The New Red Scare

And Why Everyone Should Be Worried

Author

Comrade Drew
March 17, 2025

Introduction:

A Red Scare is defined as, according to Britannica, a period of public fear and anxiety over the supposed rise of communist or socialist ideologies in a noncommunist state. In the history of the United States we’ve had two Red Scares which has, consequently, led to anti-leftness across Europe. Unfortunately, we have entered a new period of Red Scare and everyone, even conservatives, should be worried about it.

In order to understand the new Red Scare, we first need to go back to the two Red Scares of the past and get an understanding of them. This will allow us to see what stays consistent when a period of Red Scare occurs, as well as the different “tactics” used to create fear among the general public and the outcomes.

The First Red Scare (1917-1920)

The History Behind The Fear:

If you’re a history nerd like myself then you may have begun to put a connection together as to why the first Red Scare began in 1917. The October Revolution of 1917 in Russia, also known colloquially as the Russian Revolution, in which the Bolsheviks overthrew the Provisional Government and established the Soviet style government, led to a fear from other countries that their government could be next.

This increasing fear, along with U.S. entry into World War I, led to the United States Congress passing the Espionage Act of 1917 which made it a crime

  • “to convey information with the intent to interfere with the operation or success of the armed forces of the United States or to promote its enemies’ success.” 

  • “to convey false reports or statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the military or naval forces of the United States or to promote the success of its enemies when the United States is at war, to cause or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, refusal of duty, in the armed forces, or to willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service.” 

The latter was punishable by a maximum fine of $10,000 or a maximum of 20 years imprisonment while the former was punishable by a maximum of 30 years imprisonment or by death.

Congress later passed the Sedition Act of 1918 which expanded the Espionage Act of 1917 to cover a broader range of “offenses” including

  • forbidding Americans from using “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the government, U.S. flag, or armed forces of the United States during war.

The last act passed regarding the first Red Scare was the Immigration Act of 1918 which changed the definition of anarchism to

  • all forms related to its advocacy which included membership or affiliation with any group that advocated opposition to all forms of organized government

  • removed protection in prior law that stated aliens who’d resided in the U.S. for more than five years were not subject to deportation

Another major event that spread fear was the German Revolution of 1918-1919 in which, as a consequence of the military defeat of the German Empire in World War I, an insurgency of troops and workers overthrew the imperial government and the emperor. This overthrow led to the Spartacist Revolt—in which the right-wing Freikorps murdered over 100 workers & Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, the leaders of the KPD (Communist Party of Germany) who were trying to establish soviets, worker and soldier councils, instead of one central government—and ultimately to the Weimar Republic.

The hyper-nationalism caused by World War I along with successful Russian Revolution and the failed Spartacist Uprising in Germany fueled fear about a potential revolution in the United States. These events coupled with a growing labor movement within the U.S. are what set the scene for the beginning of the First Red Scare.

The Events of The First Red Scare:

Seattle General Strike

The first major event was the Seattle General Strike which began on February 6th, 1919 and lasted six days until February 11th. For context, 35,000 shipyard workers had been on strike before the 6th, but the 101 AFL unions in Seattle voted to walk out in a show of solidarity and support.

On the 6th, 25,000 union members of all industries joined the 35,000 shipyard workers as most of the remaining workforce remained home. An elected Strike Committee had been responsible for the coordination of essential services. Thousands were fed each day of the strike at impromptu dining stations which were staffed by members of culinary unions. The teamsters union were responsible for making sure that supplies reached hospitals and that milk and food deliveries still continued.

On the second day of the strike, the mayor threatened martial law against the strikers and two battalions of US troops took positions in the city, but the unions ignored the threat, the strikers stayed put, and calm prevailed. Although no violence had occurred, the majority of local and national press denounced the strike and conservatives had called for “stern measures” to suppress what they “believed” to be a revolutionary plot.

The federal officials in charge of the shipyards refused to negotiate with the workers which led to some of the unions wavering and leaving by the third day. Almost all others had gone back to work by the time the Central Labor Council declared the strike at an end on the 11th.

Police and vigilantes were already rounding up “Reds” as the IWW hall and Socialist Party headquarters had been raided and their leaders arrested. Federal agents closed the Union Record, a daily labor newspaper and arrested several of the staff. Headlines across the country shouted that Seattle was saved, that revolution had failed, that “Americanism” triumphed over “Bolshevism.” There was no activity before, during, or after the strike from communists or socialists to incite a revolution. However, one person profited heavily from this lie.

Ole Hanson, Seattle’s mayor at the time of the strike, took credit for ending the strike—even though it was ended by a General Strike Committee vote—and was hailed by the press. Hanson resigned as mayor a few months after the strike and toured the country speaking about the danger of “domestic bolshevism.” He earned $38,000 in seven months which was five times his annual salary as mayor. He went on to publish a pamphlet called Americanism versus Bolshevism. 

The Overman Committee

The Overman Committee was a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee which has its namesake in the chairman—Lee Slater Overman, a North Carolina Democrat. It originally investigated German elements between September 1918 and February 1919.

Archibald E. Stevenson, a New York attorney and likely “volunteer spy” for the U.S. Justice Department testified on January 22, 1919, during the German phase of the Overman Committee. He said that anti-draft and anti-war activism was propaganda which had developed “sympathy for the Bolshevik movement.” He went on to say that although the German Empire had been defeated, they’d exported their socialist ideology to Russia where it had triumphed. He cited the propaganda of John Reed, an American journalist and communist activist who’d been witness to the Russian Revolution and wrote on it. He told the senators that, “we have found money coming into this country from Russia.” Stevenson has been noted by historians for being a “driving force” behind the growth of anti-Bolshevism in the United States.

As a result of this testimony and the announcement of the Seattle General Strike, the subcommittees mandate was extended on February 4th, 1919 to include efforts into parties with supposed ties to Russia and any effort to incite a revolution against the U.S. government.

The committees hearings on Bolshevism lasted from February 11th to March 10th, 1919. There was 27 testimonies and statements given during this time of which over two-thirds were violently anti-Bolshevik. Some were former government officials who’d left Russia because of the Revolution. The overriding theme of the testimonies was that the Revolution had caused social chaos. Three other themes were frequent in their findings: anti-Americanism in American academia, the relationship between Jews and Russia, and the supposed “nationalization” of women after the Revolution.

Archibald E. Stevenson, the spy who’d testified during the German investigation, had produced a list of 200—which was later reduced to 62—alleged communist professors. He declared universities breeding grounds of sedition and that they were fostering atheism.

One Methodist preacher who’d testified stated that nineteen out of twenty communists were Jews, others testified that the Red Army was majority composed of former New York East Side Jews. These statements garnered criticism from Jewish organizations and Senator Overman had to clarify that the committee was discussing “apostate” Jews who’d “given up their faith.”

The last ridiculous claim was that women had been “nationalized.” Witnesses described an orgy in which there was “no respect for virtuous women,” while others that had been in Russia during the Revolution denied this. Another witness read a Soviet decree stating that Russian women had the “right to choose from among men.”

The committee’s final report was released in June of 1919. They did little to substantiate the extent of communist activity in the U.S. They gave an analysis of what would happen if capitalism were overthrown and replaced which warned of widespread misery and hunger, the confiscation and nationalization of all property, and “a program of terror, fear, extermination, and destruction.” Anti-Bolshevism surged after the release of the report.

Anarchist Bombings

Throughout April and June of 1919 there was approximately 44 bombs including 36 letter bombs and eight much larger bombs intended to kill politicians and opponents of anarchists. All of the bombings were done by Galleanist radicals. Only one of the letter bombs had exploded as intended injuring the wife and housekeeper of Georgia Senator Thomas W. Hardwick.

The other eight bombs were believed to have contained up to twenty-five pounds of dynamite and were exploded almost simultaneously in several U.S. cities. All targets had participated in the investigation or opposition of anarchists. Attorney General Palmer, who’d been targeted by the letter bombs, was once again targeted but was not injured. There were three casualties—a New York City night watchman, William Boehner, and Carlo Valdinoci, the man who placed the bomb meant for Attorney General Palmer.

The Palmer Raids

Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer launched his campaign against radicals with two sets of police actions known as the Palmer Raids in November of 1919 and January of 1920. Federal agents aided by local police rounded up large numbers of suspected radicals based in membership of a political group rather than any action taken. Undercover informants and warrantless wiretaps identified several thousand suspected leftists to be arrested.

As a result of the raids, 556 suspected radicals were deported. Palmer testified before the House Rules Committee and was largely blamed for the negative aspects of the raids.

May Day 1920

J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the General Intelligence Department of the Justice Department at the time, had been on a campaign of collecting anything he could get his hands on about radicals. Following the Palmer Raids, the infiltration of many organizations, and the interrogation of thousands of arrested and suspected radicals, Hoover told Palmer that they had evidence of plans for an attempted overthrow of the U.S. government on May Day 1920.

Hoover warned the nation to expect assassinations, bombings, and general strikes. Palmer issued a statement claiming to have a “list of marked men” and said that domestic radicals were “in direct connection and unison” with European counterparts with same-day disruptions planned across Europe.

Towns and cities prepared their police forces and some states mobilized their militias. New York City officers worked 32 hours straight. Boston police officers mounted machine guns on their cars. May Day came and went with no incident.

After that the press turned on Palmer and anti-Bolshevik hysteria wound down fairly quickly. The First Red Scare is considered to be a major factor in the passage of the Immigration Act of 1924 which banned all immigration from Asia, set quotas on Immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe, and established the U.S. Border Patrol.

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McCarthyism - The Second Red Scare (1947-1959)

The Second Red Scare began before McCarthy rose to fame. It started with Truman’s Executive Order 9835 on March 21, 1947 which required that all federal civil-service employees be screened for “loyalty”. Disloyalty was considered membership, affiliation or sympathy to any organization determined by the attorney general to be “totalitarian, fascist, communist or subversive.”

The Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) had seen its membership peak near 75,000 in 1940-1941, as they were very successful in organizing labor unions and opposed to fascism.

After WWII, the Cold War began and in March of 1947, President Truman announced his foreign policy doctrine opposing Soviet expansion. This doctrine became known as the Truman Doctrine.

In 1949, the Soviet Union tested an atomic bomb which increased anti-communist sentiment in the United States. Mao Zedong proclaimed the People’s Republic of China that same year after defeating the Kuomintang. In 1950, the Korean War began as U.S. forces went to war against communists from North Korea and China.

Conservatives of this time had historically referred to progressive social reform as communist as a way to try and fearmonger against such changes. They did the same thing to the New Deal policies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt—suggesting that the policies were socialist or communist. The “communist influence” rhetoric of conservatives was quite common for the time and fueled the fear around communism.

The Start of Senator McCarthy’s Involvement

McCarthy gave a speech on February 9, 1950 in West Virginia. He revealed a paper which he claimed contained the names of known communists working in the State Department. He is quoted as saying: “I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department.”

FBI Involvement

FBI director J. Edgar Hoover designed the Truman loyalty program. Hoover routinely gave evidence from FBI findings in the loyalty program, which were confidential, to congressional committees such as the House Un-American Activities Committee.

From 1951 to 1955, the FBI operated a secret “Responsibilities Program” which distributed anonymous documents containing evidence of communist affiliations of lawyers, teachers, and others. Many of the accused were fired without any warning or further process.

The FBI engaged in burglaries, mail openings, and illegal wiretaps in the pursuit of information on communists. The FBI burgled the office of the National Lawyers Guild, a left-wing group that was willing to defend clients in communist-related cases, at least 14 times between 1947 and 1951. The FBI used illegally obtained information from these robberies to alert prosecutors of the planned strategies of NLG defense lawyers.

In 1956, Hoover began the COINTELPRO program—whose actions included planting forged documents to create suspicion amongst a group that a key figure was an informant, spreading rumors through anonymous letters, leaking info to the press, calling for IRS audits, and so much more illegal activity.

The Downfall of McCarthy

The Army-McCarthy hearings lasted for 36 days and were televised live to an estimated total viewership of 80 million people. It began after conflicting accusations occurred between the Army and McCarthy. The Army accused McCarthy and his lawyer Roy Cohn of pressuring the Army to give preferential treatments to G. David Schine, a former aid to McCarthy and personal friend of Cohn’s. McCarthy said that the accusation was made in bad faith as retaliation for his aggressive investigations into suspected communists in the Army.

The Army was more correct than McCarthy was as it was proven that Cohn had allowed Schine to sign McCarthy’s name to have access to the Senator’s baths—an exclusive pool and steam room reserved for senators.

McCarthy’s staff director testified that everyone on the staff, regardless of their security clearance, had complete access to classified files. McCarthy refused to sign a document agreeing to an investigation of his staff.

From January 1954 to June 1954, his approval rating dropped from 50% down to 34% approving and 45% disapproving.

The committee concluded that McCarthy had not used his influence on Schine’s behalf but that Roy Cohn had.

Millions of Americans had witnessed the unethical tactics used by McCarthy and newspapers were unfavorable after the hearings. McCarthy was censured by the Senate on December 2, 1954.

After the censure, McCarthy continued his anti-communism by speaking often to an empty or near-empty Senate chamber.

The New Red Scare

As we’ve seen, the Red Scare can be quite an effective tool for government officials to manipulate the general public in efforts to increase their own control, advance their careers, and engage in witch-hunting efforts against leftist politics. Although it’s usually leftists deemed as radicals who are targeted, the laws enacted during times of manufactured paranoia effect everybody in the country.

The most recent Red Scare-like situation we are seeing is across college campuses. Protests for Palestine, often supported by and involving Jewish students, are being portrayed by the United States government and media as anti-Semitic, or pro-Hamas, or most times both. This is not the case—these are peaceful protests in which nobody involved is calling for violent action to be taken against the U.S. government, Israeli citizens, or Jewish Americans.

Our government has portrayed these protests as “a threat to the national security of the United States.” Of this, there is no proof only the claim being made by U.S. officials. This is not good—as we’ve seen, during a period of Red Scare, the government often uses the same claim that something is a threat to national security. In the past this has led to the illegal Palmer Raids, the blacklisting of the Hollywood Ten, COINTELPRO which was completely illegal and wasn’t ended until 1971, the “Responsibilities Program” which caused the firing of many people with nothing but claims.

What has this led to already? The illegal arrest, detention, and planned deportation of Mahmoud Khalil—a green card holding resident who organized peaceful Protests for Palestine calling to the end of the genocide in Gaza. If Khalil is deported, as the Trump regime says they have every plan to do so, this will mark a turning point in which legal residents of the United States are allowed to be detained, arrested, and potentially deported based only on the United States viewing them as a supposed “threat” to national security.

Everyone should be worried because this means that everyone is a potential target. How long until people like me, who speak out against the government in writing and other mediums, are deemed a “threat” to national security for using our right to free speech or our freedom of assembly? What is happening is setting the precedent for incredibly egregious abuses by the government. We can not sit back, stand down, or stay silent—we need to fight against this fascism that is plaguing the government.

I urge everyone to take whatever action they can before it is too late.

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