Red Diapers: GROWING UP IN THE COMMUNIST LEFT Paperback – September 1, 1998

While I haven't finished this book, my impression thus far is: many of the men, especially those who emigrated from Eastern Europe were men who ruled their families or wives with a degree of dominance that certainly didn't impress me. It was hard for me to swallow the stories that many of the members of the CPUSA, generally well read, in some cases, well educated, hadn't had more doubts about the information emerging from sources that detailed the excesses of Stalin. A "party line" for sure was adhered to rigidly, it seems, and there is not really anyway to say: we hadn't heard of the deeply troubling excesses of Stalin prior to the Krushchev revelations. The publication date was 1998. By then, the Venona Transcripts of deciphered GRU and NKVD/KGB messages that revealed a large number of members of the CPUSA had actually, wittingly or unwittingly, contributed information to Soviet spies embedded in American government agencies as well as every day life in the United States. Venona information showed that many CPUSA members were aware they were passing information to men and women who convinced them they were helping the Soviet Union's cause. McCarthy, perhaps given some tidbits of information from Hoover, completely misrepresented the extent to which CPUSA was heavily infiltrated by communists who were spies. And the terror campaign directed against members of the CPUSA was reprehensible. But the often blind obedience to the Party Line somehow lessened my belief that many of these figures within the CPUSA were without some contribution to the better position Stalin's regime had in it's pursuit of global power against the United States. The summer camps and singing and attempts to further workers rights ... interesting. But, when stacked up against what we know now, and what had to be whispered about among members of the CPUSA, says: why all the fear of speaking ill of Stalin and his regime? What did that say to the average member about the nature of communism? Venona made clearer that at least one of the Rosenbergs was clearly a traitor. Ethel's guilt was circumstantial and her death inappropriate. Without doubt, Venona clarifies that Alger Hiss and several others uncovered by counter espionage efforts of the FBI, CIA, British MI-6, were among the most accomplished liars in American history. The network of who knew who, when compared to the Venona revelations, might change some of the nature of why some parents were unwilling to discuss what they knew, and when, before many dropped their membership in CPUSA. It seems to me that yes, these children often were heavily involved in the civil rights movement; anti-war movement in the Vietnam War; in union leadership or unionization in pre-WW II, there seems to be a fair degree of personal problems associated with growing up in the families of CPUSA. Mixed feelings. My discomfort came more from how some of the women were treated by domineering men; and how children were ignored or sucked into a world of intrigue that again, was part and parcel of family members being communist. I would like to see some of these memoirs updated after the writers had studied the Venona Transcripts. Therein, many names were named who were complicit in at least knowledge of those who have been uncovered as involved in espionage. Within each family, the names and associations of people in the Party would undoubtedly show that not everyone within the Party was "just" a communist in America.

5 stars because it was fascinating. I wish I had and update on the lives of the people who shared their stories but their sharing helped me make sense of things that I had only see through a child's eyes.

This book contributes to our understanding of the strengths & weaknesses of the Left in this country. We are crippled by a paucity of historical treatments of the U.S. left in general & of the history of the C.P.U.S.A in particular.

Rachel Ben-Avi's portion is extremely well written and gives a compelling insight to her childhood.

-- the story of his life. I grew up small-town in the 50's when communists had horns. These people's childhoods were, compared to mine, like something from another planet. I didn't meet a socialist until I went to college. Looking back:
1. the risk of internal communist subversion causing an American communist revolution was equal to today's risk of America becoming a moslem state under sharia -- nil. However the USSR was a threat and terrorism is a threat.
2. the Communist Party USA allowed itself to become merely an arm of Soviet policy
3. the people in this book and their parents suffered from thuggish and illegal harassment from the US government
4. but I am very relieved that their political philosophy lost.
Being idealogs, they avoided any disconfirmatory facts. They were shocked in 1956 when Khrushchev told them that Stalin was a Bad Guy.

Most of the narrators look back with pride and wistfulness. Missing is any apology for supporting a system that caused mass murder, mass starvation, and Gulags.

If you're looking for information on the American communist movement, there's plenty out there to read. This is a great read that showcases more than the happenings, but the perspectives and personal stories of those who grew up in it. I recommend it to everyone looking to know more than the McCarthy era propaganda on the topic.

If I had read nothing but the introduction I would have been more than rewarded. For one who belongs to this select group it answered many questions I have had about some of my strange, interesting and frustrating characteristics, not too late in the 78 years of my life. I am grateful to the authors and wish i had discovered it sooner.

This is a unique anthology of memoirs of kids who grew up in the 40's and 50's, in the "pink" shadow of the American Communist Party. Most of the nearly fifty contributors of this book are children of Eastern Jewish immigrants. Here are their fascinating memories: Joyous ones of Pioneer Camp, The Daily Worker, public rallies in support of women, workers, minorities, and disarmament. Fearful recollections of the Rosenberg executions, McCartyism, clandestine CP meetings, FBI surveillance, and the dreaded knock on the door in the middle of the night. Disillusioned remembrances of Khrushchev's denouncement of Stalin and the devastating revelation that "Uncle Joe" and the "Workers' Paradise" of the USSR were not what American Communists naively believed. Few of these writers still belong to the CP. A small number speak resentfully of parents who put the Party before family, exposing their children to bigotry and violence or to the anxiety and deprivation of a life "underground". The Party's over. But the great majority of these writers proudly retain their strong leftist values and ideals, and continue to practice the social activism instilled during childhood. This book gives a human and humane dimension to a misled but often wrongfully vilified American political movement.