page_title: Benjamin Gitlow
section_title: Entry into radical politics
hierarchical_section_title: Benjamin Gitlow / Career / Entry into radical politics
caption_attribution_description: English: Cover of Voice of Labor, Oct. 1, 1919. Jack Reed, editor; Ben Gitlow, business manager. Published in the United States prior to 1923, not subject to copyright at time of publication, public domain.
context_page_description: Benjamin "Ben" Gitlow was a prominent American socialist politician of the early 20th century and a founding member of the Communist Party USA. During the end of the 1930s, Gitlow turned to conservatism and wrote two sensational exposés of American Communism, books which were very influential during the McCarthy period. Gitlow remained a leading anti-communist up to the time of his death.
context_section_description: As soon as he turned 18 and became eligible for membership, Ben Gitlow joined the Socialist Party of America. Gitlow was a committed and active member of the party and he was elected a delegate to the New York state convention of the SPA in 1910, the year after his joining. In the fall of 1917, Gitlow was elected on the Socialist ticket to the New York State Assembly (Bronx Co., 3rd D.), and sat in the 141st New York State Legislature.  He was one of 10 Socialists elected to the Assembly of 1918, all of them from New York City.
  Despite (or perhaps because of) his two years as a Socialist parliamentarian, Ben Gitlow professed a belief in revolutionary Socialism. From its earliest days in 1919, Gitlow was an adherent of the proto-Communist Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party, working closely with renowned radical journalist and war correspondent John Reed. In April 1919, the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party of Local Greater New York established an official weekly newspaper called The New York Communist. Reed was named the editor of the new publication, with Maximilian Cohen handling the day-to-day operations of the publication as its business manager. Effective with the June 14, 1919, issue, Max Cohen exited the scene and Ben Gitlow assumed the post of business manager.
  Following the Left Wing National Conference in June 1919, Reed's New York Communist was merged with the older and better established newspaper of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party, Local Boston, The Revolutionary Age, edited by Louis C. Fraina. This publication was moved to New York and thereafter recognized as the "National Organ of the Left Wing Section, Socialist Party," with the former New Yorker Fraina continuing as editor and Ben Gitlow taking over as business manager.
  John Reed was named the editor of the a new monthly labor magazine of the Left Wing Section, called Voice of Labor. Ben Gitlow also served as business manager of this publication, which was adopted by the Communist Labor Party in the fall, shortly before its termination due to lack of finances.
caption: Cover of October 1919 issue of Voice of Labor, issued by the Communist Labor Party
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