles People's Education Center^[8]