The Workers Party (WP) was a Third Camp Trotskyist group in the United States. It was founded in April 1940 by members of the Socialist Workers Party who opposed the Soviet invasion of Finland. They included Max Shachtman, who became the new group's leader, Hal Draper, Martin Abern, Joseph Carter and Julius Jacobson. As a result, the party's politics are often referred to as Shachtmanite. The third camp, also known as third camp socialism or third camp Trotskyism, is a branch of Trotskyism which aims to oppose both capitalism and Stalinism by supporting the organised working class as a third camp. This approach was developed by Max Shachtman and is one of the major components... Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... The Socialist Workers Party is a small communist political party in the United States. ... Combatants Finland Soviet Union Commanders Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim Kliment Voroshilov, later Semyon Timoshenko Strength 250,000 men 30 tanks 130 aircraft[1][2] 1,000,000 men 3,000 tanks 3,800 aircraft[3][4] Casualties 26,662 dead 39,886 wounded 1,000 captured[5] 226,875 dead... Max Shachtman (September 10, 1904 - November 4, 1972) was an American Marxist theorist. ... Hal Draper (1914-1990) was an American socialist activist, Marxist, Left-Shachtmanite, and author, perhaps best known for his role in the Berkeley, California Free Speech Movement. ... Martin Abern, born Martin Abramowitz (December 2, 1898 ? 1949) was a Trotskyist politician. ... Joseph Carter (1910-1970) was the pseudonym of Joseph Friedman, a founding member of the American Trotskyist movement. ... Julius Jacobson (1922 - March 8, 2003) was an American Third Camp socialist activist, Marxist, Left-Shachtmanite, author, and founder of the independent Left journal New Politics. ... Shachtmanism was a form of Trotskyism associated with Max Shachtman. ...

At the time of the split, almost 40% [1] of the membership of the SWP and a majority of the Young People's Socialist League, the "Yipsels", left the SWP. The WP was initially estimated as having recruited half of those who had split: approximately 500 members. Although it recruited among workers and youth during the war years it never grew substantially, despite having more impact than its numbers would suggest. YPSLs Logo The Young Peoples Socialist League (YPSL) is a democratic socialist youth group originally affiliated with the Socialist Party of America. ...

Having departed the SWP the newly founded WP found itself outside the ranks of the Fourth International too but continued to consider itself to be in political sympathy with the movement internationally. In order to give expression to this the WP founded a Committee for the Fourth International to regroup its international co-thinkers, including a group of emigre Germans. After WW 2 Shachtman would attend the Second World congress of the Fourth International as an observer only to reject the organisation as irredeemably sectarian. For other uses, see Fourth International (disambiguation). ...

From the start, the group distinguished itself from the SWP by advocating a Third Camp perspective. In an article published in April 1940, entitled "The Soviet Union and the World War", Shachtman concluded:

The revolutionary vanguard must put forward the slogan of revolutionary defeatism in both imperialist camps, that is, the continuation of the revolutionary struggle for power regardless of the effects on the military front. That, and only that, is the central strategy of the third camp in the World War, the camp of proletarian internationalism, of the socialist revolution, of the struggle for the emancipation of all the oppressed. Defeatism is acceptance of defeat without struggle. ... Imperialism is the policy of extending the control or authority over foreign entities as a means of acquisition and/or maintenance of empires, either through direct territorial or through indirect methods of exerting control on the politics and/or economy of other countries. ... Internationalism is a political movement which advocates a greater economic and political cooperation between nations for the benefit of all. ... A communist revolution is a social revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism, normally with socialism (state ownership over the means of production) as an intermediate stage. ... Look up emancipation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The group soon developed a bureaucratic collectivist analysis of the Soviet Union. It was the first group to use the slogan "Neither Washington nor Moscow", implying that they preferred neither capitalism nor the states allied to the Soviet Union. Bureaucratic collectivism is a theory of class society. ... Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United... Location Position of Moscow in Europe Government Country District Subdivision Russia Central Federal District Federal City Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov Geographical characteristics Area  - City 1,081 km² Population  - City (2007)    - Density 10,469,000   9684. ... It has been suggested that Definitions of capitalism be merged into this article or section. ... This article is about a form of government in which the state operates under the control of a Communist Party. ...

Early years

By 1941 the party had developed a minority tendency which was grouped around the figures of two leading intellectuals CLR James and Raya Dunayevskaya. This tendency took the name the Johnson-Forest Tendency for its principal leaders' pen-names. It developed the viewpoint that Russia was state capitalist. The tendency developed the view that the WP should rejoin the Fourth International due to the imminence of a pre-revolutionary situation. In the meantime the SWP had from 1943 onwards developed a loose oppositional tendency led by Felix Morrow and Albert Goldman which, among other things, called for the WP to be readmitted to the SWP. Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901–19 May 1989) was a journalist, and a prominent socialist theorist and writer. ... Raya Dunayevskaya (1910 – 1987) was a Ukrainian born immigrant to the United States of America who was a member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). ... The Johnson-Forest tendency, sometimes called the Johnsonites, refers to an American radical left tendency associated with Marxist theorists C.L.R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya, who used the pseudonyms J.R. Johnson and Freddie Forest respectively. ... There are multiple definitions of the term state capitalism. ... Albert Goldman (1897 - 1960) was an American Trotskyist and lawyer to the labor movement. ...

In 1945 and 1946, these two tendencies argued for their parties to regroup. However, discussions decelerated after Goldman was found to be working with the WP's leadership. He left the SWP in May 1946 to join the WP, with a small group of supporters including James T. Farrell. C. L. R. James' tendency left the WP in October 1947 in order to rejoin the SWP, while Farrell and Goldman left in 1948 to join the Socialist Party of America. James Thomas Farrell was born on 27 February 1904, in Chicago. ... Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901–19 May 1989) was a journalist, socialist theorist and writer. ... 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ... The Socialist Party of America (SPA) is a socialist political party in the United States. ...

Working in the labor movement, the party grew rapidly, largely as at a time of labour shortages its mainly New York Jewish intellectual members were able to take industrial jobs which would otherwise have been closed to them. At the same time the draft prevented the construction of a stable industrial base as much of the youthful membership was inducted into the armed forces. In the same period members such as Irving Howe, a leader of the YPSLs, and Michael Harrington were recruited. Irving Howe (1920 – 1993), was born Irving Horenstein in New York, the son of immigrants who ran a small grocery store that went out of business during the Great Depression. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ...

Independent Socialist League

In 1949, the group renamed itself the Independent Socialist League. It was removed from the US Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations after a lengthy court battle, but failed to grow as the right wing around Howe and Harrington split to work with the Dissent journal. 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... The United States Attorney Generals List of Subversive Organizations was a list drawn up on April 3, 1947[1] at the request of the United States Attorney General. ... Dissent Magazine is a left-wing magazine that was started in 1954 by Irving Howe and Lewis Coser. ...

In 1957, the ISL joined the Socialist Party of America, dissolving the following year. Some members took leading positions in the Socialist Party, but moved increasingly to the right. A small group around Hal Draper left to form the Independent Socialist Clubs. 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Socialist Party of America (SPA) is a socialist political party in the United States. ... In politics, right-wing, the political right, or simply the right, are terms which refer, with no particular precision, to the segment of the political spectrum in opposition to left-wing politics. ... The International Socialists were a Trotskyist group in the United States. ...

Earlier Historical Parties By The Same Name in the U.S.

• Workers Party of the United States
• American Workers Party