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From New Militant, Vol. II No. 22, 6 June 1936, p. 1.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
The Cleveland convention of the Socialist Party has brought to an organizational climax the internal struggle which had arisen out of the Leftward development in the party. The break with the Old Guard shifts the center of gravity to the Left and facilitates the growth and activity of the party. This, as well as the militant position the party has taken on the crucial question of imperialist war, confronts revolutionary workers throughout the country with a new situation. The composition of the Socialist Party today is no longer what it was under the domination of the Old Guard. Into its ranks have entered a new generation of class-conscious militants, inspired by the spirit of the class struggle, who want to make the party a party of revolutionary Marxism. They represent a movement of great potentialities for the cause of a mass party of socialist revolution in the United States.
The Workers Party, formed to advance the interests of revolutionary internationalism, cannot stand apart from this movement. It is fully conscious of the tremendous importance of this movement for the future of the American and international working class and of the fact that this movement can be advanced more speedily and consistently in the direction in which it has traveled only by the closest, most loyal and direct contact with it.
Unlike the Communist (Stalinist) Party, which has sunk deeper and deeper into the mire of reformism and social-patriotism, the Socialist Party has freed itself from the strangulating domination of the Right wing and has advanced towards the position of revolutionary Marxism on a number of basic questions, notably on the question of war, the central question of our time.
Unlike the Communist Party, in which the bureaucracy has stifled every last remnant of party democracy, outlawing all views contrary to those imposed upon the ranks by an appointed officialdom, the Socialist Party openly takes a stand for internal democracy, welcomes revolutionists into its ranks and offers the possibility of putting forward in its midst the rounded views of consistent revolutionary Marxism.
At its last convention, the National Committee of the Workers Party was instructed to follow closely the developments within the Socialist Party and was given full power to take appropriate action in the event of a favorable outcome of the internal struggle. By virtue of this authority, the National Committee herewith decides to dissolve the Workers Party as a separate organization and calls upon all its members to enter the ranks of the Socialist Party of America. It appeals to all revolutionary workers to follow this example.
The comrades who have been grouped in the Workers Party join not as a separate faction, and take their places side by side with the militant fighters in the ranks of the S.P. with the aim of building it into a mass party of revolutionary socialism. We aim to work loyally and devotedly in the ranks of the Socialist Party and to observe discipline in action. We enter the Socialist Party as we are, with our ideas. We assume all the obligations and duties of party membership and ask no special privileges. On the basis of equal duties and equal rights we obligate ourselves to work loyally and devotedly to build the Socialist Party into a powerful, united organization in the revolutionary struggle for socialism.
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NATIONAL COMMITTEE, |
The National Committee of the Spartacus Youth League endorses the declaration of the Workers Party. By the authority of the last convention, the National Committee hereby formally dissolves the Spartacus Youth League and calls upon all its members and sympathizers to take their place in the ranks of the Young People’s Socialist League.
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NATIONAL COMMITTEE, |
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