Introduction

In the process of developing a radical criminology we have realized that such an analysis requires an historical perspective. We have found it necessary and useful to examine how progressive political organizations during the first part of this century viewed "crime" and organized against it. In order to do this, it is necessary to understand more general aspects of the development of left organizations in the United States, their social context, their political struggles and the repression and reactions against them. The following course is one way of examining a general history of the Left.

I. Background

The Liberation School first approached Al Richmond and asked him to teach this course in the spring of 1973. We had received many requests from students at the school for a course which offered some historical perspective on American radicalism. We were becoming increasingly aware of the need for such a perspective. As left activists we were struggling with some of the same problems of building a viable socialist movement as many others who had gone before us, and we knew little or nothing of their insights, experiences, and mistakes.

When the course was finally offered, we found we had plenty of company: more than 50 people signed up in advance, and close to 70 were present on the first night. (A typical Liberation School class draws about 15 or 20 people.) The tremendous demand for the course, and the fact that we knew of few other places where people could get the information it promised to provide, made us decide against limiting enrollment, even though the unprecedented turnout made a traditional lecture format -- something we generally try to avoid - a foregone conclusion.

The teacher was a veteran of more than four decades in the Communist Party U.S.A. He had functioned for many years as editor of the People's World a job he was obliged to relinquish when his editorial criticisms of the Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia drew fire from the Party's national leadership. Before that, he was a reporter for the Daily Worker an organizer for the Party's waterfront sections in New York and Philadelphia and a youthful soapboxer for the Bronx YCL (Young Communist League) chapter. He had recently published a thoughtful and highly praised book, A Long View from the Left, which included a probing reassessment of the CPUSA's political practice during the Depression and after. The book provided the occasion for a final breach between its author and the Party. It reflected Al's concern that the "New Left" develop a more sophisticated understanding of the mistakes of its predecessors, a clearer sense of what Leninism is all about, and perhaps a willingness to attack the theoretical weaknesses which have plagued American radicals since the turn of the century.

II. Organization

Its more inclusive title notwithstanding, the course was basically an examination of the Socialist Party until 1920 and the Communist Party from its origins up to the time of the 20th World Congress. Five evenings were devoted to each Party, followed by a summing up at the final session. The Socialist Party was discussed in terms of its origins, historical context, and genuine mass character; its concepts of ultimate goals and immediate program; its labor policy; its right-left split after 1912; its response to World War I and the Russian Revolution. The discussion of the Communist Party dealt with its origins and initial fragmentation; the Leninist concept of the "party of a new type"; the problem of the united front and the way it was applied by the American Communists during the '30s; the decline of the Party during the Cold War years.

Good readings on the subject are hard to come by, particularly with respect to the Communist Party. In the lectures Al was frequently able to make excellent use of primary sources. He gave a vivid picture of the Socialists with quotations from Appeal to Reason and other party newspapers, and he threw the party's internal conflicts over trade union strategy into bold relief with some lengthy excerpts from a public debate between Morris Hillquit and Big Bill Haywood, retrieved from microfilms of the New York Socialist Call for January 1912. A photocopy of the party platform, together with the preamble, was handed out to the class, which was invited to critique it. James Weinstein's article, "The Socialist Party: Its Roots and Strength, 1912-1919," was also used.

The one source Al insisted people read about the Communist Party was Georgi Dimitrov's The United Front both because he felt it was "one of those rare political documents which informed the spirit of an entire era" and because the concept of the united front, then and now, is one of the most challenging and difficult problems the Left has had to come to grips with. It was Al's comments on the application of Dimitrov's strictures in practice, rather than the document itself, however, which gave the subject much of its resonance. The class devoted to the "party of the new type" also generated a good deal of excitement. Accepting the basic validity and importance of the notion of a Leninist vanguard, we attempted to isolate some of the ways in which the concept has been misunderstood or misapplied.

III. Criticisms and Problems

In terms of mechanics, the biggest problems stemmed from the sheer size of the class. Al made a conscientious effort at the first few sessions to encourage class discussion, formal presentations on the reading from volunteers from the class, and criticism/self-criticism at the end of each session. The discussions were not successful. Not many people talked and the majority of those who did probably would have done better to keep their mouths shut, since the discussion tended to be male-dominated and the points raised were often esoteric or meaningless to most of the others in the room. In a group of more than fifty people there was really no way to impose any kind of collective discipline or to pitch the discussion at a level which would meet the needs of everyone in the room and not merely a few vocal individuals. After the third session there was a stormy discussion during which it was decided to continue the straight lecture format, with questions confining themselves to straight factual matters relating to issues raised in the lectures.

A number of people taking the class were working in organizations, and they felt they could talk in smaller groups about what they were learning in the context of their ongoing political work. An attempt was made to form discussion groups for the unaffiliated people, but only a few were able to devote another night out of their week to meeting and discussing this particular course material.

If the discussion at the conclusion of the final session was any indication, people had very few complaints about the content of the course. Perhaps the most serious one was that it had not provided much sense of the day-to-day practice of the Communist Party, focusing more on top-level decision-making and the longer-range programmatic and theoretical problems that the Party was never really able to resolve.

The class was given again in the fall of 1974, both at the Liberation School in San Francisco and at a new school in the East Bay started by the Berkeley-Oakland chapter of the New American Movement.

I. Introduction to Course

Discussion of scope, approach, and methodology. Brief summary of antecedents of the Socialist Party and of the historical setting into which it was born in 1901.

II. The Socialist Program

This session will go into such concepts as the immediate and ultimate program of the Socialist Party and the relation between reform and revolution. Also explored will be the Socialist comprehension of U.S. reality as reflected in the platform - and its omissions.

Reading: The Socialist Platform of 1912, adopted by the national conference at Indianapolis, May 16, 1912.

III. The Socialist Party and the Trade Unions

Key questions: What was the Socialist conception of their party's relation to the trade unions? What did it signify about their overall conception of the role and character of the Party? What was the significance of the role and character of the party? What was the significance of the sharp controversy about industrial unionism? What was the relationship of syndicalism to this controversy?

Readings: "The Labor Policy" resolution of the Socialist Party, unanimously adopted by the Socialist convention in 1912.

James Weinstein, "The Socialist Party: Its Roots and Strength, 1912-1919." Studies on the Left 1(2) (Winter 1960).

IV.-V. Historical Critique of the Socialist Party

The examination of three theses. Ira Kipnis: that the SP was done in by opportunism circa 1912; Daniel Bell: that the primary reason for its demise (along with several secondary ones) was the political effect of the Woodrow Wilson reform era; Weinstein: that the SP remained viable after 1912, but was mortally wounded in 1919 by the "glamour of the Russian Revolution, combined with the Third International's policy of insisting on Russian-style Bolshevik parties." Are any of these valid, in whole or in part, and what other analytical explanations are relevant? Related to these theses are such issues as the internal struggles within the SP, the evolution of Left and Right wings, their substance and significance.

VI. The Communist Party

The birth and formative period of the Communist Party; the people involved, the ideas, and the circumstances. Focus will be on the general conception of "a party of a new type" or vanguard party, and how it was applied in the U.S.

In the last days of August, 1919, two communist parties were formed at national conventions in Chicago. The larger of the two, calling itself the Communist Party, was composed overwhelmingly of foreign language federations that had split with the Socialist Party. The smaller of the twin parties called itself the Communist Labor Party and was mostly native born or at least English-speaking in composition. Although the English-speaking sector of the CP was small, it provided the party with its best known leaders, notably Charles Ruthenberg and Louis Fraina.

Readings: William Z. Foster, History of the Communist Party of the United States. New York: International Publishers, 1952, pp. 172-174.

Theodore Draper, The Roots of American Communism. New York: Viking Press, 1957, pp. 184-189.

VII. United Front and People's Front

Historical background (world and domestic) for the policy as formulated at the Seventh World Congress of the Communist International in 1935; the conceptual content of the policy.

Reading: Georgi Dimitrov, The United Front. Peoples Publishing House, 1971.

VIII. The United Front and the People's Front in the U.S.

How these policies were implemented in the U.S. The Communist relation to the New Deal, to the CIO and the labor movement generally, and to the black liberation movement. Evolution of "people's front" into "democratic front." The removal of Earl Browder as general secretary of the Party.

IX. The Communist Party -- Post-World War II

In 1956, general secretary Eugene Dennis delivered a self-critique of the Communist performance. This was a critical juncture in the development of world Communism, as well as U.S. Communism, since it coincided with the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party. The question it poses and seeks to answer is: what were the reasons for the party's steep decline from 1945-1956? In this sense, it also affords a point of departure to assess subsequent endeavors for renewal and revival of the party.

X. Review and Critique

The former will be an exchange of opinion about the main things that might be extracted from the historical experience surveyed. The latter will be an exchange of criticism about the conduct of the course.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

In response to the request for additional materials, Al Richmond provided the class with this annotated bibliography.

The Socialist Movement

Autobiographies

The most useful periodical on the old SP is the International Socialist Review.

The Communist Party

Autobiographies