Unspecified Month

"Charles E. Ruthenberg: Fighter for Socialism," by Dan Ruthenberg [1937]  Short biographical sketch of CPUSA founding member and leader C.E. Ruthenberg, published by his son in the Communist press in 1937. The younger Ruthenberg notes that his father attended "Lutheran School and Business College, he had early ambitions for the Lutheran ministry, but these were quickly quenched by his inability to obtain answers to some of the questions he fired at his pastor." From 1917 until the time of his death in early 1927, "there was not one year which did not find him under indictment or sentence," his son notes. His father is depicted as a non-conformist fighter for authentic American values: "The Americanism of C.E. Ruthenberg was not the Americanism of the dollar-chasing exploiters, of blood-smeared generals, of lying, treacherous statesmen, of swindling office-holders, or of tax-dodging capitalists. His Americanism was that of the Declaration of Independence, that of Thomas Paine, of Emerson, of Twain, and of Phillips, Lowell, and Whitman."


JANUARY 1937

"Social Democrats Plan Convention; Meet Next March: Preliminary Eastern States Conference of Social Democrats in Philadelphia to Meet February 7." (New Leader) [Jan. 9, 1937]   Messy details about the effort to organize a new organization for those who owe their allegiance "to social democracy as opposed to dictatorship and terror" in the wake of the 1936 Socialist Party split. According to this piece, the new rival entity, the Social Democratic Federation, was formed in Cleveland simultaneous with the May 1936 split at the SPA's convention there. New York had been immediately expelled by the left socialists in the majority at Cleveland and had subsequently, it seems, established themselves as the "People's Party of New York." Other state organizations dominated by the moderate wing had quit the Socialist Party in 1936, including Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Maryland, as well as about half of the New Jersey organization and 2/3 of Massachusetts. Permanent organizations had then been established in New Jersey and the District of Columbia. Julius Gerber's son Gus had handled the job as the provisional SDF's first national secretary until September 1936, after which Jim Oneal had taken over the task. The Indiana state socialist organization had also affiliated with the new provisional group, which had been joined by the Finnish and Jewish (Yiddish language) Socialist Federations. A preliminary "Eastern States Conference" was called by the Socialist Party of Pennsylvania for Philadelphia on February 7, which was to work out a program and agenda for a broader founding National Convention, to be held in Pittsburgh on March 14. Thus volition for the new SDF was not exclusively through the New York apparatus, but rather from the Pennsylvania socialist organization.




FEBRUARY 1937

"The Moscow Trial in Historical Perspective," by Jay Lovestone. [February 6, 1937] As with Leon Trotsky, Lovestone looks to French Revolutionary history for an explanation of the Zinoviev-Kamenev-Radek trial of 1936 -- the first of the three Great Soviet Show Trials of 1936-38. Lovestone contends that while "the merest glance at the official proceedings...is enough to convince any candid person that some, at least, of the charges and allegations...cannot hold water for a moment since they are full of gross contradictions, material and psychological." Lovestone's chief interest is the political implications of the trial, seeing an extremely close historical parallel in the patently false charges of "monarchism" levied by the Jacobins against their Girondin and Dantonist opponents in order to justify their destruction. The truth or falsity of such charges is of little long-term importance relative to the political implications of the physical destruction of the defendants, in Lovestone's view.


"SDF Calls Convention at Pittsburgh, May 29," by James Oneal [event of Feb. 7, 1937]  First-hand report of the "Eastern State Conference of Social Democratic Organizations," called by the Socialist Party of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia on Feb. 7, 1937. The gathering brought together representatives of Old Guard-dominated Socialist Parties which had left the Socialist Party of America's orbit, including in addition to Pennsylvania the states of Connecticut, Maryland, and District of Columbia; parts of the Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey organizations; and the Finnish and Yiddish-language Federations. A 7 member committee on arrangements and finance was named as was a committee to draft a formal convention call. The main item of debate related to independent political action vs. participation in labor parties where possible, with Darlington Hoopes of PA and Jim Oneal of NY representing the two perspectives most aggressively. Oneal estimates the membership of the SDF at between 6,000 and 8,000 -- including the two powerful federations and states not yet affiliated with the fledgling organization; the Norman Thomas Socialist Party he estimates at 3,000 members of less. The date of the proposed National Convention was moved from March to May 29-31.

 

"The Moscow Trials: An Editorial Statement." [Feb. 20, 1937]. This unsigned editorial in Workers Age, official organ of the Communist Party (Opposition) -- the "Lovestoneites" -- attempts to make sense of the second of the three great Moscow Show Trials, the January 1937 trial of Piatakov, Radek, Sokolnikov et al. The argument advanced at the time of the first great Show Trial that the precise veracity of many of the specific charges was less important than the core allegation is repeated: "Discrepancies, contradictions, even sheer impossibilities in the charges and allegations of the two trials are not hard to find, but the impression seems to us inescapable - and it is shared by many observers not particularly friendly to Stalin - that, even after such material is discarded, there still remains a substantial bedrock of fact: that efforts at assassination and sabotage were indeed made by some of the followers and former followers of Trotsky and Zinoviev." Doubt has begun to creep in, however, and certain "grave questions" have begun to emerge: "Does not the very regime of hero cult, personal exaltation of the leader, qualification for office by sycophancy, elimination of collective leadership, abandonment of democratic discussion -- do not all these constitute a serious danger of more vital concern to every communist and real friend of the Soviet Union than even the deeds or the fate of the defendants on trial?" Further the running up of "revolutionary architects" on "the most atrocious crimes against the revolution" has dealt "a shattering blow to the moral foundations of Bolshevism" and raised the prospects of a dangerous period of bloodletting. "Only a complete overhauling of the whole system of political leadership and inner-party life in the communist movement, such as has long been advocated by the International Communist Opposition, holds out hope for the future," the editorial opines.

 

MARCH 1937

"Advance in Chicago: An Analysis of the March 1937 Special Convention," by Samuel Romer & Hal Siegel. Held only 10 months after the 1936 conclave, the Socialist Party's Special Convention of 1937 was ostensibly called to restructure the national organization, increasing centralization in place of the historic loose federation of largely independent state organizations and banning the factional press in favor of a central discussion bulletin. Factionalism remained one of the central concerns of the organization, however, particularly the working alliance between the historic small group of "single plankers" (who advocated no immediate reforms in the party program, only the agitation for revolutionary socialism) and the new cohort of former members of the Trotskyist "Workers Party," who shared this perspective and gave the position critical mass from a factional standpoint. Romer and Siegel, adherents of the majority Militant wing of the party, note that the decision to ban factional inner-party organs was made by the convention unanimously and saw this as a positive sign for the future of the organization.


"Exclusive Story of SP Convention Shows Collapse: Party Disintegrating and in Complete Control of Communists, Milwaukee Delegate Writes,"
by Frederic Heath
[events of March 26-29, 1937]   Pioneer Milwaukee Socialist and founding member of the Socialist Party Frederic Heath offers a disillusioned and bitter account of the tumultuous 1937 national convention of the Socialist Party of America in Chicago. He and his moderate Wisconsin comrades had "felt as if they had blundered into an alien gathering to which they did not belong," he writes in a convention account for the New York Social Democratic Federation weekly, The New Leader. The first day of the gathering had been a shock, "surrounded by leering, victorious Communists who have made a complete capture of the movement we have given much of our lives to help build up," Heath notes. The fact that the convention  had been placed "completely in the control of the enemy" was "a miracle that had been made possible by the arch betrayer, Norman Thomas," in Heath's estimation. A second part of the account, written two days later is more sanguine. Instead of seeing himself as part of a minority against a monolith in a 75-25 delegate split, Heath writes of delegates who were "not Communists in fact who had been stung by the direct actionists’ tsetse bug" and who attempted compromise with the Wisconsin delegation, including 2 designated seats on their forthcoming 15 seat NEC. The ultimate way the Socialist Party of Wisconsin would proceed in the wake of the expulsion of the Old Guard New York organization and departure of the Pennsylvania and Connecticut organizations from the SPA was not yet known, Heath indicates. "There will be no relish, to state it mildly, for a national party with a shipload of Communist pirates aboard and manning the guns," he remarks.


"Peoples’ Party Name Dropped at Convention: Will Act Only as the New York State Branch of Social Democratic Federation (New Leader) [March 27-28, 1937]   With a regional conference completed and a formal national convention on the calendar, the former Old Guard Socialist Party of New York -- constituted as the "People's Party" since its 1936 expulsion from the SPA -- voted in March 1937 to formally rename itself as the New York state section of the Social Democratic Federation of America. The convention, held in New York City and attended by approximately 100 delegates from around the state, also voted to formally place its electoral efforts in the hands of the strictly trade union-controlled American Labor Party. Recommendations were adopted for establishment of a permanent 5 person committee to supervise a two-pronged youth movement, including both children's' and junior sections and for establishment of a network of "women's clubs" for educational and organizational purposes. Keynote speech was delivered by Louis Waldman, state chairman of the organization. The delegates were also addressed by Abrahan Cahan of the Forward, who expressed satisfaction with the political direction of the SDF in abandoning the radical-dominated Socialist Party. (A short snippet elsewhere in the Leader indicated that Local New York City of the SDF had 44 branches at the time of the name change.)

 

MAY 1937

"The Moscow Trials and the CI Crisis," by M. Yomanowitz [May 8, 1937]. This article was printed in the official organ of the Communist Party (Opposition) as part of the pre-convention discussion in the run up to the 6th National Convention held in New York at the end of May. The author, identified only by his initials, is critical of previous analysis of the 1937 Moscow events in the party press: "The strategy of the Stalin regime as demonstrated at the trials and subsequent lynching and terror campaign is to pin the charge of Trotskyism to all forces not in agreement with its present policies. It is now abundantly clear to everybody that the suppression and physical extermination of the opposition forces is not limited to Trotskyites, for no one will honestly believe that Bukharin is a Trotskyite." Yomanowitz continues: "Our efforts and hopes of reforming the Communist International did not bring the desired results. Instead of reforming the CI, the more reformist it became. It is high time that we draw the necessary conclusion and speak frankly and act boldly. In the past we were correct in stating that the chief source of the mistakes of the Stalin regime lay in the transfer of tactics applicable inside the Soviet Union to the other sections of the Communist International. This analysis is no longer sufficient." Yomanowitz gives at least some credence to the charge that "the Stalin faction is fashioning the policies and tactics of the various sections of the CI to the needs of Soviet foreign policy... This position contains a lot of truth. This position does not invalidate our original view, but it rather supplements it." Clinging to the idea of reforming the Comintern is senseless, Yomanowitz argues, noting that "we must be ready to discard our previous position that a new center without the CPSU in it is both impermissible and impossible."


"SDF is Launched at Convention of 19 States: Organization Formed to Serve as Instrument for Socialism and Basis for National Labor Party." (New Leader) [events of May 29-31, 1937]   Participant's account of the first national convention of the Social Democratic Federation, organization formed by Old Guard dissidents who split from the Socialist Party of America. Held the weekend of May 29-30 in Pittsburgh, the SDF convention was established around a bulwark of four state party organizations: the expelled Old Guard structure of New York (about half the former SP organization there), the Socialist Party of Pennsylvania, the Socialist Party of Connecticut, and a large section of the former SP organization from the state of Massachusetts. Smaller party organizations came in full from Maryland and Rhode Island, with scattered elements from more than a dozen states. The Jewish Socialist Verbund seems to have come over as a group; the Finnish Socialist Federation and the powerful (and moderate) Socialist Party of Wisconsin only sent observers -- certainly a major blow to the group's hopes for a successful launch. This enthusiastic account notes that individual states were left free to (1) keep their historic party names; and (2) deal with local alliances with fledgling labor parties as best they saw fit. "On a wider, national scale, the National Executive Committee will seek to bring about unification of all labor and progressive forces aiming at the formation of a Labor Party or a Farmer-Labor Party with a program clearly social in purpose," the reporter notes. Mayor Jasper McLevy of Bridgeport, CT was elected National Chairman and a 9 member National Executive Committee elected to govern the organization. This group met for the first time at Pittsburgh on May 31 to continue constructing the organizational form and to draft an agenda for political, labor, and propaganda work, the writer states. Counting the National Chairman, the NEC consisted of 2 each from New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and 1 member from Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, and Illinois -- another expression of the new organization's center of numerical strength.


"Social Democrats Combine in New National Federation: Pittsburgh Meet Paves Road for Rebirth of Party." (New Leader) [events of May 29-30, 1937]   Participant's account of the first national convention of the Social Democratic Federation, providing detail about activities of the assembly during its two days of sessions. An extensive extract of the keynote address of Louis Waldman is provided. The Socialist Party was characterized by Waldman as "the betrayers of Socialist ideals," incapacitated by internal factional warfare, hiding itself from public view to conceal the bitterness of the struggle and what he believed to be the fact that the Trotskyist wing had captured the organization. The Social Democratic Federation, on the other hand, would resume the policy of cooperating with trade union progressives and others working towards independent political action through state and local labor parties, Waldman indicated. Fascist and Communist dictatorship was denounced, and division of the American trade union movement between the AFL and CIO organizations regretted by Waldman. Various resolutions and initiatives of the SDF are discussed, including greetings sent to the Labor and Socialist International, with a view to eventual affiliation.


"The Pittsburgh Declaration of Principles: Adopted by the National Convention of the Social Democratic Federation, May 30, 1937."   Formal programmatic document of the newly established Social Democratic Federation of the United States of America at its founding convention in Pittsburgh, May 29-30, 1937. The shadow of the Socialist Party, from whence it sprung, looms large in the organization's emphasis on formal legality. "Property institutions are the creatures of law," the document observes, "By law they have been changed in ages past, and by law they can and must be changed in the years to come." This must be the product of democratic practice, the SDF contends, as "no dictatorship, whatever its avowed purpose, can be trusted to bring liberty, plenty, and peace. The institutions of political democracy must be defended and improved in order that economic and social life may be democratized." A laundry list of ameliorative reform suggestions is presented, with socialization of mass production industry projected as a multi-year process of "systematic transformation of private profit-making capital into socially owned means of production for use." Industries at the top of the agenda for socialization included armaments, transportation, communications, and electrical production and distribution. Industries were to be brought under public ownership "as a general rule" through compensation rather than expropriation, the declaration of principles notes.

 

JUNE 1937

"The Lithuanian Socialist Federation," by Alex Ambrose [circa June 1937]  Brief account of the Lithuanian Socialist Federation (LSF), probably written sometime late in the spring of 1937 for the edification of the Chicago Foreign Language Press Survey. Ambrose notes the roots of the Lithuanian Socialist movement in the rationalist movement, with their organization specifically in the Lithuanian Freethinkers Association. The Lithuanian Federation was founded in 1905, Ambrose notes, with 12 Lithuanian branches ultimately established in Chicago, comprising District 8 of the LSF. Branches hosted picnics and social events, sold literature, maintained libraries, and sponsored public speakers and choral performances, Ambrose notes, adding that sometimes the street meetings conducted by Socialist speakers were "attacked by the Socialists’ enemies with rotten eggs and stones." The 8th District LSF was the organization behind the publication of the Chicago Lithuanian-language daily newspaper, Naujienos (News), which triumphed over religious (Katalikas -- The Catholic) and nationalist (Lietuva -- Lithuania) Lithuanian dailies. The federation remained strong until 1921, Ambrose notes, but "with the spread of the Communistic wave, the Lithuanian Socialist Federation was torn to pieces." Only 10 branches of the LSF nationwide remained at the time of Ambrose's writing, he indicates.



"The Lithuanian Workers Literature Society of America," by Alex Ambrose [June 2, 1937]  Thumbnail history of the main book publishing arm of the Lithuanian radical movement in America, written for the edification of the Chicago Foreign Language Press Survey. Ambrose notes the establishment of the Lithuanian Workers Literature Society under Socialist auspices in 1915, aimed "to publish books and to spread enlightenment and mutual understanding among the workers." With the split of the Lithuanian Socialist Federation into Socialist and Communist wings in 1920, the Literature Society was also split, with the main (and surviving) wing held under Communist Party control. The Society published its own newspaper, Sviesa (Light), and was responsible for publication of more than 40 books in the Lithuanian language on Marxist themes, Ambrose notes. The Lithuanian Workers Literature Society at the time of Ambrose's writing still held a membership of 6,000, he indicates.


"NEC Maps Program for Social Democratic Federation: SDF Constitution Protects States." (New Leader) [June 5, 1937
]   Cursory discussion of the features of the new constitution of the Social Democratic Federation of the United States of America. A return is made to the Socialist Party's original model of "state autonomy" -- the SDF was in a very real sense a federation of largely autonomous state and local groups. At the same time, the original slogan of "No Compromise, No Political Trading" was cast aside: Under the new constitution, state and local affiliates of the SDF were given authority to "adopt another name where necessary or desirable for political purposes." These affiliates were also free to cooperate with labor parties engaging in political action independent of other political organizations. Thus in Pennsylvania the SDF affiliate would remain called the Socialist Party of Pennsylvania, running its own candidates, while in New York it would be the New York State Section of the Social Democratic Federation, working hand-in-glove with the slate of candidates of the trade union-controlled American Labor Party. A system of internal elections and highly centralized collective leadership was established in which delegated annual national conventions were to directly elect a 9 member National Executive Committee, which was in turn to select the organization's National Secretary to serve at the NEC's pleasure. Minimum age for party membership was set at 21. The idea of a youth section was advanced, with members of these junior organizations to be strictly limited to under the age of 21 and to remain under the close supervision and control of the adult organizations in their territories. The die was thus cast for a safe-and-secure, stodgy organization, as befit the Old Guard's tastes and values in the aftermath of the Socialist Party's generational revolt.


"The Meaning of the Soviet 'Purges,'" by Jay Lovestone [June 18, 1937]. A lengthy reassessment of the burgeoning purges in Soviet Russia by the head of the Independent Communist Labor League. "It is with the deepest regret that I must admit that there is an acute crisis in the regime, in the inner life of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union," Lovestone states. "If we cast a retrospective glance at Russian party developments, we will find that it was entirely natural and understandable -- especially under the circumstances of the stifling inner party regime headed by Stalin -- that the logic of the political positions of Trotsky or of Zinoviev, Radek, and Kamenev, should lead them to an out-and-out anti-Soviet course. However, it is obviously absurd to ask us to believe that suddenly, mysteriously, Yagoda, Tukhachevsky, Gamarnik, and Rudzutak became degenerates, became mortal foes of the Soviet Union, became agents of German and Japanese imperialism." Lovestone is chagrined at the situation: "I am face to face with a Hobson's choice. I pick only the lesser of two very serious evils. That Stalin is an expert of trumping up charges against opponents or potential opponents is not new to us. Nevertheless, here I must stress we deal with a more flagrant type of frame-up than has ever been perpetrated in factional struggle. To me the recent demotions, arrests, accusations, suicides, and executions mark the low point of the Stalin hero-cult."

 

JULY 1937

"Letter to Glen Trimble from Gus Tyler in New York, circa July 15, 1937." A cautionary letter from left socialist and future ILGWU functionary Gus Tyler to his comrade Glen Trimble, who had chosen to cast his lot with the Trotskyists moving to split the Socialist Party of America. Tyler accuses Trimble of dishonesty, noting that the Clarity faction had been consistently in favor of party unity but that the Cannon-Shachtman Appeal faction had lied about the matter and vilified the Clarity-dominated National Executive Committee as a right wing body hand-picked by the conservative Milwaukee organization. Tyler accuses the Trotskyist Appeal faction of "dialectical crookedness" in demanding freedom of agitation when in the minority, fully intending to suppress dissent when in the majority. Tyler charges the Trotskyist foolishly refuse to accept the possibility of multiple correct revolutionary socialist solutions to social and political problems, thereby creating a situation in which "virtually every tactical difference becomes a principled difference; every momentary slip becomes a calculated conspiracy against eternal verity; every non-Trotskyite becomes a reformist, therefore an agent of the bourgeoisie, therefore a counter-revolutionary." Factional disintegration is the inevitable result, Tyler cautions. "Your organization can not gain any influence by basing itself upon the lie that it alone is revolutionary. Other revolutionists won’t believe you, and will despise you for your pious hypocrisy. The workers won’t believe you and will laugh at your splits when they find the time to pay any attention to you at all," Tyler presciently warns.


AUGUST 1937


"A Manifesto to the Members of the Socialist Party," Issued by the National Action Committee, Appeal Association of the Socialist Party, August 1937.  Massively long analysis of the internal political situation within the Socialist Party of America by the Trotskyist faction which entered the party as part of the so-called "French Turn" on 1936.  The Trotskyists, writing in the first issue of their new factional organ, The Socialist Appeal, declare that the Socialist Party is "engulfed in a crisis" as a result of the expulsion of 100 of their comrades by the New York Socialist Party organization. The Trotskyist charge that a SP "Right," headed by militant faction leader Jack Altman, presidential candidate Norman Thomas, and the Massachusetts and Wisconsin state organizations, was pushing an immediate split with the Trotskyist Left with the aid of the "Centrist" Clarity group. The Trotskyists summarize their own political agenda as follows: "defense of the Spanish proletarian revolution, solidarity with the revolutionary workers of Spain, irrevocable opposition to the traitors and assassins of the Popular Front and their defenders throughout the world; defense of the heritage of the October Revolution, and unshakable opposition to the Stalinist hangmen; the forging of the new revolutionary international, the summation of the Marxist answer to the problems of our epoch; the defense and advance of independent working class politics, altogether clear of every class collaborationist tangle." If the Left Wing is defeated, "the Socialist Party will simply drop apart, like the one horse shay that has outlived its time," the Trotskyists predict.


"Socialist Party is Split in New York Expulsions: 'LaGuardia Socialists' Oust Left Wingers at Rump Meeting of Central Committee." (Socialist Appeal) [event of Aug. 9, 1937]   On August 9, 1937 another split of the Socialist Party of New York was formalized when an alliance of factions constructed around the personalities of Jack Altman and Norman Thomas, making use of the full repertoire of machine-political tricks, expelled 52 top leaders of the Trotskyist "Appeal" faction from the party. This report in the debut issue of the Trotskyists' New York organ, The Socialist Appeal, details the process from the point of view of the expelled factional group. The proceeding had been predetermined and rushed through over a request from SPA National Secretary Roy Burt to delay for one week so that the party's governing National Executive Committee could investigate, the reporter notes. The meeting additionally had been stacked by the New York City Central Committee pulling the charters of three left wing branches to deprive them of committee representation and refusing to seat other validly elected left wing delegates. Only four hours of debate had taken place on this first action that was ultimately to affect 450 party members, according to the article, and no specific charges had been presented to any individual affected other than advocacy of participation in a new revolutionary 4th International. No charge of violation of party discipline had been proved against any expelled member, the article notes. The expulsion process had been so brazenly undemocratic that it had caused the left social democratic "Clarity" faction "to denounce the Altman machine as worse than that of the Old Guard and to refuse to recognize the legality of the entire procedure." The expulsion had been a necessary expedient to those favoring participation in the American Labor Party, conservative trade union functionaries, and anti-Trotskyist Communist Party sympathizers, in the estimation of the writer. The slogan "Unite all forces around the left wing!" was advanced in the aftermath and a call for resolutions denouncing "the illegal and reactionary expulsions" made.


"YPSL Split in New York: 11 Left Wing DEC Leaders are Expelled." (Socialist Appeal) [events of Aug. 13-20, 1937]   In the middle of August 1937 the Socialist Party's purge of the organized Trotskyist faction within its ranks moved to its youth auxiliary, the Young People's Socialist League. In New York state the communist left wing seems to have constituted a majority of the organization and it was only with the help of the left social democratic Clarity faction that the forced split was made possible. At a Dec. 13 meeting of the District Executive Committee, charges were prefered against 11 top youth leaders of the Trotskyist Appeal faction. Ironically, the charges fabricated to justify the expulsion were the very same that the Old Guard had used against the Militant-Thomasite alliance -- sale of a banned "factional" newspaper. The August 13 charges were followed by a YPSL DEC meeting held August 20 at which the 11 were expelled -- including 3 members of the DEC itself. This prompted the exit of the expelled members amidst charges of the illegality of the DEC's action and the establishment of a new parallel left wing District Executive Committee as the provisional authority for YPSL in New York. The move of disheartened and disgusted Clarity supporters to the Appeal faction's ranks is remarked upon.



SEPTEMBER 1937


"'The Pity of It' Jim Maurer Says About Leftist Splits by James H. Maurer [Sept. 1937]   The Socialist Party controversy of 1936-37 pitted left and right against one another for control of the Socialist Party's name and assets. The Old Guard lost, splitting the organization to form the Social Democratic Federation at a founding convention held late in May 1937. Interestingly, in the elections of 1937 the radicals challenged the established old guard Socialists in September primary elections -- the inspiration for this short article by former Pennsylvania Federation of Labor President Jim Maurer. Maurer deems the split the inevitable result of a struggle between those who "belittled political action, glorified violence, and made the party acceptable to Communists and unacceptable to the American people" and adherents of democracy. Now in the midst of a further factional war with the Trotskyists whom they had themselves welcomed into the Socialist Party, the left socialists were attempting to create a diversion by "hurling mud and calling names." "The real issue here is whether we shall go by the Socialist way or the Communist way, the way or democracy or the way of dictatorship and, finally, of fascism," Maurer declares.


"Left Wing Carries YPSL Convention: Huge Majority Prevails as Gerrymander Flops," by Hal Draper [events of Sept. 2-5, 1937]  Account of the 9th National Convention of the Young People's Socialist League, youth section of the Socialist Party, which became "the first organization of the Second International to go over to the banner of the Fourth Internationalist movement." Draper, a partisan of the Trotskyist majority and the newly elected National Secretary of the YPSL organization, depicts the convention as a battle between 4th Internationalists and partisans of the Clarity faction, who Draper characterizes as "centrists" and "maneuverers." Draper states that the outgoing National Committee postponed the scheduled start of the Philadelphia convention from September 2 and through "every shady device long known to every labor faker" attempted to stack the convention in favor of its adherents. These tactics were said to include falsification of dues records, sale of dues stamps to validate a phantom membership, expulsion of members for the alleged party crime of sale of the Trotskyist Socialist Appeal, and irregularities in delegate apportionment. Still unable to capture the convention, the Clarity Regulars walked out of the convention and reassembled elsewhere, Draper states. Ernest Erber was reelected National Chairman by the convention and a slate of Trotsky supporters elected to constitute the National Executive Committee. A 7 member "National Buro" was also constituted and national headquarters established in New York City.


"Crushing Left Wing Majority at YPSL Convention Make Impossible Alibi Attempt of Socialist Call." (Socialist Appeal) [events of Sept. 2-5, 1937]  Unsigned Trotskyist account of the battle between the Appeal (Trotskyist) and Clarity (left social democratic) factions at the 9th National Convention of the Young People's Socialist League in Philadelphia. The author polemicizes against an account by Clarity-supporter Al Hamilton published in the Socialist Call. Whereas Hamilton is said to have claimed that only 40 delegates had remained at the convention after a Clarity walkout, the author asserts the "actual count" was 148 remaining, of whom 104 were regular delegates. By way of contrast, there had been just 92 delegates aligned with the Clarity faction, of whom 53 were from the state of New York, with only 1 from west of the Mississippi, the author indicates.







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