Subtitle:

Democracy and the American Communist Movement

Series:

Interviews not in a series, part one

Topic:

Social Movements

Communist Party

Labor Movement

Biographical Note:

Labor organizer and executive committee member of the Southern California chapter of the Communist Party.

Interviewer:

Furmanovsky, Michael

Interviewee:

Dobbs, Ben

Persons Present:

Dobbs and Furmanovsky.

Place Conducted:

Dobbs's home in West Los Angeles, California.

Supporting Documents:

Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research.

Interviewer Background and Preparation:

The interview was conducted by Michael Furmanovsky, UCLA Oral History Program; B.A., University of Warwick, Great Britain; M.A., C.Phil., UCLA.Furmanovsky prepared for the interviews by basing his questioning and direction of the interview on his research for his dissertation on the history of the Communist Party in Los Angeles during the Depression. He also reviewed the California State Legislature's Report of the Senate Fact Finding Committee on Un-American Activities and several books on the subject.

Processing of Interview:

George Kodak, editorial assistant, edited the interview. He checked the verbatim transcript of the interview against the original tape recordings, edited for punctuation, paragraphing, and spelling, and verified proper names. Words and phrases inserted by the editor have been bracketed.The edited transcript was sent to Dobbs in August 1988. He made some corrections and additions, verified proper names, and returned the interview in March 1989.Richard Candida Smith, principal editor, prepared the table of contents and index. Paul Winters, editorial assistant, prepared the biographical summary and interview history.

Length:

14.6 hrs.

Language:

English

Copyright:

Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.

Audio:

Family background--Growing up in Boyle Heights--Parents' political values--Introduction to the communist movement--Assessing the attraction of Marxism-Leninism.

The Depression--The Blue Blouses--Agitprop theater--Developing as a public speaker--The John Reed Club--Joining the Young Communist League (YCL)--Literature agent for the Young Pioneers--Looking to the Soviet Union as a model of socialist development--Involvement in trade union organizing among tire workers--Elected secretary of the local--Youth director of the Trade Union Unity League (TUUL)--The Los Angeles Milkers Union strike--Organizing a social club for young people in the Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union--The curse of racism in the American labor movement--Communist discipline--Counselor at a Young Pioneer summer camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains--Recuperating from a mild case of tuberculosis--Attacked by the Ku Klux Klan in Long Beach--Raided by naval intelligence--Marriage to Eleanor Milder--Malvina Reynolds--David Milder.

Interest in the arts and in sports--National Youth Day--Sectarianism in the Communist Party--Involvement with the EPIC movement--YCL campaigns, 1932-1936--The American Youth Congress--The campaign to recall Los Angeles Mayor Frank L. Shaw--The National Youth Act--Party policy on revealing membership--Anticommunism--The Communist Party's leading role in the fight for democracy--Hursel Alexander.

Infiltration of the Los Angeles Communist Party by police spies--Leading the YCL in San Francisco, 1935-1938--The Archie Brown case--Developing a sports center--The Department Store Employees Union, Local 1100--Appointed organizational secretary of the YCL--Frank Carlson--Organizing youth groups around the state--The difficulties of sustaining local organizations--Pardon of Tom Mooney--Returning to Los Angeles in 1939--Marriage to Harriet Moscowitz--Defending the Nazi-Soviet Pact.

Appointed chair of the state YCL in 1940--German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941--Browderism-- Drafted into the army in 1942--Advocating labor peace in support of the war effort--Unconditional support for the Soviet Union--Reflection on the abrupt change in Communist Party policy toward the war after the invasion of the Soviet Union--Deciding to tell the army that he is a communist--Army camp life--Running into Smiley Rincon-- Assigned to the Forty-fifth Division--Spied on by army intelligence--Transferred to the military police.

Friendships in the army--The Young Communist League dissolves in 1942--Assigned to the military police at Camp Forest, Virginia--Protesting segregation policies--Nazi sympathizers at Camp Forest--Military police duties--Transferred to stockade duty at Fort Meade, Maryland--Reassigned to a combat unit--The Sixteenth Armored Division-- Getting the runaround--Becomes charge of quarters.

Duties as charge of quarters--Promoted to staff sergeant--Harassment from the intelligence officer of the division--Shipped to Europe in February 1945.

Promoted to technical sergeant--Stationed in France--Guarding German prisoners of war--Meeting French communists in Paris--Moving into Germany-- Liberating Stribro, Czechoslovakia--The surrender of Pilsen--VE Day--Connecting with the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia--Contact with the Soviet army--Promoted to battalion sergeant major.

The government of liberated Czechoslovakia--The expulsion of Sudeten Germans--Hearing Paul Robeson sing for the troops in Marienbad-- Assigned to run the Hotel Continental in Pilsen-- Distributing food and clothing to the Czech people--Recruiting drive by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia--Arguments over the role of the Communist Party in society--Campaign to rebuild the Skoda plant--The Duclos letter--Impressions of Czechoslovakia.