By 1936, left congressional candidates were negligible factor in wake of most left-leaning period of New Deal that secured FDR's re-election.
Well, this is not quite accurate. Those candidates tended to function as the left wing of the New Deal. In other words, they had the same relation to FDR that Donna Lamarche and David Cobb have to John Kerry. In the late 1930s, we had the objective possibility for a radical labor party but that was destroyed by a CPUSA who used their hegemony to squash efforts to the left of FDR. I believe that Michael challenged this reference when I brought it up last time, but it still seems entirely plausible to me:
In Chapter six (of Klehr's "The Secret World of American Communism"), an NKVD document reports on communications between Earl Browder, the head of the CPUSA, and Franklin Roosevelt. FDR congratulates Browder and the CPUSA for conducting its political line skillfully and helping US military efforts. Roosevelt is "particularly pleased" with the battle of New Jersey Communists against a left-wing Labor Party formation there. He was happy that the CPUSA had been able to unite various factions of the Democratic Party against the left-wing electoral opposition and render it ineffectual.
Evidently Medea Benjamin and Ted Glick have studied Browder's infighting techniques.
--
The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
