Bert Cochran, born Alexander Goldfarb (December 25, 1913 – June 6, 1984) was an American
Communist politician and writer. A
Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...
, he was a member of the
Socialist Workers Party from the 1930s to the 1950s.
Biography
Cochran was born in Poland in 1913 and moved to the US at an early age. In the 1930s, Cochran attended the
University of Wisconsin–Madison
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...
where he was recruited to the
Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...
movement by
Max Shachtman
Max Shachtman (; September 10, 1904 – November 4, 1972) was an American Marxist theorist. He went from being an associate of Leon Trotsky to a social democrat and mentor of senior assistants to AFL–CIO President George Meany.
Beginnings
S ...
. In 1938 when a group of American Trotskyists under the leadership of
James P. Cannon formed the
Socialist Workers Party, Bert Cochran was one of them. For a number of years, Cochran was part of the ''National Committee'', the leading body of the SWP and became the party's main leader in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
. Under the pen-name E.R. Frank he was a regular contributor to the magazine of the
Fourth International
The Fourth International (FI) is a revolutionary socialist international organization consisting of followers of Leon Trotsky, also known as Trotskyists, whose declared goal is the overthrowing of global capitalism and the establishment of ...
, which the SWP supported.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Cochran was a district organizer for the
Mechanics Educational Society of America (MESA), a radical independent union which drew the ire of the federal government for refusing to not strike during World War II. Cochran also organized with the
United Autoworkers
The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers (UAW), is an American Labor unions in the United States, labor union that represents workers in the Un ...
(UAW).
In the beginning of the 1950s, Bert Cochran became the leader of a faction inside the Socialist Workers Party that opposed the leadership of Cannon and instead favoured the approach of
Michel Pablo
Michel Pablo ( el, Μισέλ Πάμπλο; 24 August 1911, Alexandria, Egypt – 17 February 1996, Athens) was the pseudonym of Michalis N. Raptis ( el, Μιχάλης Ν. Ράπτης), a Trotskyist leader of Greek origin.
Early activism ...
, a leader of the
Fourth International
The Fourth International (FI) is a revolutionary socialist international organization consisting of followers of Leon Trotsky, also known as Trotskyists, whose declared goal is the overthrowing of global capitalism and the establishment of ...
. The faction, known to their opponents as the ''Cochranites'', argued that the SWP was abstaining in a sectarian manner from the opportunity to intervene into the radical layers around the Communist Party. The SWP's leadership interpreted this as meaning that the current around Cochran no longer believed a revolution in the United States was possible, and that they had recoiled from revolutionary activity under the dual pressures of relative post-World War II capitalist prosperity and the accompanying
McCarthy-era anti-communist witch-hunt. Cochran was also criticised for proposing to remove the image of
Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian M ...
from the
masthead of the SWP's newspaper, ''
The Militant
''The Militant'' is an international socialist newsweekly connected to the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and the Pathfinder Press. It is published in the United States and distributed in other countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Aus ...
''.
Eventually, Bert Cochran and the Cochranites were expelled from the SWP in 1954, which meant that the party lost a great deal of its members in Detroit and the
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
area.
James P. Cannon sent
Ed Shaw to lead the reconstruction of the party's branch in Detroit.
Bert Cochran, with
Harry Braverman
Harry Braverman (1920 – 1976)
Agitating during the Red Scare
After serving in the shipbuilding industry during World War II, Braverman began to deepen his commitment to revolutionary struggle, joining the first Trotskyist party in the United ...
and about one hundred of his supporters founded the
Socialist Union of America
The Socialist Union of America, also called American Socialist Union, Socialist Union or Cochranites were a Trotskyist group that split from the Socialist Workers Party in 1953 and disbanded in 1959. It included most of the SWPs trade union base, ...
, which existed from 1954 to approx. 1959. After a short period out of regular political activity, he became a sponsor of the
Third Camp
The third camp, also known as third camp socialism or third camp Trotskyism, is a branch of socialism that aims to oppose both capitalism and Stalinism by supporting the organised working class as a "third camp".
The term arose early during ...
journal, ''
New Politics (magazine)
''New Politics'' is an independent socialist journal founded in 1961 and still published in the United States today. While it is inclusive of articles from a variety of left-of-center positions, the publication is historically associated with a ...
'', and remained so until the journal's demise in 1976. Cochran taught labor relations at the
New School for Social Research and
Empire State College
Empire State College (SUNY Empire or ESC) is a public university headquartered in Saratoga Springs, New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. Empire State College is a multi-site institution offering associate, ...
and was a senior fellow at the Research Institute on International Change at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. He wrote six books, one of which, ''Labor and Communism: The Conflict that Shaped American Unions'' (1977), was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He died from
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
the summer of 1984 before the re-launch of ''New Politics'' in the mid-1980s.
References
Notable works
''Prospects of American radicalism''New York, N.Y. : American Socialist Publications, 1954
''American Labor in Midpassage'' Monthly Review Press, 1959 (editor and contributor).
* ''The Cross of the Moment'', Macmillan, 1961.
* ''The War System: An Analysis of the Necessity for Political Reason'', Macmillan, 1965.
* ''Adlai Stevenson, Patrician Among the Politicians'', Funk & Wagnalls, 1969.
* ''Harry Truman and the Crisis Presidency'', Funk & Wagnalls, 1973, .
* ''Labor and Communism: The Conflict that Shaped American Unions'', Princeton University Press, 1977, .
* ''Welfare Capitalism — and After'', Schocken Books, 1984, .
Times Two Publishing, 2005, . (A collection of book reviews, published posthumously.)
External links
Bert Cochran (E.R. Frank) Internet ArchiveThe Lubitz TrotskyanaNetprovides a biographical sketch and a selective bibliography on Bert Cochran
The Bert Cochran Legacy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cochran, Bert
1913 births
1984 deaths
American communists
American Marxists
American male writers
Polish emigrants to the United States
Members of the Socialist Union of America
Socialist Workers Party (United States) politicians from Michigan
20th-century American writers
Trade unionists from Michigan
The New School faculty
Empire State College faculty