Oleksa Drachewych, <em>The Communist International, Anti-Imperialism and Racial Equality in British Dominions</em>

Reviewed by: The Communist International, Anti-Imperialism and Racial Equality in British Dominions by Oleksa Drachewych Gregory S. Kealey Oleksa Drachewych, The Communist International, Anti-Imperialism and Racial Equality in British Dominions (London and New York: Routledge 2019) This monograph began life as a McMaster PhD thesis. The author, currently at Western University, offers us a careful textual reading of the Communist International's (ci) shifting and developing positions on colonialism, imperialism, race, and ethnicity from its 1919 origins until its demise in 1943. He then analyzes these policies against the statements and behaviours of the Communist parties of Australia, Canada, and South Africa (cpa, cpc, and cpsa), respectively. His motive in doing so is to test the perennial question of national cps' relationship to ci directives. Were national cps simply subservient to the ci or did they operate with some degree of local autonomy? An old question obviously, but Drakewych's comparative methodology offers a fruitful strategy to pursue insights into a more subtle answer than much previous work. The work's structure contains two parts: Part I contains two chapters providing an in-depth survey of the Comintern's evolving positions on first the national and colonial question and then on race and ethnicity. Part II provides three, somewhat parallel, case studies of the cpsa and "The Native Republic Thesis," the cpc and the national question, and [End Page 364] the cpa and "White Australia." The book then closes with a conclusion that draws out the comparisons of the three cps and their relationship to the ci and a brief epilogue suggesting why such historical discussion of the communist experience is still relevant to contemporary struggles. Part I, not surprisingly, consists of close analysis of ci thinking and how it changed over time both in terms of the influence of Soviet leaders, from Lenin to Stalin, but also with shifting international circumstances such as the rise of Fascism. The initial ci congresses, especially the First and Second, promoted strong anti-imperialist positions and significant commitment to colonial liberation. The Third and Fourth saw some modification of these themes and began to differentiate types of colonies in terms of different stages of capitalist development but post Lenin the focus drifted with some notable individual exceptions such as Willi Munzenburg and M.N. Roy. With the Sixth Congress and the initiation of the Third Period local cps were left to figure out where they fit into the new stage of struggle, although Australia and Canada were slotted into the category of "secondary imperialist powers," a classification which caused considerable turmoil in the cpc as it tried to define Canada's position in the capitalist world. The demise of the Third Period at the Seventh Congress and the turn to the Popular Front to emphasize anti-Fascist struggles led to a Eurocentrism that deemphasized anti-imperialist and colonial struggles. The second chapter of Part I outlines the similar shifts in ci policy on fighting racial oppression. Here the dominance of the cpusa and its African-American leaders triumphed at the Sixth Congress in "The Native Republic Thesis," which prescribed national self-determination for African-Americans in the USA and for Africans in South Africa. Here, again the turn to the Popular Front at the Seventh Congress led to a de-emphasis on these struggles. In addition to the race question, the ci also struggled with its position on foreign workers in capitalist countries. This issue was of great significance in Canada where the cpc membership was dominated by its foreign-language affiliates, especially the Finnish, Ukrainian, and Jewish sections. The early Third Period effort to force Bolshevization and to abolish the language groups led to significant battles in the cpc. In the Canadian context there was the additional problem of the role of French Canadians. Finally, there was also the issue in the settler Dominions of indigenous peoples. Here the ci proved incapable of deploying any consistent strategy. The Native Republic Thesis provided guidance only in the South African case. It was not applied to the indigenous peoples of South or North America, nor Australia and New Zealand. This lacuna left room for the cpa to initiate a domestic progressive...

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