Communist front

A Communist front in the United States is an organization alleged to be a front organization under the effective control of the Communist International, the Communist Party USA, or other totalitarian Marxist organization. Called "mass organizations" by the Communists themselves, these groups were prevalent from the 1920s through the 1950s, with their use accelerating during the so-called Popular Front period of the 1930s. American Peace Mobilization, a front group active before the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II as an advocate of peace but which rapidly switched positions after Operation Barbarossa and transmogrified itself into a patriotic organization supporting the war, American Peoples Mobilization, is a transparent example. The term has also been used to refer to organizations not originally communist-controlled which after a time became so, such as the American Student Union. During the cold war the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) and the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS) investigated and listed a number of suspected organizations.

In 1955, the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee published a list of what it described as the 82 most active and typical sponsors of communist fronts in the United States; some of those named had literally dozens of affiliations with groups that had either been cited as Communist fronts or had been labelled "subversive" by either the subcommittee or the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

Schrecker (2002) says that anti-Communists leaders believed that the Party used front groups to attract "fellow travelers," who were "unsuspecting liberals and well-meaning dupes drawn into the Communist orbit without realizing that the party was using them for its own purposes." Schrecker says that on the contrary, "most of these people knowingly collaborated with the party, believing it to be the most effective ally they could find."

International

As Service (2007) shows, the Comintern established fronts in many countries in the 1920s and after. They were especially influential in Italy and France, which in 1933 became the base for Communist front organizer Willi Münzenberg.

The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) was established in 1945 to unite labor union confederations across the world; it was based in Prague. While it had non-Communist unions it was largely dominated by the Soviets. In 1949 the British, American and other non-Communist unions broke away to form the rival International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. The labor movement in Europe became so polarized between the Communists unions and the and Social Democratic and Christian labor unions, and front operations could no longer hide the sponsorship and they became less important.

New Theatre League

Mally (2007) shows how Soviet cultural values were transmitted to the United States by front organizations and how important Russian models were in shaping cultural activities in the 1930s. The American Workers' Theatre League (often called the "New Theatre League") was a conduit for new Russian ideas incorporating political positions on stage. The League became less militant by the mid-1930s, bringing it into conflict with both the Comintern in Moscow and the Communist Party USA, but its advocacy of Soviet aesthetic ideas had a lasting impact on American theater.

Hollywood

Radosh and Radosh (2005) explore the Communist Party's influence in Hollywood during the 1930s-1950s to stress the CPUSA policy of secret membership and control of front organizations that fostered an allegiance to Soviet communism in Hollywood. They argue that the Party had at its peak about 300 members, and thousands of sympathizers who were active in numerous front groups controlled by the Party.

Alleged CPUSA front organizations, circa 1980

By late Cold War, Richard Felix Staar alleged that Soviet intelligence has infiltrated many peace movements in the West, most importantly, the World Peace Council. In addition to WPC, important communist front organizations included its affiliate the U.S. Peace Council, the World Federation of Trade Unions, the World Federation of Democratic Youth, and the International Union of Students. Staar asserted that somewhat less important front organizations included: Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organization, Christian Peace Conference, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, International Federation of Resistance Movements, International Institute for Peace, International Organization of Journalists, Women's International Democratic Federation and World Federation of Scientific Workers. Numerous peace conferences, congresses and festivals have been staged with support of those organizations.

Australian Communist Front Organisations

• Movement Against War and Fascism
• Australian Writers' League

See also

• Mass organization
• Fellow traveller
• Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations
• Executive Order 9835
• Popular Front
• United Front
• List of Communist publications

References

• Federal Register 13, 20 March 1948: Attorney General's List of Communist classified organizations.

Further reading

• Heale, M. J. American anticommunism: combating the enemy within, 1830-1970 (1990)
• Klehr, Harvey. The Heyday of American Communism: The Depression Decade Basic Books, 1984.
• Klehr, Harvey and John Earl Haynes. The American Communist Movement: Storming Heaven Itself (Twayne, 1992).
• Klehr, Harvey, Kyrill M. Anderson, and John Earl Haynes. The Soviet World of American Communism (Yale University Press, 1998)
• McMeekin, Sean. The Red Millionaire: A Political Biography of Willi Münzenberg, Moscow's Secret Propaganda Tsar in the West, 1917-1940 (Yale University Press, 2004)
• Ottanelli, Fraser M., The Communist Party of the United States: From the Depression to World War II (Rutgers University Press, 1991)
• Rosswurm, Steve. "Records of the Subversion Activities Control Board, 1950-1972," Journal of American History, March 1991, Vol. 77 Issue 4, pp 1447-1448
• Service, Robert. Comrades!: a history of world communism (2007)
• Sherman, John W. A Communist Front at Mid-Century: The American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born, 1933-1959 (2001)

External links

• U.S. Code Title 50 Chapter 23 Subchapter IV Sec. 841., Findings and Declarations of Fact