Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 22:23:48 -0400 (EDT)
From: Justin Schwartz <jschwart-AT-freenet.columbus.oh.us>
Subject: Re: CPUSA: Moscow's stooge



The problem with the CPUSA is not that they got money from Moscow. We
never blamed the ANC for that, and in fact thought it rather to Moscow's
credit that it sometimes supported liberation movements.

The problem with the CPUSA was

(a) that it subordinated revolutionary internationalism to Russian foreign
policy, as in the Nazi-Soviet pact or the no-strike pledge in WWII;

(b) that it abandoned political independence based on the working class
for a position of supporting the "left" wing of the Democratic party;

(c) that it was extremelyt undemocratic in its internal organization and
sectrarian in its relations to other left organizations (leaving aside the
issues of fingering "Trotskyists" for Chekist assassination);

(d) that it apologized for a repressive totalitarian dictatorship ruled by
an exploiting stratum or class (as you like) of bureaucrats in the name of
socialism and in a way that discredited socialism among the American
proletariat.

All that said I agree with whoever it was who said that for all its
failing the CPUSA was the most effective mass socialist organization in
the USA after the Debsian SP, at least through the mid-40s, and that it
did a lot of good things. I don't think Party members should have nothing but
shame and regret for the failings of their outfit. They have many
accomplishments and have an honorable if deeply ambiguous record in the
annals of the American left. At the same time there is much to be ashamed
of and regret.

--Justin Schwartz (not now and never was.....)




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