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The 'American Exceptionalism' of Jay Lovestone and His Comrades

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The 'American Exceptionalism' of Jay Lovestone and His Comrades The ‘American Exceptionalism’ of Jay Lovestone and His Comrades, 1929–1940 Historical Materialism Book Series Editorial Board Sébastien Budgen (Paris) Steve Edwards (London) Marcel van der Linden (Amsterdam) Peter Thomas (London) volume 83 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/hm The ‘American Exceptionalism’ of Jay Lovestone and His Comrades, 1929–1940 Dissident Marxism in the United States Volume 1 Edited by Paul Le Blanc and Tim Davenport LEIDEN | BOSTON This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1570-1522 isbn 978-90-04-22443-8 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-27213-2 (e-book) Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. Brill has made all reasonable efforts to trace all rights holders to any copyrighted material used in this work. In cases where these efforts have not been successful the publisher welcomes communications from copyright holders, so that the appropriate acknowledgements can be made in future editions, and to settle other permission matters. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Contents Preface xi Acknowledgements xv part 1 Introducing the Lovestone Group 1 What is the Communist Party Opposition? 3 Bertram D. Wolfe 2 Politics, Activism and Marxism of the Lovestone Group 39 Paul Le Blanc part 2 The Split and its Origins 3 The Organisational Roots of Jay Lovestone’s Communist Party Opposition 69 Tim Davenport 4 The Lovestone Split of 1929 101 1 ‘Proposals of the Delegation of the Sixth National Convention’ 102 2 Joseph Stalin, ‘Speech in the American Commission of ECCI’ 105 3 Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, ‘Speech in the American Commission of ECCI’ 113 4 ‘Address of ECCI to all Members of the CPUSA’ 115 5 Max Bedacht, et al., ‘Appeal to the Comintern, of 14 May 1929’ 124 6 Joseph Stalin, ‘First Speech of 14 May 1929 in the Presidium of ECCI’ 128 7 Joseph Stalin, ‘Second Speech of 14 May 1929 in the Presidium of ECCI’ 139 8 ‘The Split Telegram of 15 May 1929’ 142 9 CC of the CPUSA, ‘Decisions of Central Committee of CPUSA on 14 May Address of Comintern’ 145 10 CPUSA, ‘The Significance of the Comintern Address’ 146 vi contents 11 ‘Material for the Enlightenment of the Members’ (Lovestone’s Cable and Wolfe’s Reply to Ultimatum) 150 12 CC of the CPUSA, ‘Statement of the CC on the Expulsion of Jay Lovestone’ 153 13 Jay Lovestone, et al., ‘Appeal to the 10th Plenum of ECCI, July 10 1929’ 157 14 CC of the CPUSA, ‘Statement of the CC on the July 10 Lovestone Appeal’ 165 15 Ben Gitlow, ‘For the Sixth Congress Decision’ 169 16 Statement of the Polbureau of the CPUSA on Expulsions 174 17 CPUSA Majority Group, ‘Declaration to the Plenum of the Central Committee’ 177 part 3 Evolution of the Communist Party Opposition 5 Russia and International Affairs: 1929–36 185 1 Jay Lovestone, ‘The Crisis in the Communist International’ 188 2 Alex Bail, ‘Defend the Soviet Union! Smash the Imperialist “Holy War” against the USSR’ 194 3 Revolutionary Age, ‘Wave of Revolt Sweeps India’ 197 4 Louis Becker, ‘Dizzy with Success’ 200 5 Jay Lovestone, ‘Thirteen Years of the Russian Revolution’ 204 6 Jay Lovestone, ‘Germany at the Crossroads: Fascism on the Rampage’ 208 7 Will Herberg, ‘Jews in Russia – Negroes in the USA: a Lesson from the Soviet Union’ 213 8 CPUSA(O) Resolution, ‘On General Line and Inner-Party Course of the CPSU’ 218 9 Jay Lovestone, ‘The Nazis Take Power – Now What?’ 225 10 CPUSA(O), ‘On the New Line of the Comintern’ 229 11 Jay Lovestone, ‘Soviet Foreign Policy and the World Revolution’ 235 12 Workers Age, ‘The Russian Events’ 261 6 International Affairs: 1937–40 264 1 Jay Lovestone, ‘People’s Front Illusion’ 268 2 Bertram D. Wolfe and Lambda, ‘The Truth about the Barcelona Events’ 286 contents vii 3 Jay Lovestone, ‘The Meaning of the Soviet “Purges” ’ 297 4 Will Herberg, ‘Jacobin Defense in the Spanish War’ 307 5 Bertram D. Wolfe, ‘Stalinism Menaces the World Labor Movement’ 313 6 ‘Another Moscow Trial! A Statement’ [Bukharin Trial] 317 7 Lewis Corey, ‘War and Armament Economics’ 321 8 Workers Age, ‘Stalin Indicates Reich Alliance’ 325 9 Jay Lovestone, ‘Tomorrow’s War’ 329 10 ILLA, ‘Stalin-Hitler pact – What Does it Mean?’ 344 11 ILLA, ‘Keep America Out of War!’ 348 12 Workers Age, ‘Russia Invades Poland, Ready for Grab’ 353 13 Workers Age, ‘And Now Finland’ 355 14 Will Herberg, ‘The New Imperialism of Stalinist Russia’ 357 15 ILLA, ‘Resolution on War Policy’ (Convention 28–29 December 1940) 369 PHOTOGRAPHS (following 377) 7 Social Struggles in the United States 378 Early Struggles 1 Ben Gitlow, ‘The AFL Convention and the Left Wing’ 384 2 Ellen Dawson, ‘Gastonia’ 387 3 Charles S. Zimmerman, ‘Second Convention of the Needle Trade Union’ 392 4 Harry H. Connor, ‘The Communists and the Unemployed Council’ 399 5 Edward Welsh, ‘The Harlem Tenants Council’ 403 Race and Racism 6 Grace Lamb, ‘The Church versus the Negro’ 408 7 Communist Party Opposition, ‘Marxism and the “Negro Question” ’ 412 8 Edward Welsh, ‘The National Negro Congress’ 423 9 Lyman Fraser, ‘Economic Problems of Negro Workers’ 438 10 Ernest Calloway, ‘New Problems for Negro Labor’ 441 viii contents Trade-Union Movement 11 Jay Lovestone, ‘Problems and Tasks of the American Labor Movement’ 446 12 Jay Lovestone, ‘Address to ILGWU Convention’ 450 13 Charles S. Zimmerman, ‘American Labor Faces the Future’ 457 14 Charles S. Zimmerman, ‘Hope of Trade Union Movement’ 468 15 Will Herberg, ‘The CIO and the Problem of Unity’ 471 16 Charles S. Zimmerman, ‘Call for Labor Unity’ 477 United Auto Workers 17 Auto Striker, ‘Flint Striker Tells Story of GM Violence’ 482 18 Stuart Meffron, ‘The Battle of Flint’ 485 19 E.B. and Mary Flint, ‘Women in the Auto Strike’ 488 20 Jay Lovestone, ‘Implications of the Sit-Down’ 493 21 Jay Lovestone, ‘Latest Stalinist Assault Upon Auto Union’ 498 Regarding Others on the Left 22 Bertram D. Wolfe, ‘Trotsky and Trotskyism’ 504 23 Dorothy Dare, ‘Joining the CPO’ 514 24 Edward Welsh, ‘May Day Speech, 1937’ 516 25 Bernard Herman, ‘Review of Ben Gitlow’s I Confess’ 519 8 Marxist Theory Applying Marxism 1 Jay Lovestone, ‘Some Specific Features of the American Labor Movement’ 536 2 Will Herberg, ‘The Heritage of the Civil War’ 541 3 Bertram D. Wolfe, ‘Marx and America’ 553 4 Will Herberg, ‘The Passing of the Gods’ 559 5 Will Herberg, ‘Does Fascism Menace America?’ 561 Re-examining Marxism 6 Workers Age, ‘Marxism Probed in Fine Symposium’ 568 7 Lewis Corey, ‘Recreating Socialism’ 570 contents ix 8 Will Herberg, ‘Dilemma of Socialism’ 578 9 Bertram D. Wolfe, ‘The Basic Core of Marxism’ 587 9 Fadeout 593 1 Jay Lovestone, ‘Marxists and the Unions’ 595 2 Will Herberg, ‘Convention of a New Beginning’ 600 3 ‘Jay Lovestone’s Testimony to House of Un-American Activities Committee’ 605 4 ‘Letter From Dissidents on Organizational Disintegration’ 666 5 ‘Towards a Genuine American Democratic Socialism!’ (1940 Dissolution Statement) 668 Bibliography 673 Index 680 Preface This book – made up of writings by people who several years later stopped believing in what they had been saying – could be seen as a strange volume that is part of a peculiar project. It is to be the first of a five-volume series on dissi- dent Marxism in the United States, which is scheduled to appear over the next few years. These volumes are to be made up mostly of primary sources – reflec- tions, reports, analyses, proposals, etc. – produced by US Marxists from the late 1920s through the start of the 1960s. Writings by dead people for a cause that has been widely believed (at least since the collapse of Communism, roughly a quarter of a century ago) to be utterly discredited – what’s the point? To be a little more specific, the present volume – ‘American Exceptionalism’ – presents the writings of what a sympathetic historian, Robert J. Alexander, has called the Right Opposition, an influential current led by Jay Lovestone which was briefly in control of, and then dramatically expelled from, the Communist Party in the late 1920s, and which maintained an independent existence through 1940, after which some of its leading figures ended up evolving much further to the right on the political spectrum.1 Also projected are two volumes (one running from the late 1920s to the start of the 1940s, and the other run- ning from that point to the start of the 1960s) on what might be called the Left Opposition, another split-off from the Communist Party, associated with Leon Trotsky. Divided along similar chronological lines (from the late 1920s up to the 1960s) are two final volumes presenting Marxism that is organisationally independent – not only from the Socialist and Communist parties, but also from the Lovestoneites and Trotskyists. The question still hangs in the air: why create such volumes? And why should anyone look through them (not to mention actually read them)? My own experience in the United States, certainly from 2008 through 2014, is that many, many people are facing a convergence of crises – up close and personal – cascading upon us on the local level, on the national level, and glob- ally as well.
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