[Marxism] History of CPUSA
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I know William Z Foster, History of the CP of the US (1952). Anyone know: Fraser M Ottanelli, The CP of the US: From the Depression to WWII (1991)? Harvey Klehr, The Heyday of American Communism: The Depression Decade (1984)? Roger Keeran, The CP and the Auto Workers Unions (1980)? Red Arnie Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] History of CPUSA
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 5/14/11 9:49 AM, Mark Lause wrote: A turn to industry means many things in the concept but have an impactr very different when implimented. In the case of the SWP, we can think of a number of plausible ideas promulgated in a boneheaded way that had boneheaded results. The irony is that vast numbers of SWP'ers had public type jobs covered by AFSCME, the AFT and other such unions. They were pressured into going into industry or resigning. One was Ray Markey, president of the librarian's union in NY who is now on the Central Labor Council. Isn't it obvious that the public sector is in the same key position as auto or steel were in the late 30s? Frankly, the basic mistake was to project the 1930s on 1980s reality. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] History of CPUSA
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Sat, May 14, 2011 at 8:24 AM, Mark Lause markala...@gmail.com wrote: . . . My only point was that, in the context of an organization that had an exclusive political orientation to the campus, the idea of a turn to industry could have meant anything...including the idea of just encouraging members to graduate and get into the work force, including white collar jobs. It didn't necessarily mean a draconian forced march from the campus to the factory...or the retrograde abandonment of some industries for others... To say nothing of making membership (for all but the top of the group) contingent on proving ones loyalty like it was a motorcycle gang...or a strange kind of fraternity/sorority. In the hands of the SWP leadership, a turn to industry quickly became a matter of exercising control over the organization and its members. My only point was that they did this with just about everything. including the turn a decade before that everyone must get on a campus, including members then (circa 1970) rooted in industrial unions Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] History of CPUSA
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Rank-And-File Rebellion: Teamsters for a Democratic Union by Dan LaBotzalso see: http://www.tdu.org/view/history On Fri, May 13, 2011 at 9:39 PM, aaron s. amaral amaral1...@gmail.comwrote: To add a query to the original questionI'm curious as to whether any comprehensive (or attempts at generalised) histories exist addressing these attempts at 'colonization' among the revolutionary left as a whole, from the late 60s thru the 80s. I've read various accounts - from individuals from different political tendencies - of attempts to build locally within, for example, the auto industry, mining, and within the teamsters. Of course, some of these are more focused on the issue of building rank and file groups within the Unions and others provide accounts related to the various party building efforts. But if I could be directed to any broad survey histories, or even histories focused on particular industries/ unions - but with a national focus, during this period, It'd be appreciated Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] History of CPUSA
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Why hasn't Red or anyone on this list googled CPUSA and asked? Pretty insulting, and revealing as to degree of non-sectarianism here. On May 13, 2011, at 12:04 PM, Red Arnie wrote: Comrades, Can anyone point me to info on any program of CPUSA to send members into factories during the '20s or '30s and approx numbers? Red Arnie -- *Equitable exchange of different forms of labor time, the **productivity of which develops over time unevenly*http://www.peggydobbins.net/dwellingintents/epilogue.html * inevitably and so creates in time Surplus Labor Time, due to one yet due the other. This is the **Common wealth*http://www.peggydobbins.net/dwellingintents/5originsurpluslaborti.html *; we still see money changers steal, til here and there we read a bill to guarantee us all a **Right to Work*http://www.peggydobbins.net/dwellingintents/8whatistobedone.html * 20 hours a week (1000/year) that earns our **Right to Life*http://www.peggydobbins.net/dwellingintents.html *, a livable wage pegged to the price of necessities*. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] History of CPUSA
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I should provided this answer as well: if you want to read what the CP did do, you have to get a hold of their convention reports. Some were published in Political Affairs, some in the People's Weekly World and so on. They report about building their influence in particular sectors of the work force. But it's in all their convention reports. David Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] History of CPUSA
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Comrades, Can anyone point me to info on any program of CPUSA to send members into factories during the '20s or '30s and approx numbers? Red Arnie Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] History of CPUSA
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Fri, 13 May 2011 16:06:22 -0400 Louis Proyect l...@panix.com wrote: Vivian Gornick's Romance of American Communism has a terrific chapter on a couple of middle class CP'ers who went into auto. Their experiences were similar to the millions of SWP'ers who went through a similar absurd experience. Millions? Really? That must have been some organization. -- -- Michael J. Smith m...@smithbowen.net http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org http://www.cars-suck.org http://fakesprogress.blogspot.com Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] History of CPUSA
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Tetragazillions, actually. But that counts the YSA, too. ML Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] History of CPUSA
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 5/13/11 4:48 PM, Michael Smith wrote: Millions? Really? That must have been some organization. And here I thought you were the mordant wit. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] History of CPUSA
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == It was really quite an organization. Its peak dues paying membership was over 100,000 and many historians have said that over a million were at one time or another in the USCP during the 1930s. --rod On May 13, 2011, at 1:48 PM, Michael Smith wrote: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Fri, 13 May 2011 16:06:22 -0400 Louis Proyect l...@panix.com wrote: Vivian Gornick's Romance of American Communism has a terrific chapter on a couple of middle class CP'ers who went into auto. Their experiences were similar to the millions of SWP'ers who went through a similar absurd experience. Millions? Really? That must have been some organization. -- -- Michael J. Smith m...@smithbowen.net http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org http://www.cars-suck.org http://fakesprogress.blogspot.com Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/ options/marxism/rholt%40planeteria.net Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] History of CPUSA
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Fri, 13 May 2011 16:48:31 -0400 Michael Smith m...@smithbowen.net writes: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Fri, 13 May 2011 16:06:22 -0400 Louis Proyect l...@panix.com wrote: Vivian Gornick's Romance of American Communism has a terrific chapter on a couple of middle class CP'ers who went into auto. Their experiences were similar to the millions of SWP'ers who went through a similar absurd experience. Millions? Really? That must have been some organization. You would think that an organization of that size would have succeeded in making a revolution. Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant www.foxymath.com Learn or Review Basic Math -- -- Michael J. Smith m...@smithbowen.net http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org http://www.cars-suck.org http://fakesprogress.blogspot.com Groupon.com Official Site 1 huge daily deal on the best stuff to do in your city. Try it today! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4dcdcc3164f563f96ebst04vuc Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] History of CPUSA
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == OK, first, yes, come by and see me when you are in the Bay Area, the Holt Labor Library is open Mon-Fri, 9am to 4pm. We have *tons* of stuff including The Militant and the People's World going to back to when Hoover was President. Among other things. The question was a legitimate one asked by Red Arnie. The question on the CP during it's formative years and, comparisons with, say, the SWP later, are, however silly and a-historical. There is no comparison. The CP did build fractions in targeted industries. They didn't do it by sending in people, however. They did it by *recruiting workers* in industry. They recruited whole fractions that way. In some cases, such as in Maritime, the Profintern took an early position that communists should dominate the maritime trades internationally. This is detailed somewhat in Jan Valient's Out of the Night (1940). There are other references to this in various other accounts of the period. I also personally knew one of the Comintern's US organizers in Maritime who noted that the Maritime fractions in the US were specialized and not like other fractions. So they did send people in this way as well. But even here it was the organizing ability of the CPers and their anti-racism that helped recruit, most notably in the NMU. But by and large they used regional organizers to go to factories or use union organizers to do dual recruitment, not unlike the way the Socialists did it prior to and during WWI. Workers basically just joined. I might add this applies to the Trotskyists as well. With the success, for example, of the organizing drive among truckers in Minneapolis in 1934, the Trotskyists parlayed that into the first area wide contract in IBT history, the Central Conference of Teamsters. Where the Teamsters organized locals, a branch of the Communist League and later the SWP was sure to follow, so that the SWP had IBT branches in places like Fargo, ND, Lawrence and Witchita, KS, and so on. So actual 'colonization' wasn't what the CP was about (or other left groups). That was a 60's thing and became the dominent way of organizing in factories by the far left (including the CP) into the 1970s and early 1980s. Some groups, most notably in the anti-Revisionist strain, often did quite well in this regard and recruited out of it. David Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] History of CPUSA
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Fri, May 13, 2011 at 10:35 PM, DW dwalters...@gmail.com wrote: ... So actual 'colonization' wasn't what the CP was about (or other left groups). That was a 60's thing and became the dominent way of organizing in factories by the far left (including the CP) into the 1970s and early 1980s. Some groups, most notably in the anti-Revisionist strain, often did quite well in this regard and recruited out of it. David To add a query to the original questionI'm curious as to whether any comprehensive (or attempts at generalised) histories exist addressing these attempts at 'colonization' among the revolutionary left as a whole, from the late 60s thru the 80s. I've read various accounts - from individuals from different political tendencies - of attempts to build locally within, for example, the auto industry, mining, and within the teamsters. Of course, some of these are more focused on the issue of building rank and file groups within the Unions and others provide accounts related to the various party building efforts. But if I could be directed to any broad survey histories, or even histories focused on particular industries/ unions - but with a national focus, during this period, It'd be appreciated -aaron NYCSOCIALIST.ORG Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
