Vol. III No. 27, July 26, 1930

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Vol. III No. 27, July 26, 1930 TROTtKY ,°». NEW MAtfEt ^MILITANH»«l»It»l»e«l "M"wfce a Monti* toy the Commanlst lLeagaac> of America (€>ppositie»iuT) Vol. III. No. 27. Telephone: DRYdock 165S NEW YORK, N. Y| SATURDAY JULY, 26, PRICE 5 CENTS at Fish Committee Means A Fighting United Front Needed Against the Sharpening Offensive of the Capitalist Class The bubble of the Whalen documents racy, the aristocracy blamed this movement Union is the friend and ally of the inter- frequent play. has been loudly and derisively punctured. on the gold of the French regicides. The national revolution which is the only guar- As the counter-action to this capital- That clown and former police commissioner source of all evil, the Czarist bureaucracy antee that socialist society can be built up ist offensive, the workers must organize "Whalen presented these documents as had it, were the Jews. In our present epoch and maintained in any country. But the a fighting united front. To make th» "proof" that Amtorg the official Soviet trad- of proletarian struggle, the capitalists find development of the class struggle takes most powerful appeal to the masses in the ing agency in New York was the center of the key to all the riddles of the universe in place on the basis of the conditions in approaching elections, the Communist Par- Communist propaganda for the United . Moscow gold. The one thing they will each capitalist country. The world organi- Uy should demonstrate its re:)Hne|-i to States. not awmit is that the roots of the revolu- zation that fights for the establishment place itself at the head of a movement for Three witnesses called before the Fish tionary are sunk deep in the crisis of a of a chain of Soviet Republics is the Com- working class unity. The immediate ob- Committee have conclusively demonstrated class society that has outlived its historic munist International. The functions of jectives of this movement should be the from different angles that these "docu- usefulness. the Soviet Government and the Comintern release of all class war prisoners, federal, ments" are absolute and unadulterated for- Commissioned by Congress to investigate are sufficiently distinct without P. A. Bog- state and municipal grants for the relief geries. The first witness exposed sixteen Communist propaganda for the overthrow danov, the Amtorg head, having resort to of the workless, the enactment of unem- internal mistakes and discrepancies that of the government, the Fish Committee was Sokolnikov's worthless, dangerous and ployment insurance and old age pensions, pointed to their fabrication by Russian in reality an expedient to distract attention revisionist subterfuge at the Geneva Econ- the six hour day and the five day week, and white guards. A newspapermen testified from the misery of the unemployment crisis. omic Conference to the effect that capi- the recognition and extension of lar(je- that the "documents" had been offered for In line with this policy, the Fish Com- talist and socialist systems can cohabit the scale credits to the Soviet Union. sale in Washington six weeks before Whal- mittee made a rabid attack on Amtorg. It world peacefully side by side! —MAURICE SPECTOR en released them to the New York press. is no pleasure to the workers of Russia It is imperative to arouse the widest But the most deadly testimony came from to have to trade with the eneral Electric possible mass movement against this Fish the man in whose print-shop on East Tenth or Henry Ford but power in the United Committee and its probable consequences. The 16th Congress of street the letterheads of the Whaleu docu- States still lies in the hands of the capi- Elihu Root has already advanced the idea ments were printed. talist, not the working class. The devel- of creating a special secfet Federal police, No one in the least familiar with the opment of trade even under these condi- a sort of American Ochrana to spy more the C.P.S.U. history of the series to -which Whalen for- tions is, however, of direct interest to the effectively over the revolutionary workers. Convoked after two years of calculated geries belonged could have entertained the American working class. Amtorg bought Whether Root's proposal in this form is rea- manoeuvcring for factional advantage th» shadow of a doubt as to their true char- more than $107,000,000 of American goods lized at this time or not, the coming storm sixteenth congress of the Communist Par- acter . The Sisson documents of some years in 1928-9 and was planning to double that and stress period in the class struggle ty of the Soviet Union was one of the most ago, setting out to prove that Lenin and in the near future. The goods that Amtorg will mark more and more vicious attempts ominous events in the annals of the Octo- Trotsky were "German spies" could have purchases here mostly with hard cash go to place heavier shackles on the labor ber Revolution. There has been nothing been convincing only to such a product of towards facilitating the work of socialist movement. The Department of Justice will quite like it in the entire history of Bol- the New York Forward as Moissaye Olgin. construction in the Soviet Union and at be more extensively «nl«:dized and I\,s shevism. The celebrated Zinoviev letter could impose the same time inevitably alleviate unem- stool pigeon activities re-enforced. The Enthroned in the midst of the fawning only on the willing credulity of a social- ployment for thousands of American work- revolutionary press will have a constant ers. adulation of his faction agents ("Comrade imperialistl like Macdonald. struggle against being barred from the Duranty of the New York Times included) This exposcre will, of course not stay The baiting of Amtorg by the Fish Com- mails. The industrial espionage system will rose the sinister figure of Stalin, the man the activities of the Fish Committee. It is mittee aided by the Matthew Wolls consti- be intensified. The jailing of militants who against whose aims and methods Lenin the time-honored practise of the ruing class tutor, part and parcel of an attack on the organize the workers will gain momentum. warned in his last testament, striking a always to explain away "social unrest" as iniarests of the American working class. The capitalist campaign to terrorize the note of the most poignant alarm. Every a malicious foreign importation. When the The defense of the Soviet Union is their foreign born workers by the finger-print major leader of the October Revolution had masse:) were once struggling in England own best defense. This does not mean that and passport route will revive. The crimi- been eliminated and crushed by the bureau- for the blessings of parliamentary democ- the U.S.S.R. is any substitute for the ac- nal syndicalism and sedition laws of the cracy and its intrigue. But what was worSe tion of the American proletariat. The Soviet various states will be brought into more —or an accompaniment—the Party moment- arily lies prostrate. A measure of the degeneracy that hag set in, is the spectacle of the Right lead- ers Rykov and Tomsky and others who were The Mass Workers Join the Opposition! compelled by Stalin to drink the bitterest! drcks of personal and political humiliation. George J. Saul Also Demands TKat Party Reinstate Our Group For such self-abasement there is absolute- Comrade Saul haa addressed a state- ly no Bolshevist tradition. Lenin never Por the balance of the summer period, the Kansas and is making his way Bast and ment to the Central Executive Committee South for his trial in South Carolina. The conceived of such a thing against his op- Militant has been compelli tl to change of the Communist Party, in which he de- ponents inside the Party in the most des- its frequency o£ issue to a semi-monthly Left Opposition welcomes comrade Saul clares his support for the platform of the into his ranks. The following represents perate days ot the civil war. But the key- basis. This change, which we shall attempt Left Opposition. He joins the Communist note of this congress was that in Stalin, to make as brief in duration as possible, some of the views expressed by comrade League of America (Opposition) and de- Saul on the situation and needs of the the apparatus-bureaucracy have far more was forced upon us by two factors: the mands of the Communist Party that it re- Communist movement: reason to be satisfied than ever under Len- severe unemployment situation which has instate all expelled members of the Left in. sharply affected the financial income of the "The contradictions of imperialism are Stalinism reigned supreme at the six- Opposition and adopt its platform in the sharper than ever. The objective situation paper, and, added to it, the summer months, United States; and in the Comintern. teenth Congress There was no critical during which a certain organizational and is favorable to the revolutionary movement analysis of the course of political and econ- financial relaxation usually sets in. The adherence of George Saul to the of the workers toward the proletarian revo- omic events for the past two years. There The change to a semi-monthly is an ad- Communist League following the action of lution and communist society. was no honest and searching admission of justment to this situation. It should be Hugo Oehler, is still further evidence of "At the same time there is not the close mistakes. Self-praise and self-content per- distinctly emphasized to all our comrades the movement of the mass workers in our relationship between our Party and the vaded the whole Stalin faction.
Recommended publications
  • Libertarian Marxism Mao-Spontex Open Marxism Popular Assembly Sovereign Citizen Movement Spontaneism Sui Iuris
    Autonomist Marxist Theory and Practice in the Current Crisis Brian Marks1 University of Arizona School of Geography and Development [email protected] Abstract Autonomist Marxism is a political tendency premised on the autonomy of the proletariat. Working class autonomy is manifested in the self-activity of the working class independent of formal organizations and representations, the multiplicity of forms that struggles take, and the role of class composition in shaping the overall balance of power in capitalist societies, not least in the relationship of class struggles to the character of capitalist crises. Class composition analysis is applied here to narrate the recent history of capitalism leading up to the current crisis, giving particular attention to China and the United States. A global wave of struggles in the mid-2000s was constituitive of the kinds of working class responses to the crisis that unfolded in 2008-10. The circulation of those struggles and resultant trends of recomposition and/or decomposition are argued to be important factors in the balance of political forces across the varied geography of the present crisis. The whirlwind of crises and the autonomist perspective The whirlwind of crises (Marks, 2010) that swept the world in 2008, financial panic upon food crisis upon energy shock upon inflationary spiral, receded temporarily only to surge forward again, leaving us in a turbulent world, full of possibility and peril. Is this the end of Neoliberalism or its retrenchment? A new 1 Published under the Creative Commons licence: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works Autonomist Marxist Theory and Practice in the Current Crisis 468 New Deal or a new Great Depression? The end of American hegemony or the rise of an “imperialism with Chinese characteristics?” Or all of those at once? This paper brings the political tendency known as autonomist Marxism (H.
    [Show full text]
  • Marxist Politics Or Unprincipled Combinationism?
    Prometheus Research Series 5 Marxist Politics or Unprincipled Combinationism? Internal Problems of the Workers Party by Max Shachtman Reprinted from Internal Bulletin No. 3, February 1936, of the Workers Party of the United States With Introduction and Appendices , ^3$ Prometheus Research Library September*^ Marxist Politics or Unprincipled Combinationism? Internal Problems of the Workers Party by Max Shachtman Reprinted from Internal Bulletin No. 3, February 1936, of the Workers Party of the United States With Introduction and Appendices Prometheus Research Library New York, New York September 2000 Prometheus graphic from a woodcut by Fritz Brosius ISBN 0-9633828-6-1 Prometheus Research Series is published by Spartacist Publishing Co., Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116 Table of Contents Editorial Note 3 Introduction by the Prometheus Research Library 4 Marxist Politics or Unprincipled Combinationism? Internal Problems of the Workers Party, by Max Shachtman 19 Introduction 19 Two Lines in the Fusion 20 The "French" Turn and Organic Unity 32 Blocs and Blocs: What Happened at the CLA Convention 36 The Workers Party Up To the June Plenum 42 The Origin of the Weber Group 57 A Final Note: The Muste Group 63 Conclusion 67 Appendix I Resolution on the Organizational Report of the National Committee, 30 November 1934 69 Appendix II Letter by Cannon to International Secretariat, 1 5 August 1935 72 Letter by Glotzer to International Secretariat, 20 November 1935 76 Appendix III National Committee of the Workers Party U.S., December 1934 80 Glossary 81 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/marxistpoliticsoOOshac Editorial Note The documents in this bulletin have in large part been edited for stylistic consistency, particularly in punctuation, capitalization and emphasis, and to read smoothly for the modern reader.
    [Show full text]
  • "A Road to Peace and Freedom": the International Workers Order and The
    “ A ROAD TO PEACE AND FREEDOM ” Robert M. Zecker “ A ROAD TO PEACE AND FREEDOM ” The International Workers Order and the Struggle for Economic Justice and Civil Rights, 1930–1954 TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS Philadelphia • Rome • Tokyo TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122 www.temple.edu/tempress Copyright © 2018 by Temple University—Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education All rights reserved Published 2018 All reasonable attempts were made to locate the copyright holders for the materials published in this book. If you believe you may be one of them, please contact Temple University Press, and the publisher will include appropriate acknowledgment in subsequent editions of the book. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Zecker, Robert, 1962- author. Title: A road to peace and freedom : the International Workers Order and the struggle for economic justice and civil rights, 1930-1954 / Robert M. Zecker. Description: Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2018. | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017035619| ISBN 9781439915158 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781439915165 (paper : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: International Workers Order. | International labor activities—History—20th century. | Labor unions—United States—History—20th century. | Working class—Societies, etc.—History—20th century. | Working class—United States—Societies, etc.—History—20th century. | Labor movement—United States—History—20th century. | Civil rights and socialism—United States—History—20th century. Classification: LCC HD6475.A2
    [Show full text]
  • Joseph Hansen Papers
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf78700585 No online items Register of the Joseph Hansen papers Finding aid prepared by Joseph Hansen Hoover Institution Archives 434 Galvez Mall Stanford University Stanford, CA, 94305-6003 (650) 723-3563 [email protected] © 1998, 2006, 2012 Register of the Joseph Hansen 92035 1 papers Title: Joseph Hansen papers Date (inclusive): 1887-1980 Collection Number: 92035 Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Archives Language of Material: English Physical Description: 109 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize box, 3 envelopes, 1 audio cassette(46.2 linear feet) Abstract: Speeches and writings, correspondence, notes, minutes, reports, internal bulletins, resolutions, theses, printed matter, sound recording, and photographs relating to Leon Trotsky, activities of the Socialist Workers Party in the United States, and activities of the Fourth International in Latin America, Western Europe and elsewhere. Physical Location: Hoover Institution Archives Creator: Hansen, Joseph, Access The collection is open for research; materials must be requested at least two business days in advance of intended use. Publication Rights For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives. Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Joseph Hansen papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Archives. Acquisition Information Acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in 1992. Accruals Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. To determine if this has occurred, find the collection in Stanford University's online catalog at http://searchworks.stanford.edu . Materials have been added to the collection if the number of boxes listed in the online catalog is larger than the number of boxes listed in this finding aid.
    [Show full text]
  • The Left in the United States and the Decline of the Socialist Party of America, 1934–1935 Jacob A
    Document généré le 1 oct. 2021 11:01 Labour Journal of Canadian Labour Studies Le Travail Revue d’Études Ouvrières Canadiennes The Left in the United States and the Decline of the Socialist Party of America, 1934–1935 Jacob A. Zumoff Volume 85, printemps 2020 Résumé de l'article Dans les premières années de la Grande Dépression, le Parti socialiste URI : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1070907ar américain a attiré des jeunes et des intellectuels de gauche en même temps DOI : https://doi.org/10.1353/llt.2020.0006 qu’il était confronté au défi de se distinguer du Parti démocrate de Franklin D. Roosevelt. En 1936, alors que sa direction historique de droite (la «vieille Aller au sommaire du numéro garde») quittait le Parti socialiste américain et que bon nombre des membres les plus à gauche du Parti socialiste américain avaient décampé, le parti a perdu de sa vigueur. Cet article examine les luttes internes au sein du Partie Éditeur(s) socialiste américain entre la vieille garde et les groupements «militants» de gauche et analyse la réaction des groupes à gauche du Parti socialiste Canadian Committee on Labour History américain, en particulier le Parti communiste pro-Moscou et les partisans de Trotsky et Boukharine qui ont été organisés en deux petits groupes, le Parti ISSN communiste (opposition) et le Parti des travailleurs. 0700-3862 (imprimé) 1911-4842 (numérique) Découvrir la revue Citer cet article Zumoff, J. (2020). The Left in the United States and the Decline of the Socialist Party of America, 1934–1935. Labour / Le Travail, 85, 165–198.
    [Show full text]
  • Albert Glotzer Papers
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf1t1n989d No online items Register of the Albert Glotzer papers Finding aid prepared by Dale Reed Hoover Institution Library and Archives © 2010 434 Galvez Mall Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-6003 [email protected] URL: http://www.hoover.org/library-and-archives Register of the Albert Glotzer 91006 1 papers Title: Albert Glotzer papers Date (inclusive): 1919-1994 Collection Number: 91006 Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives Language of Material: English Physical Description: 67 manuscript boxes, 6 envelopes(27.7 Linear Feet) Abstract: Correspondence, writings, minutes, internal bulletins and other internal party documents, legal documents, and printed matter, relating to Leon Trotsky, the development of American Trotskyism from 1928 until the split in the Socialist Workers Party in 1940, the development of the Workers Party and its successor, the Independent Socialist League, from that time until its merger with the Socialist Party in 1958, Trotskyism abroad, the Dewey Commission hearings of 1937, legal efforts of the Independent Socialist League to secure its removal from the Attorney General's list of subversive organizations, and the political development of the Socialist Party and its successor, Social Democrats, U.S.A., after 1958. Creator: Glotzer, Albert, 1908-1999 Hoover Institution Library & Archives Access The collection is open for research; materials must be requested at least two business days in advance of intended use. Publication Rights For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives. Acquisition Information Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 1991. Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Albert Glotzer papers, [Box no., Folder no.
    [Show full text]
  • A Supressed Chapter Story of Trotskyism
    Vol» XII He, I liABOR DONATED PRICE 10 J .5 CRITICISM ' A OF THE . N U LEFTCOMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL A Y A SUPRESSED CHAPTER FROM THE 9 STORY OF TROTSKYISM PART II -HUGO OEHLER REVOLUTIONARY WORKEIS i£AGUE U. S. A. IHT jKN^TION^O. -NiSWS A SUPPESSED. CHAPTER FROM, THE these quotations and <sj?gtaa8nts,'not after the event,but Before the events as dates and original letters will provo we should now re- turn to Cannon's "History ana. see how he handles this phase of the de- velopment* •• "Our organizational prbpesals}which we submitted to the American Wor»~ kers party in our .third' meeting -went a l§©g way to facilitate unifica- tion,, We always believed, that the program decides everything. HP» 179) Program dedideS ever> ^ g-jyes this is. correbt'jbut the majority were arguing verbally that "we"' may be'forced t'p unite"1 bven without a Marx- ian Program, Since the loft wing-forced th-ls through Cannon speaks as though it was always &>o?liko the rock.of Mbralter* But anyone who can liquidate into the Socialist -Party,a-s G&nnon and others did,into a pas* ty with:1 a non-Marxian program,v3ho issued.no material or literature of their own,and on thus oontrary,.who dis'tributed the Sbcialist press and voted for the Socialist Party candidate,Norman Thomas-can unite' with a Marxian program* If it is theoretically correct to liquidate an inde- pendent PARTY (The WORKERS PARTY) as Cannon did into the- Socialist Par- ty., then it is theoretically .pormissable to unite with another group, WITHOUT -A MriRXlAN .PROGRAM.
    [Show full text]
  • James P. Cannon Bio-Bibliographical Sketch
    Lubitz' TrotskyanaNet James P. Cannon Bio-Bibliographical Sketch Contents: • Basic biographical data • Biographical sketch • Selective bibliography • Notes on archives Basic biographical data Name: James P. Cannon Other names (by-names, pseud., etc.): John Battle ; C. ; James Patrick Cannon ; Jim Can­ non ; Cook ; Dawson ; Dzh. P. Kannon ; Legrand ; Martel ; Martin ; Jim McGee ; Walter Date and place of birth: February 11, 1890, Rosedale, Ka. (USA) Date and place of death: August 21, 1974, Los Angeles, Cal. (USA) Nationality: USA Occupations, careers, etc.: Journalist, political activist, party leader, writer and editor Time of activity in Trotskyist movement: 1928 - 1974 (lifelong Trotskyist) Biographical sketch James P. Cannon was an outstanding example for American labour radicalism, a life-long devoted and unwaver­ ing socialist and internationalist, a co-founder of both the communist (in 1919/20) and the Trotskyist (in 1928/ 29) movement in the United States, the founder and long-time leader of the American Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and its predecessors as well as one of the most influential figures in the Trotskyist Fourth International (FI) during the first two decades of its existence. However, his features in the annals of Trotskyism are far away from being homogeneous, and it is a very truism that a man like Cannon must almost inevitably have caused much controversy. Undoubtedly being America's foremost Trotskyist and vigorously having coined the SWP, he on the one hand has been continuously worshipped and often monopolized by various epigones whereas on the other hand Trotskyist and ex-Trotskyist dissidents have considered him an embodiment of petrified orthodoxy or workerism or ultra-Leninist factionalism.
    [Show full text]
  • Vol. Xxiv/Xxv (2018/2019) No 31–32
    THE INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER OF COMMUNIST STUDIES Der Internationale Newsletter der Kommunismusforschung La newsletter internationale des recherches sur le communisme Международный бюллетень исторических исследований коммунизма La Newsletter Internacional de Estudios sobre el Comunismo A Newsletter Internacional de Estudos sobre o Comunismo Edited by Bernhard H. Bayerlein and Gleb J. Albert VOL. XXIV/XXV (2018/2019) NO 31–32 Published by The European Workshop of Communist Studies With Support of the Institute of Social Movements and the Library of the Ruhr University Bochum ISSN 1862-698X http://incs.ub.rub.de The International Newsletter of Communist Studies XXIV/XXV (2018/19), nos. 31-32 2 Editors Bernhard H. Bayerlein Institute of Social Movements (ISB), University of Bochum, Germany [email protected] / [email protected] Gleb J. Albert Department of History, University of Zurich [email protected] Board of Correspondents Lars Björlin (Stockholm) Ottokar Luban (Berlin) Kasper Braskén (Åbo) Kevin McDermott (Sheffield) Hernán Camarero (Buenos Aires) Brendan McGeever (London) Cosroe Chaqueri † (Paris) Kevin Morgan (Manchester) Sonia Combe (Paris) Timur Mukhamatulin (New Brunswick) Mathieu Denis (Paris/Montréal) Manfred Mugrauer (Wien) Jean-François Fayet (Fribourg) Maria Luisa Nabinger (Rio de Janeiro) Jan Foitzik (Berlin) José Pacheco Pereira (Lisbon) Daniel Gaido (Córdoba, Argentina) Fredrik Petersson (Åbo/Stockholm) José Gotovitch (Bruxelles) Adriana Petra (Buenos Aires) Sobhanlal Datta Gupta (Calcutta) Kimmo Rentola
    [Show full text]
  • Library of Social History Collection
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt900021c7 No online items Register of the Library of Social History Collection Finding aid prepared by Dale Reed Hoover Institution Archives 434 Galvez Mall Stanford University Stanford, CA, 94305-6010 (650) 723-3563 [email protected] © 2003, 2013, 2016 Register of the Library of Social 91004 1 History Collection Title: Library of Social History collection Date (inclusive): 1894-2000 Collection Number: 91004 Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Archives Language of Material: English Physical Description: 307 manuscript boxes, 2 card file boxes, 1 oversize boxes(158.2 linear feet) Abstract: Serial issues, pamphlets, leaflets, internal bulletins, other internal documents, and electoral and convention material, issued by Trotskyist groups throughout the world, and especially in the United States, Latin America and Western Europe, and including some materials issued by non-Trotskyist left-wing groups; speeches and writings by Fidel Castro and other Cuban leaders, and printed matter relating to Cuba, with indexes thereto; speeches and writings by Nicaraguan Sandinista leaders; and public and internal issuances of the New Jewel Movement of Grenada and its leaders, and printed and other material relating to the movement and its overthrow. Collected by the Library of Social History (New York City), an affiliate of the Socialist Workers Party of the United States. Does not include issuances of the Socialist Workers Party. Physical Location: Hoover Institution Archives creator: Library of Social History (New York, N. Y.) Access Collection is open for research. Publication Rights For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives. Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Library of Social History collection, [Box no.], Hoover Institution Archives.
    [Show full text]
  • An Open Letter to the Comrades of the Revolutionary Workers League
    An Open Letter to the Comrades of the Revolution- ary Workers League American Fraction of the Left Communist International 1937 Written as an appeal to the Trotskyist group the Revolutionary Workers League,who published the letter,along with a fairly standard Trotskyist response,inthe October 1937 issue of their publication ‘The Fourth International.’Some typos have been fixed but a scan of this issue that can be found at https://archive.org/details/LCIvsRWL shows that the remaining errors below were present in the original text. Dear comrades: It is almost nine years since we together broke definitely with the counter-revo- lutionary wing that once led the Communist Party.Our split was supposed to repre- sent a Marxian reaction to the opportunist line that brought the world proletariat from one defeat to another.Although we broke together from the Stalinist-Bukharin line ideologically and organizationally,westood apart from you for the reason that ideologically we were part of the left faction of the Italian Communist Party which fundamental documents are to be found in the Roma thesis.These documents were a contrast to all the political past of Cannon and Shachtman who at that time only bor- rowed from the Russian opposition. Under the leadership of Leon Trotsky the Inter- national Left Opposition from the beginning stood for the reform of the Communist International misjudging therefore,the fundamental reason that brought the oppor- tunist to the head of the C.I. That fundamental reason was represented by the many defeats of the proletariat, upon whichdefeats the counter-revolution found strength.
    [Show full text]
  • The Many Worlds of American Communism
    Wayne State University Wayne State University Dissertations January 2019 The Many Worlds Of American Communism Joshua James Morris Wayne State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations Recommended Citation Morris, Joshua James, "The Many Worlds Of American Communism" (2019). Wayne State University Dissertations. 2178. https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations/2178 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wayne State University Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WayneState. THE MANY WORLDS OF AMERICAN COMMUNISM by JOSHUA JAMES MORRIS DISSERTATION Submitted to the Graduate School of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2019 MAJOR: HISTORY (American) Approved By: _________________________________________ Advisor Date _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ © COPYRIGHT BY JOSHUA JAMES MORRIS 2019 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have so many to thank for this project, starting with my mom and my dad for always believing in me. I also want to thank my committee, Elizabeth Faue, Fran Shor, Aaron Retish, Vicki Ruiz, and Louis Jones, without which I would not have been able to fully develop my research. My inspiration to continue studies in history I owe to Harold Marcuse and John Lloyd; they always made history something to embrace as both a passion and a challenge. I want to give a special thanks to Ronald Aronson for helping me with some of my research here in Detroit. I also want to give a tremendous thank you to all those whom I interviewed and took part in this project: Armando Ramirez, Beatrice Lumpkin, Danny Rubin, Marc Brodine, Rossana Cambron, Arturo Cambron, Luis Rivas, Rita Verner, Michele Artt, Scott Marshall, and Betty Smith.
    [Show full text]