The German Communist Party in Saxony, 1924-1933

2006 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 146-148
Author(s):  
Benjamin Lapp
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Weimar Republic ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Party Leadership ◽  
Revisionist History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Party Members ◽  
The Relationship

Norman LaPorte's The German Communist Party in Saxony, 1924-1933 contributes new and important material to the major debates on the history of German Communism during the Weimar Republic. Laporte distinguishes between an older historiography, which focused on the top-down imposition of a Stalinist model, with a post-1960s revisionist “history from below.” The revisionist historians explained Communist behavior “as a response to a range of social and economic conditions that influenced the mentality of party members and the choices of the party leadership” (p. 22). LaPorte sees his own work as a step beyond both schools. Following Weber, he argues that policy was indeed formulated from above, and he suggests that the revisionists have downplayed the significance of the “top-down system of control” in the KPD. At the same time, the party leaderships' directives were interpreted and responded to in specific political contexts. The rank-and-file could not be easily forced to carry out policies that “failed to account for the realities of their own specific political environment,” and the attempt of the party leadership to impose ideological uniformity, Laporte argues, “destabilized” the relationship between the party and its membership. Hence, he views his work as an attempt to fuse history “from above and below” (p. 31).

Discordant Comrades: Identities and Loyalties on the South African Left By Allison Drew. Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate, 2000. 282p. $74.95

2002 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 236-237
Author(s):  
Courtney Jung
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
The South ◽  
New Information ◽  
History Of ◽  
Party Members ◽  
South African Politics ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
History Of The South

Drawing on a wealth of new information made available by the opening of the Comintern archives, Drew sheds the light of hindsight on the relationship between the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) and, in turn, the Soviet Comintern, the South African liberation movement, and the white and black trade union movements in the first half of the twentieth century. This rich book makes a unique contribution to our understanding of ties between the Comintern and its satellite parties as well as the early history of the South African antiapartheid movement. There are only two other major books on this period of party history, and both are memoirs of party members who try to establish a particular version of the record. Drew contests the teleology of their accounts of communist party history and instead weaves a contingent narrative that identifies major turning points that narrowed the possibility for a radical reorientation of the party (p. 281). It was not inevitable that the party would split and finally dissolve in the way it did—other outcomes were possible, almost until the end. That they were not taken was the layered result of personal and ideological rivalries and party alliances that made socialism, and socialists, perpetually weak and vulnerable in the context of South African politics.

Unions and the Popular Front: The West Coast Waterfront in the 1930s

1986 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 59-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Nelson
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
The United States ◽  
Popular Front ◽  
Human Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
Patterns Of Behavior ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Made In

Recent discussions of the history of American communism have generated a good deal of controversy. A youthful generation of “new social historians” has combined with veterans of the Communist party to produce a portrait of the Communist experience in the United States which posits a tension between the Byzantine pursuit of the “correct line” at the top and the impulses and needs of members at the base trying to cope with a complex reality. In the words of one of its most skillful practitioners, “the new Communist history begins with the assumption that … everyone brought to the movement expectations, traditions, patterns of behavior and thought that had little to do with the decisions made in the Kremlin or on the 9th floor of the Communist Party headquarters in New York.” The “new” historians have focused mainly on the lives of individuals, the relationship between communism and ethnic and racial subcultures, and the effort to build the party's influence within particular unions and working-class constituencies. Overall, the portrait has been critical but sympathetic and has served to highlight the party's “human face” and the integrity of its members.

A Historical Review of Popular Music and Social Change in Taiwan

2006 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 120-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ho Wai-Chung
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Historical Review ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
Martial Law ◽  
Social Content ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis article considers the relationship between popular music and the power of the state through an analysis of the history of Taiwan and the settings within which popular music was constructed and transformed by contentious political and social groups in the twentieth century. The historical formation of Taiwanese society falls into three distinct stages: Japanese colonization between 1895 and 1945; the Kuomintang's (KMT) military rule between 1947 and 1987; and the period from the end of martial law in 1987 to the resurgence of Taiwanese consciousness in the early 2000s. The evolution of Taiwan's popular music has always been connected with the state's production of new ideologies in line with changing socio-political and economic conditions, and this music still embodies a functional social content.

The Comintern

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Vatlin ◽  
Stephen A. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Popular Front ◽  
Linguistic Communication ◽  
Policy Conflict ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
The Third ◽  
Soviet Foreign Policy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

The essay falls into two sections. The first examines the history of the Third International (Comintern) from its creation in 1919 to its dissolution in 1943, looking at the imposition of the Twenty-One Conditions on parties wishing to join the new International in 1920, the move from a perspective of splitting the labour movement to one of a united front in the early 1920s, the shift to the sectarian ‘third period’ strategy in 1928, and the gradual emergence of the popular front strategy in the mid-1930s. It examines the institutions of the Comintern and the Stalinization of national communist parties. The second section looks at some issues in the historiography of the Comintern, including the extent to which it was a tool of Soviet foreign policy, conflict over policy within the Executive Committee of the Comintern (ECCI), and the relationship of ECCI to ‘national sections’, with a particular focus on the Vietnamese Communist Party. Finally, it discusses problems of cultural and linguistic communication within the Comintern.

scholarly journals A Welcome Guest?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura De Giorgi
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Chinese Revolution ◽  
Actual Reality ◽  
Important Member ◽  
Communist China ◽  
History Of ◽  
Personal Archives

Velio Spano was an important member of the Italian Communist Party, who visited Communist China in the crucial period of Autumn 1949 and wrote the first book in Italian about the Chinese revolution. Often mentioned in works dedicated to the history of Sino-Italian relations, this event has never been thoroughly studied. The recent availability of Spano’s personal archives offer the possibility to better investigate his visit to China and to place it in the complex political environment of that period. This paper is a first attempt to use Spano's personal records about his stay to explore the actual reality of his experience and the implications of his presence in 1949 China.

scholarly journals A Social Analysis of KPD Supporters: The Hamburg Insurrectionaries of October 1923

1983 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Weimar Republic ◽  
Social Analysis ◽  
Industrial City ◽  
Regional Sources ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Bases ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sources Of Support ◽  
Party Members

Although much has been written about the history of the German Communist Party, little is known about who actually belonged to it or supported it. Yet knowledge of the social composition of German Communism is an important, in many ways crucial, factor in assessing the role of the KPD in the development of the German workers' movement during the Weimar Republic. Aside from a census of party members conducted by the national leadership in 1927, and voting returns in elections, there are no national sources on which to base an analysis of the social structure of the Communist movement in Germany. Local and regional sources, though sporadically preserved and until now little exploited, offer an alternative way to determine the social bases of German Communism. This article contributes to the history of the KPD by attempting to analyze one source about support for German Communism in a major industrial city. In October 1923 the KPD staged an insurrection in Hamburg, resulting in the arrest and conviction of over 800 persons. A social analysis of these known insurrectionaries can indicate some of the sources of support for the KPD and suggest some of the ways in which the KPD fit into the history of the German working class and workers' movement.

Die radikale Linke als Massenbewegung. Kommunisten in Harburg-Wilhelmsburg 1918–1933

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-200
Author(s):  
Marcel Bois
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Weimar Republic ◽  
Mass Movement ◽  
Turning Points ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Great Strength ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
History Of ◽  
Regional History ◽  
The City

AbstractIn the mid-1990s, Klaus-Michael Mallmann published his study on 'Communists in the Weimar Republic'. His newly established social-historical approach on the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) has since been taken up by other historians. One of them is Christian Gotthardt, who recently published a book with the promising title 'The Radical Left as a Mass Movement'. Here he focuses on the regional history of the KPD in the city of Harburg-Wilhelmsburg. The great strength of his book is the detailed description of the local Communists' day-to-day work. However, when turning his attention to the turning points of KPD history, the problems associated with adopting Mallman's social-historical approach become obvious. For example this leads them both to reject the theory of 'Stalinisation'. The article shows that Gotthardt, as well as Mallmann, had come to questionable conclusions on the development of the KPD of the Weimar Republic by focusing on events outside of their context in time and space.

scholarly journals Przygotowania do XI Zjazdu PZPR w świetle dokumentów KW PZPR w Poznaniu. Wybór źródeł

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 233-262
Author(s):  
Łukasz Komorowski
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
National Archive ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Party Members ◽  
Source Of Information ◽  
Selection Of

W wyniku klęski w wyborach parlamentarnych w czerwcu 1989 r. rozpoczął się rozkład Polskiej Zjednoczonej Partii Robotniczej. Zainicjowana jesienią tego roku dyskusja na temat przyszłości partii komunistycznej w Polsce miała zatrzymać ten proces oraz przygotować jej członków do XI Zjazdu PZPR. W artykule zaprezentowano odnalezione w Archiwum Państwowym w Poznaniu dokumenty Wojewódzkiej Komisji Zjazdowej. Stanowią one interesujące źródło do badań nad dziejami PZPR i mentalnością jej członków w województwie poznańskim w schyłkowym okresie jej istnienia. Preparations to the 11th Congress of the Polish United Workers’ Party in the light of the documents of the Povincial PUWP Committee in Poznań. Selection of resources The defeat of the Polish United Workers’ Party in the parliamentary elections of June 1989 marked the beginning of its demise. In the autumn of 1989, a discussion was initiated concerning the future of the communist party in Poland, which was meant to prevent this process and prepare party members for the 11th PUWP congress. The article presents documents of the 262 Łukasz Komorowski Provincial Congress Committee found in the National Archive in Poznań. They are an interesting source of information on the history of PUWP and the mindset of its members in the Poznań province in the final period of the party’s existence.

scholarly journals Behind Closed Doors?

Aspasia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-60
Author(s):  
Cristina Diac
Keyword(s):  
Central Committee ◽  
Male Dominance ◽  
Spousal Violence ◽  
Official Discourse ◽  
Party Control ◽  
The Family ◽  
History Of ◽  
Party Members ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
State Socialist

This article explores the relationship between men, spousal violence, and politics in Romania in the 1950s and aims to analyze how the Romanian Communist Party (RCP), as an institution, dealt with spousal violence perpetrated by its officials. The RCP was a significant player within state socialist regime. Thus, the way the Party managed the discussed cases of spousal violence gives an idea about how gender relations functioned in reality, beyond the official discourse and the letter of the law. This article argues that spousal violence was the result of inequality within the family and a manifestation of patriarchy and male dominance. This analysis draws on files from the archive of the Committee of Party Control of the Central Committee of the RCP, which contains cases of Party members with a history of spousal violence.

Unions and the Popular Front: The West Coast Waterfront in the 1930s

1986 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 59-78
Author(s):  
Bruce Nelson
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
The United States ◽  
Popular Front ◽  
Human Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
Patterns Of Behavior ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Made In

Recent discussions of the history of American communism have generated a good deal of controversy. A youthful generation of “new social historians” has combined with veterans of the Communist party to produce a portrait of the Communist experience in the United States which posits a tension between the Byzantine pursuit of the “correct line” at the top and the impulses and needs of members at the base trying to cope with a complex reality. In the words of one of its most skillful practitioners, “the new Communist history begins with the assumption that … everyone brought to the movement expectations, traditions, patterns of behavior and thought that had little to do with the decisions made in the Kremlin or on the 9th floor of the Communist Party headquarters in New York.” The “new” historians have focused mainly on the lives of individuals, the relationship between communism and ethnic and racial subcultures, and the effort to build the party's influence within particular unions and working-class constituencies. Overall, the portrait has been critical but sympathetic and has served to highlight the party's “human face” and the integrity of its members.

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