Communist League of America (Opposition)

The Communist League of America (Opposition) (CLA) was founded in 1929 by James P. Cannon, Max Schachtman, and Martin Abern following their 1928 expulsion from the Workers Party for fostering the International Left Opposition associated with Leon Trotsky. Cannon, Schachtman, and Abern likened Trotsky's attack on intra-party bureaucratism in the Russian Communist Party to similar trends in the American party. The League was formally established in May 1929 at a Founding Conference held in Chicago. CLA membership never exceeded 200 members and in 1934 the party merged with A.J. Muste's American Workers party to form the Workers Party of the United States. The group also published a party newspaper, The Militant.

From the guide to the Communist League of America (Opposition) papers, 1929-1935, (David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University)