Marxism and the National Question: A Valuable Lesson from America

The history of the first four decades of the Socialist Workers Party of the United States from its founding in 1929 to the apotheosis of Black nationalism in the sixties belies the oft-made claim that Marx’s project had little to offer African Americans in the fight for racial equality and self-determination–a charge first trumpeted by Cedric Robinson’s 1983 Black Marxism. Owing to the patient but persistent prodding of Lenin and later Trotsky, the party’s founders were convinced to prioritize the “Negro Question.” Along the way they were joined in that campaign by Trinidadian revolutionary C. L. R. James to achieve, in 1948, programmatic clarity. When the first opportunity presented itself to test that program against reality, the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in 1955–1956, the party acted immediately and efficaciously. The Montgomery Bus Boycott put the SWP in touch with its trade union architect, E. D. Nixon. A more radical chapter in the Civil Rights Movement offered another opportunity–to collaborate with the Black revolutionary, Robert F. Williams. Aiding and abetting the Williams collaboration was the Cuban Revolution. Both of these collaborations, in addition to the lessons of the Bolsheviks, enabled the convergence of the SWP with Black nationalist leader Malcolm X. Both parties benefited from the two moments of collaboration. This article also compares the performance of the SWP and Communist Party USA on the “Negro Question.” We conclude with a nod toward the future–the significance of our findings for working class ascent in America.