William Z. Foster

William Edward Foster (February 25, 1881 - September 1, 1961), who renamed himself as William Z. Foster, born in Taunton, Massachusetts, was the long-time General Secretary of the Communist Party USA and trade union leader. In many ways a syndicalist at heart, he passed through the Socialist Party of America and the Industrial Workers of the World, as well as leading the drive to organize the packinghouse industry during World War I and leading the steel strike of 1919 before joining the Communist Party in 1921. While he continued to focus on the Party's work within organized labor, he largely subordinated his own political views to the policies declared by the Comintern throughout his years in and out of leadership of the Party.

Eclipse and return to power

Foster began to lose power within the Party, due to his imprisonment during the Party's convention in 1930 and his continuing differences with others in the Party over trade union policies. Foster suffered a heart attack in 1932 and was forced to step down as leader of the party in favor of Earl Browder. Sent to the Soviet Union for treatment, Foster's condition only grew worse.

Related Topics:
1930 - Heart attack - Earl Browder

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Foster returned in 1935, but was estranged from Browder and those who had risen to power in his absence. While the Party's trade union policies in the Popular Front era was close to what Foster had advocated in the 1920s, the Party's strength was not in the areas in which it had been active during the TUEL era — garment, railroads, and mining — but in the mass production industries with little history of union organization — automobile and electrical manufacturing, meatpacking, longshore on the west coast, maritime on the east coast, hard rock mining and lumber in the west and public transit in New York City. In the meantime the Party began building a small-scale personality cult around Browder and became a wholehearted supporter of the New Deal and, to a lesser extent, the Roosevelt administration. Foster became the "loyal opposition" to Browder within the CPUSA while remaining an unwavering supporter of Stalin.

Related Topics:
Popular Front - New York City - New Deal - Roosevelt

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However, when Browder was removed in 1945 due to the hostility of Moscow to his policies, Foster was reinstated as party leader. Foster had, in fact, been one of the most vocal opponents in 1944 of Browder's decision to rename the CPUSA as the Communist Political Association and to propose the continuation of the no-strike pledge after the end of World War II. The entire leadership of the Party came to Browder's defense then; the Comintern directed Foster to withdraw his criticisms.

Related Topics:
1945 - Moscow - 1944 - World War II

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Foster's letter to the National Committee subsequently formed the basis for the Duclos letter published as the Cold War began in 1945 that signaled the Soviet Union's change in line. The Party members who had denounced Foster and questioned his grasp of Marxism and his mental faculties a year earlier now condemned Browder as a class traitor. The CPA reestablished itself as the Communist Party USA and expelled Browder. While Foster nominally shared power with Eugene Dennis and John Williamson, he had the most prestige of the three.

Related Topics:
Cold War - Eugene Dennis - John Williamson

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Under Foster's leadership the Party took a harder line, both internationally and internally, shedding much of the "Americanist" rhetoric of Browder's dozen years in leadership. Foster published a 'new history' of America, which was highly praised in Moscow, translated in many languages and made a handbook of anti-American propaganda all over the world. Of it Browder wrote, "This extraordinary book interpreted the history of America from its discovery to the present, as an orgy of 'bloody banditry' and imperialism, enriching itself by 'drinking the rich red blood' of other peoples. Foster joined in the Thorez declaration of French Communist Maurice Thorez that said if the Soviet armies found it necessary to occupy all Western Europe the working people would greet them as liberators; the only thing missing was a direct welcome to Soviet armies in America itself."

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The Party campaigned vigorously for Henry A. Wallace's candidacy for President in 1948 — which produced disastrous results for the unions and union leaders associated with the Party within the CIO, which expelled most of them in 1950.

Related Topics:
Henry A. Wallace - 1948 - 1950

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In 1948 he was among the party leaders indicted for subversive activity under the Smith Act, but, because of his precarious health, he was not brought to trial. The Party began to implode as a result of these prosecutions, as many Party leaders chose to go underground after the Supreme Court upheld the conviction of the first tier of CPUSA leaders in United States v. Dennis, {{ussc|341|494|1951}}. Foster presided over a number of internal purges and became the object of a similar personality cult.

Related Topics:
Smith Act - United States v. Dennis

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Foster was a firm Stalinist and turned the party into an uncritical supporter of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He rallied the party's hard core when the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and Nikita Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin at the 1956 Twentieth Party Congress led to the exodus of 80 percent of the CPUSA's membership. Foster retired in 1957 and assumed the title of Chairman emeritus of the party to make way for the younger Gus Hall in an attempt to staunch the exodus from the party. The change was cosmetic, however, as Hall was as unwavering a defender of the Moscow line as his predecessor. Foster died in Moscow in 1961.

Related Topics:
Stalinist - Communist Party of the Soviet Union - 1956 Hungarian Revolution - Nikita Khrushchev - 1956 - Twentieth Party Congress - 1957 - Gus Hall - Moscow - 1961

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Foster was also the party's candidate for President of the United States in the 1924, 1928 and 1932 U.S. presidential elections.

Related Topics:
President of the United States - 1924 - 1928 - 1932 - U.S. presidential election

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