Louis C. Fraina (1892 - 1953) A founding member of the American Communist Party, Fraina quick rise was met with an even faster fall. After a financial scandal with the Communist International, Fraina stopped political work for almost two decades. Fraina began his political career in the Socialist Party, which he quickly left for the DeLeonist Socialist Labor Party. Fraina levelled criticism at DeLeon as well, saying DeLeon approached the question of socialism as a "Jesuit."
Fraina was an opponent of WWI and a relentless supporter of the Russian Revolution. His work, The Proletarian Revolution in Russia, brought the writings of Lenin and the Bolsheviks to the United States for the first time.
Fraina re-joined the Socialist Party in order to take part in the party's Left Wing. After the Left-Wing's expulsion from the Socialist Party, Fraina took part in the unification and the creation of the American Communist Party.
In 1918, Fraina wrote "Revolutionary Socialism
A Study in Socialist Reconstruction", influential in the American communist movement at the time but remains criminally underappreciated today. One of the topics Fraina grappled with in the book was Laborism, as a tactic, it's application in England and Australia, and its potential in the USA. Fraina came out swinging and fully opposed to Laborism as a tactic, calling it "reactionary" and noted the anti-working class, pro-imperialist and pro-capitalist record of the Labor parties in England and Australia. Fraina opposed any creation of a Labor Party in the USA at the expense of a united Communist Party and any alliances with it by the Communist Party. This earned him the title of "ultra-leftist" by future figurehead of American Trotskyism, James Cannon. Other targets of Fraina are the trade unions, whom he recognized as a conservative element impossible to be won for the cause of revolution or made into "revolutionary organs."
Fraina's later career was unfortunately marked by scandal. Fraina was accused of being a spy for the US government, a charge that he was cleared of but left distrust for him within the movement. The nail that sealed Fraina's career was his embezzelment of Comintern funds meant to be distributed to various socialist groups. Fraina left organized political action after the scandal.
The brutality of Stalin caused Fraina to become dissillusioned with communism. This did not stop police harassment and harassment by McCarthy, who threatened to deport him back to Italy. Fraina died in 1953 waiting for the status on his citizenship.
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Album Historical Figures
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