Browderism

American variant of Marxism–Leninism

CPUSA leader Earl Browder, for which the ideology is named.

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Browderism refers to the variant of Marxism–Leninism developed in the 1940s by American communist politician Earl Browder, who led the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) from 1930 to 1945. Characterized by deviations from orthodox Marxist–Leninist policies and principles, it sought to revise Marxism to align the party with mainstream American politics and present events; this involved incorporating Americanism and its nationalist values into the party's message, shifting away from the revolutionary socialism previously touted by the CPUSA. Moreover, Browderism rejected class conflict entirely, instead advocating for class collaboration with the bourgeosie under a popular front.

Browderism served as the ideological line of the CPUSA's platform from 1942 until Browder's expulsion from the party in 1945. It was controversial for its revisionism in the communist world, both domestically within the party, and internationally following the publication of the Duclos letter attacking the ideology. Following Browder's expulsion, a snap election held in July re-elected William Z. Foster as party leader.^[1] As a Stalinist, Foster reverted the party back to traditional Marxism–Leninism. The influence of Browderism waned in the party's ideology, as under the leadership of Gus Hall, attempts to recreate a new popular front and align its aims with American circumstances under Bill of Rights socialism; however, these efforts were removed from Browderism, which has since been scrutinized by anti-revisionists.

History

Beginning of Browder's leadership

Browder became General Secretary of the Communist Party USA in 1930^[2] and served as the party's unilateral leader and public face throughout his leadership, coinciding with the Great Depression and presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, which informed the development of Browderism. During the interval of the Third Period and following Adolf Hitler's rise to power, Comintern officials reversed the theory of "social fascism" after the failure of the Communist Party of Germany (one of the most ardent supporters of the theory) to unite with the Social Democratic Party of Germany in opposing the rise of Nazism. The necessity of a popular front to ally against fascism massively influenced Browder's thinking and strategy.

On January 6, 1935, Browder gave a public speech outlining an alliance with the Socialist Party of America^[3] (of whom Browder was a former member from 1907 to 1912). The Socialist Party was skeptical of such an alliance due to vilification over the past decade, though their leader Norman Thomas admitted specific areas where the two parties could work together. Browder also sought to form new mass organizations such as the American League Against War and Fascism in 1933 and the American Youth Congress and League of American Writers, both in 1935. At the same time, the party's stance towards the Roosevelt administration was modified from hostility to mutual cooperation, influencing Roosevelt's New Deal policies while Browder continued to serve as the Communist nominee for the 1936 and 1940 presidential elections. This served as a revision of the Bolshevik model of communist revolution the party embraced in its early years, seeking a pragmatic approach to present issues.

Americanism and World War II

As this popular front strategy progressed leading up to World War II, Browder further de-emphasized Marxist rhetoric in an appeal to American patriotism in order to appeal to a broader audience in U.S. politics. In June 1936, at the 9th National Convention of the CPUSA in New York, Browder's report proclaimed, quoting his earlier essay "What is Communism?" earlier that year, "We Communists claim the revolutionary traditions of Americanism! [...] We are the Americans and Communism in the Americanism of the twentieth century." This shift coincided with Comintern policy under Joseph Stalin, which still supported the popular front strategy worldwide up until the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the beginning of World War II. Due to the undermining of the Soviet Union's anti-fascist reputation, the CPUSA's ranks and recruitment numbers diminished.^[4] Browder was imprisoned in 1941; following his early release a year later, he returned to the general secretary position strongly in support of the American war effort, contrasted by the accusations of "imperialist war" the party previously made. This led to the brief end of class conflict and beginning of class collaboration in Browder prioritising the popular front in the party's appeal above all else. These tendencies of Browderism, emphasizing an uncompromising popular front and aim to popularise the party with Americans culminated in 1944, when the CPUSA was officially dissolved for a short time and was restructured into the Communist Political Association.^[5] This decision from Browder, though receiving unaminous support from the National Committee as a constitutional convention for the new organization was planned for May 1944,^[6] there was bitter opposition to this change in the form of the Foster-Darcy letter, co-signed by CPUSA rival William Z. Foster and Philadelphia District Organizer Samuel Adams Darcy. Limited circulation of the letter was tolerated within the party leadership, but later would lead to Darcy's expulsion by a CPA committee headed by Foster,^[7] who submitted to party discipline as emphasized by Browder.^[8]

Fallout and decline

Following the Tehran Conference in 1943, Browder hoped for the alliance between the Allied powers to continue after the war in peaceful coexistence,^[9]^[10] yet with the beginning of the Cold War and McCarthyism, Browderism became open to scrutiny. Jacques Duclos, Comintern member and leader of the French Communist Party (PCF) published an article in the party's theoretical magazine, Les Cahiers du communisme, attacking Browder's positions in what became known as the "Duclos letter". Quoting the Foster-Darcy letter, Duclos criticized Browder's beliefs about a harmonious post-war world as "erroneous conclusions in no wise flowing from a Marxist analysis of the situation", and that liquidating the CPUSA constituted a "notorious revision of Marxism".^[11] In retrospect, the article was found by historians Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes and Kyrill Anderson to have already been written in Russian and initiated by Moscow, after they determined post-war relations would become hostile. With the end of the Pacific War, Duclos was instructed to publish the article under his own name.^[12]

The article had major consequences for Browderism (sealing Browder's fate within the party) and the American communist movement, as the article had circulated worldwide amongst Comintern officials. The Communist Party USA was re-established at a snap election in July 1945, and Browder was removed from his position as general secretary, with Foster, who led the effort against Browderism, appointed as chairman and Eugene Dennis appointed as general secretary. Browder remained in the party continuing to espouse Browderism in the form of Distributors Guide: Economic Analysis: A Service for Policy Makers, a weekly newsletter outlining his own vision for Soviet–American relations in contrast to the unfolding Cold War.^[13] On February 5, 1946, Browder was fully expelled from the party altogether; outside of a brief effort during the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (which marked a period of de-Stalinization)^[14] to reintegrate Browder back into the party, he would never rejoin.

Legacy within the CPUSA

By the time Browder died in June 1973^[15] while the Communist Party USA was under the leadership of Gus Hall, Browderism was fully removed from the party platform, as the party remained committed to orthodox Marxism–Leninism. However, within Hall's policies, there were similarities with Browderism. This included a brief attempt to forge a "broad people's political movement", aligning the CPUSA in a new popular front with the civil rights movement and anti-Vietnam War movement to amass support among baby boomers. This would've tied the CPUSA, a by-product of the Old Left, with the New Left, yet was unsuccessful.^[16] Hall also coined the term "Bill of Rights socialism",^[17] advocating for socialist ideals to be incorporated into the U.S. Constitution.^[18] However, Hall did not cite Browderism as inspiration for these policies, as there are notable differences which reflect a different era, particularly as Hall was more restrained when deviating from orthodoxy, being a committed Soviet ally.

Components

A "penny phamplet" published by the CPUSA in the late 1930s appealing to American patriotism and synthesising it with communism.

Popular front

Browderism supports the organization of a popular front, an alliance of socialists with liberals and progressives in opposition to fascism.^[19] This strategy was adopted by the Comintern from 1934 until the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in 1939,^[4] and popular front governments briefly held power in Spain, France and Chile during the 1930s.^[20] Browder's push for such a broad anti-fascist coalition was due to the rise of fascism in Europe and the popularity of the New Deal, which Browder was initially hostile to, but then came to seek an alliance with the New Dealers, despite orders from Moscow in September 1939 to oppose Roosevelt leading to conflict within the CPUSA.^[21]

Americanism and internationalism

A crucial deviation in Browderism from Marxism–Leninism was in its rhetoric to appeal to a wider American audience, adopting more patriotic language. Traditionally, Americanism espouses beliefs such as freedom, liberty, human rights and republicanism, all encapsulated in a collective national identity. Browderism aligning communism with Americanism, a popular quote from What is Communism? being "Communism is the Americanism of the 20th Century",^[22] contrasts with other interpretations of the nationalist identity. In retrospect, American historian Wendy L. Hall argues in her 2008 book Inventing the "American Way" that Americanism was used during the Cold War as a contrasting ideology to communism along with fascism.^[23] Nonetheless, Browderism sought to incorporate the symbology of mainstream, patriotic culture in order to present communism as a compatible ideology which fits into ideals of freedom and republicanism.

Despite this nationalist alignment, Browderism continued to support internationalism and active participation in international relations. This informed its rejection of non-interventionism during World War II, with Browder supporting Roosevelt moving away from isolationism in the wake of increasing tensions amid the rise of fascism in Europe.^[24] However, due to Browderism's pragmatic and reformist character, its form of internationalism differed from the proletarian internationalism espoused by Marxist–Leninists.

Class conflict and collaboration

Under Browderism, the need for class conflict against the bourgeosie by the proletariat was de-prioritized and downplayed by the necessity for as broad a popular front as possible. This evolved into class collaboration, where distinctions between socioeconomic classes were put aside in favour of cooperation for an underlying goal, feeding into the need to resist fascism during World War II, as Browder justified in his 1942 book Victory and After.^[25] Browder's leadership made use of softer rhetoric more in line with terms used by the Roosevelt administration such as "economic royalism".^[6]

This class collaboration led to the abandonment of revolution in favour of a reformist approach, combined with its appeals to Americanism. Similarly to Bill of Rights socialism, Browderism sought to integrate communism into democratic institutions to legitimize itself, as seen in their support of the New Deal.

Criticism

Unlike other variants of Marxism–Leninism like Maoism and Hoxhaism, Browderism has not retained relevance within American communist politics, and did not amass international influence. It has in retrospect been criticized by anti-revisionists as indicative of American exceptionalism, viewing the circumstances of class struggle and conflict with the bourgeosie as not applying to the United States. Anti-revisionists also argue that the broad popular front Browderism envisioned subordinated the CPUSA to the interests of the bourgeosie via the Democratic Party, and that the threat of fascism used as justification was non-existent.^[26] Communist Party USA member John Gates called Browderism "a valuable instrument in the hands of U.S. imperialism in its plans for world war and counter-revolution."^[27] Today, the CPUSA has remained critical of Browderism, calling its ideas "opportunistic", the result of communist parties' "theoretical confusion and their abandonment of core principles and core working-class constituencies" along with Eurocommunism.^[28]

References

^ Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Kirill M. Anderson, The Soviet World of American Communism. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998; pg. 95.
^ Ryan, Earl Browder, pg. 46.
^ Ryan, Earl Browder, pg. 78.
^ ^a ^b Ottanelli, The Communist Party of the United States, pg. 198.
^ Communist Party, United States of America, article at Encyclopedia.com
^ ^a ^b Maurice Isserman, Which Side Were You On? The American Communist Party During the Second World War. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1982; pg. 191.
^ Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Kirill M. Anderson, The Soviet World of American Communism. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998; pg. 94.
^ Isserman, Which Side Were You On? pp. 192–193.
^ Redfern, Neil (September 2002). "A British Version of 'Browderism': British Communists and the Teheran Conference of 1943". Science & Society. 66 (3): 360–380. doi:10.1521/siso.66.3.360.21021. JSTOR 40404007. INIST 13908938 ProQuest 216129649.
^ Isserman, Which Side Were You On? pg. 188.
^ Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Kirill M. Anderson, The Soviet World of American Communism. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998; pg. 95.
^ Klehr, Harvey, Haynes, John Earl and Anderson, Kyrill M. The Soviet World of American Communism. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.)
^ Philip J. Jaffe, The Rise and Fall of American Communism. New York: Horizon Press, 1975; pg. 138.
^ Hunt, Michael H. (2015). The world transformed: 1945 to the present. Oxford University Press. p. 153. ISBN 978-0-19-937102-0. OCLC 907585907.
^ Whitman, Alden (28 June 1973). "Earl Browder, Ex-Communist Leader, Dies at 82". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
^ Tanenhaus, Sam (October 17, 2000). "Gus Hall, Unreconstructed American Communist of 7 Decades, Dies at 90". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 8, 2017. Retrieved July 4, 2008.
^ "Gus Hall Memorial Service". C-SPAN. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
^ Kostiainen, Auvo (September 2001). "Hall, Gus (1910–2000)" (in Finnish). The National Biography of Finland. Archived from the original on March 11, 2008. Retrieved April 27, 2010.
^ "popular front European coalition". Britannica. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
^ "Popular Front". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 16 October 2021.
^ Haynes, John Earl; Klehr, Harvey (2005). In denial : historians, communism & espionage (1st ed.). San Francisco, CA: Encounter Books. pp. 13–14, 36–37, 56–57. ISBN 1-59403-088-X. OCLC 62271849.
^ Haynes, John Earl (1996). Red Scare or Red Menace?: American Communism and Anticommunism in the Cold War Era. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee. p. 179. ISBN 9781566631488.
^ Inventing the "American Way" Oxford University Press. Oxford University Press. 18 January 2008. ISBN 978-0-19-532910-0.
^ Ryan, Earl Browder, pp. 128-129.
^ Isserman, Which Side Were You On? pg. 145.
^ https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/1946-1956/roots-revisionism/chapter-15.pdf^{[bare URL PDF]}
^ Gates, John (1951). On guard against Browderism, Titoism, Trotskyism. New Century Publishers.
^ Schepers, Emile (September 14, 2020). "Communists, coalitions, and the class struggle". Communist Party USA. Retrieved 26 February 2024.