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The socialist Workers Party was founded in 1938 by the Trotskyists of the former Communist League of America after its members had been expelled from the Socialist Party of America. Their political origins lay in the Communist Party USA. Its best known leader was James Patrick Cannon, who initially led the SWP along with Max Shachtman until a split between the two men in 1940.
The 1940 split in the SWP was centered on the question of the party's internal regime, but also involved a series of other questions such as the class nature of the Russian state and Marxist philosophy. The minority faction led by Shachtman formed the Workers Party after a dispute that centered on what position the party should adopt in the so called Winter War between Finland and the USSR. In many ways the subsequent history of the party can best be assesed through the many splits and factional struggles, or lack of such struggles, that have marked the organisation.
During World War II, a number of members were imprisoned under the Smith Act of 1941, including J. P. Cannon. However the party put into practice the so-called Proletarian Military Policy of opposing the war politically while arguing that their members of military age, which meant most of the membership, should go with their class into the military and attempt to transform the imperialist war into a civil war while fighting the Nazis. Although the members of the SWP kept a deliberately low profile during the war years the marine fraction of the party lost a number of its members while sailing in the extremely perilous convoys to Murmansk in an attempt to contact revolutionaries in Russia. This phase only came to an end when the fraction revolted aginst the leadership's continued advocacy of the policy.
As a consequence of the repression they experienced during the war the SWP was quite cautious in it's campaigning during this period. That many of their members were in the armed forces also had a detrimental effect on their ability to exploit the opportunities that existed. However in contrast to the rival Workers' Party of Max Shachtman they wrere unadventurous. One campaign that they did launch that seems to have failed due to a lack of energy on the part of the SWP was its campaign for a Labor Party. Problems caused as a result of the imprisonment of experienced leaders and the enlistment in the armed forces of many others mean that during the war years the editorship of The Militant passed through a number of hands.
Following the war the SWP and the Fourth InternationalThe Fourth International was an international organisation of Trotskyist communists. It was founded in 1938 in Paris, with the backing of Leon Trotsky, to serve as an alternative to the Stalinist Comintern (the Third International) The Fourth Internationa both expected that there would be a wave of revolutionary struggles such as accompanied the end of the previous war. This, however, failed to materialise despite an increase in the level of labor strikeStrike action (or simply strike is a deliberate refusal to work on the part of multiple employees. This is a tactic often employed by labor unions during collective bargaining with an employer. A strike may consist of workers refusing to attend work or pis in the USA between 1945Events January January 5 The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland. January 7 British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference in which he claims credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge. January 12 World War II: and 19481948 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). Events January January 1 Nationalisation of UK railways to form British Railways. Arab militants lay siege to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. First day of the Ital with the end of the wartime pledge made by many unionA Union is a single entity which is a collection of two or more entities. Other references are: A mathematical concept: see union (set theory) A political entity of states: see personal union The United States of America, particularly in reference to acti leaders not to strike for the duration. This did not mean there were not many strikes during wartime - there were many wildcat strikes during this period.
The end of the war also saw the reorganisation of the FI in which process the SWP played a major role. As part of this process, moves were made to heal the breach with Max Shachtman's supporters in the Workers Party (WP) and for the two groups to fuse. This eventually came to nothing. However some members of the SWP around Felix Morrow and Goldman grew dissatisfied with what they saw as the SWP's ultra-leftist attitude towards revolutionary policies and argued for the use of transitional politics as outlined by Trotsky in the Transitional Program which had been adopted by the Fourth International in 1938. Eventually they were to leave the SWP in a state of demoralisation and some joined the WP.
On the other hand a faction within the WP called the Johnson-Forrest tendency, CLR James (known as Johnson) and Raya Dunayevskaya (Forrest), were impatient of the caution of the WP and considered that the situation could rapidly become pre-revolutionary. This led them to decamp from the WP and rejoin the SWP in 1947. This tendency had moved further away from the 'orthodox Trotskyism' of the SWP, which made for an uncomfortable presence. For example, they continued to hold the position that the USSR was a state capitalist society. By 1951, their presence in the SWP was ever more anomalous and most left. Dunayevskaya and her supporters eventually formed the News and Letters Committees in 1955 after splitting with CLR James, who was deported from the USA.
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