Johnson–Forest Tendency
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The Johnson–Forest Tendency, whose supporters are called the Johnsonites, is a radical left tendency in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
associated with
Marxist humanist Marxist humanism is an international body of thought and political action rooted in an interpretation of the works of Karl Marx. It is an investigation into "what human nature consists of and what sort of society would be most conducive to huma ...
theorists
C. L. R. James Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901 – 31 May 1989),Fraser, C. Gerald, '' The New York Times'', 2 June 1989. who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J. R. Johnson, was a Trinidadian historian, journalist and Marxist. His works are i ...
and
Raya Dunayevskaya Raya Dunayevskaya (born Raya Shpigel, ; May 1, 1910 - June 9, 1987), later Rae Spiegel, also known by the pseudonym Freddie Forest, was the American founder of the philosophy of Marxist humanism in the United States. At one time Leon Trotsky's s ...
, who used the pseudonyms J. R. Johnson and Freddie Forest respectively. They were joined by author/activist
Grace Lee Boggs Grace Lee Boggs (June 27, 1915 – October 5, 2015) was an American author, social activist, philosopher, and feminist. She is known for her years of political collaboration with C. L. R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya in the 1940s and 1950s. In th ...
(pseudonym: Ria Stone), who was considered the third founder.


History

Much of the story of the Johnson–Forest Tendency relates to disputes between various factions of 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 ...
parties in the US. James and Dunayevskaya first met in the Socialist Workers Party. From 1939–1940, there was a bitter fight amongst the members of the Socialist Workers Party, and in 1940, James, Dunayevskaya, and
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 ...
, among others, split to form the Workers Party. James and Dunayevskaya set up a study group within the Workers Party to work on the idea of
state capitalism State capitalism is an economic system in which the state undertakes business and commercial (i.e. for-profit) economic activity and where the means of production are nationalized as state-owned enterprises (including the processes of capital ...
, and were soon joined by Grace Lee Boggs. 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 Shachtman, that the class nature of the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
was such that it should be designated a bureaucratic collectivist society. The minority opinion, held by James, Dunayevskaya, and Lee, held that it was state capitalist. Further, James was unhappy with the WP's lack of interest in Black activism. This resulted in their secession from the Workers Party. 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
socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
society existing anywhere in the world, a return to the fundamentals of
Marxism Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...
was in order. Their emphasis on Hegel's philosophy as being the foundation of
Marxism Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...
was largely due to Dunayevskaya, who was deeply immersed in both Marx's and
Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
's writings. 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 The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...
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 Correspondence Publishing Committee the next year. However, tensions that had surfaced earlier presaged a split, which took place in 1955. Through his theoretical and political work of the late 1940s, James had concluded that a
vanguard party Vanguardism in the context of Leninist revolutionary struggle, relates to a strategy whereby the most class-conscious and politically "advanced" sections of the proletariat or working class, described as the revolutionary vanguard, form organ ...
was no longer necessary, because its teachings had been absorbed in the masses. In 1956, James would see the
Hungarian Revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...
as confirmation of this. 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 {{Short description, 1960's Radical Left Group Facing Reality was a radical left group in the United States that existed from about 1962 until 1970. History Facing Reality originated in the Johnson-Forest Tendency led by C. L. R. James and Raya ...
, 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.

a pamphlet published by the JFT in 1947.


See also

*
Autonomist Marxism Autonomism, also known as autonomist Marxism is an anti-capitalist left-wing political and social movement and theory. As a theoretical system, it first emerged in Italy in the 1960s from workerism (). Later, post-Marxist and anarchist tendenc ...
* Chaulieu–Montal Tendency *
Marxist humanism Marxist humanism is an international body of thought and political action rooted in an interpretation of the works of Karl Marx. It is an investigation into "what human nature consists of and what sort of society would be most conducive to huma ...


Notes


References

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External links


Marxist Humanism, subject indexBoggs CenterNews & Letters, the NewspaperLibertarian Communist Library Raya Dunayevskaya holdingsLibertarian Communist Library CLR James holdings
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson-Forest Tendency Socialist Workers Party (United States) Anti-Stalinist left Libertarian socialism Political party factions in the United States Trotskyism in the United States