Please enjoy the first part of a five-part PSMLS series covering the history of the American Communist Movement, with the obvious international context necessary to comprehend its development. You probably know a lot about the C.P.S.U., but how much do you know about American Communist history? We hope you learn something new!
Interested in attending a class? Email info@psmls.org for more information
Note: This class was recorded on 2/15/18, not on 2/8/18. We apologize for the incorrect date on the screen.
Watch the series:
Part 2: https://youtu.be/6z_2s5tDt_A
Part 3: https://youtu.be/0B7NBjMz9ms
Part 4: https://youtu.be/rC47mjz5Xqk
Part 5: https://youtu.be/TGm63bqqLBA
No Literature Used In This Class
Recommended Literature:
History of the Three Internationals by William Z. Foster (1955)
https://www.marxists.org/archive/brow...
History of the Communist Party of the United States by William Z. Foster (1952)
http://williamzfoster.blogspot.com/
The Communist Party A Manual on Organization by J. Peters (1935)
https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/j-pet...
Toward Soviet America by William Z. Foster (1932)
http://ouleft.org/wp-content/uploads/...
Foundations of Leninism by J.V. Stalin (1924)
https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/jv-st...
Guidelines on the Organizational Structure of Communist Parties, on the Methods and Content of their Work by the Third Congress of the Communist International (1921)
https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/third...
PSMLS Website:
http://peoplesschool.org/contact/
Party of Communists USA Website:
https://partyofcommunistsusa.org/about/
Timecode Key:
(Q&A) = Question & Answer/Response
0:00 Introduction
0:42 Socialist Party split
1:10 Mensheviks vs. Bolsheviks
2:27 Positions on the First Split
4:06 Major split in the 1950s
5:15 Split into PSL
6:51 Split over Revisionism
8:54 Split to the New Left
11:18 Comintern importance
11:46 PCUSA is new or old left? (Q&A)
13:08 Concurrent context
13:43 PCUSA wasn't a split
14:43 Rise of the Maoists
15:34 New Left & Vietnam
17:57 Red-baiting in New York
18:30 Left unity & revisionism? (Q&A)
21:03 Herbert Marcuse quote
23:05 Contradictions in the West
29:40 Dissolution of the Comintern
