The Western Comrade was a Los Angeles-based socialist magazine published in the US from 1913 to 1918 that advocated progressive causes ranging from women’s suffrage and labor issues to profiles of left-leaning artists and writers.

Leading West Coast socialists of the day staffed the magazine, which was closely associated with the Llano del Rio utopian community in California’s Antelope Valley.

The magazine advocated using film, produced and directed by labor leaders instead of movie studios, to attract moviegoers to socialism and as an instructive tool on union organizing and staging strikes.

Writer Jack London, an ardent socialist during the early part of the 20th century, criticized an Emanuel Haldeman-Julius’ profile of him as amateurish and inaccurate.

[2] The Western Comrade’s primary purpose, at least during its first year of publication, was to promote Harriman’s Llano del Rio colony at the edge of the Mojave Desert in the Antelope Valley.

[4] Under Harriman, the magazine attracted prominent names in leftist politics including Max Eastman, Clarence Darrow and Upton Sinclair.