The History of American Trotskyism, 1928–1938

By: James P. Cannon

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Synopsis: “Trotskyism is not a new movement, a new doctrine, but the restoration, the revival of genuine Marxism as it was expounded and practiced in the Russian Revolution and in the early days of the Communist International.” Quote from James P. Cannon, 1944 This is the story—told by a leading participant—of the formative years of the communist movement in the United States. In twelve talks given in 1942, James P. Cannon recalls the efforts from 1919 to 1938 by communists in the United States to emulate the Bolsheviks and build a new kind of proletarian party. In this fast-moving account, Cannon carries the story from the first steps forward by vanguard workers politically responding to the victory of the October 1917 Russian Revolution, up to the eve of World War II, when the communist organization in the United States takes the name Socialist Workers Party. Having joined the Socialist Party in 1908 when he was 18, Jim Cannon became a traveling organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World before and during World War I. A supporter of the SP’s working-class left wing, he was a founding leader of the communist movement in the United States and member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International in 1922. He served as Socialist Workers Party national secretary until 1953 and national chairman until 1972.

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