TITOISM ON TRIAL

...Even among the far left-wing unionists commonly associated with the CP...

...For here we have the only Communist Party of any major nation where the leadership is, at least momentarily, in the hands of what might be called a liberal wing...

...The question posed before the convention—whether Communism can be seriously modified from within, whether it can take a course independent of Moscow—will probably remain with us...

...The Party's old allies in the 1948 Wallace Progressive Party—whom it deserted—are looking for new homes and organizing a variety of "socialist clubs," "democratic socialist forums," and private discussion groups, all aimed at regroupment on the left...

...Assuming that there is no split—which all wings are trying to avoid—there is bound to be continued dissent in the American Communist Party for a long time...

...To most of us this may seem like the only normal, decent position to take—hardly worth blowing up into a big incident...

...Communist Party leaders resigning, and the rest continuing to play puppet to the Russian string...

...But there are two distinguishing characteristics of the present CP...

...But it is important to remember that this was the first time in history that the U.S...

...The situation in the Party is obviously one of flux...

...had there been explosion in Poland and Hungary, tae situation probably would have remained that way, with perhaps a few of the U.S...

...a tacit acceptance of Keynesian theories of 'progressive capitalism' and the 'managed economy...

...Communist $irty not only took a position before |foscow laid down the line, but a position against the Moscow line...

...crisis that are far different from those of the past: First, for the first time U.S...

...The Party's striking power, in short, is at an all-time low...

...These positions emphasize the cental theme of the liberal wing: a desire to erase the stigma of dependence on Moscow...

...disintegrated...

...No western Communist Party has as yet shown the same brand of independence from Moscow, or a similar willingness to reform...

...The Gates forces seem to be embarked on a genuine struggle...

...The liberals clearly supported Poland's Gomulka against Moscow, and they condemned Soviet intervention in Hungary...

...It is not an organized faction, to be sure, but it represents one of the three clashing tendencies in the Communist Party today...

...The roots of this change go back to the period before Stalin's death...

...In an article published in the October issue of Political Affairs he accuses the "rightist tendency" of "a sharply critical attitude, towards the Soviet Union...

...it has lost more than 600,-000 to 700,000 members in the past three decades), Foster appears as the savior of the Party from those who would drastically change it or liquidate it...

...It seems sometimes to be losing ground, and the rank and file, drawn to Gates and his associates earlier in the dispute, is slowly drifting away...

...Though the Gates group is predominant in the leadership it may have moved too fast for its base to follow...

...leaders, painfully conscious of the Party's isolation, began four or five years ago to question the fanatical thesis that the United States was headed towards fascism This false doctrine, they felt, had forced them into one futile sectarian venture after another and had result ed in total failure...

...have been brutally critical...

...Yet, the forces of the liberal wing are sufficiently strong in the United States to make it reasonably certain that the dispute will not end with the convention...

...The momentary ascendancy of "Titoism" in the American C.P...

...Their "Titoism" is not yet programmatic...

...liberals'" re-evaluation was the position they took on Poland and Hungary...

...and when he was asked at a public meeting in New York recently whether he would "favor free elections in Communist countries, including freedom for capitalist parties," he answered tersely: "Yes...

...Even in Britain the small CP...

...The Hungarian Communist Party, seeking a similar path, merely SIDNEY LENS, Chicago labor official, Is the author of several books, including "Left, Right, and Center," and, published last year, "A World in Revolution...

...But they have propounded a number of democratic viewpoints, both by way of implied criticism of Russia and their own Communist Party, which are hopeful...

...there has been a great exodus, accompanied by considerable recrimination...

...It is too early to tell whether the three great developments—the 20th Congress, Poland, and Hungary— will leave a lasting impact on U.S...

...Up to now all Communist zig-zags were attributed to changes in the so-called "objective" situation: the Communists themselves were infallible...

...Gates and his associates still consider Russia "socialist," but they concede that there are many roads to socialism and they feel that America must take a different and more democratic course than the Soviets took...

...His articles have appeared In many publications, Including Harper's, The Yale Review, and the Bulletin of the Harvard School of Business Administration...

...At this moment they control the national committee and the state committee in New York...

...Gates has stated that he favors the right to strike, freedom of speech and assembly, and other democratic rights within the Soviet orbit...

...Both admit to past "left sectarian" errors, but Foster in particular insists that there be no important changes in the monolithic Party structure...

...in France, though it has lost member-ship, refuses to disturb its basic ties with the mother country...

...Moreover, its relatively large periphery of fellow-travelers is dwindling, and its sympathizers are leaving in droves...

...American socialists and liberals, who will clearly not rush to embrace it, will be watching with profound interest...

...Non-Communist radicals have some reservations on what the liberal Communists said on these points, because they feel that their words were often of a weaseling character...

...It was kept from the public and even fronl most of the Party rank and file...

...How deeply...

...an abandonment of the concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat . . . and above all . . . the transformation of the Communist Party into some sort of non-Leninist 'Marxist' organization...

...For the non-Communist left, and the liberal world, this has a special significance...

...efforts towards a united socialist movement that would include all leftist fragments from Gandhian pacifists to democratic socialists, Christian socialists, and even Trotskyists...

...They are fighting two other wings in the Party, one led by William Z. Foster, whose views are similar to those of the French and Russian Communists, and Eugene Dennis, who stands somewhere in the middle...

...The CP., which, compared to other radical groups, was able to attract a relatively large core of followers and sympathizers, has lost its attractiveness...

...but there, too, the Communists had state power...

...may thus suffer a full reverse at the convention...

...There have been no restraints or expulsions despite the fact that some of the criticisms both of Russia and the American CP...

...Communists...

...Communist Party in its history...

...Its leaders are John Gates, editor of the Daily Worker, Max Weiss, Party educational director, Steve Nelson, Pennsylvania leader, and Fred Fine, executive secretary...

...clings shakily to the past, though many of its forces are leaving in disillusionment to join the Labor Party...

...This dispute, oF course, was largely a secret shared only by the Party hierarchy...

...Some of the CP...

...Hundreds of members have expressed their opinions on the current controversy for the Daily Worker and a special New York discussion bulletin called Party Voice...

...One of the top leaders, Joseph Starobin, a former editor of the Daily Worker, did quit...

...Yet this will be the most important convention of the U.S...

...Within its ranks and in its former periphery there are large forces which call for its liquidation...

...For it will raise the question, so vital to the abatement of the cold war and relaxation of world tension: Can the Communist movement be liberalized...

...Had there been no exposure of Stalin at the 20th Congress of the Soviet Un PER c. p. in Moscow...

...Second, this is the first time there has been anything resembling a democratic discussion in the Party, with the rank and file participating actively...

...Obviously this kind of program is suspect among non-Communist liberals who remember previous popular front and "unity" proposals on the part of the CP...

...Men who have been in the Party for decades are fearful that breaking with Moscow would plunge them into isolation from "world socialism," an isolation they are unprepared for...

...But the open disagreement with Moscow, it must be conceded, was an explosive departure from the past...

...Up to now the only Communist Parties that have loosened their ties with Moscow have been those which hold state power—Yugoslavia and Poland...

...The CP...

...Until such a goal is consummated the liberal Communists oppose the liquidation of the Communist Party, but like Djilas in Yugoslavia, they want the Party to permit democratic dissent at all times, even after the convention, and they want that dissent to be public, in the Communist press and in special discussion bulletins...

...a feeble Party discipline, patterned mostly after Social Democratic models . . . the abandonment of Marxism-Lenin-ism in theory and practice as Left-sectarian...

...The liberals, of course, want Hungary to remain what they call "socialist," but they agree that the decision is entirely up to the Hungarian people, even if their choice is capitalism...

...But Khrushchev's speech in February 1956 sharpened the issue greatly and tied the two ends together...

...By all normal standards this would be an event of little significance—in fact of considerable boredom...

...they have not elaborated any basic policies as yet...

...Perhaps the high point in the CP...

...The country outside the Soviet or-bit where so-called Titoism, or na tional Communism, is having its greatest test is here in the United States...

...The Italian Party has been shaken more, but it, too, has failed to cut itself adrift...

...To much of the hardened core which remains in the CP...

...Perhaps the full nature of the dispute can be gauged by Foster's bitter criticism of Gates...

...They hope to do so, after the convention, if they are victorious...

...Here, for a variety of reasons, there has been the greatest re-evaluation of the past, and a more independent assessment of the present...

...A liberal element emerged in the open, publishing critical views, moving step by step away from the rigid past...

...Those fears may well be justified...

...Perhaps only a new fissure in world Communism, such as a break between Peking and Moscow, or a victory for national Communism in Hungary or East Germany, can save it...

...But the current political thesis of the liberal wing cannot be dismissed as subterfuge, anymore than the Gomulka brand of national Communism can be written off as a trick...

...Party he proposes that it drop the term "Marxism-Leninism," change its name, and orient CP...

...Since its high point in the 1930s and 1940s the Party's ranks have steadily declined until today it claims barely 20,000 members, many of whom are inactive or in the process of dropping out...

...It violated," they said, "the essence of the Leninist concept of national self-determination because the call for the troops was not in accord with the wishes of the Hungarian people...

...It seems certain that American Titoism will develop new forms and new approaches different from those of Yugoslavia, Poland, or Hungary...

...For the U.S...

...Communists admit that they are changing their policy because they themselves were wrong in the past...