Pete: The Story of Peter V. Caccione New York's First Communist Councilman

by Simon W. Gerson

A small-town boy brought up on the "wrong" side of the railroad tracks, Pete knew back-breaking toil and the agonies of the jobless. Hunger and homelessness were no strangers to him. He spent his first night in New York in a municipal flophouse but when he died he was a Communist member of the New York City Council mourned by hundreds of thousands who came to know him in the tumultuous '30s and '40s. There may be no laws bearing his name, but many of the demands for which Pete fought, be it unemployment insurance, social security or the prohibition of racist advertisements, have today become commonplace realities. It can fairly be said that Pete's career illustrates the old saw that yesterday's soapbox speech often becomes today's solid statute.

Genres: Politics, History

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Simon (Si) Gerson (1909-2004) was a leader of the Communist Party of the United States and the CP’s leading expert on political campaigns and elections. He was arguably most famous for being the party’s choice to fill the New York City Council opening left by the death of Peter Cacchione, even though the council refused to approve the appointment. In the 1950s, he became an editor of The Daily Worker and later to The Daily World.