Title: Chester K. Johnson Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1929-1955

Creator:

• Johnson, Chester K., 1904-1956

Call Number: Micro 836

Quantity: 1 reel of microfilm (35mm)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Papers of Johnson, a Minneapolis electrician, militant trade unionist, and official of the local branch of the Socialist Workers Party. Included are correspondence, minutes of meetings of organizations of the unemployed such as the Minneapolis Central Council for the Unemployed and the Council for United Labor Action, and broadsides and printed matter pertaining to various Minneapolis labor and Trotskyist groups with which Johnson was involved.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-micr0836

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Chester K. Johnson, an electrician by trade, was a member and official of the Minneapolis branch of the Socialist Workers Party and a militant trade union leader in the Twin Cities. Johnson was also active in the Trotskyist movement in Minneapolis in its various forms, including the Communist League of America (Opposition) until 1934, the Workers Party of the United States in 1934 and 1935, the left wing of the Socialist Party in 1936-1937, and finally after 1938 in the Socialist Workers Party. In addition to his role in Local 292 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Johnson was a leader and organizer of various groups of unemployed in Minneapolis such as the Minneapolis Central Council for the Unemployed and the Council for United Labor Action, and he was a participant in the 1934 general strike, in that city led by General Drivers Union Local 574 (International Brotherhood of Teamsters) and members of the Trotskyist movement.

The papers consist of general correspondence and form letters, minutes of meetings, broadsides, and other printed matter. Runs of minutes of the Minneapolis Central Council for the Unemployed and the Council for United Labor Action, perhaps the most significant portion of the collection, make the papers valuable for the historian studying organizing efforts among the unemployed during the Depression, while the numerous broadsides provide a good indication of the struggle carried out between the Stalinist and Trotskyist tendencies in the labor movement in Minneapolis during the period. The collection is organized into Personal Files, Subject Files, and Miscellany. The subject files consist largely of printed matter pertaining to the Minneapolis branches of various socialist and labor groups. The correspondence is quite routine and includes numerous form letters from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

All material is arranged chronologically within the files. Because of its highly acidic character, the collection was microfilmed and then destroyed.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Mrs. Wilbur Costello, Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 18, 1967. Accession Number: M67-23

Processing Information

Processed by Patrick Quinn and R. Wilkinson, May 1968, and prepared for microfilming by Carolyn Mattern, October 1980.

	Series: Personal Papers
Reel   1 Frame   1	General correspondence, 1931-1955
Reel   1 Frame   146	Report to SWP: “Haiti: Rise of the Black Republic,” 1942
Reel   1 Frame   173	Notes, 1934, undated
	Series: Subject Files	⇧
Reel   1 Frame   204	Civil Rights Defense Committee, 1942-1944
Reel   1 Frame   230	Committee for the Defense of Leon Trotsky, 1937
Reel   1 Frame   254	Communist League of America (Opposition), 1932-1938
Reel   1 Frame   282	Communist Party, 1935-1937
Reel   1 Frame   307	Council for United Labor Action, 1933-1934
Reel   1 Frame   413	Electrical Workers Local 292, 1932-1935
Reel   1 Frame   437	General Drivers Union Local 544/574, 1933-1937
Reel   1 Frame   445	Minneapolis Central Council for the Unemployed, 1933-1934
Reel   1 Frame   589	Non-Partisan Labor Defense, 1932, 1936
Reel   1 Frame   606	Socialist Party, 1936-1937
Reel   1 Frame   637	Socialist Workers Party, 1938-1946
Reel   1 Frame   698	Workers Defense League, 1936-1943
Reel   1 Frame   732	Workers Party of the U.S., 1934-1935
Reel   1 Frame   750	Young People's Socialist League, The Spanish Revolution, 1936-1937
	Series: Miscellany	⇧
Reel   1 Frame   847	Certificates, 1929-1948
Reel   1 Frame   862	Miscellaneous labor conferences, minutes, 1934-1937
Reel   1 Frame   900	Miscellaneous printed matter, 1932-1944