American Communism Revisited

AIA-FL Blog ^ | April 20, 2010 | Bethany Stotts

[bs9021]

American Communism Revisited

Bethany Stotts, April 20, 2010

Accuracy in Academia was recently contacted by University of Maryland at College Park English Instructor Kara Fontenot regarding my coverage of her 2008 Modern Language Association convention presentation, “American Hysteria, Civil Liberties, and the Literary Left: Langston Hughes and Lorraine Hansberry.”

Fontenot takes exception to my February article, “2008 MLA Unplugged,” in which I write that “Graduate student Kara Fontenot falsely claimed that the Communist Party USA had no connection to the USSR while furthering stereotypes about Senator Joseph McCarthy” (formatting in original).

More specifically, in the linked article I quoted her presentation, in which she said

“Despite Communism’s initial appeal for some, by the end of the 1940’s most black Americans, including Hughes, had distanced themselves from Communist affiliations…However, soon conservative forces began to view the American communist party as the domestic extension of the Soviet threat, choosing either ignorantly or willfully to ignore the inconvenient fact that most American communists and fellow travelers were not spies or traitors but instead citizens with visions of radical political, economic, and social change” (emphasis added).

Perhaps Fontenot did not claim that there was no connection between the CPUSA and Soviet Russia but she did attempt to dissociate the two and attacked the integrity of “conservative forces” who saw the connection (“…choosing either ignorantly or willfully to ignore…”) between Russia and CPUSA members or “fellow travelers.”

In the article, “McCarthy Unplugged,” which originally mentioned Fontenot’s lecture, I quote from author M. Stanton Evans, author of Blacklisted by History, who argues that “Far from being mere indigenous radicals working for peace and social justice…the [Communist Party USA] and its members were subservient tools of Moscow—and those who weren’t subservient didn’t stay very long as members." ....

[Stevenc131]

Earl Browder, who was General Sec. of CPUSA wanted to bring the party into the mainstream of American politics in the 40s, Browder envisioning the party as part of the left wing of the Democratic party. He was slapped down by the Soviet Union who wanted the party to remain, for the most part, under the radar.

The CPUSA was very much under the control of the Soviets, and many members of the CPUSA worked for Soviet intelligence. Having the party adopt a high profile stance would have not been in the interests of the Soviet Union.

[Matchett-PI]

bttt

[Talisker]

...conservative forces began to view the American communist party as the domestic extension of the Soviet threat, choosing either ignorantly or willfully to ignore the inconvenient fact that most American communists and fellow travelers were not spies or traitors but instead citizens with visions of radical political, economic, and social change”...

LOLOLOL - how about "willfully throw back into lying traitor's faces with a snarl"?

That "vision" works for me.