The Travail of U.S. Communists

Hardly had the leaders of the U.S. Communist Party proclaimed their newly discovered critical mind, then the workers of Poznan gave them a dramatic opportunity to exhibit it. Could the CP extend its “criticism” to areas unspecified in Khrushchev’s report, even to unpermitted areas? It was a test of newly acquired virtue which the devil himself might have devised.

On July 2 the Daily Worker answered the devil in a way that must have warmed his heart. Its editorial response to the suppression of the Polish workers’ strike might have come at any time in a thirty-odd year history of unthinking obedience. It admitted only as much as the Polish government had already admitted: that many justified grievances existed. And it made the same accusation as Radio Moscow had broadcast to the world:

“…this was no ‘spontaneous’ uprising, but a long planned instigation… pent-up grievances were exploited for ulterior motives...