Max Bedacht
| Max Bedacht | |
|---|---|
Max Bedact in November 1922
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| Born |
October 13, 1883 Munich, Germany |
| Died | July 4, 1972 (aged 88) Jamaica, Queens, New York City, United States |
| Years active | 1905–1949 |
| Known for | co-founder of CPUSA and general secretary of IWO |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Bedacht |
| Children | Elsie, Edith, Ethel, and Max |
Max Bedacht Sr. (October 13, 1883 – July 4, 1972) was a German-born American revolutionary socialist political activist, journalist, and functionary who helped establish the Communist Party of America. Bedacht is best remembered as the long-time head of the International Workers Order, a Communist Party-sponsored fraternal benefit organization.
Max Bedacht, Sr. was born in Munich, Germany to an ethnically German mother on October 13, 1883. He was the son of a single mother who worked as a domestic servant and was raised Catholic by a maternal aunt and uncle.
Bedacht apprenticed and worked as a barber in Germany and Switzerland, working in the towns of Gosseau and Herisau. He organized fellow journeymen barbers into a union during his European years. In 1905 he joined the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland. In 1907, Bedacht was elected president of the Swiss National Barbers' Union and edited the organization's newspaper. That same year he took part in his first labor action, a sympathy strike held for the striking chocolate workers on the banks of Lake Geneva.
During a barbers' strike the following year, Bedacht rented a building for a cooperative barber shop in his name. In the settlement of the strike, the plan for the cooperative facility was abandoned, however, and Bedacht was sued for breach of contract by the building's landlord. While the union's members offered to pay the money for him, Bedacht decided to emigrate to the United States rather than allow this to take place.
Bedacht immigrated to the United States in 1908 and joined the Socialist Party of America (SPA) during that same year. He lived and worked in Manhattan from 1910 to 1912, cutting hair by day while spending his evenings as a German-language socialist agitator. After this he spent a brief period in Detroit as editor of both German-language and English-language Socialist newspapers.
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