Socialist Workers Party. Minnesota Section.

The Socialist Workers Party, although not formally organized under that name until January 1938, traces its beginnings to the formation of the American Communist Party in 1919. The latter party was composed of left-wing elements of the American Socialist Party. After the expulsion of Leon Trotsky from the Russian Communist party in 1927, the Communist groups supporting Trotsky were also expelled from the party (October 1928). In November 1928 the Trotskyite groups began the publication of a newspaper, The Militant, and continued to exist as a small splinter group of the American Communist Party. Some prominent leaders of the group at this time were James P. Cannon and Max Schactman. From 1928 to 1937 the Trotsky group was associated with the Socialist Party. In 1938 they broke with the Socialist Party and organized the Socialist Workers Party, which is still in existence as the Trotskyite branch of the Communist Party.

The Socialist Workers Party is of particular interest to Minnesota because of the party's involvement in the Minneapolis Truck Drivers' Strike of 1934. Trotskyites, who in the 1920s had been expelled from most of the regular unions, were in the early 1930s back into labor union groups as individual members, but not as leaders in the respective unions. By 1934 they were sufficiently strong in the coal workers' union and in the teamsters' union to challenge the Minneapolis business community, which had kept Minneapolis a non-union city for many years. This challenge culminated in the truck drivers' strike of May 1934. The strike brought to public attention a number of prominent Minnesota Trotskyite leaders: Farrell Dobbs, Carl Skoglund, and the Dunne brothers, Vincent, Grant, and Miles.

In the years between the 1934 strike and the outbreak of World War II, the Trotskyites lost control of the teamsters union in Minneapolis. First they were ousted from their positions in the union, partly as a result of factional disputes within the union between AFL and CIO leaders, with the AFL eventually gaining control. Then in 1941, in Minneapolis, the leaders were brought to trial by the United States government under provisions of the recently passed Smith Act. The leaders were convicted of "advocating and teaching the overthrow of the United States government by force and violence." The decision was later unsuccessfully appealed, and the eighteen leaders were imprisoned in 1944. This action was considered the test case proving the effectiveness of the Smith Act.

The above sketch is based on information found in the following volumes: Howe and Coser, The American Communist Party, A Critical History (New York, 1962); James P. Cannon, The History of American Trotskyism... (New York, 1944); Walter Goldwater, Radical Periodicals in America, 1890-1950 (New Haven, 1964). The latter work contains a useful chart depicting the changes and development of left-wing third party movements in the United States from 1890 to 1950.

From the guide to the Party records., 1914-1980., (Minnesota Historical Society)