[1978 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the emergence…]

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1978 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the emergence of the Trotskyist movement United States. The Socialist Workers Party which today claims to represent that tra offers no more than a hollow mockery of the fighting spirit of that early movemen article is Part 2 of a series in Socialist Press which will examine the early history SWP, the party so central in the 1930s to the launching of the Fourth International. Huge crowds at Lenin's funeral in January 1924. That year also saw the birth of Stalin's "

The faction struggle tions for "the the crisis-wracked Left Opposition 1923-25 Soviet Republic by Leon Trotsky, pp51-2.

out the Comintern. Republic: 1923 a massive strike wave autumn of 1923, the history gripped the cities of the natiohal i a hitory of coethe economic policies which plete renovation of its were being imposed on the Moscow stall ot she national secthens, by This strike wave theaten- way of a series of palace ed the power of the govern- revolutions, purgations from ment which was rapidly above, explusions, etc. under the control of Stalin. Communist International is police (Chich was opolitical apparatus in the service of against the enemies of the Soviet foreign policy, ready Soviet state) had to be at any time for any zigzas informed of ano armininno whatever." "theory of socialism in one country that was developing in reflected itself throughIn August-September Soviet Union as a result of workers.

becoming bureaucratised The GPU.

doll r any Broupingo that existed in the Soviet Communist Party.

Trotsky launched an attack on this state of affairs in his "First Letter to the Central Committee" in October 1923:

"Both these facts testify to an extraordinary deterioration of the situation within the party since the Twelfth Congress • Many, many party members, by no means the worst, have felt the greatest alarm at the methods and procedures used in preparaCongress.. wudlever.

pp186-7.

Twelfth The Challenge of the This deterioration did not stop in the Soviet "Beginning with the "At the present time, the completely submissive Betrayed Temporary concession Troteky's answer to these problems, argued in 1923, was a change of course away from the crisis measures embodied in the New Economic Policy of 1921 towards socialist planning and long term development of industry as the bedrock of the economy.

The : NEP itself had represented a temporary concession to the peasantry, middle farmers and businessmen in order to release resources urgently needed for the war effort.

But if continued, these concessions would strengthen these elements at the expense of the working class and effectively rebuild the capitalist class in Russia, threatening all the gains of the October Revolution.

Prosperous layers

The emerging Party bureaucracy, however, was based very much on the peasant and prosperous layers that benefitted from the NEP, and was moulding the Party to conform to this line.

Thus as Trotsky began to attract youth and the most experienced and dedicated Communists to his positions he incurred the growing wrath of the bureaucracy itself. Though 'factions' were outlawed by the CPSU's Tenth Congress, the Stalinists began to organise themselves as a majority faction in moves to crush all opposition.

The impact of these changes were to be felt in the Communist Party of America, whose Fourth Edition i This of the Convention in 1925 was to have a Parity Commission chaired by a Russian Comintern agent called Gusev.

Foster, Cannon and Bittleman were elected for their faction to the Central Committee and its Political Committee.

Ruthenberg, Lovestone and Bedackt were elected to both Committees from their faction.

All six were on the parity commission, with Gusev in the chair.

The Party membership had elected ..a total of 61 Central Committee members. Forty were elected by supporters of the Foster-Cannon faction and 21 by the opposition.

The parity commission agreed unanimously on both political and trade union resolutions, and there appeared to be a trend towards unification of the contending factions.

Cable from Moscow But towards the end of the convention Gusev called both sides to a meeting of the parity commission and handed them a "cable from Moscow"

It said The Ruthenberg group is more loyal to the Communist International and stands closer to its views". • It called for the Ruthenberg group to get 40% of the representation on the Central Committee.

At this Foster exploded, and decided he would riot accept the majority under such conditions. He proposed Ruthenberg should take the majority, and stated that he would not accept membership.

50-50 basis moved this proposal at the Foster-Cannon faction meeting.

Cannon moved d counter-proposal that:

"We lock up the new CC on a 50-50 basis with each faction sharing equally in the responsibility in the This split the faction down the middle. After a 24 hour debate on it, Cannon's 50-50" resolution was adopted.

But no sooner had they gone onto the "50-50" Central Committee, than Gusev announced that he would follow the spirit of the Comintern decision and support the Ruthenberg group.

Gusev said this meant that the Ruthenberg faction should have the majority.

The damage done by these bureaucratic manoeuvres developed even during the dramatic events which followed.

Violent clashes

The Passaic strike in 1926 sticks out like a sore thumb in the history of the American CP.

Albert Weisbord had gone into the field of organising the unorganised under the banner of the "United Front Committee"

In the spring of that year the strike broke out with CP member Weisbord as its leader.

It soon exploded into violent clashes with the The Passaic strike put the party on the map. It revealed the Communists as a dynamic force in unionizing workers.

But unfortunately for Weisbord this came into conflict with Foster's proAFL policy which had been endorsed by the Sixth Plenum of the Communist The unorganised workers had been disregarded in the past by the craft-based union federation in the AFL.

The Passaic strike was certainly well organised and expertly led. But the bosses were too strong, and would not negotiate with the "United Front Committee"

When the strike began sagging and the bosses would not make a settlement with the UFC, they began negotiations with the AFL Textile Union-with one condition.

Much deeper

That was the ditching of the strike leader Weisbord (who later formed the Communist League).

Trotsky with Red Army Offid

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Official documents of and Zinoviev from the Stalin's accusations and CPSU in the Autumn of slanders against the Trotsky- 1927 were followed by ist Left Opposition were demands that all the parties easy to come by but immediately take a position nothing from the Left on the expulsions.

As a result, in the USA to take the lead on this and as in many other Comintern the Fosterites followed suit.

to understand the compli- battles as to who could The faction fights still come through to I the youth rallied to the callo! the Left Opposition

Lenin and Trotsky

Both factions of the CPUS leadership agreed with it unanimously.

. As the faction struggle unfolded, the divisions had become much deeper. The Party now split into three factions-Lovestone's, Cannon's and Foster's.

During the whole of this period the CPUS was given no information about the issues of struggle in the Russian Party.

Fought in dark

Opposition itself.

sections the members failed cated issues at stake.

They fought in the Trotsky. dark thinking only of their national struggles.

9.78 raging in the US party began io take a more sinister tum 4=1 tra once those factions, seeking more credibility from the Comintern began to realise that the way to gain favour was through indiscriminate Trotsky-baiting.

They began making big speeches against Trotskyism.

The expulsion of Trotsky The Lovestoneites began They began to have shout loudest against But then some of the issues at stake began to the Americans.

They heard about the struggle between the Left Opposition and the Stalinists over the role of the Anglo-Russian Trade Union Committee. This committee became a substitute for independent Communist work in Britain and gave credibility to the treacherous TUC lefts' The policy throttled the British CP on the eve of the General Strike in 1926.

Reduced to zero

Cannon started to have doubts about the Stalinist line-but doubts were not good enough.

Then another cable came from Moscow in 1927. This turned the CPUS minority into the majority, and reduced the democratic power of the Party's own conference to zero.

The Communist International was now the brutal arbiter of policy and perspective in the American Party-and Stalin the arbiter of the policy of the Comintern.

In the spring of 1928 Cannon went to the Sixth Congress of the Comintern in Moscow.

Fortunately Cannon was put on the Commission.

Commission

Trotsky, then exiled in Alma Ata, . had been expelled from the Russian party and the CI, but was appealing to the Sixth Congress through document which arrived in the translating room.

This document was called The Draft Programme of the Communist International: A Criticism of Fundamentals. • After it had been translated it went only to the heads of delegations and the members of the Programme Commission.

MEN Cannon got a copy of the document all to himself, in English. Maurice Spector of the Canadian party got one as well.

Having read it, Cannon no longer had any doubts. Neither did Spector.

Stalin They made pact between them that they would come home and start a struggle for Trotskyism.

Cannon smuggled Trotsky's draft criticism out of Russia and arrived back in the USA.

At once he set out to recruit a faction for Trotsky who had been condemned in every party of the CI and once again condemned as a "counter-revolutionist" at the Sixth Congress of the CI.

At that time no-one was known as an outspoken supporter of Trotskyism.

You could not raise questions about Trotsky without being labelled a traitor and being ostracised from the Party.

Expelled

Yet, using his one and only copy of the draft criticism, Cannon won over Rose Karsner, Max Schachtman, Martin Abern, and a Washington hunger marchers in 1927. few others. factional reasons to drag on The Foster faction (who by the Lovestoneites-who were then working in a joint wanted to compromise the caucus with Cannon's Fosterites Cannon' faction) got wind of the fact accomplices in order to take that Cannon was a Trotsky- complete control of the ist. Party.

Not wanting to be The accused took advanaccused as "accomplices" tage of this division in order the Fosterites expelled them to gain time. from the joint caucus. But eventually, as one They were given a 'trial' Lovestoneite prosecutor before the Political Com- objected to Foster's haste in mittee and the Central finding them guilty, Control Commission in reterring to the many years October 1928. they had been in the Party, They were accused of Cannon got up and swore "conspiracy to advocate" allegiance to the Russian certain proscribed ideas. Left Opposition.

The American Trotskyist Swore allegiance movement was launched under the most harsh an They did not admit they unfavourable conditions. It were Trotskyists, because problems were immensethey wanted the party mem- but its strength was the bership to know what was continuity of the Marxist at stake, and the longer the programme as defended by trial lasted, the more the ine Russian ery poposition members would get to against every form of know. attack The trial was allowed The young James P. Cannon

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instead, his analysis starts from the "fact" that such a change has seemlingly taken place:

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