William Z. Foster Quotes
Today, our party is small and the parties of the capitalists are large and strong, but the day will surely come when the Communist Party will be the only party in the United States.
William Z. Foster, 1881-1961, Chairman, American Communist Party, Communist Candidate for President of the United States, Presidential Candidacy Acceptance Speech, 1928, Quoted in Howe, The American Communist Party: A Critical History, 1957
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This to some is a surprising statement for a Marxist, but Marxists have a wide range of political opinions just like Republicans, Christians, and Factor Owners do.
Although the Nazis railed against the Communists & Socialists, the potential opposition they feared the most was the middle class. See also {582966}.
So often in America, citizens and government officials have made alliances or joined organizations under the theory that “the enemy of my enemy must be my friend.” It has almost always been a mistake ranging from joining the Communist Party in the 1930s to supporting the dictators or the Middle East, Asia, and South America. In the 1930s Fascism was growing and already on the march and neither America nor England—the leading democracies were not doing anything to combat the threat. America was emerging from the Great Depression, had a string Isolationist movement, and a small but influential group of Fascists and Hitler enthusiasts. Also, no one outside of Russia knew about the Stalin atrocities.
This line was a takeoff on the famous quotation of Karl Marx: {624064}.
Orthodox communist thinking assumed that the Blacks would “fall into the communist camp,” because of the legal support for racism and discrimination of the majority of America. While a few did, as Allen warned most would not as much of the communist doctrine was antithetical to Black cultural values. Religion is probably the best example. Allen was prescient.
Commenting on political parties in Cuba:
Comintern was upset by the American Socialist Party because the party had rejected the 21 Conditions for Affiliation and withdrew their intent to join the Third International. To Comintern, the Socialist Party was a party of “bourgeois socialism.”
In 1927 the Russian Communist Party changed its position regarding the world union movement. Prior to that the Communists would not organize unions competing with already existing trade unions. Foster was one of the communist leaders who was the strongest advocate of this solidarity of the working class. However, after years of preaching one thing, he reversed himself. This type of adherence to party discipline led to him getting a derogatory nickname. See {592421}.
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.
