Where have all the old reds gone?

[The New Left]

Where have all the members from the SA communist party gone, in the 30's and 40's, I believe, there were 500, 000 members. Where'd they all go to? They couldn't have just vanished.

[rouchambeau]

I think they all realised that parties are not really capable of damaging the system. Politics have all been recuperated to the point that they must be opposed outright.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Yeah, that's probably it.

...

Actually, you sort of answered your own question. The party was that big in the 1930's and 40's. A lot (most?) of those folks are dead, now. Quite a few of those remaining alive still have sympathies I'm sure.

You have to remember that these large parties were often hurt by government repression, the "Red scare" and the like, and many people were driven out of their ranks.

[bootleg42]

They're probably dead and their children are probably liberal demoracts or neo-conservatives. The reason of this is because the %age of people in the U.S. became part of the "Labor Aristocracy" after they "soften capitalism" in the U.S.

[hajduk]

Josip Visarionovich Stalin most of them send to Sibir,other are gone in DDR

[Panda Tse Tung]

In the Netherlands it was because the CP started to become reformist and thus it's members. Then after a lot of events and attacks by the government many got discouraged. Or just 'figured' that Communism isn't really 'their' ideology after all, or they got disillusioned for several reasons.

It's really not a single factor, but a whole series of factors.