> NEW YORK -- Gus Hall, long time Communist Party leader, died Friday Oct.
13
> in New York City. He was 90.
>
> (www.pww.org)
>
> Hall was one of the most famous American communists. He led an
> extraordinary life of working class activism and was a participant in
> nearly all of the most important social struggles that transformed America
> in the twentieth century. He came from, and was typical of, an outstanding
> generation of activists on issues of workers' rights, peace, equality,
> international solidarity and socialism. Like Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Paul
> Robeson, William Z. Foster, John L. Lewis, W.E.B. Du Bois, and many other
> Communist and non-Communist figures he worked with, he leaves a deep
> imprint on America's political life.
>
> Originally from the Minnesota Iron Range, Hall was born into a politically
> active Finnish family. As a young man he worked in the lumber camps of the
> far north.
>
> At 17, he became an organizer for the Young Communist League (YCL). He
> later made his way to Youngstown Ohio where he ran for mayor on the
> Communist Party ticket, under his birth name, Arvo Gus Halberg. When Hall
> wanted to get a job in the steel mills, because of blacklisting he knew he
> wouldn't be hired, so he changed it to Gus Hall. The name stuck.
>
> Hall was an organizer for the Steelworkers Organizing Committee (SWOC), a
> founding member of the United Steelworkers of America and a strike leader
> during the "Little Steel Strike" of 1937. That strike was the final blow
> against the steel giants vicious, anti-union stance. Hall helped to
> organize over 10,000 steelworkers in the Mahoning Valley.
>
> Later Hall became an organizer for the Communist Party. A staunch fighter
> against racism and fascism Hall volunteered for the U.S. Navy, when World
> War II broke out, serving as a machinist mate in a machine shop in Guam.
He
> was honorably discharged March 6, 1946. On July 22,1948, Hall and 11 other
> Communist Party leaders were indicted under the Smith Act on false charges
> of "conspiracy to teach and advocate the overthrow of the U.S. government
> by force and violence."
>
> Many communists and progressives were jailed, blacklisted and hounded by
> the FBI during one of the most undemocratic periods in our country's
> history. Hall spent eight years in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary for
the
> crime of "thinking." The Supreme Court finally struck down the Smith Act
as
> unconstitutional.
>
> After his release Hall continued his activism in the working class,
> democratic, peace and civil rights struggles, making many public speeches
> and media appearances. Hall was famous around the world as a respected
> Communist leader and had warm relations with many heads of state. Hall
> addressed numerous international meetings of Communist and workers'
parties.
>
> Hall ran for President four times on the Communist Party ticket, making
> People before Profits a rallying slogan.
>
> An internationally renowned Marxist theoretician, Hall authored many
books,
> articles and speeches. Two of his best know books are Working Class USA
and
> Racism, the Nation's Most Dangerous Pollutant.
>
> Sam Webb, the National Chair of the Communist Party, said, "Gus Hall will
> be greatly missed by the progressive movements and our Party. Through all
> the turmoil of McCarthyism, the Reagan/Bush years of attacks on labor, and
> the setbacks to socialism, Hall helped our party maintained a clear,
stable
> focus in the working class, and the people's movements for peace, social
> justice and socialism."
>
> Hall is survived by his wife Elizabeth, also a founder of the USWA, a
> daughter, Barbara, a son, Arvo, two sisters and many grandchildren and
> great-grandchildren.
>
>


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