John
Gates, the son of Polish Jews, was
born in New York in 1913. His name was
originally Solomon Regenstriet but he later changed it to John Gates.
In 1930 Gates enrolled
in the City College of New York. While a student he discovered the
writings of Karl Marx and soon afterwards
joined the Young Communist League (YCL). He also became
involved in the campaign to free the Scotsboro
Boys.
In 1932 Gates left college and the YCL sent him to represent unemployed
workers in Ohio. On
the outbreak of the Spanish
Civil War, Gates
joined the Abraham Lincoln Battalion,
a unit that volunteered to defend the Popular
Front government against the Nationalist
Army.
The American forces suffered
heavy casualties in the war. In March 1938 the Lincoln-Washington
Battalion lost two of its most senior officers, Robert
Merriman and David Doran, when they
were killed at Gandesa on the Aragón
front. Milton
Wolff
now assumed command of the battalion and Gates became battalion commissar.
Gates soon developed a
reputation as a strict disciplinarian. He later admitted that he became
"intolerant of criticism. I increasingly used vile language against
subordinates, and disciplined people for minor questioning of my authority."
In August 1938 Gates took
the controversial decision to execute Paul White,
a soldier who had deserted but changed his mind and returned to the
front. The news of the execution caused a great deal of dissent in
the Lincoln-Washington Battalion and
it was quickly announced that no further executions would take place.
On his return to the United
States Gates was appointed head of the Young Communist League.
In the Young Communist Review
Gates upset some members when he argued that as the Soviet
Union was "a socialist island in a sea of hostile capitalism"
it would be understandable if Joseph Stalin
signed a military alliance with Adolf Hitler.
After the Second
World War Gates became editor of the Daily
Worker.
He resigned for the American
Communist Party in
January 1958. He claimed the the party had "ceased to be an effective
force for democracy, peace and socialism in the United States".
(1)
Jessica
Mitford, A Fine Old Conflict
(1977)
Early in 1958 John
Gates resigned from the Party, saying it had "ceased to be an
effective force for democracy, peace and socialism in the United States",
and that he did "not believe it is possible any longer to serve
those ideals within the Communist Party'. Gates's Party career had
been an illustrious one. He had fought in Spain where he became the
highest-ranking officer of the Lincoln Brigade. As one of the first
group of Smith Act defendants, he had done time in the
Atlanta Penitentiary. Under his editorship the Daily Worker had been
transformed from a house organ for transmission of policy directives
by the leadership into a lively forum for debate. His resignation
was a heavy blow indeed.
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