Communist League of Struggle
Encyclopedia
The Communist League of Struggle (CLS) was a small communist organization active in the United States during the 1930s. Founded by Albert Weisbord
and his wife, Vera Buch, who were veterans of the Left Socialist movement and the Communist Party USA
, the CLS briefly affiliated with Leon Trotsky
independently of the Communist League of America
. It was affiliated to the International Bureau of Revolutionary Youth Organizations
until 1935. The small group dwindled and quietly was terminated in the spring of 1937.
(CLA), a Trotskyist
political party headed by James P. Cannon
. The organization was formed on March 15, 1931, owing to what it declared "the principled errors of the other Communist groups" and "organizational violence...within the Communist movement."
The leading forces in the CLS were textile union labour leader Albert Weisbord
, a former Socialist Party
youth leader, 1924 graduate of Harvard Law School
and member of the Workers Party of America
from that same year, and his wife Vera Buch, an activist in the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party
from 1919 and member of the Communist Party of America from 1920. The pair had made names for themselves as leaders of the 1926 Passaic Textile Strike
, a walkout of nearly 15,000 New Jersey
workers in the wool
and silk
mills of the town of Passaic
and its environs.
Weisbord had been expelled from the Communist Party in 1929, ostensibly for being something of a loose cannon in his activities. Instead of joining with Jim Cannon and his lieutenants Martin Abern
and Max Shachtman
in the Communist League of America, however, Weisbord had determined to start his own group.
The CLS pointedly styled itself a vanguard party
adhering to "the International Left Opposition, led by Leon Trotsky
." In a detailed statement on on general policy issued at the group's foundation, the CLS declared that it "heartily endorses" the concept of the united front
and called for the formation of a "mass labor party on a federated basis that will move the working clas of this country to independent political action."
The CLS took a harsh rhetorical stance towards the other three Communist organizations that existed at the time of its formation — the official Communist Party USA, Cannon's Communist League of America (Opposition), and Jay Lovestone's
Communist Party (Majority Group), declaring that "it considers the other three groups as 'right-wing' opportunist groups, each differing in form and manner, but each overestimating the enemy and underestimating the proletariat." At the time of his group's formation Weisbord brashly announced the birth of "not an isolated sect, but a two-fisted hard group of communists.”
Weisbord made an effort to gain the mantle of official sanction from the exiled Trotsky, writing to him in 1931. Trotsky could not be moved from his support of Cannon's CLA organization, however, replying to Weisbord with a letter which he carbon-copied to the National Executive Committee of the Communist League of America. Trotsky was harshly critical of Weisbord's decision to strike out on his own with a new parallel organization:
Weisbord was moved by Trotsky's publicized rebuke to enter into unity negotiations with the CLA, although differences in personality and perspective proved to be insurmountable and the CLA terminated the talks in October 1932.
The CLS maintained an independent existence throughout its existence. In 1935 it briefly flirted with dissolving into the Workers Party of the United States
formed by the joining of forces of A.J. Muste's
American Workers Party
with Cannon's Communist League of America, a decision which was ultimately rejected. "We shall not join the Workers Party, but we have no doubt but the best elements who may have gathered for the moment within the fields of the Workers Party will eventually find themselves fighting shoulder to shoulder with us," the CLS declared.
The group was severely weakened by the death of one of its leading members, the Polish-born Sam Fisher, of tuberculosis
in early 1935, at the age of 27. An expelled member of the Communist Party, Fisher was active in the organization of unemployed workers in New York City
and as an organizer for the United Laundry Workers Union and was the New Jersey
organizer for the CLS.
The CLS also issued several issues of a shop newspaper for shipyard workers called The Red Dreadnaught.
Albert Weisbord
Albert Weisbord was an American political activist and union organizer. He is best remembered as one of the primary union organizers of the seminal 1926 Passaic Textile Strike and as the founder of a small Trotskyist political organization of the 1930s called the Communist League of...
and his wife, Vera Buch, who were veterans of the Left Socialist movement and 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....
, the CLS briefly affiliated with 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....
independently of the Communist League of America
Communist League of America
The Communist League of America 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 was the United States section of Leon Trotsky's International Left Opposition and initially positioned itself as...
. It was affiliated to the International Bureau of Revolutionary Youth Organizations
International Bureau of Revolutionary Youth Organizations
International Bureau of Revolutionary Youth Organizations was an international organization of socialist youth, formed in 1934...
until 1935. The small group dwindled and quietly was terminated in the spring of 1937.
Formation
The Communist League of Struggle (CLS) was a factional offshoot of the Communist League of AmericaCommunist League of America
The Communist League of America 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 was the United States section of Leon Trotsky's International Left Opposition and initially positioned itself as...
(CLA), a Trotskyist
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...
political party headed by James P. Cannon
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...
. The organization was formed on March 15, 1931, owing to what it declared "the principled errors of the other Communist groups" and "organizational violence...within the Communist movement."
The leading forces in the CLS were textile union labour leader Albert Weisbord
Albert Weisbord
Albert Weisbord was an American political activist and union organizer. He is best remembered as one of the primary union organizers of the seminal 1926 Passaic Textile Strike and as the founder of a small Trotskyist political organization of the 1930s called the Communist League of...
, a former Socialist Party
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...
youth leader, 1924 graduate of Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
and member of the Workers Party of America
Workers Party of America
The Workers Party of America was the name of the legal party organization used by the Communist Party USA from the last days of 1921 until the middle of 1929. As a legal political party the Workers Party accepted affiliation from independent socialist groups such as the African Blood Brotherhood,...
from that same year, and his wife Vera Buch, an activist in the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party
Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party
The Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party was an organized faction within the Socialist Party of America in 1919 which served as the core of the dual communist parties which emerged in the fall of that year — the Communist Party of America and the Communist Labor Party of America.-Precusors:A...
from 1919 and member of the Communist Party of America from 1920. The pair had made names for themselves as leaders of the 1926 Passaic Textile Strike
1926 Passaic Textile Strike
The 1926 Passaic Textile Strike was a work stoppage by over 15,000 woolen mill workers in and around Passaic, New Jersey over wage issues in several factories in the vicinity...
, a walkout of nearly 15,000 New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
workers in the wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
and silk
Silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
mills of the town of Passaic
Passaic, New Jersey
Passaic is a city in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 69,781, maintaining its status as the 15th largest municipality in New Jersey with an increase of 1,920 residents from the 2000 Census population of 67,861...
and its environs.
Weisbord had been expelled from the Communist Party in 1929, ostensibly for being something of a loose cannon in his activities. Instead of joining with Jim Cannon and his lieutenants 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:...
and 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:...
in the Communist League of America, however, Weisbord had determined to start his own group.
The CLS pointedly styled itself a vanguard party
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...
adhering to "the International Left Opposition, led by 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....
." In a detailed statement on on general policy issued at the group's foundation, the CLS declared that it "heartily endorses" the concept of the united front
United front
The united front is a form of struggle that may be pursued by revolutionaries. The basic theory of the united front tactic was first developed by the Comintern, an international communist organisation created by revolutionaries in the wake of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.According to the theses of...
and called for the formation of a "mass labor party on a federated basis that will move the working clas of this country to independent political action."
The CLS took a harsh rhetorical stance towards the other three Communist organizations that existed at the time of its formation — the official Communist Party USA, Cannon's Communist League of America (Opposition), and Jay Lovestone's
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...
Communist Party (Majority Group), declaring that "it considers the other three groups as 'right-wing' opportunist groups, each differing in form and manner, but each overestimating the enemy and underestimating the proletariat." At the time of his group's formation Weisbord brashly announced the birth of "not an isolated sect, but a two-fisted hard group of communists.”
Weisbord made an effort to gain the mantle of official sanction from the exiled Trotsky, writing to him in 1931. Trotsky could not be moved from his support of Cannon's CLA organization, however, replying to Weisbord with a letter which he carbon-copied to the National Executive Committee of the Communist League of America. Trotsky was harshly critical of Weisbord's decision to strike out on his own with a new parallel organization:
"I cannot adopt your standpoint. Your criticism of the American League seems to me one-sided, artificial, and terribly exaggerated. You throw the League and the right wing together, which shows that you utterly disregard the fitness of things. You make fun of the publishing activity of the League and counterpose your 'mass actionMass actionIn Chemistry, the law of mass action is a mathematical model that explains and predicts behaviors of solutions in dynamic equilibrium. It can be described with two aspects: 1) the equilibrium aspect, concerning the composition of a reaction mixture at equilibrium and 2) the kinetic aspect...
' to it. Have you any mass activity behind you? Before one turns to the masses, one must construct a principled basis. One begins as a propaganda group and develops in the direction of mass action. * * *
"You declare yourself loyal to the International Left Opposition. Organizationally this is not the case. This can therefore be understood only in the sense of a general solidarity of ideas. * * * If the solidarity of ideas with the Left Opposition really means anything to you, you must build a bridge back to the League...."
Weisbord was moved by Trotsky's publicized rebuke to enter into unity negotiations with the CLA, although differences in personality and perspective proved to be insurmountable and the CLA terminated the talks in October 1932.
The CLS maintained an independent existence throughout its existence. In 1935 it briefly flirted with dissolving into 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...
formed by the joining of forces of A.J. Muste's
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:...
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:...
with Cannon's Communist League of America, a decision which was ultimately rejected. "We shall not join the Workers Party, but we have no doubt but the best elements who may have gathered for the moment within the fields of the Workers Party will eventually find themselves fighting shoulder to shoulder with us," the CLS declared.
Dissolution
The Communist League of Struggle passed silently from the scene in the spring 1937, with no announcement made of the group's demise made in the final issue of its official organ.Membership size
The Communist League of Struggle (CLS) did not publish a tally of its membership. Given the fact that the Communist League of America (Opposition), the group from which it split, had a membership of "less than 200" during the 1931-1933 period, it seems highly probable that the CLS began with a membership of fewer than 50. The group seems to never have attained critical mass and to have dwindled to a small handful of activists during its final years.The group was severely weakened by the death of one of its leading members, the Polish-born Sam Fisher, of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
in early 1935, at the age of 27. An expelled member of the Communist Party, Fisher was active in the organization of unemployed workers in New York City
New 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...
and as an organizer for the United Laundry Workers Union and was the New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
organizer for the CLS.
Official organs
The primary journal of the Communist League of Struggle was a mimeographed newsletter called The Class Struggle. The publication was issued approximately monthly with occasional combined issues. The first issue appeared in May 1931 and the final issue, the 53rd overall, was dated "April/May 1937."The CLS also issued several issues of a shop newspaper for shipyard workers called The Red Dreadnaught.
Publications
- For a New Communist International. New York: Communist League of Struggle, 1933.
- Communism and the Social Order. New York: Communist League of Struggle, 1934.
- The Struggle for Negro Emancipation: The Position of the Internationalist-Communists of the United States. New York: Communist League of Struggle, 1935.
- The Struggle of the Unemployed: The Position of the Internationalist-Communists of the United States. New York: Communist League of Struggle, 1935.
- The Struggle for Communism: The Position of the Internationalist-Communists of the United States. (aka Theses of the Communist League of Struggle) New York: Communist League of Struggle, 1935.
External links
- The Albert & Vera Weisbord Archives. — Includes many CLS publications, including complete transcriptions of The Class Struggle.
- http://www.google.com/custom?cof=GALT%3A%23a00000%3BGL%3A0%3BAH%3Acenter%3BLH%3A250%3BL%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fsearch.marxists.org%2Fsearch.jpg%3BLW%3A400%3BAWFID%3A98b2606990956b52%3B&domains=www.marxists.org&sitesearch=www.marxists.org&as_sitesearch=www.marxists.org%2F&hl=en&ie=8859-1&oe=8859-1&as_occt=body&num=30&btnG=Google+Search%21&as_epq=Communist+League+of+Struggle&as_oq=References to "Communist League of Struggle"] in the Marxists Internet ArchiveMarxists Internet ArchiveMarxists Internet Archive is a volunteer based non-profit organization that maintains a multi-lingual Internet archive of Marxist writers and other similar authors...
. Retrieved February 25, 2010.
Further reading
- Albert Weisbord, Passaic: The Story of a Struggle against Starvation Wages and for the Right to Organize. Chicago: Daily Worker Publishing Co., 1926. Reprinted 1976.
- Vera Buch Weisbord, A Radical Life. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1977.