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Readings and Ramblings

This is Readings and Ramblings. It is readings because this is a site for blogging about books and I intend to do that. It is ramblings because I might want to write about something else now and then.

Speeches to the Party: The Revolutionary Perspective and the Revolutionary Party

Speeches to the Party: The Revolutionary Perspective and the Revolutionary Party - The title is not kidding. This is definitely a book by a leader of the Socialist Workers Party for party members. At the same time it has a lot that should be of interest and value to outsiders. In the early 1950s, right in the middle of the McCarthyite witch-hunt the SWP went through a split. This book consists of speeches given leading up to and during that split. Cannon explains why splits are necessary to building a revolutionary party just like fusions are. He explains why he thinks the minority faction went wrong and he explains why they were eventually expelled. The appendices contain a rather lengthy statement by the opposing faction too. It is interesting that a lot of the differences were around how to react to the ongoing anti-communist witch-hunt. If you are interested in the history of American communism this is a must read.