Re:Cochran on US Labor

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I don't know how many comrades are aware of this, but George Snedeker is
one of the four co-editors of the *indispensible* "New Studies in the
Politics and Culture of U.S. Communism" (MR Press, 1993). This collection
of articles brings together some of the best-known "revisionist" historians
of the CPUSA, including Mark Naison, Roger Keeran, and Ellen Schrecker.
These mostly younger, new-left inspired scholars sought to provide a new
interpretation of the party, against the standard "puppet of Moscow" view
popularized by Theodore Draper and unfortunately given credibility by James
P. Cannon and other Trotskyists.

The editors state in the preface that the "The party's engagement in
grassroots and community efforts to right the inequalities of racism,
poverty and exploitation, and the strong presence  it has had in the
resistance of workers in the factories and fields of the U.S. Heartland,
are of sufficient importance to warrant the claim that its story should be
better integrated into the study and teaching of U.S. history."

Unfortunately, there is a tendency for the "revisionists" to go overboard.
For example, Roger Keeran wrote a history of the UAW which effectively
'disappeared' the Trotskyist and other non-CP currents in Flint and
Detroit. One of the chief purposes of Sol Dollinger's "Not Automatic" is to
present a more balanced view of the left in the formation of the UAW,
beginning with the role of co-author Genora Johnson Dollinger, who was a
leader of the Flint Women's Auxiliary.

Schrecker is even worse. In her new book "Many are the Crimes", she
virtually blames the anti-CP left for aiding the McCarthyite witch-hunt.
For her the 1930s and 40s radicalization is synonymous with the CP,
including the alliance with the Democratic Party. Her hope for a revival of
the health of the US left includes re-establishing that alliance. Yuch!

Alan Wald, who is one of the contributors to Snedecker et al's book, has
written an excellent rebuttal to the "revisionists" in an March/April 2000
Against the Current article titled "The Costs of McCarthyism". Alan does
not really intend to tarnish the CP, only to restore the proper role of the
non-CP left. He is not the only scholar involved in such work. Christopher
Phelps, who used to work in the books department of MR, is now working on a
book detailing the involvement of American Trotskyism in the black
struggle. Based on a talk he gave at the American Trotskyism conference
last autumn, I expect this to be an important work.

Louis Proyect
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