William Z. Foster Quotes


Developing fascism in the United States has a main foundation in the leadership of the AFL [American Federation of Labor].


Context

To this day, historians debate whether Foster actually believed that statement or just used it as a ploy to discredit the AFL and other labor groups who the communists then considered their foes.


Citations

William Z. Foster, 1881-1961, Chairman, American Communist Party, Communist Candidate for President of the United States, 1929, Quoted in Irving Howe, The American Communist Party: A Critical History, 1957

Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations

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Ironically, the fascist organizations that did form in America did just that. The American Firsters claimed patriotism motivated them to support Hitler and Father Coughlin and his fascist movement was his own version of Christianity—one which the Roman Catholic Church was so opposed to that they prohibited him from appearing on the radio with his virulent preaching. He was one of several who “hijacked” American Christianity not unlike the way radical Muslims would later in the century hijack Islam.


William Z. Foster
William Z. Foster
  • Born: February 25, 1881
  • Died: September 1, 1961
  • Nationality:
  • Profession: Trade Union Leader

William Z. Foster was a radical American labor organizer and Communist politician, whose career included serving as General Secretary of the Communist Party USA from 1945 to 1957. He was previously a member of the Socialist Party of America and the Industrial Workers of the World, leading the drive to organize the packinghouse industry during World War I and the steel strike of 1919.