Collection Guide
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Socialist Action collection
HLL.2019.008
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
Holt Labor Library at CSU Dominguez Hills
Title: Socialist Action collection
Creator:
Socialist Action. (Organization : U.S.)
Identifier/Call Number: HLL.2019.008
Physical Description:
5.8 Linear Feet
Physical Description:
15 boxes
(14 boxes, 1 carton)
Date (inclusive): 1963-2001, undated
Date (bulk): 1983-2001
Abstract: The collection contains correspondence, reports, draft resolutions, bulletins, minutes, plenum and convention documents, and
subject files related to Socialist Action, a Trotskyist political organization.
Language of Material: Collection material is in English.
Allison Ransom processed the collection and wrote the finding aid in April 2020.
For information about citing archival material, see the
Citations for Archival Material guide, or consult the appropriate style manual.
The collection is arranged in five series: Series I. Correspondence and reports, 1983-2000, undated; Series II. Bulletins,
1984-2001; Series III. Political Committee Minutes and Plenum Materials, 1984-2001; Series IV. Socialist Action News and Publications,
1963, 1983-2000, undated; Series V. Subject Files, 1964-1971, 1983-1993, undated.
The Socialist Action collection was donated to the Holt Labor Library in San Francisco, California between 2001 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.
The Socialist Action collection, 1963-2001, undated, bulk 1983-2001, comprises materials reflecting the activities and statuses
of Socialist Action. It includes notices and letters sent to members of the National Committee, general members of the organization,
and correspondents of note including Jeff Mackler. Socialist Action reports and draft resolutions, as well as reports from
various Fourth International-affiliated organizations, such as the Fourth International Tendency and the International Socialist
League (Fourth International), are present. The collection also includes Education Bulletins, Information Bulletins, Internal
Discussion Bulletins, Internal Information Bulletins, Internal International Information Bulletins, and International Discussion
Bulletins. Minutes and reports from the Political Committee, draft world political reports and resolutions, as well as plenum
and convention documents are present. The collection also includes various volumes of
Socialist Action News ,
International Viewpoint magazine,
The Young Socialist, as well as one Socialist Action pamphlet titled
Crisis in the Middle East: the war in Lebanon. Subject files comprising draft reports, newsletters, article photocopies, pamphlets, and congressional records are included
as well.
Socialist Action is a Trotskyist political party in the United States. The roots were laid for the organization during the
early 1980s in the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), when Jack Barnes, Mary Alice Waters, and other SWP leaders began to reject
Trotsky's theory of the permanent revolution in favor of connecting with the Cuban Communist Party and Sandinista National
Liberation Front. This revisionist faction also favored the theory of the Democratic Dictatorship of the Proletariat and Peasantry,
which Lenin himself disagreed with, and also shifted from identifying as a "workers government" to considering itself a "workers
and farmers government." Various members of the SWP including Nat Weinstein, Jeff Mackler, Tom Kerry, Lynne Henderson, Frank
Lovell, George Breitman, and others, organized an oppositional faction that supported the SWP's foundational Trotskyist ideas,
and formed Socialist Action in 1983. Many members of this oppositional faction were expelled from the SWP and therefore aligned
exclusively with Socialist Action, which maintained its membership in the Fourth International and its advocacy of the original
Trotskyist ideas of James P. Cannon. Socialist Action has supported the political campaigns of various members for various
U.S. political offices. Socialist Action advocates for socialist revolution by way of the Transitional Program, which was
introduced at the founding congress of the Fourth International in 1938 and aims to connect the working class with revolutionary
ideas through highlighting the inadequacies of capitalism. The organization supports anti-war, labor, anti-racist, and feminist
movements, among others. In 2019, 29 members were expelled from the organization on the basis of their dissenting views against
the organization's anti-war platform and formed the organization Socialist Resurgence.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Trotskyism -- United States
Socialism -- United States
Fourth International