Talk:List of Comintern affiliate organizations

This article was nominated for deletion on September 2005. The result of the discussion was keep.

Has nothing happened since 1950s?

This article is in many ways a joke. Its entirely based on a document from a time in which demands for voting rights for blacks in USA was considered a communist cause. I had proposed its deletion.

Second, I what respect are these organizations affiliated to ComIntern? To my knowledge none of these organization had ComIntern membership. As for ComIntern members, there is already an article, List of members of the Comintern. --Soman 07:20, 3 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Response: It is directly related to a new body of scholarship emerging from this source [1], which, hopefully, will shed light upon many decades long issues and controversies. Thank you. I appreciate very much your interest in the subject. nobs 16:30, 3 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Basically, to me, it appears that there are three alternatives:

Merge the article into List of members of the Comintern.
Make it a list of organizations that actually were ComIntern associated (CYI, Profintern, Krestintern, Red Sports International, etc.)
Move the article to "Front organizations of CPUSA" or something similar. --Soman 16:48, 3 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Use of the term "affiliates" in the title of this article is simply wrong

A better title would be "List of Organizations which were asserted anti-Communist agitators of the mid-20th Century to be directed by communistic foriegners at that time".

1. The Comintern was a body of "affiliated" Communist political parties

"Affiliate" is used to denote membership in an international body as in "The Labour Party (UK) is an affiliate of the Socialist International". Federal law prohibits US political parties from directly affiliating with international bodies, so "affiliate" is not used to describe the relationship of US parties to their international co-thinkers. For example Democratic Socialists of America holds "observer status" in the Socialist International.

2. The organizations on this page are not Comintern political parties

The listed organizations are a very heterodox lot, running from the New York based American Labor Party to labor unions like UE, to political pressure groups of the 1930's. What these organisations have in common is that some members and leaders were also members of the CPUSA, but most were primarily non-Communist in purpose.

3. Some of these organisations were led by anti-Communists.

For example, the American Labor Party was led by the anti-Communist president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, David Dubinsky at the peak of its existence. The CPUSA actually elected 2 candidates to the New York City Council in the 1940's while running on a separate list from the ALP.

To give another example, the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America was the third largest union in the old CIO. There is no question that Communists were active in UE, as many labor activists joined the CPUSA at somepoint. It is also true that their success benefited mainly the CIO (led by the anti-Communist John L. Lewis) and their fellow electrical workers. The UE still exists, so it is a mistake of chronology to simply assert "affiliation" out of time and leave it at that. The National Lawyers Guild is another example of this sinister sort of miscategorization on this list, but there are others.

To compound the confusion, mixed in with the more well known (and linked groups) are some listed organisations that are generally understood to have operated as "front" organisations for the CPUSA. These organisations were generally short lived attempts to provide an opportunity for "non-party" people to work for a progressive position, without also being "anti-Communist". Non-CPUSA members were prominent in even these organizations. Hopefully people will be inspired to create entries for these organisations. Some were fairly long lasting like the Civil Rights Congress and started out as broad alternatives to the more milquetoast liberal alternatives. Some were probably never more than a desk and a phone. Again the political bias of the list will not permit such distinctions.

4. Wikipedia weakness in the face of conspiracy theories

"Affiliate" is used here as a weasel word to intended to simplify the histories and collapse the chonologies of these organisations to better fit with McCarthyist conspiracy theories concerning progressive and leftist organizations in the US. So, its interesting to see all these organizations listed together, but the title should be changed to something more reflective of the inherent right-wing bias in such a list.

DJ Silverfish 02:53, 27 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Merger proposal

This page is presently a list of alleged front groups of the CPUSA as of 1948, which is not of much interest in its own right. The name is a misnomer for the reasons above (few or none of these groups were "affiliates of the comintern"). Since the vote for deletion did not go through I am proposing, as an alternative, that this page be merged into Communist front.