Darcy, Samuel, 1905-

Darcy was a Communist Party activist.

From the description of Oral history interviews with Samuel Adams Darcy, 1970 September 18 and 1971 March 23. (Pennsylvania State University Libraries). WorldCat record id: 31484957

Samuel Adams Darcy was born as Samuel Dardeck in 1905 in the Ukraine of Jewish-socialist background was a leading official of the CPUSA from 1925-44 and also headed the Communist International's Anglo-American Secretariat (1935-38). He was head of the Young Workers League (1925-27), led the Party's California district from 1931-36, and the Eastern Pennsylvania district from 1939-44. He was active in Party education work as head of the Workers School (c1930), and as National Education Director (1938). A friend of William Z. Foster and like him a long-time opponent of Party head Earl Browder, he was expelled in 1944. He became a successful furniture merchant and Democratic party activist.

From the description of Papers, 1924-1985 (bulk 1930-1945). (New York University). WorldCat record id: 478373358

Sam Adams Darcy (1905-2005), born Samuel Dardeck in the Ukraine of Jewish background was a leading official of the CPUSA for some twenty years (1925-44), and also held a number of important positions in the Communist International. Darcy was an effective organizer, talented public speaker and a prolific and vivid writer with a flair for dramatization. From 1925-27 he was head of the Party's youth organization, the Young Workers League. Along with William Z. Foster, his friend and ally in intra-party struggle against CP head Earl Browder, he organized in New York City in March 1930 the first mass unemployed demonstration.

From 1931-36 Darcy headed the second largest Party district, California, where he personally participated in the organizing of agricultural workers and the related successful struggle against California's criminal syndicalism law. As head of the California Party organization, he also played a leading role in the longshore and San Francisco general strike of 1934. That year Darcy was the Party's gubernatorial candidate, after unsuccessfully arguing within the party's central committee for a united front with Upton Sinclair's EPIC (End Poverty in California) movement.

Darcy's visibility in California was a factor in his becoming one of several Party leaders who faced legal action after the Russo-German treaty of 1939 placed the CPUSA in sharp opposition to American foreign policy. In September 1940 Darcy was indicted on charges of perjury for allegedly having incorrectly stated his name and birthplace in registering to vote in California in 1934, and spent six weeks in jail, until September 1941.

From 1939-44 Darcy led the Party's fourth largest district, Eastern Pennsylvania, and was heavily involved in electoral work, notably the Party's campaign to defeat the 1943 Democratic nominee for mayor of Philadelphia, William C. Bullitt. Darcy's continuing interest in educational work was reflected in his role as leader of the New York Workers School in 1930, CP National Education Director (1938), and in numerous lectures given at Party run workers schools in New York, San Francisco and Philadelphia. Darcy also maintained friendships and correspondence with a number of important non-communist progressives, including author Lincoln Steffens, songwriter Yip Harburg and Otto Nathan, executor of the estate of Albert Einstein.

In 1927-28 and again in 1935-38 Darcy worked in Moscow for the Communist International, serving during his second trip as head of its Anglo-American secretariat, after attending the 7th congress of the CI as a delegate from the US. On both occasions Darcy met with Stalin.

In early 1944 Darcy and Foster stood alone among the Party leadership in opposition to Browder's estimation of the prospects for post-war American-Soviet harmony. While Foster retreated in the face of overwhelming opposition, Darcy resigned his party offices in protest and shortly thereafter was expelled from the CPUSA by the vote of a commission which his friend Foster was required to chair. Although politically vindicated a year later when Browder was removed from the Party leadership, Darcy did not rejoin the party. Among the factors for this were his belief that the repudiation of Browder's policies was incomplete, and a request by the new leader, Eugene Dennis, to examine a manuscript Darcy had been working on since his expulsion. Darcy for a time maintained some contacts with other "left-wing" expellees, such as William Dunne and Charles Keith. He later became a successful furniture merchant and became active in the Democratic party.

Chonology

Sources:

From the guide to the Samuel Adams Darcy Papers, Bulk, 1930-1945, 1924-1985, bulk 1930-1945, (Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive)