CONTRIBUTION OF EUGENE DENNIS TO COMMUNIST PARTY IN WISCONSIN
Scope and Content Note: “Of all the people in the movement, he stands out in my mind as one of the greatest tacticians the Party has ever had.” Labor movement in Wisconsin had been controlled by the right wing Social Democrats, although some like Meta Berger were on the left, especially after her trip to the Soviet Union after her husband's death. Dennis, Josephine Nordstrand and other left-wing socialists set up the Socialist Roundtable, which challenged the authority of such labor leaders and politicians as Henry Ohl and Dan Hoan. Recalls how Gene and Peggy Dennis often went to relax at Meta Berger's home in Thiensville. Refutes Louis Budenz's fabricated story of how five people met at Berger's to plan the 1941 Allis-Chalmers strike. Berger's place provided gathering place to talk politics and have a couple of beers; gave Gene Dennis a place to relax.