THIS QUARTER
9
lers and "innocent" organizations, has·sacrificed much of its influ–
ence over the labor movement, and has not only lost its favored
position with the government in Washington but has at one stroke
become a prominent object of governmental persecution.
That in spite of all this, the Party bureaucracy found itself
unable to break with Moscow, shows how thoroughly Stalinized the
Party apparatus has become. Indeed, it is misleading to speak of
Browder and the rest having made a "choice." For all their long
cohabitation with native American reformism, they remained the
loyal agents of the Kremlin in American politics. It is also remark–
able that the rank and file of the Party seems to have stood firm
in
these trying weeks. There were defections, but apparently not on
a mass scale. And a recent Party rally was able to fill the twenty
thousand seats of Madison Square Garden with a reasonably en–
thusiastic, all things considered, crowd of comrades. The dis–
ciplined, monolithic character of the Party organization shows up
most dramatically.
There is something really terrifying about this mindless, pas–
sive acceptance of directives, however irrational, from above, this
abdication on the part of tens of thousands of more or less sincere
radicals of all critical judgment. One feels that if the Party were
ordered-by the proper authorities, of course-to march over a
cliff en masse, it would obey. And this, metaphorically speaking, is
just what the American Party has been ordered to do. Even in the
best of periods, the Party has a very large turnover of members,
some say as much as thirty or forty per cent a year. Even if the
ranks hold fast on this issue now, it seems likely that the Party will
waste away rapidly as old members drop out and no new people
come in to replace them. For the present Party line, acceptable
though it may be to disciplined members, has practically no attrac·
lion for those outside the Party.
The present C. P. line on war is a weird mixture of pseudo–
isolationism and pseudo-revolutionism. We say "pseudo" because
it
all boils down to a tactic directed toward no more elevated end
than
the protection of the mutual interests of Moscow and Berlin.
The Party's "isolationism" can be dismissed in a few words. It has
nothing in common with the indigenous midwestern variety, which
is
naieve and provincial but is at least honestly concentrated ort
keeping this co"!lntry out of a European war. The Party, too, now
