Earl Browder

Earl Russell Browder (born May 20, 1891 in Wichita , Kansas , † June 27, 1973 in Princeton , New Jersey ) was an American socialist, presidential candidate and leader of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA).

Life

Early years

Browder joined the Socialist Party of America when he was 15 . During the First World War , he spoke out against American participation in what he believed to be an imperialist war. When the US entered the war in 1917, Browder and other members of the party were arrested. Because Browder and the others protested the military draft, they were labeled traitors under the newly enacted Espionage Act . Released after brief detention, Browder continued to agitate against the war and was arrested again in 1919.

At this point the left wing of the Socialist Party split off and again split into two parts, the Communist Party of America and the Communist Labor Party . In 1921 these parties came to an agreement, and Browder became a party member and editor of their newspaper, the Labor Herald .

In 1928, Browder and his girlfriend Kitty Harris traveled to China. According to Walter G. Kriwitzki , on behalf of the Comintern and the OGPU . In Shanghai they worked for the Pan Pacific Trade Union Secretariat, part of the international communist movement ( Comintern ) that tried to organize unions in China. In 1929, Browder and Harris returned to the United States. According to Kriwitzki, Kitty Harris was later used for tasks of the Soviet secret service.

The height of US communism

The following year, Browder became general secretary of the Communist Party, its chairman in 1932, after William Z. Foster suffered a heart attack . Browder was the Communist candidate in the presidential election in 1936, at the height of the Great Economic Crisis . He only got 80,195 votes. Four years later he tried again to apply for the office. However, a court banned Browder from campaigning across the country. This time he received 46,251 votes.

In 1939, after the defeat of Whittaker Chambers , who later became a key figure in the Alger Hiss case , Browder named Rudy Baker head of the party's secret apparatus. In 1940, Browder was convicted again for violating general passport laws. Fourteen months later, the US government fired him when the US entered World War II and allied with the USSR . Browder advocated the Popular Front tactic, while the party followed Moscow's guidelines. Accordingly, the party approved President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal and called for the reform program to be disseminated.

In 1944, Browder declared that communism and capitalism could coexist peacefully. The Communist Party transformed into the "Communist Political Association"; she joined the Democratic Party as a left faction . With the abrupt end of the grand coalition of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War, the international communist movement attacked "browderism". In 1945 Jacques Duclos , a leader of the French Communist Party , published an article denouncing Browder's policies. Since the Comintern had been disbanded during the war, Moscow used the "Duclos Letter" to explain its policy. William Z. Foster, Browder's predecessor and a staunch Stalinist , mobilized opposition to Browder within the party. Soon Foster replaced Browder as the party's chairman; Eugene Dennis became General Secretary. The following year, Browder was expelled from the party excluded .

Browder continued to advocate communist politics. He criticized the domination of the Communist Party by the USSR. Browder wrote, “The American communists had earlier been seen as advocates of domestic reform. But when the communists abandoned the real reform in order to engage in the cause of a Soviet Union hostile to America and foretold the collapse of America, the party lost all influence. Now it has just become an American swear word ”.

McCarthyism

In April 1950, Browder received a summons from the US Congress to testify against members of the party before the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee . Browder declined to answer questions about his former comrades. Accused by Congress of "disregarding Congress", Browder was acquitted in court.

Browder's last public appearance was in a debate with Max Shachtman, a Trotskyist who had also been expelled from the party for his " dissent ". The two men discussed socialism . Browder defended the Soviet Union and Stalinism , and Shachtman played the part of the prosecutor. Shachtman noted that Stalin had killed many communist leaders. Shachtman pointed to Browder: "It is only thanks to a historical coincidence that a living person stands before me".

The last few years

After the 20th Communist Party Congress and the beginning of de-Stalinization, Browder's friends tried to convince the party to accept him again. This effort failed and Browder remained outside the party until his death.

After the fall of the Soviet Union , the Russian government made KGB files available to the West and, as expected, it was confirmed that Browder had been a liaison between the KGB and the American Communist Party. His name also appeared in the VENONA project files.

family

Browder left three sons, Felix , William, and Andrew , who all became mathematicians.

His sister Margaret received intelligence training in Moscow and was used by Soviet military intelligence in Europe. According to Kriwitzki, she was also under his command at times.

literature

• Earl Browder Communiste Candidate for President of the United States . New York City 1936 (with short biography).

Web links

• Literature by and about Earl Browder in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Earl Browder in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Walter Krivitsky: In Stalin's Secret Service. "Memoirs of the first soviet master spy to defect." , Enigma Books, 2000.