San Francisco Workers' School


The San Francisco Workers' School was an ideological training center of the Communist Party USA established in San Francisco for adult education in 1934. "It was a typical specimen of a Communist school, such as would come under investigation by federal and state authorities for decades afterward.". in the 1940, it emerged as the California Labor School.

History

In 1934, Anita Whitney, Samuel Adams Darcy, Benjamin Ellisberg, Lincoln Steffens, and Steffens' wife Ella Winter supported the establishment of the San Francisco Worker's School, housed at CPUSA headquarters at 121 Haight Street in San Francisco.
The school drew inspiration from the Jack London Memorial Institute.

Organization

Like similar workers' schools in New York and Chicago, it held classes at night and taught the basics of Communism.

Administrators

Advisory Board

According to Tenney Committee report of 1947, the following people served on an advisory board for the school:
According to Stephen Schwartz, the following people taught at the school:
According to Stephen Schwartz, the following courses were taught at the school:
The school published a journal called Writers' Workshop, edited by activist, novelist, historian Alexander Saxton.

Impact

Legacy

"The early San Francisco Workers School morphed into the Tom Mooney School, and then reappeared as CLS".

Footnotes