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Spartacist League of the U.S. records
94062
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Title: Spartacist League of the U.S. records
Date (inclusive): 1964-2016
Collection Number: 94062
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
24 manuscript boxes
(10.0 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Records of the American Trotskyist political organization include minutes, internal bulletins, pamphlets, position papers,
press releases, flyers, and leaflets relating to Trotskyist political activities in the United States. Includes issuances
of youth groups and international affiliates of the Spartacist League.
Creator:
Spartacist League of the U.S.
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual
or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Materials were acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 1994, with increments received in subsequent years,
through 2017.
[Identification of item], Spartacist League of the U.S. records, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library
& Archives.
The Spartacist League of the U.S. is a self-proclaimed revolutionary communist organization in the Marxist-Leninist-Trotskyist
tradition. Its antecedents date to the early 1960s and stem from the Revolutionary Tendency within the Socialist Workers Party,
American sympathizing section of the Fourth International (International Committee) at that time. The Revolutionary Tendency
espoused a number of criticisms of the majority leadership of the Socialist Workers Party, notably its decision to participate
in the reunified Fourth International (United Secretariat) and its uncritically favorable assessment of the Fidel Castro regime
in Cuba. These differences eventuated in expulsion of leaders of the Revolutionary Tendency at the end of 1963 and their formation
of a group around the publication
Spartacist early in 1964. Following failure to achieve agreement with remaining elements of the Fourth International (International
Committee), the group formally founded the Spartacist League of the U.S. in 1966.
International activities of the Spartacist League resulted in formation of an international Spartacist tendency following
a European conference in 1974. This international tendency, including sections in Australia and New Zealand, Canada, and several
European countries, transformed itself into the International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist) in 1989.
Domestically, a youth affiliate of the Spartacist League appeared initially as the Revolutionary Marxist Caucus within Students
for a Democratic Society in 1969. This was succeeded in turn by Revolutionary Communist Youth (1971-1974), the Spartacus
Youth League (1974-1986), and, after a hiatus, reconstituted Spartacus Youth Clubs.
Two other domestic affiliates are the Partisan Defense Committee, established to provide aid to leftist and labor prisoners,
and the Prometheus Research Library, a facility for documentation of the history of the Trotskyist movement.
In addition to its theoretical journal
Spartacist, the principal publications of the Spartacist League press have been its newspaper
Workers Vanguard, its youth newspaper
Young Spartacus, and its Women's Commission journal
Women and Revolution.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Spartacist League records in the Hoover Institution Library & Archives include internally circulated materials from the
inception of the organization up through 2004, and ephemeral publications and other public issuances up through 2016. Serial
runs and other substantial publications of the Spartacist press can be found in the Hoover Institution Library. All materials
held are open for use.
The records are arranged in six series. The
Spartacist League Internal Issuances series is limited to internal issuances of the League itself. In addition to minutes of meetings of its leading bodies and
internal bulletins, it includes a chronologically arranged file of internally circulated letters and other documents.
The
Spartacist League Public Issuances series includes pamphlets, election campaign literature, and a few short-lived serial runs. It also includes a number of
public bulletins of a documentary historical nature, amicus curiae briefs filed by the League in cases which it considered
to involve significant legal issues, and a chronologically arranged file of leaflets and flyers.
Two other series,
Partisan Defense Committee Issuances and
Prometheus Research Library Issuances, contain public issuances of those two affiliates of the League.
A series of
Youth Affiliate Issuances contains both internal and public issuances of the League's successive youth affiliates up through liquidation of the Spartacus
Youth League in 1986. These include minutes, internal bulletins, public bulletins, and some other ephemeral public issuances.
Pamphlets published under youth affiliate imprints, however, are interfiled with adult group pamphlets in the Spartacist League
Public Issuances series.
The
International Affiliate Issuances series includes internal issuances of the international Spartacist tendency--minutes, internal bulletins, and a chronologically
arranged file of internally circulated material. It also includes non-English language pamphlets and short serial runs published
by the Spartacist League, and a few pamphlets issued by European sections of the international Spartacist tendency and International
Communist League (Fourth Internationalist).
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Communism -- United States
Socialism -- United States
Fourth International