Taistelu osuustoimintarintamalla [Fighting on the co-operative front]

History of Co-operative Movement in America by Leading Finnish-American Communist, Expelled from CPUSA in 1929 for Opposing Centralization

Born in Helsinki in 1891, Halonen emigrated to Canada in 1912 and wrote for Finnish socialist papers in Ontario and Fitchburg, Massachusetts. He moved to Superior, Wisconsin, in the early 1920s to edit the Finnish radical paper Työmies, which had ties to the CPUSA and was closely involved with the Co-operative Central Exchange (CCE; Keskusosuuskunta), a largely Finnish organization with a major share of consumer retail trade in the Upper Midwest.

In 1929 a rift developed in the CCE over centralization as increasingly advocated by the CPUSA leadership and local control as advocated by Halonen and several associates. Max Bedacht, William Z. Foster, and Henry Puro (Finnish-American head of CPUSA's Agrarian Department), wrote the CCE a letter demanding a $5000 loan to the central party. (Reproduced in this book.) Halonen and his allies refused and were expelled from the CPUSA. Their his successor organization to the CCE, the Central Co-operative Wholesale, maintained its position as the leading co-operative organization in the region until the rise of supermarkets after World War II.

Light cover wear, very good condition overall. WorldCat locates 4 in US, one in Canada, one in Finland.