1940 Communist National Convention

1940 Communist Earl Browder 1939 Alt.jpg James W. Ford Salvaged.jpg Nominees (Browder and Ford) May 30–June 2, 1940 Madison Square Garden (closing session) Manhattan, New York City, New York Earl Browder Kansas James W. Ford New York 1936 1944 2,200 Acclamation Acclamation The 1940 Communist National Convention was held May 30–June 2, 1940, in New York City. It saw Communist Party USA nominate Earl Browder for president and James W. Ford for vice president in the 1940 United States presidential election. Logistics thumb|Madison Square Garden, venue of closing session The convention was held May 30–June 2 in New York City.Call For New York State Nominating Convention of the Communist Party https://www.newspapers.com/image/1143556188 Newspapers.com subscription The Daily Worker June 2, 2026 New York City 4 April 9, 1940 The convention had 2,200 delegates. The closing session of the convention was held at Madison Square Garden, with The Daily Worker advertising a crowd of 20,000 in attendance. Nominations The convention unanimously nominated Earl Browder for president and James W. Ford for vice president.20,000 Cheer Nomination of Browder and Ford at Garden Rally https://www.newspapers.com/image/1144956089 Newspapers.com subscription The Daily Worker June 2, 2026 New York City June 4, 1940 This was the same ticket that the party had nominated in the previous presidential election.Browder Heads Communist Slate; James W. Ford, Negro Leader in Harlem, Is Nominated for Vice President. 25,000 JAM THE GARDEN 8-Point Platform Demands 'Decent' Social Standards -- Landon's Defeat Urged. https://www.nytimes.com/1936/06/29/archives/browder-heads-communist-slate-james-w-ford-negro-leader-in-harlem.html The New York Times June 1, 2026 June 29, 1936 Platform After the August 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, the party had taken a hard pivot in its position on incumbent president Franklin Delano Roosevelt's policy of sending aid to European nations fighting against Nazi Germany. Previously supportive of this policy, the party had pivoted to heavily opposing it and organizing against it. It was on this ground that the party opposed Roosevelt's re-election in 1940.Communist Party, United States of America https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/communist-party-united-states-america Encyclopedia.com June 2, 2026 At the convention, the party adopted a platform which condemned Roosevelt's foreign policy stance. Browder described the party platform's immediate goal as being, "fight to keep America out of the war...fight against all policies which call for great armaments." Browder further wrote, The most immediate menace of war for America is the call for moral support to the British and French empires...the already-deep economic involvement which combine to push and pull the American people, against their will, into belligerent support. Therefore the people's platform must declare to both imperialist camps, German and Allied, "A plague on both your houses!"...It must declare to the whole world, so that there shall be no encouragement of false hopes, that "The Yanks are not coming.Browder Earl Election Platform of the Communist Party of the U.S.A., 1940; Basic Political Outline For The Platform https://www.marxists.org/archive/browder/40-election-platform.pdf Marxists.org June 2, 2026 1940 The party's abandonment of antifascism made it a social pariah on the American left, with many liberals ceasing to cooperate with it in the advancement of common causes. References Category:National conventions of the Communist Party USA Communist Party USA Communist Party USA Category:United States presidential nominating conventions in New York City Communist Party USA