Hall, Gus (1910–2000)

GUS HALL WAS BORN Arvo Kusta Halberg in Virginia, Minnesota, one of 10 children of Finnish immigrants. His father was a union activist and a founding member of the American Communist Party (CPUSA). Hall joined the Young Communist League at age 17 and, like many communists thought to have leadership potential, spent two years at the Lenin Institute in Moscow, Soviet Union. In 1934, he moved to Mahoning Valley, Ohio, where he worked as a union organizer for the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC). The same year, he met his future wife, Elizabeth, and, in fear of being blacklisted by employers, shortened his name to Gus Hall. Hall proved to be an effective grass-roots organizer, leading the 1937 Little Steel strike in Youngstown, Ohio, and helping recruit more than 10,000 workers to the steel union in Mahoning Valley. His activism resulted in his being arrested several times on charges of incitement to riot. Hall was typical of a generation of communist activists whose dedication to the cause enabled the CPUSA to recruit numerous new members. In the 1930s, it was able to claim a membership of 100,000.

When the United States entered World War II, Hall joined the American Navy and served until 1946. At the same time, he continued to make his way up the CPUSA's hierarchy and was elected to its highest body, the National Executive Board, in 1946. The end of the wartime cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union and the onset of the Cold War resulted in the persecution of American communists. Under the provisions of the anti-communist Smith Act, Hall was accused of advocating the violent overthrow of the American government and was sentenced to five years in prison. He fled to Mexico but was caught, and his sentence was lengthened. He was released from prison in 1957 and was awarded the Order of Lenin medal by the Soviet government.

Hall was elected general secretary of the party in 1959, but he was to preside over an organization in crisis. The revelations of Josef Stalin's crimes by his successor, Nikita Khrushchev, at the Soviet Communist Party's 1956 congress and the Soviet invasion of Hungary of the same year had rocked the party. Many members had resigned in protest. Years of underground activity and persecution had also taken their toll. Hall reaffirmed the party's pro-Soviet credentials and set about building up its membership and influence. Under his leadership, the CPUSA managed to recruit some of the new generation of civil rights activists that emerged in the 1960s. However, the CPUSA was increasingly seen as a staid, conservative organization by many young radicals. Hall stood five times as a presidential candidate, twice with the African American activist Angela Davis as his running mate. His best result came in [Page 208]the 1976 election when he received 36,386 votes. His last campaign was in 1984, after which the CPUSA ceased to stand candidates in presidential elections and supported the Democrats.

As an orthodox communist, Hall was a critical observer of Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms in the 1980s and expressed his disapproval at the turn of events that culminated in the disappearance of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe. These events, along with the publication of revelations concerning secret Soviet funding of the CPUSA, led to an internal party crisis. As a result, Davis and other leading figures left the party in 1992 and membership fell to around 15,000 in the 1990s. Despite the worldwide collapse of communism and the weakness of his own party, Hall remained optimistic. He was convinced of the inevitability of communism and took solace in the existence of communist regimes in North Korea and Cuba. He remained leader of the CPUSA until his death in 2000.

...