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Spartacist League of the U.S. collection
HLL.2019.007
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
Holt Labor Library at CSU Dominguez Hills
Title: Spartacist League of the U.S. collection
Identifier/Call Number: HLL.2019.007
Physical Description:
2.5 Linear Feet
Physical Description:
7 boxes
Date (inclusive): 1961-2013
Abstract: This collection contains bulletins, pamphlets, articles, and one conference transcript that reflect the theoretical sentiments
and organizational activities of the Spartacist League of the U.S. The League was officially formed in 1966 by expelled members
of the Revolutionary Tendency within the Socialist Workers Party. It is the United States section of the International Communist
League (Fourth International).
Language of Material: Collection material is in English.
The Spartacist League of the U.S. Collection, 1961-2013 comprises internal discussion and information bulletins, issues of
the Young Communist Bulletin, and issues of the Marxist Bulletin, which began as a publication of the Revolutionary Tendency
within the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). The collection also includes pamphlets from the Prometheus Research Series that
were published by the Prometheus Research Library, which is the central archive of the Spartacist League of the U.S., in addition
to issues from the Black History of the Class Struggle publication series. Various articles concerning stalinism, trotskyism,
socialism, and the Socialist Workers Party are present, and the collection contains one transcript of a conference presentation
as well. Issues of
Spartacist: an Organ of Revolutionary Marxism, published by the International Executive Committee of the International Commuist League (Fourth Internationalist) are also
in the collection.
The Spartacist League of the U.S. is a Marxist-Leninist-Trotskyist communist organization. The League was founded by members
of the Revolutionary Tendency led by James Robertson within the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), who were expelled in 1963 over
their dissenting views on Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba and other issues. The group started the
Spartacist journal in 1964 and formally founded the organization in 1966. An international tendency of the Spartacist League formed
in 1974 and became the International Communist League (Fourth International) in 1989, at which point the Spartacist League
of the U.S. became its American section. The Spartacist League had ties to the Progressive Labor Party and was affiliated
with the Revolutionary Marxist Caucus within Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The
youth groups of the Spartacist League of the U.S. were the Revolutionary Communist Youth, which the Revolutionary Marxist
Caucus changed its name to, from 1971-1974, and the Spartacus Youth League from 1974-1986.
The Spartacist League of the U.S. is focused on educating and organizing the working class towards the goal of replacing capitalism
with communism and developing a socialist state. Although it was founded as a democratic-centralist organization that allowed
intraparty division and conflict, many dissenting members in the Spartacist League of the U.S. have been expelled. The League
comprises multiple chapters, the most active of which was in New York City, and held national conferences to shape policies
that were then implemented by the organization's central committee. The League published its youth newspaper
Young Spartacus from 1973-1986, it's women's commission journal,
Women and Revolution from 1971-1996, and has published the
Workers Vanguard newspaper since 1971.
Bibliography:
"The Organizational Rules and Guidelines of the Spartacist League/U.S., section of the International Communist League (Fourth
Internationalist)." https://www.icl-fi.org/print/english/pamph/slusdop/orgrules.html
"Spartacist League of the U.S. Biography note." SNAC collective. https://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6wt3q6p#biography
"Historical note." Spartacist League of the U.S. records, collection number 94062, Hoover Institution Archives. http://pdf.oac.cdlib.org/pdf/hoover/spartaci.pdf
"Biography/history." Spartacist League Records, 1964-1974, Mss 500. Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives,
and Museum Collections. http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00500
"Whatever happened to the Spartacist League? : Stalinophilia, Stalinophobia, Flinches and Opportunism." International Bolshevik
Tendency, April 2005. http://www.bolshevik.org/Pamphlets/Whatever/ibt_whateverhappened_01.html
[Title of item]. Spartacist League of the U.S. collection, HLL.2019.007, Gerth Archives and Special Collections, California
State University, Dominguez Hills.
The Spartacist League of the U.S. Collection was donated to the Holt Labor Library in San Francisco, California between 1992
and 2019, and was acquired by the Gerth Archives and Special Collections at California State University, Dominguez Hills,
in 2019.
There are no access restrictions on this collection.
The collection is alphabetically arranged in one series.
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director of Archives
and Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical
materials and not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Allison Ransom processed the collection and wrote the finding aid in March 2020.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Socialism -- United States
Communism -- United States
Trotskyism -- United States
Fourth International
Spartacist League of the U.S.