Reed, John (1887–1920)

John “Jack” Reed was a journalist, poet, and revolutionary socialist. From Portland, Oregon, he cut his journalistic teeth on the Harvard Monthly and Lampoon. After moving to Greenwich Village (New York City), Reed began his work as a campaigning journalist for American Magazine. He went on to produce engaged coverage of industrial disputes and front-line reports on the Mexican and Bolshevik Revolutions and from European battlefronts during World War I. Reed was actively involved in the revolution in Russia and acted as its advocate in the United States, where he helped establish the Communist Labor Party.

The Paterson silk workers' 1913 strike for an 8-hour day provides an example of Reed's approach to reporting. Arrested and jailed for his involvement, he also helped organize a pageant at Madison Square Garden in New York City to publicize the cause. His coverage of the Mexican Revolution, led by Pancho Villa, for Metropolitan Magazine was the basis of Insurgent Mexico (1914). The War in Eastern Europe (1916) recounts his experiences during World War I. From battlefronts in Bulgaria, Germany, Romania, Russia, and Serbia, he also contributed to The Masses.

Actively opposed to U.S. involvement in World War I, Reed addressed rallies, attended demonstrations, and testified against conscription to congressional committees. While reporting on the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, however, Reed went from radical journalist to committed revolutionary. He arrived in Petrograd in 1917 and interviewed leaders of the revolution, reported for The Masses, actively distributed leaflets, and addressed meetings as a North American socialist. In the United States, he embarked on a nationwide lecture tour during 1918 to garner support for events taking place in Russia before publishing his firsthand account: Ten Days That Shook the World (1919).

After The Masses folded in December 1917, Reed wrote for The Liberator. Among these writings was a piece on Russia in its first issue (March 1918). Later that year, he was arrested for sedition, placed under surveillance by the Department of Justice, and [Page 1208]charged under the Espionage Act. A founding member of the Communist Labor Party in 1919, he was inaugural editor of the Voice of Labor, acted as the Soviet consul in New York, and immersed himself in committee meetings, editorial conferences, fund-raising, rallies, speeches, and organizational issues. That year, Reed also testified before the Senate Committee that was investigating Bolshevik propaganda.

Following the split with the Communist Party in 1919, Reed made a clandestine return to Russia in an attempt to secure recognition of the Communist Labor Party from the newly formed Communist International. Reed was arrested in Finland while attempting to return to the United States. He was held in solitary confinement for 13 weeks before being returned to Moscow. On his return to Russia, he developed typhus and died on October 19, 1920.