Talk:Jefferson School of Social Science

Establishment in question
I suppose I will have to check the cited resource in the existing section on establishment, but Bella Dodd testified that this was not a Communist Party project at the beginning. There is the absolute possibility she was incorrect. I am recommending that this section include a reference to the Rapp-Coudert Committee due to her testimony stating the school came about as a way to place the dismissed teachers. The following is an excerpt from pages 11 and 12.

''Mrs. DODD. The Jefferson School is a school based upon Marxist-Leninist philosophy. It was established as a result of the people who lost their jobs during the Rapp-Coudert fight. There are about 50 teachers and professors who lost their jobs as a result of the fight. And I, with the Teachers' Union, helped to establish what was called the School for Democracy, and these became the teachers in the School for Democracy.

''Mr. MORRIS. Was that a Communist project?

''Mrs. DODD. No. That was a teachers' union project. But shortly thereafter, the Communist Party decided they wanted a broad Marxist Institute, and they also saw that the School for Democracy was financing itself and they decided that they might perhaps join the School for Democracy with the Workers School. At that time they conducted a Communist Party workers' education, Workers School. As a result of that, Mr. Trachtenberg and Mr. David Goldway, and a few of the other people formed a committee for the purpose of amalgamating these two institutions. As a result of that, they purchased a building on Sixteenth Street and established this Jefferson School, which is, as I say, a Marxist institute.

''Senator FERGUSON. So that was a Communist school, was it?

''Mrs. DODD. The idea was that it was to be a Marxist-Leninist institution, but that does not mean that the people who attended that were necessarily Communists. I mean it would mean that it would appeal to people who were Communists and who wanted to know more about communism, or to people who didn't know anything about communism, but would like to learn.

''Senator FERGUSON. But they were teaching the philosophy of communism, were they not?

''Mrs. DODD. They were.

Patron Vectras (talk) 17:58, 13 December 2018 (UTC)