
Guide to the Myra Tanner Weiss Papers TAM 158
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
10th Floor
New York, NY 10012
(212) 998-2630
tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Collection processed by Natasha Simon, 1998. Edited by Nicole Greenhouse in compliance with DACS and Tamiment Required Elements for Archival Description, July 2013.
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on April 24, 2018
Description is in English using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Descriptive Summary
Title: | Myra Tanner Weiss Papers |
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Dates [inclusive]: | 1933-1997 |
Dates [bulk]: | 1952-1963 |
Abstract: | Myra Tanner Weiss (1916-1997) was a socialist, feminist, and the Socialist Workers Party's vice-presidential candidate in 1952, 1956, and 1960. Together with her husband Murry she organized the School for Marxist Education in New York. The papers contain correspondence, speeches and writings and Socialist Workers Party internal documents. |
Quantity: | 2.5 Linear Feet in five manuscript boxes. |
Language: | Materials are in English. |
Call Phrase: | TAM 158 |
Historical/Biographical Note
Myra Tanner Weiss was born May 17, 1916. She joined the Socialist Workers Party in 1935 while attending the University of Utah. She moved to Los Angeles in the 1940s, at which time she organized agricultural and cannery workers. She also helped establish the SWP in Los Angeles where she met another party organizer, Murry Weiss [born Morris, in Chicago, September 9, 1915, son of Joseph and Freida; died December 26, 1981] whom she later married. Tanner Weiss ran for mayor of Los Angeles in 1945 and 1949. The Weisses moved to New York City in 1953 where Murry Weiss edited the Socialist Workers Party's newspaper The Militant. Running with Presidential candidate Farrell Dobbs, Myra Tanner Weiss was the Socialist Workers Party's Vice Presidential candidate in 1952, 1956, and 1960. Together with her husband she organized the School for Marxist Education in New York. Tanner Weiss left the SWP in the early 1960's because she thought the party had undergone a 'gross bureaucratization'. According to records of the New York local branch of the SWP Myra Tanner Weiss would no longer be considered a member of the Party as of October 1966. She did however remain politically active and became involved with the New York Socialist Feminists and the Committee for a Revolutionary Socialist Party (CRSP). Tanner Weiss received a masters degree in political science from New York University in 1972. She subsequently worked as a proof reader. She died on September 13, 1997.
Scope and Content Note
The collection consists primarily of correspondence and Socialist Workers Party (SWP) internal documents, dating mostly from the 1940s-1970s. The correspondence is mostly by Tanner Weiss and her husband, Murry, related to the SWP and family correspondence. The collection contains a significant amount of SWP internal working materials, including draft resolutions, minutes, correspondence, articles, circulars, reports, flyers, convention materials, and other ephemera documenting the SWP's politics and activities, as well as the Party's responses to splits and the formation of factions. The collection also contains internal papers and correspondence which document Murry and Myra Tanner Weiss' involvement with the Committee for a Revolutionary Socialist Party (CRSP). The collection also contains speeches and writings written by Murry and Myra Tanner Weiss. Important in the collection is the letter to Tanner Weiss from Natalie Sedova-Trotsky concerning a purported meeting between Leon Trotsky and Jack Soble in Turkey in 1931-1932.
Arrangement
This collection is arranged into five series:
Series I: Personal
Series II: Correspondence
Series III: Socialist Workers Party
Series IV: Committee for a Revolutionary Socialist Party (CRSP)
Series V: Speeches and Writings
Access Points
Subject Names
- Swabeck, Arne.
- Dobbs, Farrell
- Weiss, Murry
- Trotskaia, Nataliia Ivanovna, 1882-1962.
- Breitman, George
- Cannon, James P. (James Patrick), 1890-1974.
- Nagel, Shirley
Subject Organizations
- Young People's Socialist League
- Socialist Workers Party
- Young Socialist Alliance (U.S.)
Subject Topics
- Women socialists -- United States.
- Women and socialism -- United States.
- Trotskyists |z United States.
- Trotskyism |z United States.
Administrative Information
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright (and related rights to publicity and privacy) to materials in this collection created by Myra Tanner Weiss was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Myra Tanner Weiss Papers; TAM 158; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Separated Materials
A set of Discussion Bulletins published by the Committee for a Revolutionary Socialist from 1978-1980 were separated to the library collection.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Materials were donated by Myra Tanner Weiss and her sister, Shirley Nagel, in 1994. The accession numbers associated with this gift are 1994.015, 1994.016 and NPA.1998.028.
Processing Information
Photographs were separated from this collection during initial processing and were established as a separate collection, the Myra Tanner Weiss Photographs (PHOTOS 085). In 2013, the photograph collection was reincorporated into the Myra Tanner Weiss Papers.
Container List
Series I: Personal, 1912, 1981-1997
ArrangementArranged alphabetically.
Scope and Content NoteThis series contains obituaries, photographs, and other personal and biographical materials related to Tanner Weiss. |
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Container 1 | Container 2 | Title | Date | |
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Box: 1 | Folder : 1 | Biography |
1981-1997 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 1a | Photographs |
1912, undated | |
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Series II: Correspondence, 1933-1987
Scope and Content NoteThis series contains correspondence by Myra Tanner Weiss and Murry Weiss, mostly to other correspondents. The bulk of the correspondence dates from the 1940s-1970s. There is also the correspondence of Myra Tanner Weiss' husband, Murry Weiss, much of which concerns his tenure as editor of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) newspaper, The Militant. Tanner Weiss' letters and correspondence concern her speaking tours and political campaigns as SWP Vice Presidential candidate in 1952, 1956, and 1960, as well as personal correspondence with her husband and family. Correspondents include: Shane Mage, Tim Wohlforth, James Cannon, Sam Marcy, Natalie [Natalia] Sedova-Trotsky (Leon Trotsky's widow), Bert Deck, Farrell Dobbs, William Warde, George Breitman, George Clarke, Arne Swabeck, Harry Braverman, Clara Fraser, James Robertson.
ArrangementArranged alphabetically and then chronologically. |
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Container 1 | Container 2 | Title | Date | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 2 | Weiss Family Letters |
1959 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 3 | Murry Weiss / Myra Tanner Weiss Correspondence |
1948-1958 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 4 | Murry Weiss / Myra Tanner Weiss Correspondence |
1960-1980 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 5 | Murry Weiss - Letters |
1933-1939 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 6 | Murry Weiss - Letters |
1942 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 7 | Murry Weiss - Letters |
1944 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 8 | Murry Weiss - Letters |
1945 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 9 | Murry Weiss - Letters |
1947 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 10 | Correspondence: Murry Weiss/California Third Party Movement |
1947 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 11 | Murry Weiss - Letters |
1948 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 12 | Murry Weiss - Letters |
1949 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 13 | Murry Weiss/Trotsky School Spring Mountain Camp - Correspondence |
1950 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 14 | Murry Weiss - Letters |
1951 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 15 | Murry Weiss - Letters |
1952 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 16 | Murry Weiss - Letters |
1953 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 17 | Murry Weiss - Letters |
1954 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 18 | Murry Weiss - Letters |
1955 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 19 | Murry Weiss - Letters |
Jan-Jun 1956 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 20 | Murry Weiss - Letters |
Jul-Dec 1956 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 21 | Murry Weiss - Letters |
Jan-May 1957 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 22 | Murry Weiss - Letters |
Jun-Dec 1957 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 23 | Murry Weiss - Letters |
1958 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 24 | Murry Weiss - Letters |
1959 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 25 | Murry Weiss - Letters |
1960 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 26 | Murry Weiss - Letters |
1962 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 27 | Murry Weiss - Letters |
1963-1964 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 28 | Murry Weiss - Letters/Socialist Workers Party Membership |
1966 | |
Box: 1 | Folder : 29 | Murry Weiss - Letters |
1976 -1978 | |
Box: 2 | Folder : 1 | Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters |
1946-1949 | |
Box: 2 | Folder : 2 | Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters |
1951 | |
Box: 2 | Folder : 3 | Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters |
1952 | |
Box: 2 | Folder : 4 | Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters |
1953 | |
Box: 2 | Folder : 5 | Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters |
1954-1955 | |
Box: 2 | Folder : 6 | Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters |
Jan-Jun 1956 | |
Box: 2 | Folder : 7 | Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters |
Jul-Dec 1956 | |
Box: 2 | Folder : 8 | Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters |
1957 | |
Box: 2 | Folder : 9 | Correspondence: Myra Tanner Weiss/Natalie Sedova-Trotsky |
1957 | |
Box: 2 | Folder : 10 | Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters |
1958 -1959 | |
Box: 2 | Folder : 11 | Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters |
1960-1966 | |
Box: 2 | Folder : 12 | Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters/Socialist Workers Party Membership |
1966 | |
Box: 2 | Folder : 13 | Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters |
1969-1975 | |
Box: 2 | Folder : 14 | Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters |
1977-1980 | |
Box: 2 | Folder : 15 | Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters: An Open Letter to the Socialist Workers Party |
1980 | |
Box: 2 | Folder : 16 | Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters |
1981 | |
Box: 2 | Folder : 17 | Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters |
1982 | |
Box: 2 | Folder : 18 | Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters |
1983-1985 | |
Box: 2 | Folder : 19 | Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters |
1986-1987 | |
Box: 2 | Folder : 20 | Letters: individuals |
1939-1953 | |
Box: 2 | Folder : 21 | Letters: individuals |
1955 | |
Box: 2 | Folder : 22 | Letters: individuals |
1956-1985 | |
Box: 2 | Folder : 23 | Letters |
undated | |
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Series III: Socialist Workers Party, 1944-1983
ArrangementArranged chronologically.
Scope and Content NoteThis series documents Weiss's activities within the Socialist Workers Party; the documents, correspondence, minutes, flyers, and other ephemera chronicle the Cochranite split, discussions and debates concerning Pabloism (Michael Pablo, Michael Raptis: head of the International Secretariat), the Party's response to the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party and its effect on the Communist Party USA, and consideration of the 1956 uprisings in Poland and Hungary. SWP policy and activity is also chronicled concerning the "regroupment campaign" of 1956-1958, as well as the Party's relationship to the Young Socialist League (YSL), the Young People's Socialist League (YPSL), the Young Socialist Alliance (YSA) and the Workers World Party. In addition, there is material and correspondence concerning the opposition group the Revolutionary Tendency (TR) and the expulsion from the SWP of Lynne Harper, Laurence Ireland, Shane Mage, James Robertson, and Geoffrey White in 1963. |
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Container 1 | Container 2 | Title | Date | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 1 | Martin (Cannon): Comments on the Selection of the National Committee |
1944 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 2 | Felix Morrow: Where I Stand |
1945 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 2a | Myra Tanner Weiss v Los Angeles Broadcasting, Inc... |
1946 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 3 | Socialist Workers Party Internal Documents |
1949 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 4 | Natalia Trotsky: letter re break with Fourth International and Socialist Workers Party |
1951 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 5 | Johnson-Forest: What We Are Leaving Behind |
1951 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 6 | M. Pablo: The Building of the Revolutionary Party |
1952 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 7 | Internal Documents |
1953 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 8 | Internal Documents |
1954 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 9 | Club Executive Minutes |
1954 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 10 | Internal Documents |
1955 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 11 | Peng: Pabloism Reviewed |
1955 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 12 | Draft Resolutions: The Soviet Union Today [sect iv]; The Third Chinese Revolution
and Its Aftermath [sect ii]; The Rise of the Colonial Bourgeoise [sect iii]; includes
correspondence |
1955 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 13 | Digest of 1949 U.S. White Paper on China |
1955 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 14 | Club Executive Minutes |
1955 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 15 | Internal Documents |
1956 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 16 | Communications to National Committee Members |
1956 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 17 | On the CPUSA |
1956 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 18 | Joseph Hansen: Report on the Trotsky School |
1956 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 19 | Draft Resolution: The World Today |
1956 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 20 | Draft Resolution on Stalinism |
1956 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 21 | Draft Resolution: The Crisis of Stalinism |
1956 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 22 | Draft Resolution on Middle East |
1956 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 23 | re slogan, Federal Troops to Mississippi |
1956 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 24 | Internal Documents |
1957 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 25 | Tentative Outline for Political Report to Convention |
1957 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 26 | Young Socialist League (YSL): correspondence and reports |
1957 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 27 | Draft Resolution: Towards a Revolutionary Party in Britain; Suez and its Aftermath |
1957 | |
Box: 3 | Folder : 28 | Club Executive Minutes |
1957 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 1 | Internal Documents |
1958 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 2 | Internal Documents |
1959 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 3 | Club Executive Minutes |
1959 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 4 | Revised Draft Political Resolution - regroupment |
1959 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 5 | Internal Documents |
1960 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 6 | James Cannon: letter with 1945 "On The Party Press" |
1960 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 7 | Raj Narain Arya: statements |
1960 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 8 | Political Committee Minutes |
1960 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 9 | Draft: Tasks and Perspectives Resolution; Tasks and Perspectives Resolution |
1960 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 10 | Murry Weiss: Memorandum on the Principled Groundwork of Our Tactics and Slogans in
the Struggle Against Imperialist War |
1960 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 11 | Concerning Cuba |
1960 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 12 | Internal Documents |
1961 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 13 | Political Committee Minutes |
1961 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 14 | Pre Convention and 19th National Convention Minutes |
1961 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 15 | National Executive Committee Minutes (with attached correspondence) |
1961 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 16 | Monroe Defense Movement |
1961 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 17 | Internal Documents |
1962 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 18 | Political Committee Draft: Problems of the Fourth International And the Next Steps |
1962 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 19 | Draft Resolution: The Chinese Revolution: Its Character and Development |
1962 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 20 | Political Committee Minutes |
1962 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 21 | Internal Documents |
1963 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 22 | Political Committee Minutes |
1963 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 23 | National Committee Plenum |
1963 | |
Box: 4 | Folder : 24 | Myra Tanner Weiss: Plenum Speech |
1963 | |
Box: 5 | Folder : 1 | Draft of Convention Resolution: Freedom Now |
1963 | |
Box: 5 | Folder : 2 | Draft Resolution on the Organizational Character of the SWP |
1963 | |
Box: 5 | Folder : 3 | Suspension of Robertson-Mage-White Minority Tendency: statements and correspondence |
1963 | |
Box: 5 | Folder : 4 | Statement of the Reorganized Minority Tendency: The Decline of American Imperialism
and the Tasks of the SWP |
1963 | |
Box: 5 | Folder : 5 | Draft Resolution: Preparing for the Next Wave of Radicalism in the United States |
1963 | |
Box: 5 | Folder : 6 | Draft Resolution: The SWP Position on China (May); The SWP Position on China with
Wohlforth amendment (June) |
1963 | |
Box: 5 | Folder : 7 | Draft Resolution: The Sino-Soviet Dispute; Marxist Policy in the Sino-Soviet Dispute |
1963 | |
Box: 5 | Folder : 8 | Internal Documents |
1964 | |
Box: 5 | Folder : 9 | Political Committee Minutes |
1964 | |
Box: 5 | Folder : 10 | National Executive Committee Minutes |
1964 | |
Box: 5 | Folder : 11 | 21st National Convention Minutes |
1965 | |
Box: 5 | Folder : 12 | Internal Documents |
1966 | |
Box: 5 | Folder : 13 | Internal Documents |
circa 1967 | |
Box: 5 | Folder : 14 | Hildegarde Swabeck: resignation letter |
circa 1967 | |
Box: 5 | Folder : 15 | Internal Documents |
1982-1983 | |
Box: 5 | Folder : 16 | Internal Documents |
undated | |
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Series IV: Committee for a Revolutionary Socialist Party (CRSP), 1978-1981
Scope and Content NoteThis series documents Tanner Weiss's involvement with and the activities of the Committee for a Revolutionary Socialist Party (CRSP) in 1978-1981. It consists of meeting minutes, articles, circulars, and conference proceedings. CRSP was dedicated to reinstituting American Trotskyism.
ArrangementArranged chronologically. |
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Container 1 | Container 2 | Title | Date | |
Box: 5 | Folder : 17 | Internal Documents |
1978 | |
Box: 5 | Folder : 18 | Internal Documents |
1979 | |
Box: 5 | Folder : 19 | Internal Documents |
1980-1981 | |
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Series V: Speeches and Writings, undated, 1955-1978
Scope and Content NoteThis series contains speeches and other writings by Murry Weiss and Myra Tanner Weiss. Murry's speeches are related to radical political upheaval in the 1950s-1970s and often include handwritten notes. Myra's speech is related to living under FBI surveillance.
ArrangementArranged alphabetically. |
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Container 1 | Container 2 | Title | Date | |
Box: 5 | Folder : 20 | Murry Weiss |
1955-1978 | |
Box: 5 | Folder : 21 | Myra Tanner Weiss |
undated | |
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