Included are administrative records such as constitutions, committee minutes; extensive files of internal publications; and correspondence with members and local branches. Other internal files document Pathfinder Press; the party's publication program; and schools, camps, and adult education classes. Additional files of press releases, campaign literature, and correspondence document the participation of SWP candidates such as Farrell Dobbs and Grace Carlson in national elections. Numerous files represent the legal cases in which the party was involved concerning civil rights, civil liberties, and academic freedom. Organizing work is reflected in correspondence and memoranda about the Black Panther Party, the Freedom Now Party, and the National Black Independent Political Party; files on the Alexander Defense Committee (South Africa), the American Committee for European Workers Relief, the Committee for Artistic and Intellectual Freedom in Iran, the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, and the United States Committee for Justice to Latin American Political Prisoners; and files on the National Maritime Union, the Teamsters, the United Automobile Workers, the United Electrical Workers, the United Steel Workers of America, and other unions. Information about the SWP's opposition to the involvement in the war in Vietnam is scattered throughout the collection.
Also included are documents pertaining to predecessors of the SWP such as the Communist League of America, the American Workers Party, and the first Workers Party; to the Communist Party and left wing groups formed in opposition to the SWP such as the Committee for a Revolutionary Socialist Party, the Sparticist League, Spark, the W.E.B. Du Bois Club, the Young Workers Liberation League, the National Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression, and the Maoist Revolutionary Communist Party; and to right-wing opponents of the SWP such as Lyndon LaRouche, Jr., Gerald L.K. Smith, and the Legion of Justice. The Original Collection is entirely available on microfilm. After filming, the original records were destroyed.
Large portions of the collection such as the minutes and branch circulars, consist of material that was duplicated for distribution rather than the original documents from which these circulars were prepared. It is presumed that these original documents may have been retained by the Party.
The Socialist Workers Party collection was compiled at the Historical Society over a period of many years, with each accession separately loaned for microfilming and the originals subsequently returned to the party. One result is that the collection microfilm has separate call numbers for its several portions. Individual items were filmed in the order in which they were received so that they could be returned unaltered. As a consequence, the order on the film is sometimes haphazard. In addition, reels 32-34 of Micro 596 were filmed without frame numbers though reels 32-33 were framed with Segment (folder) identifiers rather than frame numbers. However, beginning with the Johnson-Forest Tendency material, neither type of number exists, and the documents appear in the order in which they are listed in the contents list. Researchers are urged to rely on the contents list for access.
The collection is arranged in 9 series: Administrative Records, Publication Records, Education Files, Election Files, Branch Correspondence, Activities and Organizing Records, Historical Files, Opponents Files, and Internal Discussions and Disputes Records.
Administrative Records
This series includes constitutions and minutes of the Political Committee meetings, sometimes called the “Club Executive,” as well as minutes from the National Convention and the National Committee meetings and plenums, together with minutes (for the 1980s only, however) of various leadership committees of the Political Committee. The documented leadership committees are the Political Bureau and the Secretariat, which appear to have functioned for the Political Committee, and the Organization Bureau, the Trade Union Bureau, and, after 1987, the Organization and Trade Union Bureau. The minutes vary greatly in detail, and lengthy documents and reports are often attached. There are also information sheets circulated to the National Committee, organizers, and the branches.
Also included with the Administrative Records are files on the Control Commission, a national committee established in 1940 at Cannon's suggestion in order to maintain party security, investigate violations of party discipline, and make recommendations for official action to the National Committee. While the overall purpose of the Control Commission is difficult to discern from the records here, several documents hint at its function. Of particular use is the History File which contains opinions from Lenin and various SWP members on the need for party discipline, outlines of the commission's history, and materials on overall jurisdiction and purpose.
The Control Commission files are subdivided into 1) commission history and 2) cases, with the cases being arranged alphabetically by name. It is unlikely that all discipline issues brought before the commission are represented here. Typical files include those of Elaine Carroll, who was charged with providing Minneapolis police with information about the SWP; Lydia Bennett (Beidel), who was accused of using the party to publicize factional activities when she held a social for members of the SWP and the Workers Party; and Al Duncan who was censured by the commission for striking a fellow party member.
Several cases are represented by correspondence and background documents as well as by the commission's reports and recommendations. Since the commission held jurisdiction over all branches, much of this correspondence involves the logistics of arranging meetings and notifying the individuals involved. Unfortunately, many files are spotty and incomplete and several, such as the Special Investigations file and the files concerning Paul Jensen and Debby Leonard, fail to include the commission's decisions. Moreover, a few contain information on issues and individuals that the commission did not officially investigate, including Sylvia Caldwell, a personal secretary of Cannon accused of spying for the pro-Stalin GPU by the Workers League; Willie Reid, an African-American fugitive who escaped from a Florida chain gang; and Leroy McRae, who was involved in Mobilization for Youth, a publicly funded program investigated for subversive activities in 1964 and 1965.
The circular letters are mimeographed items distributed by the National office to the local branches, to specific members or officers in the branches, or to specific branches. The letters deal with the operation of the party and were used to keep the rank and file informed on matters such as meetings, sale of bulletins; sales quotes, fund drives, and memberships. Often the circulars included issues that did not warrant inclusion in the bulletin.
Also filed here is a group of membership statistics compiled by the party. The reports included not only numbers of members, but also data on membership by branch, by fraction, and by occupation. Except for 1945, the detailed branch reports from which these statistics were drawn are not included in the collection.
Publication Records
This series contains material directly related to the Socialist Workers Party's attempts to establish an independent press. In particular, the files concern the background and history of Pioneer Publishers, the leftist publishing house founded by Max Shachtman in the 1930s; Merit Publishers, which specialized in English and Spanish texts before evolving into Pathfinder Press in the 1970s; and The Militant, the longtime voice of the party. Aside from material relating directly to the establishment and administration of the party press, the files include a number of documents concerned with projects such as the party's speakers bureau which are indirectly related to publications. Also included here is an alphabetically-arranged library of SWP publications.
The publication files are not the complete, organic records of any of the SWP's editorial and publishing operations, but instead a group of documents apparently selected by the party for preservation. Included are correspondence, many book lists and catalogues (some years only include photocopies of catalogue covers), promotional material, sample order forms, editorial and executive policy statements, and sales and distribution statistics. This section can be roughly divided into two distinct parts: first, administrative and background information, and second, records and documents concerning particular publications. The background and administrative records are further divided into two parts: general background and documents concerning the governance of the publication program. The background information includes a brief letter from Rose Karsner about the origins of Pioneer Publishers, extended correspondence concerning the establishment of Merit Publishers in the 1960s(?), and a short exchange of letters concerning Perspectiva Mundial, a magazine aimed at Spanish-speaking Trotskyists in the United States. Also here are the by-laws of the Militant and the International Socialist Review, together with a file (1961-1989) of the annual statements of ownership required by the U.S. Post Office.
The policy documentation relating to the publication program consists of minutes for the four governing committees of Pathfinder Press which made decisions on what should be published, set style standards, assessed the progress of specific publishing projects, and monitored book sales and program finances. These records primarily date from the 1970s when George Breitman and George Weismann were leaders in the publication program.
Following the files about background and administration, are documents arranged alphabetically by publication title. About the Militant there is extensive mimeographed correspondence concerning the ban placed on the newspaper by the Post Office during World War II and on the efforts to mitigate the effects of that ban. Similar documentation pertains to the Militant's operations in the immediate postwar years. There is little original correspondence here, although letters from Norman Thomas and Max Shachtman testify to their views on the attempted suppression of the Militant. Statistical reports and comparisons of various kinds document the paper's history from 1940 to 1990.
The history of Pathfinder Press is documented by a run of catalogues, (some items being represented only by photocopies of catalogue covers), samples of book lists and order forms, promotional material, and sales summaries. The documentation for Pioneer Publishers includes a run of mimeographed promotional correspondence and statistical sales reports, as well as a collection of catalogues that run from 1935 to 1965. More useful than either the quantitative sales information or the catalogues, however, is a run of narrative reports that cover the period from 1940 to 1968. At the end of the file is miscellaneous material including correspondence of George Novack and Connie Weissman that pertains to the English language publication of Ernest Mandel's Traite d'Economic Marxiste, several items relating to the SWP's Trotsky publishing project, and an extensive file of tour schedules and reports, mainly 1973-1974, regarding YSA and SWP public speaking tours, and most notably the SWP (or YSA?) Speakers Bureau which sponsored a host of leftist speakers, such as Andrew Pulley, Peter Camejo, and Olga Rodriguez.
At the conclusion of the series is a library of SWP publications arranged alphabetically by title. These titles have been included here rather than separating them to the SHSW Library, since most were intended only for internal distribution. Only a few titles require additional comment. The internal bulletins and discussion bulletins were intended to provide information to all levels of the party between the national conventions and distribution outside the party was specifically prohibited. Although several different titles are included “Internal Bulletin,” “Discussion Bulletin,” and “Internal Information Bulletin”), the distinction between titles is not always clear. The international information bulletins are similar in character, often consisting of translations of material from the bulletin of the International Secretariat of the Fourth International.
Educational Files
The Educational Records are arranged alphabetically by program. In general, these files document the party's attempts to establish a core of leaders well versed in Marxist and Trotskyist thought. The majority of the series relates to educational programs under the auspices of the SWP national office, although there is some documentation pertaining to educational programs operated by local branches. For example, an early course, “Selected Readings in Marxism,” is identified only as having been edited in Toronto by Maurice Spector in 1932. Also included in this series is an outline for a course taught by Albert Glotzer at a Marx-Lenin School in Chicago; announcements of courses, 1933-1934, offered by the Communist League of America; a 1935 administrative report of the International Workers School together with outlines of courses probably taught there by M. Abern and B.J. Field during the 1930s. The collection also includes the 1937-1938 bulletin of the Marxian Labor College in San Francisco and information and brochures pertaining to SWP retreats at the Mountain Spring Camp, the West Coast Vacation School, and the Midwestern Vacation School. The files on the Midwestern Vacation School and the Mountain Spring Camp contain information documenting the evolution of the SWP educational program. These files include correspondence between party members discussing the nature and purpose of the camps, as well as form letters distributed by the camp management, a few financial items, and advertising brochures.
Aside from documents that specifically address SWP educational programs and policy, the educational files also contain general publications issued by the National Education Department such as study guides, handbooks, publications, and other basic tracts on Marxist education. Not all the documents are clearly identified, and it is possible some of the study guides may actually have been issued by local branches. Among the earliest items are a description of the “basic training course,” circa 1942, publications such as The ALP and Its Prospects (1943), Housing (1938?), Proletarian Military Policy (1940), and a bulletin of the New York Women's Committee. Study guides from the 1940s include a history of Russian Bolshevism, the ABC of Marxism, and What is Trotskyism? Several files also contain mimeographed course outlines issued during the early 1970s; the majority of the study guides and bibliographies, however, are undated. The file on the Oberlin Socialist Activists and Educational conferences includes printed programs from 1974 to 1989. (Programs for these conferences were occasionally issued with National Convention programs, which as a result, are also filed here.) Documents specifically tied to the party's Marxist Labor School, however, are disappointingly limited.
The Summer School Files, which document the history of the National Education Department's summer school program and which primarily cover the period from 1964 to 1974, are divided into two sections: general correspondence issued by the national office and information about courses offered by individual branches. These files also include some interesting material on the evolution of the administration and function of the NED.
Material on the SWP Trotsky School, the national training school for party functionaries, comprises nearly half the series. Here one will find correspondence (mainly of the 1950s and 1960s) concerning the development and management of the school. Included is an important 1944 memo drafted by James Cannon which foresaw the Trotsky School as the crux of the SWP's educational program. The school administrative files also contain letters of acceptance and rejection sent to interested applicants, lists of students selected to attend the school, fairly complete monthly financial reports, and a list of graduates. The course materials include outlines and study guides about Marxism and Marxist tracts such as Capital. Although they are not so identified, the 1954 and 1955 instructional files are thought to have been prepared by SWP leader Joe Hansen. Similar teaching materials document the 1959-1960 and 1961-1962 schools and several folders document the Leadership School, a related educational program instituted during the 1980s.
Additional information on the SWP's educational program may be found in the papers of George Novack and Bob Chester, also in custody of the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Election Files
This series documents the SWP's national election campaigns from 1948 to 1988. Coverage varies, with the elections of the 1950s only sparsely covered, and the elections of the 1970s being extensively represented. Information on party participation in local election campaigns has been incorporated with the branch records described below. Following the information on individual elections is material on the Election and Referenda Subcommittee of the Political Committee.
The election files generally consist of press releases, form letters distributed to local organizers, brochures and campaign literature, and--less often--national campaign committee correspondence, minutes, and reports. The most useful documentation for each campaign generally can be found in the files of press material because the contents (press releases, form correspondence, clippings, flyers, and occasional speeches) provide the most comprehensive chronological overview. Undated campaign literature, flyers, and buttons are filed separately. Except for this material and the form letters to local supporters, documentation about the development of national electoral policy is limited. Only a few campaigns are represented by National Campaign Committee minutes, and the majority of the correspondence files appear incomplete. Among the most useful correspondence are the letters from Fred Halstead and Barry Sheppard during their 1968 tour of Vietnam, Japan, and other overseas areas and the reports of Presidential candidate Linda Jenness.
Branch Correspondence
The branch office files are organized alphabetically by branch name and document type, with several of the most important branches also being divided by district. For each branch, minutes and reports are arranged first if they were maintained as a distinct and separate file by the SWP; they are followed by chronologically-arranged correspondence and publications. Holdings of branch minutes are generally incomplete, although some branches regularly submitted such documentation to the national office. The majority of the branch publications are discussion bulletins containing editorials by local SWP members, newspapers or fact sheets and general information on local and national activities. If they are numerous, branch newsletters are arranged by title. For less complete titles the publications are interfiled with the correspondence.
Most of the branch correspondence consists of exchanges between the locals and the national office. This correspondence covers a wide range of topics depending on the particular circumstances of the branch. These files also vary in completeness. Most extensively documented are Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City, San Francisco, and Seattle. Several branch files provide important documentation on party history during the 1940s. A common trait of the branch records is a gradual increase over time in the number of leaflets, flyers, minutes, reports, and local election campaign literature, and a decrease in regular correspondence. In some files, the material on the 1970s consists almost completely of nearprint publications.
Activities and Organizing Records
These files document the SWP's focused outreach and party building work. The files are grouped alphabetically by subject.
Anti-nuclear power work is a small file consisting primarily of circulars distributed to National Committee members and organizers, and later to anti-nuclear work directors. The file dates from 1977 to 1982.
The Anti-Vietnam War file is also small, documenting only a portion of the SWP's leadership in the opposition to the war in Vietnam. In fact, this file largely consists of folders that the party itself entitled a “policy file.” The file is only a small portion of the material that is available to researchers on this topic elsewhere in this collection as well as in separately-cataloged collections of Fred Halstead, the Young Socialist Alliance, and the Student Mobilization Committee--all of which were also donated to the Historical Society by the Socialist Workers Party. The miscellaneous antiwar materials filed here consist of SWP and YSA branch circulars that deal with opposition to the war in Vietnam. Many of the circulars originally filed here when the records were received from the SWP had already been filmed more appropriately as part of the minutes and circulars elsewhere in the collection. As a consequence, this file consists only of documents that could not be located elsewhere.
The Anti-Draft Registration work file is a small quantity of material which dates only from 1980 to 1985.
The Defense cases work deals primarily with court cases and legal matters with which the SWP was involved and some material on cases in which they were interested although not actively involved (i.e. the small files on Angela Davis and Kathy Boudin). The majority of the files date from the 1960s and 1970s. Generally, the files have been arranged alphabetically by keyword, with some larger files also subdivided by genre. The files may variously contain correspondence, form letters, publicity, legal documents, and clippings. Most of the correspondence consists of exchanges between the SWP national office (and the YSA national staff) and the committees formed to deal with the litigation. On the whole, the cases cover a wide range of political and social issues, particularly freedom of speech, academic freedom, and anti-SWP violence. Some of the high profile cases documented here include those of the Monroe, North Carolina, civil rights complainants; Morris Starsky and Wendell Phillips (academic freedom at Arizona State University and Fullerton Junior College); and Babak Zahrair, Ernest Mandel, and Hector Marroquin (all concerning the rights of aliens). Considerable material documents the free speech rights of students on various Florida campuses. In addition, there is documentation about various episodes of harassment experienced by SWP locals and the political assassination of Leo Bernard, an SWP member, as well as the organization of the Committee for Democratic Election Rights to ensure the rights of party members to campaign for elective office. Numerous folders concern the party's defense of the First Amendment rights of active duty GIs who opposed the war in Vietnam such as Howard Petrick, Joe Miles, Jim Stryffler, Walter Kos, and the Jackson Eight.
The Gay rights files are another artificial category assembled by the SWP national office to document the party's activities in a special area. This file, which primarily documents the years 1971-1979, is comprised of correspondence, reports, and clippings. The 1971 file is dominated by a probe of gay rights activities in various branches conducted by the national organization. Notable in the 1974 materials are documents relating to the actions of David Thorstad, who resigned from the party because of its failure to support the gay liberation movement.
The International Solidarity files contain articles, correspondence, and miscellaneous documents on the party's involvement in, support for, and awareness of political movements around the globe. The files are ordered alphabetically by country, and they generally date from the 1960s and 1970s, although some files on the plight of European party members and refugees date from the immediate post-World War II years. It is likely this small file represents only a portion of the party's involvement in international issues. It is difficult from these records to determine the party's role in some organizations [such as the Committee for Artistic and Intellectual Freedom in Iran (CAIFI)]. On the whole, the files suggest that the party considered that intellectual freedom was essential to the working class and the continuation of the international socialist revolution. The files suggest that the SWP focused much of its international attention on poor countries such as South Africa where social inequality was prevalent and the government suppressed leftist political dissent. For example, the party attacked the Mexican government's crackdown on communists in the late 1960s, and it supported groups such as the CAIFI that protested against the Shah's treatment of Iranian radicals and intellectuals in the 1970s. Moreover, the party remained concerned about freedom of political expression and criticized limitations on student, intellectual, and worker protest in more powerful and self-sufficient nations such as France and Greece. The SWP paid particular attention to the plight of blacks and the detention of intellectuals in South Africa in the mid-1960s. Finally, while the SWP focused on the internal politics of other nations, it also criticized the United States for aiding countries such as Angola and Israel that engaged in political oppression.
Particularly interesting are the World War II-era files on the American Committee for European Workers Relief, which was headed by Dr. Antoinette Konikow, and the American Funds for Political Prisoners and Refugees, both of which are represented by correspondence, financial reports, and publications. The small file on oppression in post-World War II Greece is primarily documented by a campaign to get support from many prominent American leftists for a letter opposing press censorship in Greece. There are only a few responses to this appeal in the file, most interesting being letters from Dwight Macdonald and Harry Fleischman of the Socialist Party. The papers on Iran consist of CAIFI press releases, newsletters, and form letters and a transcription of a Kate Millet press conference in 1974. Papers on South Africa are extensive, with the majority of this being devoted to the Alexander Defense Committee and to publicity tours by I.B. Tabata and others. With the International Solidarity materials are special files about the SWP's relations with two separate organizations also concerned with international issues: the Fair Play for Cuba Committee and the U.S. Committee for Justice to Latin American Political Prisoners.
The Fair Play for Cuba Committee file consists of organizational records collected by the SWP. Included are correspondence, handbills, chapter releases, publicity, reprints, and clippings. Newsletters both of the national organization and several local chapters are available through the SHSW Library. The most extensively documented local FPFC groups are those from California, Canada, Michigan, and New York City. The majority of the correspondence consists of exchanges between Tom Kerry and Farrell Dobbs and with local SWP members who were active in the committee. This correspondence contains a good deal of information about local activites and the SWP's desire to be involved in the Cuba issue. There is some correspondence with Berta Greene, apparently an SWP member, who was at one time the FPFC secretary, and with founder Robert Taber.
The USLA Justice Committee was formed in 1966 to aid the victims of political persecution and injustice in Latin America and to inform the American public about these repressive policies. This file, which may have been collected by Richard Garza, a member of the SWP who served on the USLA board, consists mainly of chronologically-arranged press material, form letters, and flyers. Best documented are the years 1972 to 1974. Mimeographed minutes of a few meetings and conferences are also included.
The Oppressed Nationalities files document the party's political work among African-Americans and, to a much lesser extent, among Latinos, Chicanos, and Puerto Ricans. Although the work among Blacks began early in the party's history, the records from this period are very incomplete and they primarily document activities during the 1960s and 1970s. The records are arranged in two sections: a chronological file pertaining to general organizational work among Blacks and an alphabetical subject file documenting work on particular topics or with individual organizations. Among the well represented organizations are the National Black Independent Political Party, the Freedom Now Party, and the Black Panther Party.
The general files consist of correspondence, reports, circulars, and occasional minutes. This documentation probably does not represent the full extent of SWP involvement in the Black struggle, although the material spans the period from 1942 to 1987. The early documentation includes the resolution on “negro work” adopted by the 1939 national convention, a 1956 letter to Martin Luther King enclosing a $75.00 contribution, correspondence pertaining to William Worthy and the Freedom Now Party, and 1967 minutes of the Black Fraction in New York. Beginning in the mid-1960s the file begins to be dominated by branch circulars and mimeographed reports from the national office to national committee members and later to the local individuals responsible for antiracist work. This type of documentation ends in 1979, although some correspondence continues through 1987.
On the whole, the general files reflect the SWP's uncertain attempts to address the rising black consciousness of the 1960s and 1970s and wed the black power movement, represented by such groups as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Freedom Now Party, the Negro American Labor Council, the African Liberation Support Committee, the Congress on Racial Equality, and the black muslims, with the labor struggle. Recognizing many shared interests with these groups, the SWP championed busing, school desegregaion, and freedom for oppressed minorities in South Africa and Angola throughout the 1970s. In 1975, the party advocated the first National Student Conference Against Racism in Boston and actively supported formation of the Student Coalition Against Racism the following year. In the 1980s a new generation of leaders, including Malik Miah, a member of the SWP Political Committee and National Office staffer, and Maceo Dixon, the SWP national Black work director, and Osborne Hart, the YSA national Black work director, continued to wrestle with the question of how the black movement could bolster the workers' struggle.
The alphabetical subject files within the oppressed minorities files include three undated lectures prepared by Robert Vernon on the evolution of the SWP position on Black nationalism. The documentation about the Black Panthers includes documentation similar to the general files. Particularly notable are the transcriptions of the joint SWP-BPP discussions and the August 17-18, 1968 National Committee meeting which led to SWP support of some BPP candidates in San Francisco area elections. There is also an edited transcript of the discussions in the Oakland branch which eventually led to SWP endorsement of some BPP candidates in the 1973 elections in that community. Several other black political groups are documented in the subject files, particularly the Freedom Now Party, the National Black United Front, and the Congress of Afrikan Peoples.
The SWP remained concerned, however, not only with the situation of Black Americans, but other oppressed minorities as well and the records include some material on the Chicano movement as well as on Puerto Rican, Latino, and Native American poltical groups. The file on the Crusade for Justice, for instance, documents the violence which broke out between the SWP and the Chicano movement led by Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzalez in Denver in 1974. The Latino liberation file combines documentation on work with Puerto Ricans, Latinos, and Chicanos that was chiefly carried out by Olga Rodriquez of the SWP national office and it highlights the SWP's interest in Puerto Rican independence. The file on Native Americans concerns the American Indian Movement (AIM) and its leader, Dennis Banks. While these files contain interesting and, at times, revealing information, their content is questionable.
Information about the NBIPP, however, with which the SWP had increasingly troubled relations during the early 1980s, includes an extensive reference file of NBIPP convention and meeting minutes, discussion and policy papers, clippings, brochures and press materials on both the national organization and a few of its many local chapters, and speeches and writings of Manning Marable and other party leaders, together with a file of memoranda and correspondence that focuses on the SWP's internal response to the black political party. The NBIPP file is of uncertain provenance. Although described by the SWP as the NBIPP records when they were donated to the Historical Society, these documents clearly are not official records. It is more likely these records were collected by Mac Warren, who headed SWP black organizing at the time. This provenance possibly explains why few files are complete and why coverage diminishes after the break with the SWP.
The reference portion of the records is further subdivided into four sections: background information, convention and meetings, subject files, and local files. The background material consists of some national recruiting material that includes a brief history of the party. The national party conventions and Central Committee meetings which are also documented here are the best represented aspects of NBIPP history. The convention and meeting files, which are arranged chronologically by date, consist of flyers, minutes, agendas, resolutions and amendments, documents submitted for discussion, publicity, and other items that related to various national, regional and local gatherings of the party and its Central Committee and the Administrative and Policy Committee. The subject files, which are more diverse in content, are alphabetically-arranged. Of special interest is a small file on NBIPP's relationship with the SWP and a collection of documents gathered by Mac Warren about NBIPP history which include his comments on the meaning of particular documents. Also present is a chronological file of clippings about the party and several newsletters.
The local files are an artificial assemblage of mailings concerning the activities of NBIPP chapters. These files document only a few of 100 local chapters which once existed and only a few chapters are documented by more than a few items. However, several files (primarily Baltimore, Los Angeles, New York, and Ohio) contain information on activities carried on during the last year's of NBIPP's existence.
The Trade Union files, although similar to the other organizing records in the SWP collection, are primarily comprised of original correspondence rather than the mimeographed circulars that typify most other files. The trade union files are also unusual in that the majority of documentation here dates from the 1940's, before declining in quantity to parallel the party's diminished interest in labor work in later years. The trade union files are differentiated into a general chronological file followed by an alphabetical fraction file. However, the same types of documentation appear in both files. Both contain detailed summaries of local labor union matters and the activities of local party members. Virtually all of the post World War II correspondence contains some evidence of redbaiting, as well as detailed accounts of the conflicts that took place between local Stalinist, Trotskyist, and conservative union leaders. The material dating from the 1940's consists mainly of correspondence to and from various SWP leaders who served as labor secretary during the decade: Farrell Dobbs, Vincent R. Dunne, and Bert Cochran, together with considerable correspondence of Murray Stein, who served as acting national secretary while Cannon was in prison. The early correspondence represents relatively complete, organic files, but after 1950 that is not the case. Instead, the later records document sporadic episodes of involvement in union elections and democratic insurgency within labor unions. A few small files from the 1940's appear to represent segments of the labor force that were not organized into SWP fractions.
The early material in the general trade union files is largely concerned with the SWP's position in relation to the CIO. The correspondence here primarily documents the years from 1940 to 1945 and the year 1974. The early letters are to and from Farrell Dobbs and Murray Stein; while the 1974 letters, most of which are incoming, provide the most comprehensive representation in the trade union files about Frank Lovell's tenure as labor secretary.
Best documented among the alphabetical fraction files are those on the United Automobile Workers, electrical workers, the maritime unions, the United Steelworkers of America, and the Teamster. The automobile fraction files, which are most extensive for the period 1943 to 1951, contain extensive information on union elections and the development of SWP's opposition to Reuther in 1947. The more recent material about the auto fraction consists of literature about an insurgent candidacy within Local 600 in 1963 (this is unsupported by any correspondence), and some 1970-1971 SWP circulars. Notable in the electrical fraction is postwar correspondence to labor secretary Bert Cochran about the Trotskyists position on local UE-IUE rivalries. The files on the maritime fraction are best on the immediate postwar years. Here may be found numerous excellent summaries of working conditions within various segments of the industry. There is also a large file of handbills and brochures distributed by the Joint Action Committee of the Maritime Unions during the 1948 strike in San Francisco.
The files on the United Steel Workers are also excellent. In addition to documentation that is similar to the fractions described above there is also good information on the SWP's industry-wide steel conference (1945) and on the democratic “Steelworkers Fight Back” campaign of insurgent leader Ed Sadlowsky to reform the USWA. Early files on the railroad unions are not as useful as many of the other fraction files, although there is some excellent material from UTU member Ed Heisler in 1971 on the “Right to Vote” campaign. The Teamster files represent Dobbs' special background in the truck drivers' interests and much of the 1940-1941 correspondence concerns individuals in the midwest (and particularly in Minneapolis) whom he knew from his former Teamster organizing. The correspondence from Vincent R. Dunne and other former Minneapolis associates is particularly revealing of the campaign waged by Daniel Tobin to oust them from leadership in the local Teamsters. Important among the postwar Teamster material is information on the democratic movement in St. Louis in 1947.
Historical Files
These records divide into two portions: File 1, a Chronological File, and File 2, an Organizational File. The two contain similar material that is differently arranged.
Chronological File 1 is an artificial file created to encompass a variety of documentation that eluded filing elsewhere. Most of the documents were arranged in this category by the SWP, although a few miscellaneous items were later added in the SHSW Archives. The entire file is arranged chronologically by year (or by initial year for the files that include multi-year time spans). The earliest files consist of documents regarding organizations that preceded or related to the SWP. Documentation after 1938 primarily relates to the SWP itself and, to some extent, to YSA.
The documentation varies widely in content and extent, and it cannot be easily characterized either by subject or by function. Within each year, the records are arranged alphabetically by organizational name and, when necessary, by document type. As originally received from the party, the earliest files in the Chronological File partially duplicated material in the James Cannon Papers and previously-filmed portions of File 2 (primarily material on reels 32 and 33). When possible, new duplicate material was removed from File 1 before filming.
The early files do not represent an organic recordkeeping system and there is some evidence that they have been sorted and reorganized repeatedly. Items photocopied from other archival collections are occasionally included as well. For example, many of the 1937 letters from Harry Milton to Martin Abern are copies from the Albert Glotzer collection. (This provenance has been indicated on the film by microfilming the Glotzer stamp on the back of each photocopied document.) Still other material has clearly been copied from the J.B.S. Hardman collection at the Tamiment Library. Unfortunately, the source of other photocopied material has not been indicated, and, as a result, researchers wishing to publish material from the HISTORICAL FILES are advised to confirm the original or photocopied nature of the paper files in the SHSW archives.
Because these documents have lost their original context and because many were undated, the final arrangement of parts of File 1 must be considered tentative.
The earliest material is quite fragmentary, including publications such as a 1925 document, “Red International of Labor Unions,” and a bulletin issued in 1928 by the Konikow Group. Publications issued by organizations not connected to the SWP have been separated to the SHSW Library. There is little about the Communist Party here, except for a mimeographed version of some speeches by Stalin and a letter from the Comintern addressed to the American Communist Party.
There are also miscellaneous files of documents about the various organizations which preceded the Socialist Workers Party including correspondence, leaflets, mimeographed branch circulars, policy statements, etc. (Publications of these groups have generally been filmed with the Publications series.) Some documents here are of uncertain provenance. The Conference for Progressive Labor Action, for example, is represented by a file of Sam Sponseller, Ted Selander, and other Toledo activists. This file includes a large quantity of form letters written by A.J. Muste as well as information on Lucas County labor conditions. The same provenance is evident in the file on the American Workers Party, the successor to the CPLA, although this file also incorporates material from the collection at the Tamiment Library of J.B.S. Hardman, an AWP leader. The Workers Party, which was formed by the merger of CLA and AWP, is represented by a large quantity of leaflets, form letters, and other information distributed to the membership. Also included are 1935 minutes of the party's Harlem branch. The file on the Non-Partisan Labor Defense may have been photocopied from the Herbert Solow Papers. It largely concerns operations in California. The chronological file contains only limited documentation relating to the Socialist Party, primarily a heterogeneous group of papers relating to the Trotskyists' sojourn in the SP in 1937. Also present is a file--apparently from a California branch--of correspondence to and from Cannon. There is also only scant material about Trotskyist offshots such as the Revolutionary Workers Party (the Oehlerites).
Like the early material in the chronological file, much of the post-1938 documentation consists of mimeographed material that was widely circulated. Notable is the mimeographed correspondence and positions on the 1939-1940 Russian Discussion which resulted in the departure of Max Shachtman and his followers.
Tour reports are a predominant element throughout the series, as is correspondence on the regroupment efforts of the 1950s. The tour files include detailed narrative and statistical reports from SWP representatives such as Grace Carlson, George Clarke, Linda Jenness, Myra Tanner Weiss, and John G. “Usick” Wright about conditions in the branches. The regroupment material contains detailed letters to Dobbs and Kerry about branch relations with Stalinists during the mid 1950s. A second file, primarily made up of correspondence and documents of George Stryker of Bayport, New York (why this file was in the National Office records is not known), relates to the American Forum for Socialist Education, an attempt by A.J. Muste to unite various elements of the American Left. (Muste, as well as Norman Thomas and David McReynolds are represented in the correspondence here.) Related to this is the file on the United Independent-Socialist Campaign Committee in New York in 1958. More internal in focus is the material on Tim Wohlforth and the younger membership of the SWP and on the fundraising committee formed in the early 1960s.
Other disparate files of research interest include information on the party's campaign against Gerald L. K. Smith during World War II; harassment experienced during the late 1960s from the Legion of Justice, a right wing Chicago-area organization; and the Student Committee for Travel to Cuba. There are also reports submitted to Charles Carsten about post-World War II organizing by the SWP among veterans. Another file documenting the party's curious relationship with Lyndon LaRouche, Jr., contains many writings by LaRouche and information on the harassment experienced by the SWP (and by David McReynolds) from LaRouche's National Caucus of Labor Committees. A small file on the Kennedy assassination includes a printed copy of Dobbs' Warren Commission testimony, memoranda, and copies of the SWP documents that were presented in evidence during the investigation.
The majority of File 2 , the Organizational File, was originally part of two older microfilm editions of the records of the SWP. This film included documents which were unavailable for later refilming, and which therefore have been preserved by retaining the relevant sections of the older film. Unlike more recent filming done at SHSW these records were filmed without counter numbers and as a result some groups of records are accessed solely by a reel segment number. (Some records from the older microfilm that pertained to the Fourth International, the Socialist Party-Social Democratic Federation, and various organizations of socialist young people were recataloged as Socialist Records, Micro 684.)
The file now consists of documents about various predecessors of the Socialist Workers Party (such as the Communist League of America, the Workers Party, and the Young People's Socialist League) and various Trotskyist opponents, splinters, and tendencies. The records consist almost exclusively of printed bulletins but they differ reflecting the size and activity of the groups in questions. The records of the first three groups, all of which emerged from predecessors of the SWP, are sparse. They are the League for a Revolutionary Workers Party (Fieldites), a very small Trotskyist group which was formed in 1934 and led by B.J. Field; the ultra-left Communist League of Struggle (Weisbordites), a small group led by Albert Weisbord which existed from 1932 to 1937; and the Revolutionary Workers League (Oehlerites), a relatively large Trotskyist group founded in 1936 in opposition to the entrance of the WP into the SP. In addition, this series contains a variety of documents produced by the Johnson-Forest Tendency, a group which separated from the SWP in 1941. Under the leadership of C.L.R. James, it existed independently except for brief periods. The Johnson-Forest Tendency records, dating from 1942 to 1947, include internal materials; a long tract, The Invading Socialist Society; and “Internal Bulletins” issued during 1947. Finally, the series includes a significant body of records produced by the second Workers Party from 1943 to 1957. The files are comprised almost entirely of WP internal discussion bulletins and of a similar bulletin, the Forum, of its successor group, the Independent Socialist League.
Opponents Files
The alphabetically-arranged Opponents Files consist of information about groups on the radical left that the SWP itself characterized as opponents. This series differs from File 2 of the HISTORICAL FILES primarily in that File 2 contains information on early opponents, while this series represents later opposition groups. More precisely the file contains information about the membership and intentions of the Communist Party and various CP splinter groups, as well as a few files on SWP splinters such as the Committee for a Revolutionary Socialist Party, the Spartacist League, and the small publication Spark. Except for the files on CPUSA the documentation primarily dates from the 1970s and 1980s. Although no internal evidence ties the information to him, it is thought that this material may be the Tom Kerry reference files on the CP which are referred to in the Historical Society's background correspondence with the SWP.
The information on the CP spans the period from the 1930s to the 1970s and it primarily consists of leaflets, flyers, and correspondence. (Organizational newsletters and publications files have been separated to the SHSW Library.) Although the information is disparate in nature, the files on the 1966 and 1969 national conventions contain a large quantity of focused documentation: primarily resolutions and distributions. Also useful is the file of educational and discussion materials issued by CPUSA during the 1940s. An isolated item of special note is a 1934 financial balance sheet.
The remainder of the files in the opponents section are comparatively small, often consisting of a few pieces of correspondence to SWP national office staff about the group in question and a few distributions and leaflets. Again the correspondence mixes letters to and from YSA staff with letters to and from SWP leaders. Sometimes there are mimeographed memoranda from the SWP and the YSA to national committee members.
Notable organizational files are those on the DuBois Club, which includes a large quantity of material distributed at the founding convention in June 1964. The files also document extensive monitoring of the Young Workers Liberation League by the SWP-YSA. Information on the National Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression includes mailings that document its emergence from the CP's Angela Davis defense committee. A substantial number of letters and memoranda also track the Trotskyists' response to the Maoist Revolutionary Communist Party and its youth arms, the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade and the Revolutionary Student Brigade. The file on the Sparticist League contains ample documentation of the anti-SWP campaign waged by the league.
Other material which warrants mention is a file of general reports, mainly 1970-1976, from chapters around the country regarding the activities of their local opponents. Also notable is a clipping scrapbook about the role of the American Labor Party and the SWP in New York City elections in 1949.
Internal Discussions and Disputes
The Internal Discussions and Disputes series highlights several issues of party loyalty and policy that divided the party. The files are ordered alphabetically by the name applied by the SWP in organizing the files, and they range in date from the early 1950s to the late 1980s. The files address many of the same questions about party discipline and internal factionalism documented in the Control Commission files, and it is difficult to tell how the two sections are related.
Although the SWP has a long history of internal factionalism and the party itself was founded as a result of an ideological split within the Communist Party, such internecine conflicts seemed to escalate in the 1970s and 1980s when a new generation took control of party leadership. Many of these files indicate that policy of the SWP toward leftist movements around the world was often the catalyst for internal divison. In particular, the Internationalist Tendency, the Leninist Faction, and the Socialist Action files reveal that key party members, including Arne Swabeck, were unhappy with SWP policy toward China, Argentina, Central America, and Chile after the 1960s and that they believed the new leadership was abandoning the principles of Leninism. The Appeals and Resignations file contains particularly interesting and useful documentation about party members who criticized the party in the late 1970s.
While these files trace the evolution of party factionalism over the question of internationalism, they also demonstrate that the debate over international policy fueled a more general discussion about factions and the proper definitions of indiscipline and disloyalty in the SWP. On the whole, the Internal Discussion and Disputes files portray a party struggling to reconcile the revolutionary ideas of the old guard with the realities faced by the new members.
