In a series talks from 1942, James P. Cannon recounts the efforts of US communists to defend the revolutionary tradition of Bolshevism against the bureaucratic degeneration of the party under Stalin. He covers the initial formation of the Left Opposition within the Communist Party, the expulsion of the opposition and its independent organization as the Communist League of America, the final break with the Communist International and the formation of the 4th International—all of this amidst the heightened class battles of the Great Depression and the coming of WWII.

Cannon's narrative contains important lessons on the building of a revolutionary party essentially from scratch. But it should be noted that Cannon's own bureaucratic habits, already in evidence in this period, would undermine the 4th International after Trotsky's death in 1940. For more on this see: "Zinoviev and the Stalinist Degeneration of the Comintern."

See also Cannon's The First Ten Years of American Communism on the initial formation and development of the Communist Party in the United States.

314 pages.

By James P. Cannon

Pathfinder Press