Fellow traveler
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In some political contexts the term fellow traveler refers to a person who sympathizes with the beliefs of a particular organization, but does not belong to that organization. The phrase must be understood as referring to people who "walk part of the way" with an organization, without committing themselves to it. Since the Russian Revolution and rise of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union, the term has most often been used for a sympathizer of Communism or particular Communist states, but who is nonetheless not a "card-carrying member" of a Communist party.
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[edit] The Russian Revolution
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the term "fellow traveler" (Russian language: poputchik; this was sometimes used untranslated in Central European countries in addition to the English term) was sometimes applied to Russian writers who accepted the revolution's ends but were not active participants. During the relatively open era of the New Economic Policy in the Soviet Union, some writers were able to write on subjects as they chose. During the following periods of repression, particularly after the ascendancy of Joseph Stalin and his widespread Great Purge, many intellectuals found their positions difficult. Writers as well as millions of political activists, teachers, farmers and ordinary people were arrested and sent to labor camps in Siberia, where many perished. Some intellectuals emigrated when the authorities refused to allow publication of anti-regime works, while others ceased writing altogether, sometimes under coercion.
[edit] Fellow travelers as Communist sympathizers
In Europe, the term was used to describe those who, without being Communist Party members of their respective countries, had Communist sympathies. They may have attended communist meetings, written in communist journals, and for good reason fought alongside communists against Franco's fascist government in Spain (in the 1930s), and similar rightist governments in Greece (in the late 1940s), and Latin America (in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s).
Many French and American journalists, intellectuals and artists in the 1930s and 1940s were described (and sometimes referred to themselves) as fellow travelers, including André Gide, André Malraux, Romain Rolland, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, and Martha Gellhorn.
[edit] The Greek Junta
The Greek military junta of 1967-1974 used the term Synodiporia (literally: The ones walking the street together or fellow travellers) as an umbrella term to denote leftist sympathisers and in general all domestic democratic opponents of the junta. Diethnis (i. e. international) Synodiporia was used by the Greek junta for the international supporters of the domestic leftist sympathisers and their allies.
[edit] In the United States
In the United States, the term has long been used to describe those who, while not Communist Party members, may hold views shared by Communists. Because of political controversies surrounding the subject as a result of the McCarthy hearings in the 1950s, the term in this context was often used as or considered to be a political pejorative.
As in Europe, in the 1920s and 1930s numerous American intellectuals sympathized or joined the Communist Party in the United States as young activists. In part this also reflected people's search for answers to social problems during the drastic dislocations of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl years, when the inequities of American society seemed overwhelming. As more information came out about government and Party activities in the Soviet Union, many of those people left the party in the United States.
From the 1940s on, membership in communism has been in decline in the United States. Information about widespread purges and show trials by Stalin as leader of the Soviet Union, and further shocking revelations about the crimes of his regime after his death caused many adherents to rethink their commitments.
Soviet aggressions against Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 had a similar effect. Discovery of Soviet funding of the CPUSA operating costs and espionage activity spread further disillusionment. In 1991, the party purged several hundred party members who had called for reform at the CPUSA's 25th national convention in Cleveland. It has not been a force on the left for some time.[1]
[edit] J. Edgar Hoover
J. Edgar Hoover, longtime director of the FBI, was extremely concerned in fighting the Communist Party in the United States. Some critics believed that he abused his office in his attempt to ferret out communists wherever he imagined them.
In his 1958 book, Hoover defined a "fellow traveler" as one of five types of dangerous subversives. [2] He believed any of them might promote the goal of a Communist overthrow of the United States government. The five types were:
- 1) The card-carrying Communist, one who openly admits membership in the Communist party.
- 2) The underground Communist, one who hides his Communist party membership.
- 3) The Communist sympathizer, a potential Communist because of holding Communist views. While the card-carrying Communist was known as a 'Red', he called the Communist sympathizer a 'Pink' or 'Pinko.'
- 4) The fellow traveler, someone not a potential Communist but nevertheless who may hold views shared by Communists. Hoover called fellow travelers a 'Pink' or 'Pinko.'
- 5) The dupes, a person who is obviously not a Communist or a potential Communist but whose views may coincide with some of those of the American Communists. Examples are a prominent religious leader who opposed increased military expenditures and war, or a prominent jurist who opposed Red-baiting tactics on civil liberty grounds. Hoover included dupes under the term of 'Pink' or 'Pinko.'
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Communist Party, U.S.A. Cnn.com.
- ^ Hoover, J. Edgar (1958). Masters of Deceit: The Story of Communism in America and How to Fight It. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 1-4254-8258-9.
