Headed by Alfred Wagenknecht, the NCCUI gathered a claimed 1.4 million petition signatures, which were presented to United States Congress amidst a heightened police presence on February 10, 1931.
With the deepening of the Great Depression in 1930, the Communist International (Comintern) based in Moscow began to see millions of unemployed workers around the world as a fertile field for the sowing of revolutionary ideas.
[1] To this end, the decision was made to form a new auxiliary of the Communist Party USA was established to direct the unemployment insurance campaign.
[1] The gathering determined to launch a petition drive aimed at bringing the signatures of at least 1 million Americans to Congress in an effort to force the adoption of a program of unemployment insurance in the United States.
[1] On February 10, 1931, the fruits of the NCCUI's efforts, petitions said to contain some 1.4 million signatures, were brought to Washington, DC by a group of 140 of the organization's active supporters, headed by Wagenknecht.