and the difference between revolutionary Marxism-Leninism and revisionism:
The CPUSA's work in auto and the change in line of the mid-1930's
Speech at the Third National Conference of the Marxist-Leninist Party, USA -- Fall 1986
Reprinted from The Workers' Advocate Supplement, vol. 3, #3, March 20, 1987,
with a brief intro from 2008.
Excerpt:
The work of the CPUSA among the auto workers went through various stages.
First there is the period prior to the Great Depression of the 1930's. This is the decade or so from the founding of the Party to the depression. In this period the Communist Party step-by-step transformed itself from a militant-talking organization on the social-democratic pattern, marked by the traditions of the left wing of the Socialist Party, to a communist-style organization of revolutionary struggle.
Among the auto workers, despite various weaknesses, the CP took up building communist cells at the factories (party shop nuclei), put out communist shop papers, brought the foreign-born into the midst of the American workers' movement, defended and organized black workers, and carried out militant organizing against the open shop terror of the auto capitalists.
Then there is the period when the Great Depression first hits. We will see how the incredible layoffs of the depression (not so incredible when compared to the plant closings of the last few years in Detroit) essentially drive the CP out of the auto plants. However, despite that, the CP's work doesn't go down the drain. It is able to bounce back. Because it had transformed itself, it is able to find ways to stay among the masses (such as its work in the unemployed movement) and it is able to make its way back into the auto plants.
Then there will be the crucial period beginning around 1933. Up to then, the Communist Party was basically the only force seriously trying to organize the auto workers. But at this time many other political trends jump into the act. The reformists and the bourgeoisie take seriously that, if they continue as before, the communists will lead the auto workers. And while the communists lead or are influential in the auto strike wave of 1933, there are new and complex phenomena that come up because of the various other trends which have increased their activity.
This is a decisive period. What happens from 1933 up through such events as the big sit-down strike wave of 1937 will do much to determine the fate of organization among the auto workers for decades to come.
And a year or more into this period we will see the CP flinch. In auto, it is possible that this began as early as November 1933 with respect to a key organizing drive at a major auto plant in Cleveland. But in any case, by the end of 1934 the change in the CP's orientation had begun not just in auto but for the work of the CP in general.
From 1935 on, the CP rapidly went further along this path and transformed itself according to the new line. This new line was Browderite revisionism. It was why the CPUSA leadership hailed the wrong line for the international communist movement that was set forward at the Seventh World Congress of the CI of 1935.
This new line led rapidly to destroying the political independence of the Communist Party. Emphasis on work from below was replaced by emphasis on deals from the top with the labor bureaucrats. The CP actually lived on these deals, and its trade union plans depended on the benevolence of John L. Lewis and other pro-capitalist union bureaucrats. And all the while the CP leadership congratulated itself on the alleged great victories it was making in the trade unions.
. The Party organizations themselves went through a process of degeneration and destruction. And the content of Party agitation decayed. The workers were taught not to stand up for struggle and for their own class interests, but to make a fetish of unity with the bureaucrats. This was the meaning now given to "trade union unity".
Subheads:
- TWO INTRODUCTIONS (2008 and 1987)
- OVERVIEW
- THE 1920'S
- What the Auto Workers Faced in the 1920's
- And the Unions?
- What Was This Independent Union?
- What Did the CP Do?
- Working in the Independent Union
- Transforming the CP in the 1920's
- Shop Papers
- Bringing the Foreign-Born Into the Work
- The AWU Becomes a Red Union
- Weaknesses in the Work of the CP
- THE DEPRESSION
- The Onset of the Depression
- The CP Rebounds
- The Struggle of Trends Intensifies in 1933
- The CP Had Difficulty Dealing with the Struggle of Trends
- Unrealistic Plans and Self-Criticisms
- The Summation of the Toledo Strike
- The Perspective for the 1932 Elections
- An Example from the C. I.
- The San Francisco General Strike of 1934
- The General Line was Correct
- THE NEW LINE
- The Change Begins -- 1934
- At White Motor in Cleveland
- A Turning Point
- A New Line is Formally Adopted
- Was the AWU Sideline?
- The Reality Behind the New Line
- Illusions in the Bureaucrats
- THE UAW
- The Founding of the UAW
- At the Founding Convention
- How Did Homer Martin Become President?
- An Anti-Communist Resolution
- The Progressive Caucus is Disbanded
- The UAW in Flint
- The Flint Sit-Down Strike of Early 1937
- The Sit-Down Wave of 1937
- Homer Martin's Anti-Communist Campaign
- The August 1937 Convention of the UAW
- Homer Martin Goes on the Rampage
- The Economic Downturn of 1937
- The CP Finally Criticizes Martin
- The UAW Convention of March 1939
- Maneuvering Among the Bureaucrats
- THE PARTY DECAYS
- Organization at the Base Declines
- Communist Content of Agitation Drains Away
- The Party Bodies Dissolve
- An Example from Work in Transit
- Vowing Capitulation to Union Bureaucrats
- The CP Abandoned Its Line Before the Crucial Battle
- Some of the Reasons Why the CP Flinched in the Mid-1930's