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Workers Party and Independent Socialist League Records

Call Number

TAM.136

Date

1945-1958, inclusive

Creator

Independent Socialist League
Workers Party (1940-1949)

Extent

3 Linear Feet (3 boxes)

Language of Materials

Materials are in English

Abstract

The Workers Party, a Trotskyist organization founded and led by Max Shachtman, split from the Socialist Workers Party in 1940, holding the Soviet Union to be a novel exploitative social formation, bureaucratic collectivism. Opposing the "two camps" of imperialism, the WP led struggles against the World War II no-strike pledge, and published Labor Action, and The New International, both continuing until 1958, when the successor to the WP, the Independent Socialist League (1949-1958) merged with the Socialist Party. The collection contains minutes, correspondence, reports and resolutions, study guides, memorandums and position papers, and newsletters. Much of the material reflects the lively internal debates and factional conflicts within both the Workers Party and the Independent Socialist League.

Historical Note

The Workers Party (1940-1949), a Trotskyist organization founded and led by Max Shachtman, split from the Socialist Workers Party in 1940, holding the Soviet Union to be a novel exploitative social formation, bureaucratic collectivism. Opposing the "two camps" of imperialism, the WP led struggles against the World War II no-strike pledge, and published Labor Action, a rank-and-file newspaper, and The New International, a political/theoretical journal, both continuing until 1958, when the successor to the WP, the Independent Socialist League (1949-1958) merged with the Socialist Party. The Workers Party was a source for many of the ideas, personalities and journals of the post-World War II non- and anti-communist left, and former members influenced the development of the Socialist Party and helped found the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (later Democratic Socialists of America).

Arrangement

Folders are arranged alphabetically.

The material is organized into one series.

Missing Title

  1. Series I: General Files

Scope and Content Note

The collection contains national committee and convention minutes for both the Workers Party and Independent Socialist League, correspondence, including subscription and editorial correspondence for Labor Actionand The New International, reports, including several from local branches, study guides and other materials produced by the Education Department, resolutions, memorandums and position papers, and newsletters, including Labor Vets Bulletin, produced by Party members active in the American Veterans Committee. Much of the material reflects the lively internal debates and factional conflicts within both the Workers Party and the Independent Socialist League. Notable individuals represented, in addition to Max Shachtman, include Ernest Rice McKinney (WP National Secretary), Nathan Gould (Director of Organization), and Gordon Haskell ( Labor Action). Also of note is the folder re the "Third Camp Contact Committee," an attempt to establish links between Western and developing countries' socialists, pacifists, and nationalists.

Conditions Governing Access

Materials open without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright (and related rights to publicity and privacy) to materials in this collection created by the Workers Party and Independent Socialist League was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.

Preferred Citation

Published citations should take the following form:

Identification of item, date (if known); Workers Party and Independent Socialist League Records; Tamiment 136; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives; New York University.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated in 1988; additional materials were donated in 2005. The accession number associated with this gift is 1988.004.

Related Material at the Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives

Max Shachtman Papers (Tamiment 103).

Oral History of the American Left (Oral Histories 2)

Collection processed by

Tamiment staff (2009)

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-20 16:53:13 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Description is in English

Edition of this Guide

This version was derived from Workers Party TAM 136.doc

Repository

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012