Cacchione, Peter V.

CACCHIONE, PETER V. (1897–1947). One of the most charismatic of local Communist politicians, and one of their few Italian leaders, Peter V. “Pete” Cacchione became the first Communist elected in a major American city (New York City councilman, 1941–1947). He embodied the folksy popularity of the Left in the ethnic groups of the neighborhoods and especially among their labor movement activists.

An Italian immigrant raised in a Pennsylvania railroad town, son of the owners of a small grocery store and bakery, Cacchione worked in the railroad and had no special political involvements until his move to New York in 1932. The Great Depression brought him into contact with the Unemployed Councils, and there he emerged as a minor leader in the Bonus March on Washington. He joined the Communist Party and moved from the Bronx to Brooklyn, where he quickly became the leader of the borough Communist organization. Attaching himself to Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, Cacchione learned much from the mayor’s showmanship and his shrewd use of Italian symbolism.

Although unsuccessful in 1937 and 1939 campaigns for the New York City Council on the American Labor Party ticket, Cacchione attracted increasing support with his attention to the detailed concerns of his neighborhood constituents, his public leadership of struggles over such matters as subway fares, and his clever campaign tactics. Under the proportional representation system, he received more than 24,000 write-in votes in 1939, despite the difficulty of his name’s spelling. His vote pattern, highest in Jewish neighborhoods, was nevertheless higher in Italian districts than any other Left politician but Vito Marcantonio could muster.

In 1941, under the slogan of “Unity against Hitler,” Cacchione was elected to the city council. There he threw himself into such practical concerns as the integration of the Brooklyn Dodgers, the breakdown of racial discrimination in city-assisted housing, and the maintenance of living standards in the force of war-time inflation. (Nor did he lose the common touch: his favorite radio show was The Lone Ranger.) Joined by Benjamin Davis, he formed a small but true Communist bloc. He fought, after the war, especially against the rise in prices, and against the concerted anti-Left move to eliminate proportional representation. At his death, the New York City Council, breaking precedent and rule, refused to seat a Communist Party replacement for the remainder of Cacchione’s term.

Gerson, Simon W. Pete: The Story of Peter V. Cacchione, New York’s First Communist Councilman. New York: International Publishers, 1976.

Peter V. Cacchione Papers. Guide. Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive. New York University. http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/tam_073/