20c. \ MAY 1940 THE B.QLSHEVIZATION OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY GENE DENNIS ' SOCIAL-DEMOCRATISM: THE MAIN OBSTACLE TO OVERCOME (REV.IEW OF THE MONTH) THE HAYMARKET MARTYRS AND MAY DAY,. 1940 OAKLEY JOHNSON .THE VATICAN AND ROOSEVELT LOUIS F. BUDENZ ,' ZIONISM AND THE IMPERIALIST WAR PAUL NOVICK FOR SPRING PUBLICATION Dialectics of Nature, by Fre9erick Engels . $2.50 Translated into English for the first time by Clemens .. Du tt, witn an introduction by J. B. S. Haldane, this invaluable wo rk on dialectical materialism and the I natuq;l l_scie[l ces has been _eagerly_awaited by Ameri­ can readers. Its publication in May constitutes an · important contribution t~ the al'senal of Marxism­ . Leninism. Why Farmers Are Poor: The Agricultural Crisis in the ' ... United States, by An.na Rochester $2.50 The scope of thi.s- fundamental study of the farm problem in the United States is indicated by some <?f the chapter neadings: Agriculture as Part of Capi­ talist Economy; How Capitalism Develops Wi+hin Agricultu re; Rent and Land Tenure; Farm Wage Workers; The Crisis of Small F<!rmers; The Farmers' Price Problem, etc. Salute to-Spring, by -Meridel Le Sueur $1.50 A volume of short stories which have been highly praised by many critics. Some of the .selections in this b~ok include: " No W ine in His C art," "Fable of a Man and Pigeons," "A Hungry Intellectual," "Biography of My Daughter," "Tonight Is Part of the Struggle." • Order from W 0 R K E R S L I B R A R Y .P U B L. I S li E R S P. 0. Box 148, :Station Q.. New York, N.Y. VOL. XIX, No. 5 MAY, 1940 THE COMMUNIST A MAGAZINE OF THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF MARXISM-LENINISM PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE U.S.A. EDITOR: EARL BROWDER CONTENTS Review of the Month A. B. 387 The Bolshevization of the Communist Party of the United States in the Struggle Against the Imperialist War Gene Dennis 403 The Haymarket Martyrs and May Day, 1940 Oakley Johnson 418 The Reactionary Political Role of the Vatican Louis F. Budenz 431 The Impact of the War on the Structure of Capitalism George Brahns 451 Zionism and the Imperialist War Paul Novick 463 Greetings to "Clarity" 480 Entered as second class matter November 2, r927, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, r879. Send checks, money orders and correspondence to THE CoMMUNIST, P. 0. Box r48, Sta. D (5o E. r3th St.), New York. Subscription rates: $2.00 a year; $r.oo for six months; foreign and Canada $2.50 a year. Single copies .20 cents. · PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. .....209 ON IMPERIALISM AND WAR Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, by V. I. Lenin $.30 The War and the Second International, by V. I. Lenin .20 Is This a War for Freedom? by Ernst Fischer . .10 The People Against the War-Makers, by Earl Browder .05 Social-Democracy and the War, by V. J. Jerome . .05 The War and the Working Class of the Capitalist Countries by Georgi Dim;troff . .02 The War Crisis: Questions and Answers, by William Z. Foster .05 A Negro Looks at War, by John Henry Williams . .03 The War and the Workers, by V. I. Lenin (Ready in May) .10 I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier-For Wall Street, by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn .01 • Imperialism and the Imperialist War (1914-1917) by V. I. Lenin 2.00 Marxism and the National and Colonial Question, by Joseph Stalin . 1.50 • WORKERS LIBRARY PUBLISHERS P. 0. Box 148, Station D, New York, N.Y. REVIEW OF THE MONTH The Forthcoming Communist Nominating Convention. Candidates and Platform. Promoting the Anti-Imperialist People's Front and Building the Communist Party. Social-Democratism Is the Main Obstacle to Combat. What Is the Role of Norman Thomas & Co.? Communist Policies in National Elections. The Growth of Anti-War Movements. External and Internal Factors in the Anti-War Struggle. Molotov's Report. Greater Vigilance and Renewed Confidence. For Resistance to All Manifestations of Capitalist Offensive. Dies and the Com­ munists. On Certain Anti-Marxist Criticisms. Stalin's Contribu­ tions to Marxism. Scientific Spirit Versus Bourgeois Class Spirit. Theory and Experience. The Struggle for Bolshevization. On Stalin's Art to Foresee Events. The Power of Revolutionary Theory and Self-Crit-ical Evaluations. HE forthcoming National Con­ tained in the election struggle. They T vention of the Communist are: to stimulate further the de­ Party, to be held May 30-June 3 in velopment and struggles of the New York City, will be a Presiden­ anti-imperialist and anti-war mass tial nominating convention for the movements, the struggle for the purpose of nominating candidates economic standards and civil rights for President and Vice President of the masses, to promote the strug­ and for the adoption of an election gle for the class unity of the prole­ platform. Thus the Communist tariat, bringing forth the working Party will equip itself for entering class ever more prominently as the the election struggle in order to initiator and leader of these strug­ promote the movements of the gles. They are--these practical ob­ masses against the imperialist war, jectives-to help secure the maxi­ against capitalist reaction and in­ mum possible independent political tensified exploitation and for the action of labor and its allies in the further strengthening of the Party forthcoming elections, orientating as the revolutionary vanguard of these developments towards an the American working class. We are anti - imperialist, anti - monopoly on the eve of a significant stage in party of peace. They are to build the fight for the anti-imperialist and strengthen the Communist people's front and in the historic Party itself, to widen and solidify march to socialism. its contacts with the masses, to pro­ In other words, we have imme­ tect and defend its legal existence, diate practical objectives to be at- to raise to new heights the ideologi- 387 388 REVIEW OF THE MONTH cal and political level of our entire historic mission of leading the toil­ work. ing people to the abolition of capi­ These practical objectives arise talism and the establishment of so-· from the most intimate and burning cialism. needs of the masses of the people. And it is for these purposes, for They are the major immediate the realization of these great aims, needs of the American working that the Communist Party enters class and its allies-the toiling the election struggle with its own farmers, the youth, the Negro peo­ candidates and platform. The Com­ ple, the women, and the aged. They munist Party, says Comrade Stalin are the needs of the great gathering in his Bolshevization principles, coalition of labor with all common must not regard itself "as an appen­ people, the coalition for which John dage of the parliamentary election L. Lewis again spoke so eloquently machine," as the Socialist Party before the miners of northern West does, or as "a free supplement of Virginia on April 1. More than that: the trade unions," as certain an­ the immediate practical objectives archo-syndicalists say, "but as the of the Communist Party in the elec­ highest form of class combination tions are the very objectives for of the proletariat." (Quoted by which progressive labor and its Georgi Dimitroff, "Stalin and the allies are already fighting. There­ World Proletariat," The Communist fore, in fighting for the realization International, No. 1, 1940, pp. 18- of the practical objectives of the 19.) And this means the carrying Communist Party in the elections, out in the election struggles of a we shall be standing shoulder to rounded-out campaign to intensify shoulder with the progressive mass the mass struggles on all fronts, to movements and in their front ranks. unify and concentrate their political But this is not all. The Commu­ expression in the maximum mass nist Party aims to build itself into support for the platform and stand­ a leading vanguard party of the ard-bearers of the Communist American working class. It strives Party, to build the anti-imperialist to become a true Bolshevik Party. people's front under labor's leader­ What does that mean? It means that ship, to project the further perspec­ every immediate and practical ac­ tives of this struggle on the road tion that we engage in must be so to socialism, to train the working planned and carried out as to lead class in its historic liberating naturally to the deepening of the mission. political understanding of the From this it follows that one of working class, to the raising of its the chief political tasks of the elec­ political position of initiative and tion campaign is to expose the im­ leadership, to accelerating the his­ perialist, war-making and capitalist toric movement of labor to becom­ reactionary character of the two ing the leader of the nation. It bourgeois parties and thus to stim­ should naturally train and educate ulate further the separation of the the working class in the spirit of its American working class and its REVIEW OF THE MONTH 389 allies from these parties. Having vancement of the working class and this clearly in mind, it must also its allies. That is why the bour­ be realized that one of the main geoisie fears and hates it. That is . obstacles to the fulfilment of this why its reformist agents, its agents task is Social-Democratism in its in the labor movement, work un­ various forms: Norman Thomasism, ceasingly for the weakening and Waldman-Dubinsky-Rose & Co., wrecking of this movement.