I am speaking specifically of the Unemployed Citizens League, the People’s Councils, and I think that there were some other organizations around here that I have forgotten the names of.
I think that there was one called the United Producers of Washington that was created over in Pierce County which was affiliated with the Unemployed Citizens League.
There were many different names of these organizations, and they assumed different forms. But essentially they all performed the same function. They provided a center around which people could begin to develop their own ideas and listen to other people’s ideas.
I would certainly like to make certain that everyone understands that that kind of problem has to be dealt with also with ideas.
Mr. Tavenner. You made reference to unemployment citizens’ leagues. Were there such organizations in Bellingham?
Mr. Dennett. No, there were not. The People’s Councils performed all the functions which the Unemployed Citizens Leagues would do, plus the fact that the People’s Councils also developed some political aspirations. I mean they did embark upon an independent political campaign, and they did run candidates for public office. That was largely due to the influence of the Communist Party there. Remember 1932? We were insistent that they not support either the Democratic or Republican Parties because we branded them as capitalist parties, and we insisted that the only way it was possible for the workers to obtain what they wanted was through their own party.
We succeeded in prevailing upon the People’s Councils to run their independent candidates, and some of them came very close to election to office. They didn’t quite make it.
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Dennett, I think it would be of value to the committee to understand as fully as possible the methods used by the Communist Party in that period in causing the Unemployed Councils to take various courses of action in Bellingham and Seattle, and to understand to what extent the Communist Party was successful in using other organizations which it did not control.
Mr. Dennett. I can think of two very graphic illustrations of that.
One occurred in the city of Seattle at the time the unemployed occupied this building for 3 solid days. The Unemployed Citizens Leagues in the city of Seattle were anti-Communist; their leadership was anti-Communist. But they were confronted with the budget running low, the city funds exhausted, and the county commissioners were confronted with the dilemma of what to do with their funds diminishing.