'Max Shachtman' (
September 10 1904 -
November 4,
1972) was an
American Marxist theorist. During his lifetime, he evolved from being a
Leninist associate of
Leon Trotsky to an
anti-Soviet social democrat.
Beginnings
Shachtman was born in 1904 to a
Jewish family in
Warsaw,
Poland, which was then part of the
Russian Empire. He emigrated with his family to
New York City in 1905.
At an early age, he became interested in
Marxism and was sympathetic to the radical wing of the
Socialist Party. In 1922, he joined the Workers' Council, a communist organization led by J.B. Salutsky and
Alexander Trachtenberg which was critical of the
Communist Party USA but subsequently merged into it. He was persuaded by
Martin Abern to move to
Chicago to become an organizer for the communist youth organization and edit the ''Young Worker''. After joining the Communist Party, he rose to become an alternate member of its Central Committee. He edited ''Labor Defender'', a journal of
International Labor Defense. He associated with a group of dissidents including Abern and
James P. Cannon that became supporters of
Leon Trotsky.
[1]
Trotskyist leader
Shachtman, Cannon and Abern were expelled from the Communist Party in October 1928 after
Joseph Stalin took control of the
Communist International. These three and a handful of others formed a group around a newspaper called ''
The Militant''. Winning new support, including an important group of trades unionists in
Minneapolis, the group shortly thereafter formed the Trotskyist
Communist League of America (CLA). As
Tim Wohlforth notes, Shachtman was already noted as a talented journalist and intellectual: ''
The Militant'' listed Shachtman as its managing editor. Shachtman took up a series of positions as a journalist which allowed him the time and resources to bring the American Trotskyists into contact with their co-thinkers. The CLA often gave him responsibility for contact and correspondence with Trotskyists in other countries. While holidaying in
Europe during 1930, he became the first American to visit Trotsky in exile, on the island of
Prinkipo, one of the
Princes' Islands in
İstanbul,
Turkey. He attended the first European conference of the International Left Opposition in April 1930 and represented the CLA on the International Bureau of the ILO.
Shachtman's working relationship with Abern was strengthened in 1929 and 1930. They invited Albert Glotzer, already an old friend and political colleague of Shachtman from their days as leaders of the Communist youth organization, to work with them. During this time, Cannon experienced a spell of depression, during which the CLA's organizing secretary was Abern while Shachtman worked on ''The Militant''. Writing in 1936, Shachtman would criticize Abern's habit of nourishing secret cliques of friends and supporters by supplying them with insider information about debates in the League's leadership. Wohlforth's ''History'' reports a factional battle upon Cannon's return, in which the Minneapolis branch successfully backed Cannon's return to leadership against Abern and Shachtman. Glotzer's memoir mentions age as a factor: Cannon and other leaders were older than Shachtman, Abern,
Maurice Spector and himself.
Shachtman's journalistic and linguistic skills allowed him to become a successful popularizer and translator of Trotsky's work. Wohlforth notes that neither Shachtman nor other US Trotskyists of that time were developing theory: In his opinion, this made it easier for a division of labor in which Cannon led the organization and Shachtman directed its literature and international relations.
Struggle against Cannon
Frictions between Shachtman and Cannon, especially over Shachtman's work when representing the League in Europe, broke out into a factional struggle in 1932. Trotsky and other leaders of the
International Left Opposition complained to the CLA that Shachtman had intervened against them within the ILO's fragile European affiliates. Emily Turnbull and
James Robertson, who collected and reviewed the documents from this struggle in ''Dog Days'', comment that "Shachtman attempted to blunt Trotsky's sharp attacks on the opportunism and cliquism of those which whom he has worked in Europe- Kurt Landau,
Pierre Naville,
Andres Nin and M. Mill. Increasingly frustrated with Shachtman, in December 1931, Trotsky finally wrote to the CLA's national committee to inquire if Shachtman's action in international matters reflected the views of the CLA leadership. In answer, Cannon initiated a fight for the CLA to take a formal position against the trade-union opportunist and dilettantish elements represented by Naville in France."
Shachtman retreated from his obstruction of Trotsky, but a complex and draining battle unfolded in the CLA. These tensions were amplified by the social differences within the leadership: the older trade unionists supported Cannon; Shachtman and his allies Abern,
Albert Glotzer and
Maurice Spector were young intellectuals. Stanton and Tabor explain that the CLA's modest progress also increased the frustration between the factions. It was only a sharp intervention by the ILO in 1933 that ended the fight. Although the line-up of opponents largely anticipated Shachtman's 1940 split from the Trotskyism, the years from 1933 to 1938 restored the co-operation between Cannon and Shachtman.
Workers' Party Merger
Early in 1933, Shachtman and Glotzer traveled to Europe. While in Britain the pair were able to meet with Reg Groves and other members of the recently formed Communist League with whom Shachtman had corresponded. When Trotsky's household moved to
France in July 1933, Shachtman accompanied them on their journey from
Turkey.
In 1934, after the CLA merged with
A. J. Muste's
American Workers Party to form the
U.S. Workers Party, Shachtman began editing the party's new theoretical journal, ''
New International''. During this time, he wrote a notable booklet on the
Moscow Trials [2] and translated Leon Trotsky’s ''The Stalin School of Falsification'' (in 1937)
[3] and his ''Problems of the Chinese Revolution'' (between 1932 and 1938)
[4].
When the development of the WP was cut short by the rapid growth of the Socialist Party,
George Breitman recalls that Shachtman and Cannon successfully proposed that the
U.S. Workers Party, should dissolve, so that its members could recruit to revolutionary Trotskyism from inside the Socialist Party. While Trotsky had developed the entry tactic during the
French Turn, he told Glotzer: "I am very dissatisfied with the way the American comrades are working in the Socialist Party. It is opportunist."
Differences with Trotsky
Trotsky believed that Shachtman's refusal to antagonize others led Shachtman, and the publications he edited, to give too favorable a view of the party's opponents. Trotsky's review of some of the differences, ''From a Scratch To the Danger of Gangrene''
[5], suggests that these differences deepened after Trotsky's criticism of Shachtman's approach to the SP. In his 1937 article ''Towards a Revolutionary Socialist Party'', Shachtman argued that the SP, despite the leadership of
Norman Thomas, was close to revolutionary Marxism and was on the road to becoming a revolutionary party. Trotsky wrote: "Shachtman revealed excessive adaptability toward the left wing of the petty-bourgeois democrats—political mimicry—a very dangerous symptom in a revolutionary politician!" Trotsky felt that these tensions were exacerbated by Shachtman's habit of supporting a proposal, only to later undermine it. Trotsky gives the example of his proposal that the
Dewey Commission be supported by rank-and-file workers' groups: Shachtman supported the plan, but Trotsky was later told he opposed it.
After the Trotskyists were expelled from the SP in 1937, Shachtman became a leader of their new organization, the
Socialist Workers Party (SWP). Shachtman gave the report on the political situation at that congress. The SWP included socialists like
James Burnham which had come from
A. J. Muste's party rather than from the Trotskyist tradition. At the SWP's founding congress, Burnham proposed that the USSR was no longer a
degenerated workers' state: Shachtman spoke for the majority view that it remained a workers' state, and considered it important enough to hold a vote by
roll call on the resolution. In March 1938, Shachtman and Cannon were part of a delegation sent to
Mexico City to discuss the draft ''
Transitional Program'' of the
Fourth International with Trotsky: they would later teach a series of classes together in New York about the Program.
Shachtman came into closer contact with other left-wing intellectuals in or around the SWP, including
James Burnham, Dwight McDonald and the group around
Partisan Review. Shachtman became a focal point for many in the milieu of the New York Intellectuals as they have been collectively described by authors such as Alan Wald. Wohlforth writes that deepened the friction between him and the party's
working class base.
In April 1938, Shachtman and Burnham voted against the SWP's central committee adopting the Transitional Program, although they endorsed its general line as a draft resolution. At the same meeting Shachtman and Burnham also voted against Cannon's motion that the SWP adopt a memorandum by Trotsky, ''On the Labor Party Problem''. Shachtman also successfully nominated Burnham, Abern and Ernest McKinney as the SWP's three delegates to the Pan-American Conference which prepared the founding congress of the Fourth International, at which Shachtman was a delegate and one of the presiding committee. All three were to follow Shachtman in splitting from the SWP two years later.
In 1939, Shachtman shocked Trotsky by publishing an article in the
New International in which James Burnham declared his opposition to
dialectical materialism, the philosophy of
Marxism. Shachtman declared himself indifferent on the question.
Following the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (
August 23,
1939, a
non-aggression treaty between
Nazi Germany and the
Soviet Union), the combined
Invasion of Poland (
September 1 -
October 6, 1939) resulted in German and Soviet occupation of
Poland. Inside the SWP, James Burnham argued that the SWP should drop its traditional position of defense of the USSR against
imperialism. After the
Winter War(
November 30, 1939 -
March 12,
1940) started, when the Soviet Union invaded
Finland , Shachtman sided with Burnham, and broke with Cannon and the majority in the SWP: He felt that he could no longer give even critical support to the Soviet Union.
A bitter dispute opened up in the SWP. The case against Burnham and Shachtman's position is reflected in books by Cannon
[6] and Trotsky
[7]. Trotsky was especially critical of Shachtman's role as a member of the International Executive Committee of the Fourth International. At the start of
World War II, the Fourth International was placed under the control of a resident committee formed by IEC members who happened to be in New York City. Shachtman's tendency held a majority of the resident IEC. Trotsky and others criticized Shachtman for failing to convene the resident IEC or using its authority to reduce the tensions developing in the SWP.
A year into the debate, a special convention was held in April 1940. After the April 1940 convention of the SWP, Shachtman and his supporters resigned from the SWP. They represented 40% of the party's membership and a majority of the youth group. Even before the
Workers Party was formally founded, James Burnham resigned from membership and renounced socialism. Many of those who had left the SWP did not join the Workers' Party: Novack's recollection
[8] is that around half did.
Political evolution
While Cannon and his allies regarded the Soviet Union as a "
degenerated workers' state," Shachtman and his party argued that the
Stalinist bureaucracy was following an
imperialist policy in
Eastern Europe. They subsequently concluded that the bureaucracy had become a new ruling
class. Cannon argued that the Workers' Party's weak roots in the trade unions meant that many of its members would move to the right. In June 1940, he told Trotsky that for the great majority of their supporters, "Shachtman and Abern are only a stepping stone on the way to
Roosevelt". When the WP's paper, ''Labor Action'', appealed "Let's have a program for peace, not war" Trotsky described it as a
pacifist tendency, and countered that war was inevitable.
Alongside ''Labor Action'', Shachtman continued to edit ''
New International'', the Trotskyist magazine which his supporters had taken with them on resigning from the SWP.
The development of the "Third Camp"
In the early 1940s, Shachtman developed the idea of a "
Third Camp" that would be equally distinct from
Stalinism and Western
capitalism. Shachtman no longer endorsed the Trotskyist conclusion that the Soviet Union was a "degenerated workers' state," a post-capitalist country in which political control had been won by a
bureaucratic caste that was not a new
ruling class. He classified the USSR as a "
bureaucratic collectivist" state ruled by a
reactionary bureaucratic class that could engage in imperialist invasions. By 1948, Shachtman regarded capitalism and Stalinism to be equal impediments to socialism. His ideology at this time was different from his later thinking that Soviet Communism was the greater obstacle. Shachtman's views were detailed in a famous debate with Communist leader
Earl Browder during this period.
Shachtman's Workers Party became active in union struggles, though it never gained a considerable influence in the
labor movement. In 1948, Shachtman's group dropped its self-description as a "party" and became the
Independent Socialist League (ISL). The WP/ISL attracted many young intellectuals, including
Michael Harrington,
Irving Howe,
Hal Draper, and
Julius Jacobson. Shachtman also maintained contact with Trotsky's widow,
Natalia Sedova, who generally agreed with his views at that time.
During the 1950s, Shachtman and the ISL moved from Leninism to an avowedly Marxist version of
democratic socialism. Despite Shachtman's ideological dedication to democracy, critics have argued that he maintained a top-down
power structure and strict
party discipline in the ISL that resembled negative aspects of so-called
democratic centralism. Decades later Michael Harrington would write that "the ISL was a 'genuinely democratic sect'—but a sect nevertheless."
[9]
In 1958, Shachtman published ''The Bureaucratic Revolution: The Rise of the Stalinist States''. This collected and codified Shachtman's key thoughts on Stalinism, and reworked some of his previous conclusions.
Shachtman in the Socialist Party
In 1958, the ISL merged with the
Socialist Party, which from its height in the 1910s had fallen in strength to approximately 1,000 members. In Breitman's opinion, the ISL had simply dissolved. Shachtman helped pressure the SP to work with the
Democratic Party in order to push the Democrats to the left. This strategy, known as "realignment", proved to be somewhat successful. With the eager participation of the
Shachtmanites, the SP took an active role in the
civil rights movement and the early events of the
New Left.
During this time, Shachtman started the research for a major book on the
Communist International. Although the book was never completed, his views were collected in a working paper prepared for a 1964 conference of the
Hoover Institute at
Stanford University. Shachtman's vast research notes for the book are held at the
Tamiment Library.
Organizational and programmatic disputes in the group caused a number of splits, most notably by Hal Draper, who left and formed the
Independent Socialist Club in 1964. The Shachtmanites eventually became irreparably divorced from the
New Left because of the Shactmanite's unwavering support for invasions such as the
Vietnam War and the
Bay of Pigs Invasion. In 1972, Shachtmanites supported Democrat
"Scoop" Jackson's
presidential primary bid, as Jackson was by then the only major candidate who favored a continuation of the War. When
George McGovern was nominated instead, the Shachtmanites chose not to endorse him.
Following the 1972 convention of the SP, Shachtman's followers, organized in the "Unity Caucus", gained control of the SP's leadership. After Shachtman's death on
November 4 of that year, the Shachtmanites reconstituted the SP as
Social Democrats USA (SDUSA). Harrington and the bulk of the party's membership soon left the organization, many going on to form the
Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC), which soon merged with the
New American Movement (NAM) to form the
Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
Influence on others
:''For a full discussion of the currents influenced by Shachtman, see
Shachtmanism.''
Individuals influenced by Shachtman's organisations have evolved in three principal directions, each sharing his distinctive opposition to Stalinism.
★ '
Marxism'. A number of political organizations have emerged from the Trotskyist movement which have considered themselves to be Marxist. This broad tendency is described as "Left
Shachtmanism" and arguably includes followers of
Tony Cliff such as the
International Socialist Tendency[10] though Cliff himself was greatly critical of Shachtman's entire political life and theoretical work.
[11]
★ '
Social Democracy'. After Shachtman's death in 1972, many
social democratic Shachtmanites rose to prominent positions in government and organized labor. Supporters of Social Democrats USA (SDUSA) in the labor movement included
Albert Shanker (president of the
American Federation of Teachers), as well as AFL-CIO presidents
George Meany and
Lane Kirkland.
★ '
Neoconservatism'. A few conservatives including
Irving Kristol and
Nathan Glazer were around the Shachtmanite milieu in the 1930s and 1940s.
Jeane Kirkpatrick was a member of the Shachtmanite-dominated
Young People's Socialist League as a university student.
Joshua Muravchik,
Penn Kemble,
Carl Gershman, and
Max Green, leaders in the Young People's Socialist League, became
right-wing think tank insiders.
Glotzer argues that Shachtman's theory of
bureaucratic collectivism has also informed unorthodox approaches within Marxism towards the class nature of the
Eastern Bloc.
★ The approach of
Isaac Deutscher and
Marcel Liebman leads towards Shachtman's theory.
★ A former leader of the
League of Communists of Yugoslavia,
Milovan Djilas' book, ''The New Class'', also views the USSR as a new class society. However, there is no evidence that Djilas was aware of Shachtman's work.
★ Marxist economist
Paul Sweezy, whose familiarity with the Fourth International would certainly have informed his view of Shachtman, also concluded that the USSR was ruled by a new type of ruling class.
External links
★
Max Shachtman Internet Archive
:
★ Shachtman, Max and Earl Browder.
''Is Russia a Socialist Community? The Verbatim Text of a Debate''. March 1950 debate moderated by
C. Wright Mills. Published in ''The New International: A Monthly Organ of Revolutionary Marxism'', Vol.16 No.3, May-June 1950, pp.145-176. Retrieved June 6, 2005.
★
Norman Thomas and Max Shachtman Audio recording of a 1958 debate between Shachtman and
Norman Thomas.
★
The Lubitz TrotskyanaNet provides a biographical sketch and a selective bibliography of Max Shachtman
Further reading
★ ''Race and Revolution'' by Max Shachtman, ed. Christopher Phelps, Verso, 2003.
★ ''Documents of the Fourth International: The Formative Years (1933 - 40)'' Will Reisner (editor) Pathfinder Press, 1973
★ ''Dog Days: James P. Cannon vs, Max Shachtman in the Communist League of America, 1931-1933'' Emily Turnbull and James Robertson (editors)
Prometheus Research Library ISBN 0-9633828-8-8
★ ''Max Shachtman Papers 1917-1969''. Tamiment 103; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at
New York University.
★
Online guide retrieved April 20, 2005.
★ ''
James P. Cannon: The Communist League of America'' Fred Stanton and Michael Taber (editors) ISBN 0-913460-99-0
★ ''The Founding of the Socialist Workers' Party''
George Breitman (editor) ISBN 0-913460-91-5.
★ ''The Fight for Socialism''
★ ''The History of American Trotskyism''
James Cannon ISBN 0-87348-814-8.
★ ''The Struggle for Marxism in the United States: A History of American Trotskyism''
Tim Wohlforth Labor Publications, 1971.
★ ''The Writings of Leon Trotsky (1939-40)''
Leon Trotsky ISBN 0-87348-313-8
★ ''Trotsky: memoir and critique'', Albert Glotzer ISBN 0-87975-544-X.
★ '' The Fate of the Russian Revolution - Lost Texts of Critical Marxism''
Sean Matgamna (editor) Phoenix Press 1998.
★ Peter Drucker, ''Max Shachtman and His Left: A Socialist's Odyssey through the "American Century"'' (Humanities Press, 1994). ISBN 0-391-03816-8
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