Avro Halberg,
the son of immigrants from Finland, was
born in Mesabi Iron Ridge, Minnesota, on 8th October 1910. His father
was active in the Industrial
Workers of the World (IWW) and a founder member of the American
Communist Party.
Halberg
joined the Young Communist League (YCL) in 1927 and helped to recruit
members in the mining towns of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
In
1931 Halberg went to the Soviet Union and
spent two years studying at the Lenin Institute in Moscow. On his
return he was one of the organizers of the Minneapolis Teamsters strike
led by Farrell Dobbs. This resulted in
Halberg being blacklisted and so he changed his name to Gus Hall.
Hall
moved to Ohio where he led the Warren-Youngstown steel strike. Soon
afterwards he became a staff member of the Steel Workers of America.
During
the Second World War Hall served in the U.S.
Navy.
He saw action in the Pacific and on his
return was elected to the National Executive Board of the American
Communist Party.
Hall
was indicted under the Alien
Registration Act
in 1948. Sentenced to a five year prison term, Hall fled to Mexico
and in 1950 was elected as the party's National Secretary. The following
year he was arrested by the authorities and was brought back to the
United States where he was sentenced to an additional
three years.
On
his release Hall became General Secretary of the Communist Party.
He ran for president in 1968 but received only 1,075 votes. He was
also the party's candidate in 1972 and 1976 when he obtained 58,992
votes. In 1984 his vote dropped to 36,386 votes and in 1988 gave his
support to Jessie
Jackson in
his bid to obtain the nomination of the Democratic
Party.
Books
by Hall include The Energy Rip-Off: Cause
and Cure (1974), Basics for Peace,
Democracy and Social Progress (1980), Fighting
Racism (1985) and Working Class
USA: The Power and the Movement (1987). Gus Hall remained
leader of the American Communist Party
until his death on 13th October, 2000.
Available
from Amazon Books (order below)
