chapter 11 History and Theory

Paul Le Blanc

Permeating other contributions in this volume, practical as well as analytical, is an intensive engagement and utilisation of history and theory. The items in this chapter, however, are focused precisely on seeking to convey to the reader an understanding of historical events as well as the specifics and development of Marxist theory. Felix Morrow and George Novack were two of the most prominent intellec- tuals in theTrotskyist movement, with keen interest in the history of the United States as developed by such influential ‘progressive historians’ as Charles Beard and V.L. Parrington. Both are eager to challenge a ‘democratic’ romanticising that had crept into the historiography of Communist Party writers (under the impact of Stalin’s Popular Front that sought alliances with the ‘democratic bourgeoisie’). They gave emphasis instead to the long history of the capitalist class advancing its interests at the expense of both democracy and the ‘lower classes’. More recent scholarship updates the specifics but also largely corrob- orates the essentials in their accounts in the two selections offered here.1 Albert Goldman was an outstanding left-wing lawyer with a strong intellec- tual bent, and proved to be an outstanding popular educator inTrotskyist ranks. A three-part lecture series, designed to convey a relatively sophisticated and at the same time comprehensible understanding of Marxist theory, was published in a widely-distributed pamphlet. The second portion of What is ? is reproduced here. Its focus, not surprisingly, is on problems and dynamics of class consciousness and class struggle. Responding to what he saw as a false counterposition of Rosa Luxemburg to Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, wrote what has been considered a classic essay (approvingly cited years later by sociologist C. Wright Mills) that explores common ground between them as well as differences between the two. In that essay, reproduced here, Shachtman attributes some of the key differences, interestingly, to the different contexts in which they were active. One of Luxemburg’s younger comrades, Paul Frölich, would soon produce a major biography presenting a similar analysis.2

1 Hofstadter 1970; Countryman 2003; Nash, 2006; Blackburn 2011; Levine 2014. 2 Mills 1962, p. 150; Frölich 2010.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi: 10.1163/9789004356986_012 history and theory 613

Among the most brilliant figures in the Trotskyist movement was the Afro- Caribbean intellectual C.L.R. James, the author of two groundbreaking histor- ies – World Revolution and Black Jacobins.3 Moving from England to the United States in 1939, he offered his comrades another groundbreaking work, reprinted here, under the party name J.R. Johnson. While the massive layer of humanity living in or originating from Africa was generally presented as a marginal ele- ment in world history or – at best – as passive victims, James argues powerfully that they are a central and active component in the transformative revolu- tions of the past, going on to emphasise the meaning of this for revolutionary struggles of the present and the future. The final essay in this chapter, by George Novack (using the name William F. Warde), produces a stirring defence of revolutionary perspectives in the face of the government’s prosecutions, demonstrating that ‘the right to revolution’ is integral to the entire history of the United States.

3 James 1937; James 1989.