The History of American Trotskyism, 1928—1938 Quotes

“Nobody is born a Bolshevik. It has to be learned. And it cannot be learned solely from books either. It is learned, over a long time, by a combination of field work, struggle, personal sacrifices, tests, study, and discussion. The making of a Bolshevik is a long, drawn-out process. But in compensation, when you get a Bolshevik, you have got something. When you get enough of them you can do anything you want to do, including making a revolution.”
― James P. Cannon, The History of American Trotskyism, 1928—1938: Report of a Participant

“If there is anything in what they say about the hereafter, I am going to be well rewarded. Not for what I have done, but for what I have had to listen to.”
― James P. Cannon, The History of American Trotskyism, 1928—1938: Report of a Participant

“People who are easily discouraged, whose heart sink when they encounter conflicts and setbacks, shouldn't go into revolutionary politics. It is hard fighting all the time, there is never any assurance of smooth sailing. How can that be expected? The whole weight of bourgeois society presses down upon a few hundred or a few thousand people. If these people are not united in their own conceptions, if they fall to quarreling among themselves, that is also a sign of the tremendous pressure of the bourgeois world on the vanguard of the proletariat, and even more on the vanguard of the vanguard. The influence of bourgeois society finds an expression at times even in sections of a revolutionary workers party. Therein is the real source of serious factional fights. One ought, if he goes into politics, to try to understand all these things; try to estimate them clearly from the political point of view and find a political solution for them.”
― James P. Cannon, The History of American Trotskyism, 1928—1938: Report of a Participant

“Pride, anger, spite -- any kind of subjectivity which influences a political course leads only to the defeat and destruction of those who give way to it. You know, in the prize-fighting profession -- "the manly art of self-defense" -- one of the first lessons the young boxer learns from the case-hardened trainer is to keep cool when facing the antagonist in the ring. "Don't ever get mad in the ring. Don't ever lose your head, because if you do you will wake up on the canvas." Boxers have to fight calculatingly, not subjectively. The same thing is doubly true in politics.”
― James P. Cannon, The History of American Trotskyism, 1928—1938: Report of a Participant