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The Anti-Stalin Songbird
Banjo-pickin' lefty Pete Seeger has written a song condemning Stalin—sixty-plus years after his death. According to historian Ron Radosh, Seeger sent him a letter acknowledging his pro-Soviet credulity, agreeing that on his guided tours of the country he "should have asked to see the gulags." Seeger attached the lyrics to a new song about Stalin, "The Big Joe Blues":
"I'm singing about old Joe, cruel Joe / He ruled with an iron hand / He put an end to the dreams / Of so many in every land / He had a chance to make / A brand new start for the human race / Instead he set it back / Right in the same nasty place / I got the Big Joe Blues / (Keep your mouth shut or you will die fast) / I got the Big Joe Blues / (Do this job, no questions asked) / I got the Big Joe Blues."
Seeger tells Radosh that "the basic mistake [with the Soviet Union] was Lenin's faith in [Party] DISCIPLINE!" Well, that's one way of putting it. It could also be argued that Lenin's basic mistake was his insatiable bloodlust; his murderous hatred of the so-called rich peasant class. Take this memo, from August 1918, in which Lenin outlines the level of "discipline" to be used against those "revolting" against collectivization:
"Comrades! The revolt by the five kulak volost's must be suppressed without mercy. The interest of the entire revolution demands this, because we have now before us our final decisive battle "with the kulaks." We need to set an example. 1) You need to hang (hang without fail, so that the public sees) at least 100 notorious kulaks, the rich, and the bloodsuckers. 2) Publish their names. 3) Take away all of their grain. 4) Execute the hostages in accordance with yesterday's telegram. This needs to be accomplished in such a way that people for hundreds of miles around will see, tremble, know, and scream out: let's choke and strangle those blood-sucking kulaks. Telegraph us acknowledging receipt and execution of this.
Yours, Lenin"
Last week, the New York Times defended Seeger against Radosh's charge that the singer was only now repenting. Under the unironic headline "This Just In: Pete Seeger Denounced Stalin Over a Decade Ago," Times journo Daniel Wakin says that "Mr. Seeger, 87, made such statements years ago, at least as early as his 1993 book, "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" In the book, he said in a 1995 interview with The New York Times Magazine, he had apologized "for following the party line so slavishly, for not seeing that Stalin was a supremely cruel misleader."
At least as early as 1993? Merely a "cruel misleader?" Not exactly a full-throated condemnation, Dan. Indeed, in his biography Seeger does make a fifty-years-too-late partial repudiation of his Sovietophilia, but drops in a string of moral equivalence in the following sentences:
"I'll apologize for a number of things, such as thinking that Stalin was simply a 'hard driver' and not a supremely cruel misleader. I guess anyone who calls himself or herself a Christian should be prepared to apologize for the Inquisition, the burning of heretics by Protestants, the slaughter of Jews and Moslems by Crusaders. White people in the U.S.A. could consider apologizing for stealing land from Native Americans and enslaving blacks. Europeans could apologize for worldwide conquests, Mongolians for Genghis Khan. And supporters of Roosevelt could apologize for his support of Somoza, of Southern white Democrats, of Franco Spain, for putting Japanese Americans in concentration camps.
I eagerly await Seeger's next record, which will doubtless include a song denouncing himself.
Cato's executive VP David Boaz on "Stalin's songbird" here.
|9.5.07 @ 4:10PM|#
Well, better late than never.
"Supremely cruel" sounds like a condemnation to me.
|9.5.07 @ 4:11PM|#
"Merely a 'cruel misleader?' Not exactly a full-throated
condemnation,"
As you note, he said "supremely" cruel misleader. Perhaps he should
have also called Stalin a "turkey face."
|9.5.07 @ 4:26PM|#
Solzhenitsin in The Gulag Archipelago and Conquest in
both The Great Terror and Harvest of Sorrow
thoroughly documented how the "fellow travellers" had all the
information they needed to conclude that Stalin was a murderous
thug while "Uncle Joe" was still alive.
There are no excuses for their conduct vis-a-vis Stalin and the
Soviet Union.
|9.5.07 @ 4:27PM|#
Geez, people. Give the guy a little credit. I say better late than never. Good for Pete to be big enough to admit his mistakes. It is extremely rare in my experience for someone of advanced age to change their opinion about anything, no matter what facts are presented. This shows Pete to be a man of more character than I had supposed. Anyway Seeger's real cardinal sin, in my eyes, will also be that he was one of the people trying to turn off Dylan's band when they went electric at the Newport Folk Festival in '65.
|9.5.07 @ 4:27PM|#
Or maybe you would have found a reason to decide that "murderous
thug" wasn't strong enough, and bash him for that.
From the article:
Mr. Seeger continued in his letter to me: "the basic mistake
was Lenin's faith in [Party] DISCIPLINE!" He often tells his
left-wing audiences, he said, to read Rosa Luxemburg's famous
letter to Lenin about the necessity of freedom of
speech.
Rather a different impression than the tigh edit and the suggestion
that he was implicitly condoning Red Terror.
|9.5.07 @ 4:29PM|#
I'm not sure I appreciate the way you folks are treating one of America's top war allies.
|9.5.07 @ 4:33PM|#
the "fellow travellers" had all the information they needed
to conclude that Stalin was a murderous thug while "Uncle Joe" was
still alive.
People had all the information they needed to conclude the earth
was round over 3000 years ago, yet most people never bothered. For
30 years Solzhenitsyn has had all the information he needs to
conclude that capitalism is a freer and more humane system than the
sort of Orthodox slavic collective theocracy he would apparently
prefer, yet he continues to prefer the latter. Most American
"fellow travelers" were far more concerned about what they
perceived as injustice at home than what was happening in the USSR.
They were quite wrong, but I'm willing to forgive the ones who will
admit they were wrong, even if it is very late.
Russ 2000|9.5.07 @ 4:39PM|#
If I were 87 and history proved me dead wrong, I'd start feigning Alzheimer's.
|9.5.07 @ 4:39PM|#
"Tight edit." Jesus Joe, give it a rest. What does that second
sentence change? If that is a "rather different impression,"
because, according to Seeger himself, he related some anecdote
about Rosa Luxemburg to some (date unspecified) "left-wing
audience," you need to do your homework on Seeger, Robeson, et al.
Read Boaz's piece I linked and tell me he wasn't a fellow-traveler;
read the Weaver's lyrics and tell me he wasn't a Stalinist
stooge.
Or maybe you would have found a reason to decide that
"murderous thug" wasn't strong enough, and bash him for
that.
So now you are taking issue with things a might have said?
And Vanya, he does deserve credit for finally realizing the error
of his ways. And the Seeger/Lomax stuff at Newport is
unconscionable...
|9.5.07 @ 4:43PM|#
One might accuse Seeger of tu quoque for his remarks in that last blockquote, but I think this nails the old "moral equivalence" charge.
|9.5.07 @ 4:52PM|#
SIV,
I've denounced many things FDR did. When are you going to
acknowledge that he's not Stalin?
Michael,
I'll give it a rest when you stop making it so easy.
What does that second sentence change?
Reason hired you to be a writer, and you need to ask that
question?
Sigh, ok. You edited his statement to set up a dichotomy, between
his denunciation of party discipline, and a wished-for denunciation
of the human-rights atrocities of the Soviet regime. Except that,
whoa, lookie here! The very next words that came out of his mouth
were...a statement urging his listeners to read a denunciation of
the Soviet regime's lack of respect for people's rights.
You set out to create a false impression of what Seeger was saying,
and cut out the portion of his words that undermined it that
impression.
Urkobold™|9.5.07 @ 4:52PM|#
THE URKOBOLD MUST ADMIT THAT THE URKOBOLD WAS WRONG ABOUT HITLER. HE WAS A SHITTY ARTIST.
Gene Berkman|9.5.07 @ 5:11PM|#
The Stalin era was before my time, but during the Vietnam War I
went to many protests and antiwar conferences where Maoists were
promoting their view of Communist revolution.
It was bad enough to see a sea of red flags at an antiwar protest.
But many prominent journalists and researchers also put out the
line that China had advanced under Communism and was becoming a
modern country, without talking about the tens of millions who died
under Mao. It was similar to the widespread acceptance of Stalin as
a national leader in the 1930s by American intellectuals.
|9.5.07 @ 5:11PM|#
NEWS-FLASH!!! ENTERTAINERS WITH POLITICAL VIEWS AREN'T
NECESSARILY THE SHARPEST TOOLS IN THE SHED!!! FILM AT
11:00!!!
Having been weaned on old lefty folk-singers, I have to admit I
still have a bit of a soft spot for old Pete and the Weavers. Ok,
the guy's politics were appalling, but it's not like we're
suffering any shortage of knuckle-headed entertainers today,
either. If I had to pick my entertainers based on their political
views, I'd probably be stuck with listening to the
alley-cats.
Really, the only thing interesting thing about this is that anyone
actually gives a shit what Pete Seeger thinks after all these
years. The fact that anyone does probably indicates he did
something right. Bob Dylan, Pete Townsend and Mick Jagger, eat your
hearts out.
|9.5.07 @ 5:20PM|#
Pig Mannix,
True enough, but Pete Seeger is an especially egregious case.
Remember, he was prepared to take up arms to keep Dylan from going
electric.
roy edroso|9.5.07 @ 5:24PM|#
The Soviet Union is long dead. Only Castro and Kim are hanging
in. Yet here you guys are hectoring an old man for not bothering to
tell you when exactly he turned against Stalin.
I can understand why the Red Scare never ended for Republicans --
they need every excuse they can get to feel righteous. Why are
libertarians still prey to it, though? Don't you have enough
all-powerful enemies, like the Department of Health and Human
Services?
dhex|9.5.07 @ 5:35PM|#
seeger et al was a victim of the earlier version of TEAM RED
TEAM BLUE GO TEAM GO
except the teams were switched (what color was
anti-communism?)
hence the stupidity.
also:
The "Old Joe Blues" is almost as inhumane as Stalin
himself.
FOR THE WIN
dhex|9.5.07 @ 5:36PM|#
for reals, while it is really real and truly true that too many people get away with namechecking communism that would not with something like nazism, and rocking bad shirts and che and all that stuff, i think of it like the banding on a viper, except instead of telling you "this is deadly and poisonous" it's telling you "i write the worst fucking poetry you've ever read, including that girl you dated who sold weed."
|9.5.07 @ 6:08PM|#
Imagine a morally neutral, affectionate profile of a nostalgic 80-year-old Nazi. It doesn't happen, it wouldn't happen.
This is the that comes to me when I listen to one of NPR's hymns of
praise to some idealist who went to Russia or China in the 30s to
aid Stalin or Mao.
Brian Carnell|9.5.07 @ 6:49PM|#
"Geez, people. Give the guy a little credit. I say better late
than never. Good for Pete to be big enough to admit his mistakes.
It is extremely rare in my experience for someone of advanced age
to change their opinion about anything, no matter what facts are
presented. This shows Pete to be a man of more character than I had
supposed. Anyway Seeger's real cardinal sin, in my eyes, will also
be that he was one of the people trying to turn off Dylan's band
when they went electric at the Newport Folk Festival in '65."
Um...yeah...this late apology means about as much as it would if
David Duke, near the end of his life, comes out and said, "yeah, I
guess that Hitler was a cruel misleader after all."
Plus it still furthers the Left fantasy that the only real problem
with the USSR were the individual leaders who corrupted the
otherwise pure and progressive Revolution (which is why Seeger can
claim with a straight face that Lenin's problem was too much faith
in discipline."
The people failed the Revolution, not vice versa.
|9.5.07 @ 6:51PM|#
Imagine a morally neutral, affectionate profile of a
nostalgic 80-year-old Nazi. It doesn't happen, it wouldn't
happen.
My next song is called "He Made The Trains Run On Time (But At What
Cost?)" Hope you like it. Don't forget to tip your bartender.
|9.5.07 @ 6:57PM|#
Imagine a morally neutral, affectionate profile of a
nostalgic 80-year-old Nazi. It doesn't happen, it wouldn't
happen.
Are you sure about that? Seems to me Leni Riefenstahl got some
decent press towards the end. Mussolini fan Ezra Pound is still a
well respected, even beloved, poet in many intellectual circles.
And Nazi-lover Charles Lindbergh never got as much heat as any of
the Stalin lovers.
|9.5.07 @ 7:05PM|#
vanya
Charles Lindbergh never gave anywhere near as much support to the
Nazi regime as any of the Communists of the thirties.
And first of all though he might have admired the Germans
(many Swedes and Swedish immigrants did) he was never a Nazi.
Even Pound's admirers qualify there admiration by condemning his
Fascist leanings.
This is true of any Fascist or Nazi sympatizer. To be rehabilitated
they had to admit the error of their ways.
Comunists have never been held to that standard.
|9.5.07 @ 7:24PM|#
I kind of get the feeling Seeger isn't really very bright. A
phrase like "supremely cruel misleader" just sounds like the phrase
of someone who has a basically pre-adolescent view of the world. He
thought Stalin was a nice guy, but he was really just a big meanie!
Ditto for the capitalized "DISCIPLINE" and that awful singsong "Big
Joe Blues" song. I do think "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" is a
good song, but I guess that was a fluke.
Isaac Bartram: Generally true, but with one exception: Ingmar
Bergman admitted to having been a Nazi sympathizer during World War
II, but no one seemed to care; it was mentioned in hardly any of
his obituaries.
|9.5.07 @ 7:39PM|#
I'm not sure I appreciate the way you folks are treating one
of America's top war allies.
Thus my suspicion that Dan T is a fake lefty.
|9.5.07 @ 7:47PM|#
"Supremely cruel" sounds like a condemnation to
me.
And thus continues joe's travels as a Stalin apologist.
What the hell joe? Why even comment? And in support of anyone who
did not denounce Stalin before 1960, let alone someone who waited
until 1993 to do it?
|9.5.07 @ 7:58PM|#
"i write the worst fucking poetry you've ever read,
including that girl you dated who sold weed."
She never wrote anything as far as I could tell...in fact i don't
really think she did anything...except sell weed and tell me I was
a chauvinist.
Oh wait, she did take a painting class...but stopped after I showed
her the "paint" filter in photoshop.
Johnny D.|9.5.07 @ 8:00PM|#
Imagine a morally neutral, affectionate profile of a
nostalgic 80-year-old Nazi. It doesn't happen, it wouldn't happen.
We're still making movies about the crimes of Nazism, a
totalitarian regime that lasted 12 years, while you can count on
the fingers of one hand the Hollywood movies about the bloody
70-year rule of the Communist Party.
That is an interesting point, and one I'd love to see addressed by,
well, just about anyone.
highnumber|9.5.07 @ 8:11PM|#
Whenever someone mentions the Weavers, I think of this song by Naked Raygun.
Home Of The Brave
Starin' off in... to the night
She picks up her dreams and her bags
"I'm off to a place where life's right"
Jeanie walks out on the home of the brave
He picks up his boots from the dust
Knocks out the dirt on the ground
Wonders about his life... and he cussed
Stu wonders what his parents had found
Broken dreams and promises
These are the things they have and hold
A country that even...
Persecuted the Weavers
Did you ever see the Weavers?
Great song. Especially with all the "Whoa-oh-oh"s.
|9.5.07 @ 9:16PM|#
Wonder how long it'll be before that hack Springsteen covers Big Joe Blues...not that I really care.
|9.5.07 @ 9:24PM|#
This is a variant of what my husband and I call the "Wagner
Problem" -- how much of an asshole does an artist have to be before
the assholery eclipses the art? Obviously, really great talents
have more latitude than mediocre ones, so even though he was a
world-class jerk, I still like Wagner because his music is as close
to sublime as is possible on this plane of existence.
Applying the balancing test in this case, I have many pleasant and
not-stoned memories of singing "If I Had a Hammer" in college, and
Seeger's main crime is saying nice things about the Soviets. I
don't know of any evidence that anything he did actually furthered
the cause. He made idiot speeches and recorded the repulsive
"Little Boxes," which is bad, but not so much that it overcomes the
good stuff. Besides, I get a warm feeling knowing that it would
probably irritate him that someone who rejects his politics likes
his music. I feel the same way about Merle Haggard, although I'm
sure he and I could have a beer without a problem, while Seeger
would think I'm some kind of evil sellout. ("Sing Me Back Home"
still makes me cry, even in traffic.)
For an example of the other kind, where being a jerk completely
overwhelms any merits of the "art," I nominate the guy who wrote
"On The Road," from a lower-down thread. I have to agree with
Truman Capote; that book is typing, not writing.
|9.5.07 @ 10:13PM|#
I have many pleasant and not-stoned memories of singing "If
I Had a Hammer"
You should see "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind".
Syloson of Samos|9.5.07 @ 11:21PM|#
Imagine a morally neutral, affectionate profile of a
nostalgic 80-year-old Nazi.
This was the sort of treatment given to Heidegger by many
people.
Billy Beck|9.6.07 @ 12:13AM|#
"Geez, people. Give the guy a little credit."
Are you fucking crazy? That old bastard's fallback touchstone is
goddamned Rosa Luxemburg.
Don't be an idiot.
To hell with Seeger.
Mark Bahner|9.6.07 @ 12:24AM|#
'Supremely cruel' sounds like a condemnation to me.
And don't forget the "misleader."
Why, that's even more powerful than "double dumb-ass on you."
|9.6.07 @ 12:39AM|#
Ingmar Bergman admitted to having been a Nazi sympathizer during World War II, but no one seemed to care; it was mentioned in hardly any of his obituaries.
Well, I mean, he was a Swede.
For some reason the Swedes have gotten a pass in the whole
Nazi-sympathizer deal.
|9.6.07 @ 12:56AM|#
"'Supremely cruel' sounds like a condemnation to me."
And don't forget the "misleader."
That's just another example of that deceptive "tight editing" that
somebody was complaining about.
John Sabotta|9.6.07 @ 2:41AM|#
"Stalin's songbird"
That Mandelshtam perished and Seeger lived and thrived is one of
the great shames of this century.
John Sabotta|9.6.07 @ 2:50AM|#
The Stalin Epigram, November 1933
Stalin Epigram
We live, but we do not feel the land beneath us,
Ten steps away and our words cannot be heard,
And when there are just enough people for half a dialogue,
Then they remember the Kremlin mountaineer.
His fat fingers are slimy like slugs,
And his words are absolute, like grocers' weights.
His cockroach whiskers are laughing,
And his boot tops shine.
And around him the rabble of narrow-necked chiefs -
He plays with the services of half-men.
Who warble, or miaow, or moan.
He alone pushes and prods.
Decree after decree he hammers them out like horseshoes,
In the groin, in the forehead, in the brows, or in the eye.
When he has an execution it's a special treat,
And the Ossetian chest swells.
- Osip Mandelstam, slightly preceding P. Seeger
Syloson of Samos|9.6.07 @ 8:45AM|#
Isaac Bertram,
Well, a number of Swedes were instrumental in rescuing Jews in
WWII, so not all Swedes were by any means sympathetic to the Nazis.
Sweden also took in all the Jewish people that came from
Denmark.
|9.6.07 @ 9:09AM|#
Syloson
Bad joke, actually.
To their credit most Swedish Nazi-sympathizers lost their
enthusiasm as soon as the full extent of Nazi antisemitism became
well known. But the same can be said of Nazi-sympathizers in many
countries.
And for many Swedes it was more a matter of being pro-German than
it was being pro-Nazi.
To stress my earlier point though, while former Nazi sympatizers
have gone on to be respected for various contributions nobody
praises them for their Nazi past.
Communists are constantly praised for their idealism even by people
who think they were mistaken in that "idealism".
|9.6.07 @ 9:40AM|#
This is a variant of what my husband and I call the "Wagner
Problem" -- how much of an asshole does an artist have to be before
the assholery eclipses the art? Obviously, really great talents
have more latitude than mediocre ones, so even though he was a
world-class jerk, I still like Wagner because his music is as close
to sublime as is possible on this plane of existence.
The "Wagner problem" is a much greater problem for artists whose
ouevre (like most of Seeger's, but unlike that of Wagner himself)
is more agitprop than art. Seeger properly catches lots more shit
for being a Comsymp than does Picasso for being an actual Party
member.
|9.6.07 @ 9:51AM|#
joshua corning | September 5, 2007, 7:47pm | #
"Supremely cruel" sounds like a condemnation to me.
And thus continues joe's travels as a Stalin
apologist.,/i>
I suspect joshua corning is a fake righty.
The above comment is too idiotic to have been written with a
straight face.
|9.6.07 @ 9:55AM|#
Here, let me try again. Because it's worth saying twice.
I suspect that joshua corning is a fake righty, sort of the
opposite of Dan T. The above comment is too idiotic to have been
written with a straight face.
Syloson of Samos|9.6.07 @ 10:17AM|#
Isaac Bertram,
To stress my earlier point though, while former Nazi
sympatizers have gone on to be respected for various contributions
nobody praises them for their Nazi past.
Communists are constantly praised for their idealism even by people
who think they were mistaken in that "idealism".
That seems to be a fair assessment of the issue.
I should note that in the case of Heidegger that as we find out
more about his activities in the 1930s and the 1940s (particularly
his activities as university rector) the more it becomes less
possible to ignore Heidegger's involvement in the Nazi party.
|9.6.07 @ 10:28AM|#
Syloson of Samos
It is my impression that the role of the German intelligentsia in
promoting Naziism is something that historians are uncovering more
and more these days.
|9.6.07 @ 10:29AM|#
No cite to really back that up though. More an impression, for
what it's worth.
Not much, eh? :)
|9.6.07 @ 10:30AM|#
And for many Swedes it was more a matter of being pro-German
than it was being pro-Nazi.
And don't forget that many Swedes sympathized with Finland, which
still has a significant Swedish minority population, so they were
no fans of the USSR. Hell, if I'd been a Swede in 1940 I certainly
would have preferred German domination to Soviet.
|9.6.07 @ 11:24AM|#
vanya
Good point.
I really don't mean any of this as a serious criticism of the
Swedes. They have longstanding cultural ties to Germany.
The pro-German feeling is entirely understandable.
Look, the fact is that the Germans were widely admired for their
industry, learning and discipline. For some the early Hitler years
just seemed an extension of that.
But in the end any right thinking person was completely repelled by
the blinding insanity of the Nazis' homicidal antisemitism and
militarism.
dhex|9.6.07 @ 11:28AM|#
This is a variant of what my husband and I call the "Wagner
Problem" -- how much of an asshole does an artist have to be before
the assholery eclipses the art?
yeah that's always a pretty decent issue.
fela kuti and miles davis come to mind. but so does someone like
burroughs, whose work i admire very deeply.
|9.6.07 @ 12:12PM|#
Isaac B,
American Communists were important pioneers in the civil rights
movement, women's rights, free speech, the end of the draft, the
rights of the accused, opposition to domestic spying, and ending
the Vietnam War.
Name one admirable cause Americann Nazis or fascists have ever
contributed to. Just one.
People have sympathy for the idealism of American communists
because American communists actually did good things for this
country.
|9.6.07 @ 12:47PM|#
joe
Plenty of people did good things for this country. Plenty of people
worked for all the things you mention without doing while they were
lavishing praise on a genocidal tyrant.
And there are communists who recognized Stalin for what he was and
denounced him. People like Pete Seeger didn't.
But I do take your point that most Communists appear to have been
motivated by somewhat high ideals.
However as American movements Naziism or Fascism have never been
anywhere but on the fringe. Hence it hard to point to any kind of
accomplishments at all.
|9.6.07 @ 1:00PM|#
And, joe, you don't have to be a Stalinist to support all of the
things you listed, including ending the Vietnam War. Although it
should be fairly obvious why the Commies would be in favor of
that.
And considering the Communists' record on most of those things once
they actually were in power they still don't have much to recommend
them.
|9.6.07 @ 1:37PM|#
I've denounced many things FDR did. When are you going to acknowledge that he's not Stalin?
Here is the sticky question for you joe: Do you think FDR was a
good president, overall?
Name one admirable cause Americann Nazis or fascists have ever contributed to. Just one.
You realize that the Communists provided support and training for
Nazis and fascists throughout U.S. history.
I read an authorized biography of Orson Wells not too long ago, and
was supprised to learn that the Communist Party in New York in the
1930s tried to assassinate Orson Wells for speaking out against
Nazism, because they felt it endangered the non-agression pact
between the USSR and Germany. Fortunatly he survived long enough
for Germany to invade Russia, but at least one Commie managed to
take a shot at Orson (the gunman was then disarmed and beat up by
one of the actors from a play they were working on).
Also, the former head of the KGB U.S. branch insists to this day
that the KGB assasinated MLK, as well as provided material support
for white supremacist groups in the U.S. (The idea was to instigate
a race war, and thus disrupt the U.S. economy/government). FBI
documents at the time confirm that the FBI suspected white
supremacist groups of recieving support from Communists.
So really, the line between the Communists and the Nazis and
Fascists are quite blurred. Both were working quite closely from
the 1930s on in the United States.
American Communists were important pioneers in the civil rights movement, women's rights, free speech, the end of the draft, the rights of the accused, opposition to domestic spying, and ending the Vietnam War.
Communists claim credit for being "important pioneers" in those
issues, but a common Communist tactic is to attach their agenda to
pre-existing popular agendas of the day despite their being almost
no connection. And in the case of civil rights, for sure Soviet
directed Communists were trying to sabatoge the civil rights
movement.
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