Explain Carol Swain -- Part III: The Vanguard Party
Black Americans played a disproportionately large role in the Communist Party USA and other similar movements. Harry Haywood was an early activist that tried to tie communist beliefs with racial questions. In Part I of this series I explained the failure of explicit Marxism among American black voters. In Part II the process of their gravitation toward being committed Democrats throughout the US was explored further. Here the focus will switch back to communism in the USA, among black Americans, and finally its relationship with the Democratic Party. The objective here is to answer the question of whether that party has begun to embrace certain principles of that tendency. The Old Left and racial issues For communist movements in the United States the early 20th century was an era of major potential, clashing with authorities, and then ostracism and disappointment. When compared to the repression against political dissidents in actual communist countries like the USSR, t