Founding of the Socialist Workers Party

by James P. Cannon, James Burnham, Max Shachtman

At founding gatherings of the Socialist Workers Party in 1938-39, revolutionists in the U.S. codified two decades of experience in building a communist party. They charted a working-class course in resisting the coming imperialist war, fighting fascism and Jew-hatred, the struggle for Black rights, forging an alliance with exploited farmers, and the battle to transform the unions into revolutionary instruments of struggle by working people. Preface by George Breitman, photos, glossary of people, groups, and periodicals, index. Now with enlarged type.

395 pages, Paperback

First published December 28, 1996

About the author

James P. Cannon was born in Rosedale, Kansas, in 1890. His father, who had originally come from Ireland, was a socialist and was a regular reader of Appeal to Reason.

At the age of 18 he joined the Socialist Party of America and became a devoted follower of Eugene Debs. His friend Tom Kerry claimed that Cannon considered Debs as "one of the greatest orators, agitators, and propagandists that the American working class radical movement had produced."

Cannon was also an organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) where he worked under Frank Little, who was lynched in 1917. Cannon also got to know Vincent Saint John. He later recalled: "Despite his modesty of disposition, his freedom from personal ambition, and his lack of the arts of self-aggrandizement, his work spoke loudly and brought him widespread fame."

According to his friend Joseph Leroy Hansen: "Fundamentally, Jim was an angry person. He was angry at injustice, at inequities, at special privileges, at exploitation. He was angry at poverty, lack of opportunity, oppression, racism, and sexism."

Reviews

[Shaun Richman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Relatively comprehensive.

[Marc Lichtman · Rating 4 out of 5]

At founding gatherings of the Socialist Workers Party in 1938–39, revolutionists in the US codified two decades of experience in building a communist party. They charted a working-class course in resisting the coming imperialist war, fighting fascism and Jew-hatred, the struggle for Black rights, forging an alliance with exploited farmers,... Preface by George Breitman, photos, glossary of people, groups, and periodicals, index. First, read The History of American Trotskyism, 1928—1938: Report of a Participant'

“This material should also interest students of American politics, of American political thought, and of international affairs….Ideally, most lawyers would benefit from exposure to the SWP’s critical appraisal of the American political-and thus by extension the legal-system” —Law Books in Review