William Albertson

William Albertson (May 7, 1910 – February 19, 1972) was a 20th-century American leader in the Communist Party of the USA who battled federal and state courts, and who in 1964 was framed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which was only discovered posthumously in 1975.

William Albertson was born on May 7, 1910, in Odessa (then in the Russian Empire, now in Ukraine).

On February 10, 1911, arrived in Philadelphia with his mother, Esther Dashevsky, from whom he received derivative citizenship (June 29, 1927).

Starting in 1923, he attended Schenley High School in Pittsburgh.

In September 1927, he began pre-med studies at the University of Pittsburgh.

In 1927, Albertson joined the Communist Party of the USA.

In 1928, he joined the Young Communist League of America.

In 1929, he was expelled for activities with the university's "Liberal Club" for organizing a meeting in support of labor leader Tom Mooney.

On January 15, 1931, Albertson was to serve as secretary of a "Provisional Anti-War Youth Committee" of New York State to hold a rally for a Liebknecht Memorial and Anti-War Demonstration at the Star Casono at Park Avenue and 117 Street in Manhattan; CPUSA executive William Weinstone and YCL leader Gil Green were to attend.

By 1932, Albertson had moved to New York City, where he lived until 1947.

In 1932, Albertson stood as Party candidate for the senate of the New York State Assembly.

In 1934, Albertson stood as Party candidate for House Representative from New York's 17th congressional district.

(In 1934, his name had appeared in The Red Network: A Who's Who and Handbook of Radicalism for Patriots by Elizabeth Dilling: "ALBERTSON, WILLIAM: Communist Party functionary; organizer Food Wkrs. Indust. Un." ) During the same period, he supported the candidacy of Israel Amter for governor of New York on the Communist Party ticket.

On October 1, 1939, Joseph Zack, former Party official and witness for the Dies Committee of the U.S. House named Albertson in a list of Party directors and seven out of 40 CIO directors of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) union.

On October 17, 1939, former Party co-founder Benjamin Gitlow named Albertson as a Party leader.

He worked there as a labor union official and organizer through 1940.

In 1942, he served a year as secretary and treasurer of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union Local 16, American Federation of Labor.

In 1943, he served a year as labor secretary of the national CPUSA and also as member of the Party's New York State Committee.

In 1944, he served a year as vice president of the Brooklyn Communist Political Association.

In 1945, Albertson's name appeared among many others assembled by Father John Francis Cronin in a privately circulated report called The Problem of American Communism in 1945: Facts and Recommendations.

In 1946, Albertson served as Assistant National Labor Secretary of the CPUSA.

In 1947, Albertson returned to Pittsburgh as Organizational Secretary of the CPUSA's District 5 (Western Pennsylvania).

That same year, his name appeared in an appendix of principal officers of the national Communist Party under "National review board" as secretary.

In 1950, the Party transferred him as Trade Union Secretary of the CPUSA's District 7 (Detroit).

In the 1950s and 1960s, Albertson was a prominent national Party official, based in New York City, where he became state Party secretary in 1958.

In 1950, FBI informant Matt Cvetic named "William Albertson, district secretary of the Communist Party in western Pennsylvania."

Cvetic managed to work his testimony into an attack on former U.S. Vice President and presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace.

As the New York Times reported, "A former undercover agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation testified today that Henry A. Wallace once conferred with two well known Pittsburgh Communists about support for his third-party Presidential campaign. Matthew Cvetic was the agent. He told the House Un-American Activities Committee that he himself was one of the pair of well-known Communist party members."

Cvetic also named both Steve Nelson, who would face arrest with Albertson and four other third-tier Party leaders the following year.

On July 23, 1950, a Pittsburgh Common Pleas Court asked State Attorney General J. Howard McGrath to "intern" Albertson and Nelson among eleven western Pennsylvanian Party officials as "dangerous to the best interests of our country."

On August 17, 1951, the FBI held a fourth roundup of Party leaders since the Foley Square Trial which included Albertson and five others.

who soon found themselves indicted by a federal grand jury.

The New York Times detailed his arrest: Albertson was arrested near Flat Rock, Michigan, while driving with his wife and two children" by the FBI. The FBI also arrested Nelson, "accused by the House Committee on Un-American Activities of setting up a Red cell at the University of California.

Radiation Laboratory, during World War II and obtaining atomic secrets for Russia." In November 1952, his trial started in Pittsburgh. In August 1953, he was convicted under the Smith Act for conspiring to advocate violent overthrow of the U.S. government. He received a five-year prison. He served 60 days in jail for contempt of court.

Albertson's case reached the United States Supreme Court, whose opinion stated:

United States Supreme Court

345 U.S. 242

On January 22, 1962, the State Department revoked the passports of Albertson and several other leaders of the Communist Party.

In a June 1, 1963, report on subversive activities, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy referred to Albertson several times, in part because Kennedy had filed petitions to force Albertson and others to register as Party members.

His widow made an out-of-court settlement in 1989 with the U.S. Government for $170,000.