Michael Laski

Who is Michael Laski?

Michael Laski was the founder of the Communist Party USA, a splinter group of the Communist Party USA. Laski had taken the side of China during the famous Sino-Soviet split of the early 1960s, calling for a return to ruralism and direct agitation of capitalist countries and organizations. In order to raise funds for his group, Laski notoriously spent a day gambling the organization's treasury on the roulette wheel in Las Vegas.

Laski is perhaps most famous for being the subject of an essay by Joan Didion, entitled "Comrade Laski, C.P.U.S.A.", which was later compiled into her 1968 anthology Slouching Towards Bethlehem.