Charles Curtiss

1908 (age 84)

Chicago as Samuel Kurz

As a printer, Curtiss took responsibility for producing the movement’s weekly paper The Militant. In 1932, Curtiss moved to Los Angeles to build the Trotskyist movement on the West Coast. In 1938, the Communist League became the Socialist Workers Party. Charles Curtiss, who was fluent in Spanish, was repeatedly sent as a representative of the American Trotskyist movement to Mexico in the 1930s. There he was known as Carlos Curtiss. He also visited Leon Trotsky in Coyoacán several times. Charles Curtiss functioned as Trotsky’s primary link with the Mexican Trotskyists. Curtiss also tried to resolve the personal differences between Trotsky and the famous Mexican artist Diego Rivera. Charles Curtiss was not present on August 20, 1940, when Trotsky was attacked and killed by the Stalinist agent Ramón Mercader, who had infiltrated the household, but it is said that Curtiss had always been suspicious of Mercader and had warned Trotsky to be careful around him. However, Curtiss was soon drafted into the United States army and sent to Italy to fight in the war. After the war, Curtiss returned to the Socialist Workers Party, but he left the party in 1951. Charles Curtiss died of heart failure in Los Angeles on December 20, 1993.

Charles Curtiss

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Background

Born on July 4, 1908, in Chicago as Samuel Kurz, the son of poor immigrants from Poland, he changed his name to Charles Curtiss and earned his living by working as a miner and sailor, before finally becoming a skilled printer.

Career

As a printer, Curtiss took responsibility for producing the movement’s weekly paper The Militant. In 1932, Curtiss moved to Los Angeles to build the Trotskyist movement on the West Coast. In 1938, the Communist League became the Socialist Workers Party.

Charles Curtiss, who was fluent in Spanish, was repeatedly sent as a representative of the American Trotskyist movement to Mexico in the 1930s.

There he was known as Carlos Curtiss. He also visited Leon Trotsky in Coyoacán several times.

Charles Curtiss functioned as Trotsky’s primary link with the Mexican Trotskyists. Curtiss also tried to resolve the personal differences between Trotsky and the famous Mexican artist Diego Rivera.

Charles Curtiss was not present on August 20, 1940, when Trotsky was attacked and killed by the Stalinist agent Ramón Mercader, who had infiltrated the household, but it is said that Curtiss had always been suspicious of Mercader and had warned Trotsky to be careful around him.

However, Curtiss was soon drafted into the United States army and sent to Italy to fight in the war. After the war, Curtiss returned to the Socialist Workers Party, but he left the party in 1951. Charles Curtiss died of heart failure in Los Angeles on December 20, 1993.

Politics

In 1928, Charles Curtiss joined the Communist League of America, the Trotskyist movement led by James P. Cannon. lieutenant would have been illegal and unwise under the terms on which Trotsky was granted asylum in Mexico for Trotsky to maintain direct political contact with radical communist revolutionaries in his host country. When 18 of the SWP’s most prominent leaders, including James P. Cannon, Farrell Dobbs and Carl Skoglund, were sentenced to jail according to the Smith Acting, for opposing United States involvement in World World War II, Charles Curtiss moved to New York City to help take over the leadership of the party.

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Charles Curtiss

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