Dennis, Eugene

Dennis, Eugene (b. Francis X. Waldron) (1905–61) Communist Party leader; born in Seattle, Wash. Joining the Communist Party in 1926, he was arrested for organizing lettuce workers in California's Imperial Valley in 1927–28. He attended a Communist Party school while in Moscow (1931–35) and on return to the U.S.A. he held a series of posts in the Communist Party, becoming its general secretary (1945–51, 1955–59). He was imprisoned (1951–55) for violation of the Smith Act. He was chairmam of the Communist Party of America when he died.

---

Dennis, Eugene 

Born Aug. 10, 1904, in Seattle, Wash.; died Jan. 31, 1961, in New York. A figure in the American and international labor movements. The son of a worker.

From the age of 13, Dennis worked as an electrician, carpenter, and longshoreman. He took an active part in the strike movement. He joined the Communist Party in 1927 and held important positions in the party organizations of Southern California and Pennsylvania. In 1938 he became a member of the National Committee of the Communist Party of the USA. In 1944 and 1945, together with W. Foster and other Marxist-Leninists, he struggled against the revisionism and liquidationism of E. Browder and his followers and for the salvation and strengthening of the Communist Party. From 1946 to 1959 he was general secretary of the National Committee of the Communist Party. He repeatedly suffered persecution and repression. In 1950 and 1951 he was in prison. After a short period of liberty, he was again arrested and sentenced on a false conviction; he was imprisoned from 1951 to 1955. From 1956 to 1959 he led the struggle against the subversive activity of the revisionists and resolutely defended Marxist-Leninist teaching. In December 1959 he became chairman of the National Committee of the Communist Party of the USA.

WORKS

In Defense of Your Freedom. New York, 1949.
Ideas They Cannot Jail New York [1950].
In Russian translation:
Stat’i i rechi (1947-1951). Moscow, 1952.
Pis’ma iz tiur’my. Moscow, 1957.

N. V. MOSTOVETS