R esults of the Elections and the People's Front BY EARL BROWDER I The 56th Convention of the A. F. of L. J ACK STACHEL The Negro People and the Elections JAMES W. FORD • Lenin-Thirteen Years After A. MARKOFF The Crisis in the Socialist Party (Conclusion) WM. Z. FOSTER R eview of the Month A. B. • Book R eview HARRY GANNES • TWE:'\TY CE:-\T') • CHANGE THE WORIID! MICHAEL GOLD ALMOST anyone ought to get a real kick out of reading this collection. The old Mike Gold spirit oozes all through it. If you have missed the warmth and fervor of his writings, then here is the book you want. It contains selections that should please everybody's taste. Almost everything is in the book, from baseball to barricades, from vi~ions of Marx to nightmares of Mussolini, from the miners of Pees to the mil­ lionaires of Pittsburgh, from Moscow's subway to Henry Ford's inferno. It's an album of the exciting big and little events of this decade. Not only its contents, but jacket, binding, design, and even its price-all are nothing short of spectacular. And be sure to read the elegant foreword that Robert Forsythe has written for this volume! 272 pages, $1.39 • MEMOS: Have you read these new books? At the rate they're going they'll soon be out of print: REVOLT ON THE CLYDE by William Gallacher-$2.50 KARL MARX: SELECTED WORKS VOLUME 1-$2.25 WORLD POLITICS by R. Palme Dutt-$2.oo WAR OUR HERITAGE by Lash and Wechsler-$o.5o • Order from your bookshop or from WORKERS LIBRARY PUBLISHERS P. 0. Box 148, Sta. D. New York City VOL. XVI, NO. JANUARY, 1937 'Jhe COMMUNIST A MAGAZINE OF THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF MARXISM-LENINISM PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE U.S.A. CONTENTS Review of the Month A. B. 3 The Results of the Elections and the People's Front . EARL BROWDER • The 56th Convention of the A. F. of L. JACK STACHEL The Negro People and the Elections JAMES W. FORD • Lenin-Thirteen Years After A. MARKOFF 74 The Crisis in the Socialist Party WILLIAM Z. FOSTER Book Reviews . HARRY GANNES • 93 Frontispiece drawn by D. Charles 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.O. Box r48, Sta. D (50 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. ~209 V. 1. LENIN April 2, 1870 january 21, 1924 V. 1. LENIN April 2 , 1870 ]anua·ry 21, 19 24 REVIEW OF THE MONTH The Legacy of IgJ6 and the Tasks of th« New Year. Make It a Year of Great Alivances. Finance Capital and the Two-Party System. The Cottclusions of Browder's Report. The New York Times Reveals a Position. What Is Roosevelt's Middle Course? Pressure by Independent Struggle Versus "Pressure" by Surrender. Objective Conditions and Political Perspec­ tives. Communist Party Plenum and Program of Action. Capital- ist Reaction Reorganizes for Fight. The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing. W.P.A. Is a Danger Signal. Anniversary of Lenin's Death. Fol­ low in Footsteps of Lenin. Study Leninism and Recruit Party Members. Party Units and Independent Actions HE New Year-1937-can be made of fascism and war have become less T a year of great advance and ac­ acute. Nothing would be more dis­ complishment for the forces of de­ astrous than to fall under the spell of mocracy, peace and progress in this a false sense of security. A mere glance country as well as in the rest of the at events, at home and abroad, in world. Despite the many shortcomings the closing weeks of 1936, should be and inadequacies, the struggle of the enough to dispel any such feelings. masses during the past year against the At home, the forces of reaction are offensive of the forces working for speedily and skillfully reorganizing fascism and war has created a solid their ranks in preparation for new basis for a serious move forward. It attacks. The Chambers of Commerce is our duty, as well as opportunity, to and the National Association of take advantage of this favorable situ­ Manufacturers, the backbone and ation. Indeed, we cannot afford to driving force of reaction in this coun· miss it. try, have already given clear indica­ It was in this spirit that the plenary tions that they intend to drive forward session of the Central Committee of toward the same old objectives while the Communist Party, held December employing for a while different tac· 4-6 in New York City, reviewed the tics. And the Roosevelt Administra· results of the elections and mapped tion-true to its middle-of-the-road out a course of action for the months nature-has also given some fresh in­ to come. dications that it is very susceptible to Needless to say that this spirit does this new drive and pressure of the not arise from any such feeling as forces of reaction. The workers and that the enemies of the people have farmers on the W.P.A. have already become quiescent or that the dangers felt the first shocks of this offensive. 4 THE COMMUNIST Abroad, the fascist and militarist working class and the toiling popula­ powers-Germany, Italy and Japan­ tion generally tied down to the chariot have joined forces in open agreement, of bourgeois politics. collaborating actively in Spain and in No wonder finance capital is so the Far East (China), seeking to build loath to part with this traditional up a bloc of all fascist and war­ two-party system. making forces against democracy and The plenary meeting of the Central the Soviet Union on a world scale. Committee of the Communist Party The legacy of 1936 is therefore one reached the conclusion that this two­ of increasing danger of fascism and party system emerged from the elec­ war; yet also one of increasingly more tions seriously damaged and weak· favorable opportunities for a united ened. This was the conclusion sub­ and effective struggle against these mitted to the plenum by Comrade dangers. The working class of this Browder in his report and which the country, and ,the American people plenum adopted as its own. generally, can play a decisive role in The New York Times reaches a dif­ these struggles. In the judgment of ferent conclusion. According to this the Central Committee plenum of mouthpiece of finance capital, "the the Communist Party, the American result achieved on November 3 can people headed by the working class scarcely give much satisfaction to those will indeed play such a decisive role who cherish the ambition of creating by building up their own independent a really formidable third party". power on the economic and political (Editorial, Dec. 13, 1936.) Whether fields, by moving in broad forma­ it can or cannot, in the judgement tions to the People's Front, to the of the Times, the fact is that the re­ Farmer-Labor Party. sult of November 3 did give much The year 1937 should prove to be satisfaction to the Farmer-Labor and one of great advances for the re­ progressive forces of this country. It born Farmer-Labor democracy of this did give much satisfaction to those country. "who cherish the ambition of creat­ ing" a formidable People's Front party -such a formidable party, in fact, that T WAS a foregone conclusion that may from the outset emerge as a I finance capital will seek to repair second party, not a third, and that and reconsolidate the greatly damaged will in time become the first party. two-party system of this country. For The Times should not try to identify the capitalist class, this traditional its own feelings in the matter with two-party system was an unmixed those of the Farmer-Labor forces. blessing ever since it came into exist­ Especially revealing is the reason­ ence. It was this system that enabled ing of The New York Times; for it the capitalist class of the United discloses certain political attitudes of States to retain a virtual monopoly finance capital. And the reasoning of politics. And it was due in part to runs something like this: this system that the capitalists were " ... while the election resulted in a large able for such a long time to keep the net shift of votes from the Republican to REVIEW OF THE MONTH 5 the Democratic Party, it showed no deep was what Comrade Browder has made dissatisfaction with the traditional two-party convincingly clear in his report to the system-at· least so long as one of these plenum of the Central Committee. parties is led by a candidate as progressive in his views as is Mr. Roosevelt." (Ibid.) The masses voted in bulk for the can­ didates of the two old parties. But this No deep dissatisfaction with the tells only part of the story, the one traditional two-party system, says the that is so pleasing to finance capital. Times. But the known facts tell a dif­ But there is another part and one ferent story. Labor's Non-Partisan that is more significant for the future League, whose support of President political developments in this coun­ Roosevelt contributed greatly towards try. It is that the bulk of the Farmer­ the scope of his victory (if not to the Labor democracy rose to defeat victory itself), found it necessary to reaction in the elections and that the emphasize throughout the election success was achieved largely because campaign that it was not supporting new forces and movements were at the Democratic Party.