The Communist Party’s Last Revolutionary Years (1929-35)
By MIKE ELY
This analysis examines the period considered by some the “good years” (i.e. the revolutionary period from 1928-1935) of the Communist Party of the U.S. The piece was originally written in 1980 right after the author had left the coalfields.
It was based on research into this history but also the experience of trying to develop revolutionary organization among workers using a left-economist approach. It raises important questions about how revolutionary consciousness develops among the oppressed and speaks to issues around trade union organizing that have re-emerged among a new generation of revolutionaries.