Henry Winston
Encyclopedia
Henry M. Winston was an African American
political leader and Marxist
civil rights activist.
Winston, committed to equal rights and communism
, was an advocate of civil rights for African Americans decades before the idea of racial equality emerged as a mainstream current of American political thought.
An early member of the American Communist Party
, Winston was elected to the party's National Board in 1936, serving as Chairman of the CPUSA from the 1960s to the 1980s.
, Henry grew up there and in Kansas City, Missouri
. The economic situation of the poor Winston family was troubling enough to force Henry to leave high school early. Though once again uemployed after the start of the Great Depression
, Winston's organizational skills and intellect when he took a position with the Kansas City Unemployed Council at 19.
By 1936, Winston was serving the Communist Party USA as both the national organizational secretary of the Young Communist League
member of the Communist Party National Board.
As a high-ranking member of the Communist Party organization, Winston encouraged members of the party to sign up for military service to fight Fascism
and Nazism
in the Second World War
. Winston himself served in the Army
, participating in the liberation of France
from Nazi occupation. He marked the war's end with an honorable discharge from the military.
discharge and the reorganization of the Party in 1946, Winston, along with the rest of the CPUSA leadership, was a victim of an early Cold War
attempt by the American government to "decapitate" the Communists' leading ranks. In 1948, Winston, together with other notable leaders within the Communist movement, was brought to trial on charges of violating the Smith Act
prohibition prohibiting the encouragement of overthrowing the American government.
Unable to produce any evidence that any of the leading party members had actually called for the armed overthrow of the American government, the prosecution, boosted by the American public's antipathy toward radical activists during the opening years of the Cold War
, based its case on selective interpretation of quotations from the works of Karl Marx
, Vladimir Lenin
and other revolutionary figures of Marxism-Leninism
, and the testimony of "witnesses" hired by the FBI
. During the course of the trial the judge held several of the defendants and all of their counsel in contempt of court
.
Convicted of revolutionary insurrection alongside the rest of the defendants for advocating the ideas of Marxism, Winston escaped while on bail. In disguise, traveling around the country under a false name, Winston was sheltered by sympathetic to Marxism and leftist political work. Undeterred from maintaining his links with the party above-ground, Winston continued his activities from within the party's underground organization: his 1951 pamphlet on party organization, "What it Means to be a Communist," was produced by the Communist Party while Winston was still underground.
Following his surrender to federal authorities years later, Winston served out his sentence in Terre Haute, Indiana
, remaining imprisoned, despite severe health problems, until his release in 1961.
Winston's state of health began to see a rapid deterioration throughout the late 1950s. By 1958, he began to suffer from headaches and dizzy spells; no adequate treatment was administered to him until 1960; by then, although the tumor was removed when he was transferred to a hospital New York, Winston was left permanently blind as a result of denied treatment. Winston's release, now sought even by anti-communist preachers and liberal activists, was refused.
Addressing President Kennedy
in a 1961 debate, Comandante Fidel Castro
, whose July 26 Revolution swept the Communists into power two years earlier, called for the release of Winston and other political prisoners.
Against the backdrop of both waves of protests from various quarters of the United States in addition to criticism from across the world, the Kennedy administration allowed Winston executive clemency, following which he was permitted to seek medical attention in Eastern Europe
and the Soviet Union
. The same year, the Supreme Court
, in Noto v. United States (1961), put an end to the jailing of party leaders, having reversed a conviction under the membership clause because the evidence was insufficient to prove that the Party had engaged in unlawful advocacy:
The legal recognition of the illegitamcy of the federal government's basis for the imprisonment of party activists was now complete. Although the party was seriously damaged by the repressive moves, aggressive party activity was now again possible.
, the General Secretary.
In 1964, he spoke to students at the University of Washington
, after radical activists from the Baby Boomer
generation staged protests against the university's ban on "communist speakers."
The 1970s witnessed the publication of two books connecting the long-denied issue of African American equality in America and the Communist philosophy of class struggle: Winston's Strategy for a Black Agenda (1973) and Class, Race, and Black Liberation (1977), which argued that the struggle for civil rights had reached the stage of fusion with the struggle for economic rights.
His 1971 lecture to a seminar of Communist Party organizers,
A close ally of the South African Communist Party
and actively involved in the American movement to end support for the United States' then-ally, apartheid South Africa
, Winston proposed the following strategy as a backbone of principles for the U.S. sanctions and divestment movement against the apartheid regime:
As Chairman of the CPUSA, Winston condemned the Reagan administration
's nuclear buildup, increases in military spending at the expense of social welfare programs, and sponsorships of civil wars against leftist forces in Nicaragua
and El Salvador
.
Winston died on December 13, 1986, aged 75, in the Soviet Union, where he had again returned in search of medical treatment.
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
political leader and Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
civil rights activist.
Winston, committed to equal rights and communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, was an advocate of civil rights for African Americans decades before the idea of racial equality emerged as a mainstream current of American political thought.
An early member of the American Communist Party
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
, Winston was elected to the party's National Board in 1936, serving as Chairman of the CPUSA from the 1960s to the 1980s.
Early life
Born on 2 April 1911 to Joseph and Lucille Winston in Hattiesburg, MississippiHattiesburg, Mississippi
Hattiesburg is a city in Forrest County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 44,779 at the 2000 census . It is the county seat of Forrest County...
, Henry grew up there and in Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
. The economic situation of the poor Winston family was troubling enough to force Henry to leave high school early. Though once again uemployed after the start of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, Winston's organizational skills and intellect when he took a position with the Kansas City Unemployed Council at 19.
By 1936, Winston was serving the Communist Party USA as both the national organizational secretary of the Young Communist League
Young Communist League, USA
The Young Communist League USA is the fraternal youth organization of the Communist Party USA. Although the name of the group has changed a number of times over the years, it dates its lineage back to 1920, shortly after the establishment of the first communist parties in America.-Early years:The...
member of the Communist Party National Board.
As a high-ranking member of the Communist Party organization, Winston encouraged members of the party to sign up for military service to fight Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
and Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
in the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Winston himself served in the Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
, participating in the liberation of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
from Nazi occupation. He marked the war's end with an honorable discharge from the military.
The Red Scare
Back to political activity after his World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
discharge and the reorganization of the Party in 1946, Winston, along with the rest of the CPUSA leadership, was a victim of an early Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
attempt by the American government to "decapitate" the Communists' leading ranks. In 1948, Winston, together with other notable leaders within the Communist movement, was brought to trial on charges of violating the Smith Act
Smith Act
The Alien Registration Act or Smith Act of 1940 is a United States federal statute that set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of the U.S...
prohibition prohibiting the encouragement of overthrowing the American government.
Unable to produce any evidence that any of the leading party members had actually called for the armed overthrow of the American government, the prosecution, boosted by the American public's antipathy toward radical activists during the opening years of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, based its case on selective interpretation of quotations from the works of Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
, Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
and other revolutionary figures of Marxism-Leninism
Marxism-Leninism
Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology, officially based upon the theories of Marxism and Vladimir Lenin, that promotes the development and creation of a international communist society through the leadership of a vanguard party over a revolutionary socialist state that represents a dictatorship...
, and the testimony of "witnesses" hired by the FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
. During the course of the trial the judge held several of the defendants and all of their counsel in contempt of court
Contempt of court
Contempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, declares a person or organization to have disobeyed or been disrespectful of the court's authority...
.
Convicted of revolutionary insurrection alongside the rest of the defendants for advocating the ideas of Marxism, Winston escaped while on bail. In disguise, traveling around the country under a false name, Winston was sheltered by sympathetic to Marxism and leftist political work. Undeterred from maintaining his links with the party above-ground, Winston continued his activities from within the party's underground organization: his 1951 pamphlet on party organization, "What it Means to be a Communist," was produced by the Communist Party while Winston was still underground.
Following his surrender to federal authorities years later, Winston served out his sentence in Terre Haute, Indiana
Terre Haute, Indiana
Terre Haute is a city and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, near the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a population of 170,943. The city is the county seat of Vigo County and...
, remaining imprisoned, despite severe health problems, until his release in 1961.
Winston's state of health began to see a rapid deterioration throughout the late 1950s. By 1958, he began to suffer from headaches and dizzy spells; no adequate treatment was administered to him until 1960; by then, although the tumor was removed when he was transferred to a hospital New York, Winston was left permanently blind as a result of denied treatment. Winston's release, now sought even by anti-communist preachers and liberal activists, was refused.
Addressing President Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
in a 1961 debate, Comandante Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
, whose July 26 Revolution swept the Communists into power two years earlier, called for the release of Winston and other political prisoners.
Against the backdrop of both waves of protests from various quarters of the United States in addition to criticism from across the world, the Kennedy administration allowed Winston executive clemency, following which he was permitted to seek medical attention in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. The same year, the Supreme Court
Supreme court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of many legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, instance court, judgment court, high court, or apex court...
, in Noto v. United States (1961), put an end to the jailing of party leaders, having reversed a conviction under the membership clause because the evidence was insufficient to prove that the Party had engaged in unlawful advocacy:
"[T]he mere abstract teaching of Communist theory, including the teaching of the moral propriety or even moral necessity for a resort to force and violence is not the same as preparing a group for violent action and steeling it to such action. There must be some substantial direct or circumstantial evidence of a call to violence now or in the future which is both sufficiently strong and sufficiently pervasive to lend color to the otherwise ambiguous theoretical material regarding Communist Party teaching, and to justify the inference that such a call to violence may fairly be imputed to the Party as a whole, and not merely to some narrow segment of it."
The legal recognition of the illegitamcy of the federal government's basis for the imprisonment of party activists was now complete. Although the party was seriously damaged by the repressive moves, aggressive party activity was now again possible.
Later life
Winston was elected CPUSA Chairman in 1966, sharing the running of the party organization with Gus HallGus Hall
Gus Hall, born Arvo Kustaa Hallberg , was a leader and Chairman of the Communist Party USA and its four-time U.S. presidential candidate. As a labor leader, Hall was closely associated with the so-called "Little Steel" Strike of 1937, an effort to unionize the nation's smaller, regional steel...
, the General Secretary.
In 1964, he spoke to students at the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
, after radical activists from the Baby Boomer
Baby boomer
A baby boomer is a person who was born during the demographic Post-World War II baby boom and who grew up during the period between 1946 and 1964. The term "baby boomer" is sometimes used in a cultural context. Therefore, it is impossible to achieve broad consensus of a precise definition, even...
generation staged protests against the university's ban on "communist speakers."
The 1970s witnessed the publication of two books connecting the long-denied issue of African American equality in America and the Communist philosophy of class struggle: Winston's Strategy for a Black Agenda (1973) and Class, Race, and Black Liberation (1977), which argued that the struggle for civil rights had reached the stage of fusion with the struggle for economic rights.
His 1971 lecture to a seminar of Communist Party organizers,
"The giant industrial monopolies, the big banks and insurance companies, the financiers and landowners, all spawn racism and use it as one of their chief class weapons to maintain and defend their regime of exploitation and oppression, of enmity among peoples, of imperialist wars of aggression.
"It follows that all democratic and antimonopoly forces, with the working class and Black liberation movement in the van, can effectively defend the interests of the vast majority of people only when they actively further the struggle against racism. This is an essential precondition for the development of a fighting alliance which will unite all democratic and [anticapitalist] forces in the country."
A close ally of the South African Communist Party
South African Communist Party
South African Communist Party is a political party in South Africa. It was founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa by the joining together of the International Socialist League and others under the leadership of Willam H...
and actively involved in the American movement to end support for the United States' then-ally, apartheid South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, Winston proposed the following strategy as a backbone of principles for the U.S. sanctions and divestment movement against the apartheid regime:
- 1. No economic, political or military relations whatsoever with the Vorster regime in the Republic of South Africa.
- 2. Congress shall tax and the Treasury shall collect taxes on all profits made in South Africa at maximum rates without deductions for local tax paid.
- 3. The Overseas Private Investment Corporation shall refuse to insure any new investments in South Africa and cancel all outstanding insurance on investments in the Republic of South Africa.
- 4. The President shall instruct the Export-Import Bank and all other U.S. credit agencies to refuse all credits for business with the Republic of South Africa and instruct U.S. representatives of international lending agencies to oppose all credits to the Republic of South Africa or companies operating therein.
- 5. The State Department shall denounce all existing investment, trade and commercial treaties with the Union of South Africa and the President shall remove most favored nation treatment from South African goods.
- 6. The immediate withdrawal of the sugar quota to the Republic of South Africa.
As Chairman of the CPUSA, Winston condemned the Reagan administration
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
's nuclear buildup, increases in military spending at the expense of social welfare programs, and sponsorships of civil wars against leftist forces in Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
and El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
.
Winston died on December 13, 1986, aged 75, in the Soviet Union, where he had again returned in search of medical treatment.
Selected works
- Life begins with freedom New York, New Age Publishers 1937
- Character building and education in the spirit of socialism New York, New Age Publishers 1939 (A report to the ninth National Convention of the Young Communist League of the U. S. A., in New York, May 11 to 15, 1939)
- The road to liberation for the Negro people (with others) New York, Workers Library Publishers 1939
- Old Jim Crow has got to go! New York, New Age Publishers 1941
- An open letter to all members of the Communist Party New York, Communist Party, U.S.A. 1948
- What it Means to be a Communist New Century Publishers 1951
- Negro liberation: a goal for all Americans (with Gus HallGus HallGus Hall, born Arvo Kustaa Hallberg , was a leader and Chairman of the Communist Party USA and its four-time U.S. presidential candidate. As a labor leader, Hall was closely associated with the so-called "Little Steel" Strike of 1937, an effort to unionize the nation's smaller, regional steel...
, Claude LightfootClaude LightfootClaude M. Lightfoot was an African-American activist, politician, and author. In 1955, during the McCarthy era, he was indicted based on the Smith Act and put on trial...
and William L. PattersonWilliam L. PattersonWilliam L. Patterson was a leader in the Communist Party USA and head of the International Labor Defense, a group that offered legal representation to communists, trade unionists, and African-Americans in cases involving issues of political or racial persecution...
) New York, New Currents Publishers 1964 - The Challenge of U.S. Neocolonialism Prague; Peace and Socialism Publishers 1964; later published as New colonialism, U.S. style New York, New Outlook Publishers 1965
- Negro-white unity; key to full equality, Negro representation, economic advance of labor, black and white New York, New Outlook Publishers 1967
- Build the Communist Party, the party of the working class. Report to the 19th National Convention, Communist Party, U.S.A., April 30-May 4, 1969 New York, New Outlook Publishers 1969
- Henry Winston meets Angela Davis New York, Communist Party, U.S.A. 1970
- Black Americans and the Middle East conflict New York, New Outlook Publishers 1970
- The crisis of the Black Panther Party New York, Published for the occasion of the 2nd Annual Convention of the National Association of Black Students by the Communist Party, U.S.A., 1971
- The meaning of San Rafael New York, New Outlook Publishers 1971
- Fight racism - for unity and progress New York, New Outlook Publishers 1971
- The politics of people's action; the Communist Party in the '72 elections New York, New Outlook Publishers 1972
- Black and white—one class, one fight: the role of white workers in the struggle against racism. New York, New Outlook Publishers 1972 (Report to the 20th National Convention of the Communist Party, United States of America, February 20, 1972)
- Africa's struggle for freedom, the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. New York, New Outlook Publishers 1972
- Strategy for a Black Agenda; a critique of new theories of liberation in the United States and Africa New York, International Publishers 1973
- A Marxist-Leninist critique of Roy Innis on community self-determination and Martin Kilson on education New York, International Publishers 1973
- Class, Race, and Black Liberation New York : International Publishers 1977
- Speech of Henry Winston, National Chairman, CPUSA: to the Central Committee/National Council Meeting May 29, 1983. New York, CPUSA 1983
External links
- "I Remember Winnie"A commemoration by Jarvis TynerJarvis TynerJarvis Tyner is an American activist and the current Executive Vice Chair of the Communist Party USA. He is a resident of Manhattan, New York City. In 1972 and 1976, he ran for Vice President of the United States of the CPUSA.-Biography:...
, May 8, 2004 issue of the People's Weekly WorldPeople's Weekly WorldThe People's World is a news web site associated with the Communist Party USA.The People's World / Mundo Popular, formerly the People's Weekly World / Nuestro Mundo is a national, grassroots weekly newspaper and the direct descendant of the Daily Worker, founded in 1924...
.