Socialism on Trial: Testimony In Minneapolis Sedition Trial (6)

By: James P. Cannon

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Synopsis: It is absolutely true that Hitler wants to dominate the world, but it is equally true that the ruling group of American capitalists has the same idea. We’re not in favor of either of them. Quote by James P. Cannon from the witness stand, in federal court, 1941 James P. Cannon was the central defendant among the eighteen leaders of the Socialist Workers Party and Upper Midwest labor movement framed up in 1941 and imprisoned two years later on charges of conspiring to advocate the overthrow of the US government. Their “crime”? Organizing opposition within the broad labor movement to Washington’s drive to enter World War II. The US rulers tried to convince workers and farmers they would be fighting and dying “to defeat fascism.” Leaders of the SWP and of the massive Teamsters Central States over-the-road organizing campaign told them the truth. Cannon’s testimony clearly and forcefully presents the communist program of the fighting vanguard of the working class. Also available here is “Communist Policy in the Minneapolis Trial: James P. Cannon Answers His Ultraleft Critics,” drawing lessons from a century of struggles by the working class to wrest state power from the capitalists.