Interesting thesis. The largest block to the development of class consciousness of the American proletariat in the post WWII period was expansion of the system and what most American Marxist call the "material bribery of the working class." The CPUSA was virtually destroyed during the 1950's "with hunts" and the halting of the trade union movement at the Mason Dixon line meant the Negro People Movement of that era evolved without a strong Southern labor base. The COI spent over $2 million dollars on "operation Dixie" and sent more than 200 organizers into 12 states. Operation Dixie was halted in 1953. 15% of the textile workers had been organized. There would not be another major attempt to unionize Southern textile workers until 1963 and the efforts at JP Stevens would take another 17 years winning in 1980.
The largest block to organizing the workers and developing their class consciousness was not the CPUSA but material conditions, although this is not to say the CPUSA had not sold out to capital. There are other aspects to the CPUSA like Dr. James Jackson's liquidation of the revolutionary - Leninist conception, of the national-colonial question; the isolation of Harry Haywood and Pettis Perry and the MOMENTARY blotting out of Claudia Jones and James Allen writing on this issue. The last gasp of a revolutionary position on the Negro question was Gus Hall "Marxism and Negro Liberation." The copy in my hand is from 1954. Hall later repudiated this writing. Your insights are welcomed but I understand the history very different. The literature I have complied tells a different story. Waistline In a message dated 1/20/2011 9:15:05 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, _intangibles@aphenomenal.com_ (mailto:intangib...@aphenomenal.com) writes: What direction the U.S. working class takes at this moment is so important to the future of the world revolutionary movement because it possesses among its ranks the most advanced experience of modern conditions of capitalist production. But it desperately needs revolutionary theory and the last more than a century of American pragmatic philosophy in all fields has blocked that theoretical advance. The largest piece of that block was actually put in place by Browder and his wrecking of the Party in his day. _______________________________________________ Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list Marxist-Leninist-List@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxist-leninist-list
