Earl Browder

Earl Russell Browder (May 20, 1891 – June 27, 1973) was an American political activist, anti-Fourth internationalist and Chairman of the Communist Party of America from 1934 to 1945.

Prison photo of Earl Browder, December 1917.

Quotes

Trotskyism Against World Peace (1937)

• On every issue, Trotskyism enters as the poison to block unity among the workers and their organizations, to break- up the People's Front, to help the reactionaries and fascists, and, above all, to prepare the ground for war.
  • pp.10

• If one wants to fight against fascism and war, the first battle that must be Won is to drive out Trotskyism and its influence from the ranks of the workers, farmers, and intellectuals. Without this victory over every Trotskyist influence, unity in the fight against fascism and war-unity which is the condition for any success is impossible.
  • pp. 13

• This ego-maniac firebrand is running through a world full of war-explosives, applying his torch wherever he may, hoping for nothing so much as a new world war from which alone he sees his hopes of glory and power.
  • pp. 13, on Trotsky

• The Soviet Union has come forward in truth as the helper and inspirer of all the oppressed, because it has never wavered in its loyalty to the great teachings of Marx and Engels, because it has Lenin as its founder, and because after Lenin's death it found in Stalin a worthy successor and continuer of Lenin's work, who could not only guide the actual construction of socialism but also protect it against every enemy, at home and abroad.
  • pp. 15

What is Communism? (1934)

• The truth is, if you insist on knowing, Mr. Hearst, we Communists like this country very much. We cannot think of any other spot on the globe where we would rather be than exactly this one. We love our country. Our affection is all the more deep in that we have watered it with the sweat of our labor- labor which made this country what it is: our mothers nourished it with the tears they shed over the troubles and tragedies of rearing babies in a land controlled by profit and profit makers. If we did not love our country so much, perhaps we would surrender it to Wall Street.
  • p. 17

• We in America are a mongrel breed and we glory in it. We are the products of he melting pot of a couple hundred nationalities. Our origin as a nation acknowledged is debt to a Polish Kosciusko, a German Von Steuden,, a French Lafayette and countless other "foreigners".
  • p. 17

• We are determined to save our country from the hell of capitalism.
  • p. 18

• The greatest figure of them all in the American tradition, Abraham Lincoln, became great because he, despite his own desire to avoid or compromise the struggle, was forced by history to lead to victory a long and bloody civil war whose chief historical significance was the wiping out of chattel slavery, the destruction of private property rights in persons, amending the Constitution in the only way it has ever been fundamentally amended.
  • p. 20

• The revolutionary tradition is the heart of Americanism. That is incontestable, unless we are ready to agree that Americanism means what Hearst says - slavery to outlived institutions, preservation of privilege, the degradation of the masses. We Communists claim the revolutionary traditions of Americanism. We are the only ones who consciously continue those traditions and apply them to the problems of the day.
  • p. 21

• Among the most important allies of the American working class are the Negro people. There can be no proletarian revolution unless it is accompanied by the liberation of the Negro people who, more than any other section of the population, are doubly oppressed and exploited by capitalism.
  • p. 139

• The close connection between local political machines and control of election machinery by gunmen, is an organic part of the political set up. The murder and wounding of hundreds of strike pickets in the last three years are another feature of the same development. The lynching of Negroes, especially in the South, is part of the whole menacing complex of political reaction. The assassination of Huey Long is thus the eruption of this underworld into the upper circles of the ruling class which has long made organized use of it as a daily part of their rule over masses.
  • p.55

• In a situation of deepening misery, when a great population becomes restless and anxious for change, the door is open not only to struggles against the capitalists who are responsible for their sufferings, but also to a mobilization of the masses against their own interests, and in the interests of the most predatory section of the capitalist class. this is the danger that we face in the United States today. It would be foolish to think that the monopolists and bankers in the Liberty League, with their tremendous resources, cannot win a mass following for fascism. Already reaction has produced a whole series of semi-fascist demagogues , and has even, in fear of its own creation, assassinated one of them. These demagogues make the wildest promises to the toilers and by playing on their discontent hope to rally them behind the black banner of reaction. To underestimate this grave danger is to commit a crime against all toilers, since it would mean failing to warn and organize them against the fascist menace which would destroy their living standards, their civil liberties, and all their organizations - economic, social and cultural, which would, in short throw humanity back into the dark ages.
  • p.51

• It is obvious to everyone that the capitalist system is breaking down, that millions of people are condemned to a life of slow starvation because the capitalists can profitably operate only a small part of the existing means of production. But it would be a fatal mistake to conclude that the capitalist social order will simply collapse under its own weight, or that the capitalists will peacefully surrender their present power and then all of us will join together in the building of a new social system. No ruling class group has ever behaved in such peaceful fashion. As the crisis becomes worse, the more desperately will the capitalists cling to their property and their power, the more murderous will become their attacks on the masses of the people. It must be emphasized that capitalism will not simply come to an end; it can only be ended by the organized actions of the working class in collaboration with its allies from other sections of the population.
  • Chapter fourteen