Socialism on Trial: Testimony at Minneapolis Sedition Trial

by James P. Cannon, Steve Clark (Editor)

The revolutionary program of the working class, as presented during the 1941 trial of leaders of the Minneapolis labor movement and the Socialist Workers Party for "seditious conspiracy." Includes Cannon's answer to ultraleft critics of the defendants, drawing lessons from the working-class movement from Marx and Engels to the October Revolution and beyond.

Preface by Steve Clark, Introduction to 1944 edition by Joseph Hansen, photos, glossary, index.

Socialism on Trial is a work written more than half a century ago, but it shows many economic and political similarities to current day America. [...] Cannon knew that it wasn't simply socialism on trial, but the precious commodity of free speech.--Foreword Reviews
For a complete review click here.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, World War II

292 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1973

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

[Reese Gaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really really good. Very easy to read and summarizes a lot of very complex ideas well. Would be a great entry point for ppl curious abt left politics. Especially the first half. There's some wonky stuff from it being 80 yrs old but holds up really well. Also a great snapshot of us history and the beginning of the second red scare

[Niko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exactly what it says it is. Transcript of what was certainly the most blatant kangaroo court in American history. Very informative.

[Devin Stevenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Real life court room drama. Short, but broad in defending socialism and it's principles.

[JoB · Rating 3 out of 5]

not a terrible introduction, but a little too trot for my tastes.

[Marc Lichtman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the books that won me to 50 plus years of revolutionary activity. The other two were 'History of American Trotskyism,' also by Cannon, and 'The Revolution Betrayed' by Leon Trotsky.

In World War I, Eugene Debs and many other socialists were sent to prison for opposing US imperialism's war (see 'Eugene V. Debs Speaks'). Many of these socialist leaders helped found the new Communist Party. Debs didn't, but he saluted Lenin and Trotsky.

When the next imperialist world slaughter came around, the leaders of the Socialist Workers Party and of the Minneapolis Teamsters were jailed under a new law, but for the same reason. Roosevelt and Teamsters president Daniel J. Tobin wanted to eliminate antiwar opposition, especially in the labor movement. So did the Stalinized Communist Party, which backed the war all the way--supporting the no-strike pledge and aiding the attempt to break strikes, supporting herding Japanese-Americans into concentration camps, telling Blacks to moderate their demands and accept serving in a Jim Crow army. And aiding the US government's prosecution of the SWP.

Despite all this, unions representing millions of members protested the convictions. This book is the record of James P. Cannon's testimony in the trial, explaining what fascism is and how to fight it, explaining Stalinism, and explaining that all the Marxists were demanding was the right to express their views, a right supposedly granted by the First Amendment. This is one of the best short expositions of Marxist principles you can find, as well as a primer on how to defend democratic rights.

To understand the background to this trial, Farrell Dobbs' 4-volume set on the SWP revolutionary activity in the Teamsters in Minneapolis and across the Midwest where Dobbs was a Teamster organizer. The last volume of this set, 'Teamster Bureaucracy' is the one that really sets the stage for these events. Also useful is 'The Socialist Workers Pary in World War II' and 'Fighting Racism in World War II.'

For those who are foolish enough to applaud the indictments against Donald Trump, as Leon Trotsky forcefully reminded us in 1939, “Under conditions of the bourgeois regime, all suppression of political rights and freedom, no matter whom they are directed against in the beginning, in the end inevitably bear down upon the working class, particularly its most advanced elements. That is a law of history.”

This sixth edition is by far the best with numerous photos and other illustrations. Don't miss it.