Albert Goldman (politician)

Goldman in 1942

Albert Goldman (1897–1960) was a Belarusian-born American political and civil rights lawyer, closely associated with the American communist movement. Goldman broke with the mainline Communist Party, USA in 1933, joining the Trotskyist opposition, in which he would be a leading participant for the better part of the next two decades. Goldman is best remembered as a defendant and lead defense attorney in the 1941 Smith Act prosecution of the leadership of the Socialist Workers Party.

For opposing America's involvement in World War II, Goldman was sentenced to 16 months in prison.

Background

Albert Goldman was born of Jewish parents in 1897 in the Minsk oblast of today's Belarus, then part of the Russian empire. The family emigrated to the United States in 1904, when Albert was 7, settling in the Midwestern metropolis of Chicago.

Goldman attended elementary and secondary school in Chicago before leaving for Cincinnati to study to become a rabbi at Hebrew Union College. Goldman left before completing his rabbinical studies and transferred to the University of Cincinnati, where he captained the collegiate basketball team and ran track.

Following his graduation from college in 1919, Goldman worked as a tailor. He came into contact with the radical movement in this occupation, first joining the Industrial Workers of the World and shortly thereafter the newly formed Communist Party of America. Goldman made use of the pseudonym "Albert Verblin," under which name he wrote a polemic pamphlet answering a 1921 book by Socialist Party leader Morris Hillquit entitled From Marx to Lenin.

Goldman went on to study at the Northwestern University Law School, from which he graduated in 1925.

Career

CPUSA

Following his admission to the Illinois State Bar, Goldman opened a legal practice in Chicago and began several years of close association with International Labor Defense (ILD), the legal defense organization of the Communist Party. On behalf of the ILD, Goldman participated in a series of cases defending political radicals and trade union activists who had run afoul of the law.

In 1931 Goldman made a trip to the Soviet Union, an experience which he found disillusioning. Goldman's intellectual unease grew and he became connected with the Trotskyist opposition movement, leading to Goldman's expulsion from the Communist Party, USA in 1933.

Trotskyism

Mexico 1937; left to right: Jean van Heijenoort, Goldman, Leon Trotsky, Natalia Sedova, Jan Frankel

After his expulsion from the CPUSA, Goldman joined the Communist League of America (CLA), the small Trotskyist opposition party headed by James P. Cannon and Max Shachtman. He worked as an attorney on behalf of the Trotskyist movement, representing the CLA-led Minneapolis Teamsters strikers in 1934.

Goldman was an early advocate of dissolution of the party and entrance into the Socialist Party of America (SPA) in an effort to unite the anti-Stalinist left and to radicalize that organization. He was unable to win support for this position, however, so he severed his connection with the Trotskyists to himself join the SPA. In 1935 he established a mimeographed periodical called The Socialist Appeal as part of his effort to radicalize the Socialist Party.

It was not long before Goldman's idea of entry into the social democratic movement in an effort to unite and radicalize it had won currency in the international Trotskyist movement in accordance with the so-called "French Turn". The Trotskyists and their organizational allies associated with A. J. Muste, who had worked together in a new organization called the American Workers Party, dissolved their organization and entered the Socialist Party en masse.

Goldman became the attorney for Leon Trotsky, in exile in Mexico City, and defended him there in April 1937 against the charges leveled against him by the regime of Joseph Stalin in hearings conducted before a commission headed by liberal educator John Dewey. Goldman also served as an intermediary for Trotsky in the transfer of his personal and political archive to the library at Harvard University.

Goldman's Socialist Appeal became the semi-official organ of the organized Trotskyist faction inside the SPA up until their expulsion late in 1937 and their establishment of a new organization called the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in 1938.

Smith Act trial

In 1941, Goldman was a defendant as well as chief defense counsel in the Minneapolis trial of top Socialist Workers Party leaders accused of violating the Smith Act—a prosecution pushed owing to the SWP's continuing opposition to American participation in World War II. The defendants in this case were convicted and served prison terms ranging from 12 to 16 months. Goldman received a 16-month sentence.

While in prison, Goldman worked with Felix Morrow to develop criticisms of the SWP and Fourth International leaderships. They claimed that predictions of a revolutionary wave after World War II had been proved incorrect, and that Stalinism, far from being destroyed (as Trotsky had predicted) had been strengthened. They also became critical of the party's organizational structures. The pair were only able to convince a small minority of the party of their positions, although this included key figures including Jean Van Heijenoort and James T. Farrell.

После освобождения из тюрьмы в 1943 году Гольдмана лишили права заниматься юридической практикой. Он был вынужден открыть бизнес по прокату автомобилей, чтобы оплачивать счета, пока работал над реадмиссией в коллегию адвокатов Иллинойса. Ему не удалось восстановиться в коллегии адвокатов до 1956 года, всего за несколько лет до его смерти.

Послевоенный

После выхода из тюрьмы Гольдман вернулся к своей роли среди лидеров Социалистической рабочей партии. Однако постепенно он разочаровывался, пока в 1946 году он и небольшая группа последователей не бросили возглавляемую Кэнноном СРП и не присоединились к конкурирующей Рабочей партии , которую с 1940 года возглавлял Макс Шахтман.

Голдман баллотировался на политический пост в 1947 году, вступив в гонку за пост мэра Чикаго при поддержке Рабочей партии.

Внутри Рабочей партии Голдман тесно сотрудничал с Джеймсом Т. Фарреллом. В 1948 году пара выступила с критикой своей политики, заявив, что партия должна поддержать план Маршалла , а также президентскую кампанию социалиста Нормана Томаса . Расхождение этих взглядов с партийным большинством послужило толчком к выходу из Рабочей партии в 1949 году. Гольдман стал номинальным членом Социалистической партии после выхода из Рабочей партии, но на практике период его активного участия в радикальной политике подошел к концу после его выхода из организации Шахтмана.

Смерть

К концу 1950-х годов у Голдмана возникли проблемы со здоровьем, что привело к его смерти от рака в 1960 году.

Наследие

Документы Голдмана хранятся в Историческом обществе штата Висконсин , расположенном на территории кампуса Университета Висконсина в Мэдисоне .

Работает

• Борьба за власть: с пролетарской точки зрения. В роли Альберта Верблина. Нью-Йорк: Рабочая образовательная лига, без даты [ок. 1921].
• Обвинение: Беспорядки; Вердикт: не виновен!: обращение к присяжным Альберта Гольдмана, прокурора Международной организации труда. Чикаго: Международная организация защиты труда, округ Чикаго, без даты [1932].
• От коммунизма к социализму: лекция, прочитанная перед шестым отраслевым форумом Социалистической партии округа Кук в Конгрессе, 7 декабря 1934 года. nc [Чикаго?]: np, 1935.
• Что такое социализм?: Три лекции для рабочих. Нью-Йорк: Издательство Pioneer, 1938.
• Убийство Льва Троцкого: доказательства вины Сталина. Нью-Йорк: Издательство Pioneer, 1940.
• Почему мы защищаем Советский Союз. Нью-Йорк: Издательство Pioneer, 1940.
• Правда о суде над 28-ми в Миннеаполисе: речь защиты. Нью-Йорк: Издательство Pioneer, 1942.
• В защиту социализма: официальный протокол судебного заседания заключительной речи Альберта Гольдмана в защиту на знаменитом судебном процессе о «подстрекательстве» в Миннеаполисе. Нью-Йорк: Издательство Pioneer, 1942.
• Вопрос об единстве Рабочей партии и Социалистической рабочей партии. Лонг-Айленд-Сити: Рабочая партия, 1947.

Дальнейшее чтение

• Уолд, Алан М. (1987). Нью-йоркские интеллектуалы: взлет и упадок антисталинистских левых сил с 1930-х по 1980-е годы . Издательство Университета Северной Каролины. ISBN  0-8078-4169-2 .

Внешние ссылки

• Архив Альберта Гольдмана , Интернет-архив марксистов
• Социалистический призыв (Чикаго, 1935–37), « Интернет-архив марксистов, указатель содержания и полный набор полных PDF-файлов».