The "Red Scare" refers to the fear of communism. One of the Red Scares occurred in the 1920's despite there being only about 150,000 anarchists or communists at the time, only making up 0.1% of the United States population. The Red Scare was caused by the end of World War One and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. People began to fear a revolution at hand in America, especially after several anarchist bombings, including an attempt to kill Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer, and an anarchist bomb killed 38 on Wall Street on September 16, 1920.
Many people were suspect for being communist for being unpatriotic, draft dodgers, slackers, or anything that could be argued as detrimental to the United States. In 1919, 249 political radicalists were deported.
This turn of events was very detrimental towards the working class, and the labor movement. At the end of the war, due to increasing inflation, workers striked in order to make enough money to support themselves. Over 3,300 strikes occurred, and a small group formed a radical Communist Labor Party in 1919, which only increased hysteria. Many and employers were willing to lable unions and strikers as socialists and communists who were trying to cause a revolution in order to lose public and police support for them, a practice that carried into the Great Depression. On January 1, 1920, 6,000 people were arrested, as a campaign against communists, and many were released only a few weeks later due to lack of evidence,
One famous trial was that of Nicola Sacco and Batolomeo Vanzetti, who were accused and charged for the murder of during a robbery. Despite the lack of evidence, the fact that they were anarchists and socialists seemed to confirm that they were the killers. They were tried by Judge Thayer, famous for hating "Reds" and were accused of being seen at the murder seen by 61 people and were said to be somewhere else at the time of the crime by 107 people. However the two were charged, and sentenced to death in 1927.
Sources:
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/SaccoV/redscare.html
http://www.ushistory.org/us/47a.asp
https://keithyorkcity.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/anarchists-in-america-the-wall-street-bombing-of-1920/
This is a very interesting article, showing how much the American people and government feared the rise of communism within their borders. I find it especially important how this would affect the role of relationships with other countries in this time period, most importantly the USSR.
ReplyDeleteTo me it is interesting to see how many ¨unalienable¨ rights were taken away from these communists in the US. Some of their liberties were taken away on the baseis that they were communist. Do you personally think the communist crackdown was too harsh.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I think this post gives enough information about The Red Scare pretty well and also about the situations that US faced and their reactions
ReplyDeletethanks for posting this! I think the causes of the Red scare are interesting to examine. As Marx claimed, communism would only succeed on an international basis. Do you Americans had overestimated the potential impacts of communism in America?
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