Raya Dunayevskaya
Raya Dunayevskaya
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