On June 10, 1918, Ballam was sentenced in Boston to 1 year in jail under the Espionage Act for a speech he delivered against American participation in the first World War.
In 1919, Ballam was a member of the Left Wing National Council, the New York-based group which was the embryo responsible for establishing the Communist Party of America (CPA) that same summer.
[1] He was elected vice chairman by the convention but resigned in protest after just one day in response to internecine factional fighting that dominated the proceedings.
Following the conclusion of the founding convention of the CPA, Ballam edited the biweekly newspaper The New England Worker, published by the new organization.
[6] Ballam agreed to this demand of the Comintern and returned to the regular CPA,[6] which elected him a delegate to the party's ill-fated 1922 Bridgman Convention, held in August.
[7] He was released on a $1,000 bond but was never brought to trial on charges of having violated the Michigan anti-syndicalist law through his participation in the gathering.
[10] Ballam's final run for political office came in 1940, when he ran for United States Congress in the 16th Congressional District of New York.
He appeared as himself in the documentary film on the strike produced by the Workers (Communist) Party of America to publicize the plight of the strikers.