McCarthyism and the Conservative Political Climate of Today

McCarthyism and the Conservative Political Climate of Today

FOR ALMOST fifty years, the words "McCarthy" and "McCarthyism" have stood for a shameful period in American political history. During this period, thousands of people lost their jobs and hundreds were sent to prison. The U.S. government executed Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, two Communist Party (CP) members, as Russian spies. All of these people were victims of McCarthyism, the witch-hunt during the 1940s and 1950s against Communists and other leftists, trade unionists and civil rights activists, intellectuals and artists. Named for the witch-hunt's most zealous prosecutor, Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.), McCarthyism was the most widespread and longest lasting wave of political repression in American history. In order to eliminate the alleged threat of domestic Communism, a broad coalition of politicians, bureaucrats, and other anticommunist activists hounded an entire generation of radicals and their associates, destroying lives, careers, and all the institutions that offered a left-wing alternative to mainstream politics and culture. That anticommunist crusade...used all the power of the state to turn dissent into disloyalty and, in the process, drastically narrowed the spectrum of acceptable political debate.[1]

Since the 1950s, most Americans have condemned the McCarthyite witch-hunts and show trials. By large majorities, Americans oppose firing communists from their jobs or banning communist speakers or books.[2] But over the past several years, increasing numbers of historians, writers and intellectuals have sought to minimize, explain away and justify McCarthyism. A spate of books and articles touting new historical evidence has tried to demonstrate that communism posed a real danger to American society in the 1940s and 1950s. They argue that even if some innocent people suffered and McCarthy was reckless, he was responding to a real threat.[3] As a result, Joe McCarthy doesn't look so irresponsible in hindsight.

The tendency to go soft on McCarthyism has been evident in popular culture as well. The presentation of a special Lifetime Achievement Award to director Elia Kazan at the 1999 Oscar ceremony is the most flagrant and controversial example. Another example of the current vogu...

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... more important that socialists and others on the left who understand the historical and political significance of McCarthyism condemn it openly, in all its forms. We must stand up against all those who promote it, apologize for it, concede to it in any way.

McCarthyism wasn't just directed at those in the CPUSA prepared to follow Stalin's wishes to the letter. It was directed against rank-and-file CP activists who had fought long and hard in the labor and civil rights struggles of the 1930s and 1940s. It was directed against others on the left, from liberals in the university and the government to Trotskyists and other radicals and revolutionaries. It severely weakened the labor movement and contributed disastrously to a decline in union power and militancy that we are only now beginning, slowly, to recover from.

Socialists make no compromises with McCarthyism or with Stalinism. Not only is there no contradiction between an uncompromising, unrelenting protest against McCarthyism and a rejection of the corrupt, self-defeating politics of Stalinism. These positions go hand in hand. They are both essential in today's fight for workers' self-emancipation and socialism from below.