Editing John Reed (journalist) (section)

===Radical political activist===
[[File:Voice of labor 1 Oct 1919.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Cover of Reed's ''Voice of Labor'', October 1919]]

Back in America, Reed and Bryant defended the Bolsheviks and opposed the American intervention. Incensed at Russia's departure from the war against Germany, the public gave Reed a generally cold reception. While he was in Russia, his articles in ''The Masses'', particularly one headlined "Knit a straight-jacket for your soldier boy", had been instrumental in the government gaining an indictment for [[sedition]] against the magazine (antiwar agitation was considered sedition and treason).

The first ''Masses'' trial ended in a hung jury the day before Reed reached New York. The defendants, including him, were to be retried. He immediately posted $2,000 bail on April 29.<ref>Homberger, p. 167</ref> The second ''Masses'' trial also ended in a hung jury.

In [[Philadelphia]], Reed stood outside a closed hall <!-- Whose hall" -->on May 31, and harangued a crowd of 1,000 about the case and the war until police dragged him away. He was arrested for inciting a riot, and posted $5,000 bail. Reed became more aggressively political, intolerant, and self-destructive.<ref>Homberger, p. 172</ref> On September 14, he was arrested for the third time since returning from Russia, charged with violating the [[Sedition Act of 1918|Sedition Act]] and freed on $5,000 bail. This was a day after possibly the largest demonstration for Bolshevik Russia was held in the United States (in [[the Bronx]]). Reed had passionately defended the revolution, which he seemed to think was coming to America as well.<ref>Homberger, p. 174</ref> He tried to prevent [[Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War|Allied intervention]] in Russia, arguing that the Russians were contributing to the war effort by checking German ambitions in [[Ukraine]] and Japanese designs on [[Siberia]], but this argument came to naught.<ref>Homberger, p. 171</ref>

On February 21–22, 1919, Bryant was fiercely grilled before a [[United States congressional committee|Senate committee]] exploring Bolshevik propaganda activities in the US, but emerged resilient. Reed followed her. According to Homberger, his testimony was "savagely distorted" by the press.<ref name="Homberger, p. 180">Homberger, p. 180</ref> Later that day Reed went to Philadelphia to stand trial for his May speech; despite a hostile judge, press, and patriotic speech by the prosecutor, Reed's lawyer, David Wallerstein, convinced the jury the case was about free speech, and he was acquitted.<ref name="Homberger, p. 180"/> Returning to New York, Reed continued speaking widely and participating in the various twists of socialist politics that year. He served as editor of ''[[The New York Communist]]'', the weekly newspaper issued by the [[Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party|Left Wing Section]] of Greater New York.

Affiliated with the Left Wing of the [[Socialist Party of America|Socialist Party]], Reed with the other radicals was [[1919 Emergency National Convention|expelled from the National Socialist Convention]] in Chicago on August 30, 1919. The radicals split into two bitterly hostile groups, forming the [[Communist Labor Party of America]] (Reed's group, which he helped create) and, the next day, the [[Communist Party USA|Communist Party of America]]. Reed was the international delegate of the former, wrote its manifesto and platform, edited its paper, ''The Voice of Labor'', and was denounced as "Jack the Liar" in the Communist Party organ, ''The Communist''. Reed's writings of 1919 displayed doubts about Western-style democracy and defended the [[dictatorship of the proletariat]]. He believed this was a necessary step that would prefigure the true democracy "based upon equality and the liberty of the individual."<ref>Homberger, pp. 191–93</ref>