I. (p. 530.) Earl Browder, "Teheran-History's Greatest Turning Point," The Communist, January 1944, pp. 3-8.
2. (p. 530.)· Teheran, Dur Path in War and Peace (New York: International Publishers, 1944).
3. (p. 531.) Browder, "Teheran,--History's Greatest Turning Point,"p. 8.
4. (p. 531.) Browder, Teheran, p. 67.
5. (p. 531.) Ibid., pp. 79-80.
6. (p. 532.) Earl Browder, "On the Negroes and the Right of Self-Determination," The Communist, January 1944, p. 84.
7. (p. 533.) Stuart Jamieson, Labor Unionism in Southern Agriculture, p. 298.
8. (p. 533,) The Farmers Union of Alabama agitated for populist-style cooperatives and federal regulation of markets and prices. Traditional reformist demands rather than the right of the tiller to the land he tilled characterized its work. Although the SCU was always overwhelmingly Black, it was an integrated union and stood in principle for unity.
Particularly af ter the reputation of the SCU was established, many white
BLACK BOLSHEVIK
croppers and tenants joined up. In contrast, a Farmers Union organizer explained that "the Farmers Union is proud of its large colored membership. But just as America had more white farmers than colored, so has the union. In Opelousas, Louisiana, we had an instance of colored farmers crowding out the white at an open meeting. They later realized that their enthusiasm had worked against them. Both white and colored generally prefer to have their own locals and meet separately." (Dale Rosen, The Alabama Sharecroppers Union, p. 116.
9. (p. 533.) Rosen, pp. 112-16. Reverend Charles Coughlin, a fascist demagogue, violently criticized everything progressive and aimed at establishing a fascist United States. He had an estimated ten million listeners to his weekly radio broadcast and launched the National Union for Social Justice in 1934, along with the notorious Christian Front with its organized groups of hoodlums and storm troopers.
10. (p. 534.) James Ford, "Negro People Unite for Victory," The
Communist, July 1943, p. 643.
11. (p. 535.) The Daily Worker, April 4, 1945.
12. (p. 535.) James Ford, "Teheran and the Negro People," The
Communist, March 1944, p. 264. Later Ford, who was not so nimble in recanting Browder's line as most of the Party leadership, fell from his leading position in Afro-American work.
13. (p. 535.) See Earl Browder, "Production for Victory," The Communist, January 1943, pp. 10-29. See also Browder, "The Economics of All-Out War," The Communist, October 1942, pp. 791-808.
14. (p. 536.) Foster addresses the effects ofBrowderism on mass work in
History of the Communist Party, pp. 432-33.
15. (p. 536.) The Daily Worker, July 28, 1945. See also Earl Browder,
Why America is lnterested in the Chinese Communists, as cited in Foster, pp. 419-20.
16. (p. 537 .) Prior to the arrival of the Duclos letter, there had been what could be described as a passive revolt of the rank and file. Some18% of the membership failed to enroll in the CPA when the Party was liquidated. Referring to a report made by John Williamson in June 1945, Harrison George stated that "the true indicator of membership, dues payment, had fallen to a national average of 58%; in industrial districts as low as 32%." Harrison George, The Crisis in the C.P. U.S.A. (mimeographed pamphlet, 1947), p. 120.
The Party never recovered its membership and Foster states that in January 1947, membership was 59,172-down from its peak of at least 80,000 and perhaps as high as 100,000 during the war. Foster, p. 437.
17. (p. 537 .) Browder refused to recognize his errors and was removed from leadership. He declined the offer of a minor Party position and soon
671
rcsorted to factionalism. This led to his expulsion in February 1946.
18. (p. 538.) Dennis, Williamson, Thompson and Foster made up the National Secretariat chosen after the Emergency Convention-all had hcen members of the smalt (nine-man) National Board of the CPA. Only a year la ter, in July 1946, was a new member-Henry Winston-added to t his ioner circle in the secretariat.
19. (p. 539.) Harrison George, p. 121.
20. (p. 540.) Foster's letter was not published until July 1945.
21. (p. 540.) See Harrison George, p. 23.
22. (p. 541.) William Z. Foster, "Concluding Remarks at the Convention," Political Affairs, September 1948, pp. 824-25.
23. (p. 542.) "Note by W. Z. Foster," Politica/ Affairs, July I 945, p. 655.
24. (p. 542.) "Foster's Letter to the National Committee," Politica/
A_ffairs, July 1945, pp. 648-49.
25. (p. 543.)"Discussion Article by Claudia Jones," Political Affairs, August 1945, pp. 717-20.
26. (p. 544.) James Allen, The Negro Question in the United States (New York: International Publishers, 1936).
27. (p. 547.) Later the Cuban Party, under Roca's leadership, came to support Batista. They followed the Soviet Party into the revisionist swamp and Roca became famous for denouncing the Cuban guerrillas as adventurists only a few months before Castro came to power. As the Cuban govemment moved doser to the USSR, Blas Roca's and the Cuban Party's differences with Castro seemingly evaporated.
28. (p. 548.) Much of Browder's line and the Party's opportunism were concealed from the masses of Party members and supporters. I myself didn't know about the dissolution of the SCU until 1948.
29. (p. 550.) Civil Rights Congress, We Charge Genocide (New York: 1951).
JO. (p. 551.) Claudia Jones, p. 718. Emphasis in the original.
JI. (p. 551.) Ibid., p. 719. Emphasis in the original.
n. (p. 552.) Max Weiss, "Toward Clarity on the Negro Question,"
Political Affairs, May 1946, p. 461.
33. (p. 552.) Francis Franklin, "The Status of the Negro People in the Black Belt and How to Fight for the Right of Self-Determination,"
Political Affairs, May 1946, p. 443.
34. (p. 553.) · Doxey A. Wilkerson, "The Negro and the American Nation," Political Affairs, July 1946, p. 657. Quote italicized in original.
35. (p. 553.) Stalin, "Conceming the National Question in Yugoslavia,"
Works, vol. 7, p. 73.
36. (p. 553.) James S. Allen, "The Negro Question," Politica/ Affairs, November 1946, pp. 1046-56, and December 1946, pp. 1132-50.
672
BLACK BOLSHEVIK
37. (p. 554.) Ibid., p. 1147.
38. (p. 554.) Harry Haywood, "Toward a Program of Agrarian Reforms for the Black Belt," Political Affairs, September 1946, pp. 855-64, and October 1946, pp. 922-39.
39. (p. 555.) See Nat Ross, "Two Years of the Reconstituted Communist Party in the South," Political Affairs, October 194 7, pp. 923-35, for a description of the liquidationist effects of Browderism in the South and developments since the Party was reconstituted.
40. (p. 556.) Lem Harris, "Toward a Democratic Land Program for the South," Political Affairs, March 1949, pp. 87-96.
41. (p. 557.) Eugene Dennis, "Concluding Remarks on the Plenum Discussion," Political Affairs, January 1947, pp. 9-10.
42. (p. 557.) Ibid.
43. (p. 558.) Benjamin J. Davis, "The Negro People's Liberation Movement," Political Affairs, September 1948, p. 889.
44. (p. 558.) Robeson had recently become quite unpopular with the government, particularly the State Department, when in Paris he declared that in the case of a U.S. attack on the Soviet Union, Afro
Americans would refuse to fight.
45. (p. 559.) "The Present Situation and the Next Tasks: Resolution of the National Convention of the Communist Party, U.S.A., adopted July 28, 1945," Political Affairs, September 1945, p. 820.
46. (p. 559.) James W. F.ord Section of the Communist Party, Puerto Rican Concentration Section, Section Committee, Sweep Revisionism Out of Our Party! (1958), p. 8. This pamphlet was written by James Keller and will be cited hereafter under his name.
47. (p. 559.) The Smith Aet, passed in June 1940, provided long sentences for the crime of "teaching and advocating the overthrow of the United States government by force and violence," and for conspiring to do this. It also forced the Hitler-like finger-printing and registration of 3,600,000 non-citizen foreign bom.
48. (p. 560.) The Daily Worker, November 18, 1946.
49. (p. 561.) Author interview with Jessie Gray, May 1973.
50. (p. 561.) Author interview with Jessie Gray, April 6, 1975.
51. (p. 564.) Goldberg, The Maritime Story, p. 259.
52. (p. 565.) Harry Haywood, Negro Liberation. The revisionist clique quickly let the book go out of print and it remained largely unavailable until it was reprinted (Chicago: Liberator Press, 1976).
53. (p. 567.) Foster was severed from the case on account of liealth.
Those who did go to trial were Eugene Dennis, general secretary; Henry Winston, organizational secretary; John Williamson, labor secretary; Jack Stachel, education secretary; Robert Thompson, chairman of the
NOTES
673
New York district; Benjamin Davis, New York City councilman; John Gates, editor of the Daily W orker; Irving Potash of the Fur W orkers Union; Gil Green, chairman of the Illinois District; Carl Winter, chairman of the Michigan district; and Gus Hall, chairman of the Ohio district.
54. (p. 567.) Eugene Dennis, "The Fascist Danger and How to Combat It," Political Affairs, September 1948, p. 806.
55. (p. 567.) William Z. Foster, "Concluding Remarks at the Convention," Political Affairs, September 1948, p. 830.
56. (p. 567.) Dennis, "The Fascist Danger," p. 817.
57. (p. 567.) "Draft Resolution for the National Convention," Political Affairs, June 1948, p. 500.
58. (p. 567.) Dennis, "The Fascist Danger," p. 800.
59. (p. 568.) Davis, "The Negro People's Liberation Movement," p. 889.
60. (p. 568.) Foster, "Concluding Remarks," p. 829.
61. (p. 569.) Ibid., p. 824.
