Hal Draper
Encyclopedia
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
who played a significant role in the Berkeley, California, Free Speech Movement
Free Speech Movement
The Free Speech Movement was a student protest which took place during the 1964–1965 academic year on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley under the informal leadership of students Mario Savio, Brian Turner, Bettina Aptheker, Steve Weissman, Art Goldberg, Jackie Goldberg, and...
and is perhaps best known for his extensive scholarship on the history and meaning of the thought of Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
.
Draper was a lifelong advocate of what he called "socialism from below," self-emancipation by the working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
in opposition to capitalism and Stalinist bureaucracy, both of which, he held, practiced domination from above. He was one of the creators of the Third Camp
Third camp
The third camp, also known as third camp socialism or third camp Trotskyism, is a branch of socialism which aims to oppose both capitalism and Stalinism, by supporting the organised working class as a "third camp"....
tradition, a form — the form, according to its adherents — of Marxist socialism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
.
Early years
Harold Dubinsky was born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1914, the son of ethnic Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
who emigrated to America from Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, then part of the Russian empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. His father, Samuel Dubinsky, was the manager of a shirt factory who died in 1924. His mother, Annie Kornblatt Dubinsky, ran a candy store to make ends meet following her husband's death.
When Hal was 18 his mother insisted upon changing the family name to the "American-sounding" name "Draper" so as to shield the children from anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
as they entered their careers.
Hal graduated from Boys High School
Boys and Girls High School
Boys and Girls High School, the oldest public high school in Brooklyn, is a comprehensive high school in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York...
and earned a bachelor's degree from Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
in 1934, during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
.
Political career
During his teenage years he joined the Young People's Socialist LeagueYoung People's Socialist League
The Young People's Socialist League , founded in 1989, is the official youth arm of the Socialist Party USA. The group's membership consists of those democratic socialists under the age of 30, and its political activities tend to concentrate on increasing the voter turnout of young democratic...
(YPSL), then the youth affiliate of the Socialist Party of America
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
, and became a major leader of the national student movements of the day, which organized against fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
, war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
, and unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
.
Draper's political choices, both then and later, were in contrast to those made by his brother Theodore (Ted) Draper
Theodore Draper
Theodore H. "Ted" Draper was an American historian and political writer. Draper is best known for the 14 books which he completed during his life, including work regarded as seminal on the formative period of the American Communist Party, the Cuban Revolution, and the Iran-Contra Affair...
, a fellow traveler of the Communist Party
Communist party
A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...
in the 1930s who would later be disillusioned with Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and become a prominent historian. Their sister Dorothy (Dora) Draper would marry Jacob Rabkin (1905-2003), one of the intellectual founders of US tax law.
Within the YPSL, Hal Draper was won over to 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...
and became an important leader of the YPSL's Trotskyist "Appeal Tendency" during 1936 and 1937. He was elected the organization's national secretary, its top post, at its September 1937 convention, which renounced the social democratic Second International
Second International
The Second International , the original Socialist International, was an organization of socialist and labour parties formed in Paris on July 14, 1889. At the Paris meeting delegations from 20 countries participated...
in favor of a new Trotskyist Fourth International
Fourth International
The Fourth International is the communist international organisation consisting of followers of Leon Trotsky , with the declared dedicated goal of helping the working class bring about socialism...
. The great majority of the YPSL supported this position and either left or was expelled by the Socialist Party in the fall of that year. Along with his YPSL activity, Draper took part in the founding of the Socialist Workers Party
Socialist Workers Party (United States)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far-left political organization in the United States. The group places a priority on "solidarity work" to aid strikes and is strongly supportive of Cuba...
in 1937-1938.
As debates erupted within the newly formed SWP, Draper aligned with those who objected to the internal regime of that party and were developing an analysis of 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....
under Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
as a new form of society, neither socialist nor capitalist, in which a new class, the state bureaucracy, held social and state power. In 1940 this faction, led by 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:...
, James Burnham
James Burnham
James Burnham was an American popular political theorist, best known for his influential work The Managerial Revolution, published in 1941. Burnham was a radical activist in the 1930s and an important factional leader of the American Trotskyist movement. In later years he left Marxism and produced...
, 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:...
, split from the SWP to form the Workers Party
Workers Party (US)
Not to be confused with the modern Marxist-Leninist party, Workers Party, USA.The Workers Party was a Third Camp Trotskyist group in the United States. It was founded in April 1940 by members of the Socialist Workers Party who opposed the Soviet invasion of Finland. They included Max Shachtman,...
. Draper joined them in founding the new organization. During the war, he and his wife Anne Draper, the former Anne Kracik, lived 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...
where they were active among shipyard
Shipyard
Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...
workers and in anti-fascist and anti-racist campaigns. Returning to New York in the mid-1940s, Draper became a major writer and functionary for the Workers Party
Workers Party (US)
Not to be confused with the modern Marxist-Leninist party, Workers Party, USA.The Workers Party was a Third Camp Trotskyist group in the United States. It was founded in April 1940 by members of the Socialist Workers Party who opposed the Soviet invasion of Finland. They included Max Shachtman,...
. He would often write and edit almost the entire contents of issues of the group's paper, Labor Action.
By 1948 the Workers Party came to believe that the prospects for revolution were receding and that it must adopt a more realistic strategy given the diminished prospects. Therefore it changed its name to the Independent Socialist League, an acknowledgement that its size and capacities did not warrant the name "party." With a shrinking membership (although its youth work was buoyant) the ISL leadership around Shachtman decided that the time had come to join forces with the Socialist Party of America and in 1958 fused into it. Although Draper personally opposed this decision, he submitted to the majority. He regretted the rightward tendency of the organization, however, and in 1962, Draper — by then resident in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, as a microfilm acquisitions librarian
Librarian
A librarian is an information professional trained in library and information science, which is the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs...
— broke with the Socialist Party to form the Independent Socialist Club (ISC), which had a heavy youth composition and later in that decade became the International Socialists.
In 1964 Draper was heavily involved in the Free Speech Movement
Free Speech Movement
The Free Speech Movement was a student protest which took place during the 1964–1965 academic year on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley under the informal leadership of students Mario Savio, Brian Turner, Bettina Aptheker, Steve Weissman, Art Goldberg, Jackie Goldberg, and...
, an important precursor of that decade's New Left
New Left
The New Left was a term used mainly in the United Kingdom and United States in reference to activists, educators, agitators and others in the 1960s and 1970s who sought to implement a broad range of reforms, in contrast to earlier leftist or Marxist movements that had taken a more vanguardist...
, on the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
campus. He was a mentor to FSM leader Mario Savio
Mario Savio
""...But we're a bunch of raw materials that don't mean to be - have any process upon us. Don't mean to be made into any product! Don't mean - Don't mean to end up being bought by some clients of the University, be they the government, be they industry, be they organized labor, be they anyone!...
and others. In the introduction to Draper's Berkeley: The New Student Revolt (1965), Mario Savio
Mario Savio
""...But we're a bunch of raw materials that don't mean to be - have any process upon us. Don't mean to be made into any product! Don't mean - Don't mean to end up being bought by some clients of the University, be they the government, be they industry, be they organized labor, be they anyone!...
acknowledges Draper's encouragement and friendship, and cites the influence of Draper's pamphlet The Mind of Clark Kerr (October 1964) on the development of the Free Speech Movement
Free Speech Movement
The Free Speech Movement was a student protest which took place during the 1964–1965 academic year on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley under the informal leadership of students Mario Savio, Brian Turner, Bettina Aptheker, Steve Weissman, Art Goldberg, Jackie Goldberg, and...
.
In 1968 ISC became the International Socialists as it expanded nationally. In 1971 Draper quit, arguing that the group had become a sect. From then onwards he worked as an independent radical scholar, producing a stream of scholarly works on Marxism and the workers' movement. His scholarship on Marx was hailed by Robert Heilbroner
Robert Heilbroner
Robert L. Heilbroner was an American economist and historian of economic thought. The author of some twenty books, Heilbroner was best known for The Worldly Philosophers , a survey of the lives and contributions of famous economists, notably Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and John Maynard...
in The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
as "extraordinarily stimulating" and "written in a fresh, open style which comes as a welcome relief after the turgidities of so much Marxist writing."
Death and legacy
Hal Draper died of pneumoniaPneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
in 1990 at his home in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
.
Draper's most enduring legacy is likely to be his five-volume magnum opus Karl Marx's
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
Theory of Revolution (Monthly Review Press, 1977-1990), a seminal re-evaluation of the whole of Marx's political theory, based on an exhaustive survey of the writings of both Marx and Engels. He saw their political perspective as summarized by the phrase "socialism from below," which he had introduced in his pamphlet The Two Souls of Socialism
The Two Souls of Socialism
The Two Souls of Socialism by Hal Draper is a socialist pamphlet that posits a fundamental division in socialist thought and action between those who favor "Socialism from Above" and those who favor "Socialism from Below."...
.
Draper was also the editor of a three volume Marx-Engels Cyclopedia, a reference work detailing the day-to-day activities and writings of the two founders of modern socialism.
Outside his overtly political writings, Draper's most outstanding work is arguably the short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
Ms Fnd in a Lbry
Ms Fnd in a Lbry
"MS Fnd in a Lbry" is a satirical science fiction short story about the exponential growth of information, written by Hal Draper in 1961...
, a satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
of the information age
Information Age
The Information Age, also commonly known as the Computer Age or Digital Age, is an idea that the current age will be characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely, and to have instant access to knowledge that would have been difficult or impossible to find previously...
, written in 1961.
In 1982, Draper also published an English translation of the complete works of the 19th Century German poet Heinrich Heine
Heinrich Heine
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...
, the fruit of three decades of work conducted alongside his better-known political activity.
Associations
During his life, Hal Draper was a member of the following organizations:- Young People's Socialist LeagueYoung People's Socialist LeagueThe Young People's Socialist League , founded in 1989, is the official youth arm of the Socialist Party USA. The group's membership consists of those democratic socialists under the age of 30, and its political activities tend to concentrate on increasing the voter turnout of young democratic...
- Socialist Workers Party
- Independent Socialist League
- Socialist Party of AmericaSocialist Party of AmericaThe Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
- Free Speech MovementFree Speech MovementThe Free Speech Movement was a student protest which took place during the 1964–1965 academic year on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley under the informal leadership of students Mario Savio, Brian Turner, Bettina Aptheker, Steve Weissman, Art Goldberg, Jackie Goldberg, and...
- Independent Socialist ClubInternational Socialists (US)The International Socialists was a Third Camp Trotskyist group in the United States.The roots of the IS went back to the fall of 1964 when the Berkeley locals of the SP-SDF and YPSL left with 16 members to found the Independent Socialist Club led by Hal Draper and Joel Geier...
He was also a member of the editorial board of this journal:
- New PoliticsNew Politics (magazine)New Politics is an independent socialist journal founded in 1961 and still published in the United States today. While it is inclusive of articles from a variety of left-of-center positions, the publication leans strongly toward a Third camp, democratic Marxist perspective, placing it typically to...
Works
- Out of their own mouths: a documentary study of the new line of the Comintern on war New York : Young People's Socialist League, Greater New York Federation, 1935
- Are you ready for war? New York : Young People's Socialist League, 1937
- The truth about Gerald Smith: America's no. 1 fascist San Pedro, Calif: Workers Party, Los Angeles Section, 1945
- Jim Crow in Los Angeles Los Angeles: Workers Party, 1946
- ABC of Marxism: outline text for class and self study Los Angeles: Workers Party, 1946
- Labor, key to a better world Austin, Tex: Young People's Socialist League, 1950-1959?
- The two souls of socialism: socialism from below v. socialism from above New York : Young People's Socialist League, 1963
- Joseph Weydemeyer's "Dictatorship of the proletariat". [n.p.] Labor History, 1962
- Notes on the India-China border war U.S.?: s.n., 1962
- Marx and the dictatorship of the proletariat Paris : I.S.E.A, Cahiers de l'Institut de science économique appliquée #129 Série S,; Etudes de marxologie #6 1962
- Introduction to independent socialism; selected articles from Labor action Berkeley, Independent Socialist Press 1963
- The mind of Clark Kerr. [Berkeley, Calif.] Independent Socialist Club 1964
- Independent socialism, a perspective for the left Berkeley, Calif. : Independent Socialist Committee, 1964 Independent Socialist Committee pamphlet #1
- Third camp; the independent socialist view of war and peace policy Berkeley, Calif. : Independent Socialist Committee, 1965 Independent Socialist Committee pamphlet #2
- Berkeley: the new student revolt New York : Grove Press, 1965
- "The Two Souls of Socialism," New PoliticsNew Politics (magazine)New Politics is an independent socialist journal founded in 1961 and still published in the United States today. While it is inclusive of articles from a variety of left-of-center positions, the publication leans strongly toward a Third camp, democratic Marxist perspective, placing it typically to...
, 1966 - Strike!: the second battle of Berkeley : what happened and how can we win (with others) [Berkeley, Calif.? : s.n., 1966
- The fight for independence in Vietnam. Berkeley, Calif. Independent Socialist Club 1966
- Independent socialism and war; articles Berkeley, Calif. Independent Socialist Committee 1966 Independent socialist clippingbooks, #2
- Zionism, Israel, & the Arabs: the historical background of the Middle East tragedy [Berkeley, Calif. : s.n.] 1967 Independent socialist clippingbooks, #3
- The first Israel-Arab war, 1948-49 Berkeley : Independent Socialist Clippingbooks, 1967 Independent Socialist Clippingbooks Xerocopy series #X-2
- The dirt on California; agribusiness and the University [Berkeley, Calif., Independent Socialist Clubs of America, 1968
- Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels: articles in the New American cyclopaedia. Berkeley, Calif. Independent Socialist Press 1969 Independent socialist clippingbooks, #5
- The Permanent war economy Berkeley, Calif. Independent Socialist Press 1970 Independent socialist clippingbooks, #7
- Notebook on the Paris Commune; press excerpts & notes. by Karl Marx Berkeley, Calif. Independent Socialist Press 1971 (editor) Independent socialist clippingbooks, #8
- Writings on the Paris Commune by Karl Marx New York Monthly Review Press 1971 (editor)
- The Politics of Ignazio Silone: a controversy around Silone's statement "My political faith" : contributions (with Ignazio SiloneIgnazio SiloneIgnazio Silone was the pseudonym of Secondino Tranquilli, an Italian author and politician.-Early life and career:...
, Lucio Libertini and Irving HoweIrving HoweIrving Howe was an American literary and social critic and a prominent figure of the Democratic Socialists of America.-Life and career:...
) Berkeley, Calif. Independent Socialist Press 1974 Independent socialist clippingbooks, #10 - Karl Marx's theory of revolution Vol. 1 State and bureaucracy New York Monthly Review Press 1977
- Karl Marx's theory of revolution Vol. 2 The politics of social classes New York Monthly Review Press 1978
- The complete poems of Heinrich Heine: a modern English version by Heinrich Heine Boston: Suhrkamp/Insel; Oxford: Distributed by Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
1982 - The annotated Communist manifesto Berkeley, CA: Center for Socialist History 1984
- The adventures of the Communist manifesto Berkeley, CA: Center for Socialist History 1984
- The Marx-Engels register: a complete bibliography of Marx and Engels' individual writings New York : Schocken Books, 1985
- The Marx-Engels chronicle: a day-by-day chronology of Marx and Engels' life and activity New York : Schocken Books, 1985
- The Marx-Engels cyclopedia New York : Schocken Books, 1985-1986
- Karl Marx's theory of revolution Vol. 3 The "Dictatorship of the Proletariat" New York Monthly Review Press 1986
- The "dictatorship of the proletariat" from Marx to Lenin New York Monthly Review Press 1987
- America as overlord: from Yalta to Vietnam Berkeley, CA: Independent Socialist Press 1989 Draper papers, #1
- Karl Marx's theory of revolution Vol. 4 Critique of other socialisms New York Monthly Review Press 1990
- Socialism from below Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1992
- War and revolution: Lenin and the myth of revolutionary defeatism Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1996
Additional reading
- "Hal Draper, 75, Socialist Writer Who Recounted Berkeley Protest," The New York Times, January 31, 1990
- Haberkern, Ernest. "Introduction to Hal Draper", Marxists Internet Archive, 1998
- Phelps, ChristopherChristopher PhelpsChristopher Phelps is an American political and intellectual historian of the twentieth century. The subjects of his research and writing include philosophical pragmatism, concepts of class and labor in social thought, the fate of the American Left and the socialist ideal, and ideas of race in...
. "Draper, Hal," in Encyclopedia of the American Left, 2d ed., ed. Mari Jo Buhle et al. (Oxford University Press, 1996).