Johnson–Forest Tendency
 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (May 2010) |
Johnson-Forest Tendency | |
|---|---|
| Founder |
|
| Founded | 1945[1] |
| Dissolved | 1962 |
| Succeeded by | Correspondence Publishing Committee 1951–1962 News and Letters Committees 1955–Present Facing Reality 1962-1970 |
| Ideology |
|
| Political position | Far-left |
The Johnson–Forest Tendency, whose supporters are called the Johnsonites, is a radical left tendency in the United States associated with Marxist humanist theorists C. L. R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya, who used the pseudonyms J. R. Johnson and Freddie Forest respectively. They were joined by author/activist Grace Lee Boggs (pseudonym: Ria Stone), who was considered the third founder.
History
| Part of a series on |
| Trotskyism |
|---|
 |
Much of the story of the Johnson–Forest Tendency relates to disputes between various factions of the
While this new group rapidly cohered around politics which were very similar to those of the Socialist Workers Party, there were certain differences which eventually led to the formation of the Johnson–Forest Tendency. The majority of the Workers Party members believed, as did
Their disgruntlement with the Shachtmanite majority within the Workers Party led Johnson–Forest in 1947 to rejoin the Socialist Workers Party. It was during this time that the Johnson–Forest Tendency reached the conclusion that, as there was no true
Johnson–Forest remained in the Socialist Workers Party until 1950, exiting the party once again with a book co-authored by James and Dunayevskaya, State Capitalism and World Revolution. In the three years Johnson–Forest remained in the Socialist Workers Party, James also participated in party discussions on the American "Negro question" (as it was then called), arguing for support for separate struggles of blacks as having the potential to ignite the entire U.S. political situation. His hypothesis prefigured the organized civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
Finally leaving the Socialist Workers Party, Johnson–Forest founded their own organization for the first time called Correspondence which was renamed the
Dunayevskaya had agreed that the Leninist vanguard party was outmoded, but, in contrast to James, felt the need for some kind of revolutionary organization. In 1953, James was deported from the U.S. to Britain for the lack of a visa, and the polemic continued. The split was completed in 1955, when Dunayevskaya and her faction founded the group News and Letters Committees. Grace Lee remained with the Johnsonites who founded Facing Reality, as well as a newsletter based in Detroit of the same name. When Lee moved away from the group in the early 1960s, the continuity of the Johnsonite tradition was maintained by Martin Glaberman until Glaberman's death in 2001.
Publications
- The Invading Socialist Society a pamphlet published by the JFT in 1947.
- Trotskyism in the United States, 1940-1947 BALANCE SHEET The Workers Party and the Johnson Forest Tendency a pamphlet published by the JFT in 1947.
See also
- Autonomist Marxism
- Chaulieu–Montal Tendency
- Marxist humanism
Notes
- ^ a b c Rosengarten, Frank. Urbane Revolutionary : C. L. R. James and the Struggle for a New Society, University Press of Mississippi, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central, p. 32.
- ^ Rosengarten 2007, p. 34.
- ^ Rosengarten 2007, pp. 33–36.
- ^ State-capitalism and World Revolution by Johnson-Forest, Socialist Workers Party, 1950.
- ^ James, C. L. R.; Dunayevskaya, Raya; Boggs, Grace Lee. "Trotskyism in the United States, 1940-1947 BALANCE SHEET". Marxist Internet Archive. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
References
- Loren Goldner (2004). "Introduction to the Johnson-Forest Tendency and the Background to "Facing Reality"". Archived from the original on December 1, 2004. Retrieved January 20, 2006.
- Loren Goldner (2002). "Facing Reality 45 Years Later: Critical Dialogue with James/Lee/Chaulieu". Archived from the original on August 16, 2002. Retrieved January 8, 2008.
External links
- Marxist Humanism, subject index
- Raya Dunayevskaya Archive
- C L R James Archive
- Boggs Center
- News & Letters, the Newspaper
- Libertarian Communist Library Raya Dunayevskaya holdings
- Libertarian Communist Library CLR James holdings
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
