The Communist Party of the United States - From the Depression to World War II

322 Pages·7.02 MB·English

by  Ottanelli, Fraser M.

THE COMMUNIST PARTY
OF THE UNITED STATES

THE COMMUNIST
PARTY O F THE
UNITED STATES
From the Depression
to World War II
FRASER M. OTTANELL1
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS
New Brunswick and London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ottanelli, Fraser M.
The Communist party of the United States : from the depression to
world war II / Fraser M. Ottanelli.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-8135-1612-9 (cloth) ISBN 0-8135-1613-7 (pbk.)
1. Communist Party of the United States of America — History.
2. United States — Politics and government —1 929-1933. 3. United
States — Politics and government —1 933-1945. I. Title.
JK2391.C5078 1991
324.273'75'09— dc20 90-34391
CIP
British Cataloging-in-Publication information available
Copyright © 1991 by Fraser M. Ottanelli
All Rights Reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
To my parents

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
PART ONE
Chapter 1: Difficult Beginnings, 1919-1929 9
Chapter 2: To the Masses! 1929-1933 17
Chapter 3: The Origins of the People's Front, 1933-1935 49
PART TWO
Chapter 4: The People's Front 83
Chapter 5: The Democratic Front 107
Chapter 6: Communists and Labor 137
Chapter 7: "They Shall Not Pass!" 159
PART THREE
Chapter 8: "Standing on Its Own Feet" 197
Conclusion 213
Notes 217
Bibliography 279
Index 297
vii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In the course of researching and writing this book, I have enjoyed
help and encouragement from many sources, and I should like to
thank them here.
The staff of the George Arents Research Library, Syracuse Univer-
sity; R. W. Woodruff Library, Emory University; Tamiment Library,
New York University; and of the New York Public Library, all provided
excellent expert assistance. I wish to thank Theodore Draper for allow-
ing me to use his interviews with Earl Browder deposited at the
Woodruff Library as well as Paul Buhle for permitting me to cite from
the Oral History of the American Left collection housed at the
Tamiment Library. I have also benefited greatly from interviews with
several persons directly involved in the events described in this work.
Gil Green, Saul Wellman, and the late Max Gordon also read several
drafts of the manuscript and provided insightful criticism. Over the
course of the years I have spent many hours with Steve Nelson dis-
cussing and reflecting on his experiences in the communist move-
ment. In the course of these conversations a deep friendship has
developed which I greatly cherish.
At Syracuse, William C. Stinchcombe, provided beneficial criticism;
Sally Gregory Kohlstedt (now at the University of Minnesota) and
John Scott Strickland also supplied many thoughtful comments and
suggestions. Based on their impressive knowledge of twentieth-
century radicalism, Paul Buhle and Milton Cantor provided penetrat-
ing criticism which has contributed greatly to this work. My col-
leagues at the University of South Florida, Nancy Hewitt, Robert P.
Ingalls, and Louis A. Perez Jr., read various versions of the manu-
script and made pointed and incisive comments and criticism. This
list would not be complete without mention of Giuliano Procacci who
first encouraged me to study United States Communists.
I am deeply indebted to Annette Muir for taking the time to read
ix