by Suzanne Berliner Weiss
On April 22, 2021, I gave the following short talk in honour of James P. Cannon (1890–1974), an outstanding socialist leader who helped found the U.S. Communist movement in 1919 and subsequently became a central leader of Trotskyism on a world scale.
My talk is based on my experience as personal secretary to Jim Cannon during the last two years of his life. In the discussion period, I referred to Cannon’s many volumes of speeches, letters, and articles available from Pathfinder Press (see below).
In the discussion after the presentations, I strongly suggested studying Socialism on Trial and Defense Policy in the Minneapolis Trials, in which Cannon provides a popular introduction to and defense of the ideas of revolutionary Marxism. One outstanding one lesson is how the working class looks at its battles against the system of capitalism. The majority of these struggles are for their alienable rights as human beings and as members of a society. Cannon explained that workers looked at the Russian revolution not as an insurrection but as a defense of these rights.
My years with Cannon are also discussed in my memoir, Holocaust to Resistance, pp. 154-9. See also James P. Cannon on Defensive Formulations and the Organization of Action
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I met James P. Cannon in 1960 when his partner Rose Karsner invited me to their home for a chat. Jim gave a cordial hello and listened while Rose asked me about my student activism for Cuba and Black freedom. She was also interested in my background, which was similar to hers – the Jewish community in Eastern Europe. Rose was highly regarded by the party as one of its founders and as a serious organizer well versed in the theories of Marx.
A decade later, I served as Jim Cannon’s personal secretary. Rose had recently died of cancer. The impact of this blow was of great concern to Jim’s comrades. They convinced Jim to review his life’s work in speeches, writings, and letters, which were consequently published in several volumes. I was the fourth person to serve as his full-time assistant. In addition, two male comrades lived with him and provided companionship in the evenings.
When I joined the household, Jim was 82. Physically frail, and suffering from emphysema, he exuded an air of dignity.
Visitors came from time to time, and Jim greeted them with pleasure. He was glad to hear reports of developments in his party. He welcomed varying points of view.
Jim, first and foremost, championed the working class, and its international efforts. In his conversations, Jim seethed over the crimes of capitalism. He watched the Watergate corruption scandal, which led to Richard Nixon’s demise. He cheered Nixon’s downfall and even more the way the disgrace exposed the deceptions of the supposedly democratic political apparatus.
Jim bemoaned Israel’s mistreatment of the Palestinian people. What a terrible turn Israel was foisting on the Jewish people. In their name — the Israeli government was abusing the calamity of the Holocaust and acting criminally against the innocent Palestinians and Arab peoples.
Jim no longer had the energy to review his remaining personal papers, but he agreed to be interviewed by Harry Ring, a party writer and activist whom Jim had known since the thirties. Jim was gratified by the leading role his young comrades took in social movements, particularly against the war, in the Black freedom movement, and women’s liberation.
To gain more insight into the man, Harry tried to get Jim to talk about himself, but Jim was reticent. Finally, Jim softened a little and mentioned a number of small personal incidents highlighting his own inadequacies and regretting his own behaviour. He liked to repeat the dictum, — “Man know thyself.” — Then he would add, “Man forget thyself.” — I identified with that. It threw a light on the unselfish focus in his dedication to improving the human condition.
Jim’s books, articles, and speeches are guides to apply Marxism’s dialectical method in the US and Canada. — It was an honour to have had a close link with this great giant of labour and socialism.
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Books by James P. Cannon:
Published by Pathfinder Press:
The Coming American Revolution
America’s Road to Socialism
The Communist League of America: Writings 1932-34
The First Ten Years of American Communism
The Left Opposition in the US: Writings 1928-31
Letters from Prison
Notebook of an Agitator
Speeches to the Party
Socialism on Trial
The Socialist Workers Party in World War II
Speeches for Socialism
The Struggle for a Proletarian Party
Published by Resistance Books:
Building the Revolutionary Party
Fighting to Socialism In the ‘American Century’
The Revolutionary Party: Its Role In the Struggle for Socialism
Prometheus Research Library
Dog Days: James P. Cannon vs. Max Shachtman in the Communist League of America, 1931-1933
Early Years of American Communism: Selected Writings and Speeches, 1920-28