CPUSA in 30s: Slipping Into Darkness
Posted by Mike E on February 9, 2008
Slipping Into Darkness: The Last Revolutionary Years of the Comunist Party USA (1929-1935)
by Mike Ely
[13 meg pdf.] This analysis examines the period considered by some the “good years” (i.e. the revolutionary period) of the Communist Party of the U.S. The piece was originally written in 1980 right after I had left the coalfields. It was based on both detailed research into this history and our own experience of trying to develop revolutionary organization among workers using a left-economist approach. The article was originally published in Revolution, which was then the theoretical journal of the Revolutionary Communist Party,USA.
As I re-read this piece, after so many years, there were inevitably new questions that came to mind — but I won’t get into them here. I just want to offer it online because it think it raises important questions about how does revolutionary consciousness develop among the oppressed and because it speaks to issues around trade union organizing that have re-emerged among a new generation of revolutionaries.
I look forward to correspondence and discussion with any of you who would like to explore these historical and political questions with me.
Jaroslav said
Awesome! It’s been a few years since I read this, but I remember it being very good & informative. Didn’t know you wrote it (of course).
Couple other suggestions for uploads (unless you’re only doing stuff by yourself): “Vietnam: Miscarriage Of The Revolution” (Revolution #4.7-8, Jul-Aug.79)), & Red Papers #7. Although both not perfect (big generalisation, again I’ve not read them for a few years), I think they’re both good starting points for their topics.
Mike E said
if someone scans those essays, Kasama will post them.
zerohour said
I also used to like the essay on pragmatism in The Communist but I haven’t revisited it in a while. I think it’s an important topic as I feel that pragmatism is the philosophical tendency that has the most widespread and detrimental effect on revolutionary politics in the US today.
arthur said
There’s a gap between pages 43 and 47 and p47 starts with “goulash” and no context so there’s definately something missing – presumably including the end of Part III and start of Part IV since the part numbers go from III to V with no IV. Gap includes foot notes after 39 and before 47.
Was that a test?
Introducing: Kasama’s Literature Table « Kasama said
[...] Slipping Into Darkness: “Left Economism,” the CPUSA, and the Trade Union Unity League (1… [...]
Alteration of Men on a Mass Scale « Kasama said
[...] Ideology. p. 47. 60 Ludwig Feuerbach. p. 367. 61 Grundrisse. p. 107-108. 62 c.f. Ely, M. 1980. Slipping into Darkness, ‘Left’ economism, the CPUSA, and the Trade Union Unity League (1929 – 1935). Revolution [...]
Swimming with the big fish, or leading a new school? « Kasama said
[...] Mike Ely’s pamphlet, “Slipping into Darkness” he discusses the historical experience of the old CPUSA. In one of the sections Fred Beal, a strike [...]
Kasama Pamphlets: Essays for Discussion « Kasama said
[...] Slipping Into Darkness: The Last Revolutionary Years of the Communist Party (1929-35) [...]
Eli said
I have a copy of Revolution from 1980, with a picture of Ted Kennedy on it calling him a “Knight of the Living Dead”. I’d be willing to scan anything that may be of interest in that issue.
saoirse said
yes please.
Mike E said
Given the recent death (and impending sainthood) of Ted Kennedy — that main article (laying out the history and nature of the Kennedy clan) may well be interesting.