Clayton Van Lydegraf was a writer and activist of significant influence on the New Left

New Left

The New Left was a term used mainly in the United Kingdom and United States in reference to activists, educators, agitators and others in the 1960s and 1970s who sought to implement a broad range of reforms, in contrast to earlier leftist or Marxist movements that had taken a more vanguardist...

 in the 1960s. 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 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. His articles, "The Movement and the Workers" and "The Object is to Win" were particularly influential. This latter article is a noteworthy piece in the development of the ideas of the Weather Underground.

Over the years he was active in a number of groups and causes including the Communist Party

Communist party

A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...

, the Progressive Labor Party, Draft Resistance- Seattle, Students for a Democratic Society

Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)

Students for a Democratic Society was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969...

 (SDS), American Friends Service Committee

American Friends Service Committee

The American Friends Service Committee is a Religious Society of Friends affiliated organization which works for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world...

, Anti-Fascist Front, Seattle Committee to End the War in Vietnam

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

, and trade unions. He was also an advocate of working class power, Marxism

Marxism

Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

, revolutionary organization and the Black Panthers.

Papers from Van Lydegraf dated 1944-91 are housed at the University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

 Special Collections Library. The papers include:

• "Excerpt from appearance before House Un-American Activities Committee
  House Un-American Activities Committee
  The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...
  
  (HUAC) hearing", December 13, 1956, Seattle.
• "U.S. Imperialism and the Fascist Danger", 1967. Second edition, 1969.
• "The Object is to Win", 1967. Third edition, 1971.
• "The Movement and the Workers", 1969. Second edition, 1972.
• "Statement to the San Francisco Grand Jury" January – February 1973.
• "Our Constitutional Rights- A written statement submitted to the San Francisco Grand Jury", January - February 1973.