The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) was established on this day in 1919. CPUSA provided legal aid to the Scottsboro Boys, helped poor Southern farmers form sharecropper unions, and promoted communist ideas within the U.S.

The party was established after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revolution, and initially operated underground due to the Palmer Raids, a series of anti-immigrant, anti-labor, and anti-communist raids conducted by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer.

CPUSA was an early opponent of segregation and racial discrimination, giving legal aid to the Scottsboro Boys and helping poor black farmers in the South organize sharecropper unions. Because of this, the party had a strong presence in Alabama in the 1930s. This history is detailed in “Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression” by historian Robin D.G. Kelley.

Hammer and Hoe pdf cpusa

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    • ExternalAlpaca [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
      6·
      1 year ago

      I think there’s an extremely solid argument to be made it’s the worst drug on the planet IF you take out things like impurities and contamination (fentanyl, krokodil, etc)

      Pound for pound, on the harm it does to the body, to mental health, to society… it’s really not even close. Fent zombies leaned over on the street smoking off tin foil might be more visible and more off-putting, but that’s only because most people will never see a DUI car crash death or its aftermath in person. Most people smoking that shit on a street corner don’t have a car to go hop into and kill a family later that night.

      I feel rather uniquely qualified to speak on this topic and most of the studies back me up on that.

      Awful, awful drug. I don’t hate drinkers, the same way I don’t hate smokers. I know many people just go drink a little wine and have a nice night and nothing changes about their life. But all the data suggests they’re two of the worst things out there.

      • GaveUp [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
        5·
        1 year ago

        I somewhat agree but I do feel like this is partially because of how widespread alcohol use is

        Like if meth or crack or even DPH was just as popular, would it be as harmful as alcohol to our society?

        • ExternalAlpaca [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
          4·
          1 year ago

          On society, yeah, I think it’s fair to say how widespread it is.

          I mean, we know that medically, with pure products and access, basically the only risk to opiods is a deadly overdose. It’s all the other issues around it that cause such a problem. You have to buy it illegally, so it has contaminants. It’s so expensive, so addicts go and rob and steal and kill to get the money for it.

          Am I endorsing opioid addiction? Absolutely not. But not only is alcohol one of essentially only two classes of drugs where the withdrawal itself can literally kill you - you might wanna die during other withdrawals, you might become malnourished, you might have a mental health crisis, but alcohol will cause you to go into deadly seizures. It’s also one of the few (of a slightly wider group, to include smoking) where it will actively wreck and destroy your body to a permanent end along the way.

            • ExternalAlpaca [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
              5·
              1 year ago

              Stimulants are really bad on the mental health side. “Faces of meth” is basically a story of what refusing to eat, refusing to take care of basic hygiene, and refusing to brush your teeth for years will do to you. That’s not totally unique to stimulants, but they definitely have a way of having that effect.

              Fact is, if you forced someone to withdraw from stimulants - or they’re just ready to do it - if you locked them in a padded room with basic nutrition they’d be super tired and pissed off for a week and then go about their lives… even with those lingering thoughts that always stick around after the end of any addiction.

              I might well catch some heat for this because I understand that millions of people use Adderall as a legitimate treatment for their ADHD. But if you go into any kind of high pressure professional environment, there are another 20 people who use it specifically for “performance enhancement”. They joke about it. And they’re total addicts, almost as bad as anyone else. But because they take care of the basic functions of life (probably due to being housed, having access to income, healthcare, etc)… Really the worst thing you’ll ever notice about them is they’re super skinny and talk too much.

    • UnicodeHamSic [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      I have seen people drown in their own blood from drinking too much for too long. Manwhile people just use most other drugs to deal with the crushing alienation of capitalism and only have problems when they are crushingly alienated by cpaitlaism. Not that alcoholics are also, but like, I would rather see ever hard drinker just smoke too much weed all the time you know.