Career
He served as Secretary of the Communist Party in Washington State in the late 1940s. Van Lydegraf served as a leader of the Progressive Labor Party (United States) in Washington state in the 1960s before being expelled in the Spring of 1967. During this time, and expanding on his Old Left background, Van Lydegraf was involved with young Seattle activists by 1966.
This latter is a noteworthy piece in the development of the ideas of the Weather Underground.
He took part in the preparations for the jailbreak of Timothy Leary while in the Weatherman organisation but was privately critical of the action.
