Samuel Adams Darcy

Samuel Adams Darcy (born Samuel Dardeck , 1905 - November 8, 2005) was a prominent Communist leader in both New York and California. While active in the organization of New York City’s unemployment march in 1930, he was perhaps most famous for his work surrounding the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike.

Early life

Samuel Adams Darcy was born Samuel Dardeck in 1905 in the Ukraine. In 1908 he and his family immigrated to New York. He spent his early years growing up in New York City, attending DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, and eventually New York University.[1] At an early age Darcy witnessed his father, an ardent union member, severely beaten by police at a garment workers picket line. According to Darcy that was a defining moment in the development of his own political beliefs.[2]

While still in High School, Darcy joined the Young People’s Socialist League. Following the Russian Revolution, Darcy joined the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), using his affinity for public speaking and organizing to rise in the organization’s ranks. Darcy was eventually sent to Moscow in 1927 to teach at the Lenin School. Before his return in to New York in 1929, he also spent time in China and the Philippines organizing working-class movements.[1]

March 6th Protest

Darcy returned to the United States in 1929 and quickly rose to prominence within the CPUSA. Darcy was one of the main organizers of the New York unemployment march, which took place on March 6, 1930 as part of International Unemployment Day. Even with the massive turnout, however, internal criticism arose that the CPUSA did not reap the benefits by failing to sufficiently increase their membership. Party General Secretary Earl Browder scapegoated Darcy for these perceived failures, essentially exiling him to San Francisco, far from the CPUSA national headquarters, and in California where the Party district was in shambles.[2] While many in the Party anticipated Darcy would fade into oblivion, the shifting political climate put more organizing emphasis on the West Coast, essentially giving Darcy the platform he needed to do some of his most famous and influential work.

The San Francisco Waterfront

With his move to California, Darcy became increasingly concerned with strategies to organize San Francisco longshoreman. In the early 1930s the Communist Party had pursued the strategy of infiltrating existing unions to elect rank and file workers to take control from what the CPUSA thought of as corrupt and conservative union officials. With the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), however, the CPUSA attempted to organize a separate union, the Marine Workers Industrial Union (MWIU).[3] In many people’s minds, including Sam Darcy, this created a form of dual unionism on the waterfront and was thus counterproductive to the longshoremen’s overall organizing efforts.

In disagreement with the CPUSA’s strategy, Darcy, along with Henry Schmidt and Harry Bridges formed the Albion Hall group in order to recruit Communist Party members to abandon the MWIU and instead pursue rank-and-file leadership within the ILA.[3] While supporters of the MWIU condemned Darcy and his "boring from within" approach, evidence suggests that the strategy was both beneficial for the Communist Party and the militants within the ILA.[3] On the eve of the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike, ILA national President Joseph Ryan and Senator Robert F. Wagner, Chairman of the National Labor Board, urged the Longshoremen not to strike.[3] The rank-and-file leadership, whose strength many people attribute to the work of Darcy and the Albion group, ignored their requests. On May 9, 14,000 Longshoremen went on strike throughout the West Coast.[3]

Expulsion from Communist Party

Over the next decade, Darcy continued his work within the Communist Party. In 1944, however, due to his ongoing feud with Party General Secretary Earl Browder, he was expelled from the Party. Although allowed reinstatement with Browder’s removal from office a year later, Darcy did not return to the CPUSA.[1] Darcy continued to be active in labor issues up until his death on November 8, 2005.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "U.S. LABOR AND INDUSTRIAL HISTORY WORLD WIDE WEB AUDIO ARCHIVE". Retrieved 7 June 2013.
  2. 1 2 Nelson, Bruce (1990). Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s. University of Illinois Press.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Chretien, Todd. "Dual Unionism or "Boring from Within" The Communist Party and the San Francisco General Strike" (PDF). Retrieved 7 June 2013.
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