Earl Russell Browder, born on this day in 1891, was an American political activist, author, and leader within the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), serving as its General Secretary from 1930 to 1945.

Browder's primary political rival within the Party was William Z. Foster; the two sharply disagreed on what the organization's stance towards the Roosevelt administration should be. Foster was the more radical of the two, while Browder endorsed Roosevelt's "New Deal", offering critical support to his administration.

Browder was the chairman of CPUSA when the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (an agreement of non-aggression between the Soviet and Nazi governments), and the Party quickly changed from being militantly anti-fascist to only engaging in moderate criticism of Germany. CPUSA's membership declined by 15% in the following year.

Browder was an advocate for a cooperative relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States after World War II, and was sharply criticized for this by the French Communist Party, later revealed to have done so on orders from Moscow in the "Duclos Letter".

Due to the domestic Red Scare in the U.S. and Browder's ambitions clashing with the Soviet agenda, Browder was expelled from the Communist Party on February 5th, 1946.