Browder seeks to extend basis of Communism
Communists, by dissolving their political party and reorganizing under the name of the Communist Political Association, hope to gain collaboration with “broader circles” of American life, Earl Browder, general secretary of the Communist Party of America since 1930 and president of the newly-formed association, said at the close of the Communist convention yesterday in the Riverside Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.
Browder, elected to head the new association by acclamation, explained that the political party has been an obstacle to such collaboration. He added that other obstacles remain such as “the Red scare and anti-Communist ideology fostered by Hitler’s propaganda organization.”
In placing Browder’s name in nomination, William Z. Foster, veteran lender, described the first president of the new association as “one of the finest agitators and educators” America has produced.
Commenting on German criticism of the Communists’ reorganization, Browder said he was happy the Communists had “displeased Berlin.”
“It was as I expected and predicted,” he said, referring to a Nazi DNB broadcast that assailed the new setup as a move to stop criticism of United States and Russian collaboration.
The broadcast stated that Berlin political circles viewed dissolution of the party as a “technical maneuver” to stifle attacks by President Roosevelt’s enemies against the “Roosevelt-Bolshevist coalition.”
‘Comrades’ no longer
In his closing address to the convention, Browder addressed his audience as “Ladies and Gentlemen,” dispensing with the customary Communist greeting “Comrades.”
A national committee of 40 members and 20 alternates will govern the new association. Among those elected as members of the committee, which includes all 27 members of the governing body of the dissolved party, were City Councilmen Peter V. Cacchione and Benjamin J. Davis Jr.