Red Letter [81 issues, plus 14 issues of Red Memo]

San Francisco: Communist Party, USA, 1992. Eighty-one issues of the newsletter, in various forms and with variations in the title, all published at the Valencia Street office of the Communist Party in San Francisco. Generally very good condition. The newsletter poses some bibliographical challenges because the same title was used in different incarnations, and in fact was also used for a Southern California CP newsletter. The first group here, of 50 newsletters, mostly single sheets, is a San Francisco-focused publication first titled "San Francisco bi-monthly Communist Party Bulletin: Red Letter," or sometimes "San Francisco semi-monthly: Red Letter," (truncated) eventually shortening to "San Francisco Red Letter," and eventually simply "SF Red Letter." Issues present for this series are vol. 1 nos. 1-7, 10, 11, 13, 15-19; vol. 2 nos. 2-16; "vol. 3 no. 17" the following month, vol. 4 nos. 1-11 (two issues numbered 5); vol. 5 nos.1, 3, 11; vol. 6 no. 1, and then unnumbered issues from March 22, 1982 and May 4, 1984. Format varies between 8.5x11 and 8.5x14 inches; many are mimeographed but there are also photocopied issues. Also included with this initial run is an untitled local newsletter from 1976, a predecessor to this series, which includes an urgent call to defend the International Hotel. The next series, more substantial with length averaging 6-12 pages per issue, was a statewide bulletin beginning in 1984, titled "Red Letter: Communist Party of California Bulletin"; issues present are October 1984, March, May, and Oct./Nov. 1985; Jan./Feb., Feb., April, and Oct./Nov. 1986; April and June 1987. The newsletter then continued in the same format but as a Northern California District bulletin; issues present are January, April, and June 1988; late October and November 1989, February, mid-March, May-June, August, October, and December 1990; February, March, April, June, September, October, and December 1991. After the split within the Communist Party, the Northern California district largely sided with the Committees of Correspondence, and the final issues from March, May and June 1992 are published in the name of that organization. Red Memo was a brief newsletter specifically focused on Party members in San Francisco; issues present are 4, 5, 7-9, 11, 12, 16, 18-21, 24, and 25. A useful resource for understanding the involvement of Communist Party activists in many facets of progressive organizing in the San Francisco area. Many issues have urgent calls to members to show up for specific demonstrations. Includes not only Party-specific organizing such as the presidential campaigns of Gus Hall and Angela Davis, or various ideological study sessions, but more mainstream movements like the fight for affirmative action after the Bakke decision, the Nuclear Freeze campaign, the Apartheid boycott movement and hosting of ANC leaders in the Bay Area, various labor disputes and strike support, and many more local issues. (Inventory #: 324273)