Part 15

Communist discipline, however, is not blind or without a deceitful purpose. Individuals should not be expelled impulsively but should be shown the error of their ways. Only when he is deemed “unimprovable” is a member to be ousted. For this reason offenders are often compelled to perform special “disciplinary chores” to “earn their way back,” to show through hard work, devotion, and acknowledging the supremacy of the Party that they should be readmitted to favor. In a Northern city, for example, an official in disfavor was placed in charge of arranging a mass meeting. He had to “prove” himself by doing the most menial tasks—running errands, selling tickets, recruiting ushers—he who used to be a keynoter himself. In most instances the more menial the task, the better. In Party eyes, a member who has gone through this self-abasement becomes a better comrade because of it. All thought of resistance is pounded out and he becomes a viable Party tool. He can be reprimanded, criticized, treated in a brutally unfair manner, yet he’ll keep on working. Lash him, and he’ll clench his teeth tighter. That’s the true revolutionary, in communist eyes.

The key is always acknowledging the supremacy of the Party. Hence, one of the fastest ways “back” is to acknowledge it quickly and completely.

In a Midwestern section an old-time organizer was accused of conduct detrimental to the Party. In a report read at an executive committee meeting he admitted his error. His conduct had been atrocious. Everything charged was true. He should have known better. He was ready to accept punishment. He even suggested his own removal as organizer. This attitude was exactly what the Party wanted. The state office did not relieve the organizer, though cautioning him that if his conduct were repeated, more severe action would be taken. The result: public (and mild) reprimand, not suspension or removal from office.

This explains why, in some instances, severe errors receive minor penalties, whereas small mistakes result in expulsion. The test is often not what a member did wrong but his attitude after the error was committed. If the member is willing to admit his mistake, real or fictitious, accept punishment gladly, and still maintain absolute faith in the leadership, he will probably soon be restored to favor. If he tries, however, to defend himself in the light of the evidence, he must be dealt with harshly. On one occasion a member involved in domestic difficulties replied “none of your business” to an inquiry by the Party. He wasn’t long in good standing. In Party language, he showed no “political capabilities,” meaning he was not amenable to discipline.

The Communist Party has a systematic campaign of creating hatred against the expelled member. It is not enough just to expel him; he must be vilified, blackened, and made to appear the scum of the earth.

These individuals become “spies,” “stool pigeons,” “rats,” “Trotskyites,” “renegades,” and “degenerates.” To communists, ordinary curse words have no meaning. They have a vocabulary all their own. Hence, “opportunist,” “deviationist,” and “anti-Party” are their choicest terms of defamation, of characterizing a person as being the meanest, foulest, most black-hearted derelict imaginable.

The higher in Party leadership the ousted member has risen, the greater must be the efforts to defame him. For example, Robert Wood, the Party’s onetime Eastern railroad organizer, was expelled with an explosive statement in the _Daily Worker_ on March 23, 1951, which said:

... various violations of Party discipline, for panic in the face of the fire of the class enemy, for acts endangering the Party, for issuing instructions in the name of the Party which were unauthorized and false, for acts of white chauvinism, and for conduct unbecoming and inconsistent with his post of Party leadership.

From the campaign of vilification there arises a fantastically bitter element of communist discipline and hatred. Every man, woman, and child in the membership must be mobilized against the accused. One Party manual, written by a top leader, recommended:

1. Photograph the spy, and print his picture in the _Daily Worker_ and in leaflets and stickers....

2. Organize systematic agitation among the workers where the spy was discovered.

3. Mobilize the children and women in the block in the part of town where the stool pigeon lives to make his life miserable; let them picket the store where his wife purchases groceries and other necessities; let the children in the street shout after him or after any member of his family that they are spies, rats, stool pigeons.

4. Chalk his home with the slogan: “So-and-So who lives here is a spy.” Let the children boycott his children or child; organize the children not to talk to his children, etc.

This represents the utter depths of depravity, hate, and inhuman venom to which the Party will descend in order to wreak vengeance on an expelled member.

An expellee must have no association with any member of the Party—even though that member be his own father, mother, wife, or husband. “Associating with the enemy” is the usual charge. This means the splitting of families, the tearing apart of friends. In one instance a woman member was expelled. Her husband was instructed to leave her and the children. When he refused, he was expelled. Another member who remained friendly was also ousted. It becomes a dizzy merry-go-round of personal spleen.

Once a communist is expelled and there is a likelihood that he might become a government witness, then the communists go to work to compile such information as is available to discourage the witness from testifying for fear of exposure or of being discredited in cross-examination by a communist lawyer. In one case a woman rose to a prominent position in the Party. When she later left the Party, the communists reportedly compiled a large file of her early indiscretions and weaknesses. Consequently, she has always been most reluctant to testify.

Communist discipline has another facet often difficult for noncommunists to understand. In some instances penalties, expulsions, and exposure are not enough; the culprit must pay with his life. Nothing less is satisfactory. The world has witnessed, both in Russia and in the satellites, highly publicized “purge” trials.

The “crime” was not opposition to the Party, lack of loyalty, or unwillingness to sacrifice everything for communism. Rather, these victims were renowned for their devotion, often having spent their entire lives in the movement. Suddenly, within days, their whole position was overturned. They were accused of trying to destroy the very thing they had labored so long to create. How does this make sense?

Communism is cannibalistic. Its servants are periodically offered as sacrifices on the communist altar. If something goes wrong, the trouble lies, in communist eyes, not in the policy decreed on high but in its human instruments. Whenever the “infallible science” of Marxism-Leninism has been incorrectly applied, disciplinary action must follow.

The purge is characteristic of the communist movement everywhere. Lenin was a firm advocate of purges and urged: “If we really succeed ... in purging our Party from top to bottom, ‘without respect for persons,’ the gains for the revolution will really be enormous.”

William Z. Foster, then Chairman of the Communist Party in the United States, said:

Communist parties, in line with Lenin’s teachings, also constantly strengthen the fiber of their organization by cleansing their ranks of elements that have become confused, corrupted, worn-out, or defeated in the hard and complex struggle to build the forces of socialism in the face of a still powerful and militant capitalism.

A stocky, mustached man stood before the convention of the Communist Political Association in 1945. A few days earlier he had been the undisputed leader of communists in the United States. He was now a “renegade,” an “enemy” of the foulest proportions! Earl Browder was fighting for his Party life.

Browder’s crime was not disloyalty to the Party but obedience to a policy that, in his opinion, was in the best interests of communism. Moscow thought otherwise. Actually, Browder was a pawn of communist tactics and had to pay the penalty.

He was stripped of Party authority, accused of every conceivable Party crime—by the very subordinates who had been his most loyal supporters. He was later expelled ignominiously, becoming a target of vilification for the entire membership.

Here was a “purge trial” grimly reminiscent, except for bodily punishment, of the infamous purges under Stalin. We need not wonder what Browder’s fate might have been if communism had possessed the power of the state.

In our review of life in the Party we have seen how all communist processes are pointed to molding the revolutionary. He is the man who must carry out communist programs such as mass agitation, fronts, and infiltration, to which we now turn. If anywhere he falters, from the Party’s point of view, the communist drive for mastery is weakened.

The ousted member in most instances frees himself from the communist thought-control machine. In him lies hope for regeneration. The deepest tragedy lies in the conscious and voluntary submission, day after day, of thousands of Party members. These fanatical devotees, giving their all for the Party, represent a real danger to our way of life.

_Part V_

THE COMMUNIST TROJAN HORSE IN ACTION

14.

_Communist Strategy and Tactics_

In preceding chapters I have briefly outlined the history and internal structure of the Communist Party, USA. Now we must consider the Party’s attack against noncommunist society in the United States.

The Communist Party, USA, is a weapon of attack, not only for the day of revolution but for _now_. To Party leaders each day is a day of preparation and dress rehearsal for the day when they hope to come to power. Noncommunist ranks must be infiltrated, penetrated, and subverted. The success of the communist mission depends on capturing the enemy’s stronghold from within.

To this end the Party employs a variety of _mass-agitation_ techniques. The communist is in the market places of America: in organizations, on street corners, even at your front door. He is trying to influence and control your thoughts. Mass agitation weakens the noncommunist enemy and builds Party structure.

Communists conceive of their attack against capitalist society in terms of warfare. They see the Party as the “vanguard,” leading the proletariat in battle against the bourgeoisie. Periods of offense and defense, attacks and retreats, skirmishes, even pitched battles and casualties are demanded. They realize that victory can be achieved only by force and violence.

This warlike character of communist policy is reflected in Party expressions such as “strongholds of reaction,” “mobilizing the masses,” “advanced detachments of the proletariat,” “storming the fortress of capitalism,” “seizing the initiative.” Basic battle plans are conceived in terms of _strategy_ and _tactics_.

The ultimate aim of the Communist Party is the establishment of a Soviet America. For more than a generation, never for a moment have American communists forgotten their allegiance to the Soviet Union. This is the ultimate strategy of the Communist Party, USA.

Party leaders realize, however, that they are a minority. They simply cannot march straight to victory. For that reason the approach (tactics) must be varied, flexible, and constantly subject to change.

To communists, strategy means the determining and carrying out of long-range goals (such as winning a war), whereas tactics are the working out of strategy on a day-to-day basis (winning particular battles and engagements). “Tactics,” Stalin said, “are a part of strategy, subordinate and subservient to it.”

To achieve the long-range goal, retreats and maneuvers sometimes are necessary. Is it not like climbing an unexplored mountain? asks Lenin. How can we “renounce beforehand the idea that at times we might have to go in zigzags, sometimes retracing our steps, sometimes abandoning the course once selected and trying various others?”

That explains the communist phrase, “strategic retreat.” It means: Don’t be afraid to take two steps backward today if it will help to achieve three steps forward tomorrow.

Keep the goal always in mind, teach the communists; remember that the enemy is superior in numbers, better armed, more experienced. Moreover, communists must be willing to endure hardships. Lenin urged: “... if you are not inclined to crawl in the mud on your belly, you are not a revolutionary but a chatterbox....” Fight hard and be disciplined, “carefully, attentively and skilfully taking advantage of every, even the smallest ‘fissure’ among the enemies....” Seize “every, even the smallest opportunity of gaining a mass ally, even though this ally be temporary, vacillating, unstable, unreliable and conditional.” And “Those who do not understand this fail to understand even a grain of Marxism....”

Use anything to advance the ultimate goal: offensive and defensive tactics, legal and illegal, long- and short-range policies. All are part of the over-all battle plan..

Don’t allow the Party to advance too rapidly. Stop, consolidate, maintain contact with the masses. “... an advance _without consolidating_ the positions already captured is an advance doomed to failure.” Likewise, never make a permanent truce with the enemy. Don’t be trapped by his lures, bribes, and promises. Cooperation or collaboration with noncommunists must never be more than a “tactic.” It must have as its actual long-range goal the weakening and discrediting of democracy and its eventual destruction. The task of the revolutionary leader is to gauge the comparative strength of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie and decide what particular tactics are then most likely to promote revolution.

Communists employ various tactics in devising methods to inject themselves into various phases of American life. Their obligation to defend the interests of the Soviet Union dictates their tactics in seeking to obstruct and undermine public confidence in our foreign policy. Thus, seizing upon the inherent desire of all Americans to reduce taxes, the _Daily Worker_ editorializes that foreign aid should be curtailed and billions should not be taken “out of our pockets for a new phony ‘emergency’.... The huge seventy-billion a year ‘defense’ budget is rushing America to inflation, and economic crisis.” Actually, communists would like to develop an economic crisis.

Then they urge the development of a peacetime economy by advocating trade between the United States and Russia because Russia would benefit. _Political Affairs_ thus urges, “The only remaining untapped market for U.S. goods is the Soviet Union, China and the Peoples’ Democracies, in which the threat of crises of overproduction has been removed forever....”

In seeking to curry favor with labor, communists employ tactics of calling for immediate demands such as higher wages, a shorter work week, increased vacations, and an abolition of the high cost of living. To that end a communist labor tactician calls for putting “... ideological differences aside in order to work together in behalf of a _single immediate objective_ or a _number of immediate objectives_ ... the unions must work together....”

The immediate demand tactics are also employed by the communists to find favor with Negroes by urging the abolition of “Jim Crow Laws,” “full representation,” and “the fight for Negro rights.” The controversy on integration has given the communists a field day.

They also have a program “... to stimulate broad united-front actions in the rural communities in defense of the economic interests of the farming masses”; “to weld youth unity”; and to “work still harder” for mothers.

A primary tactic of the Communist Party is to preserve the legal status of the Party. Thus, any organization which has the duty to investigate or expose communist activity is singled out for attack. For years the Party has campaigned against the House Committee on Un-American Activities, the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, and the Senate Investigating Committee. The Department of Justice and the FBI have not been spared, and we have come to judge our effectiveness by the intensity of communist attacks.

The Red Fascists have long followed the practice of making full use of democratic liberties: elections, lawful agitation and propaganda, and free speech, press, and assembly. Their basic premise: Reap every advantage possible. However, if it will help, don’t hesitate to use illegal methods, such as underground operations, terrorism, espionage, sabotage, lying, cheating. “We have never rejected terror on principle, nor can we do so. Terror is a form of military operation that may be usefully applied....” wrote Lenin. Morality is strictly a bourgeois device. To the communists everything that promotes the revolution is moral, legal, and beautiful.

Many people are confused by the Party’s abrupt twists and turns, such as denouncing the United States as an “imperialist” nation from 1939 to 1941, then overnight, after Russia’s entrance into the war, hailing America as a great ally. Communists often look like frightened rabbits chasing back and forth. But in reality these “changes in the Party line” are merely shifting tactics, all designed to promote the ultimate goal of world revolution. They are not changes in heart.

The Communist Party, USA, has been and is engaged in an all-out war against American freedom. Its tactics of confusion, retreat, advance, infiltration, and hypocrisy are in full play. The attack is both legal and illegal, offensive and defensive, open and concealed.

Above the surface a gigantic propaganda and agitation campaign is in progress, a campaign that depends for success upon the support of noncommunists. Basic communist strategy dictates that noncommunist hands, knowingly or unknowingly, under communist guidance, must further the influence of the communist world.

To understand communist strategy and tactics, as designed to destroy American democracy, we must first observe _above-ground_ communist operations: mass-agitation campaigns, infiltration techniques, and Party fronts; then in Part VI we will consider the _underground_ organization.

15.

_Mass Agitation_

As stated in Chapter 10, the Party’s attack is geared to the wide variety of American life. Communism has something to sell to everybody. And, following this principle, it is the function of mass agitation to exploit all the grievances, hopes, aspirations, prejudices, fears, and ideals of all the special groups that make up our society, social, religious, economic, racial, political. Stir them up. Set one against the other. Divide and conquer. That’s the way to soften up a democracy.

Here is the advice of a top leader giving instruction on how to spread the Party’s influence:

Study your friends. See what they spontaneously talk about. What problems interest them?

—is he an unemployed worker, skilled in his craft but without work?;

—a storekeeper? Maybe business isn’t so good;

—a trade-union man or a dairy farmer? What are their problems?;

—a young man just out of school? Looking for a job?;

—a member of a minority group?;

—a young mother worrying about sending her child to kindergarten?

“... unless each one of us grasps the meaning of this individual approach to every one of our friends and acquaintances, we are in danger” of being ineffective.

Agitation must be carried on in specialized fields: among women, among youth, among veterans, among racial and nationality groups, farmers, trade unions. That’s the responsibility of the Party commissions.

Consider youth, a prime target of communist attack. Communists start out with this major premise: American imperialism aims to create a corrupt, completely militarized youth—a “gagged,” “scared” generation. This theme is expounded by word of mouth, in forums, in literature, in cartoons, hoping to exploit the lofty dreams of youth.

The approach always has two sides: (1) _the deceptive line designed for public consumption_, and (2) _the real Party line designed to advance communism_. Consider this _deceptive line_ for youth:

1. Increase trade with all countries, including the communist bloc, to provide “hundreds of thousands of new jobs for young people.”

2. Outlaw all mass destruction weapons (atomic bomb).

3. Promote universal disarmament and peace.

4. Reduce military expenditures and repeal the draft.

5. Repeal all “repressive legislation” and “restore the Bill of Rights.”

6. “Restore full academic freedom for students and faculties.”

7. Promote world-wide “youth friendship for peace and democracy,” drop all bars to the travel of youth.

8. Appropriate more money for schools, community centers, etc.

That is the line designed for public consumption. Sounds acceptable, doesn’t it? But the communists are not genuinely interested in improving the status of American youth.

For window-dressing, they always support items desired by most of the people: lower taxes, higher wages, better housing, old-age security, higher farm income. These are thoroughly legitimate interests. To support these aims, and many others, is not to be a communist. The Party is simply attempting to exploit such interests for its own selfish aims They become Party “talking points.”

Behind this front, as in the call for world-wide youth friendship, more education, academic freedom, and so on, lurks the ulterior motive, the real Party line. The attractive “come along” points are merely bait. Look closely to see how the adoption of these demands, _as conceived by the Party_, would distort their true meanings and aid the communist cause:

“_Restore the Bill of Rights_,” in communist language, means eliminating of legal opposition to communism, stopping all prosecution of communists, and granting amnesty to those presently in jail. “_Repeal the draft law_” and “_peace_” mean curtailing our national defense effort and allowing Russia to become militarily stronger than the United States. “_Increase trade with the Soviet Bloc_” means selling materials that could be used by the communist nations for armaments. “_Restore academic freedom_” means to communists that we should permit the official teaching of communist doctrine in all schools and that we should allow communists to infiltrate teaching staffs. If the communists had their way, America would be rendered helpless to protect herself. Incidentally, notice the communist use of the word “restore,” indicating that freedom is already gone and that the Party stands for its return.

Now substitute “veterans” for “youth.” The approach is the same: Increased trade with all countries, including the communist bloc, would mean thousands of new jobs for _veterans_. “Restore” academic freedom so _veterans_ can think as they want. Promote world-wide _veteran_ friendship. Drop all bars to the travel of _veterans_. Also, it is good propaganda policy to add a few “come along” points appealing specifically to veterans. The technique continues: substitute “women,” “trade union members,” “nationality groups,” etc.

The propaganda platform contains a combination of immediate “come along” demands, designed for deceptive and specialized appeal, and basic policy aimed to advance the communist cause.

Thus the Party, through its specialized and immediate demands, is able to gain entree into various groups and create favorable working conditions for future revolutionary action. Very quickly, for example:

—a veterans’ meeting endorses “peace.”

—a nationality festival passes a resolution for “peace.”

—a youth affair favors “peace.”