In June 1983, the Young Men’s Christian Association of Greater Seattle bars Gus Hall, general secretary of the American Communist Party, from speaking at the East Madison YMCA, saying the principles of the YMCA and the Communist Party were “incompatible” (Seattle P-I).
Hall’s appearance in Seattle was being sponsored by the Northwest bureau of People’s World, a weekly published in Berkeley, California. The group had applied for a banquet room and paid a $50 deposit to the East Madison branch in April. Two months later -- and days before the scheduled speech -- the executive committee of the YMCA of Greater Seattle overruled branch officials, rejected the application, and ordered the deposit returned.
Juana Mangaoang, a member of the Washington State Board of the Communist Party, protested, saying that Hall had spoken at the Seattle YMCA “several years ago” (it was actually in 1962, at the University of Washington YMCA). The executive committee was unmoved. Hall appeared instead at the Mount Baker Community Club, on June 11, 1983.
