John Gates

John "Johnny" Gates, born Solomon Regenstreif (1913–1992) was an American Communist journalist, best remembered as one of the individuals spearheading a failed attempt at liberalization of the Communist Party USA in 1957.

Solomon Regenstreif, better known by the Anglo-Saxon name he later adopted, John Gates, was born in 1913 in New York City, the son of ethnic Jewish parents who hailed from Poland. Active in the campaign to free the Scottsboro Boys. Gates left college prior to graduation so that he could pursue his radical political activism. Gates first worked with unemployed workers in Ohio, eventually running unsuccessfully for the city council of Youngstown.

When the Spanish Civil War broke out, Gates joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and fought in Spain. In March 1938, at the age of 24, Gates rose to the rank of battalion political commissar of the Lincoln-Washington Battalion. In this capacity, Gates gained a reputation as a strict disciplinarian. He later admitted he had gone somewhat overboard. In 1938, he was involved in the controversial decision to execute a deserter named Paul White who had left the lines before having a change of heart and returning, only to be executed for disciplinary reasons. The decision caused great dissension in the Lincoln Brigade's ranks, forcing the immediate declaration that no further executions would take place.

Returning to the United States from Spain, Gates became the head of the Young Communist League.

The week after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Gates enlisted in the American armed forces.

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