they are anti-communist, but because they consider themselves better communists. This also holds true for the Trotskyites and Maoists, who are generally considered to be parts of the "Old Left." Despite their frequently acrimonious differences with the Communist Party, the other organizations belonging to "The Movement" play a vital role in the Communist scheme of things. When the Bolsheviks were bidding for power in Russia, they entered into a temporary alliance with the Left Social Revolutionaries (Essairs) and the Anarchists, who, although terrorist organizations, had between them far greater popular support than their communist partners. Like the Weathermen and the Black Panthers in the United States today, the "Essairs" and the Anarchists were able to generate a good deal of mischief. But it was the Bolsheviks who were the ultimate beneficiaries of their mischief, because only they possessed a science of revolution and a conspiratorial apparatus to go with it. Once the Bolsheviks, with the help of their allies, had overthrown the Kerensky government, they turned on both the Essairs and the Anarchists and suppressed them mercilessly. Against this background, it is a fairly safe prediction that, if there ever is a leftist counter-revolution in America, it would not be the SDS or the Black Panther Party that comes to power, but the Communist Party. And if this should ever happen, it is more than probable that those quasi-communist and non-communist leftists who support the Communist Party in seizing power would share the same fate as the Essairs and the Anarchists in Russia. Meanwhile, the role which these other leftist organizations play in the communist scheme of things, plus their commitment to violence, plus the fact that they describe themselves as Marxist-Leninist or as communist (with a small "c"), makes their inclusion in this study not only proper but essential to a comprehensive understanding of the communist assault on freedom. THE COMMUNIST PROGRAM Stripped of its semantic camouflage, the communist program for America, as is amply apparent from this compendium, boils down to the following essential points: (1) They seek to isolate America, to destroy our alliances, and to drive a wedge between us and our most important friends, West Germany and Japan in particular. (2) They seek to disarm America, calling for a 75 per cent reduction in the military budget, the abstention from new military technologies, the curtailment of military research, the abolition of ROTC, the liquidation of the CIA. (3) They seek to divide America by exploiting and exacerbating racial differences and minority grievances. Many of the grievances they seek to exploit are legitimate, and call for corrective action. But that the communists are not interested in corrective action is apparent from their violent attacks on moderate leaders of our major ethnic minorities. Through the so-called "Black Liberation Movement", the "Chicano Liberation Movement", the "Indian Liberation Movement", they fan the flames of racial differences and seek to utilize the ethnic minorities as instruments of revolution. (The Bolsheviks also utilized the national minorities in the Russian empire as instruments of revolution. They promised them "freedom of self determination”—a slogan the CPUSA frequently uses with reference to American ethnic minorities. Once the revolution was firmly established, they not only forgot all about the right of self-determination, but imposed on their national minorities a rigidly centralized regime which has made the Soviet Union a veritable prisonhouse of nations.) (4) They seek to further divide America along class lines and to undermine our economy by encouraging the most exorbitant demands by trade unions in which they have influence; by initiating wildcat strikes; and by an unremitting attack on the authority of responsible trade union leaders, mounted through movements like the National Committee for Trade Union Action and Democracy, Miners for Democracy, and the National Rank and File Action Conference. (5) They seek to undermine our entire structure of laws and law enforcement-our courts, our grand jury system, the FBI and the local police. Among other things, they call for community control of the Police, for "Peoples' Tribunals", and for Citizens Committees of Inquiry. (6) They seek to further weaken the authority of government and to give their immediate followers and allied extremists access to power, by agitating for community control of the schools, social centers, day care centers, etc. (7) They seek to neutralize and destroy the two-party system by encouraging centrifugal tendencies within both parties. (8) Operating primarily through the agency of Castro Cuba, the Tricontinental Organization, and the Venceremos Brigade, the world communist movement seeks to sow chaos in America by encouraging, training and supporting the various American extremist organizations which are committed to a policy of urban terrorism, including the assassination of policemen and the bombing of public buildings. (The CPUSA misses no opportunity to proclaim its own opposition to terrorist methods. But it is not "guilt by association" to suggest that their enthusiastic support for the Castro government, the Tricontinental Organization and the Venceremos Brigade, makes them morally involved in the terrorist activities sponsored by their vaunted allies.) (9) By attacking on all of these fronts simultaneously, the CPUSÁ and the world communist movement hope to bring about the destruction of "American imperialism," which they have proclaimed the "No. 1 enemy of mankind" for the obvious reason that only American power stands between them and their goal of world-wide dominion. A WORD OF CAUTION In the selected statements which appear in this edition an effort will be made to present the line of the CPUSA and of the world communist movement in a balanced manner. Where there is an international orchestration of policy, the compendium will reflect this by quoting from various communist sources. Where there are differences between the several sectors of the communist movement, these, too, will be reflected by quoting from a variety of sources. In establishing the major outlines of communist policy in terms of their own statements, it is not our intention to suggest any syllogystic inference on any point-indeed, we would specifically warn against drawing such inferences. It would be the height of inanity, for example, to suggest that because the communists call for more day care centers for the children of working mothers, everyone who favors more day care centers is a Communist; or that because the Communists call for immediate withdrawal from Vietnam, everyone who wants to see America out of Vietnam forthwith is a Communist; or that because the Communists play a prominent role in several of the more extreme Chicano organizations, every person who tries to do something to improve the lot of our Chicano citizens is either a party member or a dupe. Some of the social grievances conjured up by the Communists are fraudulent or very much exaggerated. But there are many grievances which are all too tragically real-and the fact that the Communists exploit these grievances for their own political purposes does not make them any less real. In "Movement and Revolution," Peter Berger points out that Communists and other revolutionaries feed upon genuine issues, but that "in the fully radicalized circles, 'issues' are propaganda devices, not taken seriously in themselves, around which support can be built and people manipulated." It is our hope that all conscientious students of world affairs and national security-no matter what their views on China, Vietnam or other contentious issues-will find this compendium a useful reference. JAMES O. EASTLAND. A WORD ABOUT SOURCES AND ORGANIZATION The great majority of the items quoted in this publication are taken from Communist broadcasts, or from newspapers, periodicals, and writings, published by the Communist movement and by the various other movements of the old left and new left which are committed to the violent destruction of free institutions. In certain instances, however, items from the free world press have been quoted, where these items deal with the kind of policy statement which is the subject of this compendium, or where they throw a special light on Communist policy. Most of the selections are from current or recent statements. However, statements of greater vintage are sometimes quoted for the purpose of illustrating continuity of policy. The statements are selected broadly from the world Communist press and other revolutionary sources, so that they will reflect orchestration where orchestration exists, and will also reflect the differences within the Communist world, as well as the differences between the Communists and other sectors of "the movement." This does not pretend to be an encylopedic work. But by providing the reader with a sampling of statements on a variety of issues and situations, domestic and international, it should be of assistance in comprehending the complex mosaic of the assualt on freedom. In certain situations there have been significant developments since the date of the final items incorporated in this compendium. But there had to be a cutoff date somewhere in order to get the study into final galley proof-and after this there was the inevitable delay involved in putting the study through page-proof, indexing and final printing. In a second part, to be published at a future date, we hope to broaden and update the compendium on which we have here embarked. (9) |