Spartacist League of the U.S. collection
Content Description
The Spartacist League of the U.S. Collection, 1961-2013 comprises internal discussion and information bulletins, issues of the Young Communist Bulletin, and issues of the Marxist Bulletin, which began as a publication of the Revolutionary Tendency within the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). The collection also includes pamphlets from the Prometheus Research Series that were published by the Prometheus Research Library, which is the central archive of the Spartacist League of the U.S., in addition to issues from the Black History of the Class Struggle publication series. Various articles concerning stalinism, trotskyism, socialism, and the Socialist Workers Party are present, and the collection contains one transcript of a conference presentation as well. Issues of Spartacist: an Organ of Revolutionary Marxism, published by the International Executive Committee of the International Commuist League (Fourth Internationalist) are also in the collection.
Dates
- 1961-2013
Language of Materials
Collection material is in English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no access restrictions on this collection.
Conditions Governing Use
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director of Archives and Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical materials and not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Biographical / Historical
The Spartacist League of the U.S. is a Marxist-Leninist-Trotskyist communist organization. The League was founded by members of the Revolutionary Tendency led by James Robertson within the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), who were expelled in 1963 over their dissenting views on Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba and other issues. The group started the Spartacist journal in 1964 and formally founded the organization in 1966. An international tendency of the Spartacist League formed in 1974 and became the International Communist League (Fourth International) in 1989, at which point the Spartacist League of the U.S. became its American section. The Spartacist League had ties to the Progressive Labor Party and was affiliated with the Revolutionary Marxist Caucus within Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The youth groups of the Spartacist League of the U.S. were the Revolutionary Communist Youth, which the Revolutionary Marxist Caucus changed its name to, from 1971-1974, and the Spartacus Youth League from 1974-1986.
The Spartacist League of the U.S. is focused on educating and organizing the working class towards the goal of replacing capitalism with communism and developing a socialist state. Although it was founded as a democratic-centralist organization that allowed intraparty division and conflict, many dissenting members in the Spartacist League of the U.S. have been expelled. The League comprises multiple chapters, the most active of which was in New York City, and held national conferences to shape policies that were then implemented by the organization’s central committee. The League published its youth newspaper Young Spartacus from 1973-1986, it’s women’s commission journal, Women and Revolution from 1971-1996, and has published the Workers Vanguard newspaper since 1971.
Bibliography:
"The Organizational Rules and Guidelines of the Spartacist League/U.S., section of the International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist)." https://www.icl-fi.org/print/english/pamph/slusdop/orgrules.html
"Spartacist League of the U.S. Biography note." SNAC collective. https://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6wt3q6p#biography
"Historical note." Spartacist League of the U.S. records, collection number 94062, Hoover Institution Archives. http://pdf.oac.cdlib.org/pdf/hoover/spartaci.pdf
"Biography/history." Spartacist League Records, 1964-1974, Mss 500. Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections. http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00500
"Whatever happened to the Spartacist League? : Stalinophilia, Stalinophobia, Flinches and Opportunism." International Bolshevik Tendency, April 2005. http://www.bolshevik.org/Pamphlets/Whatever/ibt_whateverhappened_01.html
Extent
2.5 Linear Feet
7 boxes
Abstract
This collection contains bulletins, pamphlets, articles, and one conference transcript that reflect the theoretical sentiments and organizational activities of the Spartacist League of the U.S. The League was officially formed in 1966 by expelled members of the Revolutionary Tendency within the Socialist Workers Party. It is the United States section of the International Communist League (Fourth International).
Arrangement
The collection is alphabetically arranged in one series.
Custodial History
The Spartacist League of the U.S. Collection was donated to the Holt Labor Library in San Francisco, California between 1992 and 2019, and was acquired by the Gerth Archives and Special Collections at California State University, Dominguez Hills, in 2019.
Processing Information
Allison Ransom processed the collection and wrote the finding aid in March 2020.
- Title
- Inventory of the Spartacist League of the U.S. Collection
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Allison Ransom
- Date
- March 2020
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- English
Repository Details
Part of the Holt Labor Library at CSU Dominguez Hills Repository
University Library South - 5039 (Fifth Floor)
1000
Carson California 90747
310-243-3895
archives@csudh.edu