Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM<br />
Kendall. Pelling was an established historian of British socialism, the Labour Party and<br />
the labour movement. He published the first scholarly work on the CPGB in 1958,<br />
tracing its origins and development until 1957. Pelling's work was a groundbreaking<br />
effort, but came to the general conclusion that the CPGB was not a British institution, but<br />
simply a tool of Moscow trying to disrupt traditional Labour Party politics. 20 James<br />
Klugmann was a trusted intellectual within the CPGB and who was thus charged with the<br />
task of writing an "official history" of the party. 21 Klugmann’s two volume history of the<br />
CPGB disconnects British associations with Moscow by simply avoiding any serious<br />
discussion of the Comintern. 22 While Klugmann gained exclusive access to archival<br />
material, his emphasis upon the national narrative limits the insights of his work. Walter<br />
Kendall was a devout Labour Party activist who had close associations with dissident<br />
communists like Harry McShane and Alfred Rosmer. 23 Kendall's analysis focuses on the<br />
domestic origins of British revolutionary socialism and the coercive relationship that<br />
developed between the incipient CPGB and the Comintern. 24 Each of these works added<br />
significant contributions to British communist history, but suffered from an overriding<br />
concern with Moscow, focussing principally upon formal policy and party leadership. 25<br />
American communist history was dominated initially by the "Fund for the Republic:<br />
Communism in American Life" series that posited a "traditionalist" view of Moscow<br />
domination. 26 The authors commissioned for this series were primarily veterans of the<br />
"New Deal left" who were disillusioned by their interactions with the CPUSA. 27 The<br />
pivotal work produced in this series was Theodore Draper's study of the origins of the<br />
CPUSA, tracing its development up until 1929. 28 In his work, Draper dismissed the<br />
usage of CP published literature, opting instead to focus almost exclusively on internal<br />
communications and meeting minutes of top committees to show how Soviet influence<br />
was the "determining factor" in all CP policies. 29 Prior to the establishment of the Fund,<br />
the CPUSA attempted to "rehabilitate" their public image through historical publications.<br />
William Z. Foster, Chairman of the CPUSA, published an "official history" of the party<br />
in 1952. Foster was a long-time veteran of the American labor movement and forged a<br />
narrative that simply grafted the history of the party to that of organized labor, playing<br />
down themes of Soviet dominance. 30 Foster's nemesis Earl Browder, former Chairman of<br />
the CPUSA, published a book on Marxist theory and the United States in 1958 subtitled,<br />
"Why Communism Failed in the US." 31 Though Browder's book was not a history of the<br />
CPUSA, the premise of his theoretical analysis centred on how Soviet "dogma" interfered<br />
with the otherwise "healthy" development of American communism. 32 Browder contended<br />
that under his leadership, the CPUSA was an integral and organic part of American<br />
politics and that Soviet interference in 1945 facilitated the party's downfall. 33 With<br />
the exception of Foster's text, initial publications "depicted the American party as undemocratic,<br />
subordinated to Stalinism, and incapable of relating creatively to American<br />
society." 34<br />
4