The American Communist Party treated fascism as a capitalist ruling-class instrument alien to workers

Evidence

At the time of Wright’s sojourn in the party (1934–42), the primary focus of the movement in Western Europe and the United States was the defeat of fascism. It was a fundamental tenet of party work that fascism was an instrument of the ruling class designed to meet the crisis of world capitalism embodied in the Depression. As such, fascism as an ideology was presumed to be alien to the working class. Earl Browder, as general secretary of the American Communist Party, had made this position abundantly clear in reports, speeches, and articles during the late 1930s. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1365

Categorization

• XREF: The party’s fascism theory here connects to why the CP could not grasp that proletarians themselves might embrace authoritarian movements—echoing earlier Frankfurt School debates on authoritarian character.