Gus Hall was the General Secretary of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and a perennial candidate for president of the United States. He was the Communist Party nominee in the 1972, 1976, 1980, and 1984 presidential elections. As a labor leader, Hall was closely associated with the so-called "Little Steel" Strike of 1937, an effort to unionize the nation's smaller, regional steel manufacturers. During the Second Red Scare, Hall was indicted under the Smith Act and was sentenced to eight years in prison. After his release, Hall led the CPUSA for over 40 years, often taking an orthodox Marxist–Leninist stance.
Hall in 1975
Open battle between striking teamsters armed with pipes and the police in the streets of Minneapolis, June 1934.
Hall's mug shot, taken during his prison sentence in Leavenworth, Kansas for "Conspiring and Teaching Overthrow of the U.S. Government by Force or Violence", 1954
1976 campaign poster
The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), also known as the American Communist Party, is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revolution.
Charter for a local unit of the CPUSA dated October 24, 1919
The Washington Commonwealth Federation newspaper after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact (original scan)
The 30th National Convention was held in Chicago in 2014
Robert G. Thompson and Benjamin J. Davis leaving the courthouse during the Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders in 1949–1958
