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Louis Francis Budenz
Louis Francis Budenz (1891-1972) was an American activist and writer. He was also a Soviet espionage agent and head of the Buben group of spies.
Born on July 17, 1891 in Indianapo...view moreLouis Francis Budenz (1891-1972) was an American activist and writer. He was also a Soviet espionage agent and head of the Buben group of spies.
Born on July 17, 1891 in Indianapolis, Indiana, he grew up on the Southside in a mostly German and Irish Catholic neighborhood around Fountain Square. He attended St. John’s Catholic High School in Indianapolis, Xavier University in Cincinnati, and St. Mary’s College in Topeka, Kansas before receiving his LL.B. from Indianapolis Law School in 1912.
He moved to Rahway, New Jersey in 1920, where he worked for the ACLU (NY) as publicity director. In 1924 and into the early 1930s, he was managing editor of the monthly magazine Labor Age. He advised striking workers and taught labor organizing and strike management at Brookwood Labor College outside New York City.
In 1934, he served as national secretary for A. J. Muste’s Conference for Progressive Labor Action (later the American Workers Party). He joined the Communist Party in 1935, continued to organize labor strikes, and became managing editor of the Party’s Daily Worker newspaper. He became a member of the National Committee of the Party. In 1938 he became editor of a new Communist daily in Chicago, the Midwest Daily Record.
In 1945, Budenz renounced Communism, returned to the Roman Catholic Church under the guidance of the popular television and radio personality Fulton Sheen, and became an anti-communist advocate. He appeared as an expert witness at various governmental hearings.
Formerly the author of numerous articles and pamphlets in support of Communist causes, after 1945 Budenz wrote several books about Communism. He became a professor of economics at the University of Notre Dame and later taught at Fordham University, in addition to working as a syndicated columnist and lecturer. In 1947, he wrote an autobiography, This Is My Story.
He died on April 27, 1972 at Newport Hospital in Newport, Rhode Island.view less