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Socialism with American Characteristics

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  By Luke Pickrell and Myra Janis. Originally published in Cosmonaut Magazine . Introduction  The Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding in 2019 and signs would appear to augur well for the organization in the coming years. Recently, the party discussed running candidates for office. 1 Membership numbers are rising, 2 and the party credits itself and its allies for the “broad front” that defeated Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. 3 Having abandoned the Democratic Socialists of America, an organization in a crisis of political direction, and gazed upon the desolate expanse that is revolutionary socialism in the United States, some comrades have turned away from the red rose toward the tried and true hammer, sickle, and gear. Unfortunately, these comrades will not have escaped the politics of class collaborationism by fleeing DSA and may find themselves in even hotter water.  The CPUSA marked its centenary with an upd
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Paul Frölich and Rosa Luxemburg

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Paul Frölich’s biography of Rosa Luxemburg is an engrossing and informative read. Far shorter than the perhaps better-known two-part work by J.P. Nettl, the work is no less important for understanding Luxemburg’s life, times, and massive theoretical contributions. I’ve never fully appreciated the importance of Luxemburg’s work until now: it’s one thing to know the laudatory quotes (Frantz Mehring called her “the best brain after Marx,” and Lenin likened her to an eagle sorrowing over all her detractors) and another experience the full power of her thought. Frölich follows Luxemburg’s life from her early years in Poland to a seasoned revolutionary at the end of World War One. Along the way, he describes many important events taking place in European socialism such as the revisionist dispute surrounding Edward Bernstein and the parliamentary entryist debate surrounding Alexandre Millerand. Massive events of world importance loom overhead, including the first and second Russian Revolution
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The International Socialist Organization and ‘Cycles of Splits’

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Over a decade ago, Mike Macnair published an article 1 in the Weekly Worker describing a “slow-motion ‘split’” in the Communist Party of Great Britain - Provisional Central Committee (CPGB-PCC). Three comrades (presumably on the younger side) had left the CPGB without voicing a united or coherent oppositional perspective. One particular comrade had spoken about the difficulty he had experienced forming a coherent oppositional perspective when faced with more experienced members of the majority. The rather confused statement that the comrades would continue to defend the CPGB’s draft program in their new political homes led Macnair to state that, on its face, the departure appeared non-political. The rest of Macnair’s article details the reasons why the split was eminently political. Though a small event, the split demonstrated “core” problems facing the British far left. Macnair’s article led to a reflection on my time in the International Socialist Organisation (ISO) in the United S
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