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were memorialized, the Paris Commune was remembered, and the anniversary of
the Russian Revolution was commemorated. The party created an array of
organizations. Within a couple years, Baltimore Communists had formed and
taken leadership in- apart from the local party and a chapter of its youth group, the
Young Communist League— the local branches of a number of Communist-
affiliated mass organizations, including several unemployed councils, the
International Labor Defense, the Workers International Relief, the Friends of the
Soviet Union, the Workers Forum, the Trade Union Unity League and at least
three affiliated unions, the Marine Workers Industrial Union, the Steel and Metal
Workers Industrial Union, and the Furniture Workers Industrial Union. The party
did not limit itself to involvement with one form of mass movement or with one
social constituency, and attempts were even made to attract elements of the middle
and upper classes, especially intellectuals; its organizing focus, as one might expect,
however, was on the most socially marginalized, the overlapping constituencies of
the unemployed, the industrial sector of the working class, and the African
American community. And the party brashly challenged local tradition by insisting
that all its organizing be interracial.10
Despite its many activities, the Communist Party in Baltimore in the early
1930s was never a large organization. It is, though, difficult to assess the size of its
formal membership and (perhaps more importantly) the size of the surrounding
communist movement, comprised of those who considered themselves communists,
followed the party's leadership, but did not actually join. One indication of the
magnitude of the party and the communist movement in the city were the May Day
marches and the explicitly communist celebrations. Estimated participation in
Communist Party Mayday marches grew each year in the early 1930s: about 100 in
1930,150 in 1931,200 in 1934. Of course, these estimates were made by the
Baltimore Sun papers which were extremely hostile to the Communists, the
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