Communist Control Act of 1954 --the fourth installment in a series on sedition

Do people have the freedom to end freedom?  If not, is denying the freedom to end freedom denying freedom?  No, it is protecting freedom.---rng

 I think Mr. van den Haap's remark about those who seek to destroy democracy by even peaceful means, do not deserve a place in our democracy is absolutely correct. -----lee

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

     The Communist Control Act was a piece of United States federal legislation, signed into law by Dwight Eisenhower on 24 August 1954, which outlawed the Communist Party of the United States and criminalized membership in, or support for, the Party.

Background

     Created during the period of the Second Red Scare (1946–1954), the Act was one of many bills drafted with the intention of protecting America from the potential threat posed by the international Communists.[1] During this time, some argued that “the pursuit of subversive aims even by peaceful means should [have been] outlawed.” [2] Thus, many opposed Communism because of its supposed “subversive aim” to undermine democracy. In the words of the prominent sociologist Ernest van den Haap, there was “no place in democracy for those who want[ed] to abolish [it] even with a peaceful vote.” [2]

The Act

     The Communist Control Act was originally proposed as an amendment to the International Security Act of 1950, which had sought to combat the spread of communism in labor unions.[1] Apart from its secondary focus which concentrated on the illegality of “communist front organizations” (i.e. labor unions),[3] the bill was drafted with the intention of tackling the root of the communist problem in America: the Communist Party. In its second section, the CCA of 1954 portrayed the American Communist Party as an “agency of a hostile foreign power.”[1] The Party was described as “an instrumentality of a conspiracy to overthrow the government,” and as a “clear, present, and continuing danger to the security of the United States.”[1] The Act made membership to the Communist Party a criminal act and stipulated that all Party members would be sanctioned with up to a $10,000 fine or imprisonment for five years or both. Additionally, according to the third section, the Communist Party would be deprived of “the rights, privileges, and immunities of a legal body.” [3]

     The International Security Act of 1950 had defined two types of “communist organizations.” Senator Butler later proposed a bill aimed at the removal of Communists from leadership positions in labor unions, adding a third class, that of “communist-infiltrated organizations.” Afterwards, the Democratic Senator Humphrey put forward a substitute to that bill with the intention of directly tackling the “root of evil,” the Communist Party members.[4] Through an amendment by Senator Daniel, both the Butler and Humphrey bills were merged into one, winning unanimous approval in the Senate from both Democrats and Republicans.

To continue ....