Oehler, Hugo

The Revolutionary Workers League of the U.S. was a Trotskyist group organized in 1935 by the Left Wing Group of the Workers Party, who had been expelled from the Workers Party (U. S.). After several months of internal conflict, at the October Plenum of 1935, Workers Party leaders James P. Cannon and Max Shachtman were able to mobilize a majority to reject the demand of the left faction for an independent publication, and to warn them against violation of party discipline. Shortly afterwards, Hugo Oehler, Thomas Stamm and their followers were expelled and established the RWL, of which Oehler served as National Secretary. The Revolutionary Workers League was the largest group to emerge from the Communist League of America and the Workers Party (U.S.). Oehler and Stamm had opposed the "French turn" in America, that is, the decision to join the Socialist Party in anticipation of attracting left wing socialists to the Trotskyist movement.

Hugo Oehler traveled to Spain after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and made contact with a wide range of Trotskyist and other leftist groups and individuals. He was an eyewitness to the May 1937 insurrection in Barcelona, described in his published account, Barricades in Barcelona (NY: Demos Press, 1937).

From the guide to the Hugo Oehler: Factional Documents and Spanish Civil War Reports, Correspondence and Ephemera, 1932-1937, (Tamiment Library / Wagner Archives)