WILLIAM PHILLIPS
339
Perhaps it was because the Party was more lax in those days. Hence I at–
tended a meeting at which a leading member of the Cultural Section
pointed to a document in his pocket, outlining the new line which he
had brought from Moscow, dissolving the John Reed Clubs in favor of
casting a wider net for possible followers. As a result, there was a mock
convention in Chicago, where the John Reed Clubs were buried with
ritual invocations of the new line. I went to the convention, as a repre–
sentative of the New York Club, in a boxcar where we slept on the floor.
The main speech presenting the new directive was made by the head of
Party publications, a fatherly figure, who looked like a diminutive
Oriental drug salesman with a large mustache. He told forbidden stories
about Trotsky when he relaxed in his office at the end of the day. So it
was with every other facet of Communist activity, strictly controlled by
Moscow and transmitted through the obedient leadership in this country.
I soon noticed that Party members, including most leaders as well as
rank-and-filers, never read any opposition literature - neither Socialist,
Lovestonite, nor Trotskyite. And of course all criticism of the
Communists was lumped under the dual heading of "Trotskyist and reac–
tionary." For example, when I asked some Communists I knew, who
worked on
The Daily Worker,
the official Party newspaper, why they
never read the opposition press, they looked at me blankly. What was in
their heads, I didn't know. But I guessed that I challenged the stability of
their lives. "Where would one go politically if one broke?" was a com–
mon question that kept even doubters in the fold.
One day I was asked up to the ninth floor of the Party headquarters
on Thirteenth Street, to meet with one of the theoretical leaders. The
ninth floor was the famous headquarters of the top functionaries. It was
appropriately dingy and poorly furnished. My interrogator was a boyish–
looking man of about thirty, who was considered an expert in Marxist
theory. I never knew what his expertise consisted of: indeed, he seemed
like an autodidact - a common phenomenon in the movement. But he
was bright and friendly, and very personable. He said to me quite bluntly
that he had heard I was expressing my doubts about the Party to ordinary
rank-and-filers, and he asked me to restrict my criticism to leaders of the
Party - who, apparently, could shake it off more easily. The Party's level
of discourse was shallow and narrow, because independent thought was
forbidden. Its theoreticians improvised variations on the official line. The
leading theoretician, a short, plump, round-faced, heavily goggled
functionary, had no professional training or knowledge, as he parroted
Soviet doctrine. And it was rumored that he sometimes used seduction as
an assist on hesitant women. He also had just enough brashness, that came
with his official position, to impress fellow-traveling celebrities, who
