Young Communists Grow Older |
CounterPunch Exclusives
CounterPunch Exclusives
Young Communists Grow Older
Image by Hennie Stander.
Red Lives: Our Years in the US Communist Party Volume One, Coming of Age in the Communist and Labor Movements. Edited by Jay Shaffner, Paul Friedman, Cindy Hawes, Geoffrey Jacques, Timothy Johnson, Carol Pittman, Donna Ristorucci, Daniel Rosenberg, Jackie Saindon, and others, with an Introduction by Robin D.G. Kelley. New York: Punctum Press, 2026. 406pp, $27.00 (download free).
If the Popular Front of the 1930s Wartime and the alliance of the US with Russia marked the high point of Communist activity and influence in the US and in much of the rest of the world, the Cold War and the revelations of Russia under Stalin’s rule seemed likely to finish off the comparatively weak CPUSA. But not quite. Pockets of highly skilled veterans and determined loyalists remained, even when alienated by a split in 1957 that left hard-liner Gus Hall in charge on his return from prison two years later. These hardy survivors would be found, especially, in support movements for peace and racial equity. They were admired locally in many places. for their expertise and determination. They continued to play a valuable leadership role in a handful of unions, more quietly.
From at least the early 1960s onward, as the Cold War eased and the Cuban Revolution triumphed, scatterings of young people on campuses and elsewhere found themselves close to the CP and the happier parts of its complicated history.
Who were they, these several thousand who mostly did not join the New Left? Many carried on the work of the parents, even when dad, mom or grandparents had been forced into silence by the persecution of the FBI. More than a few set themselves to blue-collar life around workplaces and remained there, something unusual for a generation that, by the thousands, left the campus determined to organize, but found themselves unable to sustain the effort.
Here is one part of the special status for contributors to this volume: the Popular Front mode of pushing liberalism to the Left, within the Democratic Party. This remained the singular way forward when more dramatic and overtly radical efforts failed. No matter how bad the leadership or politically reactionary the Democrats at any level, the vision of “peace and freedom” continued to have a lot to offer. The Global South struggle, meanwhile, held hope for a different, better world. Something that looked like a potential successor to the Popular Front revived hopes. Young Communists, whatever their failings, were on the job.
Red Lives, Volume One is the first by activists who grew up, so to........