Benjamin Gitlow (December 22, 1891 – July 19, 1965) was a prominent American socialist politician of the early 20th century and a founding member of the Communist Party USA.

His parents were Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire; his father, Lewis Albert Gitlow, moved to the United States in 1888, followed by his mother, Katherine, in 1889.

[3] Progressive Era Repression and persecution Anti-war and civil rights movements Contemporary 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.

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.

[10] 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.

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.

[citation needed] For his publicized connection on the staff of The Revolutionary Age Benjamin Gitlow was targeted for arrest during the coordinated raid of the communist movement conducted by New York state authorities and the Department of Justice during the night of November 7/8, 1919.

[12]The attempt of the Gitlow defense to declare the publication of the Left Wing Manifesto an expression of historical analysis rather than an act of practical advocacy was unsuccessful, however.

[citation needed] Following his release from prison on bail in the spring of 1922, Ben Gitlow was made a full-time employee of the Communist Party of America.

[13] He was elected as a delegate to the Communist Party's ill-fated August 1922 convention held at Bridgman, Michigan, a gathering which was infiltrated by a Justice Department spy and raided by police.

Foster (freed when the jury failed to agree) and Workers Party Executive Secretary C. E. Ruthenberg, who was convicted but who died before appeals were finalized and the sentence imposed.

[citation needed] Three years after his release on bail, on June 8, 1925, the US Supreme Court upheld his conviction in the case of Gitlow v. New York, by a vote of 7 to 2, confirming that the publication of the Left Wing Manifesto in The Revolutionary Age did, in fact, constitute a punishable act under the law.

Gitlow considered this an unfortunate turn of events, as he sought freedom to continue his political activities without the constraint of parole supervision and the threat of a rapid return to jail.

Gitlow's wife received word by telephone at that time that his decision on whether to accept a parole was moot, however, as the Governor had decided to grant him a full pardon.

Freed from jail the next day, Gitlow arrived by train to a packed Grand Central Station, where he received a rousing hero's welcome from the assembled party members and friends.

[citation needed] In 1928, Gitlow was once again named the candidate of the Workers Party of America for Vice President of the United States, running for a second time on a ticket headed by William Z.

[14] In the fall of 1930, Gitlow was sent on a month-long tour of the United States on behalf of the Lovestoneites, taking him to Detroit, Chicago, and Superior, Wisconsin, before returning to the east coast.

Non-specialists should use the historical accounts in this later book, written as a potboiler for the popular market, with great caution as some of its details are at variance with the same stories told by the same author nearly a decade earlier.

[18] On May 1, 1950, in Mosinee, Wisconsin, a local American Legion outpost staged a mock communist takeover to illustrate what life under Soviet conquest might be like.

[19][20] Ben Gitlow's final pamphlets, written in the early 1960s, were published by fundamentalist preacher Billy James Hargis's Christian Crusade Ministries, an organization committed to stopping the spread of Communism in the world.