User:Radh/Camp Wo-chi-ca

The name Wo-Chi-Ca is an abbreviation of Workers Children's Camp. The interracial co-educational summer vacation camp was situated in Hunterdon County, at Port Murray, New Jersey, to the south of New York. Founded in 1934, it closed in the early 1950s, partially s a result of the pressures of McCarthyism. It was organized through the International Workers Order (1930-1954).

WO-CHI-Ca in 1951 changed its name and merged with Camp Wyandot, located at Mt. Tremper. In 1954 the IWO itself was shut down. WO-CHI-CA was only one of twenty-seven Communist camps run at one time in New York state alone. Left-wing camps included Camp Kinderland, Camp Nitgedaiget (at Beacon, New York), Camp Unity (at Wingdale, New York); Camp Woodland, where Ron Radosh went; Wel Met camps, Narrowsburg, Catskill Mountains. Camp Higley Hill in Wilmington, Vermont was another communist staffed camp. WO-CHI-CA was interracial for staff and campers. In 1943 Negro children made up 20%. In the late 1940s many Puerto Rican and Italian kids were sent there, but initially it had been heavily Jewish.

At the former Wo-Chi-Ca site is now a Christian camp, at the Mt. Tremper locale of Camp Wyandot a Zen Mountain Monastery.

Paul Robeson, Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie visited or worked at the camp during its existence.

Literature

 * The Daily Wo-Chi-Can. 1940s
 * The Wo-Ki-Mag. 1940s