Leo Krzycki

Leo Krzycki (1881–1966) was a chairman of the Socialist Party of America and vice president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.

Background
Leo C. Krzycki was born on August 10, 1881, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Martin Krzycki and Katherine Wobszal.

Career
In 1918, Krzycki ran for the United States House of Representatives from Wisconsin's 8th congressional district. He lost to incumbent Edward E. Browne. In 1924, he was a candidate for the House of Representatives from Wisconsin's 4th congressional district. He lost to incumbent John C. Schafer. Krzycki ran for the United States Senate in 1926, losing to John J. Blaine. He then ran for Secretary of State of Wisconsin in 1928, losing to incumbent Theodore Dammann.

In 1933, Krzycki was elected chairman of the national executive board of the Socialist Party of America, succeeding the lately deceased Morris Hillquit.

Krzycki's 1937 involvement in the strike of about 1,500 people against the Republic Steel plant was criticized, especially the "march" forward that the strikers took towards the plant gates. One first-hand account stated that he knew beforehand that the police captain was a "sadist" and stayed on-stage, trying in vain to dissuade the protests from going forward. Krzycki was also a key figure in organizing the 1937 strike against Ford Motor Company, and shares a historic image leading the strikers with labor leaders Richard Frankensteen and Ed Hall.

In the wake of the Nazi invasion of September 1939, many pro-Polish organizations formed in the UK and USA. In late 1941, the Soviets formed an All Slav Congress. In April 1942, Krzycki accepted the presidency of an American Slav Congress (ASC) allegedly as "front man" for Boleslaw Gebert of the Soviet's All Slav Congress. After the 1943 Katyn Massacre, Krzycki's ASC broke with the Polish government in exile in London and stood with the Soviets, their Committee of Polish Patriots (a precursor to the post-war, Soviet-backed Polish government, and the Soviet-proposed changes to Poland's borders to the west and east Both the FBI and OSS and then CIA followed ASC activities, which later came to question before Congress and led to Krzycki's resignation and by organization's end by 1951.

In 1944, Krzycki, by then "a noted one-time socialist leader," also became president of the American Polish Labor Council (APLC), appended to the CIO PAC to support Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1944 presidential campaign.

Personal life and death
In 1909, Krzycki married Anna Kadau, a neighbor; they had three children.

Krzycki was a member of the American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born.

Leo Krzycki died age 84 on January 22, 1966, in Milwaukee.

Awards

 * 1946: Order of Polonia Restituta