U.S. Anti-Revisionism: First Wave, 1946-1958 Index Page

Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line

U.S. Anti-Revisionism

First Wave, 1946-1958 – Index Page

During World War II, the alliance between the Soviet Union and the Western capitalist powers led the Communist Party, USA to promote a political line that was predicated upon continuing cooperation and good relations between the war-time allies into the post-war era. Earl Browder, General Secretary of the CPUSA, was the chief author of this line, as spelled out in his book: Tehran, Our Path in War and Peace (1944). For Browder, the collaboration of the USSR, Britain and the U.S. internationally in the war needed to be matched by the collaboration of American capitalists and communists in a “national unity front” to defeat fascism and insure international cooperation in the postwar world. As the Communist contribution to this “national unity front” Browder successfully promoted the dissolution of the Communist Party and its replacement by a “non-partisan” Communist Political Association in 1944.

The breakdown of the wartime alliance and the beginnings of the Cold War in 1945-46 resulted in a major shift in international communist strategy and tactics. Soviet intervention (via the French Communist Jacques Duclos) took aim at Browder and resulted in the reconstitution of the Communist Party, USA and the repudiation of the Browder line in 1946. Browder himself and a handful of his family and friends were expelled, but the leadership which reconstituted the Party in 1946 was by and large the same leadership that had approved Browder’s Tehran line in 1944.

Across the United States, a number of rank and file communists, veteran Party leaders and returning war vets were dissatisfied with the way the reconstitution of the Party was handled. They accused the leadership of continuing revisionism, the betrayal of Marxism-Leninism, and of practicing “Browderism without Browder.” Some of these dissidents voluntarily quit the Party; others were expelled for “ultra-leftism” and “sectarianism.” During the period 1946-1948, a variety of small groups and little publications were created around the country by these “anti-revisionists.” A few well-known leaders, including Harrison George and William F. Dunne, even published books spelling out their critique in detail. However, efforts to unify these disparate groups failed and most of these initiatives disappeared as the Cold War intensified. Only one publication Turning Point, continued appearing until 1962.

Index of topics covered in this section (by alphabetical order)

Background CPUSA Materials on the Anti-Revisionists

Background CPUSA Primary Materials

Background Materials on Post World War II Anti-Revisionism

Coverage of Anti-Revisionists in the Bourgeois Press

Coverage of Anti-Revisionists in the Trotskyist Press

Primary Anti-Revisionist Documents

General Analyses

On the Roots of Revisionism. A Political Analysis of the International Communist Movement and the CPUSA 1919-1945 by the Bay Area Study Group

Background Materials on Post World War II Anti-Revisionism

Anti-Revisionist Communism in the United States, 1945-1950 by Paul Costello

In Memorium – Ellwood Griest by Paul Costello

The CPUSA’s Liberal-Labor Approach to the Critique of Browder

What happened to the Anti-Revisionists in the CPUSA after World War II?

William F. Dunne and the Fight Against Revisionism in the CPUSA

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Background CPUSA Primary Materials

Worker Correspondents by William F. Dunne

The Heritage of the Communist Political Association by Robert Minor

On the Dissolution of the Communist Party of the United States. by Jacques Duclos

On the Question of Revisionism by William Z. Foster

Telegram to Comrade William Z. Foster by Mao Zedong

Marxism-Leninism vs. Revisionism by William Z. Foster, Jacques Duclos, Eugene Dennis and John Williamson

On the Struggle Against Revisionism [Prepared by the National Veterans Committee of the Communist Party for free distribution to Communist ex-servicemen of World War II]

The Path of a Rengade. Why Earl Browder Was Expelled from the Communist Party by Robert Thompson

Eugene Dennis Indicts the Wall Street Conspirators

On Guard Against Browderism, Titoism, Trotskyism by John Gates

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