Date: Mon, 7 Apr 1997 20:14:20 -0500
From: Yoshie Furuhashi <Furuhashi.1-AT-osu.edu>
Subject: Re: M-I: In the Time of Stalin: Nation,  Race & Class in the


Louis Godena wrote:
>At the same time,  the American Party stands out in two rather remarkable
>ways.    First of all,  if it is true that the Communist parties of France,
>Italy,  Belgium and most countries of western Europe grew immensely stronger
>in the decades following the abolition of the Third International than they
>were at any time during its existence,  the reverse is true for the CPUSA.
>Second,  of the parties experiencing exponential growth within racist
>societies during the twenties and thirties,  only the American CP seems to
>have *begun* with predominant races in leadership positions,  rather than --
>as in the case of South Africa,  for example -- ending up with a racially
>balanced leadership only after years of positive and deliberate efforts in
>that direction.[6]
>
>Both features were at least in part attributable to the efforts of Comintern
>representatives who,  during the decade of the twenties,  travelled
>extensively throughout the Black Belt and struggled to fashion a policy for
>American Communists in a unique and dangerous environment.    Too,  the
>leaders of the CPUSA were urged by Moscow to redouble their efforts against
>intra-party racism,  a point brought home to Stalin during a number of
>meetings with Black working class leaders.    The rather unique positon of
>the American party with respect to the struggle for social security,
>unemployment insurance and trade union rights -- the US lagged behind prewar
>Europe in all three -- coupled with the special condition of American blacks
>as an oppressed "nation" within a nation,   proved propitious in building a
>genuinely native "American" Left-wing movement.     This,  coupled with the
>successful struggle to open a Second Front against Hitler in Europe -- a
>movement that for all practical purposes could only have been undertaken in
>the US -- insured that this period in American CP history would be its most
>fruitful to date.[7]

I wonder if there wasn't a fundamental contradiction between the CPUSA's
organizing activities in the Black Belt and its Popular Front politics. It
looks as though the CPUSA tried to mobilize the idea of nation at two
different levels.

Yoshie




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