Collection Guide
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Revolutionary Socialist League collection
HLL.2019.036
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
Holt Labor Library at CSU Dominguez Hills
Title: Revolutionary Socialist League collection
Creator:
Revolutionary Socialist League
Identifier/Call Number: HLL.2019.036
Physical Description:
.59 Linear Feet
(2 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1973-1982, undated
Abstract: The collection reflects the activities, statuses, and principles of the Revolutionary Socialist League, a Trotskyist organization
that advocated for the unification of the working class, the rebuilding of the Fourth International, and for championing various
social causes. It contains Internal Discussion Bulletins, reports, newsletters, position papers, and one Politial Resolution
from the organization's Founding Convention.
Language of Material: Collection material is in English.
The collection comprises an incomplete run of the Revolutionary Socialist League's Internal Discussion Bulletin titled "League
Bulletin" in addition to the "National Secretary's League Report," in addition to various newsletters, position papers, and
one Political Resolution of the group's Founding Convention.
For information about citing archival material, see the
Citations for Archival Material guide, or consult the appropriate style manual.
The Revolutionary Socialist League 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.
Box 2 is restricted due to the presence of mold.
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 April 2022.
The Revolutionary Socialist League (RSL) was a Trotskyist organization from 1972-1989 that originated as a tendency within
International Socialists (IS) led by Sy Landy and Ron Tabor. The organization believed in Leon Trotsky's theory of Permanent
Revolution, which championed achieving an international socialist revolution, instead of iterations of socialism within individual
countries, by way of organizing the working class. As explained in the organization's political resolution from its founding
convention in 1973, independent political institutions that advocated for the working class were not created in the United
States because the labor movement in the 20th century was successful at meeting their needs. Additionally, the rank-and-file
within the labor movement had begun to increasingly mistrust trade union leadership, and younger workers were becoming "increasingly
revolutionary" as they became dismayed by Castroism and Maoism veering towards the right. These factors led to an "opportunity
to fill a vacuum of leadership" in trade unions by a Trotskyist organization.
The RSL was interested in replacing union leadership with their own revolutionary, Trotskyist leadership, and creating a "conscious
working class" through "constant interaction and joint struggle" and the dissemination of propaganda. To take the place of
union leadership, the RSL promoted agitation in workplaces as well as "industrialization," which was a "strategy of getting
mainly university and counter-culture youth activists to commit to point-of-production organizing in factories as part of
the working class." This was demonstrated by the RSL integrating into various unions including United Auto Workers (UAW) with
the intention of organizing and recruiting workers. Industrialization and agitation were micro-level actions that could contribute
to the RSL's general goals of reconstructing the Fourth International to unify and strengthen the working class, which also
depended on establishing itself as the United States section of the Fourth International and working with other Trotskyist
organizations in order to be able to present itself as an internationally recognized tendency. The RSL advocated for other
causes too, including women's liberation, black power, and opposition to apartheid, and published
The Torch newspaper. The organization dissolved in 1989, with many of its former members founding the Love and Rage Network, an anarchist
group.
Bibliography:
Revolutionary Socialist League (September, 1973). Political Resolution of the Founding Convention: World Crisis and the Fight
for Revolutionary Leadership. A Revolutionary Socialist League Publication.
Conatz, Juan (Feburary 21, 2015). Sharing the pains, indignities and anger: the New Left's strategy of "industrialization."
Libcom.org. https://libcom.org/article/sharing-pains-indignities-and-anger-new-lefts-strategy-industrialization
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Socialism
Marxism -- United States
Feminism
Labor unions
Trotskyism -- United States
Fourth International