Revolutionary Socialist League (US)
Encyclopedia
The Revolutionary Socialist League (RSL) was a Trotskyist group in the United States
.
The RSL originated in the Revolutionary Tendency within the International Socialists (U.S.) led by Sy Landy
and Ron Tabor. They had three principle differences with the IS: they believed that the IS had abandoned strict adherence to Trotskyism
; they felt that the emphasis on the day-to-day work within the trade unions diminished propagating the revolutionary objectives outlined in the transitional program
; and they felt that the USSR and the other Communist states were state capitalist
, rather than bureaucratic collectivist
.
While the RT at first seemed to have the upper hand, with Landy elected national secretary in 1972, by the next year Landy and his faction had been expelled. At the time of the split the RSL took 100 of the IS's 300 members. The expelled group, now styling itself the Revolutionary Socialist League, adopted a generally orthodox Trotskyist
positions based on the transitional program including permanent revolution
, opposition to popular fronts
and the need for a Fourth International
. This last position cost them unity with the Class Struggle League who advocated a Fifth International
. Landy wrote "To preserve the program is to preserve the number and out right to it". Despite this the RSL never joined any existing Trotskyist international or attempt to organize a new one. Its sole international organizational tie was with the Revolutionary Marxist League
of Jamaica
.
The RSL was active within a few unions, particularly UAW
and USW
and among Hispanic workers in the Los Angeles ILGWU
. Within the UAW they organized a "Revolutionary Action Caucus". Outside of organized labor they participated in anti-apartheid
and anti-racist
movements and developed a prisoner support
network.
The RSL was one of the left groups most active in the pre-AIDS gay movement. Rick Miles
considered this area "particularly important" because he believed that much of the left suffered from the same homophobia
as the rest of society, and because the "gay question" had a direct bearing on their concept of socialism as a "free society"
run directly by workers and oppressed people, rather than an authoritarian society run by a state capitalist class. It also emphasized the oppressive nature of the Stalinist countries were homosexuals were repressed. The RSL recruited a minority tendency of the Red Flag Union, a gay socialist collective, to its state capitalist characterization, and they merged into the League in 1977. (A majority of the RFU joined the Spartacist League
). In New York, the RSL was active in the Gay Activists Alliance, its members and sympathizers participating in a polarizing split that proved the end of that organization. RSL members also participated in gay coalitions such as Lavender Left and Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee.
The RSL had its share of organizational difficulties. In early 1974 it suffered its first split. The origins of this split went back to a group called the Communist faction within the Socialist Workers Party
that left to SWP to enter IS, and subsequently the RSL. Within the RSL it formed the "Soviet Defensist Minority" before leaving to form the Trotskyist Organization of the United States
. Another tendency had left in 1975 to form the Revolutionary Marxist Committee, which later fused with the Socialist Workers Party. Finally a group led by Sy Landy left in 1976 to form the League for the Revolutionary Party
, in part because they disagreed with the RSL's call for the formation of a Labor Party
in the US. They also alleged that the leadership of the RSL was acting in a bureaucratic fashion.
Over time, the RSL moved closer to anarchism
. In 1985 they released a statement What we stand for that proclaimed their adherence to the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky but emphasized the theoretical contributions of Marx and Engels, Trotskys fight against Stalinism and Lenins "conception of the party, stress on the importance of national liberation struggles and the anti-statism
shown in the State and Revolution
". It also identified "with the best of anarchism, particularly its libertarian spirit". Their move away from Leninism is documented in a book by RSL leader Ron Tabor titled A Look at Leninism (ISBN 0-939073-36-6). This book collected together a series of articles questioning the fundamentals of Leninism that had appeared as a serial series in The Torch newspaper.
The RSL disbanded in 1989, with about twenty of its remaining members helping in the formation of Love and Rage Network
, a revolutionary anarchist newspaper and organization. The RSL met to disband the day before the founding conference of Love and Rage. When Love and Rage disbanded in 1998, the remaining former RSL members, including Ron Tabor, began publishing The Utopian. Some time later they entered the platformist anarchist federation North Eastern Federation of Anarchist Communists.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
The RSL originated in the Revolutionary Tendency within the International Socialists (U.S.) led by Sy Landy
Sy Landy
Sy Landy was an American Trotskyist politician.Born in Brooklyn, Landy studied at Brooklyn College, where he joined the third camp Trotskyist Independent Socialist League , led by Max Shachtman. The ISL moved away from revolutionary politics and merged with Norman Thomas' Socialist Party in 1958...
and Ron Tabor. They had three principle differences with the IS: they believed that the IS had abandoned strict adherence 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...
; they felt that the emphasis on the day-to-day work within the trade unions diminished propagating the revolutionary objectives outlined in the transitional program
Transitional Program
The Transitional Program, the full name of which is The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International, is a political platform adopted by the 1938 founding congress of the Fourth International, the international Leninist organization founded by Leon Trotsky...
; and they felt that the USSR and the other Communist states were state capitalist
State capitalism
The term State capitalism has various meanings, but is usually described as commercial economic activity undertaken by the state with management of the productive forces in a capitalist manner, even if the state is nominally socialist. State capitalism is usually characterized by the dominance or...
, rather than bureaucratic collectivist
Bureaucratic collectivism
Bureaucratic collectivism is a theory of class society. It is used by some Trotskyists to describe the nature of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, and other similar states in Central and Eastern Europe and elsewhere .- Theory :...
.
While the RT at first seemed to have the upper hand, with Landy elected national secretary in 1972, by the next year Landy and his faction had been expelled. At the time of the split the RSL took 100 of the IS's 300 members. The expelled group, now styling itself the Revolutionary Socialist League, adopted a generally orthodox Trotskyist
Orthodox Trotskyism
Orthodox Trotskyism is a branch of Trotskyism which aims to adhere more closely to the philosophy, methods and positions of Trotsky and the early Fourth International, Lenin, and Marx than other Trotskyists....
positions based on the transitional program including permanent revolution
Permanent Revolution
Permanent revolution is a term within Marxist theory, established in usage by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels by at least 1850 but which has since become most closely associated with Leon Trotsky. The use of the term by different theorists is not identical...
, opposition to popular fronts
Popular front
A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as socialist and communist groups...
and the need for a 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...
. This last position cost them unity with the Class Struggle League who advocated a Fifth International
Fifth International
The phrase Fifth International refers to the efforts made by sections of the far-left to create a new Workers' International.-Previous Internationals:...
. Landy wrote "To preserve the program is to preserve the number and out right to it". Despite this the RSL never joined any existing Trotskyist international or attempt to organize a new one. Its sole international organizational tie was with the Revolutionary Marxist League
Revolutionary Marxist League
The Revolutionary Marxist League was a small Communist sect that existed from 1939 - 1940 in New York City. It was led be Karl Joerger and Antillio Salamme. The origins of the RML lay in a group called the Marxist Policy Committee which was apparently a "stooge" group of Oehler supporters within...
of Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
.
The RSL was active within a few unions, particularly UAW
United Auto Workers
The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers , is a labor union which represents workers in the United States and Puerto Rico, and formerly in Canada. Founded as part of the Congress of Industrial...
and USW
United Steelworkers
The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union is the largest industrial labor union in North America, with 705,000 members. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, U.S., the United Steelworkers represents workers in the United...
and among Hispanic workers in the Los Angeles ILGWU
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membership, and a key player in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s...
. Within the UAW they organized a "Revolutionary Action Caucus". Outside of organized labor they participated in anti-apartheid
Anti-Apartheid Movement
Anti-Apartheid Movement , originally known as the Boycott Movement, was a British organization that was at the center of the international movement opposing South Africa's system of apartheid and supporting South Africa's Blacks....
and anti-racist
Anti-racism
Anti-racism includes beliefs, actions, movements, and policies adopted or developed to oppose racism. In general, anti-racism is intended to promote an egalitarian society in which people do not face discrimination on the basis of their race, however defined...
movements and developed a prisoner support
Prisoner support
Prisoner support encompasses a variety of activities aimed a providing assistance to prisoners, particularly political prisoners. Many programs devoted to this purpose have quite limited resources; for instance, Nottingham Black Prisoner Support, with one staff worker, had 297 active cases in 1999...
network.
The RSL was one of the left groups most active in the pre-AIDS gay movement. Rick Miles
Rick Miles
Rick Miles is a Liberal Member of the Legislative Assembly in New Brunswick, Canada, representing the constituency of Fredericton-Silverwood...
considered this area "particularly important" because he believed that much of the left suffered from the same homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
as the rest of society, and because the "gay question" had a direct bearing on their concept of socialism as a "free society"
Free society
In a theoretical free society, all individuals act voluntarily. Individuals in a free society find it safe to be unpopular. This can be elaborated in terms of freedom of speech - if people have a right to express their views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm.In a free society,...
run directly by workers and oppressed people, rather than an authoritarian society run by a state capitalist class. It also emphasized the oppressive nature of the Stalinist countries were homosexuals were repressed. The RSL recruited a minority tendency of the Red Flag Union, a gay socialist collective, to its state capitalist characterization, and they merged into the League in 1977. (A majority of the RFU joined the Spartacist League
Spartacist League (US)
The Spartacist League/ US is a Trotskyist organization in the United States. It was the original Spartacist group that helped to inspire and organize similarly oriented groups around the world...
). In New York, the RSL was active in the Gay Activists Alliance, its members and sympathizers participating in a polarizing split that proved the end of that organization. RSL members also participated in gay coalitions such as Lavender Left and Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee.
The RSL had its share of organizational difficulties. In early 1974 it suffered its first split. The origins of this split went back to a group called the Communist faction within 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...
that left to SWP to enter IS, and subsequently the RSL. Within the RSL it formed the "Soviet Defensist Minority" before leaving to form the Trotskyist Organization of the United States
Trotskyist Organization of the United States
The Trotskyist Organization of the United States was a small Trotskyist group active in the U.S. during the 1970s and 1980s. The group was founded by two dissident factions which had emerged at the Socialist Workers Partys 1971 convention....
. Another tendency had left in 1975 to form the Revolutionary Marxist Committee, which later fused with the Socialist Workers Party. Finally a group led by Sy Landy left in 1976 to form the League for the Revolutionary Party
League for the Revolutionary Party
The League for the Revolutionary Party is a Trotskyist organisation in the United States.The group was founded by a faction of the now defunct Revolutionary Socialist League in 1976...
, in part because they disagreed with the RSL's call for the formation of a Labor Party
Labor Party (United States)
The Labor Party is an American social democratic political party advocating workers' interests. Membership at one point reached about 5,000....
in the US. They also alleged that the leadership of the RSL was acting in a bureaucratic fashion.
Over time, the RSL moved closer to anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
. In 1985 they released a statement What we stand for that proclaimed their adherence to the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky but emphasized the theoretical contributions of Marx and Engels, Trotskys fight against Stalinism and Lenins "conception of the party, stress on the importance of national liberation struggles and the anti-statism
Anti-statism
Anti-statism is a term describing opposition to state intervention into personal, social, and economic affairs. Anti-statist views may reject the state completely as well as rulership in general , they may wish to reduce the size and scope of the state to a minimum , or they may advocate a...
shown in the State and Revolution
State and Revolution
The State and Revolution , by Vladimir Lenin, describes the role of the State in society, the necessity of proletarian revolution, and the theoretic inadequacies of social democracy in achieving revolution to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat.Citing Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, Lenin...
". It also identified "with the best of anarchism, particularly its libertarian spirit". Their move away from Leninism is documented in a book by RSL leader Ron Tabor titled A Look at Leninism (ISBN 0-939073-36-6). This book collected together a series of articles questioning the fundamentals of Leninism that had appeared as a serial series in The Torch newspaper.
The RSL disbanded in 1989, with about twenty of its remaining members helping in the formation of Love and Rage Network
Love and Rage
The Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation was formed in the United States in 1993 out of the remaining groups in the Love and Rage Network.-Background:...
, a revolutionary anarchist newspaper and organization. The RSL met to disband the day before the founding conference of Love and Rage. When Love and Rage disbanded in 1998, the remaining former RSL members, including Ron Tabor, began publishing The Utopian. Some time later they entered the platformist anarchist federation North Eastern Federation of Anarchist Communists.
Publications
- The Torch/La Antorcha Vol. 1], no. 1 (Sept. 1973)-; Ceased in 1989? Published in Highland Park, MichiganHighland Park, Michigan- Geography :According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land.- Demographics :As of the census of 2000, there were 16,746 people, 6,199 households, and 3,521 families residing in the city. The population density was 5,622.9 per square mile . There were 7,249...
from 1973-1977; thereafter in New York - Revolutionary Party Tendency reply to "Political" Committee charges [New York? : The League?, 1973
- The fight of the revolutionary tendency within the centrist I.S.-USA: documents of struggle : notes on women's liberation [United States? : Revolutionary Socialist League, A Revolutionary Socialist League educational publication #5 1973
- Documents of Struggle: Manifesto of the RSL and Statement of the Revolutionary Tendency of the IS. New York : Revolutionary Socialist League, 1973
- Political Resolution of the Founding Convention: World Crisis and the Fight for Revolutionary Leadership New York : Revolutionary Socialist League, 1973
- The Big Swindle: The Story behind Productivity Drives and How to Fight against the Bosses' Offensive Highland Park, Mich: Revolutionary Socialist League, 1973
- Permanent Revolution: Black Liberation and the American Revolution New York : Revolutionary Socialist League, 1973
- The road to revolution in Britain [United States] : Revolutionary Socialist League Pub. Co., 1974 (Torch pamphlet #4)
- Chile, never again: The Story behind Productivity Drives and How to Fight against the Bosses' Offensive Highland Park, Mich: Revolutionary Socialist League Pub. Co., 1974 (Torch pamphlet)
- China's Foreign Policy: A Reactionary Line. New York: Revolutionary Socialist League Publishing Co., 1976 (Torch pamphlet #3)
- Maoism and the Soviet Union: how the RU (RCP) supports state capitalism Chicago : Haymarket, 1976 (Torch pamphlet #4)
- The rise of state capitalism: how the Russian revolution was smashed by Ron Tabor New York: Revolutionary Socialist League Publishing Co., 1976
- The Russian Revolution (with the Revolutionary Marxist League of Jamaica) New York : Revolutionary Socialist League, 1978 (Revolutionary Socialist Educational Series, #1)
- Imperialism, National Liberation & Socialist Revolution (with the Revolutionary Marxist League of Jamaica) New York : Revolutionary Socialist League, 1979 (Revolutionary Socialist Educational Series, #2)
- Torch supplement on gay liberation, June 1979:Gay liberation through socialist revolution! New York : Revolutionary Socialist League, 1979
- Energy, Environment and the Economic Crisis: The Contributions and Contradictions of Barry Commoner New York : Revolutionary Socialist League, 1980
- Toward a Fighting Student Movement: RSL Position Paper for Kent State Student Conference New York : Revolutionary Socialist League, 1980
- Which Way Forward for the Anti-Klan Movement: A Position Paper by the Revolutionary Socialist League New York : Revolutionary Socialist League, 1980
- Proposals to the National Anti-Klan Network for a "Spring Offensive." New York : Revolutionary Socialist League, 1981
- Toward a fighting anti-draft movement New York : Revolutionary Socialist League, 1981
- Polish Workers Fight for Freedom; Socialism vs. State Capitalism Detroit: Revolutionary Socialist League, 1981
- Socialism and the fight for lesbian and gay liberation by Paul CarsonPaul CarsonPaul Carson is a doctor and a novelist.Born in 1949 Paul grew up in Newcastle, a seaside town on the east coast of Northern Ireland. He studied medicine in Trinity College, Dublin from 1969 to 1975, graduating with an honours degree in Paediatrics...
New York: Revolutionary Socialist League, 1982 - Black people in the U.S.: the fight for freedom New York : Revolutionary Socialist League, 1984
- The struggle for workers' power in Poland: Solidarity's unfinished revolution New York : Revolutionary Socialist League, 1984
- Socialism or state capitalism?: the crisis of Trotskyist theory by Ron Tabor and Rod Miller New York : Revolutionary Socialist League, 1984