Labor Action 1 7- • . — During the years 1949 through 1957 This first issue bore the designa- Labor Action published an annual tion "Vol. 4, No., 6," an anomaly (subject) index in its last issue of which is explained by the fact that, the year. These are reproduced in in establishing the paper, the edit- the following pages. The index for ors took over the second-class mail- 1958 (up to suspension) was made• ing rights of the ChaZZenge of Youth, specially for this publication. No the organ of the young socialist sec- index exists for 1940-1948. tion-which had split from the S.W.P. along with the minority.. Legally, HISTORY. This newspaper was the therefore, Labor Action continued the weekly published by the Workers Par- volume/number series of the . Challenge ty/Independent Socialist League from of Youth. 1940 to 1958. The New International This legal fiction also explains was its companion publication. For why the editorial box stated "Pub- part of the political background, lished by the National Council of the see the "Special Notes" on page 109. Young People ' s Socialist League . The Workers Party was formed in (Fourth International)," in addition 1940 as the result of a split in the to the subtitle "Official Organ of Trotskyist group, the Socialist Work- WorkerS Party (Section of the 4th In- ers Party, over support of Russia in ternational)." This legalistic ref- the war. The minority which formed erence.to the youth group remained in the Workers Party rejected support of the editorial box through the issue • any camp in World War II, including of Sept. 30, 1940 (v.4, no.25). In Moscow's. This organization changed the next issue (Oct. 7, no.26) the its name to Independent Socialist box read: "Published by the Labor AC- . League in April 1949. It dissolved tion Publishing Company"--which forth in 1958. ula remained to the end. It should not be confused with two previous publications which also bore SUBTITLES. The subtitle "Official the name Labor Action. The first was Organ..." etc. remained, but, with published by the Conference for Pro- the issue of Nov. 11, 1940 (no.31), gressive Labor Action, later the Am- the phrase "Section of the 4th Inter- erican Workers Party, led by A.J. national" was dropped--the reason be- Muste. This Labor Action was merged ing legal considerations, not polit- into The New International at the be- ical. For the same reason, the "Of- ginning of 1935, when the A.W.P. and ficial Organ" subtitle was dropped the (Trotskyist) Communist League of with the issue of Dec. 22, 1941 America merged to form the Workers 5, no.51), and replaced with "A Pa- Party of the U.S. In 1936 this organ- per in the Interests of Labor." ization dissolved to join the Social- Much later, this subtitle changed to ist.Party, and .there was no overtly "A Paper in the Interests [later In- Trotskyist organ during the period terest] of Socialism," with the is- of "entry," i.e. till the beginning :sue of Sept. 22, 1947 (v.11, no.38). of 1938. But in the Socialist Party When the format was changed to tab- the Trotskyist left wing dominated loid (Feb. 27,1950), the subtitle in California; during this period a became "Independent Socialist Week- Labor Action was published from San ly." Francisco, with James P. Cannon as editor, as the organ of the Socialist FORMAT. The first format was Party of California, later the organ "blanket-size" (the usual newspaper of the Western States Federation of - size, with four pages, an eight-pag, the Socialist Party. er being issued as an infrequent ex- When the new Workers Party estab- ception. The size became eight pages lished Labor Action in May 1940, the regularly with the issue of Aug. 5, name was borrowed from the Californ- 1946 (v.10, no.31), the inside four ia paper. pages being called "Labor Action Mag- azine Section." The size reverted to BEGINNING. The first issue was a four pages with the issue of June 23, two-page "Preview Number," also la- 1947 (v.11, no.25). beled "Special May Day Edition," There was a complete change in for- bearing no date, issued for May 1, mat and appearance as well as size 1940. It announced: "Out Next week! • when Labor Action was transformed in- First regular issue of LABOR ACTION," to a tabloid of eight pages beginning but in fact the "first regular is- with the issue of Feb. 27, 1950 (v.14, sue" was published with the date May .n0.9). 20,.1940. 86 LA Apr.11,1949-July 15,1957 (13:14-21:28) FREQUENCY. The paper remained a Editor: Hal Draper. weekly, without missing an issue, un- July 29,1957 to end, Sept.22,1958 til near the end, :through the issue (21:29-22-19) Ed.: Gordon Haskell. of July 15, 1957. The first biweekly number was July 29.(v.21, no.29), .TABLE OF ISSUES. Following is a with a new editor. summary per year; the volume/number designations are given in condensed • LIST OF EDITORS. The volume/number form after the dates: designations are given in condensed form after the dates: 1940 May 27-Dec.30 (4:7-38) May 20,1940-Oct.20,1941• • (4:6-5:42) 1941 Jan.6-Dec.29 (5:1-52) Ed.: Joseph Carter. Managing Ed.: 1942 Jan.5-Dec.28 (6:1-52) Emanuel Garrett. 1943 Jan.4-Dec.27 (7:1-52) Oct.27,1941-Nov.24,1941 (5:43-5:47) 1944 Jan.3-Dec.25 (8:1-52) Ed.: Emanuel Garrett. (From Dec.1, 1945 Jan.l-Dec.31 (9:1-53) 1941, Managing Ed.: Irving Howe.) 1946 Jan.7-Dec.30 (10:1-52) Dec.22,1941-June 29,1942 (5:51-6:26) 1947 Jan.6-Dec.29 (11:1-52) 1948 Jan.5-Dec.27 (12:1-52) Managing Ed.: Irving Howe. (13:1-52) July 6,1942-June 14,1943 (6:27-7:24) 1949 Jan.3-Dec.26 1950 Jan.2-Dec.25 (14:1-52) Editor: Emanuel Garrett . 1951 Jan.1-Dec.31 (15:1-53) June 21,1943-Jan.28,1946 (7:25-10:4) 1952 Jan.7-Dec.29 (16:1-52) Albert Gates, Ed. 1953 Jan.5-Dec.28 (17:1-52) Feb.4,1946-July 29,1946 (10:5-30) 1954 Jan.4-Dec.27 (18:1-52) Emanuel Garrett, Acting Ed. Al- 1955 Jan.3-Dec.26 (19:1-52) bert Gates, Ed. 1956 Jan. 2-Dec.31 (20:1-53) Aug.5,1946-Apr.4,1949 (10:31-13:13) 1957 Jan.7-Dec.30 (21:1-40) Emanuel Garrett, Ed. [From July 12, 1958 Jan.13-Sept.22 (22:1-19) 1948, listed as Emanuel Garrett .Geltman.] How to Use the Index All articles are indexed by main subject, sometimes under more than one heading. References to people, places, etc. within each article have not necessarily been indexed. In the case of 1949-1950, the index omits some arti- cles of mainly local interest, especially small local it- ems. Entries relating to foreign countries are listed und- er the country, usually regardless of subject. For items on a given trade union, look up the name of the industry or occupation; e.g. AUTO WORKERS, STEEL WORK- ERS, etc. *For items marked by an asterisk, see note on "Student and Youth Sections," below. The entry numbers give the date and page number. Thus: 3-28,2 means that the item is found in the March 28 issue on page 2. Multiple page numbers may be given; e.g. 3-28,2,4 (i.e., pages 2 and 4) or 3-28,2-5 (i.e., pages 2 to 5). Under a given heading, items are separated by periods, except when successive entries are related to each other, in which case they are separated by semi-colons to so indi- cate. In some cases, related entries are grouped under sub- heads. Student and Youth Sections: For 1951-1953, the "Stu- dent Socialist" sections of Labor Action were page-numbered 1S,, 2S, etc. Thus, the index entry 1217,2S refers to page 2S of that issue.,.. From 1954 on, the "Student Socialist" sections were replaced by "Young Socialist Challenge" sec- Notes 87 tions, whose articles are still. part of the general index. Beginning 1955, these "Challehge" articles are distinguished by an asterisk (*). Note that when the "Young Socialist Challenge" section consisted of four pages, the pages were numbered 1-C, 2-C, etc The bulk of PChallenge" articles are found under t,he following subject headings: ACADEMIC FREEDOM; EDUCATION; MILITARISM; SOCIALIST YOUTH (INTIL); STUDENT MOVEMENT; YOUNG SOCIALIST LEAGUE; YOUTH PROBLEMS. The general subject of war, foreign policy and .inter7 national relations is indexed as follows: For U.S. govern- ment acts and policy, see EISENHOWER ADMINISTRATION (FOR- • EIGN POLICY). For other discussion of U.S. foreign policy, see FOREIGN POLICY. For discussion of socialist policy, see WAR POLICY. For the U.S.-Russian diplomatic struggle, international conference disputes, etc., see COLD WAR: For U.S. foreign relations with other countries, see under the foreign country. See NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION and UNITED NATIONS for those subjects. Other entries may be found from year to year under: ANTI-AMERICANISM; ATOM BOMB; CIVIL DE FENSE; KOREAN WAR; MILITARISM; POINT FOUR; PSYCHOLOGICAL WAR- FARE; THIRD CAMP. The general subject of civil liberties and related topics is indexed under some of the following headings: ACADEMIC FREEDOM; CIVIL LIBERTIES; DEMOCRACY; FBI; INDEPENDENT SOCIAL- IST LEAGUE (Subversive List & Passport Case); KUTCHER CASE; SUPREME COURT.