Masters of deceit

In the last chapter we examined life in the Party—the constant hustle, collecting of dues, registration of members, holding of conferences, issuing of instructions.

These activities, however, have a meaning more sinister than just keeping the Party going, a meaning that we over-look at our peril. It is this: the Party is a vast workshop where the member is polished and shined, his impurities melted out, his loyalty to communism strengthened. He is made into communist man.

The revolution requires, as Lenin taught, that the fanatical believer be a man who, if so instructed, will give his life to the cause. He’s the paid functionary we met in the last chapter, the agitator and propaganda agent we’ll see in future pages. Without him communism would be just another “ism.”

This type of man doesn’t just grow; he must be created. To understand fully how this happens, we must now briefly examine the Party’s educational, press, literature, and cultural programs, its chief weapons of indoctrination.

Suppose one joined the Party. How would these techniques of regimentation affect the new member? We can best consider this question under several headings.

Back to School

One of the first things a new member does is to go to a school. He’ll receive his instructions soon after joining, probably from his club chairman. And as long as he stays in the Party, he’ll continue to go to school. Even the grizzled veterans go. There’s a diabolical reason behind this, which we’ll soon see.

Most people don’t think of the Communist Party as an educational institution. Yet year after year the Party operates a school system of vast proportions: theory schools; orientation schools; specialized schools in current events, history, economics, social problems; schools in Party techniques: how to collect dues, recruit new members, serve as a club chairman, be a better public speaker; and, of course, schools on revolutionary tactics and procedure. In recent years the Party has been extremely subtle in teaching its doctrines of revolution, always remembering federal laws such as the Smith Act, which prohibits advocating the overthrow of the United States government by force and violence.

Education, in the communist scheme, means indoctrination, imbuing the member with qualities desired by the Party. The pertinent question always is: How can the member be trained to serve the Party better?

Classes are held on all levels—local, state, regional, and national, varying in length from an hour to several weeks. For security reasons members meet in an isolated building, a home, or even in an automobile or a public park. The teacher is usually a paid functionary or someone from the county or state educational commission. Class consists of an extended lecture, perhaps for an hour or so, followed by discussion. As a general rule, no note-taking is allowed. The class over, each student leaves, careful not to attract attention.

After the beginning, or orientation, school (where members are soaked with Aesopian double talk) is over, the member is ready for a more advanced class. Never is he told at the outset that he is being changed into a Bolshevik, that his loyalty is being shifted to Soviet Russia, and that the American government must be overthrown. That would scare him away. The Party’s indoctrination process is slow and gradual. The member himself seldom realizes that bit by bit his precommunist training is being extracted and replaced by Party ideology.

Most important, he is grounded in love of the Party. This is a cardinal duty of the communist teacher.

Party schools make extensive use of study outlines and lesson aids supplied by national, state, and local educational commissions. They are written in a simple style and slanted to the average reader. Many contain suggested readings, illustrative examples, and review questions. Usually Mimeographed, they deal with all phases of the Party’s program. Sample titles are “Lenin and Our Party,” “World Significance of the Events in China,” “New Members Session and Introduction in the Communist Party,” and “Farmers in the Coalition.”

Amazing attention is shown to detail. In advanced classes members will have homework and examinations. As part of the instruction, classes often are given practical “field work.” Students in one Midwestern school were dismissed, divided into teams, and sent to industrial plants to distribute Party literature. That evening they reassembled to discuss their experiences and receive ideas on how better to do the job.

The longer one stays in the Party, the more specialized are the classes he attends. The goal, of course, is to be selected to attend a national leadership school. This means going to New York City or a Party camp and staying several weeks. Students probably will not know the true names of their fellow students; they’ll remember them as Sam (an alias), the man with the crooked arm, the redheaded girl who talked so much, the old man with the green shirt. That’s part of the Party’s security program.

The communist educational system is extremely practical: training members to do what the Party needs. Perhaps more Mimeograph operators are needed; then there’ll be a Mimeograph school. Maybe more dues secretaries are needed; then there’ll be a dues secretaries’ school. All the time, through training, the member is being pulled more closely under Party discipline.

Home Study

Another indoctrination technique is self- or home study. Going to school is important, but at best it can be for only an hour a day or several weeks a year. More study is needed to bind the member to the Party.

One Party directive puts it this way:

Communists may be busy or deeply involved in other Party work. But they must also carry on self-study or, as the communists call it, ideological self-cultivation or raising the ideological level of the member. This means daily readings in the communist bible—the works of Marx, Engels, and Lenin. (Following Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin, the late dictator’s works were appreciably de-emphasized in Party study programs.) This is not something optional; it is an absolute requirement. To study the communist “masters,” says the Party, is to be made “perfect” as they were “perfect”—and incidentally to make members work harder selling papers, collecting dues, and handing out leaflets.

In the final analysis this communist education, like all phases of the Party’s program, is geared to revolutionary action. “It is for the Party and for the victory of the revolution that we study.” The Party isn’t training its members just for fun. Each one must be steeled, hardened, and purified of his capitalist “scum,” “filth,” and “dirt.” The new member was born and reared under capitalism and, in communist eyes, therefore he is infected with “selfishness,” “intrigue,” “class attitudes.” “Is it anything strange,” one communist writer asks, “that there are muddy stains on a person who crawls out of the mud...?”

These stains must be washed off. It’s a lifetime job. Non-Party or “capitalist” attitudes keep cropping out. Some have been inherited, others newly acquired from capitalist contamination. That’s why even old-time members keep attending school. It’s like cleaning a skillet that tarnishes. Constant scrubbing (more indoctrination) is needed to make and keep the member ideologically pure.

Communist education is constantly seeking to destroy the “remnants of bourgeois ideology,” the undigested lumps of independence not yet crushed by communist thought control. That is the gnawing fear of all communist regimes: that an undigested lump will be missed, that somewhere lying undetected is a member who has not been completely indoctrinated. This individual is a potential enemy who may someday rise against his masters.

The Party has a term, political maturity, to signify the member who has been so indoctrinated that, as a matter of sixth sense, he will always know the Party line.

Party Literature

The Party’s literature program (comprising newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, and books) is a companion to Party schools and self-study in helping to create communist man.

These publications, regardless of their form, tell but one story, the Party’s story. The member must believe no other. For this purpose the Party is operating a multihundred-thousand-dollar propaganda machine.

Inside the Party the refrain is constantly heard: Buy our literature. “Got a nickel, mister? Try this pamphlet.” “You don’t want to miss our paper.” “Here, subscribe to Political Affairs” (the Party’s monthly theoretical magazine). The pressure is terrific. Party-operated bookstores and newspaper carrier routes distribute a steady stream of Party literature, as do the clubs themselves.

“We probably circulate more literature per member of our organization by ten times,” one former Party leader said, “than any other organization in existence.”

The Party’s chief newspaper is the Daily Worker (and its week-end edition, The Worker), published in New York City. On the West Coast it’s the People’s World (a weekly published in San Francisco).

Don’t think of the Daily Worker in terms of your own daily newspaper. It is strictly a propaganda organ. A tabloid with bold, black headlines, its “news” stories, editorials, book reviews, even its sports columns, are slanted to promote the Party’s views.

For example, Daily Worker sports writer Lester Rodney, in his column “On the Scoreboard,” praises “the phenomenal and growing successes of the Soviet Union in the world of sports.” He says, “... the answer is socialism. If Russians were just so all-fired hot as Russians, where were all their champion teams and athletes under the Czar?”

In obvious glee Rodney writes: “So fellow sports lovers, this socialism deserves a little open-minded study, at least, that’s clear. (There’s a fine school over on Sixth Ave. and 16th St. where you can study it if you’re lucky enough to be a New Yorker.)” The Jefferson School of Social Science, a front school, was then located at this address.

And Rodney couldn’t miss the chance for another propaganda plug:

The Daily Worker serves as a unifier of policy, an organizer of action, and a Party builder. It is a public document. Hence, don’t expect to find there Party secrets, such as the identities of underground officials or decisions of confidential meetings. However, for those who understand its double talk it provides a quick means to communicate the Party line. Moreover, it does not let the membership forget the identity of the Party’s enemies and sometimes its friends. Like a vast searchlight, it gives direction to members, wherever they may be.

Day after day the Daily Worker drills a central theme into its readers: that life in the United States is terrible; that only in communist countries, especially in the Soviet Union, is life worth living at all.

The day’s news is scanned for some incident to distort and use to browbeat the United States. Any action of the American government is always, somehow or other, part of a conspiracy to engulf the world in World War III. One rat in a tenement house becomes an army of rats devouring thousands of people. Pick out every weakness, real or imaginary. Stir up dissension. Try to weaken morale.

After Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin, the Daily Worker carried some criticism of Soviet Russia, for the most part pertaining to anti-Semitism and illegal arrests. Certain aspects of Russia’s intervention in Hungary were also criticized. Highly novel for the Daily Worker, this criticism apparently reflected the personal views of John Gates, the editor. Gates, of all the top Party leaders, appeared to have been most affected by Khrushchev’s revelations. He was severely attacked, however, by other Party officials, including William Z. Foster, and his resignation was demanded. Nevertheless, despite this limited criticism, the Daily Worker remained loyal to the over-all aims of Soviet Russia and continues to belittle, mock, and criticize American life.

This loyalty to things Russian has caused the Daily Worker to perform some interesting gymnastics. A good example was the famous “Doctors’ Plot,” early in 1953, just before Stalin’s death. Moscow reported the arrest of nine doctors charged with plotting to kill high-ranking Soviet officials. “Moscow Nips Plot to Kill Army Chiefs,” headlined The Worker (January 18, 1953), obviously happy. Then the doctors were suddenly released. Back-flipped The Worker with the greatest of ease: “The Case of the Soviet Doctors, How a Socialist State Protects Its Citizens” (April 12, 1953).

In March, 1953, The Worker reported Stalin’s death. “Stalin: Man of Peace,” “The Cobbler’s Son Who Built a New World,” “‘His Name and His Work Will Endure Through the Ages,’” “Stalin—Architect of a Working People’s World.” In 1956 the headlines shifted: “Lenin’s Principles Abandoned by Stalin,” “Minorities Were Exiled and Mistreated,” “Says Stalin Unleashed Mass Terror 1936-1937.” One writer headed his column: “Stalin Wasn’t God—And We Weren’t Angels.”

Communists regard themselves as “apostles” of a new order living in “enemy-controlled” territory. Communists claim that the Daily Worker cuts through the “capitalist press” and its smog of “lies,” “distortions,” and “fakes,” bringing “truthful information.” This is the highest principle of a “free press.”

The communist press, with its bigoted, perverted, single point of view, is a disturbing reality. It seeks the definite, systematic, and mass indoctrination of the minds of men to trust only the Party. Truth becomes what a group of men say it is.

Here’s an example of how “freedom of the press” works for the communists:

A Party leader hurried toward the building where a convention was being held. Just outside the door he paused. An individual was handing out leaflets urging the election of a slate opposed by the Party.

“That guy ought to be thrown out,” the Party boss remarked to a companion. “He’s nothing but a Trotskyite. He shouldn’t be allowed around here.”

Some time later the same two men were again attending a meeting. This time the Daily Worker was being sold outside. The companion objected, saying this wasn’t a communist meeting.

“Uh,” retorted the Party member. “This is a free country. You can’t stop him from passing it out.”

No wonder communism can operate only in the glow of book burnings. No opposite view can be tolerated. “Down with non-party writers!” Lenin demanded.

As an example, after Browder’s “fall from power” in 1945, many of his books were burned. Shifts in the Party line also cause book burnings. One New England headquarters, caught in a Party shift, destroyed three barrels of literature. What is “true” today in the Party may not be “true” tomorrow.

Modern-day techniques of literature dissemination extend the tyranny of communist indoctrination. The Party wants mass readership. Always remember that the communists are practical, everyday agitators. Why publish something at a high price that few will buy? There are few fancy bindings, engravings, or pictures. Communist publishing firms have exploited the publication of pamphlet-form editions and paper-backed volumes, anything to gain circulation and spread the communist message.

Prices are now higher, but communist literature is today being sold for five, ten, twenty, twenty-five, and thirty-five cents. Even these prices are considered too high. “I do not consider a five-cent pamphlet mass literature. We have to go back to mass penny literature ...,” one Party leader commented. Amazing circulations have been achieved. Editions of Lenin’s Imperialism and State and Revolution, totaling 100,000 copies each and costing ten cents a copy, were issued. Other pamphlets were printed in editions totaling 307,000; 275,000; 350,000; 440,000.

Everything possible has been done to make available in English the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin. A twelve-volume series of Lenin’s Selected Works, over 6000 pages, sells for twenty-five dollars. Marx’s The Civil War in France is offered for a dollar and fifty cents (cloth); paper-bound, twenty-five cents. The most important writings of Lenin are made available in the “Little Lenin Library” (for Marx it’s the “Little Marx Library”), with prices ranging from five to ninety cents. Many foreign communist writings are also printed. During the period 1948-55, according to a report of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the writings of Lenin were more widely translated than the Bible, with Stalin’s writings ranking third. Mention should also be made of communist-shop leaflets, neighborhood papers, and throwaways that are placed on doorsteps, thrown into parked cars, or scattered in buildings. Generally Mimeographed, they represent an easy, cheap, and effective method of stirring up trouble.

The pressure is terrific—buy, buy, buy. Widely publicized campaigns to sell the Daily Worker are regular features of Party life. The more communist material a member reads, the less time he has for reading “capitalist propaganda.”

Cultural Indoctrination

Even if a member faithfully went to school, studied at home, and read Party literature, he would still have spare time during which non-Party thoughts might seep in. That would never do.

Every facet of the member’s life, even when he plays the piano, sings, goes to a movie, sees a painting, or reads a book, must be saturated with communism. Art doesn’t exist for art’s sake. Art, as Lenin taught, is a weapon of the class struggle. “Culture” becomes an indoctrinal spray seeking to control every part of the member’s heart, mind, and soul.

The member is subjected to a barrage of Russian, satellite, and native communist “cultural” propaganda. There are art exhibits, folk dances, theater groups, nationality bazaars. Many of these are carried on through front groups and hence not labeled as communist. The Daily Worker advertises Soviet movies, which are often shipped to Party units across the country. Short stories, novels, and poetry come in steady streams. Forums extol the virtue of Soviet life. Here, the communists say, is the new “people’s culture,” bringing the “real truth.”

The theme is always the same: Russia and communism represent a new world of “hope,” “promise,” and “achievement,” creating “communist man” in all his “remarkable spiritual qualities.” The United States is a “weak,” “decadent,” and “sick” country, dominated by vulgar tastes, thievery, and debauched living. No wonder, according to the Daily Worker, the Soviet soldier in World War II spent his time reading Shakespeare and Tolstoy while the “uncultured” GI read assorted inferior trash!

The member is urged to read Soviet literature and see the “glorious” communist “hero” working his heart out for the regime. This “hero”—usually just an ordinary, plain fellow (like the member)—can repair a blast furnace in one day instead of the usual six to eight weeks. Why? For the glory of communism. Another “hero” is sad and disheartened. He has bungled his factory job. He wasn’t doing his share. But a strong arm is around his shoulders, the arm of an experienced worker. He’ll show the worker “hero” how to break production records, for communism—when in real life he might be headed for a slave labor camp.

Day after day this propaganda is dinned into the member.

Children are included. The Party feels that the basic responsibility of indoctrinating the child lies with the communist parents. A member in Buffalo announced, for instance, that a class for children, aged five to seven, would be held in the basement of her home. Ironically, it was called “Sunday school” because it was held on Sunday. But, the member added, this school was not to teach “the word of God or in any way teach religion.” The instruction obviously would be directed to the fundamentals of Marxism.

Books are published for children. One, Our Lenin, is a story of Lenin’s life, translated and adapted “for American children.” In this an American worker is quoted: “‘It [the Soviet Union] will last forever, and we here will follow its example.’” It’s a steady diet of propaganda.

Suppose the member wants to write, paint, or compose music? He, too, must follow the Party line. His work must promote communism.

Some of the writings are very crude, but they get across the Party line. Here’s a poem that appeared in the Daily Worker shortly after Stalin’s death, eulogizing the Soviet dictator:

An artist wants to paint a flock of birds in a tree. That’s silly, the Party says. There’s no communist message. Here’s how his idea can be improved.

Make one bird a white dove and, presto, you’re right in line with the communist “peace” offensive. Another improvement: Put a mean-looking capitalist “warmonger” under the tree taking aim at the peaceful dove.

Just the name of the picture often gives a communist twist. A drawing of a sleeping child, cuddling her baby bear, couldn’t be labeled “Slumber.” No propaganda there. “Too Hungry to Stay Awake” would be better, to show how people are starving in the United States. A young lady walking down the street smiling and confident isn’t “Girl on a Stroll” but “Battler for Peace.” The beauty and power of any work of art must be measured by “the degree to which it is permeated with the ideas of Communism.” This is the way, the communists say, that the masses can be directed.

The Party, in the final analysis, has an interpretation for the whole of human life. Nothing is untouched: science, psychology, sex, love, care of children, literature, history, the origin and end of life. Everything must be absorbed. Communism is a unitary, all-embracing, and absolute system.

Not only the present but also the past must be controlled. Communist writers have already reinterpreted American history, claiming that the Party is today the true inheritor of the traditions of 1776. They seek to associate themselves with such men as Paine, Jefferson, and Lincoln, whom they identify as “advanced fighters” for the ideals that the communists claim they now represent. For example, the Daily Worker on Lincoln’s Birthday in 1953 said, “Lincoln’s heritage is carried forward mainly by the working class and its Marxist party.”

In literature they seek to pervert such writers as Walt Whitman and Mark Twain, claiming, for instance, that Whitman’s love of freedom is the story of their own aims. “... poet and prophet of a people’s democracy” was the Daily Worker’s salute.

The Party conducts an annual pilgrimage to Whitman’s tomb in Harleigh Cemetery, Camden, New Jersey. Mother Bloor, the “old mother” of communism, made a fetish of her alleged friendship with Whitman.

Twain’s life, a Worker article asserted, was an inspiration to fight against “imperialism and war.”

Carried to its logical conclusion, this attitude creates different holidays, customs, and habits for the communists. Christmas, for example, is exploited for propaganda purposes; it is a time to send out cards for “peace,” to urge amnesty for communists in jail, to appeal for funds. It holds no religious significance for Party members. A communist America would celebrate the birth of Karl Marx rather than the birth of Christendom.

This constant saturation with communism, through Party education, literature, the press, and “culture,” has had its effect in shaping communist man. A comrade writing in Party Voice, organ of the New York State Communist Party, frankly admitted what is happening:

So far has the creation of communist man gone that, in some instances, Party members are embarrassed to salute the American flag. The Party Voice comrade tells how embarrassed he felt as he hesitantly saluted the flag at a Memorial Day parade. “At times I looked up and down the street and hoped, inwardly, that none of my ‘left’ friends were looking at me.” So great is the erosion of patriotism that the author even poses this question: “Should Communists know the verses of the Star-Spangled Banner?”

This is how communism is working to promote an alien way of life in America. The whole story, however, is still not told. How are all these facets of Party life held together? What gives a ruthless uniformity to Party actions? We must now turn to a study of Party discipline, a system of terror that holds Party members in the grip of an unbelievable tyranny.