SOCIALIST APPBAL OCTOBER 22, 1938 Ten Years of Struggle For a Workers Party THE EARLY DAYS Revolutionary Tasks and Work in the Trade Union Movement ers.
to all the WILS By MAX SHACHTMAN THE DOCUMENT with save the document. But (Continued from page 1)
it proved to be more than enough American section of the Third In The First Reaction ternational. Aided by our internaBy DUNNE theories of socialism in one a great historic task in organiz the country, and to stabilize it. There are very few examples of tional organization, with which Marxist understanding of the country. of social fascism. etc. ing the heavy industries, task self when the newly organized the power and influence that can was the first or second comwe always maintained close ties, state and of the role of the rev. but in the struggle against the that the craft unions could never unions faced the ravages of the be exerted on the movement by rade in this country to have it we went through these stages of olutionary party as the vanguard theory of dual red unionism have accomplished. The new depression.
forceful ideas than the docu presented to me to read out of a development with a conscious unof the class, without which the fostered by the Communist Inter unions succeeded, not Despite the Greens, the Wolls ment, as we called it ten years hidden corner in one of Cannon derstanding of the objective circlass cannot raise itself to power, national until 1935. Lenin in 1920 only because they were industrial and Tracys and Freys. incura ago. refer to comrade Trotsky cupboards at home! and shall cumstances which made them unresults in our having a different had demonstrated theoretically, in form but because they utilized bly narrow minded, selfish, jeal criticism of the draft program of always remember the excitement attitude towards work in the in his Left Communism. militant and revolutionary tactics ous, divorced from the ranks the Communist avoidable.
International with which read it through for Our record is by no means free trade unions than that held by that for communists to turn (sit down strikes etc. to gain the finds itsell, after the first time, and then a second from mistakes and omissions in any other organization claiming their backs on reactionary their goal. Had the three years of the with and third time, and the stunning carrying out our tasks. But, by to represent the American work unions and invent new revolu continued its original policy of membership approaching the effect with which all my precontionary unions was to render organizing the unorganized, of all time peak figures of 1919. To ceptions and prejudices were exand large, we knew what the moment were and tasks of Alone of all parties in the Uni the greatest service the concentrating the basic in be sure, the L, in the strugploded out of my mind. And the allowed no one to swerve us from ted States, the Socialist Workers bourgeoisie.
dustries, of avoiding raids on Ele to maintain itself, has used shame felt to think that in the Party advocates that only a The Reactionary Stalinists established unions, there the them. Most of the internal strugorganizational forms and five years of the dispute this was gles, in which our cadres were Workers and Farmers govern But the Communist Parties is little doubt but that, despite even, at times, the militant tacthe only important writing of unified and tempered, occured ment, basing itself upon nation throughout the world had long the blows of the depression, it ties, which it officially conTrotsky that had read. How wide councils of elected represince turned their backs on Len would today be in far better demned in the This has frightfully provincial we had around questions of this type.
The individuals and cliques who JAMES CANNON been all this time, how cruelly we sentatives of the workers and Inism. When the Communists position in the American labor a special meaning for us National Sec.
left our ranks for oblivion came farmers, can solve the economic re entered the trade unions fol movement.
had been victimized into ignorThe convention recently to grief in almost every case beand social problems facing the lowing 1934 they continued to Desperate for organizers, Lewis ended in Houston was marked by ance, into going with the official flows from this con wear the leading strings of the committed a tragic error in open the fight which Tobin led against line, by the Kremlin machine ause of their refusal to recognize was all organized and directed in masses.
which was to accentuate its the political realities which dic the first six months by Lovestone cept that our party must extend couuter revolutionary Stalinisting wide the doors to the Stall the executive council for unificacourse in the years to come to tated the tactics they opposed. Co. who controlled the at its influence to all sections of bureaucracy in Russia. With the hists in return for their uncon tion of the and Hermits may forsake the world that time. Then they were also the economic organizations of the drift to the right of Soviet policy. ditional support.
Tobin today finds himself and his the point of unprecedented monof reality, revolutionary politici expelled and given a dose of their workers and farmers particuWeakened by the defeat of International Union in a comstrosity point which we simply ang never.
own medicine. That converted larly of the workers, because it Little Steel and the hammer manding position in the Americould not conceive of ten years ago. Tough Start them to democracy. at least, so is the working class that will lead oppressed blows of the new depression, the can labor movement. The Broththey said.
onslaught It would be hard to find anyC. organism could not shake erhood of Teamsters is the cannot think of any single on capitalism and the fight for a document that served its purpose off the Stalinist poison. On the largest national body in the Fedwhere in the history of the labor Firm Line of Principle socialist America and socialist West Coast and elsewhere the cration and has an almost unbetter. Marty Abern, Jim Cannon movement struggle that began During the first years of our world.
and members or alternates of under more unfavorable auspices struggle the reaction in the ComCommunist controlled has limited field for expansion. With Our Task for immediate practical success intern coincided with general followed brutal and callous the strategic position of the the party Central Committee and our first associates, Rose than ours. The Communist Inter reaction and passivity in the Tho task of our party consists MAX SHACHTMAN anti working class policy of raid drivers in American industry, the and Karsner lato Tom national, representing and sym American labor movement.
The of gaining influence over the Editor, Socialist Appeal ing the of violating the can play an important role picket lines of unions under the in unifying the movement. Flaherty, did not need many bolizing the great Russlan revo left wing of the workers move trade unions more, of winning control of the progressives. In The Road Ahead discussions among ourselves to lution in the public mind, dom ment was completely dominated through the trade unions, inttuMinneapolis, the Stalinized sec On the road ahead, it is not written by Stalin and Bukharin of the document to carry on decide, after a thorough reading nated all radioal labor thought by Stalinism basking in the light once over the majority of the tion of the has not hesi impossible that a third national for the Sixth Congress in Moscow the fight for our newly acquired and activity: and Stalinism, its or the first five year plan. Under working class.
real face not yet exposed in prac these conditions there was nothWe can only succceed in this tated to connive with the bosses union grouping may arise. The in the summer of 1928.
against the even to ap history of unionism in other inconvictions regardless of the im.
tice, reigned triumphant in the ing to do but direct our message the methods used by our party In this country we had only a mediate outcome. or the final peal to the courts for an injunc dustrial countries indicates that very faint idea of the fundamen outcome we have never had any Comintern and all its sections to the Stalinist workers, to main in the trade unions help to build tion against the latter. such a formation is not out of tal issues involved in the struggle doubts.
Moreover, the Comintern was tain our position as a faction of the unions, to strengthen them, to then swinging into the frenzied the Comintern fighting for its re increase their influence among On November 14 in Pittsburgh, the question. Forces that might of the Trotskyist Opposition the will hold its first na go to make up such a body are against the ruling clique in the THE TRIAL radicalism of the third period formation and to concentrate our the unemployed, the farmers, the and beating the drums for the extremely limited forces con fun: small people of the city. That and the tional convention, at which will Dubinsky I. the Russian party and the Comintern It was a serious enough affair, first five year plan and its dazz damental critical and propagan the trade union work of our to control that body: the Sailors: the Auto Workers and Fully distorted and misrepresent same time, if ever there was a. and that idea was a very care all things considered, but at the ling records of Industrial progress distic work.
in the Soviet Union.
party, limited in scope as it has workers or the Stalinists in a Rubber Workers, etc. Shoulded one. Overwhelmingly preoccu funnier one, have not heard of This was the task in hand, im been up to now, has been based In these circumstances we had posed upon us by all the circum. on a correct polley is verified by bloc with Lewis or other such a formidable group arise, it pied by what we thought were it. The Comintern delegation had to begin our agitation about the stances. We tenaciously adhered the truly remarkable way in VINCENT DUNNE leaders. It can be said bluntly would have the power to bring the all important issues in the hardly returned to the and theory of socialism in one counto this line and repulsed every which unions in which our memMinnesota Organizer, that only to the extent to which great pressure to bear upon the factional fight that raged inces we had scarcely begun our prutry and the problem of the Chi attempt to divert it in favor of hers are active and influential the trade union work of Browthe rids itself of Stalinism top leadership of both the santly in the American Commu dent agitation. We wanted to nese revolution. more imprac rainbow chasing expeditions. Su have thrived.
can it recover its lost ground and and nist Party, the comrades of what gain much time as possible in tical venture could hardly be per radical people demanded inder party has developed to the develop It is evident that unless labor was then generally called the order to reach our friends inside Because the Socialist Labor point where today this group is imagined. Nobody wanted to lis dependence from the Comintern Party and the answered the most reactionary force in the The Strength of the succeeds in itself unifying its Cannon group paid very little at the party than we were con ten to the hair splitters. wo and concentration on mass no to the question: shall revo inbor movement.
for phenomenon not sufficiently armies, Roosevelt, acting tention to the truly world shaking fronted with charges of conductappeared to be waging Quixotic work. That would simply have tutionists work in reactionary fortunes of the Greens and the the labor movement not by cede to bring about unity from in the Soviet Union.
Whereas the appreciated by the students of American capitalism, wilt inter problems that were being debated ing Trotskyist agitation in the party, with expulsion awaiting and far away places while the to jump over our own heads. The selves to sterility.
war about theoretical refinemente mennt a futile exercise in trying trade unions? they doomed them Hillmans are, after all, bound up Stolberg and not even by certain outside and above, in a way that our one consolation was that it we were found guilty. Our trial We were cruelly isolated and apmethods of work and the tasks unbe LovestoneSogroups have the tunes or the seatiniste unionists now mot only hickenstood the et the trade unions tactics of a political grouping, its Because the Socialist Party and ments which they head, the for manner in which the quences for the independence of about the savage fury with which enlarged meeting of the Political peared to be hermetically sealed it sets for itself at the moment, graded socialist polítics to the derive from Stalin and his clique. fects of the depression and the the organizer of the October Rev. Committee of the party, in our isolation. Our ostracism and even the form and conditions level of trade union politics, their The Unemployed olution and his comrades were the prosecutor in chief WAS complete. Even social af Unlike the Communist Party competition of the but of the 85, 000, 000 workers, al assailed and the extreme meas none other than John Pepper, one fairs, such as are common now mined by time and circumstance. not resulted in diverting the labor favored the over the million new members.
of its existence must all be deter work in the mass movement hus which up until the spring of 1937 has even managed to gain most half are today unemployed. ures that were taken against of the hangmen of the Hungarian for virtually every branch of our The fear of isolation and the at movement from subservience to only to swing overnight Lo having an experienced or not provide for these unemployed Lovestoneites and Fosterites, es retary of the party, Jay Love those days. We had very few of reaction by artificial means the movement for the Fourth Workers Party has no fetishism money at its disposal, was better class.
to the other extreme, the Socialist ganizing staff and great sums of will bring disaster to the working pecially the former, to distinguish stone. As nowadays, Earl Browfriends.
only brings disintegration of International took shape in Ame por elther set of Initials.
themselves in the notorious cam der was the principal party noThe Power of Program the Marxist forces where it does rica and throughout the world, able than the to take The nationally has dis paign of Trotsky baiting, and we body, with only this difference, Mistakes of the But we knew the truth and not lead to their opportunistic not only in the fight against the advantage of the ground swell of regarded the problem.
confined ourselves to Peeling yet been appointed party Führer.
were never daunted. We had read diffusion. Such pundits as WelsThe has accomplished organization which swept across of the depression, which hit the done without joining in, either in which doesn mean that the pos Trotsky Criticism of the Draft bord and Field, who attempted Program of the Comintern, and these miracles on their own acnew party on a revolutionary izational forms to political alms. sectarians who challenge us from the skilled trades, has after too attacks upon our Russian com. On the contrary, led by Bittelman we knew that the program de count after we finished the de basis.
Without these turns in the sphere the left. they only succeed in much delay tackled the problem rados.
they vied with the Lovestoneites cides everything We are often bate with them, achieved a Into the Mass Movement of organization we would have combining an increase in the in many localities. On the initiaasked if we were taken by sur unique combination of these unHow It Came to America in driving for our cxpulsion. It prise by our expulsion from the happy consequences.
The first stage of the develop been left on the sidelines. The number of their organizations tive of progressives, many o.
was at once amusing and revoltment of our movement had pre urification ander one revolutionare with a decrease in their total unions have unemployed sections, Our general party and the gangster campaign dissatisfactioning to watch them, like hounds thereby binding the jobless to with the American decisions of on a leash, waiting to jump in against us and it we had not the struggle in the Comintern to gan to give way to it. The energy prerequisite for the great ad. The Socialist Workers Party, their working brothers. In areas the Comintern, which were, to ahead of Pepper and Lovestone counted on a quick victory. No: the end, until the fallacy of its of our cadros was turned out vances which he just ahead of having become the single rallying like Detroit, these unemployed us, so utterly and perversely with a motion for our expulsion, ty well and were prepared for a great actions before the eyes of and a wider influence. Our repre The us would have been impossible. center of the revolutionary work sections have achieved tremen wrong and incomprehensible, so as to be able to cable Stalin. long struggle. This long view was the masses. In the period of the wentatives began to appear at testing every time we save up task of reassembling the scat a major factor in maintaining attendance of delegate, com ity.
Instilled into the minds of all our greatest ideological confusion and conferefees of trade unions and our formal independence ortered forces of the vanguard as the union hold on the workers. rade Cannon, at the sixth Concomrades from the start. It was The Real Accusers ne Both bodies or the new united gress. It was there that Trotsky a decisive factor in their atuh. demoralization it was necessary unemployed organizations. In the der to increase our real strength completed. It has no need to concentrate on fundamental great Minneapolis strikes Trots ang influence.
gotiations or maneuvers with the movement will have to intervene masterful criticism of the Stalinborn endurance which astounded theoretical criticism, to reassem kyism revealed itself in the These turns were not effected various pseudo radical groups much more vigorously on behalrBukharin program, written in his trial makes good reading even The stenographic record of the all We never had a single capitu ble the forces of the vanguard most dramatic fashion, as no without internal disturbances and which offer no real competition of the unemployed it the jobless Alma Ata exile, was carefully cir now, and some day it ought to be correct program and thus pre the most militant and most ellation. It had been imposed upon Workers party and the left wing fascism.
members of the program commis telling portrait of our prosecutors the enormous pressure put upon pare the future work among the fective action. On the field of po us as the price of holding firmly of the was a necessity. Political Action sion and heads of the delegations and judges. We defendants, who There is no doubt of the tremend perverscly acted more like accuthem is considered. Malkin turned lutely to this conception at that an Trotskyites displayed an in As is always the case with small the sterile cliques mentioned ganized the great basic industries had on all the delegates. But only about the great disputes; at all No sooner had the CI. or ous effect which the document sers, did not yet know too much lard, who is a professional cap demagogues and mass work placed them in the very center of ments. We also had attracted American Section of the Fourth posed problems which the unions who was delegated from the Canas we might or should have tulator, went back to the Stalin. quacks, we would not be celebrat all political developments of allunatic fringe which when the International is the only solu could not solve. The was adian party, decided to make the known. But we already knew a bit. That about all there may there would be nothing to cele. tusion was quickly effected expanded action, had to be shak. dependent and self sufficient or pendent political action of the able foglie or the criticism aroused opponents in the Political comhave been four or Ave others, brate.
but cannot remember their with the American Workers Par en off. The fight with the secta: sunication of the vanguard, it working class. These first moves in them, the basis for their rusmittee, who knew nothing but a names. Our ranks were never The German Events ty (formerly Within Plans had to be fought out to the can and must now concentrate its have been timid and bureauture revolutionary activity. They few catch phrases from the of once shaken or disturbed by deyear and one half the Workers end. Sectarianism, no matter how full energy on direct approach cratic. Nevertheless, they repre decided to bring the document clal mith in the Inprecorr. We The German catastrophe sertions. From this an important 1933 the capitulation Party, which resulted from this radical its formulas and its to the workers mass movement. Senti an advance over the back to America and use it as the already knew enough and more lesson may be derived in order without battle signalized the list Party en bloe in order to es more than a substitution of dis The Party Re Arms Gompers tradition, and it is the basis for organizing the struggle than enough to answer the standto hold out in hard fight it is downfall of the Comintern as a tablish closer contact with the de ordered petty bourgeois emotions duty of progressives to encourage falschoods The recent months have been this process and to give to at home in solidarity with the ardized slanders and the Russian Bolshevik Opposition.
which served as arguments count the cost before you start. tenebutily induced or shake up is voloping left wing, especially the secure the tactics imposed cuponeren: devoted along with daily work srowing movement bold The First Persccution all other workers organizations. Worable organizational conditions of the class struggle. We can re. this gigantic enterprise. In the More easily said than done. For gainst the Opposition and its views.
Historic Role of not only was each copy num.
It was a hard fight, especially the left wing in the Socialist for fusion. This fusion of the cord the progress of the past few light of the rapidly advancing 80Some of the questions put to us in the first days. We had no mo Party, especially in the youth revolutionary forces within the years only because we overcame cial crisis the party has success the American section of the tions had been issued for the re only by some of the charges and If the Socialist Workers Party, bered, but the strictest instrucwere exceeded in pricelessness ney, no connections and very few movement, began to take shape. and the Was also sectarianism in a ruthless strug fully carried through a great Fourth International, os to rise to turn of all coples to the comin.
about six months after the expul Labor Action (C. hetepulsion campaign of the terrified sectarians from our ranks. With. armament in preparation for rev. double its work in the union sions, about 100 comrades rogenous body of trade unionista quent commentary on the state of the manager of the party bookthroughout the country were rep began to crystallize out a militant party bureaucrats brought things out that not. one step forward olutionary tasks which the social movement. The last year has affairs in the Comintern aus early shop was solemnly ushered in to resented. We were also subjected political tendency. Within a year tionary forces in the new Socialto a split, the union of the revolu would have been possible.
crisis poses before us. In the seen us making great strides as 1928 that responsible dele testify that only recently had Our Rivals to persecution by the Stalinists. the upturn of the economic cycle ist Workers Party followed as a course of the party discussion forward in both the war. gates to its Congress decided to come in to the shop to ask for The campaign of slander deplet In the United States and the in matter of course.
With the fusion of the old seven thick internal bulletins But we are progressing steal and smuggle out of the some literature on China; and, he ing us as counter revolutionists, troduction of the un Trotskyists and the left wing have been published and a score much too slowly. Time is short country one of the most precious added, giving deadly weight to The American section of the Socialists and the launching of of membership meetings have It is truer than ever that our documents of Marxian thought every word, everybody knows familiar to all now, was some leashed the Arst great wave of International thing rather new then and more strikes. New times; new condi Fourth effective. Organized bands of tions. It became life and death from this series of fevered the Socialist Workers Party we weighed and considered the new most important field in the com They found it necessary to pur that Chins is a Trotskyist queshave manifestly entered into a situntion and the new proposals. ing period will remain the trade loin a document which, from any tion To read books was bad point of view, was rightfully enough, but to read books on hoodlums were sent to break up necessity for the Bolsheviks to daring maneuvers on the field new stage in the progressive de our party has a real workers Unione imovemento No one claims that our party theirs, and which they had a duty China Trotskyist question Sometimes they succeeded and the new possibilities to break out numerical strength and superb vism. Rival organizations making never been seen before. Its mem has said the last word on the to communicate to those revoluwas pretty damning.
The Great Heresy sometimes they got the worst of or their isolation and find the morale. In addition, by gaining an appeal to anti Stalinist work. bership collectively goes deeply problem of the relationships bet tionists in their own party (not to the overwhelming majority in the ers have more or less cleared into every new question, considers ween the revolutionary party and say all parties) who had delethe fight. Comrades selling the road to the masses.
Characteristic of that trial, and Militant were attacked: individual comrades were waylald and German events with magnificent time the basis for a broad youth eliminated.
those which followed, was the it had established for the first element of confusion has been period of time, and comes to a have achieved the final pat for It was through these two com dialogue between Lovestone and free decision. Just because of mulas which will guide us in all rades, aided by an old Bolshevik Elis Sulkkanen, head of a group beaten up. Our homes were burg energy like a tightly. coiled spring movement.
larized and, a few days later, in release. The Militant, published The Socialist Party, which that the party can be firm in its the twists and turns of an Ameri militant then resident in Moscow, of innish party members who stood as an insuperable barrier discipline and ruthlessly intoler can union movement that is be that the first copy of Trotsky were tried for heresy after us: stolen letters and documents three times a week during the Turns and Sectarians three years ago is a pitiful heap ant of anything less than 100 per. coming increasingly were published in the Daily acute crisis following Hitler ap Such sharp aad drastic turns, of ruins, disregarded and decent loyalty on the part of each our policies are Botmagnificent critique was brought LOVESTONE: You are preWorker. All this availed nothing. pointment as Chancellor, electri never before seen or even heard spised. By the mass expulsion of and every individual member.
pol out of Russia and made available pared to help the party to fight We stood our ground and fled the movement. Our influence of in the history of the American the left wing the two by four bu. On the tenth anniversary weated experience of decades in the who laid the first solid stones in icles and represent the accumu. to the vanguard revolutionists against Cannon. fought. We were armed with con began to grow visibly day by day. movement, brought good results reaucrats SULKKANEN: lave to Adence in our program and its in common with our Internation every time as we have seen. But private family only prepared on the consistent struggle which Armed with these policies, our now united in the Fourth Inter non has to say. What program of Norman Thomas can look back, not without pride, world union movement.
this country of the movement find out and study what can future: that is the best prescrip al movement we made a sharp they could be carried through their own political demise. The will indubitably be recorded in cadres can attract all that is national.
tion for sustained courage in a and definitive break with the only by Bolsheviks who are sure Lovestoneite organization, which history as the rebirth, the real healthy in the movement, can exhe has and what Information political fight. The movement of bankrupt Comintern and began of themselves and their program, makes big pretensions, is in re new beginning, of American Bol pand into proletarian armies that ground in the principles of comApart from our general backhe has.
unfalsitled bolshevism grew, slow. to steer a course toward a new who disregarded organizational ality nothing more than an un shevism. It enabled us, in collab will lead behind them the Ameri munism, and our repugnance for officially informed that CanILOVESTONE: But you are ly and painfully, but it grew. party and a new international. fetishism, and who recognized fortunate hybrid: a sect without oration with our international can masses in the revolutionary bureaucratism, chicanery and op non, Aborn and Shachtman The cadres became hardened in Contacts were established and ne the necessity. in fermenting the saving merit of serious prin movement, to forge the program onslaught the struggle. The whole campaign gotiations initiated with various situation wherein the revolution ciples and a mass movement of victory and to assemble the system which is prepering only then considered to be mainly Do you, as a party member.
against the cruel portunism which we had up to were expelled from the party.
against us the slander, the hood forces in other organizations ary forces were not yet tully sadly weak in membership. na Drst basic cadres of the protet greater misery, and against the phenomenon of the American think that your first duty is to lum violence and the burglaries looking toward unification in al crystallized, to subordinate organ tional scope and press. As for the arian army which will achieve it. Insanities of imperialist war. party, we had nothing to start (Continued on page 6)
we understood the situation pret dogmas would be confirmed in ward, toward a bigger movement linists were right in proers, can regard the preliminary dous proportions and have been formed the background for the the news of their zeal in servila and Our organization reacted to the Foung People Socialist League. From the road. Thus one great and discusses it over an ample the trade unions, or that we eated them to Moscow.