it's heating up

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Thu Oct 26 11:26:03 PDT 2000


Max Sawicky wrote:


> My vote is the German CP in the 1920's, and their
> 'after Hitler, us' posture.

A Spanish professor at ISU used to come into my office and tell me what I, as a Marxist, had to think. I'd growl good-naturedly for awhile, but when he got to telling me that I had to support a fascist takeover in America the conversation always ended at that point with a "Get the fuck out of my office, Gordon." :-)

I actually don't know the exact history of the German CP in the '20s -- but even if they made this error (either on their own or at the Comintern's orders), it is worth pointing out that in the 20s no one at all had any idea just how bad Hitler would be.


> Could one say that the most disastrous political decision in all of 20th
> century u.s.a. was the decision of the CP in 1936 to support Roosevelt?
>
> Probably a bit exaggerated -- but worth a thought.
>
> Carrol

Landon wasn't Hitler! He wasn't even Mussolini. And on the whole the New Deal (or what was really *new* about it) tended to stagnate or retreat (WPA became PWA) after 1936.

Carrol



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