Jacob Spolansky
Jacob Spolansky was an American born Jew from the Russian Empire (today Ukraine) who rotated between government and private (corporate) investigative agencies as "part of a class of professional spies fostered by the growth of anticommunism during the First World War and first Red Scare, perhaps best known as "chief of the 'red squad'",[2] a "professional enemy of communism,"[3] and a key player in the government raid on the 1922 Bridgman Convention.
"[5][10] Further, Spolansky worked with government committees, business associations, and media to gather support for legislation against political and industrial radicals.
[5] In 1918 during the First Red Scare, he ran an informant in Chicago among the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or "Wobblies") who posed as a radical agitator at steel factory in Gary, Indiana.
[2] In December 1922, he located and led the raid on the Bridgman Convention of the still-nascent US communist party[11][12] and personally arrested William Z.
"[16] In February 1926, the a Philadelphia businessman informed the FBI that Spolansky was working for the National Clay Products Industries Association in Chicago.
[1] In August 1926, the Federated Press's Labor's News outed Spolansky as a "faded stool" and "expert" on Reds (with allegedly 20 years experience from Scotland Yard, "U.S. militant and navy intelligence," and the BI), working for the Botany Worsted Mills during the 1926 Passaic textile strike, following the failure of predecessors in a frame-up of strike leader Albert Weisbord.
[4][10][3] In February 1935, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover refused to back Spolansky's "reputation and reliability" when the Detroit Times asked for a reference for him as a source.
He provided lists of: Slavic-named foreign workers, CPUSA publications, labor publications, CPUSA resolutions, Detroit Workers School materials, a list of communist organizations from the American Federation of Labor (AFL), copies of International Press Correspondence, and other materials he considered incriminating.
[12] In the 2006 article "The Founders of American Anti-communism," academic Nick Fischer described the "multi-lingual" Spolansky as "a leading anticommunist agent" who "abhorred radicalism" and helped arrest more than 650 foreigners, of whom 400 faced deportation.
"[10] In a second review, Frank S. Adams ridicules Spolansky for asserting that Earl Browder was trying to create a new Communist International with Josip Broz Tito and wrote that "his book is most interesting when he confines himself to his personal observations and experiences.
