Gitlowites

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The Workers Communist League or Gitlowites were a

Communist Party of the USA (Opposition)
in 1933. It was the only split from that organization that created a new group.

Origins

The origin of the group goes back to a resolution

Comintern, as well as the mistakes with regard to the collectivization of agriculture and the creation of light industry. While the conference re-adopted its previous spring 1931 resolution on the issue, it opened up the pages of its organ, Workers Age, to debate on the issue and asked its members to contribute their opinions beginning with the November 15 issue.[1]

Editorials supporting the old resolution were submitted by Jay Lovestone,[2] Will Herberg,[3] Herbert Zam[4] and others, while an article against the current resolution by Lazar Becker was broken up and published over three issues.[5] Portions of Gitlow's own contribution, "The Russian Question critically considered" were published in two issues, but not the conclusion.[6] The majority argued that the general line of the CPSU was correct, and the opposition was offering "constructive criticism" of the Stalin leadership's "mistakes" in its application domestically within the Soviet Union and with regards to the relationship between the CPSU and the other parties in the Comintern. Furthermore, the "Russian question" was not a defining issue for the group. Gitlow and Becker argued that a correct understanding of the "Russian question" was of decisive importance to the group and the position taken on it determined whether the group had a justification for being. Gitlow argued that though the CPSU's official line as determined by the 15th congress was correct, the Stalin leadership had veered so far away from it that the Party's general line was no longer correct and was going in the direction of Trotskyism.

After the National Bureau of the group upheld its support for the current position on the Russian question at a New York mass meeting on February 2, 1933 Gitlow resigned.[7][8] At the next plenum of the Communist Party (Opposition)'s National Committee, February 11–13, Becker presented an appeal with the signatures of 13 members which criticized the Lovestone leadership on the "Russian question" and on a number of other issues related to the groups work within the labor movement and relationship to the official Communist Party. The appeal was rejected unanimously by the National Committee.[9]

Activism

After leaving the Lovestoneites, Gitlow tried to form a "bloc" of the opposition Communist movements against Stalinism.

Farmer–Labor Party, but nothing came of it.[12]

Gitlow had more luck with the Trotskyist

Commodore.[14] On February 15 the case went to the NRA Regional Labor Board and the union was able to get an agreement with the owners that the strikebreakers would be dismissed, the workers could return to their jobs under joint union-management auspices and that the RLB would hold hearings on the conditions in the hotels. While these conditions were violated by the hotel management, the secretary of the union, CLA member B.J. Field considered it a victory and put emphasis on negotiating with the hotels rather than continued pickets. For this, and for alleged clique rule and attempts to curry favor with "bourgeoisie public opinion" Field and his associate in the union leadership, Aristodimos Kaldis, were expelled from the Communist League of America on February 18.[15]

Field and his coterie fused with the Workers Communist League to form a new group in April 1934,

Organization Committee for a Revolutionary Workers Party, despite having had differences with each other while working within the AFW.[13]

Within the Socialist Party

On June 1 the tumultuous 18th national convention of the Socialist Party opened in Detroit. Gitlow and some others from the organization committee came as observers. Here he came in contact with leaders of the Militants and the Revolutionary Policy Committee. While dismissing the RPC as too factional, he was impressed by the Militants.[10]: 577–580  On August 23 the Gitlow group within the Organization Committee for a Revolutionary Party announced their intention to join the Socialists. This was not approved by B.J. Field and his adherents, which kept control of the group's paper, Labor Front. The Gitlowites apparently carried on for a few months under the name of the Organization Committee while attempting to enter the Socialists, and issued leaflets under that name.[16]

On October 29 Gitlow held a conference with "several founders and former leaders of the Communist party" including delegates from Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. The group adopted a platform noting that lack of unity between socialists and communists had helped Hitler come to power and endorsing the

1934 Statement of Principles that the Socialist Party had adopted at its convention in June as a step toward "revolutionary development". The group made an application to join the Socialist Party but they were rebuffed by the Socialist Party of New York. The leadership of the SPNY was a stronghold of the moderate Old Guard faction and disapproved of the revolutionaries.[17] State chairman Louis Waldman saw it as an attempt by the Militants to weaken the Old Guard in the state, especially after Norman Thomas endorsed letting them into the party.[18] After the state executive committee passed a resolution strictly prohibiting any local from allowing a communist or quasi-communist from joining, Gitlow joined the New Jersey state organization.[19][20]

One inside the Socialist Party, however, Gitlow started to have doubts about the Militants. The general pro-communist tone of the Militants upset him, especially after they started co-operating with the Communists organizationally during the

Student League for Industrial Democracy into the American Student Union, and the entry of the CP-affiliated Unemployed Councils into the Workers Alliance of America for fear the new organizations would be controlled by the Communist Party. Instead of leading another split he decided to drop out altogether.[10]: 580–582  Lazar Becker would stay with the party until at least its 1940 convention, when he led the opposition to Norman Thomas' pacifist stance on World War II.[21]

Publications

The organization published a newspaper Voice of Labor from Vol. I #1 June 1933 to Vol. II #4 April 1934.[22]

References

  1. ^ Workers Age Vol. 2 #3 Nov 15, 1932 p.6
  2. ^ Workers Age Vol. 2 #4 Dec. 1, 1932 pp.4,7
  3. ^ Workers Age Vol. 2 #4 Dec. 1, 1932 p.5
  4. ^ Workers Age Vol. 2 #5 Dec. 15, 1932 p.4
  5. ^ "Historically inevitable and correct..." Workers Age Vol. 2 #5 Dec. 15, 1932 p.5, Workers Age Vol. 2 #6 Jan. 1, 1933 p.4, and Workers Age Vol. 2 #7 Jan. 15, 1933 pp.5,7
  6. ^ Workers Age Vol. 2 #7 Jan. 15, 1933 p.5 Workers Age Vol. 2 #8 Feb. 1, 1933 pp.4,7
  7. ^ Workers Age Vol. 2 #9 Feb. 15, 1933 p.8
  8. ProQuest 99290798
    .
  9. ^ Workers Age Vol. 2 #10 Mar. 1, 1933 p.6
  10. ^ a b c Benjamin Gitlow I confess; the truth about American communism New York, E. P. Dutton 1939.
  11. ^ Class Struggle Vol. 3 #6
  12. ^ Class Struggle Vol. 3 #9
  13. ^ a b Max Shachtman "'New Group' for a 'New Party'" in The Militant Vol. VII #21 May 26, 1934 p.3
  14. ^ The Militant Vol. VII #4 Jan 29, 1934 p.3
  15. ^ "Expulsion of B.J. Field and A. Kaldis" in The Militant Vol. VII #11 March 17, 1934 p.2
  16. ^ "No comment necessary" in Workers Age Vol. 3 #18 Oct 15, 1934 p.7
  17. ProQuest 118006324
    .
  18. ProQuest 101006450
  19. ProQuest 93433387
    .
  20. ProQuest 445668582
  21. ProQuest 98351901
    .
  22. ^ Goldwater, Walter Radical periodicals in America 1890–1950 New Haven, Yale University Library 1964 p.27
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