"Stalin's Speeches on the American Communist Party," by I. Stalin. Full text of a pamphlet published by the CPUSA early in 1931, containing three of Stalin's speeches on the American factional situation, delivered before the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International. Stalin is harshly critical of the lack of discipline and unprincipled factionalism of both of the Lovestone majority faction and the Foster-Bittelman minority faction. CPUSA Executive Secretary Jay Lovestone drew particularly heavy fire, with Stalin noting that "In factional scandalmongering, in factional intrigue, Comrade Lovestone is indisputably an adroit and talented factional wirepuller. No one can deny him that. But factional leadership must not be confused with Party leadership. A Party leader is one thing, a factional leader is something quite different. Not every factional leader has the gift of being a Party leader. I doubt very much that at this stage Comrade Lovestone can be a Party leader." As part of Stalin's proposed solution, Lovestone and Bittelman were to be held in Moscow and reassigned to Comintern work elsewhere -- a decision which precipitated the split of Lovestone and his closest circle. Includes an unsigned preface emphasizing Stalin's correctness and dismissing allegations made by the Left Opposition movement that publication of the document marked a first step towards Foster's removal from the ranks of party leaders.
MARCH 1931
"Revive Bridgman Case, Try to Jail Communist Workers." (Daily Worker) [March 26, 1931] In March of 1931, the all-but-forgotten 1922 Bridgman raid was suddenly vaulted back into the news, the long-delayed case apparently seen by the American state security apparatus as a means of decapitating the troublesome Communist Party USA. Some 27 indicted "conspirators" remained in jeopardy for their purported crime -- accused of having met with their fellows at a summer camp on the shores of Lake Michigan as part of a convention of the underground Communist Party of America. Those imperiled by possible 10 year prison terms for this alleged violation of the Michigan Criminal Syndicalism law included William Z. Foster, Earl Browder, Max Bedacht, William F. Dunne, Ella Reeves Bloor, Robert Minor, and Rose Pastor Stokes. To make matters worse for the indicted Communists, the judge in the case reversed the ruling he made in 1923 and combined the cases of the entire group, making it easy for a single mass political trial to be conducted. The CP's legal aid arm, the International Labor Defense, called upon American workers to "immediately rally in militant fashion to save these leaders from a long term in prison.... Organize defense meetings, mass demonstrations, and fight for the immediate freeing of our militant membership."
"After 8 Years, the Michigan Cases Come to Life Again Through Ham Fish's Attacks: Capitalists Insist on Trial of Foster, Browder, Bedacht, Minor, Weinstone, and Others." (Daily Worker) [March 31, 1931] This article provides additional information about the miraculously revitalized case revolving around the 1922 raid of the Communist Party of America's convention at Bridgman, Michigan. The decision to reopen the case is said to be related to the assumption of office by a new Michigan Attorney General on Jan. 1, 1933, an individual characterized as "evidently eager to share the national laurels for red-baiting with Hamilton Fish." Hearings before Judge White in Berrien Co. were said to have been unsuccessful, the prosecution being "ably and energetically" assisted by the judge in hearings held March 26. As a result, the cases of the 27 indicted party members were combined into a single trial. "The Assistant Attorney General sat through the proceedings without opening his mouth. The judge pleaded his case. The motion of the prosecution wasn't even read. The judge granted it without hearing it. It was directed against the accused and that was sufficient ground for granting it. All the rights Judge White condescended to grant to the accused was that, if they didn't like this ruling, they can go to the Supreme Court and try to have it reversed," the article states. A trial date of June 1, 1931 was set.
"This Post-War Generation and Our Time: Will It Be Able to Find a Way Out?" by Anna P. Krasna [April 30, 1931] A little heard perspective: the views of a Depression-era Socialist rather than a Communist; of a woman, not a man; of a Slovenian-American, not an Anglo-American. Anna P. Krasna, a writer, appeals to the youth of America to wake up and begin to take an active interest in politics, as a new war was in the wind. The post-war generation had been bred upon illusions of individual success and was learning that the brutal reality of the economic system was different, Krasna stated. "We are hoping that the youth, seeing the future holds nothing but misery in store for them, or perhaps a chance to die a heroic death for the international speculators and exploiters, shall demand the right to live as comfortably as the modern technical improvements permit" -- this to be achieved through participation in "the groups of those who believe in equality for all."
MAY 1931
"Two Weeks by Train: The Diary of a Canadian Visitor to Soviet Russia and the Soviet Ukraine," by Phil Malkin [May 3-18, 1931] This 20 page journal represents a modest contribution to the vast literature of English-language visitor's memoirs on Russia and the Soviet Union (see Nerhood's bibliography: To Russia and Return.) Phil Malkin was a Canadian who traveled through Russia and the Ukraine for 2 weeks in May of 1931, spending time in Leningrad, Moscow, Kiev, and Odessa. An anti-Communist and a non-speaker of Russian who traveled with a series of interpreter-guides, Malkin compiled this travel diary for the American Consul General at Vienna, who preserved the document. Malkin notes the "spiteful envy" of average ill-clothed Russian women towards one sveltely dressed guide in Moscow. He cites prices and currency exchange figures throughout his account which clearly indicate a substantial level of repressed inflation, expressing itself as catastrophically high prices paid by visitors who converting to local currency at the official rate and then attempting to make purchases in regular shops. Malkin notes that Russia "imports no food" and that fresh fruit was unavailable, as was chocolate and writing paper; queues were pervasive. Restricted Torgsin shops existed to exchange limited goods to foreigners (and the party elite) for hard currency at something approximating world market rates -- a fraction of the equivalent rate in local currency in regular shops. Malkin contrasts a happier and more upbeat Ukraine with the bleakness of Moscow and Leningrad. Malkin observes that "Living conditions are as bad as the world believes them to be. Crowded tenements. Food is scarce, but there is no famine and no danger of it, for the scarcity is voluntary and artificially caused by the desire to create credits abroad for machinery." He also indicates that the Soviet government is "skillfully tending every effort to bring up the new generation on the tenets of communism."
"The Crisis in the Laisve: From a Declaration of the Lithuanian Opposition Communists." [May 16, 1931] Although the fact is little realized, the Lithuanian Socialist Federation -- and the Lithuanian Communist organization which succeeded it -- was based on "hall socialism" like the Finns. An extensive network of radical social, political, and educational institutions were established by Lithuanian-speaking reds. An, much like the Finns, the semi-autonomous Lithuanian Communist movement was neutered and shattered by the CPUSA in the first years of the 1930s. This article, written by ousted Lithuanian radicals close to the Communist daily Laisve (Freedom) details the takeover of the newspaper and its assets by a faction headed by Anthony Bimba and backed with the force of the CPUSA Central Committee. The authors (B. Jokubonis, J. Kuodis, and E. Butkus) date the start of the assault to the summer of 1930. First demands were made that the Lithuanian daily -- a self-sustaining entity established as a cooperative, with editorial content under party control -- launch and sustain a Spanish language weekly on behalf of the party. When that was dodged for financial reasons, additional demands were made that Laisve handle production of the Yiddish language and Italian party papers. These financial drains were also dodged, and demands for transmission of large cash sums to CPUSA followed. Stymied by Lithuanian resistance, by February 1931 it seems the CC determined to take over Laisve altogether, transferring out press machinery and converting or selling Lithuanian buildings. This article details the various political machinations executed by the Bimba faction in this takeover of Laisve and purge of Lithuanian members -- a process which ended, the authors indicate, with "only about 150 Lithuanian workers...left in the Party" in the spring of 1931.
"The First Convention of the International Workers' Order, Inc." by R. Saltzman [May 30, 1931] One of the Communist Party's most successful affiliated "mass organizations" was the International Workers' Order, formed by the separation of Left Wing branches from the Workmen's Circle, a Jewish fraternal and benefit society with a Socialist orientation. This pre-convention report by IWO head R. Saltzman gives a brief outline of the IWO's origins and activity during its first 11 months between its effective launch on July 1, 1930 and the end of May 1931. Saltzman notes that some 225 branches of the IWO in 31 states had been organized, with 12,000 members -- slightly short of the target of 15,000 set for the year. Over $22,700 in sick benefits had been paid out by the organization during this period, with $51,600 remaining in reserve. In addition to sick benefits, the IWO had taken over the formation of children's schools from the Non-Partisan Workers' Children's Schools organization, leading to the establishment of 80 schools giving "a working class revolutionary education" to some 6,000 children. Further, the IWO had "actively taken part in the mass struggles," including endorsement of a national health insurance bill, participation in May Day rallies, and participation in the election campaign "lead by the Communist Party." "The first convention of the International Workers' Order will accept the general correct line, in the light of constructive self-criticism, abolish the drawbacks in our work, reveal the weak points, and strengthen our position for a united Class Order in the fraternal movement in this country," Saltzman declares.
JUNE 1931
The Program of Class Struggle Co-operation: And the Platform of the Class Struggle for the Co-op Central Exchange. [June 1931] (Graphic pdf, large file, 1.3 megs.) Full issue of a rare pamphlet published by the Workers and Farmers Cooperative Unity Alliance, the Communist Party-associated entity which in the name of "Left Wing Cooperators" sought to take over the Cooperative Central Exchange run by radical Finnish-Americans in the Upper Midwest. The pamphlet, produced by the Työmies Society in Superior, Wisconsin, asserts that despite the fact that the Communist "Left Wing membership" represented a majority of members of the Cooperative Central Exchange, the leadership headed by former Communist George Halonen used expulsions and manipulation of stockholders to gain a "mechanical majority" at the April 1931 Annual Convention of the Central Exchange. Despite the defeat of their program, the Communists continued to advance their program "against Halonen and other betrayers of the interests of the workers and poor farmers." The Communists charge Halonen with leadership of a "secret apparatus" of "renegades from the class struggle" who had circulated a book called Political Bankruptcy of the Comintern and aligned the Cooperative Central Exchange with the mainstream Cooperative League of the USA and the "International Social Fascist leadership." The pamphlet asserts that the Halonen leadership had used legal action in capitalist courts to force dissident cooperatives into bankruptcy. In addition, counter-organizations of Finnish women and young people had been established by the Cooperative Central Exchange in opposition to equivalent Communist-controlled groups, the pamphlet observes. It declares these policies to be "not only social fascism, it must lead deeper and deeper into open fascism to which the organization is sinking." Includes the full 14 plank "Left Wing" cooperative program and a June 4, 1931 statement by the Executive Board of the Workers' and Farmers' Cooperative Unity Alliance protesting the actions of the Halonen leadership as exponents of a "systemic resistance in alliance with the Farmer-Labor Party, the IWW, the AF of L, the Lovestones, the Trotskyits, Alannes, Sulkanens, the social democratic Raivaaja, the Industrialisti, and other white guard newspapers" in opposition to the Trade Union Unity League and the United Farmers' League.
"The 'New Line' Among the Ukrainians: A Letter," by Frank Kisula [June 27, 1931] An account of the takeover of the Ukrainian Daily News and other Ukrainian Communist assets by a faction loyal to the post-Lovestone CEC, headed by M. Nastas, Dmytryshin, and Knezevitch. Kisula notes the trio of editors, former supporters of the Lovestone faction, switched horses in favor of the new leadership when faced with loss of their jobs. Kisula that intimates a range of financial improprieties have taken place, including refusal to return funds loaned on behalf of the Ukrainian Labor House, potential misappropriation of $6,000 collected for a newspaper for the Western Ukraine, and potential misappropriation of funds generated for East Galician prisoner relief from a benefit concert. A drop in Ukrainian party membership from 1,200 to "only about 300" under the new regime. Ukrainian Communists are urged to join Jay Lovestone's Communist Party (Majority Group) and to continue the fight for a mass Communist Party through this vehicle.
JULY 1931
"The Menace of Communism," by Hamilton Fish, Jr. [July 1931] Lengthy article by the Chairman and namesake of the first U.S. House of Representatives "Special Committee to Investigate Communist Activities in the United States" (1930-31). Fish unintentionally provides an interesting study of anti-Communist ideology in the early 1930s. Fish vastly, and with clear ulterior motive, overestimates the number of Communists in America at "5 or 600,000" well disciplined adherents who "take their orders from Moscow and are proud of it." (Number apparently generated by taking total circulation of the Communist daily press and multiplying). But this group -- nearly half as large as the total number of Communists in the larger USSR asserted by Fish -- are not to be feared of "having a revolution in the United States at this time" since in the event of such an uprising "the regular army and the National Guard and the American Legion, using a Russian word, could 'liquidate' all the Communists in the United States in a few weeks' time." (Note especially the envisioned role of the American Legion.) Communists are said by Fish to be defined by their acceptance of 6 fundamental principles: (1) the abolition of all forms of religious belief; (2) the abolition of all forms of private property and inheritance; (3) the promotion of the bitterest kind of class hatred; (4) the promotion through the Communist International of strikes, riots, sabotage, and industrial unrest; (5) the promotion of class or civil war in order to obtain their final objective; being (6) "the establishment of a Soviet form of government, the dictatorship of the proletariat, with headquarters in Moscow." (Note especially the position of primacy attributed to the question of religion). Racial fear is one fundamental aspect of Fish's anti-Communist ideology, with him noting "Whenever there is a Communist meeting, the white and the colored people assemble together and dance together. The Communists mean just what they say, so their propaganda has some little appeal. Colored men and women are going to Moscow all the time to be trained in the revolutionary schools." Fish states that he had "personally seen order after order from Moscow to the Communists in this country, demanding that an intense campaign be conducted among the Negroes, both North and South, in order to turn them against the government," attributing the lack of success to the churchgoing nature of American blacks. "The Communists cannot understand why the Negroes have not succumbed to their propaganda of social equality, or intermarriage and racial equality, and so on." Fish's view of the American left wing movement is almost comically undifferentiated, lumping together "Communists and Socialists and pink intellectuals" and the American Civil Liberties Union, and stating that "the Communists and the Socialists are joining hands" -- an altogether unique view of political reality during the Third Period.
"Lithuanian Opposition Organized." (Revolutionary Age) [July 4, 1931] In 1930 and 1931 the new leadership of the Communist Party launched a campaign to eliminate the last vestiges of autonomous Communist foreign language federations, moving against cooperatives and independently owned publications, asserting firm editorial control, consolidating production, and liquidating assets. This heavy-handed behavior provoked opposition within some of these federations, including the Finnish, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian. This news story from the official organ of the Lovestoneite Communist Party (Majority Group) details a split in the Lithuanian Federation, in which CEC loyalists captured control of the Chicago Lithuanian Communist newspaper, Vilnis [The Surge]. Eastern elements in the Lithuanian Federation established themselves as a Lithuanian Communist Opposition with a convention attended by 42 delegates, probably held sometime in June 1931. A new publication called The Bulletin was launched, the article notes. Lithuanian Federation leader Leonas Pruseika seems to have attempted to negotiate a middle course -- ultimately launching a new publication in Brooklyn which made use of an old name, Naujoji Gadyne [The New Epoch].
DECEMBER 1931"Lithuanian Opposition Begins the Issuance of Weekly Organ: Review and Criticism of Naujoji Gadyne." [Dec. 19, 1931] With the CPUSA moving by use of centrally-determined decisions and heavy-handed action to consolidate its dwindling foreign language sections under the banner of the International Workers Order in 1931, many federationists took umbrage. Some dissident Communists of the Lithuanian Federation, rather than accepting the new regime headed by Anthony Bimba, departed the party to establish a new Brooklyn-based Communist Opposition weekly, Naujoji Gadyne (The New Era). This article from the press of Jay Lovestone's Communist Party (Majority Group) takes a look at the first two issues of the new Lithuanian periodical. While admiring the "well-edited revolutionary paper," the Lovestoneites are critical of the Lithuanian Opposition for conceiving of the Lithuanian Federation's struggle as a Lithuanian struggle, rather than a general problem of the Communist movement as a whole. Failure by Lithuanian leaders E. Butkus and Leonas Pruseika to show the connection between the Lithuanian Federation's problems and those of the Communist Party (Majority Group) "both reflects and breeds dangerous political confusion," the unsigned new story declares.
