Today's 5 Topics:
1. France, Alternative Libertaire AL - unionism, El Khomri
against the project: March 9, the date up and up (fr, it, pt)
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. France, Alternative Libertaire AL #257 (Jan) - Sunday work:
the struggle continues (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. Britain, edinburgh anarchists: CALL FOR SOLIDARITY WITH
AUTONOMOUS SOCIAL CENTER KLINIKA (PRAGUE) by Dave Mackay
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. wsm.ie: Reoccupation of Grangegorman squat complex a year
after eviction by Andrew N Flood (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. anarkismo.net: The Attempted “Rehabilitation” of the
Communist Party USA -- An Anarchist Perspective on the History of
US Communism by Wayne Price (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
[Map] Many youth organizations and militant trade unions called the strike and rallies; it
buzzes on social networks; appointments are fixed more or less spontaneously ... That day,
the Minister of Labour must present their iniquitous project before the council of
ministers. ---- The Inter "large" meeting on February 23 was clearly not up to the
situation , seeking the lowest common denominator - that is to say immobility yellow
unions CFDT, CFTC, UNSA, etc. ---- Result: Call to action galore, from local or
professional union structures, or youth (see below), but also calls to rally "citizen"
emerged spontaneously on Facebook. Although in the past, attempts to mobilize through
social networks have never worked in France, the anger of climate and the commitment from
real organizations can change that.
We therefore let us make a map (do not hesitate to complete, it is open).
Hopefully, seeing the tide rise, the Inter-scheduled meeting on 3 March at the
headquarters of the CGT confederation will rally this March 9. As there must be leadership
issue, the yellow unions should logically avoid setting foot.
Map appointments spontaneous announced on social networks
View full size
Declaration of youth organizations
The unions, students and high school students, community and youth policy, met Thursday,
February 25 evening, have agreed on the common claim of the complete withdrawal of the
bill said "work."
We call for a national day of action and initiatives Wednesday, March 9 at the Council of
Ministers, and the continued mobilization beyond, especially during inter mobilization
days. A single call will be issued today. We will hold a press conference on Tuesday,
March 1 at 11 am.
Signatories: UNEF, Partners-Student-es, UNL, LDIFs, Alternative Libertaire, JC, UEC,
NPA-Young, MJS, Together-Young, New Deal, PG, Young environmentalists, SGL, DIDF young
Generation Precarious, OLF, JOC .
A statement by the Union syndicale Solidaires following the conference call structures,
held on 25 March:
El Khomri must be removed ... and fast!
The Solidarity Trade Union welcomes the many reactions against Bill El Khomri, which goes
further in questioning the rights at work that all that had been done so far, and even
ahead of the wishes of employers.
Catches of union positions, are a first step that must be followed by a clear call to action.
This is what his many-wage earners expect is also what is expressed massively on social
networks, and what already building for several months of collective labor and non-union
in defense of labor code.
The action is possible from March 9, the day of the discussion of the draft to the Council
of Ministers. This will be a step in the mobilization of scale and to an inter-day strike
and demonstrations.
The Solidarity Trade Union will work in this period to publicize the wage earners the
contents of this project and the implications for each one.
It will continue to participate in all inter-union meetings whenever they discuss the action.
She calls all-tes its activists to mobilize and act with the wage earners, the young and
the unemployed-its to Stop a profound social regression law.
All and all set for the withdrawal of the El Khomri bill
The side of the CGT-RATP
Information of an AL activist, union CGT RATP:
On 25 February, the CGT RATP Bus has called the strike on March 9 not only to influence
the mandatory annual negotiations (NAO), but also in response to the attack against the
Labour Code.
She called on officials to declare an unlimited notice without waiting for the limited
notice to the Inter-9 is deposited.
All this to give (finally) a following movement aborted November 18 due to state of
emergency and bureaucratic bungling.
There is even talk in internal discussions, convergence of struggles and to start, if AG
decide, a movement of magnitude.
CGT structures that react
An Information blog libertarian communist CGT:
March 9, SNCF and RATP will be on strike for their specific claims. That same day the bill
"Casse Labour Code" will be discussed in Cabinet. The mobilization calls are multiplying
online. A call to the Union syndicale Solidaires was published. But the CGT structures
begin to take position also as here:
Local union CGT Marseille ,
Info'com (CGT federation of the Book) ,
UD Cher and Haute-Garonne,
the Federation of Metallurgy
the Ugicgt-CGT
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Contre-le-projet-El-Khomri-le-9
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Message: 2
To generalize the Sunday and night work, Emmanuel Macron defined on September 23, after a
sham consultation, no less than twelve international tourist areas (ZTI) in Paris,
including to places we found very few tourists and are rather "intensive work areas." The
string is big, the response of wage earners should be too! ---- Among the areas defined in
September by the Minister of Economy as international tourist areas (ZTI), some were
expected like the Champs Elysees or Boulevard Haussmann. More incongruous, those created
in neighborhoods as little as tourist Olympics, Bercy or Beaugrenelle. The minister can
defend himself, his will to generalize Sunday work and night is obvious. ---- It remains
however to cross the course of the negotiations, namely getting an agreement that sets the
level of counterparties in each company over eleven workers to open every Sunday (twelve
stations are also affected). For the specific night work in these areas, it is necessary
to go through a company agreement, especially the law setting the doubling of pay for
hours worked between 9:00 p.m. and midnight.
Six months after the adoption of this law, where are we? In Sephora Champs-Elysées, an
agreement on the evening said work was finally obtained after the rallying of the CFDT. It
is a plebiscite (96.6% in favor), the result is sham: taking into account the
participation of a few votes in favor of and not a narrow electorate, yes accounts 45%.
Macron, bosses, watch out for your shirts!
Moreover, as stated on the ballots, "being positive does not mean being willing to work
evenings." At Darty, management statement on the opening of seven of its Paris stores
under a 2010 agreement inapplicable in this case, two of the establishments concerned not
being moreover not even located in ZTI. At Fnac, negotiations initiated at group level, to
circumvent the CGT and SUD, the majority in Paris, did not lead to date. Finally, to
Apple, the signing of a low-cost agreement was postponed due to the media coverage of its
contents.
In department stores, the employers' union, the UCV, is struggling: despite a draft
agreement revised upwards last month, the CGT, CFDT and even declared not to be
signatories. It is therefore not surprising that a similar agreement had suffered the same
rejection BHV following a referendum held on 22 November. Despite the pressure from
management, the non won 640 votes, including those of many demonstrators called to
participate in the election, against 623, between the CFTC and CGT, supporters not, GSC
and who SOUTH rank at the vote.
The Click-P [1], the CGT and FO trade federations and the CFTC Paris, have since before
the Council of State, which will decide in a few months, in order to cancel the decree and
orders. The most valuable in the power relationship that endures to the government and the
bosses still mobilizing trade wage earners themselves: thus, October 15, 2015, is more
than a thousand of them to cry among other of "Macron, watch out for your shirt, your
pants" who were on strike to join the Boulevard Haussmann, where the directions of the
department stores, protected by the police, met to extort thinking in peace. Workers have
not said their last word facing the Macron regression!
Laurent Degousee
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Travail-le-dimanche-la-lutte
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Message: 3
For more than a year now, we have been managing collectively a building that was
previously abandoned for five years, and after initial eviction by police, we fought to
get our place back on the 2nd of March 2015. However, the authorities are unwilling to
prolong our rent-free lease, despite huge support in Czech society for our cause. We are
organizing a big demonstration tomorrow in Prague, but we need your support too, to show
the importance of having autonomous spaces where our communities could thrive and develop
the activities they need. ---- In this time we managed to do a lot to maintain the space
for many activities to take place – from language courses to various workshops, theatrical
and musical performances, political discussion, we made a cafe and established a free
shop, where people can just give and take whenever without any exchange – the whole center
is run on donations, without grants and big private or state benefactors. Moreover, we
have taken part of collecting, coordinating and delivering aid to refugees during the
height of the crisis last summer to autumn.
If you have not heard about Klinika, you can see more information on the following links
and the .pdf attachment where the present issue is described:
Call for support on Facebook (English):
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1720171048204094&id=1720167194871146
Autonomous social center Klinika: http://klinika.451.cz / https://www.facebook.com/klinika451/
Link to Saturday (27.2) demonstration in Prague:
https://cs-cz.facebook.com/events/1556788907972796/
Short video where our activities are presented by members of collective, other collective
that utilize the space of the center, and supporters: https://vimeo.com/154658216
We would be really grateful for any kind of symbolic action you can make for us – this can
take any form, few sentences, sympathetic pictures or an article in media. You can send
anything either to our e-mail address – klinika@451.cz or post it on our Facebook page.
You can also e-mail back to me or if you need any further information.
Nikolay, part of autonomous social center Klinika’ collective
https://edinburghanarchists.noflag.org.uk/2016/02/call-for-solidarity-with-autonomous-social-center-klinika-prague/
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Message: 4
Over the last week the massive abandoned Grangegorman complex has been reoccupied by
squatters including many of those who were eviced last year. As our video shows after the
High Court injunction last year the owners who took posession did nothing to bring this
huge area back into use for housing. The sole interest seems to have been in selling it,
recently it was sold and when the new owners didn't bother with the 24 hour security on
site it was reoccupied. ---- Some 30 people had been living in the various buildings that
make up the Grangegorman complex prior to the High Court injunction. The injunction ment
that those 30 all had to try and find alternative accommodation as a time when the housing
crisis in Dublin has deepened and rents have soared above levels affordable even to
someone earning two times the minimum wage.
The (re) occupiers held an open day last Saturday, inviting people to visit the complex
they wrote "We know that Squat City / Grangegorman was a very special place for a lot of
people. Especially after the eviction attempt in March last year, and the previous
occupants’ successful resistance to it, it became a symbol for something much bigger than
itself. It gave hope to so many people and reminded us that the power of the ruling class
and their accomplices, the police, is not absolute after all.
However, in the end, the previous occupants were taken to court, and after fighting the
case for months, they ultimately lost2. Morale was low, and tensions high, and any
appetite for further resistence that may have been there at one point had been depleted.
The moral of the story was clear: “You had your fun, but now justice has prevailed. The
rightful owner has their property back, and now it will be sold so it can be developed
into something proper. Your squatty bullshit is over. There’s no point trying to fight us
because we’ll always win in the end.”
They had it all sewn up. They boarded up all the houses. They razor-wired all the fences.
They painted over all the graffiti. They got security to occupy the place 24/7. It was
over, it was time to move on. When it was sold in the end, there was no mention of it
having ever been the centre of Dublin’s squatting movement, or a symbol of resistance for
a whole city. It was like it never happened.
But lest you doubt that it ever happened, come to the open day on Saturday. We want to
show you that it is indeed all real. We want to rekindle the flame that was lit last
March. We want to introduce ourselves to our neighbours and show them the space that was
so dear to them before, that they feared they would never see again. Once again there is a
giant gaping hole in the fabric of consensus reality. Squat City lives! …and now it’s
reality who has to negotiate with us."
On Wednesday morning we heard that an apparent illegal eviction attempt was underway, the
Resist Grangegorman's Eviction page on Facebook reported that
"So basically, at about half six in the morning, or possibly earlier, five private
security goons broke into the compound with the intention of evicting us. They weren't
bailiffs, just goons, they hadn't been to court or anything.
Reluctantly, we got out of bed. Soon the word got around and we were joined by many of our
friends. The goons were significantly outnumbered, and the cops who were there basically
told them to leave. They tried to fight us for a while but ultimately they no choice, so
they left, and we won! We had been feeling very confident in our ability to resist an
attempted eviction but it feels especially great to have won before most of our friends
are even out of bed!"
The (UK) Times is reporting that 20 people are currently living on the site and you'll
find a range of evnets and activities being advertised via the Resist page above.
Andrew N Flood
http://www.wsm.ie/c/reoccupation-grangegorman-squat-complex-year-on
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Message: 5
In recent decades, there have been efforts to "rehabilitate" the U.S. Communist Party as
an historical model for the Left. Anti-authoritarian socialists and anarchists find this
troubling. Whle the CP did some good things it also did some very bad things. A brief
summary of its history demonstrates that and explains why this is. ---- Recently I was at
a weekend adult camp for people interested in left-wing “political music.” People had all
sorts of political viewpoints. However, several times I heard versions of the statement,
“We should remember the good things which the Communist Party did.” It wasn’t that they
wanted to join the present day Communist Party (a thin shadow of what it once was), but
they wanted us to honor the historical Communist Party. They saw it as supplying a
tradition for a new radical movement. Such opinions are widespread on today’s Left. For
anarchists and other anti-authoritarian socialists this is a worrying trend.
The Communists, it was said, had once played a key role in organizing unions, especially
in building the industrial unions of the CIO in the ‘30s. The Communists had fought
racism, in such cases as the “Scottsboro Boys.” They had opposed fascism, and many U.S.
Communists had gone to Spain in the ‘30s to fight for the Republic against Franco. There
is truth in all these claims, and others, although not the whole truth.
Such attitudes are reflected in a dispute among historians of “American Communism.” The
“older” or more “orthodox” historians include, for example, Theodore Draper (1990), Howe &
Coser (1962), and Klehr (1984). They emphasize that the U.S. Communists early on became
committed to Stalin’s Soviet Union and its Communist International (or “Comintern”), and
strictly followed orders from Moscow. Politically almost all of these historians were or
are supporters of the capitalist “West” in the Cold War. Almost none of them seem to think
that it might have been reasonable for a minority to try to build an organization
dedicated to a working class, socialist, revolution—of any sort.
The “newer” historians of the CP appear, for example, in Brown et al. (1993), Isserman
(1993), and Ottanelli (1991). They often come out of the “New Left” of the ‘60s and hope
to find roots in the historical Communist Party. “The collapse of the apocalyptic
expectations of the late 1960s created a hunger among this new generation of left-wing
activists for a tradition that could serve as both a source of political reference and an
inspiration….” (Isserman 1993; ix)
Without denying the domination of the Soviet Union over the U.S. party (how could they?),
they play it down and modify it, by emphasizing other influences on the way the Communists
interpreted and developed the Russian-imposed “line.” They seek to be “understanding” and
“sympathetic” to the party’s members, rather than “judgmental” and “critical,” as they see
the “orthodox” historians being. “…The new historians…express a qualitatively different
and less judgmental attitude toward the party….” (Brown et al. 1993; 19) However, they do
not seem to be all that revolutionary; their interest is not much in the more “left”
periods of the CP as in the more moderate, “pro-American,” periods of the Popular Front
and World War II.
Both trends have made major contributions to understanding the history of U.S. Communism.
I am not interested in a discussion of contrasting methods of historiography. I am
concerned with issues of politics, of class orientation, and of morality—which is to say
that I am indeed “judgmental” about the Communist Party, as well as all other political
viewpoints. (I am not implying that all historians of Communism fit neatly into these two
perspectives; see Palmer 2007 or Wald 1987.)
The Goal of the Communist Party
I could go through a list of good things the Communist Party did and then contrast it with
bad things it did. For example, it played an important and valuable part in the organizing
of the CIO mass unions. But it broke strikes during World War II. It supported
African-American struggles, until World War II when it opposed them. It was for a student
“peace” movement until it was for “collective security” in the ‘thirties and then was for
“peace” again during the Hitler-Stalin pact, and then, after Germany attacked the Soviet
Union, it became fanatically for the war. And so on.
Yet the key question to ask of any political party or organization (if it is more than
just a gang out for power) is: what does it stand for? what is its goal? Its vision? Of
course the Communist Party was AGAINST capitalism (which is why other anti-capitalists
could work with it). But what was it FOR? It said it was for “socialism” (“communism” was
presented as the fulfillment of socialism). But what did it mean by “socialism”? Like
“Christianity” or “democracy,” “socialism” has a lot of different meanings, ranging from
libertarian-democratic, proletarian, self-management, to totalitarian state-capitalism.
What the Communist Party meant by “socialism” is fairly clear. It meant the Soviet Union
under the reign of Stalin. That was its model of socialism and its North Star. It wanted
the U.S. (and the whole world) to become like the U.S.S.R. In its more radical periods, it
saw a revolution to establish a “Soviet America” right around the corner. In its more
moderate periods, it presented this as a long-range goal. Meanwhile there was one country
which was like the Soviet Union, namely the Soviet Union. All Communists were supposed to
be dedicated to supporting, preserving, and defending the first and only “socialist”
country in the world. This was their highest priority. The rulers of the Soviet Union were
seen as the wisest and most important leaders of the world-wide Communist movement.
Therefore they were to be listened to, followed, and obeyed.
Most members of the CP USA (and sympathetic “fellow travelers”) had a very idealized and
romanticized vision of what the Soviet Union was like. They regarded it as “socialist”
because the economy was collectivized, nationalized, and extremely centralized; they were
impressed by its apparent productivity (while the U.S. was sunk in the Great Depression).
They were unaware of how inefficient and chaotic its supposed “planned economy” really was
under state capitalism. Most Communists were not aware of the super-exploitation of the
Soviet workers, of the slave labor camps, of the war on the peasants, of the artificial
famine in the Ukraine, of the millions of workers and peasants who were murdered or worked
to death, of the purges and deaths of thousands of Communists, intellectuals, scientists,
and military officers. They did not know of the cynical power struggles fought out within
the bureaucratic ruling class and settled with blood. They could have known
this—information was available—but they shut their eyes because they wanted to believe.
Their own idealism led them to become dupes and victims of Stalinism. (Even now there are
Maoists and others who deny that Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot killed tens of millions of
workers and peasants. This is the left-wing equivalent of Holocaust denial.)
But they did know that the Soviet Union was a one-party state, “led” by one man, Joseph
Stalin. They knew that all other parties (even socialist ones) were outlawed, all
opposition caucuses within the one legal party were outlawed, and all independent,
non-Communist, organizations (including unions and cooperatives) also outlawed. They knew
it was a dictatorship but thought that it was a good dictatorship—a benevolent
dictatorship—a “dictatorship of the proletariat.”
As much as they could, many working class Communists shut their eyes to the reality of the
Soviet Union. But many middle class Communists and non-Communist fellow-travelers saw what
it was fairly clearly—and liked it. These supporters of the Russian system “…were utterly
impervious to criticisms directed against the Communists from a democratic liberal or
revolutionary socialist standpoint. Impervious, however, not because of any lack of
knowledge about the totalitarian nature of Stalin’s regime, but precisely because they
consciously believed in the necessity and desirability of a ‘socialism’ from above that
extirpated all institutions of democratic self-rule and enslaved the working class.” Such
people were “…capable of rising in times of crisis to a veritable passion for a plan.”
(Lipow 1982; 166)
These and similar views may be “judged” from the perspective of those whose goal is
freedom, the end of classes and exploitation, the end of the state and all forms of
oppression, and whose vision of socialism is (in the words of The Communist Manifesto),
“…an association in which the free development of each is the condition for the free
development of all” (Marx & Engels 1955; 32). From the perspective of all varieties of
anti-authoritarian socialism and anarchism: even what the Communist members “knew”—that
the Soviet Union was a one-party, one-man, monolithic, dictatorship— was a monstrous
vision. It was an ugly goal, an authoritarian “socialism” which had to be oppressive and
exploitative, as well as inefficient and crisis-ridden.
U.S. Communist members were genuinely idealistic and self-sacrificing. Their sincere
hatred of capitalism was channeled into a state-capitalist direction. Whatever the
Communist ranks thought they were doing, their vision reflected a class-goal of bringing
to power a layer of managerial personnel and intellectuals, either within the existing
capitalist system or by replacing the existing ruling class with itself as a new
(collective bureaucratic) ruling class. As in the Soviet Union, the workers would still be
taking orders and selling their labor power to live, while the bureaucracy would serve as
the agent of capital accumulation.
This means that even when the U.S. Communists did something good (such as union
organizing), its ultimate ends were evil (building its centralized party, in order to
eventually create a society like Stalinist Russia). Having such a goal had to distort even
its best activities (the unions were built in a bureaucratic, centralized, and
undemocratic fashion, which was eventually used by the conservative bureaucrats after they
threw out the Communists).
Historical Periods of US Communism—A Thumbnail Sketch
(1) The Communist Party was founded in 1919. It came from the left wing of the Socialist
Party, and also many workers came from the IWW. Inspired by the 1917 Russian revolution,
its founding members were subjectively revolutionary and idealistic. The young party was
torn by internal conflicts and factionalism. Such disputes were often settled by appeals
to the leaders of the Communist International (Comintern) in Moscow. Over time, as the
Comintern became more bureaucratized, its leaders intervened in the U.S. CP to build a
loyal base of support for the ruling Comintern clique which was being built around Stalin
(as they did in all other Communist Parties). At the end of the first ten years, the
Trotskyists (on the Left) were expelled and then Jay Lovestone and his followers (on the
Right) were expelled. Earl Browder was appointed the top dog.
William Z. Foster was another of the highest leaders of the CP for many years. He
explained, “I am for the Comintern from start to finish…and if the Comintern finds itself
criss-cross with my opinions, there is only one thing to do and that is to change my
opinions to fit the policy of the Comintern.” (quoted in Howe & Coser 1962; 154) That
became the attitude of the whole party.
(2) In 1929, the rulers of the Comintern declared that world capitalism was in its “Third
Period.” Supposedly, collapse would soon occur, to be very soon followed by revolution in
every country. Communists must break off any cooperation with other working class trends
which were not for immediate revolution under the leadership of the CPs. In fact, every
political group outside of the Communists was to be considered “fascist”. Socialists
(social democrats) were called “social fascists.” Anarchists were “anarcho-fascists.”
Stalin announced, “Fascism is a fighting organization of the bourgeoisie…. Social
Democracy is objectively the moderate wing of fascism…. These organizations do not
contradict each other, they complete each other. They are not antipodes [opposites—WP] but
twins.” (quoted in Howe & Coser 1962; 183)
In the USA, this meant that Communists stopped working inside the American Federation of
Labor (AFL) unions and tried to build “revolutionary” unions, committed to the Communists’
program. While the Communists gained a lot of experience in union work, they had little
success in building lasting Communist-controlled unions.
Meanwhile, the CP raised a slogan of “Self-Determination for the Negro in the Black Belt.”
This program was first raised by a Comintern theorist from Finland who had never been in
the US. If African-American people wanted to break their own country out of the U.S., then
revolutionaries should support their right to do it. But the Communists used the slogan to
mean that US Black people MUST have a separate country—without asking them what they
wanted! In any case, the slogan got little support among Black people.
The hostility between the CP and U.S. Socialists became quite bitter. It reached its
apogee in 1934, when the Socialists held a memorial in New York’s Madison Square Garden
for the Austrian Socialist workers who had been massacred when fighting the fascists. The
Communists broke up the gathering in a bloody brawl.
The worst effects of the Third Period/Social Fascism approach did not come in the U.S.,
but in Germany, where the Comintern had its largest party outside of Russia. Instead of
trying to work with the Social Democratic Party to fight the Nazis, the German CP focused
on fighting the Social Democrats, while denying that the Nazis were a special threat. In
1933, the Nazis came to power, smashing all workers’ parties and unions, and all other
parties and organizations. The Comintern’s program had failed disastrously.
(3) In 1935, the Comintern announced a new international strategy. Without ever admitting
that it had been wrong for over a decade, it declared that there was a need for unity to
fight against fascism! For a brief while, this meant the “United Front,” an alliance of
Communists and Socialists and any other workers’ organizations. But soon the Communists
expanded their appeal to anyone at all who would be “anti-fascist.” This included
capitalist parties, liberal and even conservative, in a “Popular Front.” An alliance with
capitalist parties, even one very liberal, means that the workers’ parties cannot push
beyond capitalism towards socialism, since the capitalists could not accept that. So the
Popular Front was a commitment to reformism. From the Third Period to the Popular Front,
the Communists had jumped from the ultra-left to the right of the workers’ movement.
The Popular Front period lasted for only four years. In that period, the U.S. Communists
grew in size, to its all-time maximum of about 75 thousand in 1938, with many times that
number in fellow travelers. It grew in influence and respectability among liberals,
Democratic politicians, and union officials. CPers became enthusiastic supporters of
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his New Deal. They were active participants in the
(capitalist, imperialist, and racist) Democratic Party. They also worked closely with the
leading unionists, such as John L. Lewis, in organizing the CIO industrial unions—despite
Lewis’ anti-communism and bureaucratism. As such they did valuable organizing, if still
within the limitations of business unionism. They also made important anti-racist
campaigns (quietly shelving compulsory “Negro Self-determination”).
Meanwhile they participated in the student anti-war movement, turning it from being
against another imperialist war, to support for “collective security”—an alliance of the
U.S. with the Soviet Union, as well as Britain and France, to supposedly deter Nazi
aggression.
The CP declared itself as part and parcel of the U.S. experience. There was nothing wrong
with showing the roots of U.S. radicalism in aspects of the U.S. revolution or of
abolitionism. But the Communists became cheerleaders for U.S. nationalism. They used the
slogan, “Communism is Twentieth Century Americanism!” (Meanwhile they continued to take
orders from Moscow.)
In 1936 in Spain, fascists and the military rebelled against the elected government of the
Republic. Many U.S. CP members and supporters volunteered to go to Spain and fight against
General Franco’s fascist army. They joined the U.S. section of the International Brigades,
the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Many bravely gave their lives to fight against fascism.
Yet there were limits to what the Communists did in Spain. From the start Soviet agents
fought against the Spanish workers and peasants who wanted to expand the civil war into a
revolution. The workers—especially those influenced by anarchists—in several areas seized
factories and workplaces and managed them democratically. Peasants voluntarily
collectivized their farms. The Spanish Communist party and Russian representatives fought
against all these developments, using the Republican army. This is why the U.S. volunteers
were called the “Lincoln” brigade, instead of, say, the “Debs” brigade; it was to show
that they were keeping the struggle within the limits of capitalist democracy. They did
not want a socialist revolution.
At the same time, the Russian forces and the Spanish Communists set up a network of secret
police and prisons, outside of the control even of the Republican state. They imprisoned,
tortured, and murdered militants who were to their left—particularly anarchists and
dissident Communists (the POUM).
Many U.S. liberals, artists, and intellectuals became sympathizers with the CP, seeing
it—and the Soviet Union—as an important ally against fascism. This caused them to shut
their eyes to the reality of Stalinist Russia. When the Moscow Trials (the Great Terror)
began in the late thirties, almost all of the surviving leading comrades of Lenin were
declared to be really spies for Germany, Japan, and/or Britain, who worked with Trotsky to
sabotage the country and return it to capitalism, fascism, and Czarism. They were sent to
their deaths, along with many other people, in a monstrous frame-up. Most liberals refused
to make any criticisms, lest they offend Stalin and interfere with “unity against fascism.”
(4) All this ground to a halt in 1939, with the “Hitler-Stalin Pact,” a “non-aggression”
agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The two totalitarian states used
their armies to divide up Poland. This set off the Second World War, with Germany being
guaranteed peace on its eastern border for as long as it wanted.
Like all other Communist Parties, the CP USA officially supported the pact. It abandoned
its efforts for “collective security.” It denounced the European war as “imperialist” and
put the main blame on….Britain. Molotov, the Russian Foreign Commissar, remarked, “Fascism
is a matter of taste.” (Isserman 1993; 16) The CP abandoned its support for FDR and the
New Deal. Efforts were made to organize workers in the growing armaments industry. A.
Philip Randolph’s March on Washington Movement (of African-Americans to protest
discrimination in the armaments industry and the military) was criticized as too mild. The
Communists campaigned against U.S. preparation for the war. Although the party had turned
to the left, it did not return to the crazed sectarianism of the Third Period. Rather it
acted like a left-reformist party. It tried to make alliances with pacifists and
conservative isolationists.
The Party lost most of its support from liberal allies, who were shocked at its dumping of
its “anti-fascist” politics. Interestingly, it kept almost all its members. They were more
committed to the Party, and to the Soviet Union than to any specific program.
(5) In 1941, the Germans attacked Russia. The Comintern’s parties leapt back to supporting
the Allies. The U.S. Communists became among the most super-patriotic, jingoistic,
forces—not out of love for the U.S. but out of loyalty to the Soviet Union. They opposed
all strikes, no matter the provocation by the bosses (who made money hand over fist), even
outside of the defense industries. They denounced John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers
for leading a strike; they called the coal miners agents of Hitler. They advocated forms
of labor speed-up. When their leader, Earl Browder, was called a “strikebreaker,” he
responded, “As regards the fomenting of the strike movement that threatens America at this
present time, I consider it the greatest honor to be a breaker of this movement.” (quoted
in Isserman 1993; 185)
Towards African-Americans, they opposed the March on Washington (denouncing Randolph as a
traitor), the popular “Double V for Victory” slogan (Victory over Fascism Abroad and
Victory over Racism at Home), and any independent mass struggle. They closed their locals
in the South. They denounced any pressure on Britain to promise independence for India. As
Isserman (a “new” historian) puts it, “The story of American Communists in the Second
World War is not the stuff of which revolutionary legends are made.” (1993; 17)
Yet overall the CP grew. Partly this was due to the general movement of the US working
class to the left at the time. Partly it gained from its association with the Soviet Union
which was widely admired as an ally in the war. And partly it gained from being protected
by the government and top union officials who saw the CP as allies—for the time being.
(6) But all good things must come to an end. Led by Earl Browder, the U.S. party had
premised its strategy on a post-war alliance between U.S. imperialism and the Soviet
Union. It assumed that this would include class peace inside the U.S. In 1944, Browder led
the party to declare itself officially disbanded, and replaced with a “Communist Political
Association.” He announced that the “no-strike” pledge of the unions should continue after
the war.
However, with the victory over the Axis, the wartime alliance was coming apart. The Cold
War was beginning. The U.S. CP’s leadership failed to see the signs in time. In 1945, the
second in command of the French Communist Party, Jacques Duclos, after visiting with
Stalin, published an article denouncing the policies of the U.S. CP. In particular, he
attacked Earl Browder. Everyone in the party rightly took this as a message from Moscow.
Browder, who had long been a little Stalin in the U.S., was suddenly rejected, denounced,
and expelled from his own party. Again there was a change in line, as the party swung to
the left (although never back to the Third Period ultra-left).
In 1948, the CP made a last-ditch attempt to significantly influence U.S. politics. It
organized an attempt to build a liberal third-capitalist-party, the Progressive Party.
This ran Henry Wallace, previously a vice president under FDR, for president. While
opposing segregation, it had an overall liberal, “peace with the Soviet Union,” platform
(proposing to divide up the world between the U.S. and the USSR). The big unions stuck
with the Democrats as did almost all the liberals, leaving the Communists to capture
themselves. Wallace denounced them when he supported the Korean war.
The Party faced a grisly post-war ordeal. The U.S. ruling class made sure that there was
popular knowledge of what the Soviet Union really was like. The Korean war stirred blind
patriotism. It was a time of anti-communist hysteria, congressional witch-hunts, loyalty
oaths, CP leaders sent to prison, firings from schools and universities, blacklisting in
Hollywood, and expulsions from union positions and the breaking of Communist-led unions.
Writing of the government witch hunters attacking the Communists while also interacting
with members of the corrupt film industry, the anarchist Paul Goodman referred to “…the
brutal comedy of McCarthy and the FBI investigating the Communists, in Hollywood, so we
had on one stage the three most cynical tribes in the country.” (1960; 103)
The anti-communist witch hunters had state power, while—at least in the U.S.— the
Communists did not (thank goodness!). This made it necessary to defend the civil liberties
of the Communists—in order to defend everyone’s civil liberties. The attack on the
Communists was the spearpoint of an attack on the entire Left, on the unions as a whole,
and on every progressive movement. Therefore it needed to be fought. Unfortunately most of
the union leadership and many liberals did not accept this and joined in the
anti-communist repression. Also unfortunately, the Communists themselves did not
understand this logic; they had supported the government when it threw the leaders of the
Trotskyists in prison (using the anti-communist Smith Act) and when it denied veteran’s
benefits to a Trotskyist veteran.
The CP leaders announced that the country was about to go “fascist” and sent many of its
members “underground” while organizing its own hysterical internal purges which drove
thousands out of the party. But while very repressive, the period was not fascist, in part
because of the post-war prosperity—which also undermined the Left. During the Popular
Front and World War II years, the CP had done its part in pumping up what C. Wright Mills
was to call the “American celebration.” Now the “celebration” of “Americanism” went on
without (and against) the Communists.
(7) Even when the hysteria and legal persecution began to die down in the mid-fifties, the
party faced the1956 speech of Krushchev, successor to Joseph Stalin. He announced that
Stalin had been a cruel and bloody tyrant, paranoid and irrational, who had even
persecuted his fellow Communists. (Who would have thought it?!) This was followed by the
Hungarian revolution, in which workers, peasants, students, and rank-and-file Communists
overthrew the bureaucratic dictatorship and set up workers’ councils. It was crushed by
tanks from the Soviet Union. These two events of 1956 resulted in an upheaval in the U.S.
party and a mass exodus of members.
The party continued to exist—a truncated version exists even now, despite the collapse of
the Soviet Union. It played a role in the radicalization of the ‘sixties, but only as one
of a number of Left groupings, along with Trotskyists, pacifists, Maoists, Yippies, etc.
It was never again to dominate the Left.
The Political Cost
Whatever good was accomplished by the Communist Party, the U.S. working class paid a
price. In the words of a radical who observed some of this history, “For generations now,
as elements and sections of American workers and intellectuals became radicalized, and as
they moved toward a revolutionary socialist point of view, they were drawn into the orbit
of the organization that purported to represent revolutionary dissent. Pulled into the
Communist party, throbbing with revolutionary ardor and idealism, they were used—for
another purpose….In levies of thousands and tens of thousands, they were used up,
betrayed, sold out, eviscerated, disillusioned: they were processed through the CP
machine, spitted, and then spit out. No one really knows how many hundreds of thousands,
in all, were thus turned into sterilized ‘exes’ or ‘former people’; perhaps as many as a
couple million.” (Hal Draper 1984) The miseducation and wearing-out of these militants is
why the radical movement of the ‘sixties had to start up virtually from scratch.
We are currently in a time of great tension. The social system, of the U.S. and the whole
world, faces terrible problems: economic inequality and stagnation, wars (and the threat
of nuclear war), climate change and other ecological catastrophes, and continuing racial
and gender oppression. Yet so far popular upheaval and mass movement have been fairly
limited. Even the lessons of the last popular radicalization—in the ‘sixties—seem
inadequate for today. This is beginning to change, but developments are still slow.
So some radicals look back to the earlier radical period of the ‘thirties. Then there was
a (relatively) large party calling itself “communist.” It had roots in the working class,
control of significant unions, and influence in a wide range of popular life. Combined
with the apparent body of Marxist theory, this makes the one-time Communist Party look
impressive. It raises nostalgia.
But this is a “false memory,” however historically researched. Whatever it accomplished,
the party had a goal of a totalitarian and state-capitalist society, as existed in
Stalin’s Soviet Union. Its practical activities were not truly geared to the interests of
the U.S. working class. Its programs were almost entirely reformist, except for occasional
ultra-leftism. Despite the idealism of its members, its leaders were cynical and fraudulent.
There is no program guaranteed to move us to a socialist, working class, revolution, this
time around. But there are other, better, traditions to look toward than that of U.S.
Communism. This is true of revolutionary antiauthoritarian socialism, as expressed by the
historical Wobblies, the Chicago anarchists, and others who fought for the self-liberation
of the working class and all oppressed humanity.
References
Brown, Michael; Martin, Randy; Rosengarten, Frank; & Snedeker, George (Eds.) (1993). New
Studies in the Politics and Culture of U.S. Communism. NY: Monthly Review.
Draper, Hal (1984). “American Communism: An Exchange—reply by Hal Draper.” The New York
Review of Books, (December 6, 1984 issue).
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1984/12/06/american-com...ange/
Draper, Theodore (1990). A Present of Things Past; Selected Essays. NY: Hill & Wang.
Goodman, Paul (1960). Growing Up Absurd. NY: Vintage Books/Random House.
Howe, Irving, & Coser, Lewis (1962) The American Communist Party: A Critical History. NY:
Praeger.
Isserman, Maurice (1993). Which Side Were You On? The American Communist Party during the
Second World War. Urbana/Chicago: University of Illinois.
Klehr, Harvey (1984). The Heyday of American Communism: The Depression Decade. NY: Basic
Books.
Lipow, Arthur (1982). Authoritarian Socialism in America: Edward Bellamy & the Nationalist
Movement. Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California.
Marx, Karl, & Engels, Friedrich (1955). The Communist Manifesto (ed. S. Beer). Northbrook
IL: AHM Publishing.
Ottanelli, Fraser (1991). The Communist Party of the United States: From the Depression to
World War II. New Brunswick/London: Rutgers University.
Palmer, Bryan (2007). James P. Cannon and the Origins of the American Revolutionary Left:
1890—1928. Urbana/Chicago: University of Illinois.
Wald, Alan M. (1987). The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the
Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1980s. Chapel Hill NC/ London: University of
North Carolina Press.
*original version published in the Anarcho-Syndicalist Review. Issue 66 (Winter 2016).
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/29126
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