The pre-Communist socialist movement in the United States was marked by the specific material conditions of the class struggle which it confronted and the political/theoretical practices it used to effect its intervention.
The conjuncture was one of great economic growth, fierce labor struggles and the rise of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. In short, it was a situation never before faced which required much creative thought and action if the working class was to successfully pursue its interests within the field of the class struggle.
The most conscious sections of the working class and its allies were influenced, to one extent or the other by the theories of Karl Marx and attempted to practice these theories on American soil. The most prominent organizations involved in this were the Socialist Labor Party, the Socialist Party and the Industrial Workers of the World.
After the First World War the forces which became Communist emerged from these organizations. It is therefore necessary to grasp the nature of these organizations’ practices to ensure that we understand the forms and practices that later became the Communist movement in the United States. Their particular approaches to intervening in the class strugqle, and the application of Marxism to conditions in the US which this implied, are key to the understanding we are trying to develop.
I. What kinds of practice and positions characterized the SP, the SLP and the IWW? What distinguished them from each other and what did they hold in common? What was their class composition; economic and political practices; positions on race etc.
II. What were the organizational forms appropriate to these groups? How did they differ? How do these compare to Leninist organizational forms?
III. The SP and the SLP were distinct political parties. Was the IWW a party or a trade union? How did this effect its contributions and what were some of them?
IV. How did the SP/SLP/IWW combine their understandings of European Socialism with the unique character of the United States? Name some instances which might illustrate this.
V. In Europe, socialist parties were formed before the trade unions; in the United States the reverse was true. How did this effect the relationship of these organizations in the US to the trade unions and attempts at organizing the working class?
The History of the CPUSA by William Z. Foster, pps. 77-126.
The Roots of American Communism by Theodore Draper, pps. 11-17.
A Long View from the Left by Al Richmond, pps. 134-135.
The History of the Negro People by W.Z. Foster, pps. 406-07.
Optional: platforms of the SP and SLP from 1903 and an IWW article by Vincent St. John on political abstentionism.