Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Part 1 Introducing the Lovestone Group

Chapter 1 What is the Communist Party Opposition?

Chapter 2 Politics, Activism and Marxism of the Lovestone Group

Part 2 The Split and its Origins

Chapter 3 The Organisational Roots of Jay Lovestone’s Communist Party Opposition

Chapter 4 The Lovestone Split of 1929

1. Proposals of the Delegation of the Sixth National Convention of the Communist Party of the United States to the American Commission of the ECCI

2. Speech Delivered by Joseph Stalin in the American Commission of the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International, 6 May 1929

3. Speech Delivered by V.M. Molotov in the Session of the American Commission, 12 May 1929

4. Address by the Executive Committee of the Communist International to all Members of the Communist Party of the United States, 14 May 1929

5. Statement by the Delegation Chosen by the Sixth National Convention of the Communist Party of the United States of America to Present the Views of the Party Convention to the Executive Committee of the Communist International, 14 May 1929

6. First Speech Delivered by Joseph Stalin in the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International, 14 May 1929

7. Second Speech by Joseph Stalin in the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International, 14 May 1929

8. Party Split Telegram Sent to New York, 15 May 1929

9. Decisions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USA on the Address of the Communist International, 18 May 1929

10. The Significance of the Comintern Address

11. Material for the Enlightenment of the Party Membership on the CI Address to our Party

12. Statement of the Central Committee on the Expulsion of Jay Lovestone from the Communist Party of United States of America

13. Appeal to the 10th Plenum of the ECCI on the Last Comintern Address and the Expulsions and Removals Now Taking Place in the Party, 10 July 1929

14. Statement of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USA on the Appeal of Jay Lovestone and Others to the Communist International

15. For the Sixth-Congress Decision, for the Preservation of the Leninist Line of our Party. Against the Party-Wrecking Campaign. Against the Expulsion. For Bolshevik Unity

16. Statement of the Polbureau of the CPUSA on Expulsions

17. Declaration to the Plenum of the Centra Committee

Part 3 Evolution of the Communist Party Opposition

Chapter 5 Russia and International Affairs: 1929–36

1. The Crisis in the Communist International

2. Defend the Soviet Union! Smash the Imperialist ‘Holy War’ against the USSR!

3. Wave of Revolt Sweeps India: Gandhi Arrested, Imperialist Terror Spreads

4. ‘Dizzy with Success . . .’ the Factional Mishandling of the Vital Problems of Socialist Construction

5. Thirteen Years of the Russian Revolution

6. Germany at the Crossroads: Fascism on the Rampage

7. Jews in Russia – Negroes in uSA: a Real Lesson from the Soviet Union

8. On General Line and Inner-Party Course of the CPSU: Resolution of the National Conference of the Communist Party of the USA (Opposition), September 1932

9. The Nazis Take Power – Now What?

10. On the New Line of the Comintern: Letter to the Central Committee and Members of the Communist Party of the United States

11. Soviet Foreign Policy and the World Revolution

12. The Russian Events

Chapter 6 International Affairs: 1937–40

1. People’s Front Illusion

2. The Truth about the Barcelona Events

3. The Meaning of the Soviet ‘Purges’

4. Jacobin Defense in the Spanish War

5. Stalinism Menaces the World Labor Movement

6. Another Moscow Trial! A Statement

7. War and Armament Economics

8. Stalin Indicates Reich Alliance: Declares No Ground War with Nazis; cI ‘Turn’ Expected

9. Tomorrow’s War

10. Stalin-Hitler Pact – What Does it Mean? Statement of the Independent Labor League of America

11. Keep America Out of War! Unite for Peace, Freedom and Socialism!

12. Russia Invades Poland, Ready for Grab: Russo-German Partition of Poland Seen Looming: ‘Peace-Offensive’ Expected

13 . . . And Now Finland

14. The New Imperialism of Stalinist Russia

15. Resolution on War Policy Adopted by ILLA National Convention, New York, 28–9 December 1940

Photographs

Chapter 7 Social Struggles in the United States

Early Struggles

1. The aF of L Convention and the Left Wing

2. Gastonia

3. Second Convention of the Needle Trades Union

4. The Communists and the Unemployed Council

5. The Harlem Tenants League

Race and Racism

6. The Church vs. the Negro

7. Marxism and the ‘Negro Question’

8. National Negro Congress 1936–7

9. The Economic Position of the Negro and its Effects on White Workers

10. New Problems for Negro Labor

Trade-Union Movement

11. Problems and Tasks Facing the American Labor Movement

12. Lovestone Addresses iLGWU Convention

13. American Labor Faces the Future The Problems of Trade Unionism in the Light of the San Francisco General Strike

14. Hope of Trade-Union Movement

15. The CIO and the Problem of Unity

16. Call for Unity of Labor Against Reaction (1939)

United Auto Workers

17. Flint Striker Tells Story of gM Violence

18. The Battle of Flint

19. Women and the Auto Strike

20. The Implications of the Sit-Down

21. Latest Stalinist Assault Upon Auto Union

Regarding Others on the Left

22. Trotsky and Trotskyism

23. Joining the CPO

24. May Day Speech 1937

25. Ben Gitlow’s I Confess

Chapter 8 Marxist Theory

Applying Marxism

1. Some Specific Features of the Labor Movement in America

2. The Heritage of the Civil War

3. Marx and America

4. The Passing of the Gods

5. Does Fascism Menace America?

Re-examining Marxism

6. Marxism Probed in Fine Symposium

7. Recreating Socialism

8. Basic Dilemma of Socialism

9. The Basic Core of Marxism

Chapter 9 Fadeout

1. Marxists and the Unions

2. Convention of a New Beginning

3. Testimony of Jay Lovestone Before House Un-American Activities Committee

4. Letter From Dissidents on Organizational Disintegration

5. Towards a Genuine American Democratic Socialism! Independent Labor League Dissolves Organization – Calls on Progressive Unionists, Socialists, Radicals to Unite to Make New Start

Bibliography

Index