The Guardian, a weekly newspaper, was begun on October 18, 1948 as the National Guardian by James Aronson, Cedric Belfrage, and John T. McManus, three experienced journalists, to provide an independent source of news for all American progressives. Not only did the three men edit the paper, but they also owned it through the Weekly Guardian Associates, its publishing corporation. The editorial offices were based in New York City while the paper was published in York, Pennsylvania. During its early years the National Guardian was noted for its opposition to McCarthyism, its defense of the Rosenbergs, its support for racial justice, and its opposition to both the Korean and Vietnam wars.
In 1953 Belfrage and Aronson were summoned to appear before the Senate Subcommittee on Government Operations. After refusing to testify about alleged Communist sympathies, Belfrage, a citizen of the United Kingdom, was deported. He continued to write for the paper and assist in its management from a distance until 1967. McManus remained with the paper until his death in 1961. In 1967 Aronson resigned and turned over his shares in the paper to the staff. Although neither Aronson nor the staff ever spoke publicly about Aronson's acrimonious departure, many interpreted the split as a break between the Old Left and the New Left members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) on the paper's staff.
Under its new ownership the staff reorganized as a worker collective and changed its name to the Guardian. Jack A. Smith, who had joined the paper in 1963, became the new managing and chief editor, a responsibility he continued until his resignation in 1982. Working with him was a five-person Coordinating Committee elected by the staff that not only managed the paper but also monitored its increasingly radical political line. The turbulent times continued and at one point some dissident staff went on strike and produced an alternative paper, the Liberated Guardian. The Guardian's ideology became avowedly Marxist-Leninist after 1972 when Irwin Silber became executive editor. In 1977 the Guardian attempted unsuccessfully to organize local clubs that it hoped would spur the creation of a radical political party. The Guardian perhaps most resembled its earlier existence as the National Guardian with regard to financial problems. In 1992 the paper was forced to cease publication.
