Martin Glaberman
Encyclopedia
Martin Glaberman was an influential American
Marxist, teacher, and autoworker.
, a radical left
group that split from the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party
, which understood the Soviet Union
as a state capitalist society rather than as a degenerated workers' state
.
In 1950, the Johnson-Forest Tendency
left the Trotskyist movement and became known as the Correspondence Publishing Committee
. When this group suffered a major split in 1955 with a large number supporting Raya Dunayevskaya
(or "Forest" of "Johnson-Forest") and forming a new group called the News and Letters Committees
, Glaberman remained loyal to C.L.R. James ("Johnson") and the Correspondence group. James advised Correspondence from exile in Britain. It remains a matter of dispute whether the majority in 1955 supported James or Dunayevskaya. Glaberman has claimed in New Politics
that the majority supported James but historian Kent Worcester claimed the opposite in an important biography of C.L.R. James.
In 1962, when Grace Lee Boggs
, James Boggs
, Lyman Paine
, and Freddy Paine split from Correspondence Publishing Committee in a third worldist direction, Glaberman and a small number of other activists remained loyal to C.L.R. James, largely in Detroit and started a new group to continue James' legacy. He was a major figure in the new group, Facing Reality
, until he proposed its dissolution in 1970, over the objections of C.L.R. James because Glaberman felt it was too tiny to operate effectively. He continued to write and publish widely until his death and established a now defunct publishing company, Bewick Editions to keep James' work in print. He was for many years, until his death, a sponsor of New Politics and served as an associate editor of Radical America
, along with individuals such as Paul Buhle
.
Glaberman has been described as a legendary figure in Detroit radical circles and he influenced activists that would play a major role in the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement
and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers
. He was a professor and later professor emeritus at Wayne State University
as he resumed his academic path after retiring from factory work.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Marxist, teacher, and autoworker.
Biography
Glaberman was associated with the Johnson-Forest TendencyJohnson-Forest Tendency
The Johnson–Forest tendency, sometimes called the Johnsonites, refers to a radical left tendency in the United States associated with Marxist theorists C.L.R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya, who used the pseudonyms J.R. Johnson and Freddie Forest respectively...
, a radical left
Far left
Far left, also known as the revolutionary left, radical left and extreme left are terms which refer to the highest degree of leftist positions among left-wing politics...
group that split from the Trotskyist 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...
, which understood 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....
as a state capitalist society rather than as a degenerated workers' state
Degenerated workers' state
In Trotskyist political theory the term degenerated workers' state has been used since the 1930s to describe the state of the Soviet Union after Joseph Stalin's consolidation of power in or about 1924...
.
In 1950, the Johnson-Forest Tendency
Johnson-Forest Tendency
The Johnson–Forest tendency, sometimes called the Johnsonites, refers to a radical left tendency in the United States associated with Marxist theorists C.L.R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya, who used the pseudonyms J.R. Johnson and Freddie Forest respectively...
left the Trotskyist movement and became known as the Correspondence Publishing Committee
Correspondence Publishing Committee
Correspondence Publishing Committee was a radical left organization led by C.L.R. James and Martin Glaberman that existed in the United States from approximately 1951 until it split in 1962.-History:...
. When this group suffered a major split in 1955 with a large number supporting Raya Dunayevskaya
Raya Dunayevskaya
Raya 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...
(or "Forest" of "Johnson-Forest") and forming a new group called the News and Letters Committees
News and Letters Committees
News and Letters Committees is a small, revolutionary-socialist organization in the United States. It is the world's most prominent Marxist-Humanist organization....
, Glaberman remained loyal to C.L.R. James ("Johnson") and the Correspondence group. James advised Correspondence from exile in Britain. It remains a matter of dispute whether the majority in 1955 supported James or Dunayevskaya. Glaberman has claimed in New Politics
New 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...
that the majority supported James but historian Kent Worcester claimed the opposite in an important biography of C.L.R. James.
In 1962, when Grace Lee Boggs
Grace Lee Boggs
Grace Lee Boggs is an author, lifelong social activist and feminist. She is known for her years of political collaboration with C.L.R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya in the 1940s and 1950s. She eventually went off in her own political direction in the 1960s with her husband of some forty years, James...
, James Boggs
James Boggs (activist)
James Boggs was an American political activist, auto worker and author. He was married to feminist activist Grace Lee Boggs for forty years until his death in 1993.-Biography:...
, Lyman Paine
Lyman Paine
George Lyman Paine, Jr. , known as Lyman Paine, was an architect and radical left activist. He is known for his work with the Correspondence Publishing Committee with his wife Freddy Paine, and was closely associated with Grace Lee Boggs.Paine was born in New York City in 1901. His father George...
, and Freddy Paine split from Correspondence Publishing Committee in a third worldist direction, Glaberman and a small number of other activists remained loyal to C.L.R. James, largely in Detroit and started a new group to continue James' legacy. He was a major figure in the new group, Facing Reality
Facing Reality
Facing Reality was a radical left group in the United States which existed from about 1962 until 1970.-History:Facing Reality originated in the Johnson-Forest Tendency led by C.L.R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya. It has its origins in the Trotskyist left but regarded the Soviet Union as state...
, until he proposed its dissolution in 1970, over the objections of C.L.R. James because Glaberman felt it was too tiny to operate effectively. He continued to write and publish widely until his death and established a now defunct publishing company, Bewick Editions to keep James' work in print. He was for many years, until his death, a sponsor of New Politics and served as an associate editor of Radical America
Radical America
Radical America was a left wing political magazine in the United States established in 1967. The magazine was founded by Paul Buhle and Mary Jo Buhle, activists in Students for a Democratic Society and served during its first few years of existence as an unofficial theoretical journal of that...
, along with individuals such as Paul Buhle
Paul Buhle
Paul Merlyn Buhle is a Senior Lecturer at Brown University, author or editor of 35 volumes including histories of radicalism in the United States and the Caribbean, studies of popular culture, and a series of nonfiction comic art volumes. He is the authorized biographer of C. L. R...
.
Glaberman has been described as a legendary figure in Detroit radical circles and he influenced activists that would play a major role in the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement
Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement
The Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement was an organization of African-American workers formed in May 1968 in the Chrysler Corporation's Hamtramck Assembly plant, formerly Dodge Main, Detroit, Michigan....
and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers
League of Revolutionary Black Workers
The League of Revolutionary Black Workers formed in 1969 in Detroit, Michigan. The League united a number of different Revolutionary Union Movements that were growing rapidly across the auto industry and other industrial sectors—industries in which Black workers were concentrated in Detroit in...
. He was a professor and later professor emeritus at Wayne State University
Wayne State University
Wayne State University is a public research university located in Detroit, Michigan, United States, in the city's Midtown Cultural Center Historic District. Founded in 1868, WSU consists of 13 schools and colleges offering more than 400 major subject areas to over 32,000 graduate and...
as he resumed his academic path after retiring from factory work.
Books
- Wartime Strikes: The Struggles Against the No-Strike Pledge in the UAW during World War Two
- Marxism for Our Times: C.L.R. James on Revolutionary Organisation (editor)
Pamphlets
- Punching Out (1952)
- Union Committeemen and Wildcat Strikes (1955)
- Be His Payment High or Low: The American Working Class of the 1960s (1965)
- Mao as Dialectician (1971)
- The Working Class and Social Change (1975)
- Working for Wages: The Roots of Insurgency(1999) (co-authored)
Sources
- Kent Worcester, C.L.R. James: A Political Biography (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996)
External links
- Marty Glaberman page Rich Gibson's web page
- Martin Glaberman archive at Marxist Internet Archive.