A valuable summary of the history, work, and perspectives of the U.S. Communist movement as it was still consolidating itself in the early 1920s from one of its earliest central figures, Ludwig Katterfeld.

‘Some Facts about the Communist Party of America’ by James Carr (L.E. Katterfeld) from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 2 No. 18. March 8, 1922.

The Communists of the entire world know less of the movement in America than of any other large country. One of the reasons for this is the impossibility of discussing things openly, because this would invoke the repressive measures of the American authorities against the Communists. Also, for the same reason, it will be necessary to leave much unsaid in this article, and the reader will have to read a good deal between the lines.

It is, however, necessary for the Communists of all countries to get a correct conception of American conditions and to follow up the development of the movement, so that this informations can be taken into consideration in the perspective of the world revolution. The United States form at present the center of international capitalism, the nucleus of reactionary imperialism and will probably maintain this role until the end of capitalist rule. The world war, which weakened and undermined the power of the ruling classes in all European countries, enormously raised the power and authority of the ruling classes in America. The United States which before the war was in debt to other countries has now become their creditor and has at its disposal more than 60% of the gold reserves of the world.

Since the beginning of the war over 20,000 new millionaires have been created in the United States; a figure which exceeds the sum total of the former millionaires of the whole world. This class stands on firm ground and orders about the American working-class at will. With the aid of written and verbal propaganda it holds the workers in mental and spiritual slavery. At the first sign of a revolutionary tendency, it unmercifully crushes every movement with an iron fist. It is the strongest and best-organized bourgeoisie in the entire world, and its power over the American working-class is almost despotic. As long as the power of the American bourgeoisie is not broken, the strength of world imperialism remains unshaken. Therefore the development of the Communist movement of America is of great importance to Communists of other countries.

The Communist Party of America consists of 12,000 to 13,000 members, who are organized in about 1700 groups. Each group is composed of about ten members and holds meetings regularly. All members are compelled to take an active part in party work. Admission to the party is gained only after three months’ trial in a special recruiting group of party candidates; thus making it more difficult to enter than any legal organization.

In order to facilitate party work, the whole territory of the United States is divided into twelve districts, corresponding to the distribution of the main industrial centers. Every district has its own administration and has a permanent leader, who is simultaneously a member of the Executive Committee. Although the party, up to the present, has not issued an English daily paper, there are in circulation eight daily papers in other languages, and over 30 periodicals appearing weekly, by-weekly, and monthly. Besides the party influences several papers, copies of which are distributed by the millions.

The United States is a land of immigrants. Over one-sixth of the population is foreigners, as for example at the steel works in the environs of Pittsburg, Pa and in Gary, Indiana. In every large city of America one-fourth of the population is foreign. Thus these are in Chicago over 300,000 Poles, and just as many live in Detroit. In New York there are 400,000 Italians and over 1,000,000 Jews. Hundreds of thousands of the workers born in foreign countries speak hardly any English. American revolutionary movement, naturally, cannot neglect this element. The Communist Party of America has devised a special apparatus to disseminate the Communist idea in all the languages spoken by the American workers. During the last three years the American Communists have spent much time on the peculiar tasks arising from this situation. In America all nationalities have their own cultural and national organizations, so it is quite natural for the revolutionary element of each nationality to belong to their particular Federation.

Before the war these foreign organizations formed a stronghold for the reactionary leadership of Berger and Hillquit, and carried on with the Right a fight against the so-called Reds, who had attempted to take the leadership of the Socialist Party in their hands. After the Russian Revolution the situation changed. Naturally the Russians and the other Slavic Federations of America were influenced very quickly by the Russian Revolution and thus were the main support of the Left Wing. Their autonomy made it possible for them to carry on independent Communist propaganda within the Socialist Party. Thanks to their independence, they were able to break up the Socialist Party completely. And for this reason also, these Federations made strenuous efforts to preserve their independence, when the time came to form a united Communist Party. It was this very question of the autonomy of the Federations, which resulted in a split in the Left Wing and caused in September 1919, the formation of two Communist Parties in America instead of one. For a long time the leaders of the Russian and the other Federations openly opposed unity with the other Communist Party, most of whose members spoke English. Only seven months ago they complied with the authority of the Communist International and called together a unity conference.

This conference which took place in the Spring of 1921, showed that no fundamental differences of opinion existed bet- ween the parties and that it would make for general satisfaction to have a joint party program. A form of organization would also be found for the foreign-speaking comrades, which would take into consideration the requirements of propaganda in foreign languages, and would indissolubly unite the foreign sections with the English speaking sections in all cities. The autonomy of the Federations would be done away with, and the whole party would assume an undivided, centralized form, with its management in the hands of the Executive Committee. The Unity Convention elected a new Executive Committee, whose first problem was to unite the disorganized illegal groups into one organizations. This was accomplished within three months. Thereupon the Executive Committee devoted its entire strength to the problem of bringing about an affiliation with the broad masses of American workers. It endeavored to make the party a living factor of the struggle against the exploiting class. Soon, however, it appeared that the illegal apparatus was inadequate for extensive Communist activity, and it was necessary to find new ways and means of uniting the masses politically for the fight against American capitalism.

This problem involves greater difficulty in America than in the European countries. The American worker has no tradition of class-consciousness, and the class-conscious element is permeated with the spirit of sectarianism and has no practical knowledge.

The Central Executive Committee understands very well that the party cannot solve its problems without possessing suitable methods and forms of organization. To solve these problems with the help only of the illegal organization would be impossible. Hence the American Communist Party resolved to make use of all the legal possibilities which are at its disposal in the United States. The course of events compelled the party to do this. The economic crisis is becoming more and more acute; the unemployed, whose number exceeds 6,000,000, are continually on the move, and this mass of millions offers not only a vast area for propaganda, but also means a grave danger for the bourgeoisie. An entirely illegal organization would not be in a position suitably to cope with all the problems arising from the crisis, which demand solution more urgently all the time. The party is confronted with this dilemma: either to find ways and means of conducting an open, legal propaganda among the masses, or to give up this field to others and to renounce its claims of being the vanguard of the American working-class. Realizing this, the party decided to take advantage of all the possibilities at hand for open propaganda among the masses.

At the last elections the party put up its own candidates. This first step toward participation in parliamentary elections is, it is true, a very modest one; but its importance is by no means slight. The experience which the party gained through this step can be used in the approaching Congressional elections. The party took a very active part in the collections for the famine sufferers of Russia and succeeded in raising a very significant sum. Furthermore, the trade with Soviet Russia, and for the official recognition of the Russian Soviet Republic.

The activity of the party members in the trade-unions is becoming more and more forceful. Every party member really works at present, not only in his party group, but also in the trade-unions and other workers’ organizations.

The majority of the party members takes an active interest in carrying out the rulings of the Central Executive Committee. There is, however, an opposition of an organized minority, which is against the employment of legal, political methods, on the grounds that this could lead to the disruption of the illegal party. The falseness of these objections is very apparent; for the use of legal methods will by no means disrupt the illegal organization. Its character will only change somewhat; will become an organization which controls and guides the manifold branches of party activity. The forming of a legal party offers fertile soil for the gaining of new members; it also will be instrumental in adding new strength to the Communist Party and furthering its growth.

The sphere of activity of the Communist Party of America is extending continually. The party formed a special organization for propaganda among the 10,000,000 Irish who live in America; also a group for agitation among the 12,000,000 Negroes and for organizing the Negro masses. The party has not yet begun the organization of the farm workers, but during the past six months it arranged for special research work in this field of activity. The results of this research will be used in working out an agrarian program. The party realizes that a revolution is impossible in America if it must resist a strong bloc of farm workers and small farmers; and above all, ways must be sought to isolate these elements from the wealthy landowners.

The party is engaged in an active campaign for the Red Trade Union International among the various workers’ organizations which are swinging toward the left. Some of the most active leaders of the trade-union movement in America have already come over to our side. However, Gompers’ organization is still so strong that we do not dare to entertain any great hopes for the immediate future.

Our party is at present, in spite of its small membership, the strongest political organization working in the interests of the workers in the United States. The Farmer Labor Party which came out as a roaring lion in the elections of 1920, made out very poorly and has now actually disbanded. The best leaders of the Anarchist movement have joined the Communist Party. Undoubtedly the Bolshevik Revolution accomplished a cleansing in its ranks, in that it separated the worker element from the intellectuals. The latter are now carrying on a bitter anti-revolutionary propaganda. The membership of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.) is shrinking in favor of the Communist Party. There are only a few groups left of the Proletarian Party–all the rest have joined the Communist Party. The Socialist Labor Party lost its political influence long ago. When they refused to join the Third International and actually became counter-revolutionary all the revolutionary elements left the organization, and a short time ago the largest section of the Bulgarian Federation withdrew from the party, because they were dissatisfied with the attitude of the S.L.P. toward the Third International. Its attitude toward the Third International also led to the breaking up of the yellow Socialist Party, which since March 1919 lost 99,000 members and at present, according to official statements, numbers only about 6,000 members. The party received its last blow in September of last year when the Jewish and the Czech Federations left, and finally over 20 of the best-known English-speaking Left Wingers declared their solidarity with the Third International, organized a special group known as the “Committee for the Support of the Third International” and issued a monthly paper under the name of the “Workers’ Council”. They got their following from among the 100,000 former members of the Socialist Party and with these they wanted to organize the Workers’ Councils. Although they declared themselves for the unconditional acceptance of the 21 points, strong centrist tendencies are becoming apparent. The Communist Party does not by any means shut its eyes to the short-comings of this group, but assumes a friendly attitude toward it. These people are attempting to organize the 100,000 former members of the Socialist Party, by promising them affiliation with the Third International without having to become members of the Communist Party of America. If their agitation under this slogan is not made an end of soon, it is feared that they will succeed in forming a centrist party of this element, which otherwise would not resist the influence of our legal organization.

The slogan of the Executive of the Communist Party of America, “Our Party must become a party of action “, is being realized in many ways. As long as two parties existed, they forgot the wide perspective of the class-struggle in America, and exhausted precious strength in fruitless fraternal warfare. Now that the unity of the Communist forces has put the Party on a healthier foundation, attention is being turned to the problem of contact with the American working masses. A new era has opened up for the Communist movement of America. The period of revolutionary phraseology has gone. Now a period of revolutionary activity has begun. That gives us the right to hope that the Communist Party of America will, in the near future, successfully carry out the responsibility with which it is burdened.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecorr” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecorr’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecorr, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1922/v02n018-mar-08-1922-inprecor.pdf