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From New International, Vol. I No. 4, November 1934, Inside front cover.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
AT THE END of this month, three conventions of tremendous importance to the labor and revolutionary movements will take place in the city of New York. On November 26, the third national convention of the Communist League of America will open up and draw a balance sheet under the six years of its existence as an independent group fighting for the principles of revolutionary communism. Banded together at the end of 1928 as a handful of revolutionists expelled for “Trotskyism” from the Communist Party, the League has grown and developed to the point where it is prepared by its whole past to contribute substantial strength, both in numbers and in Marxian ideas, to the formation in this country, of a new revolutionary party.
It is symbolical of the shifting of the center of gravity, both in world politics and economics as well as in the world revolutionary movement, from the old world to the new, that the Communist League of America is today the firmest and most influential section of the International Communist League. The shift is further emphasized by the fact that the first of the new revolutionary parties to be formed in any of the important countries will be launched in the United States, with inexhaustible prospects of growth and power ahead of it.
On the same date and in the same city will open the convention of the American Workers Party. It too has experienced an evolution which makes it a highly important and valuable component part of the movement for the new party. Differing from the Communist League both in its starting point, its traditions and its road of development, the American Workers Party nevertheless has progressed to a point where the two have met in an increasingly firm unity. In this convergence, there is nothing accidental. Both groups have gone through many, varied experiences, each in its own way. Upon both of them has been imposed the conclusion which is inescapable today for all forward-looking Marxian revolutionists: the need of a new party and a new International.
For almost a year now, the two organizations have been engaged in laying the foundations for a merger that will make possible the launching of a united party standing on the principles of Marxism, not merely as laid down in the last century, but as verified and confirmed by the great events of the last twenty years. According to all indications, the conventions of the two organizations will fix the seal of approval upon the negotiations carried on in the past and climax them with a fusion of the two streams.
In the convention calls of both groups is contained an identic section which declares that, subject to the approval of the respective delegations, the two conventions shall merge into a unity convention on November 30, to last three days, at which the united revolutionary party will be formally established. The intensive discussions which have taken place in both groups up to now have brought about a gratifying clarification not only as to the need of the unity but as to the basis in principle upon which it is to be built. There is every reason, therefore, to believe that no serious obstacles will be encountered in consummating the unification.
The formation of the new party in the United States will be a step forward in the revolutionary movements whose far-reaching consequences can hardly be over-stated. The two old parties of labor – socialist and Stalinist – have displayed their bankruptcy in the crassest and most conclusive manner. The new party will seek to establish its claim to leadership of the working class in its daily struggles against the capitalist enemy and in its final struggle to liberate itself from capitalist enslavement. The principles at the base of the new party, and the struggles which its component parts have already engaged in so effectively, are an earnest of their ability to forge ahead in the ranks of the American proletariat.
But not only in this country will its formation prove an impulsion to the revolutionary movement. The new party in the United States will play a great part in advancing the movement for new parties and a new International throughout the world. Its example will inspire like-minded revolutionists in other lands and hasten the day of the establishment of the Fourth International.
Hail the new revolutionary party in the United States!
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