Chapter III: Front Matter (3)

Besides controlling its over-all policy, the Comintern used the Communist Party in a variety of ways, especially to help the new Soviet government in its work. In one instance the Comintern sent over a “rep” known as Comrade Loaf. He sent a statement, which was read at the meeting of the Political Committee in New York City presided over by Max Bedacht, as Acting General Secretary, outlining his need for assistance in collecting information on the American labor movement for the Communist International. The Political Committee agreed to help.

In another instance, Moscow referred a request for a visa by an official of the New York _Jewish Daily Forward_ to United States comrades. Moscow in these years often used the Communist Party in the United States as a consular clearinghouse, seeking its advice as to whether visas should be granted or denied. In answering this request, the already inherent anti-Semitism of communism dictated the decision. The Soviets were advised that the visit of the _Jewish Daily Forward_ representative would be detrimental to the Soviet Union and the communist movement.

On occasions, also, the Comintern helped the Party by arranging to receive cordially American visitors sponsored by the Party, thereby hoping to create a favorable impression of communism. A prominent author, for example, desired to visit Russia for _The Modern Quarterly_. The Political Committee instructed that a letter be written to Moscow requesting that he be given a royal welcome. The Party wanted him to be favorably impressed. Then, it hoped, he would “paint a glowing picture” of the Soviet Union.

Russian control, moreover, was implemented through the operation of another institution, the Lenin School in Moscow. This training center was an adjunct to the Marxist-Leninist Institute. Founded in the 1920’s, the Lenin School had for its purpose the training of an international corps of communist leaders. These graduates, regardless of the country in which they operated, acted in accordance with the discipline and policies of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Each Communist Party was assigned a quota of students. To be eligible, students had to have a working-class background with experience in a trade, shop, or union. They had to be under thirty-five years of age, either a charter member or a member with at least five years’ experience in Party work, and possess a “clean” Party record. The Comintern studied the students’ background and approved those selected by the Party to attend. As a general rule, students traveled to Moscow under assumed names and with fraudulently obtained passports.

The original Lenin School was located in an old Czarist palace. Students and faculty lived under strict security conditions. The curriculum included not only Marxist-Leninist tactics but the theory and practice of organization, underground and conspiratorial operations, and the tactics of revolution and civil war. The students were taught how to erect stout barricades, conduct guerrilla warfare, and handle firearms. The Soviets wanted rough-and-ready revolutionists, men who would kill, murder, blow up trains, and start revolutions.

Many of the top leaders in Communist Parties around the world are graduates of the Lenin School. The National Committee of the Communist Party in the United States today includes such graduates of the Lenin School as Eugene Dennis, Claude Lightfoot, Carl Winter, Simon W. Gerson, William Weinstone, Nat Ganley, Steve Nelson, and others. Former Lenin School graduates also include such well-known communists as Betty Gannett, Gus Hall, Albert Lannon, Phil Bart, Rose Wortis, Loretta Stack, Henry Winston, and numerous others. The Lenin School became so notorious that it, like the Comintern, was discontinued. After all, it had turned out thousands of graduates, and the communists probably thought it had fulfilled its usefulness.

The American Communist Party began to grow up. From an infant, mostly mouth and little body, it gradually began to take on shape and form. It was soon to increase its participation in American life.

5.

_The Party Grows Up_

Prior to 1921 communists in the United States had been so concerned with their own private squabbles and organizational problems that they had little time for external activities.

After the 1921 “unification,” however, the Party, although still weak, emerged with greater stability. It was now being equipped with two striking arms: (1) the underground Party apparatus and (2) the above-ground, or “false-face,” apparatus of the Workers Party.

The time was ripe for communists to move in on American life and American institutions. The first objective was organized labor. Later the battlefront was to be extended to include all aspects of American life up to and including activities of the federal government in Washington.

Prior to 1921, by their own admission, communists had not been particularly effective among trade unions. True, William Z. Foster had helped found the Trade Union Educational League in 1920, but this communist-dominated group had made little headway. The Party at that time had lacked the discipline and training to exploit strikes. Its aims were usually visionary and, above all, too openly revolutionary. During the 1919 steel strike, for example, the Communist Party had issued this proclamation:

THE WORKERS MUST CAPTURE THE POWER OF THE STATE. THEY MUST
WREST FROM THE CAPITALISTS THE MEANS THROUGH WHICH CAPITALIST
RULE IS MAINTAINED.

The answer to the Dictatorship of the Capitalists is the
Dictatorship of the Workers.

No wonder the Party was left in complete isolation. Such impractical statements were but noise and scared away normal trade-union people.

But the communists soon learned. Gradually they worked their way into trade unions, and under the name of the Workers Party propagated their program. Little by little they became more active above ground. In 1924 the Workers Party nominated, as candidates in the presidential elections, William Z. Foster as President; Benjamin Gitlow, Vice-President. In 1925, becoming still more bold, the Workers Party changed its name to the Workers (Communist) Party. The underground Party in the sense of being a separate organization was discontinued, although, as in all Communist Parties, a small underground was maintained. In 1928 communist candidates in the presidential elections polled almost 50,000 votes Finally, in 1929, by discarding the word “Workers,” the camouflage was dropped, and the Party became known as the Communist Party of the United States of America.

During these years the communists multiplied labor troubles and participated in a number of strikes, such as the textile strikes in Passaic, New Jersey (1926); New Bedford, Massachusetts (1928); and Gastonia, North Carolina (1929); as well as the coal strike of 1922, the railroad shopmen’s strike of 1922, and the New York furriers’ strike of 1926. Moreover, they were becoming more active in other agitational fields, such as economic problems, race relations, and nationality groups. The Party, now becoming stronger, was testing its wings in mass agitational work.

Meanwhile the Comintern was developing the type of Party it wanted in America. Gradually many contradictory policies and personality conflicts were eliminated. But important differences still existed. Many communists, for example, thought the Party should remain underground. They opposed founding the Workers Party. In one phase of this fight the communists were divided into three groups, known as the Geese, the Liquidators, and the Conciliators. Another dispute involved the proper method of infiltrating labor unions, with some members being uncertain how far the Party should go to the “left” or to the “right.” In 1923 a bitter struggle developed between factions headed by Charles Ruthenberg and William Z. Foster.

In 1928 and 1929, acting under Comintern instructions, the Communist Party conducted its first big “purges,” the mass expulsion of large groups of members. In 1928 James P. Cannon, an old-time communist leader, was expelled from the Party for possessing Trotskyite tendencies, a reflection of the Stalin-Trotsky fight in Russia. The Cannonites later formed a new party, the Socialist Workers Party, loyal to Trotsky. In 1929 the purge was even more severe. Jay Lovestone, Executive Secretary of the Party, and Benjamin Gitlow, a high-ranking charter member, were expelled.

Stalin took a personal interest in the American situation. Speaking in May, 1929, to the American Commission of the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International, he started the line that the communists were to revive after World War II, and asserted that the United States was heading toward a depression that would develop a revolutionary situation.

I think the moment is not far off when a revolutionary crisis
will develop in America.... It is essential that the American
Communist Party should be capable of meeting that historical
moment fully prepared and of assuming the leadership of the
impending class struggle in America. Every effort and every
means must be employed in preparing for that, comrades. For
that end the American Communist Party must be improved and
bolshevized. For that end we must work for the complete
liquidation of factionalism and deviations in the Party. For
that end we must work for the reestablishment of unity in the
Communist Party of America.

The Russians, by disciplinary purges, were hammering out a Party “of a new type,” or, in the words of Stalin, bolshevizing it.

In the 1930’s, with the beginnings of the depression, the Communist Party broadened its propaganda-agitation work. Economic disorder was exploited. The Party organized parades, hunger marches, petition campaigns, mass demonstrations. It plunged with vigor into strikes such as the San Francisco general strike of 1934 and the textile and bituminous coal strikes of 1934-35. In November, 1935, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was launched, and communists attempted to burrow themselves in its member unions. In addition, they attempted to convert members of other labor unions, minority groups, especially Negroes and individuals recently arrived in the country.

The Party increased in numbers. By 1930, after the great “purges,” membership stood at 7500. By 1935 it had jumped to 30,000, and to 80,000 in 1944. The Young Communist League, the youth organization of the Party, reached 20,000 by 1938. Communist “cells” were being formed in industrial plants, and Party members had infiltrated governmental positions, some even carrying out espionage. Intra-Party struggles had ceased, with Earl Browder, a native of Kansas, being elected in 1930 as General Secretary. He was to remain “in power” until 1945. Step by step the Party was becoming stabilized, developing its agitation and propaganda functions. Disciplinary machinery maintained “unity” and “correctness of views.” This was a period of accepting new members, broadening struggles, and strengthening organizational structure.

In 1935 the Seventh World Congress of the Comintern, meeting in Moscow, initiated the “united-front” policy, which provided that communists should work with other groups against fascism. Since 1933 Hitler had become the principal target of Soviet Russia. The Bolsheviks, fearing German military power, desperately attempted to enlist the support of the noncommunist world against the Nazis. Russia joined the League of Nations and became a strong supporter of the “collective security” program aimed at holding Hitler in check. Fascism, the communists shouted, represented a danger to everybody, communist and noncommunist. All must work together.

The “united front” is an old Leninist tactic designed to prepare for revolutionary situations. Internationally, the aim is to protect the Soviet fatherland. On a local level it gives the communists an opportunity to infiltrate, manipulate, and take over organizations. Noncommunists are encouraged to participate in communist campaigns with the Party, which always keeps in mind the best way to advance its own interests. If a united-front tactic does not promote communism, it is dropped. A new approach is then developed.

The prewar period was the time of great communist fronts in which so many innocent victims were caught. Literally hundreds of organizations, such as the American Youth Congress, American League Against War and Fascism (later known as the American League for Peace and Democracy), the American Peace Mobilization, and the National Negro Congress sprang into existence. They were created or captured by the communists. All were tailored, through high-sounding names, to attract as many people as possible; the communists had something to offer everybody. The Party during these years moved literally thousands of Americans, causing them, in some way or other, to support the communist cause. Their thought-control nets were busy at work, as will be shown later.

In 1936 the Spanish Civil War erupted, and the communists in the United States, amid great fanfare, sent about 3000 “volunteers,” commonly known as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, to aid the Spanish Loyalists. Front groups of many types were formed to collect money, supplies, and medical aid. Those Americans who were the leaders in the movement to send other Americans, of whom some 50 per cent never returned, had no interest as such in either the Franco group or the opposing Loyalist government. They were acting, along with international communism, to advance the Bolshevik cause.

American communists used glittering promises, under-handed tricks, and downright fraud to coax young men to go to Spain. An enlistee might be promised a lucrative position in Spain, cash rewards, or travel accommodations. A young girl would entice unsuspecting men; in return for her favors they would promise to enlist. If necessary, fictitious passports were obtained or enlistees were stowed away on boats. An elaborate “convoy” system was established, individuals being taken from the United States, usually through France, to Spain. Any tactic was used to gain fighting manpower for the communist cause.

The events of World War II were to demonstrate clearly the loyalty of a now disciplined Communist Party to Soviet Russia. In August, 1939, the entire world was shocked: Hitler and Stalin had signed a “nonaggression” pact! Here was Moscow making an agreement with that “Fascist beast,” Hitler, whom it had denounced in bitter terms.

In a few days the pact’s full meaning became clear. Hitler had made a “deal.” German forces invaded Poland. The Russians, much more quietly, moved from the east. Poland was partitioned and Russia annexed a large slice of Polish territory. Hitler now turned toward the west, his “back” secure.

The Soviets were now in the role of “defenders of the peace” and everyone else was an “imperialist warmonger.” If Stalin did it, well, it was right. Hitler, the former enemy, now became a friend and ally. The war between Germany and the Western Allies was termed an “imperialist” war, with no support for the Allies. There was opposition to lend-lease, the draft and military production, support of strikes, circulation of antiwar literature. “The Yanks Are Not Coming” was the slogan. Russia’s war on Finland in 1939-40? That was different. That was not imperialism, said the communists. Round-the-clock marchers picketed the White House, urging that the United States stay out of the European war. The pickets were suddenly disbanded on June 21, 1941. A change in tactics seemed imminent.

The next day, June 22, 1941, the Germans attacked Soviet Russia. The European conflict now became a “patriotic war,” a “people’s war.” The United States must lend support: war matériel, money, and manpower. Russia was being overrun. The revolution was in danger. A virtual nightmare gripped the communists. Employ anything to help the land of Stalin: lend-lease, a second front, immediately. Strikes must be stopped. Send relief to Russia.

All these moves and countermoves are not just history. They stand as an everlasting warning of the way in which communists in America, whatever their claims, serve only one master: Moscow.

Other events in Russia had repercussions in the Communist Party, USA, as they still do today. In 1943 Moscow dissolved the Comintern. One purpose was to mollify Western fear and distrust of communism. Russia, the communists claimed, wanted to be a genuine friend. In 1944, following the new line, the Communist Party, USA, under Browder’s leadership, “dissolved”; actually it merely changed its name to the Communist Political Association (CPA), a “political-educational association.” Here again the idea was to “soften” opposition to communism, make it sound a “little better” to Americans. This was the period when Russia was a military ally and the communists were trying to extract as much as they could from this country. The best tactic, of course, was to be “friendly.” The Communist Political Association did not have the harsh, bugaboo connotations of the “Communist Party,” but it was the same faithful lackey of Moscow.

In 1945 the war was over. Hitler was defeated. Moscow reverted to its former hostile “line”; she denounced the Allies and claimed full credit for destroying Hitler, and Japan too. Communist Parties, including the one in America, were told to be more defiant.

This meant another change for the communists in the United States. In April, 1945, an article was published in a French communist journal, _Cahiers du Communisme_, by Jacques Duclos, then Secretary of the Communist Party of France. Duclos condemned “Browderism,” the so-called policy of “collaboration” with American capitalism as shown in the CPA. This was “revisionism,” “opportunism,” and a betrayal of Marxism-Leninism. What was needed, according to Duclos, was a militant attack on “capitalism,” not cooperation with it.

The Duclos article initiated a purge in the Party, the greatest since the days of Lovestone and Gitlow. Browder became the scapegoat. An emergency convention of the Communist Political Association was hastily called and by “unanimous vote,” except Browder’s, re-established the Communist Party. Browder was suspended from office and later expelled. This man from Kansas, twenty-five years a faithful servant of the Kremlin, had served his purpose. Foster became Chairman.

“Browderism” was regarded by communists as a direct outgrowth of the Lovestone-Gitlow period. Lovestone had been accused of espousing “American exceptionalism.” By this the communists meant that he viewed American capitalism as something “exceptional,” not obeying the Marxist-Leninist laws, which teach that capitalism, because of internal contradictions, will decay. Lovestone believed that American capitalism was too strong to follow these Marxist rules.

Browder, according to his communist critics, also fell into a similar error. He overestimated the power of American capital and believed that, through planning, America could overcome for some time its economic problems. This theory of “organized capitalism,” these opponents said, was wrong. It revised Marxist principles, weakened the communist movement, and betrayed the “socialist future.”

After 1945 the Communist Party, using Browderism as a weapon, entered into a new period of consolidation and loyalty to Soviet Russia. The Party apparatus was tightened and discipline strengthened. Security commissions, with almost unlimited powers, tested the “loyalty” of members and many were expelled. Increased restrictions on the admittance of new members were set up. The Party press, following the Moscow tack, inveighed against American “imperialism” and heaped abuse on the Marshall Plan, the Greece-Turkey Aid program, and the organization of a West European defense organization. The old-time Stalinist, William Z. Foster, was welding the Party into an anti-American weapon of the cold war.

In 1948, for the first time since the 1920’s, the Party found itself on the defensive when the Department of Justice initiated prosecution against its leaders. The twelve members of the Party’s National Board were indicted under the Smith Act (enacted in 1940), which prohibits any conspiracy that advocates the overthrow of the United States government by force and violence. Previously, in 1941, the government had instituted prosecutions against members of the Socialist Workers Party (Trotskyites) under this statute. Other statutes since used by the government in the attack on the Party include the Internal Security Act of 1950 and the Communist Control Act of 1954.

In a long trial, running through most of 1949, eleven members were convicted, the twelfth, William Z. Foster, having been severed from the trial because of illness. In June, 1951, the Supreme Court upheld these convictions, and the government subsequently took prosecutive action against additional Party leaders.

This government prosecution was a strong disabling blow against the Party. Many of its top leaders were arrested and convicted. Others lived in fear of arrest. As a result the Party to a large extent went underground in the first large-scale underground operation since the early 1920’s. Party offices were closed, top Party leaders went into hiding, records were destroyed. Courier systems were instituted and clubs broken up into small units, if not completely disbanded. For about four years, from mid-1951 to mid-1955, the Party in protecting itself spent energy, time, and money that otherwise would have gone into agitation and propaganda.

Again, as in previous years, events in Russia determined communist policy in America. The death of Stalin in 1953 and the advent of Malenkov brought the “Big Smile” policy from the Soviet bear, which was continued by Bulganin and Khrushchev. The Communist Party, USA, weakened and largely immobilized in its underground haunts, welcomed the new line. Then, in the summer of 1955, came the Geneva Conference. The Party, sensing a new “political climate,” began to come above ground. Quietly communist leaders reappeared in public, many courier systems were discontinued, and most underground hideaways abolished. By the spring of 1956 most of the Party’s underground had been curtailed and even the communist leaders who had become fugitives from justice began to surrender. This experiment in underground strategy had cost the Party severely.

Now, however, the Party was faced with severe problems of internal disorganization and factionalism. Many Party members had left the movement. Administrative affairs were in a state of chaos. Invaluable records had been destroyed. Party leaders, returning from underground assignments, found that they were often ignored by the ruling hierarchy. Money was scarce. Footholds in noncommunist organizations, such as labor unions, had largely been lost.

Then came Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin and charges of anti-Semitism in Russia. In the fall of 1956 came the bloody Soviet intervention in Hungary. No events since the German-Russian nonaggression pact of 1939 had so gravely shaken the Party. Stalin, the man the comrades had revered so long, was proved to be a murderer, thief, and liar. Communist leaders in the United States were stunned and aghast. Immediately, different opinions developed as to the Party’s future policy—opinions that gave rise to severe leadership differences.

One group, headed by William Z. Foster, although accepting Khrushchev’s denunciations, emphasized what “good” Stalin had done for the communist movement. These were the so-called Stalinists, who wanted as few changes as possible in the Party organization. Opposing Foster was a faction headed by John Gates, editor of the _Daily Worker_, who openly advocated disbandment of the Party and establishment of a political association. This action, he argued, would make the Party more palatable to the general public in light of the severe criticisms. In between, many middle-of-the-roaders, led by Eugene Dennis, were not sure just what the Party should do in this, one of its most severe crises.

In February, 1957, the Party assembled in its Sixteenth National Convention, the first since 1950. The convention was under the dictatorial control of a few Party leaders. Much deceitful publicity was released to demonstrate that the Party had declared its “independence” of Moscow, that a new leadership had been installed, and that the Party was entirely American in character. However, Foster and his associates so effectively manipulated the sessions that the same old Stalinist line prevailed.

The Party retained its same old name, continued the majority of its old leadership; it reaffirmed its adherence to the basic tenets of Marxism-Leninism; it reaffirmed its acceptance of “proletarian internationalism”; it refused to condemn or even take a stand on the Soviet rape of Hungary; it refused to condemn the tyranny and proven anti-Semitism of the Soviet Union; it did not take a single affirmative step to declare its independence of the Soviet Union; and, in fact, the Soviet-controlled press hailed the Communist Party, USA, for remaining loyal “to the principles of Marxism-Leninism.”

The Communist Party is a highly disciplined tool of the Soviet Union in the United States. In the thirty-eight years since it came into being, it has developed a trained and potentially effective leadership that overnight, should the situation become favorable, could expand into a mass organization of great potential power. No longer does it need to send its promising young leaders to Moscow for training, because its own educational system is now performing that function.

The present menace of the Communist Party in the United States grows in direct ratio to the rising feeling that it is a small, dissident element and need not be feared. As we relax our protection and ease up on security measures, we move closer and closer to a “fool’s paradise.”

Through the Communist Party, the mentality of the Russian Bolsheviks is being transmitted to America, together with the belief that man can be completely redesigned from a child of God into a soulless social cog. The Party member, whether he be a farmer in Missouri, an automobile worker in Michigan, or a lawyer in California, must be made to think, act, and be like other Party members. Many techniques, such as discipline, education, the Party press, recreation, literature, organizational structure, the arts, are used to fashion the “communist man,” the terror of the twentieth century. This is the “man” the Kremlin hopes will place the hammer and sickle above the White House and establish a Soviet America as part of a world empire, with Soviet Russia as the master of all. This is the “man” who, in a recent secret Party meeting, admonished the comrades present that a search of history would show that there has never been a revolution without force and violence and when the time comes, “We will hang and shoot those responsible for the type of government we have today.”

_Part III_

THE COMMUNIST APPEAL IN THE UNITED STATES

6.

_Who Are the Communists?_

The Communist Party, USA, works day and night to further the communist plot in America. Virtually invisible to the noncommunist eye, unhampered by time, distance, and legality, this bolshevik transmission is in progress. The Communist Party, USA, is bolshevizing its membership and creating communist puppets throughout the country. The American Party, in the Kremlin’s eyes, has for its objective the ultimate seizure of power in America and, to accomplish this purpose, it seeks to “educate” in the ways of communism all who will listen.

To appreciate the deadly seriousness of this process, the American citizen must see how the Communist Party, USA, by its every act, often without fanfare or newspaper headlines, is creating a corps of dedicated Party members, supported in many ways by United States citizens who have been infected or misled in one way or another.

Millions of Americans have wondered how the communists gain support. Frequently they seem to wield influence entirely out of proportion to their actual numbers.

Party influence is exerted through the communist device of thought control (controlling, in various degrees, the thinking of many Americans). The communists quickly accuse anybody who disagrees with them of being guilty of thought control; it is a favorite communist expression. Yet this same technique, applied in varying degrees to different groups of our population, is the key to communist strength in America today.

The Party’s objective is to drive a wedge, however slight, into as many minds as possible. That is why, in every conceivable way, communists try to poison our thinking about the issues of the day: social reforms, peace, politics, veterans’, women’s, and youth problems. The more people they can influence, the stronger they will be.

Top Party officials have a definite assignment: to capture positions of power. They are the Party’s front-line commanders. Communism is at war with America. The United States is a vast battlefield. A school, a labor union, a civic group, a government official, a private citizen—all are important in the never-ending struggle for power.

The whole nation, to the communists, is a gigantic checker-board. The communist high command is constantly moving, jumping, switching, and retreating to get communist members in positions of influence. They are outnumbered; they know that. That is why they must depend on skill, maneuvering, and deception.

The communist official in our country realizes that his supporters often form a motley collection, varying greatly in loyalty: some are fanatically loyal; others are half-timers or “single-nighters.” Many are “tremblers,” needing constant encouragement, whereas some are just victims unwittingly caught in the Party net.

But time after time the communists are able to weld these seemingly ill-assorted supporters into a unified instrument of power. They have succeeded in creating and dominating different areas of thought control. Each area contains supporters who, under Party guidance, can quickly and effectively be mobilized. The result of this manipulation, as applied to diverse personalities, groups, and issues, is a tribute to the communists’ deceitful skill. By this technique, using its own membership as a base, the Party is today influencing literally thousands of Americans.

There are five principal areas, or circles, of thought control that should be thoroughly understood. These are the keys to communist mobilization to achieve control of the United States.

1. _“Open” Party members._ The area of highest thought control, which is the core of communist strength, is the Party membership. These individuals, after indoctrination, become full-fledged revolutionaries, pledged to stick with the Party at all times.

Normally they make no effort to conceal their membership. They may be high-ranking officials, such as a state chairman, a section organizer, a club chairman, an educational director, or mere rank-and-file members. They are enrolled, pay dues, and accept Party discipline.

The Party member must be completely obedient; that is the hallmark of Party life. The constitution of the Communist Party, USA, sets forth specifically this definition of a full-fledged member:

A Party member shall accept the Party program as determined
by the Constitution and conventions of the Party, belong to a
Party club and pay dues.

Very clearly, he is a tool of the Party.

Party policy is built around Party membership. The trained member is one on whom the Party depends to commit espionage, derail a speeding train, and organize riots. If asked, gun in hand, to assault the Capitol of the United States, he will be expected to obey. These members are today working to promote a Soviet America: some in undercover assignments, some in communist-front organizations, others as Party officials. They are the offensive shock troops—confidently expecting that the precise moment will arrive when conditions will make feasible the revolutionary overthrow of our government.

If the Party desires to undertake a certain task, Party members, seen or unseen, will be the leaders. Suppose that a communist front is to be started; that is, an organization which is to be maneuvered by the Party. A communist sympathizer may be named president, but a Party member will probably be executive secretary, placed there to control policies. Or suppose a giant rally for “peace” is to be held. The platform will glitter with noncommunists. But a communist member on hand will control the agenda.

The strength of this inner circle, the real backbone of communist striking power, lies not in numbers but in organized deception. Following Lenin’s teachings, the Party is a small, compact, and highly mobile group that can strike quickly with great fury, often achieving objectives unwarranted by its numbers. Today’s membership is hard, well trained, and disciplined. The weak, fainthearted, and skeptical have been purged. Those who remain faithful to the Party are dedicated to the communist revolution. They are willing to sacrifice everything for it. Here is an actual case:

A Party member was given a special assignment. The first step
was to drop everything and go into hiding. That was all he was
told. He obeyed. He took another name, moved away. Time passed.
The children began to ask, “Where is Daddy?” The mother’s
answer: “He is dead. You don’t have a daddy!”

This is the fanaticism of the trained member.

To be obedient, however, is not enough. This select group of Party members must be made superobedient, meaning subservient beyond the hope of return. They must be constantly whipped into a state of frenzied enthusiasm and never allowed to relax. The moment a member “lets up” he is endangered; a noncommunist thought might slip in. He must be made to think exclusively in Party terms and nothing else. Some Party members are old-timers; others are new recruits. All of them grew up in capitalist society. Many still show the effects of their “enemy upbringing,” especially the younger ones. That is why they slacken once in a while. They think for themselves; they put self before Party. These instincts must be pounded out and communist thoughts instilled. Communists are not born; they are made. For example:

A Party leader in the Deep South was angry. He was talking to a member who had “slipped” a little. This individual was not giving his best effort to the Party, although he had been in the Party for twelve years and had fought in Spain with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

“Work harder for the Party,” was the leader’s theme. “You’ve got to give more time to the Party than you’re doing now.”

“And starve,” answered the other man. “I’ve got to keep my job. I can’t make a living just doing Party work.”

“Let your wife work,” retorted the official. “That’ll hold you for a while, or borrow money if need be.”

“But she can’t make enough. Besides, she wants to keep house.”

“She’s a drawback,” flashed the leader, “a definite hindrance. What are you going to do, stand up for the Party or your wife?”

The question was direct. The individual answered, “What do you want me to do? Divorce my wife?”

“If your marriage is such that you can’t work for the Party,” came the reply, “I’d seriously consider divorce. Your wife is selfish, simply self-centered. She wants all your time. She doesn’t understand the movement. She’s interested in her own happiness and security.”

The communist leader rammed home his point. “I’m working all the time, so much that I can hardly sleep nights. You can’t allow personal problems to take your mind off the Party. You’ve got to fight that kind of pressure. Your allegiance to the Party comes first. I never let my wife interfere. She knows her place.”

2. _Concealed Party members._ Another area dominated by communist thought control consists of the concealed communist, the individual who, though accepting Party discipline, does not wish his affiliation to be publicly known. These two areas, open and concealed members, in fact, are closely related, often interchanging and always cooperating with each other. The concealed communist, because he is not known as a communist, can often advance the Party’s cause among people and in organizations where an open member would be scorned.

The number of concealed communists is high. They vary in degree of concealment. Some are concealed from the public and are not openly identified as communists. Others are concealed even from the membership, and a few are so deeply hidden that only top leaders know their identity. Usually the more prominent the individual, the more concealed he must be.

Concealed communists are found in all fields. They may be enrolled members, although secretly and usually under an alias or assumed name; or their names may never appear on official rolls. It does not matter. They are viewed by Party leaders as members. They are equally as dangerous as the open member, if not more so. They are difficult to identify and, being concealed, can operate freely in noncommunist groups.

A physician, a lawyer, an educator, a personnel manager in a business firm, a television script writer—each may be a concealed communist of great value to the Party. Suppose that a Party member is in hiding. He becomes ill. The doctor, a concealed communist, is called. He can be trusted. Or a study group is formed on a campus. The professor “guides” the discussion and subtly engenders communist doctrine. A personnel manager hires communist sympathizers, working them into key positions. Party influence increases, almost without anybody’s knowing it. Here is an example of how the system works:

Two men huddle in conversation. One is a top Party official; the other, a high-ranking labor union leader who is a concealed communist, although his union has since ousted him from his post.

The national convention of the union is about to open in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Party official is issuing instructions. Support this, support that. He talks in great detail, laying down the over-all Party policy. Then he becomes more specific, even going so far as to dictate the wording of resolutions, suggesting the order of convention business, and advising how certain personalities should be handled. Nothing is to be left to chance.

The union, leader listens. He can go on the convention floor, since nobody knows that he is under Party discipline, and carry out the communist program. This concealed communist is essential to the Party’s thought-control technique. There are thousands like him always seeking to penetrate the healthy body of American life and to corrupt it.

In another case, a top communist leader, long before he fled into the communist underground, was confronted with the problem of being identified, for he was well known and his picture had been widely publicized in the press. He could dye his hair, shave off his mustache, and lose weight, but he still could be readily identified by a mole on the right side of his jaw. He went to a physician in a Midwest city, a reported communist, who operated on the Party leader to remove the mole from his face.

Another concealed member of the Party was the editor-in-chief of a conservative book-publishing house. This editor, having an excellent educational background, was highly regarded by his company. On one occasion, after this publishing house had been criticized by a newspaper columnist for publishing procommunist books, the president discussed the problem at a meeting of the board of directors. He reported that he had asked the editor if, in fact, he was a member of the Communist Party. The editor entered an emphatic denial. The president then advised the board that since the editor was a gentleman, the allegations that he was a communist were false.

The president of the publishing house simply did not know the facts. The editor’s usual procedure was to have the manuscript of a communist author submitted directly to him on a personal basis. He would review it, be sure it was in publishable form, then have the author submit it to the publishing house through routine channels. Receiving the manuscript later through the company, he would recommend its publication. Through this technique, the editor was eminently successful in circulating communist literature.

When noncommunist authors complained and several terminated their relations with the publisher, the editor was later quietly eased out of his job.

There are occasions when a member of the Party will drop his open Party activities, move to another section of the country, and become a secret, concealed member. Such was the case of a talented young man who became active in the Communist Party in New York City before World War II when he was employed by a motion-picture company. After work he functioned as a Communist Party organizer, later as a membership director of a Party club, and, for a while, worked on the paid staff of the American Labor Party. In the meantime he obtained a job in television and in 1953 became program director of a television station in a large Southern city.

Soon after his arrival in the Southern city, the TV program director started to meet secretly with the Party’s “white-collar” professional group. Word came through that he should sever even these connections, according to a Party functionary, who said, “We want them [him and his wife] to be secure for the Party.” He was too valuable a member to be compromised. The Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, however, uncovered the white-collar professional cell, and when the TV director declined to answer Committee questions, he was promptly fired by his employer.

3. _Fellow travelers._ The third area in which communist thought control works is that of the fellow traveler and sympathizer. These two terms are distinct but related. The fellow traveler, while not a member, actively supports (travels with) the Party’s program for a period of time. The sympathizer is more passive, sympathizing with the Party or individual members on specific issues, and may or may not give active aid. These individuals are not Party members, but, in some degree, have come under Party control.

This control is sufficient to make them work willingly for the Party. Many consistently follow the Party line, even maintaining personal contacts with Communist Party officials. Others, the so-called “intellectuals,” may never have attended a communist meeting and may know nothing about Party organization. Yet, because of the spell of communist thought control, they knowingly do the Party’s work. Perhaps they have been influenced by Marxist writings or the professed aims of the Party on certain issues. In any case, deluded by communist propaganda, they desire to render active assistance.

Fellow travelers and sympathizers, unlike open or concealed communists, cannot be disciplined. A Party leader may request a favor. If the fellow traveler or sympathizer agrees, fine; if he doesn’t, the Party cannot do much except hope to exert more influence next time.

Moreover, these people are often undependable, donating money, for example, to one Party function but not another. Sometimes they may be “hot,” doing just about anything asked. Then suddenly they grow “cold,” lose interest, and become inactive.

The value of fellow travelers and sympathizers lies in their alleged noncommunist affiliation. That is why, in most instances, communist leaders do not attempt to recruit them into the Party. They are more valuable outside: as financial contributors, vocal mouthpieces, or contacts between Party officials and noncommunists. They constitute, in fact, fronts for, and defenders of, the Communist Party.

The role these individuals can play for the communists is clearly illustrated in front organizations, where they serve as sponsors or officials. Behind the scenes is a communist manipulator. Consider, for example, one such organization. In October, 1951, the _Daily Worker_ announced the formation of the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee with one hundred fifty founders (from thirty-nine states), including fifty who were educators, clergymen, and professionals.

One of the Committee’s first official moves was to petition the New York State Commissioner of Education to “forbid the New York City Board of Education from enforcing its newly-enacted ban on suspected communist teachers....” Gradually, as the old Civil Rights Congress, a well-known front, became discredited, the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee took over its work. In 1956 the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, after identifying the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee, stated, “When the Communist Party itself is under fire these fronts offer a bulwark of protection.”

The names of the group’s one hundred fifty founders have been exploited by the Party to fight its battles.

To make a known Party member president of a front would immediately label it as “communist.” But if a sympathizer can be installed, especially a man of prominence, such as an educator, minister, or scientist, the group can operate as an “independent” organization. This trick has worked time after time and is still working today. By allowing themselves to be used as tools, fellow travelers and sympathizers have immeasurably advanced the communist cause.

In Chapter 17 we shall discuss communist fronts in greater detail.

Of particular interest to the communists is the influence of fellow travelers and sympathizers in the “thought-molding” field: teachers, script writers, newspapermen, news analysts. If these individuals can be subjected to the slightest bit of communist thought control, the Party will have won a major victory.

One individual in New York City, for example, once occupied an important role as a news commentator and author. His views were consistently procommunist. He represented himself as an authority on international affairs. He claimed to have talked personally to many of the world’s leaders. Just as the communists would want, everywhere he went he built himself up as an individual who could give the American people guidance in their thinking.

This sympathizer was simply irreplaceable in the communist scheme. No open communist could discuss current events before lecture audiences, behind the microphone, or through the written word with his degree of “objectivity” and “independence.” He was able to fool many noncommunists and exert considerable influence. His lecture tours were often arranged by communist-front groups. A concealed communist contributed money to his expenses. Wherever this “world observer” went, he preached communist-line and pro-Soviet propaganda. When his influence began to slip, he then changed his ways and sought his livelihood elsewhere.

Men and women of this caliber can do much to bring others into the communist thought-control net. No wonder the Party works to support them.

4. _Opportunists._ Another group that falls, on occasion, under communist thought control consists of opportunists, individuals who, if they can benefit personally, will knowingly support the Party in return for support or favors from it. Opportunists are cynical and self-seeking, not caring that by cooperating with the communists, even though temporarily, they are injuring the nation.

In a large Midwestern city a noncommunist labor leader had aspirations to become president of a union council. A group of communists, opposed to the then president, decided that this labor leader could be controlled. They drafted him as a candidate and, of course, on the election slate placed also some Party members. The labor leader won the election, and so did the communists, because they gained a man over whom they had a hold and whom they could therefore expect to use.

The opportunist was then pushed into various front organizations: he was put on the board of a communist-sponsored school; designated as a delegate to a convention of a front group; enlisted to join a campaign to oppose the “anticommunist clause” in a state-wide labor convention. He was besieged constantly to “do this” and “help us.” His value to the Party was shown, for example, when, even though he refused on a certain occasion to cooperate with a Party front, his position was defended by the Party. The opportunist, in the Party’s eyes, was more important to it as a labor leader than as a supporter of the front.

For some time the deal paid off. The opportunist received the prestige and the communists had a champion. Then things began to change. The opportunist had his own ideas and ceased to follow the Party lead. Relations became strained. When the communists wanted the city-wide council to endorse a well-known comrade as a candidate for the board of education, they brought up the motion at a meeting when the opportunist was absent. The communist candidate was endorsed. That was too much for the opportunist, who promptly issued a public statement denying that he was backing the communist candidate. A special meeting of the council was called to reconsider its action.

The communists now moved into high gear. Word went out that the opportunist would have to be “put in his place” for publicly denouncing the communist candidate. At a special meeting the opportunist took the floor and successfully led the fight to reverse the council’s endorsement of a communist. The communists were bitter in their condemnation of their onetime protégé; he was a “traitor” and a “hypocrite.” Deciding he had had enough, the opportunist resigned the presidency.

In such a case who is the ultimate winner? The communists, for they have advanced their program. When he, the opportunist, faltered, he was dropped.

Communists watch eagerly for such opportunists; they are usually easy to influence and exploit. The self-seeker, fighting to win an election or wanting to earn some easy money, may listen to communist double talk and cooperate. Not that the Party is under any illusions; the opportunist is not going to be converted. He will denounce communist support just as quickly as he accepted it. Relations are strictly “dog eat dog,” each trying to exploit the other. But the opportunist can be used.

5. _Dupes._ The final area is that of the dupe, or innocent victim, the individual who unknowingly is under communist thought control and does the work of the Party. A tragedy of the past generation in the United States is that so many persons, including high-ranking statesmen, public officials, educators, ministers of the gospel, professional men, have been duped into helping communism. Communist leaders have proclaimed that communism must be partly built with noncommunist hands, and this, to a large extent, is true.

Communist propaganda is tailored to attract noncommunists. Communism offers a bogus “spiritual appeal,” a “Kingdom of God on earth.” Its tactics and strategy are covered with attractive, appealing words, such as “freedom,” “justice,” and “equality.” The communists claim they are working for a “better world,” that they have the answer to discrimination, exploitation, and economic want. To fight for communism, they say, is to become part of the most sacred crusade in the history of man.

Many well-meaning citizens, attracted by these words and not seeing behind the communist intentions, have been swept into the communist thought-control net. Most are sincerely interested in improving society, and there are many ways in which our society can and should be improved. They are willing to devote their time, talents, and energies to a “sacred cause.” That is how communist thought control works. If it can influence you on any matter, regardless of how minor, making you think favorably toward communism, it has gained. It has something to sell everyone.

“Fool the noncommunists!” That is the slogan. And, better still, make noncommunists fool each other! Encourage the support of as many dupes as possible. These individuals see only the exterior, or false face, of communism. They are never shown the inside, the real communism, the terror, injustice, and slavery. Time after time, in almost unbelievable fashion, victims, somehow or other under communist thought control, do communism’s work: signing communist election petitions, contributing time or money to communist fronts, issuing statements in support of communist-sponsored campaigns.

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, a member of the National Committee of the Communist Party, USA, quite recently was a candidate for the New York City Council under the emblem of the People’s Rights Party. Communists canvassed to obtain at least 3000 signatures on petitions required by law to place her name on the ballot. They went over the goal with the help of noncommunists. In the November 5, 1957, election, however, Flynn received fewer than 1000 votes.

The People’s Rights Party is a sham political party created to give the Communist Party the legal right to run communist candidates. In 1946, 1952, 1954, and again in 1957 communist candidates have run for municipal, state, or national office in New York City under the banner of the People’s Rights Party. Each time signatures had to be obtained to secure the right of the PRP to place its candidates on the ballot.

Another instance of Party manipulation to gain the support of noncommunists was the campaign in the summer of 1957 to solicit signatures for petitions opposing the further testing of nuclear weapons by the United States government. Most of these signatures, of course, were those of noncommunists. On this issue the Party was slavishly following the line of international communism. Communist strategy is to provide the leadership, encouraging noncommunists to do the work.

Not that these individuals are communists. The great majority of them are loyal, but deceived, citizens. Sending five dollars to a front organization with a patriotic-sounding name; signing a communist-inspired petition urging “world disarmament” (isn’t that a worthy cause?); attending a giant Party-manipulated rally in support of the “Bill of Rights”: the noncommunist does not realize these campaigns are being operated out of downtown communist headquarters. He is fooled because he believes in the aims they profess and does not recognize the hidden motive.

But, from the communist point of view, a dollar is a dollar. A victim makes a contribution. His money is just as good as money from an open member. A noncommunist allows his name to be used on a letterhead. Suppose he was fooled? The name is still there. Thus the communists assemble support from all quarters, whether given intentionally or not, and apply it toward their objectives.

Party officials, like fishermen, are constantly watching their “nets” to see what the fishing will bring. Each day, unfortunately, communist thought-control nets, sweeping through American life, catch new supporters, maybe two or three new members, several sympathizers, an opportunist, many victims. A “big-name” sympathizer is worth a great deal and so is another fellow traveler. Each can be put to work. The strength of the Communist Party depends, at any given time, on the number of fish in the net.

How can we, as Americans, protect ourselves from becoming “innocent victims” of the communists?

First, we should not fall for “fronts.” In Chapter 17 you will find a detailed description of how communist fronts operate, together with a twelve-point list of ways to spot them so that we will not be fooled into giving them our support. (The Attorney General of the United States has issued a list of subversive organizations, and the House Committee on Un-American Activities has also issued a _Guide to Subversive Organizations and Publications_.)

Second, we should know the answers to the _Five False Claims of Communism_. In the next chapter we shall learn what those claims are and how United States communists use them to disarm and confuse loyal Americans. We should learn to spot those claims, and know the answers.

Finally, we should not permit the use of our names unless we know the true identity of the soliciting group. We should use our right of petition to further the American way of life, and not allow the communists to steal it from us.

7.

_What Do U.S. Communists Claim?_

I have said that one of the chief strengths of the Communist Party has been its ability to appeal, by trickery, to many Americans who are sincere, idealistic, and well-meaning.