Communist Party USA in the 1940s
The Communist Party USA (CPUSA) experienced significant fluctuations during the 1940s, marked by both growth and decline. Under the leadership of Earl Browder, who became general secretary in 1940, the party’s membership had reached around 70,000 during the Great Depression. However, it faced a setback following the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939, shifting its stance to advocate for American neutrality and criticizing the Allies. This position changed dramatically after Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, leading the CPUSA to support the war effort alongside the Allies.
Throughout World War II, the party's membership peaked as it engaged with various intellectual and labor sectors, gaining influence. In 1944, Browder dissolved the party, which was subsequently reformed as the Communist Political Association to align more closely with the Democratic Party. However, post-war tensions between the Soviet Union and the West fueled a resurgence of anticommunist sentiment in America. This environment led to the marginalization of CPUSA members, with many being ostracized, jailed, or expelled from labor unions. By the late 1940s, the party's membership had dwindled to a few thousand, significantly diminishing its role in American politics.
Communist Party USA in the 1940s
Identification Political party
Date Established on August 30, 1919; reconstituted as the Communist Political Association, May 22, 1944
The Communist Party had some influence on events during World War II because of the U.S. alliance with the Soviet Union. It attracted a number of intellectuals, but after the war its numbers and adherents dwindled as the Cold War began.
The Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) rode a rollercoaster of highs and lows through the 1940’s. In 1940, the general secretary of the party was Earl Browder, who had replaced William Z. Foster after the latter suffered a heart attack in 1932. The party had grown to about 70,000 members during the Great Depression but lost many members after the Nazi-Soviet Pact of August, 1939. Following the position of the Comintern—the Moscow-based Communist International—during the first two years of the war, the party stopped the antifascist propaganda it had been promulgating since 1930, advocated American neutrality, and printed many pamphlets and conducted rallies and marches to that effect. In fact, the party’s Daily Worker attacked the Allies more than Germany.
In the election of 1940, Browder ran for president of the United States from prison, where he was serving a sentence for passport violations. He received only 46,000 votes, a little more than half the votes he had received in 1936.
On June 22, 1941, when Germany suddenly attacked the Soviet Union, the American party reversed itself immediately. Picketers in front of the White House, who the day before held placards demanding that the United States stay out of the war, brought new ones calling for Washington to join in the antifascist struggle.
By the end of the year, the United States was in the war as an ally of the Soviet Union. Anticommunist propaganda in America lessened considerably but did not disappear. Joseph Stalin was the Time magazine man of the year twice during the war, even though the magazine’s publisher, Henry R. Luce, had been notorious in the past for his anti-Soviet and anticommunist views. The CPUSA supported the war wholeheartedly. Previous pamphlets advocating world peace were shelved. Browder tried to distance the party from the Soviet Union and dissolved the party in 1944; it was reconstituted on May 22 as the Communist Political Association to work in concert with the Democratic Party. Almost immediately after the war, tensions developed between the Soviet Union and the West. Leading Stalinists abroad criticized Browder’s wartime attitudes, retiring him in 1945 and putting Foster back in place as general secretary. The party also purged its membership of extremists on both the left and the right.
The party’s greatest problem was the wave of anticommunism that swept through America. Even persons marginally associated with the party were ostracized and harassed. Members were arrested and jailed under old and new sedition laws. The labor unions that had used party members’ organizing talents in the 1930’s and early 1940’s now expelled them. The party membership dropped from a peak of about 75,000 during the war to a few thousand.
Impact
During World War II, the CPUSA reached its peak membership and attracted a number of intellectuals, artists from all fields, and labor unionists. Its members found positions in government and important areas of society. After the war, the anticommunist harassment that had characterized the 1920’s and 1930’s returned. Ambitious politicians such as Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon used anticommunism as a vehicle to further their careers, and the party lost its importance in American politics and society.
Bibliography
Isserman, Maurice. Which Side Were You On? The American Communist Party During the Second World War. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993.
Ryan, James Gilbert. Earl Browder: The Failure of American Communism. 2d ed. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2005.