The Revolutionary Age was an American radical newspaper edited byLouis C. Fraina and published from November 1918 until August 1919. Originally the publication of Local Boston,Socialist Party, the paper evolved into thede facto national organ of theLeft Wing Section of the Socialist Party which battled for control of the Socialist Party throughout the spring and summer of 1919. With the establishment of theLeft Wing National Council in June 1919, the paper was moved fromBoston toNew York City gained status as the official voice of the nascent Americancommunist movement. The publication was terminated in August 1919, replaced by the official organ of the newCommunist Party of America, a weekly newspaper known asThe Communist.
During the decade of the 1910s, Boston was at the time one of the centers of theforeign language federations of theSocialist Party of America[1] — organized groups ofimmigrants conducting their activities in languages other than English. Many of these foreign language groups, particularly those hailing from theRussian Empire, were deeply inspired by theMarxist revolutionary movement which overthrew theTsarist regime in 1917. This emerging revolutionary left in the Socialist party sought to advance its ideas through the establishments.
The immediate forerunner ofThe Revolutionary Age was a newspaper calledThe New International, issued n New York under the auspices of theSocialist Propaganda League.[2] This paper was launched early in 1917, but ran out of funds by summer, forcing its outright suspension from the middle of July until the start of October 1917.[2] Only a few irregularly appearing issues ofThe New International were issued after that date due to these ongoing financial concerns, leaving a void for the emergence of a newrevolutionary socialist publication.[2]
At the beginning of 1918 revolutionary socialists won majority control of Local Boston, Socialist Party,[2] with the powerful Boston-basedLettish Socialist Federation functioning as the leading center of the movement.[3] The Boston City Committee made the decision to bringNew International editor Louis Fraina from New York City to Boston to take charge of party educational work from that center.[2] By the end of the year a new publication had emerged, issued with Local Boston providing financial support and with educational director Fraina at the helm. This publication was known asThe Revolutionary Age.[1]
At the time of its November 1918 launch,The Revolutionary Age was scheduled to appear three times a week, although due to financial constraints the papers was never able to come out more than twice each week and it was soon downgraded to more typical weekly status.[4]
Joining Fraina as associate editor was Irish-American radicalEadmonn MacAlpine.[1] Contributing editors includedScott Nearing,John Reed,Ludwig Lore, andSen Katayama, as well asNicholas Hourwich andGregory Weinstein of theRussian Socialist Federation.[3]
The first issue ofThe Revolutionary Age appeared dated Saturday, November 16, 1918 — less than one week after the formal termination ofWorld War I. The front page of thetabloidnewsprint publication was dominated by a banner headline warning against the war's continuation as a military intervention againstSoviet Russia.[5] Additional material was dedicated to the ongoingrevolution in Germany, thereby assuring that the issue's whole content lived up to the slogan printed on the publication's masthead — "A Chronicle and Interpretation of Events in Europe."[5] Cover price of the paper was 2 cents per issue.[5]
In the aftermath of the meeting of the National Left Wing Conference in New York City late in June 1919,The Revolutionary Age was named the official organ of theLeft Wing Section of the Socialist Party.[6] The publication was merged with the organ of the Left Wing Section of Greater New York,The New York Communist and operations were henceforth conducted from an office located at 43 West 29th Street in Manhattan.[6] A new volume of the publication, "Volume 2," was launched in conjunction with the move.
The paper continued to be edited by Louis Fraina, assisted by a managing council of 11.[6] The circulation of the combined publication averaged 16,000 copies a week, according to the report of theLusk Committee established in 1919 by the New York State Senate to study the activities of the radical movement in that state.[6]
The last issue ofThe Revolutionary Age appeared on August 23, 1919.[7] The paper was succeeded by the organs of the two new Communist Parties established at Chicago conventions during the first week of September — theCommunist Party of America and theCommunist Labor Party of America.
The nameThe Revolutionary Age was used again in 1929 as the title of an American communist newspaper by the so-calledCommunist Party (Majority Group) headed byJay Lovestone.[8] The Lovestone group, which including such veterans of the Left Wing SectionBenjamin Gitlow andBertram D. Wolfe, chose to pay homage to the seminal earlier publication by choosing the same name for their own official organ.[1]