Tuhia he haere tonu mo tenei waahanga - Ko nga whakapiri a Steinbeck me nga kaituhi maui, nga kairipoata, me nga rangatira o te uniana mahi pea i awe i tana tuhi. I uru ia ki te League of American Writers, he whakahaere Communist, i te 1935. I whakaakona a Steinbeck e nga kaituhi radical a Lincoln Steffens me tana wahine a Ella Winter. Na roto i a Francis Whitaker, he mema o te John Reed Club mo nga kaituhi o te Communist Party USA, i tutaki a Steinbeck me nga kaiwhakahaere patu mai i te Cannery and Agricultural Workers 'Industrial Union. I te tau 1939, i hainatia e ia he reta me etahi atu kaituhi hei tautoko i te whakaekenga o te Soviet ki Finland
me te kāwanatanga pākiki i whakatūria e te Rōpū o Rōpū.