Al Richmond

Al Richmond (1914?-1987) was an American writer who co-founded and served as executive editor for the People's World San Francisco.[1][2]

Al Richmond
Born1914
Russian Empire
DiedNovember 9, 1987
San Francisco
Occupationpro-labor journalist and novelist
LanguageEnglish
NationalityAmerican
SubjectCommunism
Literary movementCommunist Party of the USA
Years active1930s-1970s
Notable worksPeople's World contributions, A Long View From the Left memoir (1973)

Background

Al Richmond was born in 1914 in the Russian Empire. His mother, a revolutionary left for the USA after six years in a czarist prison, returned to Russia in 1917 with her young son, to work in the cause of labor organizing. She faced arrest by German soldiers. They came back to the United States in 1922. Worked as Union Activist

Career

In 1929, age 15, Richmond joined the Young Communist League (YCL). After high school, he moved to Philadelphia and helped unionize factory and dock workers.[2]

In the 1930s, he wrote for Daily Worker and then moved West to co-found what was originally the Daily People's World (now People's World) newspaper.[1][2]

Richmond also edited the Sunday Worker, a weekly newspaper launched in January 1936 to try to reach more broadly than the Daily Worker, with James S. Allen as foreign editor.[2]

After a 1951 raid by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on People's World offices, Richmond and 13 other CPUSA members in California were tried, convicted, and sentenced to five years in prison under the Smith Act for advocating violent overthrow of the US Government. Richmond served one year.[1]

After criticizing the USSR for invading Czechoslovakia in 1968, Richmond faced censure by CPUSA leaders, quit the Party, but remained a Marxist.[1]

Personal life and death

With wife Merle, Richmond had two children.[1]

Al Richmond died age 73 on November 9, 1987, of pneumonia in San Francisco.[1]

Works

In his 1973 memoir A Long View From the Left, Richmond criticized the CPUSA.[1]

  • Dangerous Thoughts with Mike Quin (1940)[3]
  • A Long View From the Left (1973)[4]

References
  1. "Al Richmond, Leftist Ex-Editor". New York Times. 9 November 1987. p. 15. Retrieved 5 May 2022.
  2. Richmond, Al (1973). A Long View From the Left. Houghton Mifflin. pp. 70–84 (YCL), 95–6 (Philadelphia), 250–1 (Daily Worker), 255 (Sunday Worker). ISBN 9780395140055. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  3. Quin, Mike; Richmond, Al (1940). Dangerous Thoughts. San Francisco, California: People's World. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  4. Richmond, Al (1973). A Long View From the Left. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 9780395140055. Retrieved 5 May 2020.


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