John Keracher

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John Keracher (1880 - 1958) was an American Communist pioneer.

Born in Scotland, Keracher emigrated to the United States in 1909 and settled in Detroit, where he worked in a shoe store, and in April 1910 he joined the Socialist Party and after a while Keracher became the leader of the Socialist Party in Michigan. Keracher wanted to make the party more revolutionary and wanted its members to study Marxism deeper. This program became the "Proletarian University of Detroit."

After the Russian Communist revolution of 1917, Keracher and his followers became more and more aligned with the Bolsheviks and he was eventually expelled from the Socialist Party of America in May, 1919.

In September 1919, Keracher participated in the founding of the American Communist Party in Chicago. However, unlike most of those who were joining the Communist Party at this time, Keracher did not believe in an imminent Communist Revolution in the United States and he opposed the Communist Party’s “underground” work and opposed the formation of Left unions.

In January 1920, Keracher and his group of followers in Michigan (including those associated with the group who lived outside that state) were expelled from the Communist Party charged with “Menshevism,” although Keracher himself continued to strongly support the Bolsheviks in Russia. Six months later, in June 1920, the Michigan group formed the Proletarian Party, and Keracher remained the leader of the Proletarian Party for the rest of his life. As the Proletarian Party grew, local branches emerged in at least 38 U.S. cities.

Keracher moved from Detroit to Chicago in the 1920s, moving to Los Angeles in the 1950s, where he died in 1958. The Proletarian Party finally disappeared in 1971.