Out of the Communist Past

Phil came to Boston in the midsummer of 1935. He was the district organizer of the Communist party. His arrival was fortuitous. It coincided with the meeting of the Seventh World Congress of the Comintern and the emergence of a new Party line. His predecessor in leadership was plodding and introspective, one of the Yeshiva brand of Marxists. Phil, on the contrary, was dynamic and brilliant, born to leadership. The two opposite personalities symbolized the transition or leap from the old line...