The Red Scares of the 1920s and 1950s

COMPARISON OF THE RED SCARES OF THE 1920S AND 1950S

This research compares the Red Scares of the 1920s and 1950s in the United States. In point of fact, it is incorrect to assume that the Red Scares of the 1920s and 1950s were two separate events in American history. Fear of communism has been pervasive in the United States since the success of the Russian Revolution in 1917 (Cook, 1971). This fear continues in the United States even in 1991, subsequent to the effective collapse of communism as a viable political ideology, and the certain loss of credibility of Soviet-style communism as a viable economic system.

The Red Scares of the 1920s and the 1950s were, in fact, two points on the continuum of anti-radical activity in the United States. To be sure, the Red Scares of the 1920s and the 1950s were high points on the continuum of intense interest by the American public in anti-radical activity. Further, although the Red Scares of the 1920s and the 1950s were strongly related to one another, there were differences in the factors that stimulated intense anti-radical activity at those two times, and there were differences in the focal points of attack by the anti-radicals in the two Red Scares.

The anti-communism crusade in the United States has not ceased since 1917, although the intensity of activity has undulated over time. To speak of the Red Scares of the 1920s and the 1950s as two periods of more intense activity during the crusade tends to overstate the duration

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lishment of the Un-American Activities Committee by that body in 1938 (Bennett, 1988). In that same year, Massachusetts established it own House Committee on Un-American Activities (Buckley and Bozell, 1954). During the 1930s, the American labor movement remained a prime target for anti-radical forces in the country (Cook, 1971). Prior to the economic depression of the 1930s, the concept of workers' control was continuously attacked by management. Workers managed, nevertheless, to exert significant levels of control over work standards and processes in many areas of endeavor, in spite of managerial attempts to deny workers a voice (Montgomery, 1979). The economic depression of the 1930s precipitated an outright war between management and the labor unions. The Roosevelt Administration brought about industrial peace through legislation (Bennett, 1988). At that point, under the "New Deal" programs of the Roosevelt Administration, progressive labor legislation began to be introduced. From that time through the mid-1940s, organized labor grew, became a socially acceptable institution, and suffered far less from judicial repression. The development of organized labor followed a rocky road in the 1930s, marked by bloody labor w

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