Independent American Political Groups: Communist Unity Committee of America (Jan. 1921 to May 1921)

ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORYThe Communist Unity Committee of America (CUC) was a short-lived organized faction that came into existence in January 1921 over the apparent inability of the leaderships of the Communist Party of America and the United Communist Party of America to negotiate their differences and merge their organizations in compliance with the explicit instructions of the Communist International. The leading figure in this organization was its secretary, Alexander Bittelman, a former member of the CEC of the CPA who had been expelled from the organization for his criticism of the CEC majority of his party. The group claimed an active membership including members of both Communist parties and attempted to forge unity around a compromise on the divisive and polarizing issue of language federations.

The CEC published 7 issues of a bi-weekly newspaper in New York, called Communist Unity. This publication was unique in the annals of American radicalism in that it was a tri-lingal publication, including material in English, Russian, and Yiddish. For fear of repression by the Central Executive Committees of the two Communist parties against their members, the ranks of the CUC were kept secret, with the only signatures of any articles being the pseudonyms of the already-expelled Bittelman, a Russian called "Maksim," and an English-speaker signing "J.W." It is believed that German Communist leader Ludwig Lore of the UCP was also a member of this grouping.
The CUC outlined its program for unity in a Feb. 1921 memorandum to the Comintern and further fleshed out its position with an open letter to Lenin.

[fn. Communist Unity [New York], v. 1, issues 1-7, set in RGASPI f. 515, op. 1, d. 44, ll. 1-29]