SPLIT IN U.S. COMMUNISM

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28128, 17 November 1956, Page 13

SPLIT IN U.S. COMMUNISM

“Hierarchy In

Chaos”

(N.Z. Press Assnciatit n—Cnpunght) NEW YORK, Nov. 16 Serious splits in the United States and Canadian Communist Parties over the Soviet Union’s action in Hungary were reported today. A North American newspaper Alliance correspondent, Martin Arundel, said today that the Red Army’s smashing of the Hungarian revolt had thrown the already widely-split United States Communist hierarchy into chaos. “American Red bosses have been at each others’ throats for control of the party since the current Moscow autocracy began battering the Stalin deity myth last February and the rift is now said to be beyond reconciliation.” Arundel said. “One faction, led by the ‘Daily Worker” editor, John Gates, is for the right of all people to rule themselves in complete independence, and opposes the use of force against those people, no matter who originated it. He wants absolute independence from the Kremlin. “Gates’s chief opponents, headed by the party’s general secretary, Eugene Dennis, contend that the Nagy Government of Hungary was not oriented in a democratic socialist direction, and that the Kremlin was fully justified : n using Soviet military might to overthrow it. This is a sort of diluted Titoist position.” Arundel continued: “The ailing, 75-year-old Communist chairman, William Z. Foster, leader of the die-hard Stalin defenders within the party bureaucracy, has not yet publicly expressed himself on the Soviet Army’s invasion of Hungary. But a source close to Foster says the latter considers the Hungarian revolt ‘a Fascist counter-revolution’ and.believes it was necessary to use Soviet troops to stamp it out. He insists on close ties with Moscow.

“At present, Gates’s adherents are believed to be in the majority on the Communist national committee, to control the biggest chunk of the party press and to have the allegiance of close to 70 per cent, of the party duespayers.” The Canadian Press reported from Toronto that a serious split in the Labour - Progressive (Communist) Party oyer Russian anti-Semitism and the Soviet’s crushing of the Hungarian revolt had resulted in the resignations of two high-ranking members of the party’s national executive. A party source was reported as saying the two men were Messrs Harry Binder and Norman Penner.

Last month seven Quebec Communists resigned from the national executive and the party.