February 2005
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28 February 2005: Completed! The Marxists Internet Archive History Section is proud to announce the completion of our posting of the Proceedings of the Founding Convention of the Industrial Workers of the World on the World Wide Web on this, the 100th Anniversary of the I.W.W. Included in these Proceedings are the contributions of the most famous labor radicals of the day, including Mother Jones, Big Bill Haywood, Eugene V. Debs, Daniel De Leon, Lucy Parsons and hundreds of rank-and-file leaders of the “Wobblies.”.
[The Marxists Internet Archive would like to thank MIA Volunteer Andy Pollack who did the bulk of the work on this project and the many modern-day Wobblies who lent support during the project]
28 February 2005: Added to the French language Section:
L. Trotsky :
La troisième douma (04.1908)
Les Balkans, l'Europe capitaliste et le Tsarisme (14.10.1908)
Les sociaux-démocrates bulgares et serbes (01.11.1910)
Rakovsky et Kolarov (01.10.1915)
Témoignage de F. Zeller (10.1935)
Lettre à un ami espagnol (22.04.1936)
P.O.U.M.:
Socialisme ou fascisme (J. Maurin, 15.4.1936)
K. Liebknecht:
D'où viendra la paix? (2.11.1912)
V. Serge:
Lettre à La Révolution prolétarienne (21.4.1936)
Lettre à L. Trotsky (10.8.1936)
Lettre à A. Nin (13.8.1936)
P. Lafargue:
Sapho (01.1886)
La religion du Capital (02.1886)
La circoncision, sa signification sociale et religieuse (06.1887)
La croyance en Dieu (1909)
Le problème de la connaissance (1909)
[Thanks to the French language volunteer group: TOTAL]
28 February, 2004: The Early American Marxism Archive in the USA History section of the MIA has added the following documents:
Moscow and the Socialist Party of the United States, by Bertha Hale White. [June 11, 1921] White, one of the leading female members of the Socialist Party, writes in a pre-convention discussion bulletin that any discussion about SPA affiliation with the Third International in Moscow is moot, since the question has already been answered in no uncertain terms in the negative.
An Opinion on Tactics, by Max Eastman [October 1921] Two years after the September 1919 split of the Socialist Party of America, the American workers seemed to be even less friendly to communism than they were at the time of the break, according to co-founder of The Liberator Max Eastman.
[Thanks to Mitch Abidor]
Letter to L.E. Katterfeld in Moscow from Jay Lovestone in New York, March 7, 1922. A fascinating glimpse at the Communist Party of America at the moment of its greatest weakness in numerical and economic terms.
Report on Visit to Eugene V. Debs of March 25, 1922, by "Jack Travis." Following Eugene Debs' Christmas 1921 release from federal prison, a struggle broke out between the Socialist Party and the various Communist factions to win his valuable endorsement in the factional struggle.
Report no. 14 from Moscow, April 1, 1922 by L.E. Katterfeld. Katterfeld, the Communist Party of America's Representative to the Executive Committee of the Communist International, summarizes recent events in Moscow prior to his return to the United States via Berlin.
Manifesto and Program of the American League Against War and Fascism: Adopted at the First U.S. Congress Against War, New York City, Sept. 29-Oct. 1, 1933. Founding declaration fo the Communist Party's 1930s mass organization dedicated to anti-militarism and defense of the USSR.
C.P. Proposes Joint Actions on Daily Issues: Statement of the Central Committe, CPUSA to the National Executive Committee, Socialist Party, June 19, 1934." In the aftermath of HItler's attainment of power in Germany and in mortal fear of the perceived "fascist" tendencies of the new Roosevelt administration, the Communist Party made an appeal for a "United Front of Action" with the Socialist Party, delivered as a letter to the SP's June 1934 National Convention in Detroit.
Brief history of the American Labor Alliance for Trade Relations with Russia. Links to a page listing organizational officials.
[Thanks to Tim Davenport]
28 February 2005: Added to the Catalan language Section are the following eight documents by Leon Trotsky:
Resultats i perspectives (1906)(Results and prospects)
La guerra i la Internacional(1914) (The War and the International)
El pacifisme, servidor de l'imperialisme(1917) (Pacifism AsThe Servant of Imperialism)
Les lliçons d'octubre (1924) (The Lessons of October)
La guerra i la IV Internacional (1934) (The War and the 4th International.)
Llur moral i la nostra (1936) (Their Morals and Ours)
Noranta anys del manifest comunista (1937) (90 years of the Communist Manifesto)
Manifest de la IV Internacional sobre la guerra imperialista i la revolucióproletària mundial (1940)(Manifesto of the Fourth International)
[Thanks to Alejo Martínez – alejomp @ lycos.es]
Trends in the Trade Unions, by Farrell Dobbs, International Socialist Review, May-June 1968. An overview of labor in 1968: discontent with the war and war-induced inflation, and the beginnings of revolt against bureaucratic refusal to respond to worsening working conditions and stagnating living standards. Says Dobbs: "Faced with a resulting decline in their leadership authority, the union bureaucrats are floundering around in an effort to get off the hook of rank and file criticism. This has led to palace revolts within the official hierarchy, carried out in the hope of staving off membership uprisings against the whole ruling caste. What the process adds up to can be summarized in the course taken by Walter Reuther, head of the United Auto Workers, who has challenged AFL-CIO president George Meany for central leadership of the union movement. The clash reflects two general types of bureaucratic outlook and method, both class collaborationist to the core. Meany symbolizes the openly reactionary AFL hack trained in the Gompers school of labor fakers. Reuther, on the other hand, typifies the slippery demagogue who learned in the CIO to mouth class struggle phrases while actually knuckling under to the corporate overlords. Neither of them offers a solution to the workers’ problems, as a look at their policies on key questions will show."
[Thanks to Andrew Pollack]
27 February 2005: Added to the Finnish Section:
Lev Trotski, Lokakuun vallankumouksesta Brest-Litovskiin
Antonio Gramsci, Valtion valloittaminen, Kaksi vallankumousta, Koulukysymys, Siirtomaiden kansat
[Thanks to Miika Salo, Juhani Lohikoski]
The Reuther-Meany Split, by Frank Lovell, International Socialist Review, May-June 1968. When Reuther split the UAW from the AFL-CIO, Lovell examined the recently-concluded auto negotiations to examine how "progressive" bureaucrats bargain—which means primarily keeping the ranks in the dark so as not to upset their friends in corporate suites.
[Thanks to Andrew Pollack]
Lessons of the Square D Strike: Concern for the Democrats Costs Labor a Victory, by Frank Lovell, Fourth International, Winter 1955. A key strike, in which the rising tide of the bosses' offensive met the ebb of the CIO's militancy, including a new unwillingness to defend union picket lines for fear of offending “friends of labor.”
[Thanks to Andrew Pollack]
26 February 2005: Added to the William Z. Foster and CPUSA indices is:
The Railroaders’ Next Step, the first publication of the Trade Union Educational League, outlining the evolution of the railroad industry and of its unions, and the need for industrial unionism through their amalgamation.
[Thanks to Andrew Pollack]
26 February 2005:Added to the Jean-Paul MaratArchive:
[Thanks to Mitch Abidor]
26 February, 2004: The Early American Marxism Archive in the USA History section of the MIA has added the following documents:
The American Labor Alliance for Trade Relations With Russia. [January 1921]. An unsigned report (Alexander Trachtenberg a likely author) outlining the origins and activies of the American Labor Alliance for Trade Relations With Russia.
Letter from Arnold Petersen to N. Lenin, January 15, 1921. Text of a massive (26 page) letter from the National Secretary of the Socialist Labor Party to V.I. Ul'ianov (N. Lenin) in Russia from a copy in the Comintern archive.
Letter to the Comintern by the Representative of the Proletarian Party of America, by Dennis E. Batt. [Undated, but from first half of 1921] Dennis Batt, former member of the National Lef Wing Council, was the Executive Secretary of the PPA at the time this letter to the CI was written.
William D. Haywood, Communist Ambassador to Russia, by David Karsner. [May 1, 1921] This article, published in the illustrated Sunday supplement of the Socialist Party-affiliated "New York Call" assesses "Big Bill" Haywood's career as a revolutionary labor leader and attempts to analyse the thinking behind Haywood's decision to escape American justice for foreign shores.
[Thanks to Tim Davenport]
26 February, 2005:Added to the
[Thanks to Ted Crawford]
26 February, 2005:Added to the
Changes in Stalinist Russia, 1958
[Thanks to Ted Crawford]
26 February, 2005:Added to the
Value, 1895/1904
Socialism, 1904
[Thanks to Ted Crawford]
25 February, 2004: The Early American Marxism Archive in the USA History section of the MIA has added the following documents:
Report of Scandinavian Section to the Socialist Party National Convention, May 1912 by N. Juel Christensen. Christiensen, the first Translator-Secretary of the Scandinavian Socialist Federation, outlines the group's short history from its establishment in Chicago at a July 2-4, 1910, convention to its current status with 30 branches and "over 1,000" members.
Jesus, the Supreme Leader, by Eugene V. Debs. [March 1914] An underappreciated aspect of Eugene Debs' ideology was his interpretation of Christianity and conscious emulation of the central figure of that religion.
The Onward March of the Socialist Party, by Adolph Germer. [April 1918] The National Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party of America reviews the party's fortunes after the first year of American involvement in the European War.
Resolution on the Russian Blockade and Intervention, by the American Labor Alliance for Trade Relations With Russia. [Nov. 21, 1920] Although springing from semi-independent origins, the American Labor Alliance for Trade Relations With Russia came to be one of the first mass organizations of the Communist Party of America
The Meaning of Unemployment, by the American Labor Alliance for Trade Relations With Russia [circa December 1920] Full text of an unsigned 8 page pamphlet published by the American Labor Alliance for Trade Relations With Russia, harshly critical of the current wage-cutting drive that was part and parcel of the deflation of 1920-21.
[Thanks to Tim Davenport]
24 February2005: Added to the Encyclopedia of Trotskyism On-Line Encyclopdia of Trotskyism On-Line is:
TheTrade Unions and the Socialist Workers Party; resolution of the 1938 Founding Convention, outlining the state of the labor movement and the tasks of Trotskyist union militants.
[Thanks to Andy Pollack]
24 February 2005: Added to the Finnish Section:
Lev Trotski, Vodka, kirkko ja elokuvat
Franz Mehring, Historiallisesta materialismista
[Thanks to Miika Salo, Kaj Henriksson]
24 February 2004: Added to the
The following documents from
Talk At The 8th Plenary Session Of The CPC 8th Central Committee (August 2, 1959)
Letter To Chang Wen-tien [excerpt] (August2, 1959)
Comment On A Report: 'The Tao-chu Production Brigade Of Tan-ling Commune In Pingchiang County, Hunan, Abolished Scores Of Mess-halls And Then Restored Them Again' (August 5, 1959)
Comment On Two Reports: "The Situation Of Wang-kuo-fan Commune Has Always Been Very Good" And "Who Are The People Engaged In Idle Talks Now In The Countryside" (August 6, 1959)
Comment On A Report On Secretary Chang Kai-fan Of Secretariat Of CPC Anhwei Provincial Committee Giving Order To Abolish Mess-Halls In Wu-Wei County (August 10, 1959)
Comment On The Report On Liaoning Province Carrying Out CPC Central Committee’s Directive To Oppose Right-Deviation [excerpt] (August 12, 1959)
Concerning Mei Sheng's "Chi Fa" (August16, 1959)
Why Do Right Opportunists Now Launch An Offensive? (August 16, 1959)
Comment On Chang Wen-tien's Letter (August18, 1959)
[Thanks to Basu]
24 February 2005: Added to the Josef Stalin Reference Archive:
Report to Comrade Lenin by the Commission of the Party Central Committee and the Council of Defence on the Reasons for the Fall of Perm in December 1918, 1919
[Thanks to Hari Kumar and Mike B.]
23 February, 2004: The Early American Marxism Archive in the USA History section of the MIA has added the following three documents:
An Open Challenge,” by C.E. Ruthenberg. [March 1923] On Feb. 26, 1923, the first trial resulting from the August 1922 Bridgman, Michigan raid was begun. The best-known public figure among the defendants, William Z. Foster, was chosen by the prosecution to first face the jury. This article by C.E. Ruthenberg, published in the March 1923 issue of “The Liberator.” marks the beginning of this trial. Ruthenberg charges that the Palmer Raids of 1919-20.
[Thanks to Mitch Abidor]
Romance in Journalism: From ‘The Chicago Daily Socialist’ to ‘The Daily Worker,’ by J. Louis Engdahl. [Oct. 1923] Engdahl, editor of “The Chicago Daily Socialist” from the middle of 1910 until its demise in December 1912, recounts the story of its paper, including its origins as a by-product of the 1906 Socialist Party election campaign, its greatest success during the Chicago newspaper strike of 1912, and its death as a result of factional fighting within the Chicago SP.
Fill the Bowl -- 20 Million German Workers Are Starving! [Advertisement published Feb. 1924] After the failure of the October 1923 German uprising, the Friends of Soviet Russia briefly changed its name to the “Friends of Soviet Russia and Workers’ Germany” in an effort to raise funds for German relief.
Stalin’s Speeches on the American Communist Party, by I. Stalin.Full text of a pamphlet published by the CPUSA early in 1931, containing three of Stalin’s speeches on the American factional situation delivered before the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International.
[Thanks to Tim Davenport]
23 February 2005:Added to the Jacques RouxArchive:
[Thanks to Mitch Abidor]
22 February 2005:Added to the Auguste BlanquiArchive:
[Thanks to Mitch Abidor]
21 February 2005: Added to the Encyclopedia of Trotskyism On-Line are the following articles by Jean van Heijenoort, correspondent for Fourth International magazine [NY]:
The Riom Trial: The Truth About French “Democracy” 1942
Revolutionary Tasks Under the Nazi Boot 1942
The National Question in Europe1942
“‘New’ Ideas on Italy” 1942
North Africa: A Lesson in Democracy 1942
Darlan and the Liberals 1943
The British ILP 1943
[Thanks to Ted Crawford and David Walters]
21 February, 2004: The Early American Marxism Archive in the USA History section of the MIA has added the following three documents:
The Social Democracy, by Cyrus Field Willard. [November 1897] A fascinating article, essentially the “missing link” between Eugene V. Debs’ American Railway Union and Julius Augustus Wayland’s Ruskin Colony in Tennessee. First published in the November 1897 issue of “The New Time,” published by Charles H. Kerr & Co.
Debs in Prison: The Story of Convict no. 2253, Eugene Victor Debs, by J. Louis Engdahl. [May 1919]. First section of a pamphlet published by the National Office of the Socialist Party in May 1919, almost certainly reprinting material which first appeared in the pages of “The American Socialist,” which Engdahl edited.
1920 Financial Report of Charles H. Kerr & Co., Book Publishers. [May 1921] A mimeographed financial report sent out by America’s largest socialist publisher, Charles H. Kerr & Co. to its cooperative stockholders. Kerr anounces the forthcoming publication of The Shop Book, planned to be an occasional publication, to replace the suppressed International Socialist Review.
Report of the Investigative Committee of Five to the Friends of Soviet Russia, by Roger N. Baldwin (Chairman) et al. [Nov. 1922] Starting late in July of 1922, Abraham Cahan, editor of the Jewish Daily Forward, began agitating against the Friends of Soviet Russia in the pages of his publication, charging the organization with various improprieties.
Program of the Friends of Soviet Russia. [December 1922].
[Thanks to Tim Davenport]
20 February 2005: Added to the Writings of William Z. Foster is:
The Bankruptcy of the American Labor Movement by William Z. Foster, 1922, published by the Trade Union Educational League. Covers the causes of labor’s bankruptcy, the potential for change, problems of dual unionism, and the League’s program and activities.
[Thanks to Andy Pollack]
20 February 2005: Added to the Encyclopedia of Trotskyism On-Line are the following articles by Jean van Heijenoort, correspondent for Fourth International magazine [NY]:
The Algebra of Revolution [1940]
“Science”—Burnham’s Style[1940]
Capitalist Economy in War [1940]
France: First Signs of the Storm [1941]
Perspectives for Europe [1941]
Centrism and Its Future [1941]
The I.L.P.—Words and Reality [1941]
Europe Under the Iron Heel [1942]
[Thanks to Ted Crawford and David Walters]
19 February 2005: Added to the Encyclopedia of Trotskyism On-Line:
The Political Meaning of the CIO-AFL Merger by Tom Kerry, 1955
[Thanks to Andy Pollack]
19 February, 2004:Added to the
Economic Trends in eastern Europe, 1949
Where Is Eastern Europe Going?, 1949
[Thanks to Einde O’Callaghan]
19 February, 2005:Added to the
Crisis in the Marshall Plan, 1949
[Thanks to Einde O’Callaghan]
19 February 2005:Added to the newly-created Danish John ReedArkivet:
Ti dage der rystede verden, 1919
[Thanks to Socialistisk Standpunkt]
19 February, 2005:Added to the
The meaning of Hegel, 1891 (translated by Raya Dunayevskaya)
[Thanks to Einde O’Callaghan]
19 February, 2005: Added to the Dutch Marx/Engels Internet Archive:
De Duitse ideologie, Deel 1: Feuerbach (German Ideology, Part I)
[Thanks to Adrien Verlee]
19 February 2005:Added to the new Quebec History Archive:
Independence, Jules-Paul Tardivel, 1901
The Victory of the Parti Québécois, 1976
19 February 2005:Added to the Max Eastman Archive:
Bill Haywood, Communist, 1921
19 February 2005:Added to the Auguste Blanqui Archive:
Eternity by the Stars, 1872
[Thanks to Mitch Abidor]
19 February 2005:Added to the Julius Nyerere Archive
The Arusha Declaration, 5 February 1967
19 February 2005:Added to the South African Communist Party Archive
Errors of Workerism, 5 1986
[Thanks to Ayanda Madyibi]
18 February, 2005: We finish adding the final chapters of the Spanish-language version of John Reed’s book, Diez dias que estremecieron al mundo. [Thanks to Carlos G.]
17 February 2005:A Statement by the Workers (Communist) Party [US]: For a Labor Party: Recent Revolutionary Changes in American Politics [1922]
[Thanks to Andy Pollack]
17 February, 2005:Added to the
A Letter to Klara Zetkin, 1926
[Thanks to Einde O’Callaghan]
17 February, 2005:Added to the new James Burnham Archive in the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL):
Non-violence, 1934 (book review)
Roosevelt and the New Congress, 1935
War and the Workers, 1936 (pamphlet)
Intellectuals in Retreat, 1939
[Thanks to Tyler McMillen & Einde O’Callaghan]
17 February, 2004:Added to the
The Question of Stalinism (Ten Theses), 1989
[Thanks to Einde O’Callaghan & International Bolshevik Tendency]
17 February, 2004: The Early American Marxism Archive in the USA History section of the MIA has added the following documents:
Speech to the Founding Convention of the Workers Party of America, by William F. Dunne [Dec. 26, 1921]. Speech of this Montana trade union activist and publisher of the “Butte Bulletin” to the founding convention of the WPA in New York.
The Yellow Streak in Coal, by J. Louis Engdahl. [Sept. 1923] This article, published in the Communist Party press in September 1923, details the struggle between the Trade Union Education League-backed UMWA militants and the leadership of the International Union.
Lenin and Trotsky: A Comment on Max Eastman’s Book ‘Since Lenin Died’ by N. Krupskaya. [Sept. 1925] This article by the widow of V.I. Ul’ianov (N. Lenin) was written for publication in the American Communist press in response to the 1925 publication of “Since Lenin Died,” by Max Eastman.
Ruthenberg as Fighter and Leader, by Jay Lovestone. [March 1928] This hagiographic biography of the deceased Executive Secretary of the Workers (Communist) Party of America was originally written by his successor to introduce a collection of speeches published by International Publishers.
Our Appeal Against Expulsion from the Communist Party, by James P. Cannon. [Dec. 17, 1928] Text of a speech delivered Dec. 17, 1928 at a plenum of the Central Executive Committee of the Workers (Communist) Party. James Cannon, Max Shachtman, and Martin Abern were expelled from the party on Oct. 25, 1928 for “Trotskyism,” but chose to avail themselves of their right of appeal to the next meeting of the CEC.
To All Active Supporters of Democracy and Peace. [Aug. 14, 1939] An open letter signed by “400 leading Americans” published on the eve of the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact stating that “The Fascists and their allies are well aware that democracy will win if its supporters are united” and that efforts were being made to sow suspicion “between to Soviet Union and other nations interested in maintaining peace."
The Meaning of the Non-Aggression Pact. [Sept. 1939] This unsigned editorial in the September 1939 issue of Soviet Russia Today was a first attempt by the American Communist Party to acclimate the readers of this mass, “non-party” publication to the new political situation.
Bibliography of the Publications of Charles H. Kerr & Co. (1885-1940s). Substantially revised second edition of this bibliography. This version incorporates about 75 new listings, mostly from Kerr’s “populist” phase of the 1890s.
Book Catalog of the Socialistic Co-operative Publishing Association, July 1901. Extensive list of books for sale from the NY publishing house associated with the insurgent wing of the SLP which became the “Rochester” Social Democratic Party en route to helping form the Socialist Party of America at the “Unity Convention” held at the end of July 1901. Some things that the well-read "Kangaroo” might have been perusing at the time of the formation of the SPA...
[Thanks to Tim Davenport]
15 February, 2005: Added to the George Bernard Shaw Reference Library is:
Bernard Shaw and the Revolution
[Thanks to Mitch Abidor]
15 February, 2005: Added to the V. I. Lenin Archive in the Arabic Language has added the following works:
The State and Revolution
Essay in Classifying
Political Parties in Russia
[Thanks to the MIA’s Arab volunteers and to Al-Mounadhil]
15 February, 2004: The Early American Marxism Archive in the USA History section of the MIA has added the following three documents:
The Socialist Task and Outlook, by Morris Hillquit [published May 21, 1919]. One of the seminal documents of the 1919 internal political struggle in the Socialist Party of America, first published prominently on the back page of the “New York Call” on May 21, 1919. This, Morris Hillquit’s so-called “Clear the Decks” article, has been (wrongly) characterized by historian Theodore Draper as a directive for a party purge. Hillquit, one of the leading figures of the SPA and an individual with an enormous amount of personal influence within the organization, weighed in on the faction fight between the “Left Wing” and their opponents here, stating that a split of the SPA was inevitable owing to the establishment of the “Left Wing” as a “schizmatic and disintegrating” movement within the party. Instead of attempting conversion of their opponents, this group refused cooperation in favor of an effort to “capture” the party organization in a sort of “burlesque on the Russian Revolution,” Hillquit stated. As a result, it would be “better a hundred times to have two numerically small socialist organizations, each homogeneous and harmonious within itself, than to have one big party torn by dissensions and squabbles, an impotent colossus on feet of clay.” Conveniently ignoring the fact that the Left Wing had recently swept the SPA’s elections, Hillquit called for the Left Wing to split “honestly, freely, and without rancor.”[Thanks to Tim Davenport]
Letter of I.E. Ferguson to A.M. Rovin, September 23, 1919. A historically important and illuminating document from the Comintern archives. This lengthy letter from National Left Wing Council Secretary and CPA founding member I.E. Ferguson answers a hostile interlocutor and defends the decision to move to an immediate September 1 launch of the Communist Party of America. Ferguson charges that the Communist Labor Party’s existence was a result of “the trickery of about a dozen reckless men who were in the strategic position to mislead about 30 delegates who really belonged in the Communist Party Convention but were purposely kept away by misinformation.” As for the remaining members of the CLP founding convention, Ferguson calls them “drifters of one kind or another, men and women incapable of decision, and at the moment representing no membership and no set of principles.” Aside from the question of programatic differences between the CPA and the CLP, the issue of so-called “auto nomous federations” is discussed, with Ferguson defending the CPA’s federation model as “realistic, yet uncompromising so far as the principle of party centralization is concerned.”[Thanks to Tim Davenport]
Bill Haywood in Moscow, by Lewis Gannett. [Sept. 1921] Article published in the September 1921 issue of “The Liberator” based upon an interview with the IWW leader and Communist Party member William D. Haywood conducted in Moscow. Haywood, who had jumped bail and fled to Soviet Russia to avoid imprisonment, expressed confidence that the IWW would join the newly-formed Red International of Trade Unions (Profintern), which he characterized as “the culmination of the aims and aspirations of the IWW.” Haywood stated that the Russian Revolution “really is an industrial movement” and that the Russian Communist Party was a necessary political party to advance those ends. “I’m more enthusiastic every day,” Haywood exclaimed.
[Thanks to Mitch Abidor and Tim Davenport]
14 February, 2005:Added to the writings of
[Thanks to Mitch Abidor]
14 February, 2005:Added to the
[Thanks to Einde O’Callaghan]
14 February, 2005: The Rosa Luxemburg archive has added The Socialist Crisis in France.
[Thanks to Ted Crawford and Brian Baggins]
14 February, 2004: The Early American Marxism Archive in the USA History section of the MIA has added the following two documents:
Why I Am a Socialist, by George Herron. [Sept. 29, 1900] A speech by Professor George D. Herron to a campaign meeting of the Social Democratic Party held at Central Music Hall in Chicago on September 29, 1900—reprinted extensively through 1915 as a 5 cent pamphlet by Charles H. Kerr & Co. Herron here argues that three main historical lines were coming together in the struggle for socialism in America: the “dogmatic” European Marxist trend exemplified by the Socialist Labor Party; the historic trend seeking individual liberty in the tradition of Rousseau, Jefferson, and the French Revolution; and a new religious sensibility seeking spiritual freedom through common economic liberation. Herron states that neither major party was conscious of the reconstructive task facing society but rather sought to prop up the brute lawlessness of capitalism. In Herron’s view, only common ownership of the resources and productive tools needed jointly by all would allow for the “full liberty of the human soul” and only the action of the working class itself could win this liberty. This quasi-religious interpretation of the socialist mission was shared by a sizable segment of the membership of the Socialist Party of America.
Report of Bohemian Section to the Socialist Party National Convention, May 1912, by Josef Novak. The Bohemian (Czech) Section of the Socialist Party of America was formally organized in December 1911, with 37 branches and about 800 paid members. This report to the 1912 Indianapolis Convention of the SPA by the first Translator-Secretary of the Bohemian Section details a bit of organizational history and lists the location of the various branches of the organization, which had grown to 44 branches in 11 states with 1,164 members at the time of this report.
[Thanks to Tim Davenport]
14 February 2005:Added to the France-Algerian WarArchive:
[Thanks to Mitch Abidor]
14 February 2005: Added to the Josef Stalin Reference Archive:
Note to V.I. Lenin from Petrograd by Direct Wire, 1918
Telegram to V.I. Lenin, 1918
[Thanks to Hari Kumar and Mike B.]
14 February 2004: Added to the
The following documents from
Speech At Conference Of Provincial And Municipal Committee Secretaries (February 2, 1959)
Talk At Symposium Of Hsin, Lo, Hsu And Hsin Local Committees (February 21, 1959)
Speech At Cheng-chow (February 27,1959)
Intra Party Correspondence (March 1959)
Comment On T’ao Lu-Ch’ieh’s Report On The Five-Level Cadre Conference (March 30, 1959)
Intra Party Correspondence (April 29,1959)
Talk At Seventh Plenum Of The Eighth Central Committee (April 1959)
Sixteen Articles Concerning Work Methods (May 1959)
[Thanks to Basu]
13 February, 2004: The Early American Marxism Archive in the USA History section of the MIA has added the following two documents:
Report of Polish Section to the Socialist Party National Convention, May 1912, by H. Gluski. Until the groups unified in February 1913, there were two Polish-language affiliates of the Socialist Party of America. This is the report of Translator-Secretary of the larger of these two groups, the Polish Section of the Socialist Party (Zwiazek Polskiej Partii Socjalistyczne—ZPPS), to the 1912Indianapolis National Convention of the SPA. A few details about organizational history, size, and the Polish-language press are provided in this very short document.
Report of the Polish Alliance to the Socialist Party National Convention, May 1912, by L. Banka. Until the groups unified in February 1913, there were two Polish-language affiliates of the Socialist Party of America. This is the report of Translator-Secretary of the older-but-smaller of these two groups, the Alliance of Polish Socialists in America (ZSP), to the 1912 Indianapolis National Convention of the SPA. A few details about location of party branches of the Polish Alliance and the group’s dues stamp sales in the first quarter of 1912 are provided in this very short document.
[Thanks to Tim Davenport]
12 February, 2005:Added to the Emma Goldman Reference Library:
The Truth About Emma Goldman
[Thanks to Mitch Abidor]
12 February, 2005:Added to the Paul Foot Internet Archive:
A question of principle, 1995
The dream of Tony Blair, 1995
Moonshot moonshine, 1995
Marx alive in Clerkenwell, 1995
Offensive to the bullies, 1997
Judges rule against a free press, 1997
[Thanks to Einde O’Callaghan]
11 February 2005:Added to the Haiti History Archive:
[Thanks to Mitch Abidor]
11 February 2005:Added to the Chartists History Archive:
[Thanks to Rob Lucas]
10 February 2005:Added to the James P. Cannon Internet Archive
An articles from The Fall 1954 Fourth International: The Degeneration of the Communist Party and the New Beginning: An Analysis of Basic Causes (Fourth International, Fall 1954)
[Thanks to Andy Pollack]
10 February 2005: Added to the History of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.) page are the Founding Convention, Eighth Day Afternoon Session and Ninth Day Morning Session featuring continuation and conclusion of the discussion on the new organization’s industrial structure.
[Thanks to Andy Pollack]
9 February, 2005: The Rosa Luxemburg archive has added a collection of letters sent while Luxemburg was in prison to Sophie Liebknecht. These letters are personal rather than political and in 1923, all the proceeds went to the support of Liebknecht’s widow and children.
[Thanks to Ted Crawford and Brian Baggins]
8 February, 2005:Added to the Leon Trotsky Internet Archive:
Engel’s Letters to Kautsky
[Thanks to David Walters and Andy Pollack]
7 February, 2005:Added to the Paul Foot Internet Archive:
Stop the Cuts, 1976 (pamphlet)
Hungry for power?, 1992
Morse code, 1993
Bribery and corruption, 1993
[Thanks to Einde O’Callaghan]
7 February 2005:Added to the Second International Archive:
[Thanks to Ted Crawford]
7 February 2005:Added to the Jacques HebertArchive:
[Thanks to Mitch Abidor]
7 February, 2005:Added to the
Shape the future, 1993 (interview)
[Thanks to Einde O’Callaghan]
7 February 2005: Added to the Swedish LanguageSection of the Marxists Internet Archive is the opening of a brandnew Isaac Deutscher Archive.
OmTrotskijs ’Våra politiska uppgifter, Deutscher, 1954
[Thanks to Patrik Olofsson]
Mao Zedongs valda verk i5 band (selected works, 5 vol).
[Thanks to Maoistiskt Forum]
Proletariatet och revolutionen, Leon Trotsky, 1904
6 February 2005: Added to the Duncan Hallas Internet Archive:
How our rulers keep their grip, 1996
[Thanks to Einde O’Callaghan]
6 February, 2005:Added to the Paul Foot Internet Archive:
Can Labour bring jobs?, 1994
Rogues and ‘scroungers’, 1995
What Have They Got To Hide? Tories, arms and the Scott report, 1995
Strikes from a sunlounger, 1996
[Thanks to Einde O’Callaghan]
6 February, 2004: The Early American Marxism Archive into the USA History section of the MIA has added the following nine documents:
Platform of the Socialistic Labor Party of North America: Adopted at the5th National Convention of the SLP, Cincinnati, Ohio, October 5-8, 1885. The program of the SLP, which states that given the endemic transgressions resulting from capitalist production, socialism is essential for the preservation of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Includes a list of “Demands for the Immediate Amelioration of the Condition of the Working People,” both social and political. Among these demands is one for the abolitiion of the institutions of President, Vice-President, and Senate and the substitution of an “Executive Board” selected by and serving at the pleasure of a unicameral House of Representatives. “And to realize our demands, we strive by all proper means to gain control of the political power,” the platform notes.
Constitution of the Socialistic Labor Party: Adopted at the 5th National Convention of the SLP, Cincinnati, Ohio, October 5-8, 1885. Organizational regulations of the SLP, which bases the structure of the organization around the parallel institutions of a nine member NationalExecutive Committee in one Section (which itself selects Secretariesfor domestic and international affairs, Financial and Recording Secretaries, and two auditors)and a nine member Board of Supervisors in another Section, with tasks of supervision of the NEC and handling of appeals of the decisions of that andlower bodies. Of note is the lack of a National Executive Secretary under this particular variant of the SLP organizational model.
Socialism and Anarchism: Antagonistic Opposites. [1886] Text of a pamphlet published in English in New York by the National Executive Committee of the Socialistic Labor Party differentiating Marxian Social Democracy from the Anarchist movement. Anarchism is characterized as a utopian antipode of Marxism founded upon the notion of extreme individualism; Social Democracy portrayed as a byproduct of the scientific study of the evolution ofthe family into the tribe into the modern exploitative state. This modern capitalist state was said to be inevitably proceeding towards its own doom inthe form of ever-worsening financial crises and the growing immiseration of the dispossessed majority. It was Capitalism and its unregulated production and inequitable distribution that was anarchic, not Socialism, this pamphletcharged. While there was little hope for an entirely peaceful renewal of society, “thatwar must be forced upon us” and the change might well be brought about “without very violent and bloody convulsions” in a democratic society with freedoms of speech, press, assembly, organization, and universal suffrage assured. “...We shall be revolutionists only when forced into being such by legislation and persecution withholding from us the means of a peaceable propaganda,” it was asserted.
Report of Italian Section to the Socialist Party National Convention, May1912 by Joseph Corti. The Italian Section of the Socialist Party—soon to become the Italian Federation—was formally organized in December of 1910. By the time of this report of the group’s Translator-Secretary to the 1912 Indianapolis Conventionof the SPA, the Italian Section boasted about 1,200 members in 48 branches—with another 21 Italian branches not affiliated with the party. This report details the early history of the Italian section, including details onmembership size, geographic concentration, the party press, and propaganda by organizers.
Lobbying and Class Rule by Louis C. Fraina. [Oct. 1913] The relationship between financial power, corruption, and state control is explored in this article published in “The New Review” in October 1913. Fraina argues that lobbying and financial intervention in the political process are not class measures but rather “clique measures in the interest of one capitalist clique against another clique,” specifically the needs of the plutocracy against the interests of petty capitalism. The legislative and judicial branches of government inevitably represented the most powerful capitalist interests, Fraina argues. Retrospectively interesting is the observation that corruption “is no more a necessary condition of class rule than violence is a necessary condition of proletarian struggle. Both, in a measure, may be unavoidable, but they are not inherently necessary."
Call for a Convention for the Purpose of Establishing the Communist Party of America, signed by I.E. Ferguson and Dennis Batt on behalf of the Left Wing National Council. [Aug. 1919] The National Council of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party of America, established in the summer of 1919 as a central organization for the organized Left Wing movement in the SPA, found itself deeply divided overtactics. One group—predominantly anglophonic and tending to be individuals not yet suspended or expelled from the party by Executive Secretary Adolph Germer and the outgoing NEC—sought to stay in the SPA through the Chicago Convention, attempting to win control of the party or winning as many party members to the cause as possible if the effort should prove a losing proposition. The other group—consisting in large measure of the members of the 7 suspended Language Federations and the suspended state party of Michigan—sought an immediate break with the SPA and formation of a new Communist Party. Ultimately, those favoring immediate action won the day on the Left Wing National Council, and this convention call for the formation of the Communist Party of America was issued and published in the press. The rapid pace of events is emphasized by the fact that this call, which outlined an organizational perspective and defined the basis for participation in the Founding Convention of the CPA, was published in the “Revolutionary Age” barely a week before the start of the Chicago convention.
Minutes of the Left Wing Section of the 1919 Convention of the Socialist Party of America. [Aug. 29-31, 1919]. The 1919 Chicago Convention of the SPA pitted two organized factions against one another, the group of “Regulars” around National Executive Secretary Adolph Germer and the outgoing NEC and the “Left Wing” faction around newlyelected National Execuitve Secretary Alfred Wagenknecht and the incoming NEC—a group whose legitimacy was biitterly challenged by their outgoing counterparts, who refused to recognize the results of the 1919 election and who launched a series of suspensions of “Left Wing” Federations and states in an effort to rid the party of what they perceived as an alien influence. These are the meeting minutes of the Left Wing section from the time of their first organized caucus in Chicago on Aug. 29 until the issuance of a convention call for establishment of a new Communist Party (specifically, the Communist Labor Party)on August 31.
Minutes of the Founding Convention of the Communist Labor Party of America, Aug. 31 - Sept. 5, 1919. After fighting for control of the 1919 Emergency National Convention of the Socialist Party of America in Chicago and losing in their bid, the organized Left Wing Section of the SPA retired downstairs and held a convention of their own—a gathering which established the Communist Labor Party of America (CLP). The body elected organizational officers and wrote and adopted a platform and program.This document collects the minutes of every session of the CLP convention held over the six day period. Minutes were taken by Lawrence A. Zittof Ohio, whose photograph accompanies this document.
The Workers Party vs. The Socialist Labor Party, by Joseph Brandon. Article from the Aug. 1, 1925, “Weekly People” that was reproduced as a five cent pamphlet. In this work Brandon contrasts the “ridiculous” principles and tactics of the Workers Party of America with the “100 percent perfect, all down the line” position of the SLP. Divergences noted by Brandon include the blind advocacy of the WPA to a Soviet-style “transition program” to socialism via the “dictatorship of the proletariat” (regarded as ahistorical and unnecessary in developed capitalist society); a refusal of the WPA to endorse new revolutionary industrial unions in favor of exclusive use of the tactic of “boring from within” existing unions (regarded as an impossible tactic that in practice meant little more than kowtowing to established labor leaders); and the WPA’s celebration of general labor political success abroad from its partners in the “united front” (gains characterized as reformist and anti-revolutionary by Brandon). Finally, the Workers Party’s advocacy of violence is depicted as playing right into the hands of the capitalist class, a policy said to be advocated only by one who is “either a lunatic or a police spy.”
List of delegates to the founding convention of the Communist Labor Party, Aug. 31-Sept. 5, 1919, listed by state.
[Thanks to Tim Davenport]
6 February 2005:Added to the Christopher Caudwell Archive:
Reality. A Study in Bourgeois Philosophy
6 February 2005:Added to the Georg Lukacs Archive:
[Thanks to Andre Nj]
5 February, 2005:Added to the Paul Foot Internet Archive:
The Case for Socialism, 1990 (book)
[Thanks to Einde O’Callaghan]
5 February, 2005:Added to the
Introduction to Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, 1887
[Thanks to Ted Crawford]
5 February 2005: Added to the Josef Stalin Reference Archive:
Letter to V.I. Lenin, 1918
Telegram to Sverdlov, Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, 1918
Telegram to the Council of People’s Commissars, 1918
[Thanks to Hari Kumar and Mike B.]
3 February, 2005:Added to the Leon Trotsky Internet Archive:
Bureaucratism and Factional Groups [1923]
[Thanks to David Walters and Andy Pollack]
3 February, 2005:Added to the
Socialism Real and So-Called, 1908
George Plechanoff, 1918 (obituary)
[Thanks to Ted Crawford]
3 February 2005:Added to the Toussaint Louverture Archive:
[Thanks to Mitch Abidor]
2 February 2005:An audio version has been added for The Communist Manifesto. The recording is in 16 tracks.
[Thanks to Chris Gaffney]
2 February 2005:Added to the FLQ Archive:
Movement for the Defense of Quebecois Political Prisoners, 1968
[Thanks to Mitch Abidor]
2 February 2005:Added to the Nikolai Bukharin Archive:
Economic Theory of the Leisure Class, 1927
[Thanks to Ted Crawford]
1 February 2005: Added to the History of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.) page is the Founding Convention, Eighth Day Morning Session featuring discussion on who should publicly represent the organization, and continuation of discussion on how the organization should structure itself to match industrial structures. Additionally, the first part of the Appendex with various speakers, including Big Bill Haywood, has also been added.
[Thanks to Andy Pollack and David Walters]
1 February 2005:Added to the Georg Lukacs Archive:
[Thanks to Hasan]