Trotskyists on Trial: Free Speech and Political Persecution Since the Age of FDR

Culture, Labor, History Series

by Donna Haverty-Stacke

Passed in June 1940, the Smith Act was a peacetime anti-sedition law that marked a dramatic shift in the legal definition of free speech protection in America by criminalizing the advocacy of disloyalty to the government by force. It also criminalized the acts of printing, publishing, or distributing anything advocating such sedition and made it illegal to organize or belong to any association that did the same. It was first brought to trial in July 1941, when a federal grand jury in Minneapolis indicted twenty-nine Socialist Workers Party members, fifteen of whom also belonged to the militant Teamsters Local 544. Eighteen of the defendants were convicted of conspiring to overthrow the government.

Examining the social, political, and legal history of the first Smith Act case, this book focuses on the tension between the nations cherished principle of free political expression and the demands of national security on the eve of America s entry into World War II.

Based on newly declassified government documents and recently opened archival sources, Trotskyists on Trial explores the implications of the case for organized labor and civil liberties in wartime and postwar America. The central issue of how Americans have tolerated or suppressed dissent during moments of national crisis is not only important to our understanding of the past, but also remains a pressing concern in the post-9/11 world. This volume traces some of the implications of the compromise between rights and security that was made in the mid-twentieth century, offering historical context for some of the consequences of similar bargains struck today."

Genres: Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 8, 2016

Reviews

[Cool_guy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting rundown of the prosecution and conviction of the leadership of the Socialist Workers Party under the 1940 Smith Act, which penalized advocating the overthrow of the government. The trial took place in the shadow of the Second World War. The federal government was, at best, uneasy with the Communist Party, but they weren’t about to go after them while the Soviet Union was fighting the Nazis. So, they went after the SWP instead.

The SWP was the first to be prosecuted under the new law. The party was the ideal guinea pig: it was Trotskyist, relatively small, geographically concentrated in Minneapolis and New York City, and hated by just about every labor and left-wing institution in the country. The SWP’s base of power was the Minneapolis Teamsters’ union, and while they had organized that union so effectively that it essentially controlled the Minneapolis labor market, the head of the International, Dan Tobin, wasn’t happy that it was run by a bunch of Reds. Industry opposed the union for obvious reasons, and the Communist Party demanded that the prosecution model its case against the SWP on the Moscow Trials.

Instead, the federal government used the SWP case as a test run for its later prosecution of the Communist Party in 1949. Eighteen members of the SWP leadership were sent to prison in 1944 after they had exhausted their appeals.

When they were released 16 months later, the party was permanently weakened. The unions cooperated with the federal government’s assault on the left, eagerly purging open Communists from their leadership ranks.

We know the story. The American left would endure 50 years of persecution, surveillance, and sectarian bickering—helped along by the FBI, certainly, but far from entirely caused by it. The labor movement rode the wave of what the French call the Thirty Glorious Years, only to be crushed by the neoliberal counterattack.

I hesitate to say this book provides lessons for the left to draw on in the conflicts to come. In spite of Trump, things are looking better for organized labor lately (note that I didn’t say good). But recent successes will likely be tested soon.

The mechanisms governing union negotiations are likely to be dismantled by the 26-year-old "children" Elon has brought in to reorganize the government. The crackdown that began under Biden against pro-Palestinian protests will likely extend to the entire left. These battles won’t be fought in the courtroom. I also doubt repression will come at the hands of jackbooted thugs. It will be cruder, stupider, and very unorganized.

[Marc Lichtman · Rating 1 out of 5]

I lost my review of this, so just let me say that you'll learn more and get more enjoyment from reading Teamster Bureaucracy and Socialism on Trial: Testimony at Minneapolis Sedition Trial.