An American Communist -- Lenus Westman Has Never Left His Marx

From his home near Renton, 87-year-old Lenus Westman watches with dimming eyes as communism threatens to fade into oblivion in Eastern Europe. He's hoping it won't.

Westman is an American Communist.

If those two words - American and Communist - seem strange together, if their juxtaposition runs contrary to Western ideals of democracy and patriotism, consider what happened to Westman a half-century ago.

A decade before the Canwell Committee went looking for Communists as part of Washington's contribution to the McCarthy era, Lenus Westman became the only person in state history to be denied a seat in the Legislature because of political beliefs.

``Of course, that background has always haunted me,'' said Westman, speaking softly into his folded hands.

It's been nearly 50 years since Westman's small political voice was stifled in Olympia, but he still uses the experience to gain perspective.

``There has been a concerted effort to put aside that period of history because we like to think we've always stood for democracy. When I think of the wrong that has been done to me, I just think of all the many more wrongs that have been done to the workers of the world,'' he says.

All but lost with the passing of its era, the ``Westman Affair,'' as it was called at the time, exists today in faded news clippings and legislative records and in the mind of Lenus Westman.

Sitting at the dining room table, beaming at his wife, Doris, Westman hardly seems a threat to the state. Almost everything about his appearance, from his grandfatherly manner to his gentle voice, belies the life of an activist.

A slogan on his T-shirt winks at his political leanings, though. On request, Westman folds back the lapels of his sweater so all the words can be seen. ``JOBS & EDUCATION YES. DRAFT & REGISTRATION NO.''

Westman's politics have always been worn close to the heart. That may be why he made such an easy target.

It was the autumn of 1940 when Westman, then a 37-year-old farmer and economics teacher from Arlington, reluctantly hit the campaign trail in the 39th District Senate race. The district included all of Island County and a major chunk of Snohomish County, all solidly Democratic.

He was chairman of the New Deal Democratic League (NDDL) at the time and a member of the Washington Commonwealth Federation, both groups from the left wing of the Democratic Party. He had been a strategist, not a standard-bearer in previous political fights.

The most progressive cause he was involved in that year was an effort to pass Initiative 141, a measure to raise state pensions for the elderly. Westman was vice president of the Washington Old-Age Pension Union, the group gathering signatures on the initiative petitions.

Originally, Westman's job was to help persuade either of the two House members from the 39th District to run for the vacant Senate seat. When those efforts failed, the NDDL started eyeing Westman.

``They said, `So what's the matter with our chairman running for that Senate seat?' '' But I told them I had to think about it,'' Westman said.

In the end, he had a friend drive him to Olympia, where he filed five minutes before the deadline.

By November, Westman felt certain of victory.

``It was kind of humorous in a way because my Republican opponent was an undertaker. He wasn't really a bad guy, but I'd get a laugh by saying, `We'll bury him.' ''

Tame by today's standards, many of the policies Westman advocated - higher pensions, higher wages for higher production, public ownership of electricity, a national health program, a 48-hour work week and labor's right to strike and to bargain collectively - were considered a bit radical in 1940.

However, Franklin Roosevelt, running then for his third term as president, had paved the way for certain aspects of socialism in the federal government, such as Social Security and the WPA (Work Projects Administration).

Westman won by 1,200 votes. And despite Republican claims that Initiative 141 was part of ``a Communist plot to bankrupt the state treasury,'' the campaign to boost pensions for the elderly was also successful - by 100,000 votes.

But the campaign had been damaging. Allegations surfaced that Westman had been a Communist.

``The atmosphere was so anti-Soviet. There was this astonishing sentiment against communism and anything to do with the Soviet Union,'' Westman recalls.

With the U.S. still on the sidelines, World War II was well under way in Europe. A nonaggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union was yet to be violated by Hitler, and Moscow was drawing universal condemnation for its invasion of Finland.

As the 1941 state legislative session neared, there were rumors that the Senate Democratic caucus would file charges to block Westman from taking his seat. A little-known provision allows senators to question the qualifications of its members.

``The rumors didn't really bother me at first,'' Westman said. ``I just kept working on (implementing) Initiative 141 and waited to take my seat.''

Olympia was not a friendly place in January 1941. Republicans and conservative Democrats were still smoldering over losing on the initiative.

At the start of the session, the Westman affair was overshadowed by the Democrats' attempt to block the seating of Republican Gov.-elect Arthur B. Langlie, the Seattle mayor who bucked the FDR landslide. Democrats cried election fraud and called for an investigation, although that complaint went nowhere.

The Senate turned its attention to Westman after state Sen. James Sullivan, D-Seattle, challenged his qualifications and a special Senate committee was organized to conduct an investigation.

Despite Westman's plea to allow the press and public access, the hearing took place behind closed doors.

``I am being persecuted and prosecuted, not investigated!'' Westman shouted after learning the public would be locked out.

Hundreds of people, including senior citizens, union members and Native Americans, gathered on the Capitol steps and in the rotunda to show support for Westman. The American Civil Liberties Union and labor groups joined the protest, and thousands of post cards and petitions supporting Westman were sent to legislators.

For two weeks, the five-member Senate committee took testimony on Westman's political background. Aided by information from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the committee learned Westman had joined the Communist Party in May 1938, but was dropped from the party's rolls in 1939 for not paying his dues.

The committee spent no time delving into the events that shaped Westman's politics.

Westman was 4 when his family came to the United States from Sweden during the financial panic of 1907. They settled in Everett, where his father found work as a cabinetmaker.

The labor-management struggles within Everett's mill and waterfront industries were fertile learning ground for activism.

At 14, Westman witnessed the beginnings of one of the state's most legendary labor clashes: the 1916 ``Everett Massacre.''

He had been walking up Grand Avenue on his way to a movie at the Broadway Theatre when he saw a caravan of armed deputies go by. They were lined up on the running boards of the cars and heading for the wharf to meet the Verona, a boat loaded with IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) members from Seattle. The Wobblies, as they were called, were coming to Everett to demonstrate for striking shingle weavers.

``I kept going, but when I got through watching the movie, I heard what happened,'' Westman said. In a 10-minute shooting battle, seven men were killed and 50 wounded.

Westman's own baptism into the labor movement came that same year when he went out on strike with a group of cannery workers. The cannery required employees to report to the dock at 8 a.m., but the pay clock didn't start until the boats arrived, which was often late in the afternoon, Westman said.

``We put in a demand for half-time while we were waiting, but management refused. We lost that strike and I got fired.''

Westman later participated in the Seattle General Strike of 1919 - the first general strike in U.S. history.

Virtually all of Seattle was shut down during the four-day strike, which started in the shipyards. Newspapers in Seattle and across the country called the strike a ``revolution'' and a ``Red Scare.'' The strike ended without violence after Seattle Mayor Ole Hanson threatened to impose martial law.

``That was a great strike,'' Westman recalls.

Westman's brother, also a Communist Party member, talked about why they joined the party in a newspaper article published at the time of the hearing.

``It is hard for some people to understand why we joined the organization, but we saw people dying of want,'' A.G. Westman said. ``The only people who seemed to want to help them were the Communists.''

In the end, the committee voted 5-3 that Westman was qualified to serve.

``I was very happy and relieved,'' Westman recalls. ``I felt like justice had prevailed.''

However, two powerful senators refused to let the issue die.

Joseph Drumheller and Earl Maxwell, both Democrats, called for a floor vote on seating Westman. They also ordered him evicted from the Senate chamber and refused to allow him to be sworn in when the full Legislature convened.

Westman had to watch from the gallery as the Senate debated his qualifications for nearly two hours.

One prominent senator from Seattle, Democrat Mary Farquharson, said she wasn't opposed to Westman because of his Communist beliefs, but because he ran as a Democrat.

``If he'd run as a Communist and been elected I'd fight to have him seated,'' she said.

However, state Sen. Frank Morgan, D-Hoquiam, who acted as Westman's counsel, appealed to his colleagues.

``The charges made against him now were known by the voters in his district and acted on by them,'' Morgan thundered. ``The fundamental question is if the 39th District can have a man of its own choosing or if the Senate can upset its choice.''

The debate swung back and forth. When it ended, Westman saw something disturbing occurring on the Senate floor.

``I watched as Maxwell and Drumheller walked up and down the aisle, talking to each senator. They were lining up the votes against me. I saw the writing on the wall.''

The vote fell 27 to 17 against Westman.

Casting lots with the majority was former Gov. Albert Rosellini, who was was then a 31-year-old senator from Seattle.

``I remember him (Westman) very well and I remember the incident,'' Rosellini said recently. ``There was the war coming on and there was a lot of concern about communism in those days. It was a real red flag to be accused of being a Communist.''

Westman walked away from the state Capitol on Jan. 24, 1941, vowing to fight the decision. He filed several court appeals but lost.

In the autumn of 1942, Westman was planning another run for the Senate, but withdrew. The United States was at war, and and he was drafted.

After the war, Westman continued his work as an activist, rejoining the Communist Party. He made the papers again in 1948 when he was he was thrown out of a Canwell Committee hearing. A member of the audience, he stood up and denounced the investigations. That got him fired.

That same year he met Doris. They were both working as volunteers for the newly formed Progressive Party. They were married in 1949.

``I didn't know such a man existed,'' says Doris, who knew little about politics before meeting Lenus.

``I have learned from her, too,'' says Lenus. ``She has been a great help to me, and in a sense we have grown together.''

The couple became fixtures at political rallies during the Korean and Vietnam War eras.

They were some of the first to join the fight for equal job opportunities for blacks in Seattle. During the McCarthy era in the early 1950s, when Communists were maligned as ``un-American,'' they spent hours on picket lines and organized boycotts against supermarkets in the Central Area that refused to give blacks better jobs.

Until Lenus suffered a stroke last year, the Westmans protested everything from Puget Power rate hikes to apartheid in South Africa.

``In the process (of communism) there have been many mistakes,'' Westman says, ``but I think Gorbachev, in his efforts to broaden democracy, is fighting for the overall good.''

And despite what's happening to Communist parties around the world, he believes the struggle for world communism will endure. Like other American Communists, he continues to believe socialism will eventually displace capitalism and that communism will emerge from socialism.

``Many fears of Communists have been expressed by our government to justify huge military budgets,'' he says. ``Let us remember that it was not any communist or socialist county that launched World War I and World War II. I am confident that when the history of this period is finally written, socialism will be regarded as the most powerful force for peace in the 20th century.''

``There are some people who think of patriotism as `my country right or wrong,' '' he adds. ``But love of country is first and foremost a love for the people of the country. Making life more livable for the people, the poor and the oppressed is the first duty of every real patriot.''