The First Heyday of American Communism: The CPUSA in the 1930s

The idea of communism gaining a mass influence in the US often conjures images from the 1930s. Over that decade, the Communist Party USA grew substantially, going from around 7,000 members in 1930 to 66,000 by 1939. Radicalized by the devastating effects of the Great Depression, many American workers rallied behind the party they believed would replicate the victory of the Russian Revolution.

However, unbeknownst to the rank-and-file class fighters who swelled its ranks, the CPUSA had already abandoned Lenin’s program. Rather than basing its policies on the ideas of genuine Marxism, the party’s leadership zigzagged wildly based on the changing demands of Stalin’s narrow and nationalist foreign policy.

As a result, the first attempt at building a communist party in this country was contradictory. The party organized tens of thousands of workers to build militant unions and to fight unemployment and racism. But at the same time, the Stalinist leadership squandered those efforts, paving the way for the party’s sharp decline after World War II, from which it never recovered.

As we organize for a new heyday of American communism in the US, it is essential that we draw out the lessons from this experience. There is much to learn about the nature of sectarianism, opportunism, Stalinism, and the labor movement in the 1930s. We can also get a glimpse of what a mass communist comeback could look like in the not-too-distant future.

This discussion will be introduced by Bryce Gordon, a leading member of the RCA.

Reading list:

Books

• History of American Trotskyism – James P. Cannon
• The Revolution Betrayed – Leon Trotsky
• The “Third Period” of the Comintern’s Mistakes – Leon Trotsky
• Labor’s Giant Step: The Rise of the CIO – Art Preiss

Articles

• An open letter to members of the Communist Party USA – Revolutionary Communists of America
• The fight for a mass workers’ party in the US – Tom Trottier
• How the Communist International was built – Fred Weston
• Zinoviev and the Stalinist degeneration of the Comintern – John Peterson

Podcasts

• Building a Communist Party in the US – Tom Trottier