Portside

When Bargaining for the Common Good is done well it models an alternative way to theorize the root causes of oppression, to take action with impacted communities to remedy the problem, and to reflect on what liberation looks....

Passed into law in 1940, the Smith Act made it illegal to "teach, advocate or encourage the overthrow" of the government and extended to any member of an organization that allegedly did so. The notion that in 1956 the Communist Party was interested in, let alone capable of, overthrowing anything was patently absurd. From a 1940's peak of around 80,000, the CP's national membership had dwindled to perhaps 10,000 by the time of the hearings in Connecticut.