Jack Barnes (born in 1940) is an American Communist and the National Secretary of the Socialist Workers Party. Barnes was elected the party's national secretary in 1972, replacing the retiring Farrell Dobbs. He had joined the SWP in the early 1960s as a student at Carleton College in Minnesota and quickly became a leading member of the party's youth wing. Barnes was one of a group of members, many of whom also attended Carleton College or other universities, who joined the SWP shortly after the Cuban Revolution Communism - Wikipedia /**/ @import /w/skins-1. ... The term General Secretary (alternatively First Secretary) denotes a leader of various unions, parties or associations. ... The Socialist Workers Party is a small communist political party in the United States. ... Farrell Dobbs (July 25, 1907 – October 31, 1983) was an American Trotskyist politician and trade unionist. ... 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Skinner Memorial Chapel, Carleton College Carleton College is an independent, non-sectarian, coeducational, liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, USA. Carleton was founded on November 14, 1866, by the Minnesota Conference of Congregational Churches as Northfield College. ... State nickname: North Star State, Land of 10,000 Lakes, The Gopher State Other U.S. States Capital Saint Paul Largest city Minneapolis Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) Senators Mark Dayton (D) Norm Coleman (R) Official language(s) None Area 225,365 km² (12th)  - Land 206,375 km²  - Water 18,990... The Cuban Revolution was the overthrow of the Fulgencio Batista’s government by the 26th of July Movement and the establishment of a new Cuban government led by Fidel Castro in the 1950s. ...

Barnes was a key advocate of the party's 'Turn to Industry' in the 1970s, its exit from the Fourth International in the 1980s and its orientation towards the Cuban Communist Party in the 1990s. The Fourth International has been the international organisation of Trotskyist communists. ...

'Turn to Industry'-- Barnes was one of the central organisers for the idea that the party should 'Turn to Industry'. In 1978 the party's National Committee approved a report by Barnes which argued that "we must subordinate everything else to immediately organizing to get a large majority of the membership of the SWP into industry and the industrial trade unions". SWP members took up jobs in basic industries such as meatpacking, steel, mining and textile industries.

Break with FI and Permanent Revolution-- Barnes' article 'Their Trotsky and Ours' also underpinned the party's decisions in the 1980s to abandon its support for Leon Trotsky's theory of Permanent Revolution, and its withdrawal from the world Trotskyist movement, the USFI. As national secretary, Barnes played a key role in the expulsion of more than a third of the party's members in 1983 and 1984, those who supported the USFI. In 1990, Barnes wrote on behalf of the SWP to withdraw it from close relations with the United Secretariat of the Fourth International and to recognise the reality that it was now part of a 'Pathfinder tendency' consisting of the SWP and several Communist Leagues of co-thinkers in other countries. Leon Trotsky â–¶(?) (Russian: Лев Давидович Троцкий; also transliterated Leo, Lev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij and Trotzky ) (November 26 (O.S.) = November 7 (N.S.), 1879 – August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (Лев ДавидовÐ... Permanent Revolution is the theory of how to sustain Communism within an undeveloped (backward) state. ... The United Secretariat of the Fourth International (USFI) is a Trotskyist international organisation. ... The United Secretariat of the Fourth International (USFI) is the largest Trotskyist international organisation. ... The Pathfinder tendency is the unofficial name of the group of organizations, each known as the Communist League grouped around the Socialist Workers Party of the United States. ... See Communist League (disambiguation) for other groups of the same name. ...

Orientation to the Cuban CP-- Barnes' has encouraged the SWP's growing interest in the Cuban Communist Party. In the 1960s he was a leader of the Fair Play for Cuba movement. This interest continues, and he authored a recent book titled Cuba and the Coming American Revolution. The SWP views the Cuban Revolution and the Cuban Communist Party more sympathetically than do other current from the Trotskyist tradition, stressing the vanguard role of Cuba's foreign policy and the ability of socialists to learn from Cuba about building a socialist society.

Works-- Jack Barnes is also the author of such Marxist political books as Capitalism's World Disorder, Cuba and the Coming American Revolution, Their Trotsky and Ours, U.S. Imperialism Has Lost the Cold War, Capitalism's Long Hot Winter Has Begun and The Lesser Evil? - Debates on the Democratic Party and Independent Working-Class Politics. Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ...

Insignificant sect -- Jack Barnes' leadership has been beyond any serious challenge for over two decades, since the purging of many old Trotskyist cadre in the early 80s and the simultaneous rapid shrinkage in membership precipitated by the ill-advised 'turn to industry'. Today the U.S. SWP numbers less than 200 core members, with several dozen other cadre scattered over Canada, Scandinavia, Great Britain, France, New Zealand and Australia. Jack Barnes, together with his partner Mary-Alice Waters and college buddy Steve Clark, form the leadership of the SWP, exempted from working in difficult industrial jobs and yet remarkably unproductive as intellectuals of the working class. Over the years, Barnes' ideological ticks have become more random and eclectic. For instance, Barnes and the SWP have abstained totally from the movement against the war in Iraq, mimicking Bush administration language in denouncing the Iraqi resistance as nothing more than "Baathist remnants" even when the attacks are carried out by clearly Islamist elements.