NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Earl Browder

Earl Russell Browder (May 20, 1891–June 27, 1973) was an American socialist and leader of the Communist Party USA. 20 May is the 140th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (141st in leap years). ... 1891 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... June 27 is the 178th day of the year (179th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 187 days remaining. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... The color red and particularly the red flag are traditional symbols of Socialism. ... The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) is one of several Marxist-Leninist groups in the United States. ...

1 Early years
2 CPUSA leadership
3 Post-expulsion
4 See also
5 External links
6 Further reading

Early years

Browder was born in Wichita, Kansas. He joined the Socialist Party of America at the age of 15. During World War I he gave speeches urging the United States not to join the war, calling the conflict an imperialist conflict. When the US joined the war in 1917, Browder and other Socialist Party leaders were arrested and charged under the Espionage Act for opposing conscription. Browder was imprisoned but continued to campaign against the war after his release resulting in his second imprisonment in 1919. Wichita, also known as the Air Capital, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas, as well as a major aircraft manufacturing hub and cultural center. ... The Socialist Party of America is a socialist political party in the United States. ... World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machine guns, and poison gas World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, the War of the Nations and... Imperialism is the policy of extending the control or authority over foreign entities as a means of acquisition and/or maintenance of empires, either through direct territorial or through indirect methods of exerting control on the politics and/or economy of other countries. ... 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. ... The Espionage Act was passed by the 65th United States Congress on June 15, 1917, during World War I. This act made it a crime, punishable by a $10,000 fine and 20 years in jail, for a person to convey false reports or false statements with intent to interfere... 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

The left wing of the Socialist Party split to form the Communist Party of America and the Communist Labor Party. The two parties fused in 1921 and Browder joined the unified party in 1921 becoming managing editor of the party newspaper, Labor Herald. The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) is one of several Marxist-Leninist groups in the United States. ... See also the League of Revolutionaries for a New America, formerly known as the Communist Labor Party. ...

In 1928, Browder and his lover Kitty Harris went to China and lived together in Shanghai where they worked together on behalf of the Pan-Pacific Trade Union Secretariat, a Comintern organization engaged in clandestine labor organizing. The two returned to the United States in 1929. Kitty Harris was a Soviet secret agent. ...

CPUSA leadership

Browder became general secretary of the Communist party in 1930 and took over the top position of party chairman in 1932 after William Z. Foster suffered a heart attack. The term General Secretary (alternatively First Secretary) denotes a leader of various unions, parties or associations. ... William Edward Foster (February 25, 1881 - September 1, 1961), who renamed himself as William Z. Foster, was the long-time General Secretary of the Communist Party USA and trade union leader. ... A myocardial infarction occurs when an atherosclerotic plaque slowly builds up in the inner lining of a coronary artery and then suddenly ruptures, totally occluding the artery and preventing blood flow downstream. ...

Foster was the party's candidate for President of the United States in the 1936 presidential election but won only 80,195 votes. He tried to run for President in the 1940 presidential election but was forbidden by a court order from travelling around the country and won only 46, 251 votes. The President of the United States (unofficially abbreviated POTUS) is the head of state of the United States. ... Presidential electoral votes by state. ... Presidential electoral votes by state. ...

In 1939 Browder appointed Rudy Baker to head the CPUSA underground apparatus to replace J. Peters, after the defection of Whittaker Chambers. Rudy Baker became head of the CPUSAs underground secret apparatus in 1938 succeeding J. Peters. ... Josef Peters or Joseph Peters also Joszef Peter, more commonly known as J. Peters used a variety of names in work for the secret apparatus of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) undeground in the 1930s and 40s. ... Whittaker Chambers in 1939 Jay Vivian (Whittaker) Chambers (April 1, 1901 â€“ July 9, 1961) was an American writer, editor, political operative and defector best known for his accusations of, and testimony on, charges of espionage and subversion against Alger Hiss, the architect of the Yalta Conference and Secretary General of...

Browder was sentenced to prison in 1940, ostensibly due to passport violations, but was released after 14 months when the US joined World War II and became an ally of the Soviet Union. Browder embraced the popular front tactic and led the CPUSA's tactic of expressing cautious support for the New Deal of Franklin Delano Roosevelt while demanding that it should go much further than it did. 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrination, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atom bomb. ... Popular Fronts comprise broad coalitions of political and other groups, often made up of oppositioners or left wingers, and often united against particularly stringent circumstances. ... The New Deal is the name given to the series of legislative initiatives passed by Franklin Roosevelt with the goal of stabilizing and stimulating the United States economy in the Great Depression. ... Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882–April 12, 1945), 32nd President of the United States, the longest-serving holder of the office and the only man to be elected President more than twice, was one of the central figures of 20th century history. ...

During this period Browder successfully recruited dozens of operatives from amongst his associates for Soviet intelligence. In November 1943 Browder turned control of the Perlo group over to Jacob Golos and it subsequently was taken over by Elizabeth Bentley after Golos death. Venona decrypt #588 April 29 1944 from the KGB New York office states “for more than a year Zubilin (station chief) and I tried to get in touch with Victor Perlo and Charles Flato. For some reason Browder did not come to the meeting and just decided to put Bentley in touch with the whole group. All occupy responsible positions in Washington, D.C.” The Perlo group fits into the Venona project information when transcript # 687 of 13 May 1944 is examined. ... Russian-born Jacob Golos (birth name Jacob Rasin orJacob Raisin) (died 1943) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet secret police operative in the USSR an longtime senior official of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) involved in icovert work and cooperation with Soviet intelligence agencies. ... Elizabeth Bentley A graduate of Vassar, Elizabeth Terrill Bentley (1905-1963) was studying in Italy at the University of Florence when she first became interested in fascism. ... The VENONA project was a long-running and highly secret collaboration between the United States intelligence agencies and the United Kingdoms MI5 that involved the cryptanalysis of Soviet messages. ... Vasily Zarubin, NKVD legal New York Rezident, 1941 - 1944 Vasily Mikhailovich Zarubin (1894â€“1972). ... Victor Perlo was a member of the Ware group, and later headed a Washington DC cell of Soviet operatives. ... Charles Flato also Charles Floto (May 27, 1908 - January 1, 1984) was a writer, American Communist Party member and a Soviet agent. ...

In 1944, Browder declared that communism and capitalism could peacefully co-exist. The Communist Party reconstituted itself as the Communist Political Association. With the end of the Great Power alliance at the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War, "Browderism" came under attack from the rest of the international Communist movement. In 1945, Jacques Duclos, a leader of the French Communist Party, published an article denouncing Browder's policy. With the Comintern having been dissolved during the war, the "Duclos letter" was used to informally communicate Moscow's views. William Z. Foster, Browder's predecessor and a staunch Stalinist, led the opposition to Browder within the party and replaced him as party chairman in 1945, with Eugene Dennis taking over as general secretary. Browder was expelled from the party in 1946. 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Communism refers to a theoretical system of social organization and a political movement based on common ownership of the means of production. ... In common usage, the word capitalism means an economic system in which all or most of the means of production are privately owned and operated, and the investment of capital and the production, distribution and prices of commodities (goods and services) are determined mainly in a free market. ... For the generic term for a high-tension struggle between countries, see cold war (war). ... Jacques Duclos (1896-1975) had an outstanding French political life since 1926 when he entered the French National Assembly by beating Paul Reynaud until 1969 when he carried out a brilliant score with the presidential elections. ... The current logo of the PCF. Note the absence of traditional communist imagery such as the hammer and sickle. ... The Comintern (from Russian ÐšÐ¾Ð¼Ð¼ÑƒÐ½Ð¸ÑÑ‚Ð¸Ñ‡ÐµÐºÐ¸Ð¹ Ð˜Ð½Ñ‚ÐµÑ€Ð½Ð°Ñ†Ð¸Ð¾Ð½Ð°Ð» (Kommunisticheskiy Internatsional) â€“ Communist International), also known as the Third International, was an international Communist organization founded in March 1919 by Lenin, Trotsky and the Russian Communist Party (bolshevik), which intended to fight by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie... Moscow (Russian: ÐœÐ¾ÑÐºÐ²Ð°Ì, Moskva, IPA: (?)) is the capital of Russia, located on the river Moskva. ... William Edward Foster (February 25, 1881 - September 1, 1961), who renamed himself as William Z. Foster, was the long-time General Secretary of the Communist Party USA and trade union leader. ... Stalinism is a brand of political theory, and the political and economic system implemented by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union. ... Eugene Dennis (August 10, 1905 - January 31, 1961) was a long-time leader of the Communist Party USA and union organizer. ... The term General Secretary (alternatively First Secretary) denotes a leader of various unions, parties or associations. ...

Post-expulsion

Browder continued to campaign for his views outside the party and criticized the CPUSA's domination by Moscow, writing that "The American Communists had thrived as champions of domestic reform. But when the Communists abandoned reforms and championed a Soviet Union openly contemptuous of America while predicting its quick collapse, the same party lost all its hard-won influence. It became merely a bad word in the American language."

In April 1950, Browder was called to testify before a Senate Committee investigating Communist activity. Questioned by Joseph McCarthy, Browder was willing to criticize the American Communist Party but refused to answer questions that would incriminate former comrades. Charged with contempt of Congress, Judge F. Dickinson Letts ordered his acquittal because he felt the committee had not acted legally. 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Joseph Raymond McCarthy Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 â€“ May 2, 1957) was an American politician originally aligned with the United States Democratic Party and later with the United States Republican Party. ...

Browder's final public appearance was in a debate with Max Shachtman, the dissident Trotskyist, in which the pair debated socialism. Browder defended the Soviet Union and Stalinism while Shachtman acted as a prosecutor. It is reported that at one point in the debate Shachtman listed a series of leaders of various Communist Parties and noted that each had perished at the hands of Stalin; at the end of this piece of theatre, he remarked that Browder too had been a leader of a Communist Party and, pointing at him, announced: "There but for an accident of history stands a dead man". Max Shachtman (September 10, 1904 - 1972) is best known as an American Trotskyist theorist. ... Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ...

An attempt to reinstate Browder in the CPUSA following the Twentieth Party Congress and the move to destalinization failed. He remained outside of the party until his death in Princeton, New Jersey in 1973. The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held during February 14—February 26, 1956. ... De-Stalinization and the Khrushchev era For further details, see Nikita Khrushchev After Stalin had died in March 1953, he was succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and Georgi Malenkov as Premier of the Soviet Union. ... Princeton, New Jersey is the name of a town in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ...

External links

Earl R. Browder, U.S. Communist Party leader campaigns for the Presidency speech excerpt. June 28, 1936. 1:06 minutes. History Channel archive in Real Audio direct link. Retrieved June 6, 2005.
Communist Party (1390 - 1945). History, documents, and publications reprinted online by Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved June 6, 2005.

Duclos, Jacques. On the Dissolution of the Communist Party of the United States PDF file. Published in Cahiers du Communisme, April 1945. Reprinted in William Z. Foster et. al., Marxism-Leninism vs. Revisionism. New York: New Century Publishers, Feb. 1946), pp. 21-35. Retrieved June 6, 2005.
Constitution of the Communist Political Association: Adopted by the Constitutional Convention, May 20-22, 1944 PDF document. Published in The Path to Peace, Progress and Prosperity: Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of the Communist Political Association, New York, May 20-22, 1944. New York: CPA, 1944. pp. 47-51. Retrieved June 6, 2005.

Browder, Earl and Max Shachtman. Is Russia a Socialist Community? The Verbatim Text of a Debate. March 1950 debate moderated by C. Wright Mills. Published in The New International: A Monthly Organ of Revolutionary Marxism, Vol.16 No.3, May-June 1950, pp.145-176. Retrieved June 6, 2005.

Venona links Charles Wright Mills (August 28, 1916, Waco, Texas â€“ March 20, 1962, Nyack, New York) was an American sociologist. ...

Venona transcripts #1065 28 July 1944
Venona transcripts #1065 Translators notes 28 July 1944

Contents

Early years GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

CPUSA leadership

Post-expulsion

See also

External links

Further reading

Early years