Daily Worker
The Daily Worker was the official daily newspaper of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), serving as its primary English-language organ from 1924 to 1958.[1][2] Launched initially as the weekly The Worker in Chicago in 1921 by party members to promote socialist causes among laborers, it transitioned to daily publication in New York City three years later, reflecting the CPUSA's alignment with the Communist International's directives and focusing on class struggle, union organizing, and critiques of capitalism.[2][3] The publication's content closely tracked shifts in Soviet policy, including initial opposition to U.S. entry into World War II during the 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact—portraying the conflict as an imperialist war—before abruptly endorsing Allied efforts following Germany's 1941 invasion of the USSR, a reversal that underscored its role as a conduit for Moscow's geopolitical priorities rather than independent analysis.[3] Circulation peaked in the 1930s amid the Great Depression and labor unrest, reaching tens of thousands of subscribers, but faced mounting legal pressures from federal prosecutions under the Smith Act targeting CPUSA leaders for advocating overthrow of the government, alongside FBI surveillance and raids.[3] These challenges, compounded by internal party debates and financial insolvency from defense costs, led the CPUSA executive to suspend operations in late 1957, effectively ending the Daily Worker's run amid the broader anti-communist campaigns of the era.[3] Though dormant for over a decade, the paper's legacy persisted through successors like the Daily World (launched 1968) and eventually People's World, which continue limited publication as CPUSA-affiliated outlets, while digitized archives preserve its historical role in disseminating proletarian internationalism and defending Soviet actions, including during Stalin's purges, often without critical scrutiny of the regime's atrocities.[4][5]