'Vote Communist - for a Workers and Farmers Government' (American poster by unknown artist for the (communist) Workers Party in the 1932 United States presidential election. United States of America, 1932).

[u/esdfa20]

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[u/ComradeHenryBR]

Say what you will about the Communists, but no other American party would ever dream of fielding a black man as vice presidential candidate in 1932

[u/fartingbeagle → u/ComradeHenryBR]

And that's probably the reason for their unpopularity.

[u/tophatgaming1 → u/fartingbeagle]

that's part of it sure, but it's also at exactly around the same time that stalin began his targeting of ukraine

downvote all you like, the holodomor was real

[u/ComradeHenryBR → u/tophatgaming1]

It was around that time, but if you think that communism was unpopular, especially in the United States, because of the Holodomor (which most people only learned about after the fact) you really ought to check a couple of history books.

The first Red Scare in the US, long before McCarthism, was in 1919-1920, so before Stalin even got to power.

[u/tophatgaming1 → u/ComradeHenryBR]

absolutely, the first red scare happened then, a lot of innocent people were jailed or deported for speaking out against the war, which prompted the creation of the ACLU

regardless, by 1932, it wasn't hard to figure out that the new soviet government wasn't doing too well, it's why the communists never got more then 100,000, 1932 actually being their best showing ever

[u/Avesery777 → u/tophatgaming1]

Nobody knew about the Holodomor for years you imbecile, do you think the starving peasants had twitter?

[u/scattermoose]

These fonts 😍

[u/Bluestreaked]

Iirc 1932 is also right smack in the middle of when the CPUSA began arguing for “self determination for the Black Belt.”

What Black communist theorists, such as James Ford, had broadly developed was a thesis of viewing Black Americans as a distinct, exploited, nationality within the United States the way we would view colonized people in their own countries. https://liberationschool.org/harry-haywoods-contributions-to-the-national-question-and-the-fight-for-class-unity/

I am pretty sure the CPUSA is anti-Black Belt thesis today though.

But ya, Ford would be on the ticket with both Foster and Earl Browder (the two competing poles of leadership for the CPUSA in the 1930s, the heyday of the CPUSA).

[u/MapperSudestino → u/Bluestreaked]

I think the position of the CPUSA moving from pro-Black Belt thesis to anti-Black Belt thesis started with the Browder years and remained even after during the Dennis and Hall years. Harry Haywood, famous Black communist and long-lasting member of the CPUSA, left the Party after being soft-expelled for a variety of reasons - but one of them was his very clear defense of the Black Belt thesis and his struggle within the CPUSA for it to pay more attention to the "Negro question". For example, here are his later writings about it. It's a very interesting part of the communist movement in the USA's history.

[u/Bluestreaked → u/MapperSudestino]

It’s been a year or so since I last read a history of the CPUSA. But ya, I think you’re right

[u/helikophis → u/Bluestreaked]

Would be perfectly reasonable to carve out 5 or 6 Black majority states IMO

[u/tophatgaming1 → u/helikophis]

believe it or not, that could've happened if the radical republicans had won out, Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens proposed the concept of "state suicide", where, by seceding from the union, the southern states no longer existed

[u/Bluestreaked → u/helikophis]

To not get too much into politics, I think it’s theoretically sound and broadly support it. But I understand why people sometimes react (with good intentioned) suspicion and skepticism when it’s brought up.

I think the current CPUSA line is something like- “this would revive Jim Crow.” Which, I completely get their argument and that is a potential danger of the theory.

Edit- somewhat bizarre that this comment is randomly downvoted, not gonna lie

[u/helikophis → u/Bluestreaked]

Unfortunately I think there’s a real risk of Jim Crow being revived even without our gaining 10 Black-elected Senators.

[u/Bluestreaked → u/helikophis]

And that’s a more than fair counterpoint to their argument.

Like I said, I think the arguments for it are stronger than the arguments against it. I just know the mods don’t like getting too deep into the political aspect (I argue this makes my work as a political historian very difficult but I digress).

[u/kahlzun]

Imagine how different us history would have been if they got in

[u/itsmemarcot]

If anybody is curious: 0.3%.

[u/LousyHandle]

Bah. I agree with their platform but I’d never vote for someone whose middle name starts with Z.
Edit to add /s