Eli Jaffe

Eli Jaffe was a Communist and farm organizer (and a New Masses contributor) jailed in the Oklahoma County Jail and arraigned on criminal syndicalism as one of the defendants in the August 1940 Oklahoma City criminal-syndicalism raids on the Communist Party, the Workers Alliance and the Progressive Bookstore — a landmark prosecution under Oklahoma's criminal-syndicalism law fought by the International Labor Defense. He faced up to twenty years with bail set at $50,000, and reported being repeatedly beaten in his cell; his case was raised in Congress by Rep. Vito Marcantonio.