The labor organizer who read Trotsky's critique in Moscow and founded the American Trotskyist movement
“They had expelled the heart of their party; Trotsky had won over all the serious young activists, leaving only a dead husk.” — after the Socialist Party expelled the Trotskyists, 1937
A Kansas-born labor organizer of Irish descent, James P. Cannon helped found the Communist Party of America in 1919 and was elected to the Comintern Presidium in 1922. In 1928, after reading a misdirected critique of the Comintern by Trotsky in Moscow, he turned to the Left Opposition, was expelled from the CPA, and co-founded the Communist League of America. He led the landmark 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters strike, and in 1938 founded the Socialist Workers Party, becoming its first National Secretary. Imprisoned for 18 months under the Smith Act for opposing U.S. entry into World War II, he remained a central leader of the Fourth International and shaped the American Trotskyist tradition across four decades.
Career timeline
- 1908Joins the Socialist Party of America
- 1911Joins the IWW; organizes throughout the Midwest under 'Big Bill' Haywood
- 1919Founding member of the Communist Labor Party; District Secretary for KS, MO, NE
- 1922U.S. delegate to 4th Comintern Congress; elected to ECCI Presidium
- 1925Founds International Labor Defense; serves as its first national secretary
- 1928Expelled from CP for Trotskyism; co-founds the Communist League of America
- 1934Directs the historic Minneapolis Teamsters strike
- 1938Founds the Socialist Workers Party; elected first National Secretary
- 1944–1945Imprisoned 18 months under the Smith Act for anti-war stance
- 1953–1974Steps down as National Secretary, becomes national chairman emeritus; dies in Los Angeles
The Trinidadian Trotskyist and Pan-Africanist intellectual who revived the Haitian Revolution for Marxist historiography
“What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?” — Beyond a Boundary preface, inverting Kipling
Trinidadian Marxist historian. The Black Jacobins (1938) reframed the Haitian Revolution as liberation from below. He debated Black self-determination with Trotsky, co-developed the state-capitalist theory of the USSR, and analysed empire through cricket in Beyond a Boundary.
Career timeline
- 1901Born in Tunapuna, Trinidad, first child of schoolteacher Robert Alexander James and Ida Elizabeth
- 1910–1918Wins scholarship to Queen's Royal College; later teaches English and History there (Eric Williams among his pupils)
- 1932Moves to Lancashire; cricket correspondent for The Manchester Guardian; begins anti-colonial writing
- 1934–1936Joins ILP; Trotskyist activism; play Toussaint Louverture staged with Paul Robeson; publishes Minty Alley
- 1937–1938Publishes World Revolution and The Black Jacobins — praised by Trotsky, Orwell, and E.H. Carr
- 1938–1939US speaking tour at SWP invitation; debates the 'Negro Question' with Trotsky in Coyoacán, Mexico
- 1941–1951Forms Johnson–Forest Tendency with Dunayevskaya; state-capitalist analysis of USSR; Notes on Dialectics
- 1953Deported from US; writes Mariners, Renegades and Castaways on Melville while detained at Ellis Island
- 1957–1960Visits independent Ghana, writes on Nkrumah; edits The Nation, PNM party paper in Trinidad
- 1963Publishes Beyond a Boundary — cricket memoir exploring colonialism, class, and race
- 1970–1980Teaches at Federal City College (UDC), Washington D.C.; four volumes of selected writings published
- 1989Dies of chest infection in Brixton, London, aged 88; buried at Tunapuna Cemetery, Trinidad
From Trotsky's secretary to founder of Marxist Humanism
“My real development only began after my break with Trotsky.” — from a 1980s interview
Born to a Jewish family in the Russian Empire, she emigrated to the US as a child. Starting as Trotsky's secretary, she broke with him over the nature of the USSR and co-developed the theory of state capitalism with C.L.R. James. She went on to found Marxist Humanism, fusing Hegelian dialectics with Marx's early writings, and led the News and Letters Committees.
Career timeline
- 1922Emigrates with family to Chicago, USA
- 1928Expelled from CPUSA youth organization for defending Trotskyism
- 1929Joins independent Trotskyist group in Boston led by Antoinette Konikow
- 1937–1938Serves as Trotsky's Russian-language secretary and stenographer in Mexico
- 1939Breaks with Trotsky over the character of the Soviet Union
- 1940Participates in SWP split → formation of the Workers Party
- 1941–1943Forms Johnson–Forest Tendency with C.L.R. James; state-capitalist analysis of USSR
- 1947Returns to the SWP
- 1951Leaves SWP over Korean War; forms Correspondence Publishing Committee
- 1953Studies Hegel's Phenomenology; advances interpretation of absolutes as 'philosophic moment'
- 1955Splits with C.L.R. James; founds News and Letters Committees
- 1958Publishes Marxism and Freedom (preface by Herbert Marcuse)
- 1973Publishes Philosophy and Revolution
- 1982Publishes Rosa Luxemburg, Women's Liberation, and Marx's Philosophy of Revolution
- 1987Dies in Chicago aged 77
