American Imperialism - Workers Party of America, Jay Lovestone 1925

Vintage Leftist Leaflet Project

See the end of this post for details on the project.


Leaflet: American Imperialism - Workers Party of America, Jay Lovestone 1925

This remarkable pamphlet released by the Workers Party of America (which became the Communist Party in 1929) in 1925 is an overview of the pernicious influence and spread of American imperialism internationally at the time. 

How little has changed. 

Released by the party's Literature Department it was written by Jay Lovestone who would be expelled by the party in 1929 and would go on to form a rival Communist Party. He later, sadly, would work with anti-communist leaders within the American Federation of Labor and become a CIA informant during the Cold War.

Note the ad for the magazine of the Communist International edited by Zinoviev and Radek. Also the terrific cover art and the ad for the Daily Worker that contrasts the capitalist press with its radical alternative. Finally, the back cover promoting the party's "radical books" has a memorable quote:

Superstition and ignorance is protected by the privileged classes who live on the labor of others. Modern Science and revolutionary ideas are welcomed by the workers who keep society alive.

(click on images to enlarge)

When The Left Chapter began part of what I wanted to do on the blog was to show and highlight vintage public leftist election/political leaflets and booklets. While many of these have been offered with commentary to date, a very large collection of hundreds of them from several different sources remains and to preserve these often quite rare documents we will be posting them on a regular (almost daily) basis now often without or with minimal commentary so that people may have access to them as quickly as possible as an historical resource.

While these will all be leaflets from a variety of different leftist viewpoints and countries, they are being posted as an historical/study resource and the views or opinions expressed in them do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog or blogger.

All of these posts (as well as posts made to date) will be listed on the page: Vintage Communist/Socialist Leaflets (which is still being updated with past posts).

If you have any public, vintage leaflets or booklets you would like to contribute to this project please contact us via theleftchapter@outlook.com