Congratulations on the Reconstitution of the Communist Party of the United States of America and the Elimination of Earl Browder's Capitulationist Line
#PUBLICATION NOTE
This edition of Congratulations on the Reconstitution of the Communist Party of the United States of America and the Elimination of Earl Browder's Capitulationist Line has been prepared and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the following editions:
- Telegram to Comrade William Z. Foster, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 3, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.
- Comrade Mao Zedong's Congratulatory Telegram to the Communist Party USA on Its Overcoming Capitulationism and Re-establishing the Communist Party, in Mao's Road to Power, First English Edition, Vol. 8, Routledge, New York and London, 2015.
#INTRODUCTION NOTE
This is a telegram from Comrade Mao Zedong in Yan'an, Shaanxi, China to Comrade William Z. Foster in the United States dated the 29th of July, 1945. It was first published by the New China News Agency on the 30th of July, 1945.
The telegram is a criticism of the revisionism and Right-wing liquidationism of Earl Browder. Browder was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the United States of America from 1930 to '44. During the Second World War, the Right-wing ideas in the Communist Party of the United States, of which Browder was the chief exponent, developed into an anti-Marxist, revisionist-capitulationist line. From December 1943 onward, Browder advocated this line in a number of speeches and articles, and in April 1944, he published Tehran as his Right-opportunist programme. Revising the fundamental Leninist thesis that imperialism is monopolistic, decaying, and moribund capitalism, and denying the imperialist nature of US capitalism, he declared that US capitalism «retains some of the characteristics of a young capitalism» (Browder's italics) and that there was a «common interest» between the proletariat and the big bourgeoisie in the United States. Thus he pleaded for the safeguarding of the system of monopolist trusts and dreamed about saving US capitalism from inevitable crises by means of class conciliation. Basing himself on this absurd appraisal of US capitalism and following a capitulationist line of class collaboration with monopoly capital, Browder in May 1944 presided over the dissolution of the Communist Party of the United States, the political party of the proletariat in the United States, and formed a non-party organization, the Communist Political Association. From the very beginning, Browder's wrong line met with opposition from many members of the Communist Party of the United States, with Comrades William Z. Foster and Harry Haywood at their head. Under their leadership, the Communist Political Association in June 1945 passed a resolution denouncing Browder's line. In July, the Association held an Extraordinary National Convention and decided on the thorough liquidation of this line and the reconstitution of the Communist Party of the United States. Browder was expelled from the Party in February 1946 because he persisted in his standpoint, which was a betrayal of the proletariat, and because he openly supported the imperialist policy of the Truman Administration and engaged in factional activities against the Party.
#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!
#CONGRATULATIONS ON THE RECONSTITUTION OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE ELIMINATION OF EARL BROWDER'S CAPITULATIONIST LINE
#TELEGRAM TO WILLIAM Z. FOSTER
#Mao Zedong
#29th of April, 1945
#★
#To Comrade William Z. Foster and the National Committee of the Communist Party of the United States of America
We are glad to learn that the special convention of the Communist Political Association of the United States has resolved to repudiate Browder's revisionist-capitulationist line, has reestablished Marxist leadership, and has reconstituted the Communist Party of the United States. We hereby extend to you our warm congratulations on this great victory of the working class and the Marxist movement in the United States. In his past activity, Browder has rendered many services to the struggle of the Chinese people, which deserve out gratitude. However, Browder's whole revisionist-capitulationist line (which is fully expressed in his book, Tehran) in essence reflects the influence of reactionary US capitalist groups on the US labour movement. These groups are now doing their utmost to extend their influence in China, too; they are supporting the erroneous policy of the reactionary clique inside the Nationalist Party of China, a policy which is against the interests of the nation, the people, and democracy, and are thereby confronting the Chinese people with the grave danger of civil war and jeopardizing the interests of the peoples of our two great countries, China and the United States. Beyond all doubt, the victory of the US working class and its vanguard, the Communist Party of the United States, over Browder's revisionist-capitulationist line will contribute signally to the great cause in which the Chinese and American peoples are engaged, the cause of carrying on the war against Japan and of building a peaceful and democratic world after the war.