Early years Clarence Albert Hathaway, known to his friends as "Charlie," was born January 8, 1892, in
St. Paul, Minnesota, the son of a carpenter. Hathaway was of mixed
English and
Swedish ethnic origin. He attended public school in Minnesota, attending three years of high school in the town of
Hastings. Upon his return, Hathaway became very active in the IAM, working in the local and district office before being elected secretary of the
Michigan district of the IAM for 1920 and 1921. Doyen of historians of American communism
Theodore Draper said of Hathaway, "his personality was gay, warm, and slightly unstable." Hathaway was elected a delegate to the 3rd National Convention of the
Workers Party of America from Minnesota, held December 30, 1923, to January 2, 1924, in
Chicago. Hathaway played a key role serving on the committee of arrangements for the Farmer-Labor Party's 1924 St. Paul convention, which convened June 17, 1924, and gave birth to a new Federated Farmer-Labor Party, sponsored by the Communist Party USA as one of its
mass organizations. Joining Hathaway was former Socialist Party youth leader
William F. Kruse and Chicago party leader
Charles Krumbein. While in Moscow, Hathaway attended the
6th World Congress of the
Communist International as a non-voting advisory delegate. It was there that American Communist Party factional leader
James P. Cannon was won over to the ideas of the
Left Opposition to the
Russian Communist Party, headed by
Leon Trotsky. It seems likely that during this interval Cannon spoke with his old acquaintance about these prohibited ideas. Upon his return to America, Hathaway was quickly reintegrated into the top ranks of the CPUSA's leadership. Hathaway had the necessary party rank as well as the inside information which enabled him to become the chief person on the Central Committee accusing James P. Cannon of
Trotskyism and
factional activity, charges which ultimately led to Cannon's expulsion. Hathaway was also returned as district organizer in Chicago. Early in 1929 Hathaway was named the editor of the monthly magazine of the
Trade Union Unity League,
Labor Unity. He recruited
Marguerite Young as Washington bureau chief for the newspaper. Hathaway was three times a nominee of the Communist Party for the
U.S. House of Representatives, running in the 7th District of
New York in 1930, the 3rd District of New York in 1932, and the 7th District again in 1934.
1931 Yokinen Show Trial In 1931 Hathaway was selected by the party to serve as the "prosecutor" of a janitor at the Finnish Workers Club in
Harlem who belonged to the Communist Party in a public event remembered as the
Yokinen Show Trial. The janitor, August Yokinen, was accused of having rudely threatened three
black attendees of a party-sponsored dance — an action which undercut the party's professed support of
social equality. Richard Moore, one of the party's top black leaders, was assigned to speak in Yokinen's defense. The jurors expelled Yokinen from the party and instructed him to participate in the struggle against "white chauvinism" if he wished to be readmitted in the future. The object lesson taught, the gathering sang
The Internationale and disbursed, with the proceedings of the show trial subsequently published in pamphlet form for a broader audience. The following day, Hathaway was involved in a riot in New York City which erupted when 5,000 Communists marched to a rally held under the auspices of the
Socialist Party of America in support of the
Socialist Party of Austria, at the time the object of violent repression at the hands of right wing Austrian nationalists. Fights broke out throughout the arena, chairs were flung from balconies, and the
New York Police Department rushed in to restore order. On February 18, 1938, at an expanded meeting of the party's governing Central Committee called the Party Builders Congress, Hathaway was entrusted to give the
keynote report in Browder's absence. Following his expulsion, Hathaway returned to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he worked once again as a machinist.
Union organizer During the 1940s, Hathaway went to work as a union organizer on behalf of the
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), part of the
Congress of Industrial Organizations. His drinking problem resolved, Hathaway was readmitted to the Communist Party late in the 1940s, once again rising to a leadership position, being named chairman of the CPUSA's New York district in the late 1950s. In 1960 Hathaway was elected to the governing National Committee of the party. During the process of his vetting for the National Committee in February 1960, however, objections were raised in Moscow by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which cited material in its personnel records alleging that Hathaway had been an employee of a detective agency from 1918 to 1920 as well as having been in contact with
Federal Bureau of Investigation employees in 1941 in Pittsburgh and 1947 in San Francisco. Although this information came to the attention of American Communist Party leaders too late for his removal without provoking a crisis in the New York organization, Hathaway was soon shunted out of power, ostensibly for reasons of health.
Death and legacy Clarence Hathaway died on January 23, 1963. He is interred at Fairhaven Cemetery in
Stearns County, just outside the township of
Fair Haven, Minnesota. Hathaway's papers, consisting of 21 published articles and speeches in one archival box, are held at the library of the
Minnesota Historical Society at St. Paul. ==Footnotes==