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.

Foster's return to power

Ruthenberg died in 1926; Jay Lovestone took over his position as general secretary. The factional fighting between the Foster and Lovestone groups continued, but now became overshadowed by the larger struggle in the Soviet Union between Joseph Stalin and his opponents.

Related Topics:
1926 - Joseph Stalin

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A firm supporter of Joseph Stalin, Foster split with James P. Cannon in 1928 and supported his former ally's expulsion for Trotskyism. Foster was made General Secretary of the party in 1929 with the support of the Comintern, deposing Jay Lovestone, who was sympathetic to Bukharin and whose policies of American exceptionalism were anathema to Stalin's new Third Period line.

Related Topics:
Joseph Stalin - James P. Cannon - Trotskyism - General Secretary - 1929 - Comintern - Jay Lovestone - Bukharin - American exceptionalism - Third Period

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That Third Period line also called for creation of new, revolutionary unions outside the AFL. While Foster had always denounced dual unionism, he dutifully complied with the Comintern's directive, renaming the Trade Union Education League as the Trade Union Unity League. Foster and the Party also followed the line by denouncing Socialists as "social fascists" and attacking former allies in the African-American communities as bourgeois collaborators.

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In 1928 Foster and Marcel Scherer set up FAECT, the Federation of Architects, Engineers, Chemists, and Technicians, a secret apparatus front organization which had as its aim the infiltration of Communists into varies public and private technical organizations.

Related Topics:
Secret apparatus - Front organization

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