olitical Wfairs

AUGUST 1948

SPECIFIC FEATURES OF AMERICAN IMPERIALIST EXPANSION

WILLIAM Z. FOSTER

THE YUGOSLAV LEADERS ON THE PATH OF BETRAYAL

V. J. JEROME

THE NEW STATE OF ISRAEL

ALEXANDER BITTELMAN J

P RE-CONVENTION DISCUSSIOh GIL GREEN • CLAUDIA JONES . FRED FINE PETTIS PERRY • ,GEORGE MORRIS • MARVIN SHAW PEOPLE'S VICTORY IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA by Walter Storm An eye-witness account of the February event in Czecho- Slovakia by the well known foreign correpondent. A day-by-day account of the seven-day crisis with full re- porting on the principal meetings, mass demonstrations, and speeches in Prague and throughout the country. Storm had been living in Czechoslovakia for over a year be- fore these stirring days and his account is full of his talks with workers, with housewives, youth, and with all the flavor of on-the-spot reporting. The People's Victory in Czechoslovakia gives the truth about a most important event, a truth that American newspapers have tried desperately to conceal. PRICE: $ .25 LINCOLN'S THIRD PARTY by Elizabeth Lawson Here is a historical study to fill an important gap in Ameri- can history, and to provide pointed lessons for the third-party movement today. Lincoln's Third Party describes the formation and building of the Republican Party, and the political and economic condi- tions which enabled its growth in six years from a handful of supporters to a party which succeeded in electing its candi- date—Abraham Lincoln—to the presidency of the U.S.A. PRICE: $.20 THE PALMER RAIDS Prepared by LABOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATION Based on an exhaustive study of contemporary documents and reports, this book throws a searching light on the present reactionary drive spearheaded by the Un-American Commit- tee against civil liberties. It includes an expose of the sinister role of J. Edgar Hoover. PRICE: $ .30 NEW CENTURY PUBLISHERS 832 Broadway, New York 3, N. Y. ••••״״» ^ POLITICAL AFFAIRS to the theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism

EDITORIAL BOARD V. J. JEROME, Editor . ABNER W. BERRY, ALEXANDER BITTELMAN, JACK STACHEL, MAX WEISS

&AUGUST, I94 -י' VOLUME XXVII, NO. 8 C0Tlt6fltS

Specific Features of American Imperialist Expansion William Z Foster 675 Resolution of the Information Bureau Concerning the Situation in the Communist Party of Yugoslavia 690 Statement on the Information Bureau Resolution Concerning the Situation in the C.P. of Yugoslavia William Z. Foster & Eugene Dennis 699 The Yugoslav Leaders on the Path of Betrayal V. J. Jerome 701 ,The "Grand" Old Party Max Gordon 711 J The New State of Israel Alexander Bittelman 720

PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSSION A Few Thoughts on Our Perspectives Gil Green 731 For New Approaches to Our Work Among Women ' Claudia Jones 738 Against Opportunism in Practice Fred Fine • 743 National Group Work in California Pettis Perry 749 •> The Menace of Social-Democracy and Our Fight Against Opportunism George Morris 756 On the Party's Responsibility for Work Among the Youth Marvin Shaw 763

Re-entered as second class matter January 4, 1945, at the Post Office at New YorN. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. POLITICAL AFFAIRS is published monthly by New Century Pub- lishers, Inc., at 832 Broadtf/ay, New York. 3, N. Y., to whom subscriptions, payments and correspondence should be sent. Subscription rate: $2.50 a year; $1.2$ for six months; foreign and Canada, $3.00 a year. Single copies 25 cents. י*, '"PRINTED IN U.S.A. •*^NP RECENT PAMPHLETS • • •

WOMAN AGAINST MYTH $.10 by Betty Millard

BEWARE OF THE WAR DANGER! STOP, LOOK, AND LISTEN! .03 by William Z. Foster

THE MARSHALL PLAN - RECOVERY OR WAR? .15 by James S. Mien

MURDER, INC., IN GREECE .05 by Olive Sutton

Tip: CRIME OF EL FANGUITO, AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT TRUMAN ON PUERTO RICO .03 by William Z. Foster

THE THIRD PARTY AND THE 1948 ELECTIONS, .15 by Eugene Dennis

NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE'S 23 QUESTIONS ABOUT THE COMMUNIST PARTY ANSWERED .10 by WiUiam Z. Foster

JEWS IN THE SOVIET UNION, CITIZENS AND BUILDERS .15 by Paul Novick and J. M. Budish

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NEW CENTURY PUBLISHERS 832 Broadway. New York City 3 SPECIFIC FEATURES OF AMERICAN IMPERIALIST EXPANSION By WILLIAM Z. FOSTER I. either to facilitate or to defeat this AMERICAN capitalism, contrary to American expansionist drive. widespread capitalist denials, is im- 1) The wide scope of American perialist in the fullest sense. Lenin imperialist conquests: Through mili- in his great work, Imperialism: The tary occupation during the latter Highest Stage of Capitalism, made phases of the war and through the the classical analysis of imperialism, broad extension of its general world which fits American capitalism pre- influence since the end of armed cisely. Thus, American imperialism hostilities, the United States has is characterized by (a) concentration built up by far the biggest empire of industry and banking; (b) the in the history of the world. The dominance of finance capital; (c) a combined war conquests of Hitler, vast export of capital; (d) participa- Mussolini, and Hirohito did not tion in the economic division of the equal those of Wall Street. Thus, world, and, (e) in the territorial the United States holds Japan and division of the world. Besides these Western Germany under its com- basic aspects, characteristic generally plete domination; it has reduced the of imperialism, American imperial- weakened British Empire to the ism also has its own special sec- status of a minor partner in the ondary features. These features are Anglo-American imperialist combi- influenced by the relative strength nation; it holds the sixteen so-called and specific position of American Marshall Plan nations of Western capitalism, by the resistance of other Europe, including France and Italy, peoples and countries to American on its financial dole; it has greatly penetration, by the general status of tightened its grip upon the countries the world capitalist system, and by of Latin America; it holds the numerous other factors. The specific Chiang Kiai-shek Government of features of American imperialism China in the position of a puppet; are of great importance and they con- and it has greatly extended its in- tribute significantly in determining fluence in the British Dominions the general perspective of the United and in many colonial and semi- States and the world. Let us, there- colonial countries. Never before has fore, after outlining some of the there been such a wide and rapid broader characteristics of the present imperialist expansion as that of the expansion of American capitalism, United States during the past five point out those special forces tending vears. 675 69a POLITICA , AFFAIRS 2) The specific American forms also a variety of forms of dependence; of imperialist domination: Because countries which, formally, are politi- the United States, unlike Great cally independent, but which are, in Britain and France, has not devel- fact, enmeshed in the net of financial oped an extensive system of outright and political dependence. . . .* colonies, especially after its victory American imperialism, far more in the war, capitalist apologists are than the older imperialism of Great loudly asserting that this country is Britain, France, Holland, etc., makes not an imperialist power. Browder use of these "transitional forms" even uses this argument to "prove" which Lenin here deals with. Thus, that American capitalism is progres- throughout its farflung sphere of in- sive. This is one of the Hitler Big fluence, American imperialism em- Lies of the present period—the de- ploys various means, short of actu- nial of the imperialist character of ally establishing colonies, for con- the United States. In reality, our solidating its control and exploita- country is the biggest and strongest tion. In Latin America it intensifies imperialist country in world his- its imperialist grip through military tory. bases, economic privileges, standard- The capitalist defenders of Wall ization-of-arms agreements, semi- Street's conquests, in denying that puppet governments, etc. In France the United States is imperialist, and Italy it threatens the national limit the Concept of imperialism to independence of these countries, and outright colonialism. But Lenin did dictates who shall or shall not be in not. He clearly and correctly saw the government (expulsion of the various degrees of control over Communists). In Great Britain, it weaker countries by strong imperial- boldly halts the movement for the ist powers. In his work, Imperialism, nationalization of the steel industry, he spoke of "transitional forms" of and lays down conditions for the dependency: world trade 0£ that country. In Greece, Turkey, and Kuomintang Since we are speaking of colonial China it arrogantly orders the de- policy in the period of capitalist im- pendent governments about like perialism, it must be observed that lackeys. In Western Germany and finance capital and its corresponding Japan it acts as the sole master in the foreign policy, which reduces itself to house. As fast and as far as Ameri- the struggle of the Great Powers for can imperialism spreads its tentacles, the economic and political division of its whole tendency is, in the basic the world, give rise to a number of transitional forms of national depend- spirit of colonialism, to force the ence. The division of the world into subjugated peoples to subordinate two principal groups—of colony-own- their economies and their political ing countries on the one hand and independence to the will of the colonies on the other—is not the only * V. I. Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage typical feature of this period; there is of Capitalism, International Publishers, p. 85. SPECIFIC FEATURES OF AMERICAN EXPANSION 687 ' United States, while at the same time world power. What it is striving to it generally leaves them a thin pre- accomplish now are the strategic text of political independence. But, aims of further consolidating its as we shall see, this is meeting with world capitalist leadership and of powerful and effective resistance. transforming the more or less sub- 3) American imperialism's bound- ordinate capitalist countries into an less objectives: German fascist im- active military alliance, under its perialism did not possess the same leadership and directed against the seeming advantages for pressing its Soviet Union. The central objective drive for world domination as does of American imperialism is to be the United States. When the Hit- the supreme world master, and in lerites launched World War II there order to accomplish this end it is still was, in the capitalist sector of preparing to deluge the world in the, the world, a powerful Japan, Britain, blood of another great war. But as and United States — major world we shall see, it is, like Hitler, over- powers. The Hitler ambition for reaching itself, for its grandiose world domination was thus faced objective is unrealizable. with powerful obstacles—apart from 4) Special American imperialist the U.S.S.R.—that had to be over- ideological camouflage: The United come. States is covering up its determined American imperialism, to the con- drive for imperialist world control trary, sees no such obstacles within with a blanket of hypocritically dis- the capitalist world. It therefore arming pretenses, especially adapted lacks all restraint in its wild dream to deceive the American and world of complete and sole world domina- democratic masses. Hitler, during tion. It is determined to rule alone, the recent expansionist drive of Ger- with other leading capitalist states man imperialism, boldly glorified relegated to minor satellite roles, if war. He stated that he was out to not reduced practically to the posi- shatter the Versailles Treaty and to tion of colonial possessions jof the conquer what he called Lebensraum U.S. for the German people at the ex- Indeed, the United States has al- pense of other nations. Although fiis ready succeeded in establishing, in program was very thinly veiled with varying degrees, its domination over slogans of defense and of his bastard the countries making up the capi- National Socialism, it was trans- talist world. This, Hitler was never parently one of ruthless imperialist able to do. The United States, al- world conquest. ready largely dictating the course of But the American imperialists are capitalist world economic aflairs and more discreet in proclaiming their generally controlling a subservient aims. They speak in the name of de- majority of votes in the United Na- mocracy and of the defense of world tions, is recognized universally as peace. With industries far stronger far and away the strongest capitalist than those of anyone else, they are 69a POLITICA , AFFAIRS vociferous defenders of '1free enter- veloping a different route to fascism prise," "free trade," and "free com- than that followed by Hitler's im- petition." They also talk, tongue in perialists; it is American imperial- cheek, of America's "moral world ism's specific way. They are not leadership." This leadership, alleg- organizing a fascist party and plump- edly forced upon their "unwilling" ing for a one-party system; although capitalist shoulders, they claim they there is less and less difference be- are carrying out for the benefit of tween their two big parties. Also, all the v^orld (except, naturally, they do not definitely fulminate American Big Business). These dem- against democracy and parliamen- ocratic and pacifistic pretenses are, tary government, as Hitler and his of ,course, merely a tipping of the protagonists did, but, instead, glibly hat to the deeply ingrained demo- defend it in words. Likewise, al- cratic and anti-militaristic sentiments though advocates of Anglo-Saxon of the American people. They are superiority and of "white suprem- also calculated to allay the lively acy," they do not as openly advocate suspicions of the war-weary masses the Hiderian doctrine of the "mas- of the world, who have just had such ter race." Also they do not (as yet) bitter experiences with another set openly legislate "Nuremberg laws" of would-be world conquerors. In against the Jews, nor do they propa- our imperialist country, only the less gate a vague "new order" to take skillful capitalist demagogues speak the place of capitalism. In short, they openly of American world domina- have no elaborated body of fascist tion. At the recent Republican Con- "theory." vention, Herbert Hoover character- Nevertheless, American imperial- istically expressed in the following ism, under pseudo-democratic slo- words the self-righteous, sentimental gans, is definitely pressing in the slobber that is generally being used direction of fascism at home and to obscure the expansionist program abroad. All over the world the agents of American imperialism: of the U.S. State Department have In these thirty years of wars we alone as their close allies (together With have taken no people's land; we have reactionary Social-Democrats and oppressed no race of man. We have clericals) various fascist groupings faced all the world in friendship, with and individuals. Wherever they can, compassion, with a genuine love and they are establishing ultra-reaction- helpfulness for our fellow men. In war, ary governments, of the type of in peace, in disaster, we have aided Greece and Kuomintang China. And those whom we believed to be in the all this, they are doing in the name right and to require our aid, foe as of a crusade against Communism well as ally. . . . We have hated war; and for world democracy. we have loved peace. In this country, under similar 5) The American path to fascism: democratic slogans, they are build- American reactionaries are also de- ing up a whole body of national SPECIFIC FEATURES OF AMERICAN EXPANSION 687 ' legislation and persecutions of a defi- tire capitalist world. This, in the nitely fascist character. This internal crippled condition of world industry, fascist development expresses itself gives the United States a highly through such developments as the favored economic position. Its vast House Committee on Un-American industrial productivity is also sup- Activities, the Taft-Hartley Law, the ported by a monster merchant ma- Mundt Bill, the "loyalty" oath for rine (now largely laid up) of some government employees, the growing 35 million tons. During World War attacks upon the Negro people, the II, the gigantic industrial base of rising wave of anti-Semitism, the American imperialism doubled its persecution of the Communists, the production, adding new plants to growth of militarization, etc., as well the extent of 25 billion dollars, or an as a host of reactionary laws in increase equal to about 1V2 times individual states. To carry on its the total prewar industrial system war-breeding imperialistic program of Germany. This predominance in abroad, American Big Business re- productive capacity is the most pow- quires a reactionary, fascist-like re- erful weapon of Wall Street in its gime in this country. It is building present drive for world supremacy. such a regime with specifically Nevertheless, this economic suprem- American methods and slogans. acy is but a temporary phenomenon. American capitalism lives, economi- II. cally, on borrowed time, for its very economic strength is generating and Factors Facilitating American sharpening its internal contradictions Imperialist Expansion and driving it toward economic crisis and catastrophe. Among the major factors favoring 2) Vast financial resources: The and motivating American imperial- United States is also far and away ist expansion may be listed the fol- the greatest creditor nation in the lowing: world. It has all the big capitalist 1) The huge extent of American powers deeply in its debt. Its total industry: The highly monopolized exports last year, amounting to industries of the United States, nearly 20 billion dollars, something swollen and fattened by two world never before even remotely equalled wars, far surpass in productivity by any country in peacetime, intensi- those of Nazi Germany in its im- fied the dollar famine and vastly perialist drive, and, indeed, of all increased the indebtedness of West- the former Axis powers together. era Europe and other countries to The present situation is an extreme the U.S. Moreover, the United States example of the uneven development has over half of the world's gold re- of capitalism. American industry is serves cached away at Fort Knox. now turning out fully 60 per cent of With its unprecedented mass of sur- the industrial production of the en- plus capital pressing for investment, 69a POLITICA , AFFAIRS American capitalism is under the plete atom-bomb domination of the most urgent need for imperialist in- world's airways as it now holds over vestment and conquest all over the the world's oceans. American air world. This imperialistic urge is all strategy is developing through the the greater because of the Keynesian creation of several great air salients, consciousness among American big all pointed against the U.S.S.R.— businessmen, who widely believe that through Canada and over the North only by developing huge capital ex- Pole, through the Japanese Islands, ports, plus a war economy, can they through Kuomintang China, through avert, or at least delay, the almost the Mediterranean and the Middle instant outbreak of a devastating East, and through Western Europe. economic crisis of overproduction in The Army is also being rapidly the United States. Its present finan- strengthened, to keep pace with the cial strength, based upon its tremen- Navy and Air Force. The draft, just dous industrial system, furnishes the enacted into law, will bring the United States with its most powerful total number in all the highly-mod- weapon for the subjugation of other ernized national armed services, up peoples. This fact is especially ex- to 2,160,200, a figure previously un- pressed in the Marshall Plan. Hitler, heard of in peacetime in the United in his drive for world domination, States. Moreover, there are about half had only a fraction of such financial a million more men in the National resources at his disposal. Guard and the reserve forces. The 3) Powerful military forces: The United States' national military United States now has a navy budget now reaches the vast total of stronger than the navies of the rest twenty billions yearly and it is being of the world put together. With rapidly increased. The principal mili- these vast naval forces it is, for the tary strategic? aim of the Marshall time being at least, able to dominate Plan, with its planned total expendi- all the oceans of the world. The ture of at least seventeen billion dol- American Air Force, already very lars, is militarily to arm Western powerful, is also being rapidly Germany and Western Europe strengthened under the ?o-group against the Soviet Union. The newly- plan, as well as through the devel- formed Western European Union is ׳־. opment of air bases in scores of also being built as the nucleus of an strategic places throughout the capi- all-capitalist war alliance against the talist world. According to Hansen U.S.S.R. But all such Hitler-like : W. Baldwin, the New Yor\ Times dreams of world military supremacy military expert, present government do not reckon with the mighty plans call for 20,500 up-to-the-minute U.S.S.R. and the peace-loving peo- planes in the Army Air Force and pies, and are doomed to disaster. 14,^00 in the Navy. 4) Imperialistic Labor Leaders: The obvious aim of all this is to An important factor favoring the secure for the United States as com- drive of American imperialisms SPECIFIC FEATURES OF AMERICAN EXPANSION 687 ' which cannot be ignored, is the spe- as many Social-Democrats did in cial role being played by the bulk of Germany and elsewhere. However, the decisive conservative labor lead- the mounting cost of living, Taft- ers in the A. F. of L., C.I.O., Rail- Hartleyism, government strike-break- road Brotherhoods, United Mine ing, and the peace aspirations of this Workers, etc. These officials openly American workers, create favorable support the foreign policies of Amer- conditions for undermining the in- ican imperialism, picking up and fluence of these labor lieutenants of repeating to the masses all of Wall monopoly capital. Street's demagogic slogans about ׳democracy and national defense and 5) Weakened capitalist competi aid to Europe. They are the princi- tors of the United States: This is pal means for weakening the anti- an undermining factor, peculiar to fascist, anti-militarist, anti-imperial- the present postwar situation and ist solidarity of the masses. They are very important in influencing the acting openly as strike-breakers and drive of American imperialism. The union splitters. They are brazenly fact that Great Britain, Germany, seeking to split the labor movements Japan, France, Italy, and other capi- of France and Italy, to disrupt the talist countries have been gravely Latin-American Confederation of weakened by the war, while the Labor, and to break the World Fed- United States has grown fat on it, is eration of Trade Unions. a powerful indirect stimulant to the expansionism of American imperial- Hitler, of course, had the power- ism. Hitler never had such easy pick- ful objective support of the Social- ings with his capitalist rivals. It Democrats who, with their persistent would be like counting on the wolf Soviet-baiting, refusal to join with to protect the sheep to expect the powerful United States not to take־ -the Communists in anti-fascist strug gle, and support of increasingly re- full advantage of its own strength actionary political candidates under and of the war-weakened condition the slogan of "the lesser evil," were of its capitalist competitors. By seiz- indispensable in preparing the ing upon all possible controls oyer ground for fascism in Germany. them, it is acting fully in accord with The American conservative union the dog-eat-dog nature of capitalism. leaders, including such Social-Dem- It is in the same spirit of imperialist ocrats as Reuther, Rieve, and Dubin- cannibalism that the United States; is sky, are open and direct defenders also attempting to subjugate the of American capitalism and its drive U.S.S.R., which suffered such gigan- for world control. They are labor tic losses in manpower and industry imperialists. Not only would they during the war while fighting to heartily support an anti-Soviet war, save the world from fascist enslave- but also, no doubt, many of them ment. would adapt themselves to the role ׳of leaders of a fascist "labor front," 6) The capitalists' sense of im 69a POLITICA , AFFAIRS pending doo'm: A powerful factor systematically building fascism in motivating the expansionist drive of the United States. American imperialism is the grow- ing sense among capitalists of the III. inferiority and hopelessness of the Factors Impeding American capitalist system. They sense, even Imperialist Expansion if they do not clearly understand, the fact that world capitalism is slip- Among the major obstacles that ping deeper and deeper into general are hindering the advance of Ameri- crisis. And small wonder that they can imperialism in its efforts to con- should develop such ideas, consider- quer the world may be listed the ing the ruinous wars and devastating following: economic crises to which their sys- 1) The Soviet Union: The tem is increasingly a prey. The capi- U.S.S.R. is the major fortress of talists have a profound dread of so- world democracy. By the same cialism, whose forces they see de- token, it is also the biggest obstacle veloping in many parts of the world. in the path of American monopoly This capitalist fear is manifested by capital's drive for world domination. an increasing awareness of the su- The Soviet Union, although heavily periority of growing world social- devastated in the war, has grown ism. It translates itself into action greatly in strength and prestige. It in the shape of a violent hatred of is sturdily and successfully resisting the U.S.S.R. and every other socialist the tremendous pressures—ideologi- force, and also into a desperate de- cal, economic, political, diplomatic, termination to crush by violence the and military—now being brought to new social system which is growing bear against it by the imperialists out of the ruins of the old. Never of Wall Street. The United States were such pessimistic moods of dcs- has been able to put Great Britain peration so prevalent among capital- in a subordinate position with the ists as they are now, in this difficult help of the capitalist lickspittle La- postwar period, for capitalism. Amer- bor Government. But not the socialist ican imperialism, although itself U.S.S.R., led by the Communist deeply infected by these fears and Party of the Soviet Union. Wall feelings of inferiority, nevertheless Street's inability to break the demo- knows how to make use of such cratic resistance of the U.S.S.R. is moods among the world's capitalists. a fact that has created a panic of They qre the basis for its present in- desperation in the ranks of Ameri- ternational campaign of Red-baiting can imperialists. and Soviet-hating, behind the screen 2) The New European Democra- of which American imperialism is cies: Another serious stumbling block not only fastening its grip upon many for American imperialism is the capitalist nations and preparing to group of new people's democracies launch a third world war, but also in Eastern Europe, including Po- SPECIFIC FEATURES OF AMERICAN EXPANSION 687 ' land, Czechoslovakia, Romania, a stubborn and powerful democratic Hungary, Bulgaria, and Albania, resistance that is proving impossible with the position of Yugoslavia in to break. The peoples' deep hatred the course of being determined. Dur- of fascism and growing opposition ing Hitler's drive for power, all these to capitalism, and their determina- countries, except Czechoslovakia, had tion not to permit the launching of fascist governments. But today they a third world war, are especially re- are fortresses of democracy. They ceiving powerful leadership from have defeated every effort of Ameri- the big Communist Parties and from can imperialism to dominate them the greatly enlarged and solidified and they are a most disturbing prob- trade unions. lem indeed for the would-be world In the United States, although un- rulers in Wall Street. doubtedly the current imperialist, 3) The colonial and semi-colonial war agitation has sunk deep roots countries: The great national libera- among all classes of the people, tion movements at present surging there is nevertheless a powerful in various colonial and semi-colonial popular opposition that is proving countries throughout the world con- to be a thorn in the side of American stitute another massive road-block imperialism. This mass resistance along the route of American im- was repeatedly shown in the long perialism. China, India, Indonesia, struggles against U.M.T and the. Indo-China, Burma, North and selective draft, against military con- South Africa, and other countries trol of the atom-bomb, against gov- and areas formerly more or less ernment by generals, and, in these completely dominated by the im- recent weeks, by the successful fight perialist nations, are now in varying against the police state Mundt Bill. stages of anti-imperialist revolt. Half But the most significant and most the world's population is systemati- all-embracing of such developments cally casting off the shackles of is, of course, the growth of the anti- feudalism and imperialist oppres- war, anti-fascist, new party move- sion, and the insurgent peoples can ment under the leadership of Henry never be re-enslaved by ambitious A. Wallace. This movement em- American imperialism. They pre- braces Left and progressive trade sent a staggering menace to those unions, Negro organizations, and a who are striving to make American whole host of other democratic Big Business master of the world. movements. Many millions of work- 4) Resistance of the peoples in the ers and others are sympathetic to its capitalist countries: Despite the fact ctemotratic, anti-war slogans. that the capitalists and the Right 5) Internal counteracting forces. Social-Democratic leaders are sell- The special advantages of U.S. im- ing them down the river to Ameri- perialism are offset not only by the can imperialism, the peoples in the world forces of peace and democ- capitalist countries are maintaining racy, but also by its internal contra- 69a POLITICA , AFFAIRS dictions, by the sharpening class estine question and the struggle over struggle at home. The oncoming Near East oil. France and the United crisis threatens to upset thoroughly States are also in conflict over the the overly-ambitious expansionist latter's project of rebuilding a fascist, aims of Wall Street. The plethora of rearmed Western Germany. Grow- surplus capital influences and sharp- ing sections of native capitalists, stu- ens the contradictions of American dents, and professional elements in capitalism and threatens to choke it Kuomintang China are resentful at in its own wealth. Mass resistance the American policy of recreating a of the working class to Taft-Hartley- strong Japan. And the peoples of ism and the increasingly rapid de- Latin America are highly antag- terioration of its living standards is onized by the bare-faced efforts of already gaining momentum. The American imperialism to reduce Negro question remains, politically, them almost to the status of colonies. the Achilles' heel of U.S. imperial- Such inter-capitalist j anglings natu- ism; and the liberation movement of rally make it extremely difficult for the Negro people is reaching new American imperialism to create any- heights of consciousness and unity, thing like a united capitalist front representing a mighty anti-imperial- against the U.S.S.R. ist force. The people's resistance to 7) The weakened condition of the militarization and draining the world capitalist system: A further wealth of the nation of the war and most basic obstacle to the prog- budget, will assert itself—as demon- ress of American imperialism in its strated in the mass response to the attempt to establish its all-world con- peace program of the new people's trol is the present weakened condi- party. tion of the very foundations of 6) Mutual capitalist antagonisms: the whole world capitalist system. Further big obstacles that confront Among the multiplying signs of the י American imperialism are the many developing general crisis of capital- sharp economic and political antag- ism are the disrupted state of inter- Onisms that are arraying various of national financial relationships; the the capitalist states against each wrecked state of world markets; the other. At most, it is only a limited war devastation of many industries degree of control that the United and cities; the lop-sided develop- States has been able to set up over ment of world industry, with an other capitalist countries, and the overwhelming preponderance in the present American hegemony over United States and with the result world capitalism is very shaky. that while most of the capitalist Between the United States and Great world is suffering a grave crisis of Britain in particular, serious clashes underproduction the United States in interest are constantly cropping trembles in fear of a major crisis of out, some of the more recent ones overproduction; the surging class being the disputes around the Pal- struggles in many countries; the SPECIFIC FEATURES OF AMERICAN EXPANSION 687 ' sharpening antagonism among the dering American imperialism are respective capitalist nations; the •manifestly much stronger than those breakdown of the colonial system, promoting its progress. In this basic which is so vital to the existence of relation of forces lies a perspective imperialist capitalism; the ideologi- of the ultimate disastrous defeat of cal confusion in the ranks of the American imperialism. world bourgeoisie; and the tremen- American imperialist policy has dous loss of capitalist prestige and passed through several stages, or the growth of socialist sentiment phases, overlapping and reinforc- among the world's toiling masses, ing each other. But ever and al- etc., etc. Obviously all these capitalist ways the objective of this policy weaknesses and confusions present has remained the same—to break very severe problems to American down the stubborn resistance of the imperialism, hindering its efforts to U.S.S.R. and the other world demo- breathe the breath of life into the cratic forces opposed to American whole ramshackle capitalist structure expansionism. and to weld it together into a pow- 1) Atom-bomb diplomacy: When erful and smoothly-working anti- the Russians decisively defeated Hit- Soviet military alliance under Amer- ler at Stalingrad in the winter of ican leadership. Hitler, in his drive 1942, the allies began definitely to for world power, faced no such de- develop a victory perspective. At the gree of chaos in international capi- same time it became increasingly talism. The deepening crisis of the clear that American imperialism, world capitalist system is the specific after the war, was itself going to and also most fundamental factor make a big bid for world supremacy, conditioning the world drive of and also that in this endeavor it con- American imperialism. sidered the U.S.S.R. to be its greatest obstacle. This explains why, already IV. during the war, the main body of American reaction, combating the The Failure of American Roosevelt policy of wartime and Imperialist Policy postwar collaboration with the U.S.S.R., delayed the opening of the Although, as indicated at the out- Western front in Europe for a full set of this article, American imperial- 18 months, thereby causing the Rus- ism has scored some heavy victories sians and the countries occupied by and has widely expanded its world the Hitlerites to suffer millions of influence, nevertheless, by and large, needless casualties and endless devas- its policy is failing. This is because tation of their industries and cities. it has not succeeded in achieving its These reactionaries tried, too, to put major objective of defeating the So- the chief burden of the war even viet Union and the other great world more heavily upon the Russians by democratic forces. The factors hin- switching the American attack away 69a POLITICA , AFFAIRS from Nazi Germany and against jingoistic President, was announced Japan. Their general purpose was to in the Spring of 1947. In connection weaken the U.S.S.R. so basically that with its cold-blooded armed interven- it could not offer serious resistance tion in Greece, which by-passed the to American imperialism in the post- U.N., the United States served no- war period. President (then Senator) tice on the world that in its efforts Truman cynically expressed this un- to intimidate the world democratic speakable treachery to our Soviet forces into submission it was pre- war ally as follows: pared to provoke civil war in the respective countries. The Truman If we see that Germany is winning Doctrine was only a clearer state- we ought to help Russia and if we see ment and an accentuation of the al- that Russia is winning we ought to ready developing American policy of help Germany. ... ruthlessly interfering in the internal Immediately upon the end of the affairs of other nations for the pur- war in 1945, with Roosevelt dead, the pose of defeating democracy and Wall Street reactionaries, finding a strengthening Wall Street's imperial- willing tool in President Truman, ist front. Examples of such interfer- opened up in full blast their offen- ence, both before and after the for- sive of imperialist conquest. Their mal announcement of the Truman major effort was directed toward Doctrine, were the development of cowing the U.S.S.R. They believed numerous armed fascist plots and that they had by their wartime be- uprisings against the new democra- trayal so debilitated that country that cies in Central and Eastern Europe; it would be unable to resist the pow- the sending of arms, money and men erful American pressure. In this to the reactionary forces in the civil spirit they launched their get-tough- wars in China, Indonesia, and Indo- with-Russia policy. This was a com- China; the ousting of the Commu- bination of open threats of a "pre- nists from the French, Italian, Chil- ventive" atom-bomb war against the ean, and Brazilian Governments; U.S.S.R. and the ruthless use of an the cultivation of the De Gaulle American-controlled majority of movement and the so-called Center votes against that country in the force in France; the systematic United Nations. But the U.S.S.R. shielding of fascist elements in Ger- ignored all the atom-bomb threats many and Japan; the recent whole- and it protected itself in the United sale interference on the side of re- Nations by a resolute use of the veto. action in the Italian elections, etc., The general result was a serious de- etc. feat for Wall Street's atpm-bomb But the Truman Doctrine, like its diplomacy. related policy of atom-bomb diplom- 2) The Truman Doctrine: This acy, has not succeeded in defeating infamous policy of American impe- world democracy. The mass resist- rialism, rightly named after our ance to American imperialism in the SPECIFIC FEATURES OF AMERICAN EXPANSION 687 ' Western European countries has not Marshall Plan, with its billions of been broken; the new democracies of dollars for profit-hungry European Central and Eastern Europe, with exploiters, has done much to estab- the present exception of Yugoslavia, lish American hegemony over the which is in an uncertain position, capitalist-ridden countries of West- have definitely moved to the Left un- era Europe and it has also created der this American intimidation; the illusions far and wide among the civil wars in China and Greece, de- capitalist 1 world's toiling masses, spite huge American assistance, con- Nevertheless, it has not been able to tinue to go badly for the reactionar- crack the resistance of the new de- ies. And, of course, the attempts of mocracies in Europe, or to halt the the supporters of the Truman Doc- progress of the national liberation trine to create a reactionary diversion movements in the colonial and semi- within the Soviet Union itself, which colonial countries, and especially it was the expressed purpose of their has not succeeded in overcoming the anti-Russian radio broadcasts, col- resolute anti-imperialist, pro-peace lapsed miserably. So the Truman stand of the U.S.S.R. Doctrine, like atom-bomb diplomacy, 4) Active preparation for war: has, in the main, failed in its major American imperialism, perceiving anti-democratic objectives. the obvious failure of its atom-bomb 3) The Marshall Plan: This pol- diplomacy and its Truman Doctrine, icy, the chief aim of which is to re- and realizing also that the Marshall arm Europe against democracy at Plan cannot succeed in smashing home and also for eventual war the world anti-imperialist resistance, against the U.S.S.R., was announced now finds itself in a most difficult close upon the heels of the state- position. It simply must break the ment of the Truman Doctrine. It resistance of the peoples to Ameri- dovetails right in with that doctrine can imperialism if it is to achieve the and also with atom-bomb diplomacy, world domination for which its Like the Truman Doctrine, the pro- whole structure of monopoly capi- mulgation of the Marshall Plan was talism inexorably compels it to strive, the culmination of a course that had It cannot possibly tolerate the tre- already been developing for a con- mendous consolidation of the world siderable time. It is the American forces of democracy and socialism policy, raised to the nth degree, of that has taken place since the end granting loans and relief to subser- of the war. Hence it reaches desper- vient countries. The Marshall Plan, ately for the only other weapon ldft which also by-passed the United Na- to it after the failure of its previous tions and thereby rendered it im- policies, namely, an anti-Soviet, anti- potent, is the full economic power peoples* war. The present intense war of America being used to prepare preparations in the United States and Europe for an anti-Soviet war. Dur- in the countries under American ing the year of its existence the domination are the surest signs that 69a POLITICA , AFFAIRS American imperialism considers its U.S.S.R. Both of its two big political policies up until now to be essentially parties are saturated with this war a failure. These developments indi- spirit. Only strong mass democratic cate that Wall Street can see no resistance can balk the bellicose de- other possible way to * defeat the termination of the warmongers. The forces of democracy and socialism great monopolists of this country and to establish its own world ruler- cannot tolerate the perspective of ship except through the frightful capitalism and socialism living in the hazard of war. same world together, in peaceful ri- valry. For they are sure, in their From its inception, the drive of pessimism, that such a competition American imperialism has borne of the two systems could only re- within it the danger of war. It is to suit in the ultimate defeat of capi- the credit of the Communist Party talism. They also do not believe that of the United States that it has real- the Marshall Plan, even if supported ized this fact all along. Behind the by atom-bomb diplomacy and the atom-bomb diplomacy, the Truman Truman Doctrine, can of itself bring Doctrine, and the Marshall Plan, the whole shattered world economy there has always been implicit the under the iron-bound control of danger of the precipitation of another American monopoly capital. They world war. But the war danger has believe that only by a war economy, grown more and more acute with and eventually war, can they prevent the continuing failure of these poli- overdeveloped American industry cies to achieve their anti-democratic from collapsing in crisis. They do not aims. This has been especially true share the naive opinions of the since the collapse, last February, of "American exceptionalists" who, the American-inspired attempt to holding that the economic system in overthrow the Communist-led gov- this country is not subject to the ernment of Czechoslovakia, with the destructive influences that have so result that that country moved sharp- deeply undermined world capitalism, ly to the Left. After this major po- believe that American capitalism can litical defeat, which doubly empha- not only itself survive, but can restore sized the failure of American impe- and reinvigorate capitalism in all rialist foreign policy, the Wall Street other countries. Having no such illu- reactionaries have turned more and sions, American big capitalists want more sharply toward using the weap- to smash democracy and socialism on of war. They are greatly inten- by war, since they are unable to do sifying military preparations and are so by atom-bomb diplomacy, the readying the people ideologically for Truman Doctrine, and the Marshall an early plunge into war. Plan. And it is not merely political American Big Business has un- expediency (as many capitalist apol- doubtedly resolved upon throwing ovists claim) that makes the agents our country into war against the of American Big Business line up SPECIFIC FEATURES OF AMERICAN EXPANSION 687 ' with fascists all over the world and American big capital is preparing to also makes them move in the direc- try the reckless gamble of war. tion of fascism in this country. This Nevertheless war is not inevitable. reactionary course is inseparable from The people of this country and the the main orientation of American world can halt the war being pre- monopoly capital toward fascism and pared, if they will throw their great war. power athwart the path of the Amer- But the war for which the Ameri- ican warmongers and imperialists. can imperialists are planning also But the American people will have could not succeed any better than to accept the logic of the situation. have their other ill-omened imperial- While it is profoundly true that ris- ist policies. For the world forces of ing socialism and declining capital- democracy and socialism are much ism can live peacefully together, it too strong to be defeated militarily is clear that the conditon for such by American imperialism, with its peaceful co-existence is a mutual de- impoverished and crisis-stricken for- sire for it on both sides. But an ag- gressive American imperialism bent eign allies and its ideologically bank- 1 rupt trade-union and Social-Demo- on world domination rejects this pos- cratic stooges. Such a war, besides sibility of peaceful co-existence which wreaking havoc on the American is the most decisive condition today people, would be a lost war for for world peace. Hence, if the world American imperialism and would is to be saved from another and also have dire consequences for greater blood-bath, the power of world capitalism. This grim reality American monopoly, the poison is sensed by many of the more source of fascism and modern war, thoughtful of bourgeois military ex- must be broken. As our convention perts and political commentators. draft resolution points out, the peace These people are telling us that an measures of the new, third party can American-Soviet war would lead to undoubtedly advance the cause of peace, and check the plans of the an almost immediate occupation of warmakers. But it must never be Western Europe and most of Asia forgotten that to eliminate finally by the Red Army, whence it could the danger of war it is necessary to be dislodged, if at all, only after ruin- eliminate the source of that danger, ous struggle. They say, too, that the capitalism. To achieve the kind of warring capitalist countries would world in which alone peace will be become the prey of anti-capitalist absolutely guaranteed, the peoples revolutions from their war-weary of the capitalist world, especially the peoples. And they are also sure that United States, must be mobilized for the world capitalist system could an attack upon the economic and never stand the physical shock and political power of the monopolies as revolutionary upheavals that a World the historic condition for the ad- War III would produce. Despite this vance toward socialism. most lugubrious outlook, however, RESOLUTION OF THE INFORMATION BU- REAU CONCERNING THE SITUATION IN THE C P. OF YUGOSLAVIA*

COMMUNIQUE Meeting of Information Bureau of the Communist Parties

DURING the second half of June, of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks), a meeting of the Information Bureau Comrades A. Zhdanov, G. Malen- was held in Romania. The meeting kov, M. Suslov; Communist Party was attended by the following repre- of France, Comrades J. Duclos, E. sentatives: Fajon; Communist Party of Czecho- Bulgarian Workers' Party (Com- Slovakia, Comrades R. Slansky, V. munists), Comrades T. Kostov, B. Siroky, B. Geminder, G. Bares; Com- Chervenkov; Romanian Workers' munist Party of Italy, Comrades P. Party, Comrades G. Georgia Dej, Togliatti, P. Secchia. V. Luca, A. Pauker; Hungarian The Information Bureau discussed Workers' Party, Comrades M. Ra- the situation in the Communist kosi, M. Farcas, A. Gero; Polish Party of Yugoslavia and unani- Workers' Party, Comrades J. Ber- mously adopted a resolution on this man, A. Zavadski; Communist Party question.

TEXT OF THE RESOLUTION

The Information Bureau, com- Communist Party of Czechoslovakia posed of the representatives of the and the Communist Party of Italy, Bulgarian Workers' Party (Commu- upon discussing the situation in the nists), Romanian Workers' Party, Communist Party of Yugoslavia and Hungarian Workers' Party, Polish announcing that the representatives Workers' Party, the Communist of the Communist Party of Yugo- Party of the Soviet Union (Bolshe- slavia had refused to attend the meet- viks), Communist Party of France, ing of the Information Bureau, unanimously reached the following conclusions: * Reprinted from For a Lasting Peace, for a People's Democracy, organ of the Information 1. The Information Bureau notes Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties, Bucharest, No. 16, July 1, 1948. that recently the leadership of the 675 RESOLUTION ON SITUATION IN YUGOSLAVIA 691 Communist Party of Yugoslavia has foreign policy of the imperialist pow- pursued an incorrect line on the main ers, behaving toward the Soviet questions of home and foreign pol- Union in the same manner as they icy, a line which represents a de- behave to the bourgeois states. Pre- parture from Marxism-Leninism. In cisely because of this anti-Soviet this connection the Information Bu- stand, slanderous propaganda about reau approves the action of the Cen- the "degeneration" of the C.P.S.U.- tral Committee of the C.P.S.U.(B.), (B.), about the "degeneration" of the which took the initiative in exposing U.S.S.R., and so on, borrowed from this incorrect policy of the Central the arsenal of counter-revolutionary Committee of the Communist Party Trotskyism, is current within the of Yugoslavia, particularly the incor- Central Committee of the Commu- rect policy of Comrades Tito, Kar- nist Party of Yugoslavia, delj, Djilas and Rankovic. The Information Bureau de- 2. The Information Bureau de- nounces this anti-Soviet attitude of clares that the leadership of the the leaders of the Communist Party Yugoslav Communist Party is pursu- of Yugoslavia as being incompatible ing an unfriendly policy toward the with Marxism-Leninism and only Soviet Union and the C.P.S.U.(B.). appropriate to nationalists. An undignified policy of defaming 3. In home policy, the leaders of Soviet military experts and discredit- the Communist Party of Yugoslavia ing the Soviet Union has been car- are departing from the positions of ried out in Yugoslavia. A special the working class and are breaking regime was instituted for Soviet with the Marxist theory of classes civilian experts in Yugoslavia, where- and class struggle. They deny that by they were under surveillance of there is a growth of capitalist ele- Yugoslav state security organs and ments in their country and, conse- were continually followed. The rep- quently, a sharpening of the class resentative of the C.P.S.U.(B.) in struggle in the countryside. This de- the Information Bureau, Comrade nial is the direct result of the oppor- Yudin, and a number of official rep- tunist tenet that the class struggle resentatives of the Soviet Union in does not become sharper during the Yugoslavia, were followed and kept period of transition from capitalism under observation by Yugoslav state to socialism, as Marxism-Leninism security organs. teaches, but dies down, as was af- All these and similar facts show firmed by opportunists of the Buk- that the leaders of the Communist harin type, who propagated the the- Party of Yugoslavia have taken a ory of the peaceful growing over of stand unworthy of Communists, and capitalism into socialism, have begun to identify the foreign The Yugoslav leaders are pursuing policy of the Soviet Union with the an incorrect policy in the country- 69a POLITICA , AFFAIRS xside by ignoring the class differen- the struggle of the entire people for tiation in the countryside and by a thorough democratic transforma- regarding the individual peasantry tion, in the struggle of all working as a single entity, contrary to the people and the exploited against the Marxist-Leninist doctrine of classes oppressors and exploiters." and class struggle, contrary to the The Yugoslav leaders are violat- well-known Lenin thesis that small, ing this thesis of Marxism-Leninism. individual farming gives birth to As far as the peasantry is con- capitalism and the bourgeoisie con- cerned it may be that the majority, tinually, daily, hourly, spontaneously that is, the poor and medium peas- and on a mass scale. Moreover, the ants, are already in alliance with the political situation in the Yugoslav working class, with the working countryside gives no grounds for class having the leading role in this smugness and complacency, in the alliance. conditions obtaining in Yugoslavia, The attitude of the Yugoslav lead- where individual peasant farming ers disregards these theses of Marx- predominates, where the land is not ism-Leninism. nationalized, where there is private As can be seen, this attitude also property in land, and where land can reflects views appropriate to petty- be bought and sold, where much of bourgeois nationalism, but not to the land is concentrated in the hands Marxists-Leninists. of kulaks, and where hired labor is 4. The Information Bureau con- employed—in such conditions there siders that the leadership of the can be no question of educating the Communist Party of Yugoslavia is Party in the spirit of glossing over revising the Marxist-Leninist teach- the class struggle and of reconciling ings about the Party. According to class contradiction without by so the theory of Marxism-Leninism, doing disarming the Party itself in the Party is the main, guiding and face of the difficulties connected with leading force in the country, which י the construction of socialism. has its own, specific program, and Concerning the leading role of the does not dissolve itself among the working class, the leaders of the non-Party masses. The Party is the Yugoslav Communist Party, by af- highest form of organization and the firming that the peasantry is the most important weapon of the work- "most stable foundation of the Yugo- ing class. * slav state" are departing from the In Yugoslavia, however, the Peo- Marxist-Leninist path and are tak- ole's Front, and not the Communist ing the path of a populist, kulak Party, is considered to be the main party. Lenin taught that the prole- leading force in the country. The tariat is the "only class in contempo- Yugoslav leaders belittle the role of rarv society which is revolutionary the Communist Party and actually to the end . . . must be the leader in dissolve the Party in the non-party RESOLUTION ON SITUATION IN YUGOSLAVIA 691 People's Front, which is composed ence of the Communist Party and of the most varied class elements ultimately carries with it the danger (workers, peasants engaged in indi- of the degeneration of the People's vidual farming, kulaks, traders, small Republic of Yugoslavia. manufacturers, bourgeois intelligent- 5. The Information Bureau con- sia, etc.) as well as mixed political siders that the bureaucratic regime groups which include certain bour- created inside the Party by its leaders geois parties. The Yugoslav leaders is disastrous for the life and develop- stubbornly refuse to recognize the ment of the Yugoslav Communist falseness of their tenet that the Com- Party. There is no inner Party de- munist Party of Yugoslavia allegedly mocracy, no elections, and no criti- cannot and should not have its own cism and self-criticism in the Party. specific program and that it should Despite the unfounded assurances be satisfied with the program of the of Comrades Tito and Kardelj, the People's Front. majority of the Central Committee The fact that in Yugoslavia it is of the Communist Party of Yilgo- only the People's Front which fig- slavia is composed of co-opted, and ures in the political arena, while the not of elected members. The Com- -actually in a posi׳ Party and its organizations do not munist Party is appear openly before the people in tion of semi-legality. Party meetings its own name, not only belittles the are either not held at all, or meet role of the Party in the political life in secret—a fact which can only of the country, but also undermines undermine the influence of the the Party as an independent political Party among the masses. This force, which has the task of winning type of organization of the Yugoslav the growing confidence of the people Communist Party cannot be de- and of influencing ever broader scribed as anything but a sectarian- masses of the working people by bureaucratic organization. It leads to open political activity and open the liquidation of the Party as an propaganda of its views and pro- active, self-acting organism, it culti- gram. The leaders of the Yugoslav vates military methods of leadership Communist Party are repeating the in the Party similar to the methods mistakes of the Russian Mensheviks advocated in his day by Trotsky. regarding the dissolution of the It is a completely intolerable state Marxist party into a non-party, mass of affairs when the most elementary organization. All this reveals the ex- rights of members in the Yugoslav istence of liquidation tendencies in Communist Party are suppressed, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. when the slightest criticism of in- The Information Bureau believes correct measures in the Party is bru- that this policy of the Central Com- tally repressed. mittee of the Communist Party of The Information Bureau regards Yugoslavia threatens the very exist- as disgraceful such actions as the ex- 69a POLITICA , AFFAIRS pulsion from the Party and the arrest litical party to its mistakes and thus of the Central Committee members, aggravated their anti-Party mistakes. Comrades Djuiovic and Hebrang be- Unable to face the criticism of the cause they dared to criticize the anti- Central Committee of the C.P.S.U.- Soviet attitude of the leaders of the (B.) and the Central Committees of Yugoslav Communist Party, and the other fraternal Parties, the Yugo- called for friendship between Yugo- slav leaders took the path of out- slavia and the Soviet Union. righdy deceiving their Party and The Information Bureau considers people by concealing from the Yugo- that such a disgraceful, purely Turk- slav Communist Party the criticism ish, terrorist regime cannot be toler- of the Central Committee's incor- ated in the Communist Party. The rect policy and also by concealing interests of the very existence and from the Party and the people the development of the Yugoslav Com- real reasons for the brutal measures munist Party demand that an end be against Comrades Djuiovic and He- put to this regime. brang. 6. The Information Bureau con- Recently, even after the Central siders that the criticism made by the Committee of the C.P.S.U. (B.) and Central Committee of the Commu- fraternal parties had criticized the nist Party of the Soviet Union (B.) mistakes of the Yugoslav leaders, the and Central Committees of the other latter tried to bring in a number of Gommunist Parties of the mistakes new leftist laws. They hastily decreed of the Central Committee of the the nationalization of medium in- Communist Party of Yugoslavia, and dustry and trade, though the basis who in this way, rendered fraternal for this is completely unprepared. In assistance to the Yugoslav Commu- view of such haste the new decision nist Party, provides the Communist only hampers the supply of goods Party of Yugoslavia with all the con- to the population. In a similar hur- ditions necessary to speedily correct ried manner they brought in a new the mistakes committed. grain tax for which the way is also However, instead of honestly ac- not prepared and which can, there- cepting this criticism and taking the fore, only dislocate grain supplies to Bolshevik path of correcting these the urban population. Finally, only mistakes, the leaders of the Commu- recently the Yugoslav leaders in loud nist Party of Yugoslavia, suffering declarations declared their love for, from boundless ambition, arrogance and devotion to, the Soviet Union, and conceit, met this criticism with although it is known that in practice belligerence and hostility. They took they are pursuing an unfriendly pol- the anti-Party path of indiscrimi- icy toward the Soviet Union. nately denying all their mistakes, vio- Nor is this all. Of late the leaders lated the doctrine of Marxism-Lenin- of the Communist Party of Yugo- ism regarding the attitude of a po- slavia have, with perfect aplomb, RESOLUTION ON SITUATION IN YUGOSLAVIA 691 been declaiming a policy of liquidat- of the collectivization of agriculture. * ing the capitalist elements in Yugo- In order to eliminate the kulaks as slavia. In a letter to the Central Com- a class, and hence, to eliminate the mittee of the Communist Party of capitalist elements in the countryside, the Soviet Union (B.), dated April it is necessary for the Party to en- 13, Tito and Kardelj wrote that "the gage in detailed preparatory work to plenum of the Central Committee restrict the capitalist elements in the approved the measures proposed by countryside, to strengthen the alii- the Political Bureau of the Central ance of the working class and the Committee to liquidate the remnants peasantry under the leadership of the of capitalism in the country." working class, to make socialist in- In accordance with this line Kar- dustry capable of producing machin- delj, speaking in the Skupschina on ery for the collective administration April 25, declared: "In our country of agriculture. Haste in this matter the days of the last remnants of the can only lead to irreparable harm, exploitation of man by man are num- Only on the basis of these meas- bered." ures, carefully prepared and consist- In the conditions prevailing in ently carried out, is it possible to go Yugoslavia this position of the lead- over from restriction of the capitalist ers of the Communist Party in regard elements in the countryside, to their to the liquidation of the capitalist liquidation. elements, and hence, the kulaks as a All attempts by the Yugoslav lead- class, cannot be qualified as other ers to solve this problem hastily and than adventurous and non-Marxist, by means of decrees, signify either For it is impossible to solve this task that the venture is foredoomed to as long as individual peasant econ- failure or that it is a boastful and omy predominates in the country, empty demagogic declaration, which inevitably gives birth to cap- The Information Bureau considers italism, as long as conditions have that by means of these false and not been created for the large-scale demagogic tactics, the Yugoslav lead- collectivization of agriculture; and as ers are endeavoring to demonstrate long as the majority of the working that they are not only for class strug- peasantry is not convinced of the ad- gle, but that they go even further, vantages of collective methods of beyond those demands which—tak- farming. The experience of the ing into account the real possibilities C.P.S.U. (B.) shows that the elim- —could be advanced by the Commu- ination of the last and biggest ex- nist Party of Yugoslavia in the mat- ploiting class—the kulak class—is ter of restricting the capitalist ele- possible only on the basis of the mass ments. collectivization of agriculture, that The Information Bureau considers the elimination of the kulaks as a that since these leftist decrees and class, is an organic and integral part declarations of the Yugoslav leader- 69a POLITICA , AFFAIRS - ship are demagogic and impracticable - It is generally known that when the in the present conditions, they can Information Bureau was set up, the but compromise the banner of so- Communist Parties based their work cialist construction in Yugoslavia. on the indisputable principle that any That is why the Information Bu- party could report to the Information reau considers such adventurist tac- Bureau in the same way that any tics as an undignified maneuver and party had the right to criticize other an impermissible political gamble. parties. As we see, these leftist demagogic At the first meeting of the Nine measures and declarations on the Communist Parties, the Yugoslav part of the Yugoslav leaders are de- Communist Party took full advan- signed to cover up their refusal to tage of this right, recognize mistakes and honestly cor- The refusal of the Yugoslav Party rect them. to report to the Information Bureau 7. Taking into account the situa- on its actions and to listen to criticism tion in the Communist Party of by other Communist Parties means, Yugoslavia, and seeking to show the in practice, a violation of the equality leaders of the Party the way out of of the Communist Parties and is, in this situation, the Central Commit- fact, tantamount to a demand for a tee of the Communist Party of the privileged position for the Commu- Soviet Union (B.) and the Central nist Party of Yugoslavia in the In- Committees of other fraternal parties, formation Bureau, suggested that the matter of the 8. In view of this, the Information Yugoslav Communist Party should Bureau expresses complete agreement be discussed at a meeting of the In- with the estimation of the situation ,formation Bureau, on the same nor- in the Yugoslav Communist Party י mal party footing as that on which with the criticism of the mistakes of the activities of other Communist the Central Committee of the Party, Parties were discussed at the first and with the political analysis of meeting of the Information Bureau, these mistakes contained in letters However, the Yugoslav leaders re- from the Central Committee of the jected the repeated suggestions of the Communist Party of the Soviet Un- fraternal Communist Parties to dis- ion (B.) to the Central Committee cuss the situation in the Yugoslav of the Communist Party of Yugo- Party at a meeting of the Informa- slavia between March and May, 1948. -unani ״ tion Bureau. The Information Bureau Attempting to avoid the just criti- mously concludes that by their anti- cism of the fraternal parties in the Party and anti-Soviet views, incom- Information Bureau, the Yugoslav patible with Marxism-Leninism, by leaders invented the fable of their their whole attitude and their refusal allegedly "unequal position." There to attend the meeting of the Infor- is not a grain of truth in this story, mation Bureau, the leaders of the RESOLUTION ON SITUATION IN YUGOSLAVIA 691 Communist Party of Yugoslavia have ternal, national forces of Yugoslavia placed themselves in opposition to and their influence, the Yugoslav the Communist Parties affiliated to leaders think that they can maintain the Information Bureau, have taken Yugoslavians independence and build the path of seceding from the united socialism without the support of the socialist front against imperialism, Communist Parties of other countries, have taken the path of betraying the without the support of the people's cause of international solidarity of democracies, without the support of the working people, and have taken the Soviet Union. They think that up a position of nationalism. the new Yugoslavia can do without The Information Bureau con- the help of these revolutionary forces. demns this anti-Party policy and at- Showing their poor understanding titude of the Central Committee of of the international situation and the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. their intimidation by the blackmail- The Information Bureau consid- ing threats of the imperialists, the ers that, in view of all this, the Cen- Yugoslav leaders think that by mak- tral Committee of the Communist ing concessions they can curry favor Party of Yugoslavia has placed itself with the imperialist states. They and the Yugoslav Party outside the think they will be able to bargain family of the fraternal Communist with them for Yugoslavia's indepen- Parties, outside the united Commu- dence and, gradually, get the people nist front and consequently outside of Yugoslavia orientated on these the ranks of the Information Bureau. states, that is, on capitalism. In this they proceed tacitly from the well- known bourgeois-nationalist thesis The Information Bureau considers that "capitalist states are a lesser that the basis of these mistakes made danger to the independence of Yugo- by the leadership of the Communist slavia than the Soviet Union." Party of Yugoslavia lies in the un- doubted fact that nationalist ele- The Yugoslav leaders evidently do, ments, which previously existed in not understand or, probably, pretend a disguised form, managed in the they do not understand, that such a course of the past five or six months nationalist line can only lead to to reach a dominant position in the Yugoslavia's degeneration into an or- leadership of the Communist Party dinary bourgeois republic, to the loss of Yugoslavia and, that consequently, of its independence and to its trans- the leadership of the Yugoslav Com- formation into a colony of the im- munist Party has broken with the in- perialist countries. ternational traditions of the Com- The Information Bureau does not munist Party of Yugoslavia and has doubt that inside the Communist taken the road of nationalism. Party of Yugoslavia there are suffi- Considerably overestimating the in- cient healthy elements, loyal to Marx- 69a POLITICA , AFFAIRS ism-Leninism, to the international Should the present leaders of the traditions of the Yugoslav Commu- Yugoslav Communist Party prove to nist Party and to the united socialist be incapable of doing this, their job front. is to replace them and to advance a Their task is to compel their pres- new internationalist leadership of the ent leaders to recognize their mis- Party. takes openly and honestly and to The Information Bureau does not rectify them; to break with nation- doubt that the Communist Party of alism, return to internationalism; and Yugoslavia will be able to fulfill this in every way to consolidate the united honorable task. socialist front against imperialism. STATEMENT ON THE INFORMATION BU- REAU RESOLUTION CONCERNING THE SITUATION IN THE C. P. OF YUGOSLAVIA*

By WILLIAM Z. FOSTER and EUGENE DENNIS

THE EIGHT parties of the Com- restoration of a capitalist state in munist Information Bureau have Yugoslavia under the domination of rendered an outstanding service to imperialism. the cause of world; peace, the inde- The U.S. imperialists, through pendence of nations, and the fight for their press and the State Depart- socialism, by exposing the betrayal ment, are distorting the meaning of of that cause by the present leaders the Communist Information Bureau of the Communist Party of Yugo- statement, and the situation out of slavia. which it arose. In reality, the com- In a communique sharply con- munique demonstrates that the lead- demning the policies of Tito, Kar- ing forces in the world camp of peace tlelj, Rankovic and Djilas, the Com- and democracy are alert to every munist Information Bureau reveals danger. Their timely action dooms to that the leadership of the Communist failure the efforts of the Marshall Party of Yugoslavia has departed Planners to split and disorient the from the path of Marxism-Leninism, anti-imperialist camp of peace and Recently it has been following a socia* progress, course hostile to the Soviet Union, But the Wal1 Street warmongers and attempted to curry favor with are basting that their "get-tough" and Anglo-American imperialism. It has P011CY Marshall Plan strategy have ־abandoned working-class internation- **S1111 TO PAY AND THEY PRO alism for bourgeois nationalism and cla1m that they are n°w "justified" expressed hostility to the Communist 1n continuing and intensifying their Party of the U.S.S.R. It has tended atom-bomb diplomacy and their to liquidate the Yugoslav Commu- preparation for a new world war. nist Party. It began to pursue a pol- The American people must reject icy which could only result in the a11 such distortions as the most dan- gerous type of warmongering. De- * Issued to the press, June 29. 1948. spite the betrayal by the present 699 69a POLITICA , AFFAIRS leadership of the Yugoslav Party, the could only lead their Party and peo- anti-imperialist peace camp is grow- pie to disaster. We have every con- ing. Its unity and effectiveness will fidence that the sound core of the be strengthened by the exposure and Communist Party of Yugoslavia will expulsion of the traitors. In our restore their Party to the Marxist- country as everywhere in the world, Leninist path of struggle for peace the forces struggling for peace recog- and socialism. nize that its cornerstone is friend- As for the American people, they ship and co-operation with the Soviet must vigilantly guard against Wall Union, whose influence is felt in- Street's attempts to engineer new creasingly among freedom-loving war provocations. They must re- peoples in every land. double their present efforts to stop The Information Bureau commu- monopoly's bipartisan drive to fas- nique has made public a course of cism and war. To this end, we development in Yugoslavia whose American Communists will strength- significance has largely been hidden en the Marxist-Leninist understand- until now. It has thus given a power- ing in our ranks and unitedly fulfill ful weapon to the Yugoslav Commu- our responsibility to the American nists for correcting the policies which working class and people. the Information Bureau as "an out- THE YUGOSLAV standing service to the cause of world peace, the independence of nations, ״LEADERS ON THE and the fight for Socialism, by ex posing the betrayal of that cause by ־PATH OF BETRAYALth e present leaders of the Commu nist Party of Yugoslavia," The imperialist camp, notoriously By V. J. JEROME allergic to truth, has seized upon the occasion for an orgy of falsification THE SITUATION in the Communist and confusion through press, radio, Party of Yugoslavia must be viewed, and forum. The main purport of •the not as a thing apart, a mere episode, bourgeois propaganda —liberal as or, as Louis Adamic amiably sug- well as reactionary—is, first, that the gests, "a question of manners" (New Resolution of the Information Bu- Yor\ Star, July 11). It must be seen reau now "proves to the hilt" that as a manifestation that is part of the the Communists have merely toyed global struggle of the two contend- with the People's Front policy and ing camps in world society today: have now "given it up." We are the forces of peace, democracy, na- asked to read the evidence in the tional freedom, and Socialism, which Resolution's emphasis on the van- have in the Soviet Union their con- guard role of the Communist Party sistent champion; and the forces of with respect to the People's Front* monopoly oppression, feudal land- With all this evidence the Commu• lordism, clerical reaction, and fas- nists finally stand convicted that they cism—the war camp, headed by are "really for Socialism"! Hence, American imperialism which is di- reaction, aiming to split the peace recting its bipartisan policies toward front, shouts that the Communists world domination. Thus viewed, the neither can nor will have any alli~ action of the Information Bureau of ance save on the basis of the ac» the Communist and Workers Parties ceptance of Socialism: "The fiction in warning of the presence of a weak of the People's Front is . . . torn sector in the anti-war front, and in apart" (New Yor\ Herald Tribune4 exposing the essence of the weakness editorial, July 2). in that sector, has contributed in a The bourgeois propagandists fur- major way toward fortifying that ^c- ther distort the Resolution to mean ׳tor speedily in order to prevent a that there is no existence for Com break-through by the enemy later. munist parties anywhere except In this light the prompt and force- under "the dictatorship of Moscow" 1 ful statement of Comrades Foster that we have here "a basic clash be- and Dennis greeted the action of tween different kinds of commu- 69a POLITICA , AFFAIRS nism: an ,international' communism sought to interpret communism pri- that is directed completely by the marily to suit the needs of his coun- Kremlin, a ,national' communism try. . . And so overnight yester- that leans toward autonomy and its day's "puppet of Moscow" and "op- own development" (New Yor\ pressor of his people" has been meta- Times, editorial, July 4). Stalin, we morphosed into "a loyal and prideful are told, is bent on annexing the Yugoslav," a Balkan Communist Balkans: the "lowdown" was sup- William Tell defying a Moscow plied by no less an "authority" than Gessler! Rebecca West in a letter to the Her- It is significant that while the aid Tribune of July 2, namely, that arrogant answer of the Yugoslav Tito has "been told to rebel by the Party leaders to the Resolution is Soviet government itself," since this hailed as the "spirited reply of the "gives an excuse for the entry of Communists of Yugoslavia," Al- Soviet armies into Yugoslavia." bania's courageous denunciation of , (That staid newspaper, editorially Tito's policy has been set down as on June 30, did indeed calm us with merely "Kremlin pressure." the thought that "the reports of Rus- To translate the rhetoric into re- sian troop movements into Yugo- ality, the entire Yugoslav affair slavia and actual fighting on the merely "confirms the basic theory of frontiers may be premature.") American foreign policy," according And what can be more touching to the Alsop brothers in the Herald than the noble readiness to forget Tribune of July 2, which depends for rancor which marks the tributes of its victory in Eastern Europe on "the imperialist-minded columnists and combined pressure of Western com- special correspondents to the sud- petition and internally divisive denly "audacious and brave" Tito forces"—in plain English, the Tru- standing up to defend Yugoslavia man Doctrine's Marshall Plan plus against the "Soviet annexationists" ? a Fifth Column! And lest anyone think that there is This is how W. H. Lawrence truth to the Resolution's charge of spells it out in his Washington dis- bourgeois nationalism and desertion patch to the New Yor\ Times of of Marxist theory and practice, there July 9, in which he sees Tito "of real is no lack of vouchers for Tito's value to our policy of splitting the Marxism. Thus Tito is offered ere- Eastern bloc if this is possible." dentials as "a sincere Marxist" by Cyrus L. Sulzberger in the New Small wonder that for Life maga- Yor\ Times (July 4). Likewise, Ray- zine it was "Good News for Europe" and for Newswee\, "Hope Springs." mond Daniell attests in the same # # # issue of the paper: "A Communist through and through, he [Tito] still What factors brought about the YUGOSLAV LEADERS ON THE PATH OF BETRAYAL 703 situation in Yugoslavia that occa- as toward the bourgeois states." sioned the Resolution of the Infor- This anti-Soviet conception is di- mation Bureau? rectly related to the Yugoslav leaders* There is not available to us at desertion of proletarian international- present full knowledge of all the ism and acceptance of "ideas which detailed developments that culmi- are more suitable to petty-bourgeois nated in the treachery of the Yugo- nationalists than to Marxist-Len- slav leadership. Nonetheless, the inists." basic factors are clear. The Yugoslav leaders protest their In the first place, the external innocence and proclaim their friend- factor is the pressure of American ship for the U.S.S.R.; but such asser- imperialism, principally through the tions are the sheerest hypocrisy in Marshall Plan. The Yugoslav Party the light of their anti-revolutionary leaders, the Resolution declares, struggle against the Communist manifesting "their intimidation by Party of the Soviet Union and the blackmailing threats of the im- against the Information Bureau, perialists, think that by making con- whose united and integral existence cessions they can curry favor with and activity represent a vital force the imperialist states" and "bargain in the cause of world peace and the with them for Yugoslavia's inde- independence of nations, pendence." In so thinking, "they In their extensive reply to the Res- proceed tacitly from the well-known olution, the Yugoslav leaders have bourgeois-nationalist thesis that 'capi- not disproved the concrete accusa- talist states are a lesser danger to the tions of hostile acts toward the Soviet independence of Yugoslavia than the Union. The Yugoslav leaders, to the Soviet Union.'" delight of the imperialists, have ere- This orientation toward the capi- ated a breach in the anti-imperialist talist states is manifest in the un- peace fr©nt. How can this be re- friendly position of the Yugoslav garded as anything but aid to the leadership toward the Soviet Union imperialist camp, as anything but an and the Peoples' Democracies. This orientation toward the capitalist hostile attitude was displayed, the states? Resolution charges, in "defaming So- what is the meaning of an orienta- s viet military experts and discrediting tion toward the capitalist states the Soviet Union," subjecting Soviet today? official representatives to "surveil- Can it be that the Yugoslav leaders lance of Yugoslav State security do not recognize that Wall Street, organs," "identifying the foreign pol- lusting for control of the globe, is icy of the Soviet Union with the bent on defeating the forces of de- foreign ^ policy of the imperialist mocracy and Socialism by fomenting powers," send "behaving toward the civil wars as a means of achieving Soviet Union in the same manner "Greek" governments? Or, are they 69a POLITICA , AFFAIRS unaware that to this end American Yugoslav situation must be noted, to imperialism is intensifying its Mar- begin with, the difficulties encoun- shall Plan "recovery" blandishments tered in the transition to Socialism and bludgeonings? And what sort in such a country, erstwhile semi- of independence can they gain for colonial, with a population eighty Yugoslavia by making concessions per cent peasant, with a low techni- to the imperialist blackmailers? cal level in agriculture, with a weak Let the United States News and industry and a small working class, World Report survey of February with divisive tugs of economic par- 27, entitled, "What U.S. Gets for ticularism in the component repub- Aid Abroad," furnish at least part lies, and with a complex national of the answer: question. The Administrator of the [E.R.P.] These special difficulties of social- program actually is to become a direc- ist construction, in context with a tor of world business. He will be in weak theoretical armament, have a position to tell France, for example, given rise in the leadership to moods whether to rebuild railroads or to im- of capitulation and to a line of "least prove highways. He can decide whether resistance," that is, an orientation farms are to be mechanized. He will toward the capitalist states. determine whether Britain or the Ruhr A further internal factor is the gets first call on coal-mining machinery. social composition of the Yugoslav And he can stop the dollar flow alto- gether if countries do not abide by his Communist Party. At the outbreak terms. ... of the war the reconstituted Party He has power to decide whether tim- counted 15,000 members. In the ber shall be purchased from Finland, course of the armed insurrection Sweden, or Canada; whether U.S. against the occupation forces, 12,000 Wheat or Canadian wheat should get of those members, steeled in illegal priority in dollar sales; whether Brazil struggle, fell. The present member- or the U.S. should supply cotton to ship of 400,000 came to the Party European textile mills. through the resistance movement Would Yugoslavia fare any better during the war, and in the postwar at the extortionate hands of the reconstruction period. Many bour- Marshall Planners? Can there be any geois nationalists—peasants and in- doubt that a Marshallized Yugo- tellectuals—saw in the Party the slavia would not only lose its eco- organizer and sole leader of the nomic and political independence national resistance and joined in but would also be turned into an- mass. The Party membership is al- other war base against everything for most completely new and theoreti- which the Yugoslav people have cally not yet mature. With the popu- fought! lation overwhelmingly peasant, and with a numerically inconsiderable in- Among the internal factors in the YUGOSLAV LEADERS ON THE PATH OF BETRAYAL 703 dustrial proletariat, the Party is pre- slavia's independence and build social- dominantly composed of peasants ism without the support of the Com- and intellectuals, social strata partic- munist Parties of other countries, ularly subject to bourgeois-nationalist without the support of the people's democracies, without the support of the sentiments. Bourgeois nationalists Soviet Union. . . . have honeycombed the Central Com- mittee and other leading bodies of Under the influence of this nation- the Party. Until recently these ele- alistic spirit the Yugoslav Party ments disguised their true position; leaders have displayed an attitude of but in the past months they have chauvinist arrogance toward the operated with increasing openness. brother parties of the Information The nationalist spirit was further Bureau. In defiantly spurning the stimulated by intoxication with sue- fraternal criticism of the Communist cesses of the liberation movement Party of the Soviet Union and the and reconstruction immediately fol- other Parties of the Information lowing the war. The Party leader- Bureau, and in refusing to attend the ship, departing from Marxian inter- Bureau meeting, the Yugoslav Party nationalism, in a purely opportunist leaders, as the Resolution declares, fashion, encouraged this spirit of "have taken the path of seceding conceit and self-sufficiency, and itself from the united socialist front sank to the low level of bourgeois- against imperialism, have taken the nationalist megalomania. path of betraying the cause of inter- The world will always applaud national solidarity of the working the heroic Yugoslav people in the people. ..." *־ , # # struggle for national liberation. But courage and heroism, though essen- Capitalism constantly exerts ideo- tial, are not enough for firm Marxist logical pressures upon the working leadership; these qualities must be class and seeks also to affect the combined with Communist clarity Communist vanguard. The imperial- deriving from a profound study of ist bourgeoisie intensifies its pres- Marxism-Leninism, if, indeed, they sures when the working class is are not to become in themselves fac- allied with other classes and social tors of disorientation. forces, in order to prevent the prole- Thus, the Resolution exposes the tariat from assuming leadership and dangers of the bourgeois-nationalist to subordinate it to capital. ideas which pervade the Yugoslav Failure to be constantly on guard Party leadership: against these pressures can only •Considerably overestimating the in- harm—sometimes gravely—the work- ternal, national forces of Yugoslavia ing class and its vanguard. A tend- and their influence, the Yugoslav leaders ency toward ideological weakening think that they can maintain Yugo- manifested itself in a number of 69a POLITICA , AFFAIRS Communist parties during the war, capitalism. The thwarting of the as well as in the period preceding Trotsky-Bukharin collusions with the war, expressing itself in the blur- foreign capitalist states to hinder the ring of class distinctions and class building of Socialism in the Soviet goals. This tendency is traceable in Union has not ended either imperial- the main to two sources: 1) an in- ist efforts at further collusions with correct application of the People's Trotskyitej and Right opportunists Front and proletarian United Front or the permeation of Trotskyite- policies, and 2) a confused orienta- Bukharinite ideas among weak, tion in the war-time alliance. Both petty-bourgeois elements. The impe- sources gave rise to mistakes in the- rialists will never fail to regard any ory and practice as regards the posi- breach with Marxism opened up by tion of the working class in its alii- persistent opportuni'sm within the ances, the role of the Communist Party as a fissure for their pene- vanguard in these coalitions, the re- tration. lationship of the immediate aims of The Bureau Resolution exposes the working class in the alliance to the line of the Yugoslav Party leader- the ultimate goal of Socialism, the ship as incorrect on basic questions role of the Soviet Union in inter- of foreign and internal policy and as national relations, the interrelation- representing a retreat from Marxism- ship of the struggle for national in- Leninism. dependence and the principle of pro- This departure from Marxism- letarian internationalism, and the Leninism is evident in the Tito dialectics of the class struggle in the leadership's anti-Soviet attitude. Such stage of transition to Socialism. conduct denies the international sig- Extreme ideological weakening nificance of the October Socialist occurred in our Party during Brow- Revolution and of the victory of So- der revisionism, when we abandoned cialism in the Soviet Union. It be- Marxism-Leninism with respect to littles the Bolshevik Party, whose the question of American imperial- integrity was forged under Lenin ism, the working class and the class and Stalin during half a century of struggle, the essence and role of the struggles for revolutionary Marxism. Communist Party, the Socialist ob- It ignores the great lessons of leader- jective, and working-class inter- ship to be learned from that van- nationalism. guard Party which led the proletariat To understand what happened in of Russia to power and Socialism, Yugoslavia, let us remember that and which captained the Soviet peo- imperialist states never flag in their pie to the victory that saved mankind maneuvers to build up anti-Socialist from fascist enslavement. forces within countries that have re- The attitude of the Yugoslav Party moved themselves from the orbit of leaders reveals little recognition of YUGOSLAV LEADERS ON THE PATH OF BETRAYAL 703 the fact that the rise of all the peo- ism-Leninism is manifested in the pies' democracies, their existence as incorrect policy in the villages. The independent states, was made pos- land has not been nationalized. The sible by the victory of the Soviet peasantry consists predominantly of Army over the fascist aggressor. Had individual small holders, although the Yugoslav resistance been ten co-operatives, limited to a consumer- times as effective, it would still have distributive type, are present. The been hopelessly limited to guerrilla number of state farms is small. skirmishing had not the Red Army Land is purchased and sold. The bled the Nazi hordes white and wealthy peasants, owning much of decimated their main forces. the land, are able to strengthen their The Soviet Army, by its very pres- position. ence in Eastern, Central, and South- Holding to the un-Marxist idea Eastern Europe, prevented the re- that the peasantry is a "most stable surgence and regrouping of the na- foundation of the Yugoslav state," tive fascist and generally reactionary the leaders have turned the Party forces and made possible the condi- upon the path of "a populist, kulak tions for the people's forces to affirm party," as concerns the leading role themselves as new democracies tak- of the working class. This deviation ing the path of Socialist develop- proceeds from their denial of the ment. Who can deny that it was the Leninist teaching that in the period Soviet Union which thwarted the of transition from capitalism to So- notorious Churchill plan for military cialism the class struggle becomes occupation of these countries, Gen- intensified and from their Bukharin- eral Scobie fashion? Who can deny like view of a diminishing class the immense contribution of the So- struggle and a harmonious growth viet Union toward releasing the pop- into Socialism. ular forces to crush reaction and Such an un-Marxist approach consolidate the peoples' democracies ? brought the Yugoslav Party leaders The rise of the postwar peoples' de- to blur the class differences and the mocracies is part of the anti-fascist class struggle in the village and to and anti-imperialist struggle of tolerate the growth of rural capitalist world scope led by the Socialist So- elements. It caused them to magnify viet Union against the world-su- the role of the peasantry in the class premacy policies of finance capital, relations and to negate the leading centered in Wall Street. role of the working class in the tran- The Yugoslav leaders not only be- sition to Socialism on the basis of little the liberating role of the Soviet the people's democracy. Union, but also depart from the Len- The revisionist negation of the role inist principles guiding Socialist con- of the working class led Tito to the struction. Their retreat from Marx- blurring of distinctions between the 69a POLITICA , AFFAIRS

Communist Party and the People's degeneration of the People's Repub- Front. lie of Yugoslavia." Here it is worth dwelling on the This line is present in his report demagogic assertions in the bour- ־to the Second Congress of the Peo geois press that this criticism by the pie's Front of Yugoslavia and in the Information Bureau signifies that reports of Kardelj and Djilas to the the Communists everywhere are founding conference of the Informa- "through" with People's Front align- tion Bureau. In these reports the ments. In this context, the liberal Del People's Front, whose 7,000,000 Vayo, for instance, writing in The members comprise not only workers Nation of July 10, would have us and small farmers, but also traders, consider the Information Bureau small manufacturers, and kulaks, as Resolution as "the prelude to a revi- well as bourgeois and petty-bour- sion of the Communist position in geois parties and mixed mass organi- relation to other left groups and zations, stands out as an undifferen- working class parties." With this per- tiated supra-class entity. It is "one verse logic he concludes that the strong collective of unity of thought Party in Yugoslavia was singled out and action," "an alliance of all the for criticism for no other reason than patriots ... of all those who have that there the People's Front "is embarked upon the new task of more effective than in any other building up and strengthening the country of the Eastern bloc." new Yugoslavia," with a "mono- lithic" organization—in short, one What gulfs between such allega- homogeneous revolutionary mass! tions and reality! Ergo: "The People's Front program What is the People's Front and is the Communist Party's program"; what are its relations to the Com- "their program is, in fact, one and munist Party? the same." The People's Front is not an array of tin soldiers that can be taken out This means purely and simply the of a box at will and laid away at will. denial of the Party as the highest The People's Front is a coalition form of organization, the denial of whose political essence and organiza- the Party as vanguard. This Menshe- tional scope are determined by ob- vik conception, expressed in levelling jective historical circumstances in the the program of the Party to that of stage of the deepening general crisis the People's Front, has encouraged of capitalism. It involves diverse class the dispersal of the Party. Such a forces impelled to action by the com- policy, the Resolution declares, mon threat of fascism. Decisive to "threatens the very existence of the the effectiveness of the People's Communist Party and ultimately Front in realizing its aims is the carries with it the danger of the leading role of the working class. YUGOSLAV LEADERS ON THE PATH OF BETRAYAL 703 Due to its position in capitalist so- takes is not tolerated, but is met ciety as the basically exploited class, punitively, while self-critical ac- with no stake in die system, the fun- knowledgment and examination of damental interests of the working errors and defects—what Lenin class lie in the abolition of all ex- called "the earmark of a serious ploitation. This is why the working party"—are observed only in their class is the most consistent and de- non-practice. pendable progressive and democratic The liquidationist manifestation is force in the nation. From this flpws direcdy reflected in the Party's inner the special role of the vanguard Party life. The Party's organizational prin- of the working class, the Communist ciples cannot be maintained in Party, in the People's Front. Just as soundness when its programmatic the Communist Parties signalized the principles are violated. Between the threat of fascism and initiated the political essence of a party and its People's Front, they remain within organizational structure and pro- the coalition the main guiding and cedure there is an interactive unity. cementing force. To emphasize the Thus, in 1903, the struggle waged by danger of submerging the Party the opponents of the organizational within the Front and thus liquidat- principles which Lenin formulated ing its vanguard role is not to give at the crucial Second Congress of up the People's Front, but to pre- the Russian Social-Democratic Labor vent its degeneration. To strengthen Party only revealed the profound the Party and affirm its role is not division of the Party into revolution- to weaken, but to strengthen and ary and opportunist wings as regards consolidate the People's Front. basic program. Negating the true role of the Party Justly the Resolution states: in the People's Front must lead to This type of organization of the Yugo- the distortion of the Leninist organi- slav Communist Party . . . leads to zational principles of the Party. The the "liquidation of the Party as an ac- Yugoslav leaders have annulled tive, self-acting organism, it cultivates Party democracy and instituted a military methods of leadership in the bureaucratic regime which terrorizes Party similar to the methods advocated the membership. The Central Com- in his day by Trotsky. mittee is in its majority not elected, # # # but co-opted. Party meetings are When, in 1925, in the course of either not held or are conducted in answering a series of questions sub- secret. The Communist Party—in mitted to him at Sverdloff Univer- the land where the people are in sity, Stalin was asked whether the power!—"is actually in a position of Party was threatened with the dan- semi-legality," says the Resolution. ger of degeneration, he replied: The elementary rights of the mem- The danger is, or rather, the dangers bers are suppressed. Criticism of mis- are, real enough.... In my view, there 69a POLITICA , AFFAIRS are three main dangers to reckon with: nationalist traditions of the Yugoslav a) The danger of losing sight of the Communist Party, to restore Yugo- socialist goal which is the aim of all slavia to her honored position in the the work of reconstruction in our coun- united Socialist front. The Resolu- try; this danger, therefore, is an inten- tion expresses confidence that "the sification of the tendency to relinquish Communist Party of Yugoslavia will the conquests of the revolution* he able to fulfill this honorable task." b) The danger of losing sight of the The Resolution of the Information international revolutionary goal—the Bureau condemning the revisionist danger of a short-sighted nationalism. and liquidationist line of the leader- c) The danger that the Party may ship of the Communist Party of lose its position as leader, and, there- Yugoslavia renders a vital contribu- with, the possibility of the Party becom- ing no more than tailpiece to the State tion to the struggle of the peoples' apparatus. forces to hold the peace front strong and unimpaired. It will have the These three dangers now threaten effect of strengthening the interna- the Communist Party of Yugoslavia tional links of the working class and and the People's Republic of Yugo- of fortifying the world camp of slavia with utter degeneration. Socialism. It will take its place The Resolution of the Information among the enduring historic docu- Bureau is a tocsin sounding the ments from which Communists can gravity of this danger. It is a call to derive guidance in the struggle that the true Communists of Yugoslavia must constantly be waged to safe- to rally to the banner of Marxism- guard Marxist-Leninist principle and Leninism, to re-establish the inter- to promote Marxist-Leninist policy. pies their forms of government and THE "GRAND" OLD their economies. Whether the speak- ers were of the "Old Guard," like Herbert Hoover, Gov. Dwight Green PARTY of Illinois, or Speaker Joe Martin of the House, or whether they were the By MAX GORDON somewhat ragged "New Look" Re- publicans like Sen. Raymond E. Baldwin of Connecticut, Mr. Becker IT CANNOT BE SAID that the orators at or candidate Thomas E. Dewey him- the recent Republican national con- self, there were no differences on vention in Philadelphia were modest this one essential point. in their claims to world rule. "Republicans may disagree as to Perhaps because of his alleged method but they never disagree as to youth, the national chairman of the final objective," said retiring Na- Young Republicans, Mr. Ralph E. tional Chairman B. Carrol Reece in Becker of New York, was slightly one of the few convention statements more brash about this than the rest. that bore any relation to objective But his humble willingness to yield fact. to mass world demand that he lead the peoples everywhere out of the Since the statement applies pretty wilderness was repeated in one form much to the ruling bourgeoisie as a or another by nearly every other whole, Mr. Reece might have added speaker and by the party platform. that there is no disagreement on ob- jectives with the Democratic Party Said the youthful Mr. Becker, who leadership either. hails from a swank town in West- The essential unity within G.O.P. Chester County: ranks was expressed in the general The rest of the world looks to us approval for the record of the Re- for economic assistance, but we know publican-led 80th Congress, both in that primarily it seeks and needs us for its foreign and domestic aspects. spiritual and intellectual leadership. But within the framework of this The entire world is locked in a battle unity on aims, there were important for freedom, and we can be humbly divisions, both behind the scenes and thankful that our party has the neces- sary leadership to continue to champion in full public view. These divisions these principles to fulfill this world were based on contending interests hope and need. of powerful financial and industrial groups; on differences on methods of The convention demonstrated achieving similar goals; on rival am- overwhelmingly that the Republican bitions of individuals and political leadership of the nation is solidly machines with enormous vested in- united in viewing it to be America^ terest in control of the government sacred mission to dictate to other peo- bureaucracy. Regardless of the 675 69a POLITICA , AFFAIRS sources of these differences, any seri- were heavily couched in terms of ous political opposition to the bi- "economic aid" for "reconstruction," partisan program of monopoly capi- as well as in terms of maintaining tal must take them into account "freedom" against "Communist to- and know how to exploit them. talitarianism." Domestically, too, the "internation- The chief line of division—that alist" crowd attempted to steer the between the so-called "international- convention in the direction of win- ists" and the "isolationists" (or "na- ning some popular support among tionalists" as they now dub them- workers and Negroes for its pro- selves)—cut across both foreign and gram. It did this through its choice domestic policy, though it had its of candidates and its demagogic plat- origin in the problem of overseas form promises. Both because of its relations. The point at issue was, and own political tendencies and the remains, how far to commit Amer- pressures of the "Old Guard," its ica's economic, political, and military efforts along these lines were dis- resources to the struggle for Wall tinctly limited. Street's domination of Europe. The opposition to the "internation- The "internationalists," represent- alists" came from two general ing the viewpoint of the major mo- sources. One, the so-called "national- nopoly financiers of the nation—the ist" group, represents the thinking of Morgan, Rockefeller, DuPont, Mel- important midwest industrial and Ion groups and their associates—want banking circles more concerned with no limit placed on the use of these exploitation of the home market and resources. They are prepared to go of Latin America than with Europe. the whole hog in their drive to sub- To some degree, these circles, in ject the economies and political re- competition with the first-line finan- gimes of the European continent to cial and industrial monopolies of Wall Street control and exploita- Wall Street, fear expansion of the tion. Morgan and Rockefeller-controlled The tactics developed by the "in- concerns. The greater such expan- ternationalist" group in pursuing its sion, the more advantageous the po- goals are the classic ones of carrot sition of these concerns in relation to and club. While brandishing the club their smaller competitors. in the form of a massive arms and Some of the most vociferous foes military conscription program, its of an all-out expansionist drive in position at the convention showed it Europe have been the "Little Steel" had by no means abandoned the car- industrialists, who are not happy rot in order to attract middle-class about the privileged position of Mor- "liberal" and Social-Democratic la- gan-controlled U. S. Steel in the bor backing within the nations European "aid" set-up. abroad for those goals. Its policies Because their immediate economic THE "GRAND" OLD PARTY 713 interests are not directly served by Hoover, obviously, was not talking the all-out drive, the midwest crowd to "our friends abroad." He was balks at committing without reserve warning the convention to place lim- the nation's economic and political its on foreign "aid" in the interests resources to the European drive. of governmental "economy," and was Their own predilection for "econ- demanding that resources needed by omy," tax-cutting, less government the groups interested primarily in "interference" in world economic ac- domestic production not be shipped tivities comes into play. They also too heavily abroad. gag at the liberal-sounding dema- Adding to "nationalist" strength gogy, both in relation to foreign de- was the large number of delegates velopments and to domestic affairs, who were small-town bankers, busi- which the "internationalist" bunch nessmen, local grain dealers, and promotes in the effort to win popu- well-to-do farmers, with all the in- lar backing for its expansionist aims. sularity, prejudices, and narrow eco- The most direct spokesman for this nomic views of these groups. Their "nationalist" group at the conven- chief interest was to eliminate all tion was Herbert Hoover himself. possible checks upon their profit- Said Hoover, in his address to the taking, including a reduction of gathering: taxes, curbing of the trade unions, ending of government "regulation" With all the good will in our hearts, and "interference," etc. our friends abroad should realize that Tactical differences existed within our economy must not be exhausted or the "internationalist" group, too, over-strained by these burdens, or the such as the Dewey-Stassen dispute last hope of the world is lost. . . . on how to handle the Communist Our friends abroad should realize movement in the United States, and that we are today certainly straining the dispute between Stassen and our American economy to the utmost. Warning signals already clang in our others on the extent of interference ears. Relief and defense will soon be with nationalization processes in na- costing us over 22 billion dollars a year. tions receiving U.S. "aid" Stassen Our Federal budget threatens to in- demanded, in pre-convention pri- crease to 50 billions a year, unless we mary campaigns, suppression of the delay many plans for internal social Communist Party and prohibition of and economic improvement. . . . all measures of nationalization. He . . . Our reputed prosperity has be- was opposed for fear that such steps gun to walk on two stilts: one is the would tend to lose popular backing forced draft of exporting more than our for the Marshall Plan among the surplus through relief; the other is a peoples of Europe, and would weak- great armaments program. We cannot en American standing as an "island go higher on these stilts, or we will break a leg getting down. . . . of freedom." These disputes and their effect on the primaries helped 69a 498POLITICA LAFFAIR S shape the final result at the conven- of thoroughness and painstaking or- tion. ganization. # # # But Dewey had other important considerations in his favor. His chief Months before the convention rival, Vandenberg, had been weak- opened, it was clear that the favored ened by the general feeling, partly candidates of the Wall Street "inter- shared by himself, that the most effi- nationalist" group were Senator Ar- cient execution of Wall Street's for- thur Vandenberg and Governor eign policy required he remain as Thomas E. Dewey. The Rockefeller head of the Senate Foreign Relations and DuPont interests, always close Committee. The bitter battle on Mar- to the New York Governor, were in shall Plan funds in the final weeks his corner. The Morgan group of the Congressional session, in which leaned toward Vandenberg. the "nationalist" group showed unex- It was also clear, however, that all pected power, strengthened that feel- leading candidates were pretty much ing. Moreover, by taking an uncom- in line with Wall Street's expansion- promising stand on the issue of Mar- ist program. This included Harold shall Plan funds, Vandenberg became Stassen; Governor Earl Warren of anathema to the "nationalist" group, California; and even Ohio's Senator and hence unsuitable as a candidate Robert A. Taft, previously the darl- who could unify all factions of the ing of the "nationalists," who had party. made substantial concessions to Wall Dewey's other major rival, Taft, Street's viewpoint in the months be- was associated with the Taft-Hartley fore the convention. Such "dark Law, and hence would solidify labor horses" as Representative Joseph W. opposition to the G.O.P. if he became Martin and Hearst's man-on-horse- the candidate. As Senate majority back, General Douglas MacArthur, leader, Taft also had to assume re- who might have had different views, sponsibility for failure to pass any were never serious threats. of the civil rights measures, as well Taft, despite his concessions, re- as for other actions of Congress. mained the first choice of the "na- Harold Stassen had begun his tionalist" crowd and its supporters. drive for the Presidency disguised as He was never fully accepted by Wall a "liberal." He made a good deal of Street. headway because of this pose. But as Because of this general devotion to he began to drop his demagogy in Wall Street's foreign policy it was order to accomodate himself to the evident that other factors would en- party hierarchy, he began to lose his ter into the struggle for the Presi- special appeal. Dewey, by a slick dential nomination. Not the least of tactical move, smoked him out from these was the effectiveness of Gov- behind his liberal disguise by waging ernor Dewey's campaign, a model the Oregon primary struggle on the THE "GRAND" OLD PARTY 7*5 issue of opposition to Stassen's de- state in the Union. For the same mand for a ban on the Communist reasons that made Dewey acceptable Party. Dewey's lieutenants claim as presidential nominee, Warren was Stassen was licked on this issue. For finally chosen as the vice-presidential the New York Governor, of course, candidate. Significantly, both Dewey the issue was not one of principle but and Warren felt impelled to clear a tactic for destroying Stassen's "lib- their skirts by putting themselves on eral" reputation. record for the Taft-Hartley Law Not associated with Congress, just before th#e conventio# #n opened. Dewey had been able to avoid taking a position on the basic conflicts rend- It would be wrong to minimize ing the nation these past two years. the part played by the candidates' While his attitude on foreign policy campaign organizations, their per- was unequivocally that of his Wall sonal ambitions, and the rivalries of Street backers, he was formally in the various state machines in deter- the clear on the Taft-Hartley Law, mining the final result. As Engels prices, taxes, civil rights, etc. Fur- once remarked, we are dealing here thermore, as Governor of the state with "great cartels of politicians, with the most powerful and vocal who are supposedly [the nation's] progressive movement, he had been servants, but who in reality exploit compelled to take a "moderate" po- and plunder the nation." This plun- sition in relation to labor, and to der and exploitation, because it is so adopt certain limited progressive enormous, is itself a big business, and measures which could be exploited the battle to get in on the inside is among Negro and Jewish groups. He no small one. had had strong A. F. of L. backing Here the Dewey organization was in his 1946 gubernatorial race. While supreme. Smooth, efficient, unham- much of this had been dissipated in pered by scruples of any kind, ex- 1947 when he promoted the Condon- ploiting every conflict and antagon- Wadlin Act to bar public workers ism, it "blitzed" the convention be- from striking, there was a chance fore an anticipated deadlock could he could regain it, certainly to a develop. greater degree than his chief rivals. This finished off Vandenberg, who At this writing, there is talk of pos- had depended upon a deadlocked sible endorsement by the New York convention which would turn to him State Federation of Labor. as the "compromise" nominee. Governor Earl Warren was in a Dewey's chief tactic was to buy ®ff strikingly similar position, but had the "favorite sons" of various dele- nothing resembling the New York gations before the nominations even Governor's organization, which for got under way. This effectively pre- . two years had been building up a net- vented a deadlock, since the large, work extending into virtually every "favorite son" vote was supposed to 716 POLITICAL AFFAIRS have been the barrier to an early blue-blood who hailed originally majority for any one candidate. from Virginia and hobnobbed with The sequence of events is interest- pro-fascist elements. Doubdess Dew- ing. On the evening of the first day ey, a smart politician, would have of the convention, Monday, June 21, preferred not to be saddled with such John Foster Dulles, Wall Street at- a character. torney and Dewey's brain-truster on But a bargain is a bargain—some- foreign policy, met with Senator Van- times. Scott's appointment as national denberg—not yet an avowed candi- chairman was insurance that Grundy date—presumably to persuade him would get federal patronage should not to allow his name to come before Dewey be elected. the convention. Apparently Dulles It was also widely believed that did not succeed. Thus, on Tuesday Dewey had promised Representative morning, Senator Edward Martin, Charles A. Halleck, the Indiana "fa- "favorite son" of the 73-man Penn- vorite son," the vice-presidential nom- sylvaijia delegation, second largest ination. According to reports, Rep- at the convention, got the "blitz" resentative Halleck understood it rolling by declaring himself for that way when he broke for Dewey. Dewey and "releasing" the Pennsyl- But Halleck is one of the "Old vania delegates from their pledge to Guard." As House majority leader, east a first ballot for him. he is tarred with the Congressional By Wednesday morning, when record. And so he was turned down Vandenberg finally got around to for Warren. declaring himself a candidate, three # # # other "favorite sons" had followed The platform adopted by the con- Martin's example. vention is, by and large, a generalized Dewey had been able to win Sena- statement of G.O.P. opposition to tor Martin by exploiting an internal most sin, to labor, and to taxes. It struggle in the Pennsylvania G.O.P. is designed to slide over differences The powerful and notoriously cor- within the G.O.P. and to obscure the rupt Grundy machine, of which Mar- real program of the party from the tin is a part, was in a scrap with people. Governor James H. Duff, who for In its foreign policy aspects, it is a reasons of his own was trying to reiteration of the bipartisan foreign build another machine. By pledging policy. Interestingly, the "nationalist" federal patronage to the Grundy ma- elements were able to wrest certain chine, Dewey was able to win its sup- verbal concessions from the dominant port. He paid off immediately by Wall Street crowd, as can be seen turning over to Grundy and Martin from a comparison of the draft plat- the choice of a G.O.P. national chair- form with the final product. They man. They chose Representative knocked out a pledge of "adequate Hugh Scott, a snobbish Philadelphia appropriations" to accompany foreign THE "GRAND" OLD PARTY 717*5 policy commitments; a reference to Taft-Ellender-Wagner housing meas- atom control by the United Nations; ure by suggesting federal public and a promise of support to the re- housing only after private housing ciprocal trades treaties, which the has failed and state and local govern- "nationalists" had succeeded in emas- ments have demonstrated they can- culating in Congress. not foot the bill. On the domestic side, the platform The final platform contains a is a distinct retreat from earlier clause, not in the original draft, call- G.O.P. pledges, which were not kept ing for application of all existing anyway. laws against the Communists and It eliminates earlier specific com- suggesting new ones be enacted if mitments for an F.E.P.C., for fed- necessary. The clause was added on eral aid to education, for extension the insistence of Representatives Karl of social security coverage to all em- Mundt and Richard Nixon, authors ployed, for assistance to farm tenants of the notorious Mundt-Nixon Bill, to buy their farms, and for crop in- who wanted a flat endorsement of surance to farmers. It opposes any their measure, and were given this as specific action to halt price increases, a compromise. confining itself to the usual G.O.P. Elimination of the more liberal- shibboleths of government "econ- sounding aspects of the draft in the omy," lower taxes, and higher pro- final platform is not, in itself, of duction as the way to bring prices great significance. It reduces by a down. It backs down on former few items the pledges the G.O.P. statements of support to public pow- will not keep and it indicates simply er projects, confining its promises that the "Old Guard" elements in only to projects associated with flood the party were powerful enough to control and waterways. It comes out limit the demagogy of the "New flatly for state ownership of the oil- Look" crowd. Both elements are rich tidelands, which the courts have adept practitioners of reaction and ruled belong to the federal govern- Red-baiting. ment. The point at issue here is that # # * the big oil monopolies are more pow- The Negro question was promi- erfully entrenched in state govern- nent in the convention, as G.O.P. ments than in the federal govern- leaders strove mightily t© try to stem ment. While that condition will not the tide toward Henry Wallace. Ef- prevail if Dewey is elected, it is forts were made to restrain the Jim- nevertheless easier for the oil mo- Crow elements and to give the im- nopolies to make under-cover deals pression that there was absolute with state governments than with equality of Negro and white within Washington. the G.O.P. It did not quite come On public housing, the platform off. adopts the position of the foes of the Out of the 1,094 delegates, there 718 POLITICAL AFFAIRS were only some 37 Negroes, accord- virtually the only one not enthusiastic ing to the best estimates available. about the record of the 80th Con- About ten were from Northern and gress. border states. The rest were from The Negro delegates were not im- the South, chiefly from Mississippi pressed by the rather frantic efforts and Georgia. Some of the Southern of convention leaders to appear as delegations were "lily-white." Others champions of equality, and several had one or two Negro delegates or were sharply critical of the way the alternates to caver up their actual convention handled the issue. "lily-white" status. The bitter creden- # # # tials committee battles around the It is fantastic to offer the G.O.P. Georgia, Mississippi, and South Car- convention as evidence that Ameri- olina delegations, behind which was can politics are democratic. In the the struggle for votes for this or that first place, the delegates are carefully Presidential candidate, revealed the screened by the state machines, them- shameful manner in which the Ne- selves usually run by the most pow- gro was being used as a catspaw by erful financial and industrial groups the party hierarchy. in the state. In most cases, the Before the convention started, a delegates are "men of substance" conference of Negro delegates pre- who, in the words of one delegate, sented the Platform Committee with must be able to "kick in" to the cam- a 9-point program on civil rights, paign "kitty." which included anti-lynch, anti-poll Secondly, even the bulk of these tax, and F.E.P.C. legislation; an end delegates have no contact with, or to Army Jim-Crow and to segrega- knowledge of, the back-room deals tion in all inter-state travel; enforce- by delegation heads which throw ment of the constitutional provision their votes one way or another. The to reduce Congressional representa- evening before Senator Martin an- tion of those states that limit the nounced himself for Dewey, the vote; federal aid to education; grant- Pennsylvania delegation had voted ing the right to vote to citzens of to back him as "favorite son" for an the District of Columbia; and ad- indefinite number of ballots. Yet he mission of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and made his announcement without Alaska as states of the Union. consultation with the delegates. He Scant attention was paid to the later had to account for his actions document, and the chairman of the to an angry caucus and did a mighty committee that drafted it, Hobson weak job of it. By that time Dewey R. Reynolds, a Philadelphia city mag- was virtually the candidate. istrate, later joined a picket line and No serious contender could pos- delegation organized by Negroes to sibly come forward who was not try to put this program through. backed by powerful financial or in- Reynolds was a convention speaker, dustrial groups prepared to spend THE "GRAND" OLD PARTY 503*5 millions to take power. These groups tinue economic policies that will control the state machines and the head us for a deep, prolonged crisis. machinery of the G.O.P. itself. It is The sham nature of the "liberal- a neat lesson in the technique by ism" of Governors Dewey and War- which the bourgeoisie in our kind ren, upon which the G.O.P. counts of democracy ensures its control of heavily to gain votes especially among the^tate apparatus. Negroes and workers, also must be brought out into the open. Their state # # * records and their public utterances The plutocratic character of the give ample evidence. of the fake G.O.P. convention needs to be wide- character of their "liberalism." ly exposed, as part of the basic task The extent to which the facts con- of exposing the two-party system. cerning the reactionary backing, pro- The apologists for the two-party sys- gram, ancl leadership of the G.O.P. tem brought into play all the tech- is brought to popular attention will niques of mass communication and help determine how great will be the propaganda on a grander scale than break-away of Republican voters to ever before to parade the convention the new party headed by Henry as an example of "democracy in ac- Wallace. There is ample evidence tion," and to cover up the domination that this break-away can be substan- of the party by Big Business. tial. The convention also has posed be- It will also help to persuade large fore progressives the task of laying sections of independents, disgusted before the public the common aim with President Truman, not to shift of all factions in the G.O.P. leader- to the G.O.P. but to switch their ship to develop aggressive imperialist vote to Henry Wallace as the sole policy which is heading us toward Presidential candidate who is a gen- a new world war, to suppress demo- uine opponent of the present war- cratic rights, to shift the inflation like foreign policy and reactionary burden onto the people and to con- direction in domestic affairs. imperialists and warmakers from THE NEW STATE turning the Middle East into a major base of military operations in a new world war. OF ISRAEL It is necessary to say at this point that the anti-imperialist forces of the By ALEXANDER BITTELMAN world, the peace forces headed "by the Soviet Union, have played a de- THE EMERGENCE of the state of Israel cisive part in enabling the Jewish at this time is of considerable inter- people of Palestine to attain their own national significance. For the Jewish state. This must be said now, not people this marks a great milestone only because many leading Zionists in its history. tend to forget it, but especially be- It can be safely assumed that the cause the fate of Israel as an inde- struggles of the Jewish masses pendent and democratic state — its against national discrimination and very existence—is inextricably bound for equal rights in countries where up with the progress and success of Jewish communities suffer from the anti-imperialist and peace camp. anti-Semitic persecutions and in- It is necessary to say further that equality, will become intensified Communists generally have played and strengthened because of the rise a very important part in the emer- of Israel. Depending upon the de- gence of the Jewish state at this gree of influence which the anti- time, and that the American Com- imperialist and labor forces in Israel munists have made serious contribu- will be able to exercise upon the tions to the struggle for Israel. policies and development of the new In this fight we were guided by state, Israel may in time become a the fact that there lived in Palestine very important factor in the struggle two peoples, not one—an Arab peo- for national liberation and for peace pie and a Jewish people—and that throughout the Middle East. the principle of national self-deter- mination required that each of these INTERNATIONAL two peoples be given the right to SIGNIFICANCE OF STRUGGLE FOR ISRAEL decide for itself the kind and form of national existence it wanted to The struggle for the independence have. and territorial integrity of the new Some comrades had difficulties for Jewish state is part of the general a while in seeing that the Jewish struggle for peace, national inde- people in Palestine had the right to pendence, and democracy. It is also self-determination. The source of a struggle for the liberation of the these difficulties was the inability to Arab peoples from British and An- recognize that the Jewish people of glo-American imperialist domina- Palestine was not just an aggrega- tion. It is a fight to prevent the tion of so many immigrants or chil- THE NEW STATE OF ISRAEL 721 dren of immigrants, but that, in the torical conditions — invalidate the course of recent history, a Jewish progressive nature of the demand, community had arisen which had Moreover, these comrades did not begun to develop all the characteris- grasp the fact that the fight for the tics of a nation—and every oppressed right to national self-determination nation is entitled to the right to self- even today, in the imperialist era, is determination. This applied equally of a general democratic character to the Arabs of Palestine whose com- and not of a socialist character, munity also began to develop the The demand for a Jewish state in characteristics of a nation. That is Palestine in past periods was not why the anti-imperialist forces, in- Utopian and reactionary because eluding the Communists, are the bourgeois nationalists were leading only consistent supporters, and now the fight for it. The demand was the best fighters, for the United Utopian and reactionary because Nations decision of November 29, there was no Jewish nation in Pal- 1947, which calls for the setting up estine and no progressive forces in- of two independent and democratic ternationally interested in and states in Palestine—a Jewish state capable of realizing this demand, and an Arab state. Secondly, there was the lack of Another source of difficulty for understanding that in the imperial- some comrades in recognizing the ist era it is the working class and progressive nature of the struggle its Marxist party that are capable for Jewish statehood in Palestine of leading a consistent fight for na- in the present period, as distinct tional self-determination and free- from the time when there were no dom. Who is it, if not the working progressive forces interested in and class, led by the Communist Parties, capable of realizing it, was the fact that is now rallying the peoples of that Zionism—bourgeois nationalism Western Europe to resist enslave- —was the original political move- ment by Wall Street imperialism ment championing the establishment and to defend the national independ- of a Jewish state in Palestine. ence of their countries? And who Here the misapprehension was is leading the fight for the national twofold. First, there was a lack of freedom of China? Again it is the realization that historically the bour- working class, led by the Commu- geoisie was the leading force in the nist Party of China, that is building rise of many nations and states, in the alliance with the peasantry, the the period when the bourgeoisie was middle classes and all other anti- still capable of progressive actions, imperialist forces, and that is lead- The fact that it was the Jewish ing the fight for national freedom, nationalist bourgeoisie which orig- There was also a certain lack of inally raised the political demand understanding that Communists can for a Jewish state could not in itself —and must—carry on the fight for —abstracted from the concrete his- the national independence of their 506 POLITICAL AFFAIRS peoples not as bourgeois nationalists Inability to see clearly that the but as working-class international- fight for Jewish statehood in Pales- ists. It is in the nature—the class tine can and must be carried on by nature—of bourgeois nationalism to Communists not as bourgeois na- tend to narrow down the fight, to tionalists but as working-class inter- vacillate between imperialism and nationalists, was in part responsible anti-imperialism, to mistrust the for the temporary difficulties of cer- working class and to seek to prevent tain comrades in recognizing the its emergence as the leader of the progressive nature of this struggle national struggle for independence in the present period. This same and, consequently, as the leader of inability to distinguish clearly the nation in the struggle for so- enough between the bourgeois-na- cialism. All this makes bourgeois tionalist and working-class interna- nationalism highly inconsistent and tionalist policies in the struggle for wavering in the fight of the people the Jewish state has been and con- for their national freedom. It pro- tinues to be a source of errors and duces tendencies of capitulation to, weaknesses of a bourgeois-national- and compromise with, imperialism, ist nature in our own midst. and strengthens the efforts of the Communists aim to help bring reactionary !forces in the Zionist about the broadest coalition of dem- movement to betray the national lib- ocratic and anti-imperialist peace eration fight completely. forces, including Jewish bourgeois But the nature of working-class nationalists, to help Israel defend internationalism is qualitatively dif- its independence, democracy, and ferent. It is consistently anti-imperi- territorial integrity. But in this broad alist and seeks the complete over- coalition movement, Communists throw of imperialist domination. It exert all their efforts to advance the bases itself upon the working class working class to positions of leader- and all the other democratic forces ship and to help the movement rise of the people and seeks to make the to the levels of ever greater anti- working class the leader of the fight. imperialist consistency—to the strug- It looks for allies internationally gle to undermine the power of the among the consistent anti-imperial- monopolies. In other words, Com- ist forces, the forces of peace, de- munists fight and work in this broad mocracy, and socialism, the camp coalition as working-class interna- headed by the Soviet Union. It links tionalists and not as bourgeois na- up the fight for national liberation tionalists. This is one of the major with the historic struggle of the ex- conclusions that can be drawn from ploited masses of the people for the application to this question of social liberation. It wages the fight the draft resolution of the National for national freedom in such a way Committee for our coming Party as to make it a stage in the struggle convention. for socialism. Consequently, we must view the THE NEW STATE OF ISRAEL 507 fight for Israel in its broadest as- ously weaken the fight for Israel by pects. It is a fight for national free- separating it from the general fight dom and independence. Why? Be- for peace, democracy, and national cause Anglo-American imperialism freedom. Opportunist tendencies to threatens at present both the terri- give in to these pressures must be torial integrity and national sov- energetically combated at the same ereignty of the new Jewish state, time beating off all sectarian re- using for this purpose the so-called sistance to the building of the broad "truce" resolution of the United coalition of Jewish democratic unity Nations and its "mediator." It is an as part of the general American peo- anti-imperialist fight for peace be- pie's anti-imperialist coalition. cause it aims to prevent Anglo- American imperialism from turning THE FIGHT FOR ISRAEL AND the Middle East and Israel into a THE INTERNAL POLITICAL strategic bridgehead for Wall Street's SITUATION OF THE U. S. new world war. It is a fight for the What is the effect of the fight for liberation of the entire Middle East Israel upon the general political from imperialist domination and situation in the United States ? What oppression—from the rule of the is the effect upon the American oil monopolies and their political Jewish national group, the immedi- agents. ate effects and those of longer range? In other words, we must see the Both parties of the Wall Street fight for Israel as an organic part monopolies are parading as the of the world struggle for peace and friends of Israel, as its fathers and democracy, AND WE MUST SO mothers, in order to win the votes WAGE IT. This means that the of the American Jews in the coming fight for Israel requires a struggle national elections. And leading against the Truman Doctrine and American Zionists are working hand Marshall Plan, against Wall Street's in hand with Wall Street's parties imperialist expansionism, against to achieve this result: Rabbi Silver Wall Street's pro-fascist offensive and his friends work for the Repub- upon the democratic liberties of the lican party, while Democratic Zion- American people at home. It means, ist politicians work for the Demo- finally, that the fight for Israel can cratic party. and will be won decisively and com- There is, of course, considerable pletely only by joining it with the worry among the imperialist poli- fight of the camp of anti-imperialism ticians and their allies in the Zionist and democracy headed by the Soviet leadership about the success of their Union. maneuvers among the Jewish masses. We must not allow ourselves to For the fact is that wide masses of be influenced by the pressures of American Jews have shed their il- bourgeois nationalism which seeks lusions about the sincerity of the to narrow down and, hence, seri- Israel-loving professions of the Tru- 724 POLITICAL AFFAIRS mans, Tafts, and Deweys, and the deeply disturbed and aroused the other Democratic and Republican masses of the American Jews. These politicians. The further fact is that masses view the major political par- the peace coalition of the American ties with great suspicion and dis- people and the Wallace-for-President trust, and the course of the fight for and third-party movement have al- Israel in the United States tends to ready penetrated very deeply into strengthen this suspicion and dis- the American Jewish national group. trust. The course of this struggle Finally, Communist influence among is also bound to hasten the turn of the more advanced Jewish masses is ever larger Jewish masses toward the distinctly on the increase due to the anti-imperialist peace coalition and vanguard activities of the Commu- the third-party movement. The nist Party in the fight for Israel, splendid fight for Israel of the Wal- even though these activities were un- lace-for-President and third-party even and not sustained. movement is making a deep impres- Thus we have two effects on the sion upon the American Jews. internal political situation arising This brings us to the effect of the from the fight around the new Jew- fight for Israel upon the American ish state. The efforts of Wall Street's Jewish national group. The first and political parties, assisted by leading most significant effect is the speedup Zionist circles, by means of pro-Israel in the process of political realign- demagogy, to bind the Jewish masses ment among the American Jewish to the imperialists, to prevent them masses. Basic sections of the Jewish from joining the anti-imperialist bourgeoisie, assimilationist as well as camp of the American people and Zionist, together with the Right So- the third-party movement, to get the cial-Democrats and reactionary trade votes of the Jewish masses for the union bureaucrats of the Forward Democratic and Republican parties and "Jewish Labor Committee" —this is one effect which, if uncom- group, are becoming ever more bated by the anti-imperialist forces, closely attached to the imperialist may achieve certain successes. war camp of Wall Street. On the The other effect is the process of other hand, the masses of Jewish disillusionment in the two major workers, middle classes, profes- parties among wide Jewish masses, sionals, and intellectuals are mov- including broad Zionist circles, due ing in ever larger numbers into the to the insincerities and outright anti-imperialist camp of peace and treacheries of these parties with re- democracy. The fight for Israel is spect to Israel. Moreover, the un- deeply influencing and hastening folding of the bipartisan foreign this process of realignment. policy of Wall Street imperialist ex- For the issue now among the pansion and war preparation, ac- American Jewish masses is no companied by a pro-fascist and anti- longer: for or against the establish- Semitic offensive at home, has ment of a Jewish state in Palestine. 509 THE NEW STATE OF ISRAEL With the emergence of Israel, as we sues that ever wider masses of anticipated in December, 1947, the American Jews move toward the major issue is turning around the anti-imperialist peace camp and the question: How shall we help Israel people's peace coalition. to maintain its independence, na- Naturally, the Zionist movement tional sovereignty, and territorial in- in the United States is beginning to tegrity? Do we want to help Israel be affected by this process of realign- grow and develop as a state of real ment. While there are as yet few or- democracy and social progress, as a ganized expressions of this process, state of a new people's democracy, it is beyond doubt that the minds of or are we satisfied to let Israel be- the masses influenced by and follow- come a cog in the American or ing the Zionist movement are Anglo-American imperialist war agitated and disturbed by the fact machine, dominated and exploited that the official Zionist leadership internally by the Wall Street and (Silver, Newman, etc.) is doing prac- its native—Israeli—bourgeois agents ? tically nothing to help Israel defend How can we help Israel become an its sovereignty and territorial in- equal and respected partner in the tegrity at a moment when American great, powerful world camp of and British imperialism are present- peace, national freedom, democracy, ing such grave threats to the new and socialism, headed by the Soviet Jewish state. Zionists are asking: Union? why is our movement doing nothing These are now the major issues to ward off these threats? How can in the fight for Israel that are agi- Rabbi Silver's political collaboration tating the Jewish people everywhere, with Taft and Dewey help Israel including the American Jewish na- when the main line of Republican tional group, and especially in Israel Party policy is the Dulles-Marshall- itself. It is around these issues that Vandenberg bipartisan line of Wall the political struggle is unfolding Street and the oil monopolies—the between the anti-imperialist and line of destroying Israel's independ- democratic forces in Jewish life, ence and of turning it into a strategic headed by the Jewish workers, on bridgehead for Wall Street's next the one hand, and the supporters of world war? How can political col- imperialism and reaction, headed by laboration with the Democratic big capitalists, reactionary bourgeois Party, advocated by Democratic nationalists and the Right Social- Zionists, help Israel, when the Dem- Democrats of the Forward. These ocratic Party administration is fol- issues are already becoming tied up lowing the same line? with the broad major issues of the The anti-imperialist forces among American people against Wall Street, the American Jews must pay con- namely, peace and democracy versus siderably more attention than here- war and fascism. It is in the strug- tofore to helping the Zionist-influ- gle for Israel around these new is- enced masses find the correct answer 726 POLITICAL AFFAIRS to these crucial questions. That an- and socialism, headed by the Soviet swer is that all genuine friends of Union. Israel — Zionist and non-Zionist — It is a fight against the pro-im- must together fight Wall Street's im- perialist and reactionary forces in perialist offensive and its two parties. Israel—the forces that aim to make The answer is for Zionists to build the new Jewish state a cog in Wall up a strong anti-imperialist move- Street's imperialist war machine, an ment within American Zionism—a object of economic exploitation and movement that will be of real help oppression by Wall Street trusts and to Israel as well as to the cause of their Israeli bourgeois agents, a pup- progress and equal rights in the pet and instrument of American United States. The answer is for pro- imperialism. The American Jewish gressive Zionists to become active masses, including the Zionist masses, builders of the democratic unity of have a duty and responsibility to the American Jews, as part of the help the progressive and anti-im- anti-fascist unity of the American perialist forces in Israel to make the people as a whole, to fight for Israel's new Jewish state a factor for progress independence and democracy, to and democracy, a Jewish national fight for the rights and survival of center of which progressive Jews the Jewish people everywhere, in- everywhere will be proud, a people's eluding the United States. state of social justice which will be admired and supported by all pro- In Israel itself, the process of re- gressive humanity. alignment is developing with con- The struggle for Israel along these siderable intensity. Forces are com- anti-imperialist and progressive fines ing to expression that are working is bound to have lasting long-range for the unity of all anti-imperialist effects upon the further development and democratic elements. These of the American Jewish national forces are found inside the Zionist group. It will heighten the feeling movement in Israel. An important of dignity, confidence, and self-re- force is the Communist movement. spect among the Jewish masses. It And the perspective of the struggle will tend to strengthen their fighting is already becoming visible. capacity against anti-Semitism and It is the struggle for an inde- for equal rights. It will thus enable pendent and democratic Israel, as a them to become more valuable part- state of real democracy and social ners and collaborators in the general justice, seeking to help the national progressive movement of the Ameri- liberation movements of the Arab can people, headed by labor. It peoples and lands, aiming to be- should make them better fighters come a factor of democracy, peace, for the equal rights of the Negro and social progress in the Middle people and for the realization of the East, and collaborating actively with Negro people's national aspirations the world camp of peace, democracy, in the Black Belt of the South. It is THE NEW STATE OF ISRAEL 727 bound to make of the masses of the Jewish national group, helping to American Jewish national group build and consolidate the democratic more valuable fighters for the equal unity of the Jewish masses, linking rights of all national groups and it up with the general democratic against the whole Wall Street im- and anti-monopoly coalition of the perialist system of national discrimi- American people, combating and nation and oppression by the Anglo- isolating among the Jewish masses Saxon "master" and "white" race in the pro-imperialist, Social-Demo- the United States. Influenced by the cratic and reactionary-nationalist progressive and Communist forces, forces. At the same time, we must the masses of the American Jewish meet the ideological and political national group will become a more tas\ of promoting the leadership of effective force in the general anti- the wording class in the democratic imperialist and anti-monopoly coali- unity of the American Jews. We tion of the American people, headed must build the strength and author by labor, and in the new people's ity of the Communist Party among ׳party. the Jewish masses. We must culti It is clear that these developments vate and spread the ideology of around the fight for Israel will tend wording-class internationalism ver- to strengthen all those tendencies sus bourgeois nationalism. which work for the perpetuation and All these tasks go together, hand survival of the Jewish national group in hand, inseparably. One without as a national group. Jewish conscious- the other has no meaning for Com- ness and national pride will grow munists, and must result in failure. and become more intense, especially And this is another major, if not the among the Jewish youth. Bourgeois major, conclusion to be drawn in nationalism will seek to exploit applying the line of the draft reso- these developments, and so will sec- lution to this question. tions of the assimilationist big Jew- We can safely assume that as long ish bourgeoisie and Right-wing So- as the struggle for Israel is a vital cial-Democracy which are beginning issue in American Jewish life, which to parade as "national-minded" will probably be the case as long as Jews, making "friendly" gestures in the struggle for peace of the present the direction of Jewish bourgeois period is a vital issue in the life of nationalism. Finally, we must not humanity, just so long will the tend- overlook the clerical-nationalist ef- encies working for the survival of forts of the Temples and Syna- the American Jewish national group gogues, particularly among Jewish continue to be strengthened, even children and their young parents. though assimilationist tendencies will This presents us with ideological also continue to operate. This can be and political tasks of the first mag- assumed to be true, in the main if nitude. We must fight to promote not in all particulars, for those Jew- the realignment in the American ish communities (Latin America, 728 POLITICAL AFFAIRS Canada, England, France) which made public on July 4, seek to give have similarities to the Jewish com- expression to some of these im- munity in the United States. Should perialist objectives. According to, Israel develop along the lines of a these proposals, King Abdullah of progressive and truly people's state Trans-Jordan, an agent of British of social justice, becoming a collabo- imperialism, would receive the fol- rator in the world camp of peace, lowing: the Arab part of Palestine, democracy, and socialism, this will which is to become an independent most certainly tend to strengthen state according to the U.N. partition very greatly all tendencies working decision, Jerusalem, Israel's Negev, for the survival of the Jewish people and privileges in Israel's port of as a people. Haifa. The curtailed territory of Our task is to make sure that these Israel would then be "joined" to survival tendencies operate on the Abdullah's greatly enlarged Trans- lines of progress, democracy, and Jordan in a sort of fake "federal" re- socialism. lationship, with immigration into Israel greatly limited, and with DEFEAT THE ANGLO- American and British imperialism AMERICAN IMPERIALIST dominating the whole "new" state. CONSPIRACY AGAINST ISRAEL Under this treacherous scheme, Under cover of the truce resolu- imperialist rule would be reestab- tion for Palestine, Wall Street's di- lished and strengthened in Pales- plomacy is seeking to promote an tine and in the entire Middle East understanding with Bevin which under the management of Wall would nullify in fact the partition Street and its junior British partner. decision of the United Nations. Israel will cease to exist as an inde- Rivalry in the Middle East exists in pendent state. Intensive war prep- plenty between British and Ameri- arations would begin at once to turn can imperialism. Therefore, much Palestine and the entire Middle East bargaining is taking place on the into a jumping-off place for a new road to such an understanding. But world war—a war against the Soviet this is the objective: to establish Union, the colonial peoples, the new American and British imperialist democracies, and against all demo- rule in the Middle East by a division cratic and socialist movements. of spheres of influence and regions, For the Jewish people, in Israel to retain and extend the American and everywhere, the immediate task and British oil monopoly there, to is clear. It is to unite their own keep the Arab peoples in subjection, forces, and join with the antl-im- to destroy Israel or make it a minor perialist and democratic peace forces puppet, and to turn the Middle East of the world to defeat this imperial- into a strategic bridgehead for Wall ist conspiracy. It is to fight to save Street's next world war. the territorial integrity and national Bernadotte's "peace" proposals sovereignty of Israel. In the United THE NEW STATE OF ISRAEL 729 States, it is the task of the demo- of wavering and hesitating bourgeois cratic forces of the American Jews, nationalism. We must not let the together with all democratic forces, fight for Israel become separated to demand of the government: from the fight for peace and democ- 1. Help realize the partition de- racy, because the surest way to win cision of the United Nations of Israel's battle is to strengthen the November 29, 1947, for the estab- fight against Wall Street's warmak- lishment in Palestine of two inde- ing and pro-fascist offensive in gen- pendent and democratic states—a eral. Jewish state and an Arab state. When we fight against the bi- 2. Grant Israel official recognition partisan foreign policies of Tru- and at once exchange fully accred- man, Marshall, Dewey, Vandenberg, ited diplomatic representatives. Dulles, etc., we fight the very source 3. Support in the Security Council of the imperialist treacheries against the proposal that the Council itself, Israel. When we fight for peace and and not the mediator and so-called rally mass support for the proposals truce commission, assume direct of Wallace's Open Letter to Stalin charge of realizing the partition de- calling for conversations and nego- cision. tiations between the United States 4. Abandon the unjust and dan- and the Soviet Union, we are fight- gerous policy of excluding the Soviet ing for the independence of Israel Union from the U.N. agencies for and all peoples threatened by Anglo- Palestine. American imperialism. But when 5. Lift the embargo and remove we fail to resist the pressures of the blockade from Israel. bourgeois nationalism to isolate the It is imperative that all Jewish fight for Israel from the general organizations sincerely supporting fight of the American people against Israel undertake joint actions in Wall Street's imperialist and reac- struggle for these and all other de- tionary offensive (for the Wallace mands that may help to defeat the peace proposals, against the Mundt newest Wall Street-Bevin imperialist Bill and similar pro-fascist meas- conspiracy against Israel. It is im- ures, for the repeal of the Taft-Hart- perative that all progressive forces ley slave labor law, etc.), we fail ׳of the American people, especially most seriously in our duties as van labor, and the third-party movement, guard. We fail to project and to win rally the masses in this important support within the broad demo- phase of struggle against Wall cratic unity of the Jewish people Street's war offensive, and for peace for the most effective way of fight- and democracy. ing for Israel. And this is in no way Communists must make sure that contrary to the policy of building in carrying on this fight we resist the broadest unity of action in sup- all tendencies to narrow down the port of Israel, including among sup- struggle for Israel to the concepts porters of bourgeois nationalism. 730 POLITICAL AFFAIRS Communists must also make sure This means that in the struggle for that the unity in this struggle for Israel we must seek to build a coali- Israel is built primarily from be- tion along the same general lines: all low, among the masses. We must Jewish anti-imperialists, supporters make sure that it is a unity of action of the fight for peace and enemies of and struggle, of struggle for demands fascism must gather into one camp that can really help Israel resist im- to fight the servants and supporters perialist pressures and blackmail. of imperialism among the Jewish But in doing so, let us not fail to people—to fight for Israel and equal utilize the pressures of the masses Jewish rights. Here a most crucial from below to win the participation field of struggle is the fight for the of leading individuals, groups, and realignment in the Zionist move- organizations. ment of the United States, for win- In all these activities we must be ning the mass supporters and follow- guided by our main orientation on ers of the Zionist movement for joint promoting the realignment within actions for Israel and the Jewish peo- the American Jewish national group. pie in general. We must not allow This means building and consoli- sectarian pressures to interfere with dating a democratic unity of the Jew- our work in this important field. ish people, as part of the general This is a third major conclusion American peace coalition, along the that can be drawn from the appli- lines of anti-imperialism, peace and cation of the draft resolution to this democracy versus imperialism, na- question. tional oppression, war, and fascism. PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSSION A Few Thoughts on Our Perspectives By GIL GREEN

OUR PARTY can well be proud of its At the same time it must be noted record of struggle since the emer- that our Party does suffer from many gency convention at which it was grave weaknesses. In this period of reconstituted on Marxist-Leninist pre-convention discussions we must principles. focus sharper attention on these The period of the past three years weaknesses so as to be able more has been one of incessant reactionary consciously and effectively to eradi- attack in which American imperial- cate them. ism emerged arrogantly as the chief LACK OF PERSPECTIVE enemy of peace and democracy throughout the world. One of our main weaknesses is As was to be expected, the main ideological. Ofttimes one has occa- fire of the foe has been concentrated sion to note that our whole Party upon our Party. It has withstood does not yet grasp all the main fea- these attacks with honor and deliv- tures of the present period, but tends ered important counterblows. to see things in an oversimplified There can be no doubt that the and one-sided fashion which distorts main line of our Party during this perspective. There is not everywhere period has been basically correct and that understanding of the relation- that the line of the national resolu- ship of class forces—not only as it tion submitted for our Convention manifests itself today, but as it is is likewise sound. The most valid developing for tomorrow—that can criticism of the present draft, and imbue our whole party with a firm, we of the national committee should unshakeable confidence in itself, in take note of this, is that it is ex- the American working class, and in cessively long and repetitious in style ultimate victory. And supreme con- —so that much of the fauna of basic fidence in victory is essential for every analysis is lost in the flora of words. army, political no less than military, Once this weakness is corrected, the particularly at times of enemy on- resolution can provide our Party slaught. with the necessary Marxist-Leninist I do not say that there is a ques- compass by which to sail the un- tioning anywhere in our ranks of charted seas of the even more turbu- the inevitable victory of our socialist lent period ahead. cause. But some comrades see this as 73! 732 POLITICAL AFFAIRS something in the far distant future, is inevitable. These comrades view while for the forseeable future they every reactionary blow as being perceive either darkness or a rather synonymous with fascism. Hence hazy fog. they fail to see the process by which In the Illinois district we have fascism is being prepared and they come across isolated expressions of underestimate the possibilities for this tendency. In one section, for arousing and uniting large masses example, a comrade saw no chance to arrest this process. In fact, they of defeating the recent Mundt Bill unwittingly underestimate the mean- and felt that the funds used in the ing and danger of fascism, for if fight against it were being wasted. fascism is already here, there is noth- Events have proved him wrong ing worse to fear—which on the very about the Mundt Bill, but this com- face of it is absurd. rade also betrayed a rather strange In the trade union movement we concept of struggle—for even if the have also noted expressions of despair bill had been passed, only the prior and panic at moments of temporary mass fight to. defeat it could have setbacks and defeats. This arises laid the base for continuing the from a failure to see the war for the struggle under the new conditions. battle, from a tendency to view the And the struggle must continue re- battle as an end in itself and not as gardless of the conditions. part of a war of many battles. Among our foreign-born comrades I do not want to leave the impres- there is a justifiable pride in the great sion that the above tendencies are achievements of the peoples of their either numerous or widespread, but lands of birth. But among some of that they do exist at all, in any form, them this is also coupled with a can only be traced to a lack of pessimism and unconcealed contempt ideological clarity on our perspec- for the American working class and tives, flowing from a poor grounding its progressive and revolutionary po- in Marxism-Leninism. tentials. While one can understand the feelings of impatience with the EXAGGERATE STRENGTH slowness of awakening in this coun- OF ENEMY try, the attitude of these comrades What is the root cause for moods is harmful and wrong. It will not of this kind? In my opinion they help improve our mass work. It can stem in the main from an exag- only lead to a negative, sectarian gerated estimate of the strength of withdrawing from the patient, pains- American imperialism and an un- taking task of enlightenment and derestimation of the latent power struggle. and strength of the working class. A few comrades have also ex- True, American imperialism is the pressed their beliefs that fascism is strongest power in the capitalist already here, or that the trend in world. True, also, that the present this direction is so far gone that it course of the ruling class to subju- ׳ PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSSION 733 gate the rest of the world by a com- especially the Anglo-American con- bination of economic, political, and tradiction. military means, is not a temporary In the United States, the relation- or transitory development. It repre- ship of forces is not the same as on a sents a fixed course, for there is no world scale. Here reaction does at other that American imperialism can present have the upper hand. But— pursue in the world of today. and this is of decisive importance— But this very truism is more an given the necessary fortitude and indication of the inherent weakness struggle on the part of our Party, of monopoly capital than of its and its ability to link itself together strength. In fact, th? source of its with, and give leadership to, ever greatest strength — a productive wider masses, the relationship of power greater than the rest of the forces within this country can also capitalist world combined — is the be changed. It will take some time very source of its greatest weakness. to accomplish this, but there should For American capitalism is plagued be no doubt in our minds but that it by an insoluble contradiction, in the can be done. long run more acute for it than for any other capitalist power. This is EFFECTS OF ECONOMIC BOOM the contradiction between its im- It must be seen that some of the mensely expanded productive capac- difficulties of struggle in this coun- ity and its constantly narrowing try today arise from certain factors market possibilities. Thus it can be that have temporarily operated in said that the iron heel of American favor of the ruling class. First and imperialism is also an Achilles heel. foremost of these has been the ex- American imperialism cannot re- istence of an economic boom. The solve this basic contradiction by its wartime and postwar economic effort at world expansion. All it can booms have created many illusions. do is temporarily postpone the ulti- Despite the growing inflation and mate day of reckoning, and this at huge profiteering which have re- the price of sharpening all world duced living standards, the bour- contradictions. As our national reso- geoisie has been able to maintain lution correctly indicates, the forces relatively full employment and to of the working class and of peace use its gluttonous super-profits to and democracy on a world scale are bribe and corrupt strata of the popu- stronger than those of American im- lation. It is precisely this subtle com- perialism and its reactionary satel- bination of outright assault coupled lites. And as the struggle for world with economic bribery that makes markets, for investment outlets, and the present moment so complicated for sources of raw materials sharp- and creates confusion and illusions ens, we are going to witness a sharp- on a wide scale. It is this which has ening also of the contradictions made possible a temporary mass base within the imperialist camp itself, for the opportunist lackeys of Wall 734 POLITICAL AFFAIRS Street in the ranks of organized cious to believe that it has succeeded labor. in indefinitely postponing this crisis. Some sections of the working Had the program which our Party class, large sections of the middle advanced to meet the oncoming class and the farming population crisis been put into effect, the crisis are affected by this. Certainly, the could have been postponed for a boom in agriculture of the past ten longer period of time and its depth years is a far cry from the chronic and extent somewhat diminished. agricultural crisis that hung its pall But the licentious profiteering, the over the countryside from 1920 uncontrolled inflation, the irrespon- all the way to World War II. While sible speculation, the rejection of many farmers have been hard hit by every demand for increased social the rising prices of manufactured security, the refusal to raise real goods, while many eke out but a wages and to adopt a slum clearance bare existence from their own sweat and housing program, are all factors and toil, there can be no doubt that that hasten the crisis and indicate the agricultural boom has been a that when it breaks it will be with deterrent to their being drawn into unprecedented violence. The very the struggle on a scale such as will means of artificial respiration by be possible tomorrow. which the bourgeoisie has under- But every passing month will taken to postpone the crisis, only bring a sharpening of the inherent guarantee that when it does come contradictions of American capital- the patient will be very sick indeed. ism. As world agricultural produc- And because the rest of world capi- tion returns to "normal," the crisis talist economy has never been so in American agriculture will become dependent upon Wall Street as it is more imminent, and this agrarian today, the crash in America will have crisis may break even before the wide reverberations throughout the economic crisis itself. And when the capitalist world. horrors of an economic crisis de- The coming economic crisis must scend upon the land, the ruling class therefore be part of the thinking of will no longer be able to maneuver our Party if it is to have a clear per- in the same way, nor have the same spective for the period ahead. This material reserves with which to bribe crisis will bring untold suffering to and corrupt. tens of millions. And the ruling class, having less maneuvering room, THE COMING CRASH will even more unabashedly remove Because the bourgeoisie has been its democratic mask and attempt to able to ward off temporarily the out- carry out its plunderous objectives break of the economic crisis through by brute force—at home and abroad its much more than tenfold increase —if it can get away with it. in military expenditures and through Thus the approach of an economic the Marshall Plan, it would be falla- crisis will not remove the danger ׳ PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSSION 735 of war and fascism. In a certain instinctively sensed by large masses sense it will increase it. For the rul- who may never have heard of the ing class has learned something from general crisis of capitalism and who world history and from the last eco- may even be conscious defenders of nomic crisis. That is why it is trying the capitalist system. But uncon- to meet this crisis in advance with sciously there is a growing question- fascism and war—the only ways by ing, a growing uncertainty, skep- which it believes it can cheat history ticism, and doubt. from paying the full penalty for its In contrast with the period of eco- crimes. But this, is not entirely up nomic boom which preceded the to it, for it will still have to reckon 1929 tailspin, when large masses be- with the people. lieved that the Kellogg Peace Pact One thing is certain. The out- had outlawed war for all time and break of the economic crisis will un- that American capitalism had found leash forces on an unprecedented the secret of perpetual economic mo- magnitude and scale. Whether un- tion and permanent prosperity, the der such circumstances the Ameri- present period is one of ever gnaw- can people, under the leadership of ing fear of impending disaster, the working class, will be able to whether of a new war or an eco- establish the necessary understand- nomic crash. Even the conservative ing and unity to take a leap forward middle-western farmer who may tell in the fight for democracy, peace, you he is earning more today than and socialism, will depend in no previously, will also, with a worried small part on our Party and on how look in his eyes, tell you that it can't it fights and works today. last, that we're sitting on an eco- That is why every battle is so im- nomic volcano which is sure to erupt. portant, why the enemy is so fearful It is this highly charged atmos- of our Party, even though it is still phere—constantly recharged by war- far from being a mass Party, and hysteria and war preparations, by why the enemy is consciously trying rising prices, by reactionary attacks to build up a mass base for an upon labor, the Negro people, and American form of Social-Democracy civil rights—which has made pos- which can mislead militant masses. sible the emergence of something And the possibilities for struggle to- qualitatively new in American po- day are truly enormous. litical life—a new political party. The birth of this third party, based EFFECTS OF DEEPENING on a new coalition of class group- GENERAL CRISIS ings directed against the parties of If this is a period of economic monopoly capital, is something pro- boom, it is no normal such period. foundly significant not only for the It operates within the framework of 1948 elections, but for the whole the deepening general crisis of the future of this country. In this year world capitalist system. And this is 1948, it is possible to lay the steel 520 POLITICAL AFFAIRS and granite foundations for a giant immense and expanding opportuni- political skyscraper that can in a ties, and the inevitable trend ahead. relatively short period of time domi- We must constantly remember what nate the American scene—just as the Engels emphasized a number of Republican Party, born in 1854, took times for America—that when the over the reigns of government in mass awakening begins here, it will i860. move with a specific American The great opportunities for un- tempo, with seven league boots, and folding mass struggles, for delivering rush rapidly toward a climax. En- blows against reaction and also win- gels drew this conclusion from ning partial victories, can be seen watching the struggle in America in two recent developments. First in the period of still ascendant capi- of these was the defeat of the Mundt talism. How much more true is this Bill, which, as Comrade Foster has for the period of the general crisis already pointed out, constitutes an of capitalism. important victory, even if not a de- Bearing this perspective in mind, cisive one. The second example is it is our great historic responsibility the wage movement. Big Business today, so to build and strengthen our had made up its mind ruthlessly to party, ideologically and organiza- block any attempts at a third round tionally; so to steel our Party in of wage increases. Reactionary labor struggle and prepare it for rapid leaders were ready to go along with shifts in the forms of struggle; so -un׳/this, while liberals were ready to to utilize every opportunity t0 throw in the sponge. The New York dermine the lackeys of imperialism PM, in one of its week-end editions, in the ranks of labor and the people, carried the following front page as to prepare ourselves and great headline: "CIO'S 3RD ROUND mass reserves for the even more de- WAGE DRIVE FACES DISAS- cisive battles ahead. TER." But it was PM that faced This means that we cannot oper- disaster, not the wage fight, for due ate on a hand-to-mouth basis, from to the correct policy of our Party, campaign to campaign and from due to the superb militancy of work- issue to issue. Through every cam- ers in such industries as packing, paign and every struggle must run printing, auto and farm equipment, a red thread which links all these a third round of wage increases is together in an over-all strategy aim- taking place. ing at the solution of our most fundamental problems. This is too THE GROWING AWAKENING often lacking in our work today. In viewing the American scene Frequently, we are so intent on mak- today, it is therefore incumbent upon ing the next move on the chess us to see the difficulties and not to board, that the move is not suf- underestimate them, but also to see ficiently related to the strategy the growing signs of awakening, the needed for winning the game itself. ׳ PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSSION 737

THE PARTY MUST LEARN talked much of this, but there are TO CONCENTRATE whole states and hundreds of im- Our Party must co-ordinate and portant industrial communities in plan its work far better than it has which we have no organization to date. We must guarantee a better whatsoever. The whole area from distribution of our human and ma- the Mississippi River to California terial resources to the decisive tasks is still largely undiscovered territory and the key fronts of struggle. We for our Party, its soil rich with mili- must give far more attention to the tant tradition, but lying fallow. training and promotion of new It may appear that to raise the cadres, coming from struggle and question of building our Party on a especially from the ranks of the national scale is to violate the pre- workers, the Negro people, and the cept of concentration. But this is youth. And above all else, we must not so. Many of the basic industries learn how to CONCENTRATE of this country are located in states on that which is decisive, even at and areas of states in which we are the expense of temporarily weaken- exceedingly weak. ing other things.fr We must rekindle a crusading, pioneering spirit in our ranks and Key to everything is the strength- particularly among our youth. More ening of our Party's work in indus- comrades must be ready to volunteer try and, in the first place, the basic to meet the rigors and trial of going industries. Let us admit quite frankly where they are most needed. that our work is not yet concen- trated upon winning the working Our Party must grow in strength class. Let us also admit that the class and influence everywhere, but we composition of our Party is poor cannot merely permit this growth to for a working-class party and that take place spontaneously. If we do, we have not made much headway we shall not build either a Party in improving it. But the winning of rooted deeply in the basic working the working class MUST be the class or one national in scope. And central orientation of our Party, we of the larger centers such as New whether in the building of the third- York, Los Angeles, Chicago, etc., party movement or in anything else must be ready to see this problem we do. This understanding must and give up some of the narrow permeate our entire organization, provincialism that characterizes our every section and branch of it. approach today. To distribute our forces and resources correctly, at each level of Party organization, and. in BUILD THE PARTY accord with a plan of concentration, ON NATIONAL SCOPE is one of the chief tasks before us. Our party, too, must more aggres- These are but two of the larger sively break through and become a problems we must give thought to party on a national scale. We have when we begin to approach our 738 POLITICAL AFFAIRS work with greater perspective, not ones to come and prepare for them just for the moment but for a longer in time. Only in this way can we period of time. Our Party is today build the kind of Party that can immersed in many battles and these fulfill its historic responsibilities with are of great importance^ but we must honor as a true vanguard of the also foresee the even more crucial American working class and people. For New Approaches To Our Work Among Women

By CLAUDIA JONES

THE DRAFT RESOLUTION places as the party and in their fight against high central task before our Party the prices, war, and for democratic lib- building of the people's anti-mo- erties. While the resolution notes nopoly and peace coalition against that a mood of resistance is growing American imperialism. It likewise among American women, it does not stresses the imperative need for the sufficiently expose the attempts being people's coalition, and particularly the made by the monopolists to influence working class, to fight aggressively them. on those issues which can win the The importance of winning Amer- support of every section of the popu- ican women, especially in working- lation that can add solidity, numbers, class and Negro communities, to and strength to the battle against militant resistance to Wall Street's American imperialism. program of fascism and war, can be The resolution, however, does not fully understood only if we correctly sufficiendy stress the need for the assess the decisive role American people's coalition to fight for the women can play in the political life special social, economic and political of the nation, needs of the masses of American To begin with, women repre- women. Nor does it emphasize the sent over half of the nation. More- Party's vanguard responsibility in or- over, there are nearly 16 million ganizing and winning working-class women wage-earners, one-fifth of women to the anti-imperialist camp, whom are heads of families. Thirty- The resolution does not ade- seven million women are housewives quately emphasize the developing in cities or on farms. Eight per cent counter-offensive of the women of these are working mothers. There themselves, as evidenced in their are forty-seven million women eli- growing interest in the new people's gible to vote in the United States— ׳ PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSSION 739 over a million and a half more than service fields, which means that rates men! received by women workers are low- As regards their degree of organi- er than those they received in war- zation, nearly 30 million women are time jobs. There are growing trends organized in various types of clubs which show that these postwar em- arid national women's organizations ployment difficulties are falling most which are, in the main, bourgeois- heavily on Negro women, who were led. the first to be fired in the layoffs * « * especially in the heavy industries. Wall Street imperialism has not We are beginning to witness a grow- been lax in recognizing the poten- ing trend in which Negro women tially powerful political force that wartime workers are being forced women represent. It is paying in- back into domestic work because no creasing attention to reaching and special fight has been put up to se- influencing them. As part and par- cure jobs for them in basic industry eel of its general reactionary offen- by the trade unions. Generally, a sive, it has, since the war's end, retraining job program must be out- unfolded a tremendous ideological lined and fought for by the trade campaign, to influence the minds of unions, if the wartime skills gained the people along reactionary chan- by women are not to be completely nels as regards American women. obliterated. While women are "still Heart of its ideological campaign a major factor in industry, in the is the false Hitlerite slogan that whole national economy, and in the "women's place is in the home." labor movement" as the draft reso- This slogan is primarily designed to lution notes, their widespread ouster obscure the source of the many ex- from heavy industry during recon- isting inequalities in the social posi- version has resulted in a general tion of women in the United States. falling off of their membership in the It further seeks to obscure the fact trade unions. that the many social and economic The drive of reaction, has on the advances made by women during whole, not succeeded in ousting the anti-fascist war are today being women from industry. This is due undermined. mainly to their determination to No sooner was the war ended than remain in industry and trade union a drive was made to send women protection won in some industries back into the kitchen. In place of during the war. As evidenced in nu- employer eulogies to "angels with merous polls, moreover, work for dirty faces" women are discovering these women is a necessity, to make that because of their sex they have ends meet, because of invalid hus- two strikes against them today in bands, sickness, inadequate wages competing for jobs. of their menfolk, support of their Furthermore, the majority of job families, etc. openings are in clerical, sales, and The present reactionary attack on 740 POLITICAL AFFAIRS the position and condition of women quate medical and nursing services, in industry should be a challenge to for correcting the completely inade- progressive trade unions to organize quate and obsolete conditions in the women workers. The demands for public schools, are burning issues in a retraining program, for equal pay the minds of millions of women. for e«[ual work, for protective legis- Around such issues we can help lation for women, which monopoly women to more deeply understand the real significance of the Marshall ־capitalism seeks to remove by Con stitutional amendment, loom today Plan. We can show, them that the as some of the major issues with Marshall Plan and the Truman Doc- which to reach the woman wage trine mean sacrificing the living earner. Some reactionary successes in standards and the educational sys- wiping out progressive legislation tem of the people. We can show and in extending the working day them that the drive to militarize and for women occurred last year with draft our youth means retrenchment very little protest by the trade in higher education and discouraging unions. The emasculation of the ap- the enrollment of our young people propriations by the G.O.P.-controlled in the colleges. We can above all Congress has also seriously crippled expose the reactionary essence of the valuable work of the Women's monopoly capitalism, which on the and Children's Bureaus of the De- one hand clouts the women with partment of Labor. rocketing prices, housing shortages, hysterical threats of war; while, on Side by side with attempts to the other, it woos them with free put women back into the kitchen movies, speakers, etc., on the glories has come a serious reduction of the of American "free enterprise." all too inadequate social services. The wartime nursery program for The drive of American reaction working mothers has been cut down to force American women into a re- to a minimum. The threatened new actionary path must not be permitted rise in the price of milk menaces to succeed. The burning problems the health of millions of children. of the American women, if correctly The refusal of Governor Dewey to understood and fought for by the appropriate funds for the all-too- people's coalition, can succeed in few child care centers in New York making the masses of American State is an index of the callous at- women, and especially the working- titudes which prevail in both of the class women, a powerful force for major parties toward the needs of progress. It is clear therefore that in children. such a situation our Party must cor- rectly assess its own activities as re- It is around such issues that mil- gards work among women, if it is to lions of women can be reached in play its vanguard role in this impor- the communities. Concern for the tant sphere of the struggle for peace health of their children, for ade- and progress. ׳ PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSSION 525 Let us estimate the extent to which has been failure to sufficiently inte- we have progressed in this vital grate the work of these commissions sphere since the emergency conven- with that of other Party departments. tion. This is indicative of a general ten- In February, 1947, our Party es- dency to relegate this phase of work tablished a National Women's Com- to the women themselves, and to mission. Its establishment marked consider questions of policy with re- a significant reaffirmation of the gard to mass work of women the importance of Communist work sole responsibility of the commissions among women. and our women comrades in mass Our Commission has functioned organizations. rather regularly, and we were able If we ask ourselves why this sit- in the course of the year to estab- uation exists, I believe we would lish twelve similar commissions on a have to conclude that it is primarily state scale. These exist in the follow- due to the fact that our Party, has ing districts and cities: Ohio, Michi- failed to place the question of theo- gan, New York, Chicago, Eastern retical understanding of the worn- Pennsylvania, Western Pennsylvania, an question as a "must" for every San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Party member. Absence of this Washington, New Jersey, and Hous- theoretical understanding has resulted ton. in failure to combat male-chauvinist These commissions were estab- tendencies which are rampant in our lished in most cases as a result of Party. It has resulted in failure con- special women's conferences called by sistently to assign women comrades our Party districts and sections. This to mass work, without which we can has proved a healthy means of as- never root our work in this sphere sessing their needs, concrete prob- among the working-class and Ne- lems and ties in the community and gro women particularly. of raising Party sensitivity as a The recent establishment by our whole to the needs of women in National Board, at the initiative of general. Comrade Foster, of a special sub- It has proved valuable likewise in committee to deal with theoretical convincing many women comrades aspects of the woman question, (skeptical with justifiable reasons) marks the first serious step in the that our Party was serious about necessary process of equipping our this phase of work. This skepticism Party to overcome this serious weak- will not be eliminated solely by the ness. formation of women's commissions; As regards Party organization gen- it will only be eliminated if our erally, we are only beginning to find Party as a whole really begins to the special methods and forms neces- tackle these problems theoretically sary for greater activization of our and practically. women comrades. Some of the forms A general weakness of our work which have brought results and 526 POLITICAL AFFAIRS which should be further developed as follows: 1) A failure to make the are: decisions and experiences and prob- 1) National cadre and regional lems of the Commission the prop- schools for theoretical training of erty of the entire Party; 2) failure to our women comrades. equip our Party more regularly with 2) Daytime classes for our women facts on trends among women and comrades. Such classes have been held to organize an exchange of experi- in practically all major districts. The ences between districts; 3) failure to Kings County Party organization in integrate our trade-union women New York City pioneered in this comrades in the work of the Worn- form and has since established a con- en's Commissions. In connection with׳ tinuous daytime program for worn- all our tasks, there is need for Party en comrades. This form is especially literature on the women question. appropriate for rapidly equipping Our press has to make a basic turn many of our women with an ele- in its attention to, and coverage of, mehtary knowledge of basic Marxist- the problems of women. Leninist principles. Our Party nationally has a women's 3) Guidance of the work of our membership of close to forty per women comrades in mass organi- cent. While in mdst districts our zations. There is much underestima- women are demonstrating that they tion still of the importance of mass are capable of carrying out many- concentration work among women. sided Party responsibilities equally When we consider the inadequate well with men, there is not as yet size and influence of the existing sufficient recognition of their capabil- anti-fascist and progressive organiza- ities or their promotion into leader- tions among women, especially in the ship posts on all levels. A notable working-class, Negro, and national- exception is the California district, ity organizations, we can more fully where, on a county, section, and club appreciate the need of real attention level, women Communists hold posi- to this phase of work in order to en- tions in administrative, educational, able our women comrades to do ef- legislative and mass posts. This proc- fective mass work and Party build- ess must be speeded up in our entire ing. Party. 4) Concrete organization of serv- Of special importance is the need to tap deeply the tremendous potential ׳-ices for Party , women. The contin ued organization of services, "baby and organizational abilities of our .funds and services for Party Negro women comrades ״sitter women can prove very helpful in Generally in the Negro liberation enabling many of our Party women movement, South and North, it is the to do mass and Party work. Negro women who are leading and The work of the National Worn- symbolizing many of the struggles en's Commission still suffers from for equality by the Negro people. many weaknesses. These can be listed Greater attention to the triple handi- ׳ PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSSION 743 caps of Negro women can help to ,tant struggle for the needs of the strengthen our Party life and the people, women and men, who must building of Negro and white unity. mutually join in a fight against the Time is short. We are still in the warmongers and pro-fascists as a process of catching up with our past necessary prerequisite for the attain- weaknesses in this phase of work ment of our ultimate goal of so- when, under Browder revisionism, cialism. The working-class women work among women was liquidated of America will respond to the mes- as part of the whole liquidationist sage of our Party if we but organ- policy which then prevailed in our ize our work in such a way as to Party. But, since its national emer- speak out, and give leadership in gency convention, our Party has struggle, on the needs and issues chalked up a proud record of mili- facing them. Against Opportunism In Practice

By FRED PINE

THE 1948 National Convention of deeds. It must mount a year-round our Party must do more than con- offensive against opportunism in firm the correctness of our general practice. The entire Party must be direction. It must do more than con- enrolled in this struggle, cern itself with the extremely impor- The Emergency Convention tant task of sharpening and deepen- marked a turn by repudiating re- ing our political and tactical line, visionism and by reconstituting the The coming convention must in- Communist Party. It put the Party augurate measures that will spur a on its ideological guard against the- qualitative transformation of our ories of class collaboration. It based Party toward becoming a more truly our political line on a program of Leninist Party of the working class, struggle against Wall Street's im- It must result in sharply accelerated perialist and reactionary offensive, advances in the quality and style of Our forthcoming National Conven- our work. It must open warfare tion must call for a leap forward against practices that flow from in the Bolshevization of our Party, chronic underestimation of Leninist This can only take place in the principles of organization. The con- crucible of struggle—struggle around vention must alert the Party to the the needs of the workers and their continuing gap between our reso- allies and through a struggle for our lutions and the execution of the line and against opportunist hang- all׳ of ׳resolutions — between words and overs. It calls for a permeation 744 POLITICAL AFFAIRS our thinking with a heightened resulted from the tardy correction working-class orientation. It calls for of certain revisionist hangovers. (See political mobilization against "lib- section 3.) However, there is inade- eral" tolerance of practices that be- quate treatment of weaknesses that long in the parties of Social Democ- persist in our application of Leninist racy and not in a Leninist Party. principles of organization. Under, the leadership of our Na- tional Committee the tactical un- AGAINST FORMALISM folding of our line and the Party's In reviewing our organizational program of action in the past three policies, attention must first be given years has given greater depth and to the social composition of our clarity to the Marxist reorientation membership, the relative strength of called for by the Emergency Con- our shop and industrial branches, vention. While great and fundamen- and the degree to which we mobilize tal progress has been made in this our membership and orient our direction, the struggle against op- methods of work to enhance the portunism is a never-ending one. swiftest transformation of our Party This is especially true in our country, into a thoroughly working-class par- which emerged from the war as the ty. Today our Party has less than 25 most powerful and predatory im- per cent of our membership in shop perialist nation in the capitalist and industrial branches. The stress in world. American imperialism, in our campaigns and the attention of keeping with its traditional policy, our departments are still weighted has intensified the corruption of toward the community branches. The leaders of the labor movement. Nor inadequate assignment of forces and are Communists immune to the con- leadership for work in the shops, the stant pressures and influences of the many failures and the unsatisfactory bourgeois and petty-bourgeois sur- status of our concentration program rouridings. We must therefore be still reflect underestimation of the ever vigilant against the subtle and Leninist principle that the funda- stubborn influences of the environ- mental and main form of Party or- ment in which our Party functions. ganization is the shop branch. There is hardly anyone who would Our inadequacies in this respect conceal the fact that remnants of re- also flow from our methods of work. visionism persisted in the Party Somewhere along the road we lost after 1945. Such hangovers found appreciation of the value of control, expression in some serious blunders review, and systematic check-up on in the tactical application of our fulfillment of policy decisions and the general line and in some of our or- carrying out of tasks. Especially in ganizational practices and habits. getting at the source of so-called The draft resolution speaks can- "permanent" defects in our work, didly and in the main self-critically weaknesses that carry over year after of some of the specific errors that year, careful examination of the exe- ׳ PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSSION 745 cution of our resolves must take place For example, the draft resolution systematically. Results of campaigns correctly characterizes the role of the when concluded must be estimated social-reformists and Social-Demo- and discussed in the Party as a whole, crats in the trade unions, who "strive using the searchlight of criticism and desperately to keep the American self-criticism to search out the origin working class in political and ideo- of our weaknesses. logical subjection to the capitalist Just to give one example: The end- class. . . ." Although we were tardy less reiteration in reports and resolu- in drawing the full political implica- tions of the need for a "real concen- tions of this estimate in the applica- tration policy" without, at the same tion of our tactical line (as noted in time, critical and self-critical expos- the resolution), this analysis has, in ure of the many instances of phrase- recent months, been increasingly mongering and lip-service as regards grasped and understood by the Party. concentration activities is a common But have we drawn all the neces- ׳disease in our Party. sary conclusions for the work with If political opposition to rooting in our Party? our Party and its work mainly The opportunist influences at work among the basic sections of the pro- in the trade unions, especially among letariat is opportunist, then the time the labor hierarchy, often seep deep is long past due for carrying this a into the very structure and system of step further. Adoption of resolu- work in the trade unions, infecting tions on concentration in basic in- some strata of the membership. We dustries, followed only by routine sometimes fail to see that this has gestures and empty repetition of affected to no small degree even these resolves without day-to-day unions under Left-Progressive lead- warfare against complacency and neg- ership. The imperialist-sponsored sys- lect, without re-allocation of our tem of corruption went on at an ac- forces, without an overhauling of our celerated pace during the war, when work methods, must be character- our trade union forces were in close ized as formalism—probably uninten- alliance with the upper strata of the tional—but formalism nevertheless. C.I.O. officialdom and when we did not fight these influences. INFLUENCE OF LABOR Today the reformist and bureau- HIERARCHY cratic practices of a large part of the Basing our membership and or- C.I.O. hierarchy has led them in the ganizational forms mainly on the direction of the class collaboration shops does not by itself end the dan- policies characteristic for so many gers of opportunism, though it is years of the A. F. of ,L. officialdom. the single most important step in Unionists on the Left are fighting that direction. Strong currents of op- these reformist hand-maidens of mo- portunism operate within the labor nopoly. But some contamination still movement itself. persists and finds lingering reflection 746 POLITICAL AFFAIRS in certain practices of unions under cal vacillation and opportunist capitu- leadership of Left-Progressives. lation. If not combated, these influ- While there is much less of top- ences permeate the Party itself. We heavy full-time staffs, high salaries must view the growth of these So- and expense accounts in Progressive- cial-Democratic practices as poisonous led unions, the question of petty weeds, which may choke off the bourgeois living standards of union proletarian influences that Leninist officials remains a serious problem. methods of work cause to flourish. The large, full-time bureaucracy also The many thousands of basic pro- encourages the system of cash com- letarians and trade union activists in pensation for every union function our ranks are the corps, who under and service undertaken by officers, the leadership of our Party political stewards, or committeemen. It is a committees can and must press the prevalent characteristic in many struggle hard against these tenden- unions and, in my opinion, has been cies. We must arm eur Party with carried to a corrupting extreme. It is the eloquent teachings of Marx, Eng- not an uncommon practice for some els, Lenin, and Stalin on this subject. union leaders even to accept outright We must be less timid as to possible gifts and personal favors from em- temporary jeopardizing of positions ploy ers. While much of this has been of formal leadership, lest we weaken on the decline of late, it is still preva- permanently our ability to give Com- lent. The roster of Left-Progressive munist leadership. trade union leaders in high and not . The resolution also correctly warns so high positions of trust who have that struggle against influences of become corrupted and finally gone economism in the labor movement is over into the camp of reformism is a "central ideological task." not insignificant. Here, too, the struggle against Too often the degeneration was not economism in the labor movement combated until too late. And what at large must be accompanied with is more important is that attention incessant warfare against the many simply to an occasional individual prevalent economist practices within will not do the job. A sharpening our Party. How many leaflets, for ex- up of our entire approach must be- ample, have been issued directly in come the foundation on which we the name of the Party to large shops fight for the Communist integrity of concentration on political issues of our people. Failure to wage in- linked with the economic struggles? cessant battle will permit an atmos- How many Communist trade union phere that breeds individuals who activists go on year after year ignor- "go soft" and seek a personal way ing the most elementary organiza- out, and that encourages a bureauc- tional relationships with the Party racy divorced from the needs and to which they profess affiliation ? the moods of the membership. Such How many times have shop branches an atmosphere finally leads to politi- failed to function for weeks at a ׳ PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSSION 747 stretch in the heat of econoftiic strug- unions. We must support develop- gles like a "raid," a strike, or a union "ment of union rank-and-file democ- election? How many have combined racy that has vitality and meaning. the struggle against compliance with In the shops, the problems that the Taft-Hartley affidavits with ac- confront our people daily, both in tive defense 0£ the rights of Commu- the struggle against the employers nists to hold office in a trade union? and against the misleaders of labor, How many cases have we in which are tough and complicated. The en- trade union leaders, who belong to tire reservoir of Party, experience the Party, undertake single-handedly must be put at the disposal of our to veto decisions of an internal Party comrades in the factories. We must and political nature arrived at by re-learn old methods of work and basic Party organizations, for fear master new ones. Our shop branches such decisions in some way affect must be armed with the "know- their position as union leaders! how" for work in the department. We must put flesh on the concept RELIANCE ON TOP OFFICIALS that the shop branch is the basic form The resolution also speaks of the and most important part of our Party need for "resolutely developing the organization. More and more, even tactic of the united front, primarily at the expense of other concerns, our from below." shop workers must go into shop This orientation will depend in the branches, and our non-proletarians main on our completely overhauling and white collar workers should en- the type of discussions and activities ter basic industry. carried on by shop and industrial While the Party membership has branches. We must take the view that been engaged in extensive trade the department in the shop is the union struggles, has been increasingly chief theater of operations, and the involved in political action work, and steward the most important official while the Party has in a number of in the union. Our shop branches instances led varied struggles on nu- must assume political responsibility merous specific issues, both-in united and our Party people must learn to front with other organizations and exercise personal initiative through independendy, there are still strong giving leadership to their fellow- sectarian tendencies at play in our workers in their own departments. practical work. This holds true as regards struggle Treating in routine and unimagi- around grievances in the shop and native fashion the practical problems for union democracy, as well as for of giving leadership to broad masses educating and mobilizing workers is a form of "Left" sectarianism that for struggle on broader political is- must be combated. sues. An end must be put to reli- One expression of sectarianism ance exclusively on top union officials that cries out for correction is much and boards, even in Progressive-led of our mass agitation. It must be 748 POLITICAL AFFAIRS stated quite candidly that we are too at this juncture of events, I propose: often sluggish and deficient in grasp- 1. That either a new section is ing the momentary psychology and added to the draft resolution, or an mood of the workers and non- additional resolution is prepared by party masses and the key issue the National Board dealing with the ׳ agitating them. We have not, even system and methods of work of the at our national level, mastered Party. This resolution shall call for the language or approach necessary a sharp improvement in the quality to bring clarity on the issues of the and style of our work in the next day and on our fundamental program period—a fundamental turn that will to broader sections of the American mean taking great strides on the road people, even though there have been toward improving the Leninist char- some notable and well-received ex- acteristics and working-class compo- ceptions that prove we have the ca- sition of our Party. pacity if we but consider it of suffi- 2. The convention agenda itself cient importance (the improvements should be organized to provide the in the Daily Worker and the recent necessary time for full discussion of book on Debs are some examples). this paramount and urgent question, This has been a subject of wide com- guaranteeing sustained attention to ment in the ranks of the Party. It the waging of this struggle by the must be frankly stated that our Party entire leadership in the coming year. organizations at the lower levels have 3. All Party State and District or- often shown the better ear for the ganizations shall hold conferences in native tongue and displayed greater the month of September of branch imagination-• in presentation of the and section leadership to which Con- Party's viewpoint, both through the trol Tasks for the balance of the written and spoken word. year shall be presented in line with What is even worse than inept and the resolutions adopted at the Na- sectarian agitation is the failure to tional Convention. seek out and fight for the right to 4. The National Board shall ap- speak on the issues of the day. We point a Commission that shall ex- are challenged every moment. In too amine specifically, concretely and, many cases we have become inured, where possible, directly on the spot, and totally deaf, to these challenges. the reports on the accomplishments This, in spite of our popular pro- and failures in the various State or- gram, which would receive wide re- ganizations in the execution of de- sponse if properly presented to the cisions called for in the Control broad masses. Tasks. This Commission shall pre- sent a report to the National Com- PROPOSALS FOR SOLUTION mittee, which shall release it to.the OF PROBLEMS whole Party. ׳Considering the solution of these 5. Each issue of Political Af problems of determining importance fairs for the balance of 1948 shall ׳ PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSSION 749 have an article on some phase of national functionaries shall be asked the quality of, our work and the to read or re-read (through self- struggle for Leninist organizational study or study circles) material pre- practices. pared by the National Education 6. All branch, section, district, and Department on these problems. National Group Work In California

By PETTIS PERRY*

As THE PROGRESSIVE FORCES approach Jewish people, and close to 225,000 the decisive months of the 1948 elec- Negroes. These are the three largest tion campaign, they should take stock but by no means the only important of all possible forces that can and national groups in Los Angeles. should become component parts of It is therefore obviously vital that the democratic coalition. From this we examine the possibilities for the point of view, an examination of development of work among these some of the recent developments in groups. We must also examine what the national group field in California is the unity of interests that offers will help us to draw valuable lessons the possibility for unification of these for the tasks lying ahead. They will groups on the side of the labor and also help give greater emphasis to progressive movement. What are the those sections of the draft resolu- concrete problems facing each of tion which deal with the vital field of these groups, and what are the com- national group work. mon interests among them? # # # #• # * To begin with, California has a As far as the Mexican-Americans very large national group population, are concerned, in some respects their In that state there are almost a mil- conditions are worse than those of lion Spanish-speaking people, the the Negro people. This is especially overwhelming majority of whom are true in the field of civil rights. The Mexican-Americans. There are large Mexican community is a real hunt- concentrations of Italians, Yugo- ing ground for all of the trigger- slavs, and Portuguese, not to speak happy Ku Klux Klan-minded police of the large concentration of Oriental officers. groups such as Japanese, Chinese, This police terror against the Koreans, Filipinos, etc. In Los An- Mexican-Americans very closely par- geles County alone there are almost alibis the type of police terror exer- 450,000 Mexican-Americans, 258,000 cised against Negroes, resulting not eStS a1M ״i0 a frame-up*, but ? ־ Chairman, Nationalities Commission, Los״* Angeles Communist Party. in many cases, outright murder. 750 POLITICAL AFFAIRS The Mexican-Americans also suf- almost 100. Of 213 reported cases and fer greatly from very bad economic 78 tuberculosis deaths in 1945 over 60 conditions. Mexican-Americans are, per cent were among Mexican-Cau- in most industries, given the lowest casians. paid, the hardest, and the dirtiest jobs. It is difficult in California to On housing, a survey of Los An- obtain accurate statistics on the em- geles County made immediately after ployment and unemployment prob- World War II, was published un- lem among the Mexican-Americans der the title, "A Decent Home An even to the extent that they are avail- American Right," showed that: able for Negro people. Both the State Department of Employment and the 59.6 per cent of Mexican-Americans U.S. Employment Service juggle the were living in sub-standard units. 7 data on the Mexican-Americans, re- per cent of the people in areas studied ferring to them as white, Mexican- were Negro-Americans; 28.6 per cent Caucasian, and non-white. of Negro-Americans were living in sub- of Mexican- standard units, comprising 9 per cent ׳A large percentage Americans throughout the Southwest of the total sub-standard units. 2 per are agricultural workers. Yet, for the cent of the people in areas studied were Oriental-Americans; 47.2 per cent most part, Mexican-American work- of Oriental-Americans were living in ers are not employed in the more sub-standard units, comprising 5 per skilled jobs. They are confined to the cent of the total sub-standard units. unskilled jobs and are rarely used as shed workers, etc. In the needle trades industry, too, their lot is, in The resistance of the Mexican- the main, that of unskilled workers. American people to these conditions The appalling health conditions is finally beginning to take shape of Mexican-Americans is indicated in the fight for civil rights and the by a report of the L.A. County response to the Wallace movement. Tuberculosis and Health Association The Civil Rights Congress has set in June, 1947, which stated that: the pace for the defense of the civil rights of this section of our popula- North of the central downtown area tion. This has met with very good lies Chinatown and Bunker Hill with response from the community itself a tuberculosis case rate of almost 280 in terms of the actions of the Mexi- per 100,000 population for all races. can-American organizations in send- Of the 102 newly reported cases, 46 ing joint delegations to the Police were Mexican-Caucasians; 34, other Caucasians; 4, Negro; and 15, other Department and to the Sheriff's of- races. ... fice; in terms of the scores of people The Boyle Heights area, east of the who are joining the Civil Rights downtown area, has a newly reported Congress. These actions have had case rate of over 200 per 100,000 popu- positive results. For example, about lation and a tuberculosis death rate of a year ago, there was an attempt on ׳ PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSSION 535 the part of the Police Department encouraged the freedom aspirations to engineer a frame-up of five teen- of the Mexican-American people. age youths from this community on This movement can grow tremen- a rape and murder charge of an dously if it is based on mobilizing "Anglo" woman (the term used by the Mexican-American people around Mexican-Americans to distinguish their day-to-day needs; if it is not between non-Mexican whites and viewed simply as a machine to get Mexican-Caucasians). Because of the out the vote of this section of the mass upsurge caused by this inci- population. It should guard against dent the Court was forced to admit the danger of sectarianism and their innocence and free them. should be led, organized, and de- Particularly interesting is the de- veloped by the Mexican-Americans velopment around the Wallace move- themselves, with the co-operation of ment and the Independent Progres- all progressive people. The progres- sive Party of Calfornia. This has de- sive forces should provide every as- veloped around an organization sistance possible for this movement. called the Atriigos De Wallace, which They should work with it and not at- at the very outset is showing tre- tempt to do the work for it. The non- mendous possibilities. When this Mexican-Americans should not at- movement was only weeks old it was tempt to assume the leadership of instrumental in helping to mobilize this movement which provides a ten thousand Mexican-Americans to real opportunity to unleash all of the hear Henry Wallace, who spoke to latent forces of leadership in the them in both Spanish and English Mexican-American community itself. on May 16, in the Mexican-American The position of the Mexican- community of Los Angeles. This Americans in California is drama- meeting of the Independent Progres- tized in the fact that there is not a sive Party was one of the largest po- single Mexican-American in the litical rallies in the Mexican-Ameri- State Legislature, nor in any of the can community ever held by any po- City Councils or Boards of Super-1 litical organization in the entire his- visors anywhere in California, despite tory of Los Angeles County. Never the large Mexican-American popula- before has any political party had so tion of this state. This goes for Con- large a response from this section of gress as well, even in districts that our population. This meeting was not are largely inhabited by Mexican- just a gathering of people. For one Americans, such as Chet Holifield's thing it was the greatest proletarian District, the 19th, and Helen Ga- audience of its size in the political hagan Douglas' District, the 14th. field in Los Angeles. Yet it was a Even the representatives of these two cross-section of the MexicanrAmeri- districts, which have the largest can papulation. The content of all of Mexican-American communities in the Mexican-American speeches, as Los Angeles, have never seemed to well as of that of Wallace himself, recognize the need to speak out spe- 752 POLITICAL AFFAIRS cifically in the interests of the Mexi- able housing conditions arise out of can-American people. the whole system of national op- The Independent Progressive Party pression of these groups. The pro- -California has three Mexican- gressive forces must organize an en ׳ of American candidates, Chavez, in the ergetic campaign in the communities 31st Asembly District in Los An- and on a county-wide scale or on a geles and Salazar in the 78th Assem- state scale, to change this situation. bly District in San Diego, and Jo- There should, for instance, be all sephine Daniels, running on the kinds of community delegations to I.P.P. ticket and cross-filed in the the City Councils and Boards of Su- Democratic Party, in the 9th Con- pervisors demanding that they put י gressional District in the Fresno the heat on Washington and on the area, who polled upward of 5,000 individual Representatives and Sen- votes in the primaries. The I.P.P. ators to fight for a decent housing also endorsed for the primaries a program, including slum clearance. Mexican-American attorney for Su- In connection with this there should perior Court judge, Richard Ibanez, be an uncompromising struggle who polled 138,132 votes in Los An- against any form of housing dis- geles County. crimination against Negroes, Mexi- In the Assembly Districts particu- cans, Orientals, or any other groups. larly, the possibilities exist for the Such struggles could win very wide election to office of the two Mexican- support. American candidates—but only if the It speaks badly of the whole South- entire progressive movement in these west that not a single member of areas does everything possible for Congress out of 435 members speaks their election. That means organiz- in behalf of the 5,000,000 Mexican- ing the work in these districts in Americans. The progressive move- such a way as to bring out, the larg- ment of the entire Southwest, when est number of voters. That means it supports progressive candidates for putting at the disposal of these can- the Legislature or Congress, must didates all of the resources that the demand to know their stand on the progressive movement can provide. problems of Mexican-Americans and These candidates must not be looked on Latin-Americans in general. upon as a nod that is given to Mexi- It is unfortunately true that the can-American voters by simply in- labor and progressive forces, includ- eluding them on the ticket of the ing the Communists, have not Independent Progressive Party. In grappled adequately with the pressing California the question of Mexican- problems indicated above. The trade America*! representation is a vital unions, while agreeing in principle one. on the necessity of fighting the dis- A specific struggle must be waged crimination on the job against Mex- around the housing program. It ican workers, have not actually or- must be recognized that the abomin- ganized struggles, such as a demand ׳ PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSSION 753 for upgrading of Mexican workers lem was intensified, resulting in in industry. Moreover, the progres- overcrowded condition?, especially sive forces are missing an opportun- because of restrictive covenants. ity, in failing to impress adequately With cut-backs in production after on California's progressive Congres- V-J Day, wholesale unemployment sional representatives the necessity began to develop among the Ne- of their waging a campaign in Con- groes. It is estimated that in Febru- gress around the slum clearance pro- ary, 1947, 10 per cent of those seek- gram, around a health and housing ing employment at the United States program, with the specific aim in Employment Service were Negroes. mind of wiping out this disgraceful But in May of the same year, 40 per situation confronting the Mexican, cent of those seeking employment Negro, and Orienta# # l groups# . were Negroes—four times as large a percentage! The problems of the Negro peo- At the California State Depart- pie of the West Coast, and particu- ment of Employment, almost fifteen larly of California, have grown out of twenty seeking jobs or draw- more acute than ever. During the ing unemployment compensation war years, the Negro population are Negroes. grew from roughly 200,000 to around Union after union reports that un- 500,000 on a state scale. This growth employment among Negroes is in- was primarily in three areas. In Los creasing day by day. But the unions Angeles County, the Negro popula- have not yet found the way to change tion grew from about 75,000 in 1940 this situation, even those unions led to around 225,000 in 1948; in San by progressives. Unless this situa- Diego, from about 5,000 in 1940 to tion is changed, a serious problem about 20,000 in, 1948; in Oakland, can very well arise between the or- from about 15,000 in 1940 to about ganized labor movement and the 70,000 to 85,000 in 1948; and in San Negro community. Francisco from 6,000 to 50,000. The labor union should not permit These were the main areas of air- a company with which it has a con- craft and ship production during tract to engage in over-proportionate World War II. By breaking down layoffs of Negro workers when lay- discrimination in defense industries offs take place. They should not during the war on the basis of the permit an under-proportionate hiring struggle of the Negro people and of Negroes when hiring takes place, organized labor, which resulted in es- nor should they permit the compan- tablishing F.E.P.C. under Executive ies and the California Employment Order 8803, it became possible for Service to use the tactics of "white large numbers of Negro men and only" in their employment policy. women to enter industry. This was This is the prewar policy which long the basis for the large migration to prevented Negroes from entering in- the West Coast. The housing prob- dustry. This is why Negroes in war 754 POLITICAL AFFAIRS industries have not built up enough against Negroes, Orientals, Jews, and, seniority to offer much protection to some extent, Mexican-Americans. against mass layoffs. Only through , In many areas in the Southwest, the organized labor movement tak- the only way that Mexican-Ameri- ing ,special steps to safeguard the cans who happen to be of light com- interests of the Negro workers can plexion can prevent restrictive coven- this trend be reversed. ants being applied against them is The hardest hit group of Negro by denying their national origin and workers are the Negro women. Very claiming to be Spaniards. This is few industries today still employ particularly true in California and Negro women. This means that Arizona. Negro women are rapidly being On the question of restrictive cov- forced to return to the field of domes- enants there has been the most alert- j > tic work or enter the ranks of the ness on the part of the labor move- unemployed. This leaves the Ne- ment. The C.I.O., for instance, from gro women with no perspective of re- its inception, has carried on a fight entering industry unless the labor against them, aiding in direct strug- movement undertakes a campaign gles around some of the restrictive specifically around this question. covenant cases. One of the most out- The labor movement should carry standing developments in this state on a joint struggle with the Negro was the high level of discussion on community on the job problems of this question at the last state con- the Negro workers. A sharp struggle vention of the State A. F. of L., a dis- on the part of the labor movement cussion that was one of the conven- on this question would go a long way tion's highlights. Though the resolu- toward re-inspiring the Negro com- tion for outlawing restrictive coven- munity to continue to fight on the ants did not pass, it was referred to side of organized labor. Another the State Executive Council. This did serious quesion in this, regard is the not prevent one of the Carpenters promotion of Negroes to leadership Locals of the A. F. of L., for ex- within the union. This is something ample, from directly taking up the that is long overdue, and is a basic case of restrictive covenants involv- part of the struggle for the rights ing one of its Negro members and of the Negro people. Here again, if one of its Philippine members. This we look at the situation confronting fight was not only taken up from the the Mexican workers, we find a strik- legal standpoint by this local, but a ing parallel. mass campaign was launched involv- Another question that confronts ing a number of A. F. of L. unions, the Negroes of California is that of as well as a number of the white restrictive covenants. Restrictive cov- Protestant churches. enants are, of course, not applied The labor movement also has solely against the Negro people. Re- shown, more or less, some under- strictave covenants are applied standing in support of such demands ׳ PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSSION 755 as those for national anti-lynching, Negro-Americans, and close to a anti-poll tax, and F.E.P.C. legisla- quarter of a million Jewish people— tion. The fact remains, however, that a total of about 900,000 out of the the basic day-to-day struggle for the three and a half million inhabitants of employment of Negro and Mexican this county. The coming together of workers remains the key issue. All these three groupings on a minimum progressives, and particularly trade program could be the center around unionists, must realize that the strug- which all national groups could gle against white-chauvinist ideolo- unite. In addition, it would be a gies must be conducted on a daily compelling force for fundamental basis. The organized labor movement changes in the political orientation must fight for the upgrading of Ne- of this state. gro and Mexican workers, for the The idea of mutual assistance be- greater employment of "these work- tween these groups cannot be stressed ers in industry, and for the promo- too much. These groups could unite, tion of these workers to leading let us say, around such issues as posts in the union. For without against discrimination in jobs and this, the labor movement cannot hope housing; for employment on an equal to win over and maintain its basic basis for Negro- and Mexican-Ajneri- supporters, namely the Negroes• and cans; against police brutality (which Mexicans, together with all minority is a pressing problem for the Mexi- groups. can-American and Negro communi- # # # ties); against anti-Semitism in all of Another problem confronting the its forms, combating it first of all people of California is the increase in Negro and Mexican-American of anti-Semitism, which even pene- communities where it is very strong; trates the minority groups them- for passage of anti-lynching, anti-poll selves. tax, and F.E.P.C. legislation locally With the increased anti-Semitism and nationally; and around such in this state sharpening the problems other issues as this grouping may de- of the Jewish people, and with the cide on. problems of the Mexican and Negro- There is a base for such unity in Americans being what they are, there struggle and there is sentiment for is little doubt that the broadest base it. The progressive forces in our state exists for united struggle of these must give serious consideration to three groups. Unity between Mexi- the promotion of this unity. Right can, Jewish, and Negro Americans now it is possible for such unity to would have a tremendous effect upon take shape very rapidly in forms of the political life of California, espe- Jewish people's committees and Ne- cially in the major counties. In Los gro people's committees around the Angeles County alone, there are al- candidacies of Chavez and Salazar. most a half million Mexican-Ameri- This would accelerate to a great ex- cans, almost a quarter of a million tent the process of unification. This 756 . POLITICAL AFFAIRS would be a great stimulus to all pro- all-out struggle against American re- gressive forces in California and action in its drive toward fascism would broaden the basis here for an and war. The Menace of Social-Democracy and Our Fight Against Opportunism

By GEORGE MORRIS

THE PKE-CONVENTION draft resolution brand of Social-Democrats provides frequently refers to the role of Social- a useful bridge for Wall Street Democracy's service to imperialism to Right-wing Social-Democracy in the ranks of the labor movement, abroad. They provide the mission- The resolution undoubtedly reflects aries and agents for splitting activi- a greater awareness in the Commu- ties in progressive-led labor move- nist Party's leading circles than in ments in other countries, the past of the urgency to combat On the domestic front it is the Social-Democracy. Social-Democrats who are the prin- Nevertheless, the Party as a whole cipal "ideologists" for a class-collabo- has given far from sufficient atten- ration policy that would paralyze the tion to the task of understanding, working-class movement and divert exposing, and combating the men- it from the path of struggle. Cur- ace of Social-Democracy. This is a rently, they lead in an effort to serious weakness in the theoretical weaken the most advanced step yet armor of our membership and shows taken by the workers to break away itself often in a practical way where from the twin parties of monopoly the Party confronts the enemy in a capital. Social-Democratic garb. The dan- Our State Department, recogniz- gerous role of Social-Democracy ing the valued service of Social- must never be forgotten. Democracy, recently declared in a Social-Democracy is today the in- special report that Social-Democrats stigation of the most vicious warmon- are "among the strongest bulwarks gering propaganda, war provocation, in Europe against Communism." and hatred of the Soviet Union and A great part of Lenin's writings, the East-European democracies. As especially his most popular classics, the most zealous supporters of the consisted of polemics against Social- Marshall Plan and other projects of Democratism. Summarizing the Len- American imperialism, our domestic inist view, Stalin wrote in 1924: ׳ PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSSION 757 It is impossible to put an end to broke with Browder revisionism, we capitalism without putting an end to recognized that, essentially, Brow- social-democracy in the labor move- der's line had been pulling us to- ment. Therefore, the era of the dying ward the theories and practices of off of capitalism [that is, imperialism Social-Democracy. We correctly de- —G.M.] is also the era of the dying off of social-democracy in the labor clared Right opportunism to be the movement.* main danger. We have since been continually reminded, as in the draft The truthfulness of Stalin's asser- resolution, that revisionist methods tion a quarter of a century ago is be- and habits still linger in the Party. ing demonstrated before our eyes. Occasionally we get a demonstration Right - wing Social - Democracy in of this truth in the opportunism of Eastern Europe and in much of Ger- Communists in trade unions or other many has either disappeared or lost fields, comrades who loudly and, un- most of its strength; or, through a doubtedly sincerely, disassociated process of differentiation, its follow- themselves from Browderism. As ers have merged with the Marxist Stalin explained in 1928: stream. In Italy, France, and other Western European countries, the bal- Under capitalist conditions, the right ance of strength in the ranks of the deviation in Communism represents a workers has shifted substantially tendency, an inclination, not yet formu- Leftward, away from traditional So- lated it is true and perhaps not even cial-Democracy. But this change— consciously realized, but nevertheless a still going on—did not take place tendency, on the part of a section of automatically. It was preceded by a Communists to depart from the revolu- long period of struggle for Marxism, tionary line of Marxism in the direction the history of which is a storehouse of Social Democracy.** of lessons for Communist Parties Both Lenin and Stalin, of course, today. repeatedly stressed the two-front war that Communists must wage: against KEY TO THE FIGHT AGAINST Right opportunism and Leftist sec- OPPORTUNISM tarianism. The Russian Communists But there is another extremely im- grew, gained strength and became portant element that is tied to this steeled in this two-front war, Lenin question. An understanding of the stressed in his famous pamphlet on menace of Social-Democracy is the "Left" Communism. But signifi- key to understanding Right oppor- cantly, in that very pamphlet, aimed tunism and the revisionist theory and primarily against "Left" sectarianism, practice it spawns. he emphasized that "first and princi- Three years ago, when the Party pally" it was in a struggle against

* Joseph Stalin, The October Revolution, p. 164. ** Joseph Stalin, Leninism, Vol. II, pp. 58-59. 758 POLITICAL AFFAIRS Right opportunism that the Bolshe- needle trades unions and other fields. vik Party developed. Nor were a majority of the members, Unfortunately, too many of our including many of the leading com- members, thousands of whom en- rades, Party members in days when tered our Party during or after the Social-Democrats had a wider base in war, are not armed theoretically Europe and when, in Germany, they against Right opportunism because actually paved the way for Hitler's they know little of the history, roots, seizure of power. Still fewer know and practices of Social-Democracy. the history of the great World War Right opportunism, even in Commu- I betrayal of the working class by nist ranks,' stems from basically the leaders of Social-Democracy, and of same roots. Like Social-Democracy the early revisionism that led to it. in general, it is the form through We are especially in need of liter- which capitalist influence expresses ature and study that will give us a itself in our ranks. One familiar with four-decade historical chart of Social- the pattern of betrayal that spells Democracy's role. Such material Social - Democracy is forewarned would be invaluable for arming our against Right-opportunist tendencies. membership against Right opportun- There is a . great and urgent need ism in all forms. in our Party for a revived study and But there is a more direct reason restudy of the well-known Leninist for an underestimation of the So- classics on Social-Democracy written cial-Democratic danger. Many in our during and after World War I; for ranks see Social-Democracy in Amer- literature bringing the history of the ica only in its classical European-like struggle against Social-Democracy up forms. Consequently, they view it as to date; and for a more complete represented here only by thk small analysis of the forms in which So- Socialist Party or the no larger So- cial-Democracy expresses itself in the cial-Democratic Federation, with its United States. influence existing mainly in the needle trades and essentially in New DANGER IS UNDERESTIMATED York. From such an estimate it Why have we not given greater would follow that Social-Democracy attention to the Social-Democratic need not be a source of worry in menace? the major basic industries. One answer is in the small number This is to underestimate danger- of the Party's members who have ously a vicious foe and to see the experienced or know of the Party's danger only where the most obvious history since its development out of danger sign is visible. It is a failure the Left Wing of the old Socialist to see the basic function of Social- movement through the struggles Democracy and the forms it takes in with the Right-wing Socialists in the America—a land where the Socialist ׳ PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSSION 759 tradition has not yet won a sizable their support of Wall Street's policy mass base. of world conquest; their sacrifice of the economic interests of the work- THE ROLE OF ers in advancement of that reaction- SOCIAL-DEMOCRACY ary policy; their effort to build a Lenin wrote that Social Democracy small bureaucracy and favored groups is "the principal social prop of the around themselves in the unions; bourgeoisie" and its leaders are "the their attachment to the two parties real agents of the bourgeoisie in the of monopoly capital; and their efforts labor movement." He frequently to paralyze the fighting capacity of compared our conservative labor lead- the workers by class-collaborationism. ers, such as Samuel Gompers, to the Yet men like Murray or Green leaders of European Social-Democ- are nominally not Social-Democrats. racy. Describing the narrow base They do not employ pseudo-Socialist upon which these agents of impe- language; they do not profess to have rialism depend, he wrote: a "socialist" perspective, nor, indeed, any other perspective. They talk Only a small upper stratum belonged more loudly of loyalty to "free en- to them; and of this upper stratum only terprise." They do not even make a very few were lured over and bribed prediction of a future break with the by the capitalists to take their place in capitalist society as leaders of the work- two old parties. The thinking of the ers. The American Socialists [Daniel typical "pure and simple" conserva- De Leon—G.M.] called these people tive top labor leader, though it bears "labor lieutenants" of the capitalist no tag, fits more conveniently into class. In that country of freest bourgeois the pattern of John Maynard Keynes* culture, in that most democratic of theory that government influence bourgeois republics, they saw most upon the economy can solve the con- clearly the role played by this tiny upper tradictions of capitalism. stratum of the proletariat who had vir- The Keynesian concept of solving tually entered the service of the bour- capitalism's contradictions through ' geosie as its deputies, who were bribed and bought by it and who came to form the authority of a state "above" those cadres of social patriots and de- classes, is essentially the same quick- > fensists of which Ebert and Scheide- sand base upon which Social-Democ- mann [German World War I Social- racy and British laborism are built. Democratic betrayers—G.M.] will al- Both in Britain and the United ways remain the shining lights.* States, Keynesism is a more conven- Written in 1919, these words apply ient reference for labor leaders than perfectly today in describing the role the works of a Social-Democratic Hil- of William Green, Matthew Woll, ferding, who, long before Keynes, Philip Murray or James B. Carey; advanced the theory of an "organized capitalism" that would solve capi- * V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. XXIII, p. 511. talism's contradictions. To conserva- 760 POLITICAL AFFAIRS tive American labor leaders, Keynes- Social-Democracy, while it cannot ism is more acceptable because it is boast of much of a popular base not handicapped by association even outside its usual strongholds, has, with the meaningless "socialism5' of nevertheless, won some new key po- the Social-Democrats. sitions in recent years. Walter Reuth- The Social-Democrats of the er and much of his machine in the United States long ago dispensed United Automobile Workers; Emil with even the use of socialist-sound- Rieve's staff in the Textile Workers ing phrases. They find it more effec- Union and a large number of office- tive to work under the cloak of "lib- holders in shipyard, retail, machin- eralism" and through such outfits ists, and several other unions, are as the Liberal Party of New York Social-Democrats and Norman and Americans for Democratic Ac- Thomas Socialists, tion. In actual practice they are most Both in C.I.O. and A. F. of L. notorious for their Red-baiting and top councils, men like David Dubin- their warlike anti-Soviet foreign pol- sky, Reuther, and Rieve have a strong icy, thus essentially falling into the influence. They, together with the Hearst - McCormick - Patterson cate- clerical elements that have infiltrated gory; and they stand out most for in strength in recent years, inject into their hostility to such progressives the fusion of Right-wing forces of among upholders of capitalism as labor a particularly poisonous and Henry Wallace. In the labor move- treacherous content. The Social- ment they invariably fall into alii- Democrats and their closest allies, the ance with the most reactionary circles. Association of Catholic Trade Union- ists, have set the tone and pattern WELCOMED IN TOP LABOR for acceptance of the Taft-Hartley CIRCLES * . . Law; opposition to Wallace's candi- dacy; raiding, and breaking strikes For some time, therefore, there has of, progressive-led unions; acceptance heen a recognized affinity between of wage formulas, like the General Social-Democrats and the top bu- Motors one, that offer greater advan- reaucracy in the A. F. of L. and tage to employers; purging unions of C.I.O. The switch to a Truman Doc- progressives; and, as already noted, trine-Marshall Plan foreign policy the campaign to hitch labor to Wall had especially raised the market price Street's war plans, of Social-Democrats and their role The State Department has cun- inside the labor movement. They ningly helped to further the role of have become the main ideologists Social-Democrats in the labor move- for that policy in labor's ranks and ment. They are sought as advisers Wall Street's most appreciated help- and "labor attaches" in foreign ser- ers in putting it over in Right-wing vice; as scouts for splitting opera- labor circles abroad. tions in unions and popular fronts ׳ PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSSION 761 in countries on the Marshall Plan Right Social-Democrats in the U.S. target, and as disrupters of the World should not lead us to ignore its "left" Federation of Trade Unions. They Norman Thomas wing. The Social- are viewed as ideologically more ist Party's professed interest in so- effective in the cause of Wall Street cialism and use of militant-sounding than the regular run of Joe Ryan- phrases, should in no way confuse it Bill Hutcheson type of reactionary with genuine Leftward shifts among labor leader who are just good rub- socialists such as we see in Europe. ber stamps for Big Business. The Thomas group has essentially Clinton Golden, the type of labor served as a "Left" mask for Social- leader we will see more of, personifies Democracy's treachery. Its demagogy the influence of Social-Democracy and socialist-sounding appeal is es- in the ranks of union leadership. pecially directed to confuse those in The State Department named him the progressive camp who are already as its labor adviser in Greece. After looking in the direction of socialism. his mission there he was named as In actual practice the Thomas labor adviser in the administration outfit maintains close and friendly of E.R.P. in Europe. Golden, - former relations with the Social-Democratic assistant to Philip Murray, has a long Federation. It receives an amazing history of association with the Social- amount of free time over national Democratic crowd. He has also long radio hookups. And there is never a been a promoter of "labor-manage- cross word against it in the capitalist ment" plans to banish labor disputes. press. Social-Democratic training made him The role of the Socialist Party is a labor leader with an "ideology"— best shown by its member, Emil an ideology, incidentally, that con- Mazey, secretary-treasurer of the doned the mass execution of trade United Automobile Workers. Ad- union leaders in Greece. vertised as a "militant" when elected, Walter Reuther, who admits to be- his first job was to lead in the cam- ing only a "former" socialist, is an- paign to comply with the Taft-Hart- other example of the "modern" and ley Law. He then personally led in more polished, politically conscious, the first effort to "raid" a progressive- and more skillfully demagogic, labor led union. It was he who negotiated leader. The owners of the press, th.e General Motors contract and magazines and radio know what they hailed it as a victory. Reuther influ- are doing when they build up a Wal- enced the agreement only from a ter Reuther. hospital bed.

THE NORMAN THOMAS BREED Norman Thomas' Socialist Party demagogically tries to capitalize on The "respectability" attained by growing sentiment for socialism. 762 . POLITICAL AFFAIRS

Having no real theory and program CONCLUSIONS for socialism, this party, in effect, supplies recruits for the staffs of the The above adds up to some im- more openly Right-wing-led organi- portant conclusions for our Party: zations like the I.L.G.W.U., the tex- 1. Social-Democracy has made tile, auto, and retail unions. some headway in obtaining impor- Is it possible for Social-Democracy tant positions in the American labor to gain a mass base in this country? movement. Its strength and potential Those who believe that in this period base is far greater than may appear Social-Democratic influence could go oh the surface. only downward everywhere, should 2. Our Party's membership needs pay attention to what happened in to be educated on the role of Social- Italy, West Germany, and earlier in Democracy, taught the history of the Britain. One would think that the struggle against it on a world scale treachery of Social-Democracy's lead- and how to recognize its peculiarities ers, the part they had in bringing in America. Hitler to power, and the two wars' 3. Alertness and vigor against So- blood on their hands, would doom cial-Democracy in general is closely them. But we have seen how Social- tied with the struggle against Right Democracy obtains a fresh lease on opportunism in all spheres, includ- life in some countries, e.g., dollar im- ing where it shows itself in the Com- perialism actually helped give munist Party. strength to a splinter group like Sara- 4. Much more emphasis is needed, gat's party in Italy. We have also seen on Communist and Left-progressive how Social-Democracy in Western activity in those fields, like the needle Germany provided a new channel for trades, where Social-Democracy has elements of destroyed reactionary a strong base. The Right Wing is parties and how it capitalized on a especially vulnerable on economic, whole generation of Germans that conditions, which are neglected in had no experience under Social-De- the interest of a united front with mocracy. the imperialist warmongers. Undoubtedly as more and more 5. Even in America, where open Americans turn their hope to social- Social-Democratic followers are few, ism, reactionaries here will give more it is possible to develop differentia- encouragement to those who would tion between followers and the lead- confuse and divert the movement. ers. Those who believe that the So- And our politically barren union lead- cial-Democrats are actually "social- ers will not be averse to parading as ist" must be won to the banner of "socialists" of a sort. genuine socialism—Communism. ׳ PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSSION 763 On the Party's Responsibility For Work Among the Youth By MARVIN SHAW

THE DRAFT RESOLUTION correctly em- —when a Curran establishes a major phasizes the efforts of Wall Street base among the newer seamen, or to hoodwink and terrorize every sec- when the younger workers in the tion of the American people into shops fall victim to the Red-baiting, support of its program of domestic company union propaganda of the and foreign reaction. In the labor bosses, and progressive movement, however, * * * there is generally a serious underes- The bourgeoisie makes no such timation of the activities of Wall error. It realizes the importance of Street and its agents among the the 35,000,000 people between the youth. Too often, it is the most vi- ages of 15 and 30; of the 14,000,000 cious enemies of youth who con- veterans who are mainly in that age sciously influence and organize the group; of the 2,500,000 students. It i youth, while they and their prob- will not ignore the 6,000,000 new lems are ignored by their best friends, voters who will cast their first bal- To an extent this is reflected in the lots in 1948, or the hundreds of draft resolution by the lack of spe- thousands who will enter industry cific discussion of youth needs or of this year. emphasis on organizing youth as ac- These millions grew up in an era tive participants in struggle. In ac- of depression arid war. They know tual work, the problem is far more no "normal periods." They have not serious. Throughout the Party, in been able to plan their lives or fu- spite of the leadership demonstrated tures. They are a generation which by Comrades Foster and Dennis and has seen the United States emerge the National Board in turning our as the center and stronghold of im- Party's attention to the youth and in perialism, and they are also the gen- developing youth policy, there is still eratiori that saw the New Deal and little youth consciousness, little con- made up the armies that helped cern with activity among the youth, smash the Hitlerite-Japanese alii- and little understanding of their great ance. importance in determining the po- America's youth today must choose litical future of our country. This is between two paths. They can go generally true within the entire peo- down the path of the Hitler Jugend, pie's movement. Too often the door the path of degradation, war, and is locked when the horse is stolen misery; or they can join with the 764 POLITICAL AFFAIRS people's movement in the struggle The offensive of reaction against against fascism and war, for a useful, Negro youth is one of open terror— happy future. to smash their protest against the ** * brutal Jim-Crow system. But hand The monopolists are leaving no in hand with it go efforts to keep stone unturned to take the youth Negro and white youth divided; to down the first path. A campaign of swing Negro youth behind the dema- vast proportions has been launched gogy of the Randolphs and Rey- to mobilize young people of all ages, nolds who approve the imperialist both politically and organizationally, program but who wish to "improve" behind the program of U.S. imperial- its efficiency by abolishing Jim Crow, ism. (While exposing the Randolphs, pro- In general ideological terms, the gressives must sharply distinguish emphasis is similar to that general between their program and the mili- among the entire population: defense tant Negro and white youth who may of "democracy" and "religion"; the be involved in "passive resistance" to superiority of "our way of life"; Army Jim Crow. With them unity Red-baiting; fantastic lies about the can and must be established in ac- Soviet Union and the People's De- tive struggle against the war and mocracies; and chauvinism in all its militarization program.) rotten varieties. It is natural that on the campus In May, for example, the U.S. Of- the ideological and political offensive fice of Education announced a pro- of finance capital should take a wide gram "designed to alert the nation's variety of forms and be carried for- 32,000,000 students to the dangers ward with great energy. The bour- of Communism." Outside the schools geoisie hopes to utilize student youth a large variety of Big-Business spon- as a reservoir of strength. They have sored and dominated organizations received the benefits of capitalist in- open their doors to young people doctrination; they are to live as pro- who need and want centers for rec- fessionals and intellectuals by the reational activity. bounty of Big Business; they will re- Few young workers remember the ceive crumbs from the enormous days of the open shop; the struggles profits the imperialists are making that established union conditions and hope to increase, and collective bargaining took place How is the offensive carried out? before they entered industry. It is Partially by terror, suppression, and here that loyalty to the union is often intimidation. Partially by the utiliza- weakest, and here that company- tion of the classroom and lecture union, boss-organized programs of platform for systematic indoctrina- picnics, dances, etc., have recently tion. been reorganized. Propaganda against Much of this activity stems from seniority attempts to pit younger the obvious fear of reaction of the against older workers. response of students to progressive ׳ PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSSION 765 activity in general and particularly Street will stop at nothing to keep its to the rapid and widespread develop- rotten system alive, ment of "Students for Wallace" as Yet in the face of this the peo- the largest and most effective politi- pie's movement has been relatively cal action movement on the campus, inactive as regards the youth. It has With the passage of the Draft in the main ignored Wall Street's Act, the activities of the bourgeoisie activity. By a lack of concern and among youth in the past pale into struggle, thousands of young people relative insignificance. Here the im- have already been surrendered to re- perialists have won one of their most action. Few if any trade unions have important victories. The complete developed special activities for young demands of the brass-hats were not workers or pay special attention to met by the bipartisan coalition in their problems. Even in Left-pro- Congress. Nevertheless, the measure gressive unions few efforts are made passed will put over 250,000 men to orient newer members to the into uniform this year and opens the union or to promote youthful forces way for further militarization of the to leadership. The progressive na- youth. tional group organizations find that Training for the draftees will not they are "dying out"; that new be only in military techniques. "Citi- younger people are not coming into zenship classes" will be used for their organizations to fill the gaps anti-labor, chauvinistic, war-inciting and to give new life to activity. The propaganda. The draftee Army will splendid movements that have oc- intensify the discrimination and deg- curred among the Negro people have radation faced by Negro youth. La- not involved masses of Negro youth, bor will be faced by the ever-present There is today no unified youth threat of a mass army ready for movement in the Negro communi- strike-breaking. ties, though militancy and a desire Most important of all, the passage for unity and struggle have been of the Draft will encourage the demonstrated in many individual in- Marshall Planners in their reckless, stances. Teen-age youth in particu- -atom-bomb foreign policy. lar have been left to the tender mer ״ * * * cies of reaction. Union halls are not Thus we find that in every phase centers for the children of members. of American life, utilizing their con- No efforts arc made to counteract י tpol of the schools, newspapers, mass the vicious propaganda in the schools organizations, and the factories, the and the press. The labor movement imperialists are engaged in influenc- as a whole pays inconsequential at- ing the youth. The importance of tention to the public education sys- this cannot be overemphasized, tern it was so instrumental in estab- "Whoever wins the youth, wins the lishing. future" has been recognized again In general, political and economic and again as a truism, and Wall programs leave out specific atten- 550 . POLITICAL AFFAIRS tion to action on the needs of youth. groups, and committees have mush- Nowhere was this more evident than roomed in every part of the coun- in the struggle against the passage try. Usually the program is based of the Draft Act. Nearly every labor as much on the local needs of the and people's organization, including members and a social program as on the trade unions (A. F. of L. and general political issues. The move- C.I.O.), the churches, and the farm ment has the potential of making an groups opposed the bill. Congress enormous contribution toward win- hesitated long and hard before act- ning millions of youth votes fbr the ing. Popular sentiment was vocal, New Party, and at the same time though unorganized, against military building itself as a permanent mass training. The draft could have been center of progressive youth. This is defeated, and the war program struck undoubtedly one of the most signiH- a serious blow. It nearly was, due to cant developments in the youth pic- the courageous struggle during the ture today. last days of Congress by Senator Glen # * # Taylor and Representative Vito Mar- But for such a movement to move cantonio. Yet in spite of all this it ahead, and for steps forward to be was only from youth itself that or- taken in other areas, youth work ganized and militant opposition to must stop being a question that con- the draft came. cerns only young people. It is a Here, most graphically, the lack of problem for the entire people's and attention to the problems of youth working-class movement. has struck a serious blow against the Nowhere must this be more true interests of the entire labor move- than within the ranks of the Com- ment and all of the American peo- munist Party. The vanguard Party pie. must consciously become the leader While emphasizing the seriousness of the struggle for the needs of youth of the situation, it must be pointed and for the development of attention out that although reaction has made to them on the part of the entire advances, it has not won the battle. progressive movement. There is no י Overwhelmingly, the vast majority field of work that is divorced from of America's young people belong youth work, and the ways and means in the democratic camp. The pro- must be found to discover the man- gram of war and militarism threat- ner in which it should be carried ens them more than any other group. on in a given area. The situation in They are most concerned with win- some Party conventions, where only ning a peaceful and secure future. younger comrades participated in dis- The organization of a youth and eussions on youth policy, must student movement in support of the change to one where the entire Party Wallace-Taylor ticket and the poli- leadership, from top to bottom, is cies of the New Party has given new sensitive to the question. Rather than expression to this sentiment. Clubs, pulling active younger forces out of ׳ PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSSION 767 youth work, new cadres must be moting the organization of activities found to reinforce those we already for the teen-age and younger chil- have in that field. Consistent and dren of the workers. Let the trade comradely help must be given to the union halls, especially when they are younger people in Party leadership. located in neighborhood communi- The Marxist-Leninist theory of ties become youth centers. Steps youth work must become the prop- should be taken to combat the anti- erty of the entire Party. It took eight labor poison the schools, movies and years to exhaust (this last month) press are drilling into the minds of a printing of 5,000 copies of Lenin's the children of workers. and Stalin's articles on youth. The The carrying out, after the 1948 new printing to appear soon should elections, of the proposal made in the be widely sold and studied. Atten- draft resolution for the establish- tion to theory in this as in other ment of a non-Party Marxist-Leninist fields will help in developing prac- youth organization will be of tre- tical activity. mendous help in developing work In no other section of the Party among youth in general and indus- is attention to youth work more trial and Negro youth in particular. necessary than in the industrial clubs. The lack of such a socialist center Traditionally, the progressive youth of militant political, educational, and movement has been weak among cultural activity among young peo- young workers, and recent errors in pie, has undoubtedly been one of the youth policy have aggravated the main obstacles in the path of effec- situation. Breaking through here will tive work among youth. The Party not be an easy job, but it is one that as a whole, and especially its local will have to be done if advances are and regional leadership, must give to be made in both trade union and the greatest possible material and po- youth work. Undoubtedly, we know litical help to the new organization. far too little about the concrete At the same time the Communist problems in this field. Studies and Party must, of course, continue its investigations should be made of se- own activities in the youth field— niority, job training, and advance- by itself participating directly in ment problems. Within the labor struggle for the needs of youth, by movement, Communists should par- making the problems of the young ticularly be conscious of the need for generation its own, and especially by f helping develop youthful activities, its members fighting within the la- the promotion of younger workers to bor movement for special attention leadership, and their active participa- to the problems of young workers. tion in union life. # # # In addition to fighting for a cor- During the coming months the la- rect program in the shops for youth, bor and people's movement will thought should also be given to pro- have many new opportunities to 768 . POLITICAL AFFAIRS demonstrate much needed sensitivity ord against the draft. The campaign to youth problems. for repeal will prove to millions of In this respect the fight to repeal young Americans that their futures the draft and to prevent further steps can only be secured in alliance with to militarize the youth takes first the anti-fascist, anti-imperialist coali- importance. Wallace, Taytbr, and tion. the New Party have already made it The youth are a potential ally of a major issue in the '48 elections, ex- enormous * power to the people's posing the war program of the bi- movement. They can also be a real partisan coalition as the enemy of danger if the plans of the bourgeoisie young America. Struggle • around it succeed. The struggle for the youth will demonstrate the two-facedness is being waged every day. It de- of the Murrays, Greens, Reuthers, et, mands the attention of every Com-

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