Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

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