Communist League of America
Encyclopedia
The Communist League of America (Opposition) was founded by James P. Cannon
, Max Shachtman
and Martin Abern
late in 1928 after their expulsion from the Communist Party USA
for Trotskyism
. The CLA(O) was the United States
section of Leon Trotsky
's International Left Opposition and initially positioned itself as not a rival party to the CPUSA but as a faction of it and the Comintern
. The group was terminated in 1934 when it merged with the American Workers Party
headed by A. J. Muste
to establish the Workers Party of the United States
.
were expelled from the organization for the transgression of "Trotskyism
." The trio — Communist Labor Party founder James P. Cannon, Labor Defender editor Max Shachtman, and Romanian-born former head of the Young Workers League Martin Abern — had been won over to the ideas of Leon Trotsky when Cannon had been exposed to a translation of Trotsky's manuscript "The Draft Program of the Communist International: A Criticism of Fundamentals" while a delegate to the Sixth World Congress of the Comintern in Moscow that summer.
Cannon later recalled:
Cannon and the rest of the Comintern delegation returned to America in September 1928. The factional war between the dominant group headed by party Executive Secretary Jay Lovestone
and the Chicago-based chief of the Trade Union Educational League
, William Z. Foster
was temporarily put on ice so that the party could conduct a Presidential campaign. Meanwhile Cannon and his small circle of close associates set to work at another task, personally evangelizing to "carefully selected individuals" by reading to them from the single copy of the Trotsky document that they had at their disposal.
After about a month word leaked about the dissident gospel being propagated by Cannon and his co-thinkers — Rose Karsner (Cannon's wife), Max Shachtman, and Marty Abern. The subject was broached at a formal meeting of the Foster-Cannon factional caucus, with the Foster loyalists demanding an explanation. Cannon refused to provide a frank and full disclosure of his new-found ideological
views, electing instead to "bluff" Foster and his associates for another week in order to win more time for the winning of converts to the cause.
The Foster group became increasingly aware of the heresy in their midst and quickly called another factional meeting, however. At this session Foster associate Clarence Hathaway
, newly returned from a stint at the Comintern's Lenin School in Moscow, demanded passage of a formal resolution condemning Trotskyism as "counter-revolutionary" in the name of the joint Foster-Cannon caucus. A heated debate erupted, lasting four or five hours, at the end of which time Cannon managed to win another two weeks by hinting that he might end his uphill fight on behalf of Trotsky, who was by this juncture thoroughly marginalized in Russian politics.
Ultimately, however, the Foster group was forced to blow the whistle that Cannon, Shachtman, and Abern were attempting to convert party members to Trotskyism, lest they too be tainted as silent accomplices if the Lovestone faction should discover the heresy on their own. The Cannon group was expelled from the joint caucus with the Fosterites and charges were preferred against Cannon, Shachtman, and Abern before a joint session of the Political Committee and the disciplinary Central Control Committee. A mimeographed statement was circulated by the Cannon group in defense of their position, the inevitable expulsions were made, and a split was at hand. Cannon, Abern, and Shachtman were also expelled from the mass organization of the Communist Party which Cannon had previously headed, the International Labor Defense
(ILD).
Just one week after the October 27, 1928, expulsion of Cannon, Shachtman, and Abern from the Communist Party the first issue of a new newspaper called The Militant
rolled off the presses. The Communist League of America was born in earnest.
Max Shachtman made arrangements with a sympathetic New York printer he knew that was a former member of the Industrial Workers of the World
to produce a newspaper in his small shop extending credit to the expelled dissidents. Funding began to become available, with Max Eastman
, a translator of Trotsky that had recently produced a book called The Real Situation in Russia chipping in the $200 the job had paid him, and additional funds coming from Hungarian communists led by Louis Basky, an expelled group of Italian supporters of Amadeo Bordiga
in New York, and a Boston group headed by left-wing veteran Antoinette Konikow
.
On November 15, 1928, the first issue of a new tabloid newspaper for the fledgling supporters saw light, The Militant — a paper tellingly subtitled "Semi-Monthly Organ of the Opposition Group in the Workers (Communist) Party of America." The paper was aimed directly at members of the Communist Party, whom the expelled Trotskyists considered a vanguard
organization that would be most interested in their ideas.
Those choosing to remain regular to the Workers (Communist) Party of America saw matters through different eyes. Over the next six weeks a series of about 60 expulsions of party members for their support of Cannon and the Trotskyist movement, including key activists Arne Swabeck
and Albert Glotzer
in Chicago, Ray Dunne in Minneapolis, and others in Kansas City
, Philadelphia, and Cleveland. The Communist Party of Canada
acted similarly in expelling Maurice Spector
, who became a participant-by-correspondence in the fledgling American organization. This action paralleled even more severe reprisals in the Soviet Union
, in which as many as 300 of Trotsky's former aides and political associates were arrested by the Soviet secret police
. It was at this time that the Bolshevik-Leninist Opposition was completely smashed in an organizational sense in the Soviet Union, in the estimation of CLA leader Jim Cannon.
The "Three Generals Without an Army" of the new CLA — Cannon, Shachtman, and Abern — began conducting personal correspondence potential supporters. Cannon later recalled the situation which they faced:
, the Communist Party's assistant organizational secretary Jack Stachel
and the business manager of the Daily Worker
, a man named Ravitch, were responsible for the Cannon burglary. Documents were transported to Stachel's New York City apartment, where they were examined by top party leaders Jay Lovestone and John Pepper
, according to Gitlow. Some of this stolen material was later published in the Daily Worker as part of an organized campaign against the Trotskyist dissidents.
Early public meetings under the auspices of the CLA were threatened or broken up by organized groups of supporters of the regular Communist Party. A first lecture held in New York City on the topic "The Truth About Trotsky and the Russian Opposition" held on the evening of January 8, 1929, proceeded without obstruction. Subsequent Cannon lectures in New Haven
and Boston
met with organized disruption, however, with the New Haven gathering broken up and dispersed by Communist Party loyalists.
A 1929 Boston meeting was completed thanks only to the posting of a security team of about 10 former Industrial Workers of the World
associates of Cannon around the podium — a sufficient show of force to deter disruption. A meeting in Cleveland
ended in a fifteen minute riot with Communist Party supporters being physically expelled, in Chicago the situation did not degenerate to the level of physical confrontation. In Minneapolis a riot ensued which was broken up by the police, with the meeting disbursed. Other meetings were disrupted in Los Angeles
and Salt Lake City.
In response to the physical tactics of the regular Communist Party Trotskyists formed a "Workers Defense Guard" equipped with clubs and wooden axe handles and maintained security at subsequent public meetings in Minneapolis (a hotbed of the organization) and New York. An assault on a Trotskyist meeting held on May Day
1929 was repelled by "Workers Defense Guard" members wielding clubs at the top of a stairway; a retaliatory attack on a business meeting of the Hungarian CLA branch shortly thereafter precipitated into a riot during which one of the interlopers was nearly stabbed to death by a Trotskyist woodworker. The negative publicity and escalation of force surrounding this event ended the first spate of organized violence by the Communist Party against the fledgling CLA.
The organization showed growth in 1932, hitting a membership of 429, but it stagnated at approximately this level. At the time of the group's dissolution through merger with the American Workers Party
in 1934, it still contained fewer than 500 members, according to party leader Max Shachtman.
While the CLA did manage to attract some disaffected members of the regular CPUSA, most newcomers to the organization were previously unaffiliated young radicals. Many of those coming from the Communist Party were often difficult for the centralized organization to manage, retrospectively regarded by Cannon as "dilettantish petty-bourgeois minded people who couldn't stand any kind of discpline" who "wanted, or rather thought they wanted to become Trotskyists."
Cannon later recalled:
As by-product of the group's small size, its quarrelsome and iconoclastic membership, and its isolation from the broader labor movement, a culture of fierce internal squabbling reigned supreme. Eyes were turned inward upon other members of the group itself rather than political activities matters of concern in the broader world, as party members frequently fought over trifles.
In addition to the disorganization sowed by persistent sectarian squabbling, growth of the CLA was further hindered by its financial poverty. Party leader Jim Cannon summed the matter up in this manner:
. The strike paved the way for the organization of over-the-road drivers and the growth of the Teamsters
union. It, along with the 1934 West Coast Longshore Strike
(led by the Communist Party USA
) and the 1934 Toledo Auto-Lite Strike
led by the American Workers Party
, were important catalysts for the rise of industrial unionism in the 1930s, much of which was organized through the Congress of Industrial Organizations
.
's American Workers Party to form the Workers Party of the United States
. A new newspaper, much like the old one, was established with Jim Cannon at the editorial helm, given the less than original name New Militant. A new phase of the American Trotskyist movement was begun.
James P. Cannon
James Patrick "Jim" Cannon was an American Trotskyist and a leader of the Socialist Workers Party.Born on February 11, 1890 in Rosedale, Kansas, he joined the Socialist Party of America in 1908 and the Industrial Workers of the World in 1911...
, Max Shachtman
Max Shachtman
Max Shachtman was an American Marxist theorist. He evolved from being an associate of Leon Trotsky to a social democrat and mentor of senior assistants to AFL-CIO President George Meany.-Beginnings:...
and Martin Abern
Martin Abern
Martin Abern was a Marxist politician who was an important leader of the Communist youth movement of the 1920s as well as a founder of the American Trotskyist movement.-Early years:...
late in 1928 after their expulsion from the Communist Party USA
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
for Trotskyism
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
. The CLA(O) was the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
section of Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
's International Left Opposition and initially positioned itself as not a rival party to the CPUSA but as a faction of it and the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
. The group was terminated in 1934 when it merged with the American Workers Party
American Workers Party
The American Workers Party was a socialist organization established in December 1933 by activists in the Conference for Progressive Labor Action, a group headed by A.J. Muste.-Formation:...
headed by A. J. Muste
A. J. Muste
The Reverend Abraham Johannes "A.J." Muste was a Dutch-born American clergyman and political activist. Muste is best remembered for his work in the labor movement, pacifist movement, and the US civil rights movement.-Early years:...
to establish the Workers Party of the United States
Workers Party of the United States
The Workers Party of the United States was established in December 1934 by a merger of the American Workers Party led by A.J. Muste and the Trotskyist Communist League of America led by James P. Cannon. The party was dissolved in 1936 when its members entered the Socialist Party of America en...
.
Introduction to Trotskyist ideas
On October 27, 1928, three leading members of the Workers (Communist) Party of AmericaCommunist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
were expelled from the organization for the transgression of "Trotskyism
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
." The trio — Communist Labor Party founder James P. Cannon, Labor Defender editor Max Shachtman, and Romanian-born former head of the Young Workers League Martin Abern — had been won over to the ideas of Leon Trotsky when Cannon had been exposed to a translation of Trotsky's manuscript "The Draft Program of the Communist International: A Criticism of Fundamentals" while a delegate to the Sixth World Congress of the Comintern in Moscow that summer.
Cannon later recalled:
"Through some slip-up in the apparatus in Moscow, which was supposed to be bureaucratically airtight, this document of Trotsky came into the translating room of the Comintern. It fell into the hopper, where they had a dozen or more translators and stenographers with nothing else to do. They picked up Trotsky's document, translated it and distributed it to the heads of the delegations and the members of the program commission. So, lo and behold, it was laid in my lap, translated into English! Maurice SpectorMaurice SpectorMaurice Spector was the Chairman of the Communist Party of Canada for much of the 1920s and an early follower of Leon Trotsky after his split from the Communist International....
, a delegate from the Canadian PartyCommunist Party of CanadaThe Communist Party of Canada is a communist political party in Canada. Although is it currently a minor or small political party without representation in the Federal Parliament or in provincial legislatures, historically the Party has elected representatives in Federal Parliament, Ontario...
, and in somewhat the same frame of mind as myself, was also on the program commission and he got a copy. We let the caucus meetings and the Congress sessions go to the devil while we read and studied this document. Then I knew what I had to do and so did he. Our doubts had been resolved... We made a compact there and then — Spector and I — that we would come back home and begin a struggle under the banner of Trotskyism."
Cannon and the rest of the Comintern delegation returned to America in September 1928. The factional war between the dominant group headed by party Executive Secretary Jay Lovestone
Jay Lovestone
Jay Lovestone was at various times a member of the Socialist Party of America, a leader of the Communist Party USA, leader of a small oppositionist party, an anti-Communist and Central Intelligence Agency helper, and foreign policy advisor to the leadership of the AFL-CIO and various unions...
and the Chicago-based chief of the Trade Union Educational League
Trade Union Educational League
The Trade Union Educational League was established by William Z. Foster in 1920 as a means of uniting radicals within various trade unions for a common plan of action. The group was subsidized by the Communist International via the Communist Party of America from 1922...
, William Z. Foster
William Z. Foster
William Foster was a radical American labor organizer and Marxist politician, whose career included a lengthy stint as General Secretary of the Communist Party USA...
was temporarily put on ice so that the party could conduct a Presidential campaign. Meanwhile Cannon and his small circle of close associates set to work at another task, personally evangelizing to "carefully selected individuals" by reading to them from the single copy of the Trotsky document that they had at their disposal.
After about a month word leaked about the dissident gospel being propagated by Cannon and his co-thinkers — Rose Karsner (Cannon's wife), Max Shachtman, and Marty Abern. The subject was broached at a formal meeting of the Foster-Cannon factional caucus, with the Foster loyalists demanding an explanation. Cannon refused to provide a frank and full disclosure of his new-found ideological
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
views, electing instead to "bluff" Foster and his associates for another week in order to win more time for the winning of converts to the cause.
The Foster group became increasingly aware of the heresy in their midst and quickly called another factional meeting, however. At this session Foster associate Clarence Hathaway
Clarence Hathaway
Clarence A. "Charlie" Hathaway was an activist in the Minnesota trade union movement and a prominent leader of the Communist Party of the United States from the 1920s through the early 1940s...
, newly returned from a stint at the Comintern's Lenin School in Moscow, demanded passage of a formal resolution condemning Trotskyism as "counter-revolutionary" in the name of the joint Foster-Cannon caucus. A heated debate erupted, lasting four or five hours, at the end of which time Cannon managed to win another two weeks by hinting that he might end his uphill fight on behalf of Trotsky, who was by this juncture thoroughly marginalized in Russian politics.
Ultimately, however, the Foster group was forced to blow the whistle that Cannon, Shachtman, and Abern were attempting to convert party members to Trotskyism, lest they too be tainted as silent accomplices if the Lovestone faction should discover the heresy on their own. The Cannon group was expelled from the joint caucus with the Fosterites and charges were preferred against Cannon, Shachtman, and Abern before a joint session of the Political Committee and the disciplinary Central Control Committee. A mimeographed statement was circulated by the Cannon group in defense of their position, the inevitable expulsions were made, and a split was at hand. Cannon, Abern, and Shachtman were also expelled from the mass organization of the Communist Party which Cannon had previously headed, the International Labor Defense
International Labor Defense
The International Labor Defense was a legal defense organization in the United States, headed by William L. Patterson. It was a US section of International Red Aid organisation, and associated with the Communist Party USA. It defended Sacco and Vanzetti, was active in the civil rights and...
(ILD).
Just one week after the October 27, 1928, expulsion of Cannon, Shachtman, and Abern from the Communist Party the first issue of a new newspaper called The Militant
The Militant
The Militant is an international Socialist newsweekly connected to the Socialist Workers Party and the Pathfinder Tendency. It is published in the United States and distributed in other countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Sweden, Iceland, and New...
rolled off the presses. The Communist League of America was born in earnest.
Birth of an organization
Cannon, Shachtman, and Abern initially conceived of their task as that of reforming rather than replacing the Communist Party. Historian Constance Myers has explained their thinking in this manner:
"Since Trotsky was right, one day he would be redeemed and recalled to the Communist Party of the Soviet UnionCommunist Party of the Soviet UnionThe Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
and the Comintern; subsequently the party would reinstate his followers in their rightful, leadership roles. Moreover, the comrades still in the party (in the Trotskyists' eyes) remained comrades with different opinions."
Max Shachtman made arrangements with a sympathetic New York printer he knew that was a former member of the Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
to produce a newspaper in his small shop extending credit to the expelled dissidents. Funding began to become available, with Max Eastman
Max Eastman
Max Forrester Eastman was an American writer on literature, philosophy and society, a poet, and a prominent political activist. For many years, Eastman was a supporter of socialism, a leading patron of the Harlem Renaissance and an activist for a number of liberal and radical causes...
, a translator of Trotsky that had recently produced a book called The Real Situation in Russia chipping in the $200 the job had paid him, and additional funds coming from Hungarian communists led by Louis Basky, an expelled group of Italian supporters of Amadeo Bordiga
Amadeo Bordiga
Amadeo Bordiga was an Italian Marxist, a contributor to Communist theory, the founder of the Communist Party of Italy, a leader of the Communist International and, after World War II, leading figure of the International Communist Party.- Early life :Bordiga was born at Resina, in the province of...
in New York, and a Boston group headed by left-wing veteran Antoinette Konikow
Antoinette Konikow
Antoinette F. Buchholz Konikow was an American physician, feminist, and radical political activist. Konikow is best remembered as one of the pioneers of the American birth control movement and as a founding member of the Communist Party of America, forerunner of the Communist Party, USA...
.
On November 15, 1928, the first issue of a new tabloid newspaper for the fledgling supporters saw light, The Militant — a paper tellingly subtitled "Semi-Monthly Organ of the Opposition Group in the Workers (Communist) Party of America." The paper was aimed directly at members of the Communist Party, whom the expelled Trotskyists considered a vanguard
Vanguard party
A vanguard party is a political party at the forefront of a mass action, movement, or revolution. The idea of a vanguard party has its origins in the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels...
organization that would be most interested in their ideas.
Those choosing to remain regular to the Workers (Communist) Party of America saw matters through different eyes. Over the next six weeks a series of about 60 expulsions of party members for their support of Cannon and the Trotskyist movement, including key activists Arne Swabeck
Arne Swabeck
Arne Swabeck was an American Communist leader.Swabeck was born in Denmark and emigrated to the United States where he became one of the founding members of the Communist Party. In the late 1920s he was expelled from the party as a Trotskyist and worked together with James P. Cannon and other...
and Albert Glotzer
Albert Glotzer
Albert Glotzer , also known as Albert Gates was a professional stenographer and founder of the Trotskyist movement in the United States...
in Chicago, Ray Dunne in Minneapolis, and others in Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, Philadelphia, and Cleveland. The Communist Party of Canada
Communist Party of Canada
The Communist Party of Canada is a communist political party in Canada. Although is it currently a minor or small political party without representation in the Federal Parliament or in provincial legislatures, historically the Party has elected representatives in Federal Parliament, Ontario...
acted similarly in expelling Maurice Spector
Maurice Spector
Maurice Spector was the Chairman of the Communist Party of Canada for much of the 1920s and an early follower of Leon Trotsky after his split from the Communist International....
, who became a participant-by-correspondence in the fledgling American organization. This action paralleled even more severe reprisals in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, in which as many as 300 of Trotsky's former aides and political associates were arrested by the Soviet secret police
State Political Directorate
The State Political Directorate was the secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1934...
. It was at this time that the Bolshevik-Leninist Opposition was completely smashed in an organizational sense in the Soviet Union, in the estimation of CLA leader Jim Cannon.
The "Three Generals Without an Army" of the new CLA — Cannon, Shachtman, and Abern — began conducting personal correspondence potential supporters. Cannon later recalled the situation which they faced:
"In the past we, and especially I, had been accustomed to speaking to fairly large audiences... Now we had to speak to individuals. Our propagandistic work consisted mainly of finding out names of isolated individuals in the Communist Party, or close to the party, who might be interested, arranging an interview, spending hours and hours talking to a single individual, writing long letters explaining all our principled positions in an attempt to win over one person. And in this way we recruited people — not by tens, not by hundreds, but one by one."
Physical violence
The schism of Cannon and his co-thinkers was the cause of organized illegal or unethical activity by the Workers (Communist) Party. Cannon's apartment was ransacked late in December 1928 by politically-minded "burglars" who sought his correspondence files and subscription lists. According to a 1940 tell-all book by Benjamin GitlowBenjamin Gitlow
Benjamin "Ben" Gitlow was a prominent American socialist politician of the early twentieth century and a founding member of the Communist Party USA. From the end of the 1930s, Gitlow turned to conservatism and wrote two sensational exposés of American Communism, books which were very influential...
, the Communist Party's assistant organizational secretary Jack Stachel
Jack Stachel
Jacob Abraham "Jack" Stachel was an American Communist functionary who was a top official in the Communist Party from the middle 1920s until his death in the middle 1960s...
and the business manager of the Daily Worker
Daily Worker
The Daily Worker was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, some attempts were made to make it appear that the paper reflected a...
, a man named Ravitch, were responsible for the Cannon burglary. Documents were transported to Stachel's New York City apartment, where they were examined by top party leaders Jay Lovestone and John Pepper
John Pepper
John Pepper, also known as József Pogány, born József Schwartz was a Hungarian-Jewish Communist politician, active in the radical movements of both Hungary and the United States. He later served as a functionary in the Communist International in Moscow, before being cashiered in 1929...
, according to Gitlow. Some of this stolen material was later published in the Daily Worker as part of an organized campaign against the Trotskyist dissidents.
Early public meetings under the auspices of the CLA were threatened or broken up by organized groups of supporters of the regular Communist Party. A first lecture held in New York City on the topic "The Truth About Trotsky and the Russian Opposition" held on the evening of January 8, 1929, proceeded without obstruction. Subsequent Cannon lectures in New Haven
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
and Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
met with organized disruption, however, with the New Haven gathering broken up and dispersed by Communist Party loyalists.
A 1929 Boston meeting was completed thanks only to the posting of a security team of about 10 former Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
associates of Cannon around the podium — a sufficient show of force to deter disruption. A meeting in Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
ended in a fifteen minute riot with Communist Party supporters being physically expelled, in Chicago the situation did not degenerate to the level of physical confrontation. In Minneapolis a riot ensued which was broken up by the police, with the meeting disbursed. Other meetings were disrupted in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and Salt Lake City.
In response to the physical tactics of the regular Communist Party Trotskyists formed a "Workers Defense Guard" equipped with clubs and wooden axe handles and maintained security at subsequent public meetings in Minneapolis (a hotbed of the organization) and New York. An assault on a Trotskyist meeting held on May Day
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
1929 was repelled by "Workers Defense Guard" members wielding clubs at the top of a stairway; a retaliatory attack on a business meeting of the Hungarian CLA branch shortly thereafter precipitated into a riot during which one of the interlopers was nearly stabbed to death by a Trotskyist woodworker. The negative publicity and escalation of force surrounding this event ended the first spate of organized violence by the Communist Party against the fledgling CLA.
Organizational difficulties
The Communist League of America was never a large organization at any stage of its existence. At the time of the 1st National Conference of the organization, held in Chicago in May 1929, the group consisted of only about 100 members. The total membership of the CLA reported at the time of the group's second conference in 1931 was 156, of whom just 24 dated their membership back to the 1928 origins of the organization.The organization showed growth in 1932, hitting a membership of 429, but it stagnated at approximately this level. At the time of the group's dissolution through merger with the American Workers Party
American Workers Party
The American Workers Party was a socialist organization established in December 1933 by activists in the Conference for Progressive Labor Action, a group headed by A.J. Muste.-Formation:...
in 1934, it still contained fewer than 500 members, according to party leader Max Shachtman.
While the CLA did manage to attract some disaffected members of the regular CPUSA, most newcomers to the organization were previously unaffiliated young radicals. Many of those coming from the Communist Party were often difficult for the centralized organization to manage, retrospectively regarded by Cannon as "dilettantish petty-bourgeois minded people who couldn't stand any kind of discpline" who "wanted, or rather thought they wanted to become Trotskyists."
Cannon later recalled:
"Many of the newcomers made a fetish of democracy. They were repelled so much by the bureaucratism of the Communist Party that they desired an organization without any authority or discipline or centralization whatever.
"All the people of this type have one common characteristic: they like to discuss things without limit or end.... They can all talk; and not only can, but will; and everlastingly, on every question. They were iconoclastsIconoclasmIconoclasm is the deliberate destruction of religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually with religious or political motives. It is a frequent component of major political or religious changes...
who would accept nothing as authoritative, nothing as decided in the history of the movement. Everything and everybody had to be proved over again from scratch."
As by-product of the group's small size, its quarrelsome and iconoclastic membership, and its isolation from the broader labor movement, a culture of fierce internal squabbling reigned supreme. Eyes were turned inward upon other members of the group itself rather than political activities matters of concern in the broader world, as party members frequently fought over trifles.
In addition to the disorganization sowed by persistent sectarian squabbling, growth of the CLA was further hindered by its financial poverty. Party leader Jim Cannon summed the matter up in this manner:
"We were trying to publish a newspaper, we were trying to publish a whole list of pamphletsPamphletA pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...
, without the necessary resources. Every penny we obtained was immediately devoured by the expenses of the newspaper. We didn't have a nickelNickel (United States coin)The nickel is a five-cent coin, representing a unit of currency equaling five hundredths of one United States dollar. A later-produced Canadian nickel five-cent coin was also called by the same name....
to turn around with. These were the days of real pressure, the hard days of isolation, of poverty, of disheartening internal difficulties. This lasted not for weeks or months, but for years."
Union activity
Local leaders associated with the Communist League of America led the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934
The Minneapolis General Strike of 1934 grew out of a strike by Teamsters against most of the trucking companies operating in Minneapolis, a major distribution center for the Upper Midwest. The strike began on May 16, 1934 in the Market District and ensuing violence lasted periodically throughout...
. The strike paved the way for the organization of over-the-road drivers and the growth of the Teamsters
Teamsters
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of several local and regional locals of teamsters, the union now represents a diverse membership of blue-collar and professional workers in both the public and private sectors....
union. It, along with the 1934 West Coast Longshore Strike
1934 West Coast Longshore Strike
The 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike lasted eighty-three days, triggered by sailors and a four-day general strike in San Francisco, and led to the unionization of all of the West Coast ports of the United States...
(led by the Communist Party USA
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
) and the 1934 Toledo Auto-Lite Strike
Auto-Lite strike
The Toledo Auto-Lite strike was a strike by a federal labor union of the American Federation of Labor against the Electric Auto-Lite company of Toledo, Ohio, from April 12 to June 3, 1934....
led by the American Workers Party
American Workers Party
The American Workers Party was a socialist organization established in December 1933 by activists in the Conference for Progressive Labor Action, a group headed by A.J. Muste.-Formation:...
, were important catalysts for the rise of industrial unionism in the 1930s, much of which was organized through the Congress of Industrial Organizations
Congress of Industrial Organizations
The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, proposed by John L. Lewis in 1932, was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 required union leaders to swear that they were not...
.
Dissolution
In December 1934, the CLA merged with A. J. MusteA. J. Muste
The Reverend Abraham Johannes "A.J." Muste was a Dutch-born American clergyman and political activist. Muste is best remembered for his work in the labor movement, pacifist movement, and the US civil rights movement.-Early years:...
's American Workers Party to form the Workers Party of the United States
Workers Party of the United States
The Workers Party of the United States was established in December 1934 by a merger of the American Workers Party led by A.J. Muste and the Trotskyist Communist League of America led by James P. Cannon. The party was dissolved in 1936 when its members entered the Socialist Party of America en...
. A new newspaper, much like the old one, was established with Jim Cannon at the editorial helm, given the less than original name New Militant. A new phase of the American Trotskyist movement was begun.
Prominent members
- Martin AbernMartin AbernMartin Abern was a Marxist politician who was an important leader of the Communist youth movement of the 1920s as well as a founder of the American Trotskyist movement.-Early years:...
- James P. CannonJames P. CannonJames Patrick "Jim" Cannon was an American Trotskyist and a leader of the Socialist Workers Party.Born on February 11, 1890 in Rosedale, Kansas, he joined the Socialist Party of America in 1908 and the Industrial Workers of the World in 1911...
- Joseph CarterJoseph CarterJoseph Carter was the pseudonym of Joseph Friedman, a founding member of the American Trotskyist movement.Friedman was the original editor of Labor Action, the official organ of the Workers Party, the organization established by James Burnham, Max Shachtman, and Martin Abern in April 1940...
- Bert CochranBert CochranBert Cochran was an American Communist politician and author.Cochran was born in Poland in 1913 and came to the US at an early age. His birth name was Alexander Goldfarb. In the 1930s, Cochran attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he was recruited to the Trotskyist movement by Max...
- Charles CurtissCharles CurtissCharles Curtiss was an American Communist.Born on July 4, 1908, in Chicago as Samuel Kurz, the son of poor immigrants from Poland, he changed his name to Charles Curtiss and earned his living by working as a miner and sailor and finally became a skilled printer.In 1928, Charles Curtiss joined the...
- Farrell DobbsFarrell DobbsFarrell Dobbs was an American Trotskyist and trade unionist.He was born in Queen City, Missouri where his father was a worker in a coal mine. They moved to Minneapolis, and he graduated from North High School in 1925. In 1926, he left for North Dakota to find work, but returned the following fall...
- Raya DunayevskayaRaya DunayevskayaRaya Dunayevskaya was the founder of the philosophy of Marxist Humanism in the United States of America. At one time Leon Trotsky's secretary, she later split with him and ultimately founded the organization News and Letters Committees and was its leader until her death.-Biography:Of Jewish...
- Grant Dunne
- Miles "Mickey" Dunne
- Vincent R. "Ray" Dunne
- Albert GlotzerAlbert GlotzerAlbert Glotzer , also known as Albert Gates was a professional stenographer and founder of the Trotskyist movement in the United States...
- Albert GoldmanAlbert Goldman (politician)Albert Goldman was an American Trotskyist and lawyer to the labor movement.Born Albert Verblen in Chicago, he studied at Medhill High School and then the University of Cincinnati. He also studied to be a rabbi at the Hebrew Union College...
- Joseph HansenJoseph HansenJoseph Hansen may refer to:* Joseph Hansen , Belgian dancer and choreographer* Joseph Hansen , American socialist leader* Joseph Hansen , American crime writer...
- Reba Hansen
- Rose Karsner
- Felix MorrowFelix MorrowFelix Morrow was an American communist political activist and newspaper editor. In later years, Morrow left the world of politics to become a book publisher. He is best remembered as a factional leader of the American Trotskyist movement....
- George NovackGeorge NovackGeorge Novack was an American Communist politician and Marxist theoretician....
- Hugo OehlerHugo Oehler-Biography:An active trade unionist, Oehler joined the Communist Party USA in its early days, and by 1927 was a district organizer for the party in Kansas...
- T.J. O'Flaherty
- Max ShachtmanMax ShachtmanMax Shachtman was an American Marxist theorist. He evolved from being an associate of Leon Trotsky to a social democrat and mentor of senior assistants to AFL-CIO President George Meany.-Beginnings:...
- Karl Skoglund
- Maurice SpectorMaurice SpectorMaurice Spector was the Chairman of the Communist Party of Canada for much of the 1920s and an early follower of Leon Trotsky after his split from the Communist International....
- Arne SwabeckArne SwabeckArne Swabeck was an American Communist leader.Swabeck was born in Denmark and emigrated to the United States where he became one of the founding members of the Communist Party. In the late 1920s he was expelled from the party as a Trotskyist and worked together with James P. Cannon and other...
- Joseph Vanzler ("John G. Wright")Joseph VanzlerJoseph "Usick" Vanzler , best known by the pseudonym "John G. Wright," was a Jewish-American radical political activist and translator...
National gatherings
| Event | Location | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st National Conference | Chicago | May 17-19, 1929 | 31 regular delegates, 17 alternates with voice but no vote. |
| 2nd National Conference | New York City | Sept. 24-27, 1931 | New organizational constitution adopted. |
| 3rd National Convention | New York City | Nov. 28-30, 1934 | Joint meeting with American Workers Party; 43 regular CLA delegates. |
Newspapers
- The MilitantThe MilitantThe Militant is an international Socialist newsweekly connected to the Socialist Workers Party and the Pathfinder Tendency. It is published in the United States and distributed in other countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Sweden, Iceland, and New...
, (November 15, 1928 - December 8, 1934). Martin Abern, James P. Cannon, Max Shachtman, Maurice Spector, editors. New York.
- Communistes, (1931). —Greek language organ of the CLA.
- Unzer Kamf, (1932-1933). —Yiddish-language organ of the CLA.
- New International (established July 1934). —Theoretical magazine.
- Young Spartacus, (December 1931 - December 1935). —Organ of the CLA National Youth Committee.
Books and pamphlets
- Leon Trotsky, The Draft Program of the Communist International: A Criticism of Fundamentals: Presented to the Sixth World Congress of the Communist International. New York: The Militant, 1929.
- Leon Trotsky, The Strategy of the World Revolution. New York: Communist League of America (Opposition), 1930.
- Leon Trotsky, Communism and Syndicalism: On the Trade Union Question. Max Schachtman, trans. New York: Communist League of America (Opposition), 1931.
- Leon Trotsky, The Permanent Revolution. Max Shachtman, trans. New York: Pioneer Publishers, 1931.
- Leon Trotsky, The Revolution in Spain. New York: Communist League of America (Opposition), 1931.
- Leon Trotsky, The Spanish Revolution in Danger! New York: Pioneer Publishers, 1931.
- World Unemployment and the Five Year Plan. New York: Communist League of America (Opposition), 1931.
- Leon Trotsky, Germany: The Key to the International Situation. New York: Pioneer Publishers, 1932.
- Leon Trotsky, Problems of the Chinese Revolution. New York: Pioneer Publishers, 1932.
- Leon Trotsky, What Next? Vital Questions for the German Proletariat. Joseph Vanzler, trans. New York: Pioneer Publishers, 1932.
- Hugo Oehler, America's Role in Germany. Philadelphia: Communist League of America (Opposition), 1933.
- Max Shachtman, Ten Years: History and Principles of the Left Opposition. New York: Pioneer Publishers, 1933.
- Leon Trotsky, In Defense fo the Russian Revolution: Speech Delivered at Copenhagen, December 1932. New York: Pioneer Publishers, 1933.
- Leon Trotsky, Soviet Economy in Danger: The Expulsion of Zinoviev. New York: Pioneer Publishers, 1933.
- Leon Trotsky, The Soviet Union and the Fourth International: The Class Nature of the Soviet State. New York: Pioneer Publishers, 1934.
- Leon Trotsky, War and the 4th International: Draft Theses Adopted by the International Secretariat of the International Communist League. New York: Communist League of America, 1934.
Further reading
- James P. Cannon, The History of American Trotskyism: Report of a Participant. New York: Pioneer Publishers, 1944.
- The Left Opposition in the U.S., 1928-31. New York: Monad Press, 1981.
- The Communist League of America, 1932-34. New York: Monad Press, 1985.
- James P. Cannon and Max Shachtman, Dog Days: James P. Cannon vs. Max Shachtman in the Communist League of America, 1931-1933. New York: Prometheus Research Library, 2002.
- Constance Ashton Myers, The Prophet's Army: Trotskyists in America, 1928-1941. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1977.
External links
- David Walters (ed.), "The Militant publication index," Encyclopedia of Trotskyism Online, Marxists Internet Archive, www.marxists.org/ —Site providing individual issues of The Militant.
- Tim Davenport, "Communist League of America (Opposition) (1929 - 1934): Party History", Early American Marxism website, www.marxisthistory.org/