Johnson-Forest Tendency internal bulletin HLL.2019.020
Allison Ransom
Holt Labor Library at CSU Dominguez Hills
September 2020
Contributing Institution:
Holt Labor Library at CSU Dominguez Hills
Title: Johnson-Forest Tendency internal bulletin
Creator:
Johnson-Forest Tendency (1940-1950)
Identifier/Call Number: HLL.2019.020
Physical Description:
.42 Linear Feet
Physical Description:
1 box
Date: 1947, July 17-31; August 7, [18], 21; September 4, 11, 18, 25, 29
Abstract: The collection comprises issues of the internal bulletin of the Johnson-Forest Tendency, a Marxist-Humanist tendency within
the Workers Party and the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) led by C.L.R. James, Raya Dunayevskaya, and Grace Lee Boggs.
Language of Material: Collection material is in English.
The collection is arranged in one series.
The collection was processed by Allison Ransom in September 2020.
For information about citing archival material, see the
Citations for Archival Material guide, or consult the appropriate style manual.
The Johnson-Forest tendency internal bulletin was donated to the Holt Labor Library in San Francisco, California between 1992
and 2019, and were acquired by the Gerth Archives and Special Collections at California State University, Dominguez Hills,
in 2019.
There are no access restrictions on this collection.
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.
Vol. 1, No. 1, 3-4, 6-12.
The Johnson-Forest Tendency was a Marxist-Humanist tendency, first of the Workers Party and then of the Socialist Workers
Party (SWP) founded by C.L.R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya. In the late 1930s, a minority faction of the SWP began to reject
Trotsky's definition of the Soviet Union as a "degenerated workers' state" which warranted "unconditional defense" from Soviet-sympathizing
organizations. In 1940, James and Dunayevskaya left the SWP with other members of the minority faction led by Max Shachtman
to form the Workers Party. The majority in the Workers Party, led by Shachtman, believed that the class structure of the Soviet
Union could be characterized by "bureaucratic collectivism," whereas a minority led by James and Dunayevskaya, along with
Grace Lee Boggs, believed the Soviet Union was capitalist. This dissenting view led the minority to rejoin the SWP in 1947,
where the tendency maintained its minority identity by advocating for an emphasis on Marxism within the Trotskyist SWP. The
tendency remained in the SWP until 1950 when it left to establish its own organization called Correspondence. The Johnson-Forest
Tendency was named after C.L.R. James's pseudonym, J.R. Johnson, and Raya Dunayevskaya's pseudonym, Freddie Forest.
Bibliography:
Goldner, L. (2004). Introduction to the Johnson-Forest Tendency and the Background to "Facing Reality."
Break Their Haughty Power. https://web.archive.org/web/20041201071446/http://home.earthlink.net/~lrgoldner/johnson.html
The "Johnson-Forest Tendency."
Marxist Humanism and the "New Left", Marxist Internet Archive. https://web.archive.org/web/20040823044508/http://marx.org/subject/humanism/index.htm
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Trotskyism -- United States
Marxism -- United States