Prometheus Research Library

Come to the next PRL Red Roundtable in Manhattan on November 13 at 6pm. Marilyn Vogt-Downey, translator and editor of Notebooks for the Grandchildren—Recollections of a Supporter of the Marxist Opposition to Stalin Who Survived the Terror (@histmat), will speak about Mikhail Baitalsky’s memoir, followed by discussion. Baitalsky was a Ukrainian who came of age fighting for the 1917 proletarian socialist revolution in Russia. Baitalsky recounts the Revolution’s hopes, its tragic unraveling under Stalin, and the #Trotskyist Left Opposition’s fight against the political counterrevolution. Baitalsky survived to tell the story of what happened. Email [email protected] to register and for directions.

OTD# the Russian working class conquered state power under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party. The aim was, and is today, world socialist revolution! Celebrate the anniversary of the Russian Revolution with Toscanini conducting the workers anthem, The Internationale, a recording banned by U.S. censors. youtube.com/watch?v=2OPvWFDz…

Our comrade Ed Kartsen died #OTD 2023 (see obituary: iclfi.org/pubs/wv/1180/obit). Ed was a leading comrade in the Spartacist League. He ran for public office, helped direct work in the trade unions, and played a key role in mobilizing union defense guards and the integrated labor movement for labor/black mobilizations that successfully stopped KKK and Nazi terror. Ed developed the Prometheus Research Library’s first online catalogue. Thanks to him, every library book and pamphlet is discoverable by anyone, anywhere in the world. Ed was dedicated to the struggle to abolish the death penalty and free former Black Panther and MOVE supporter Mumia Abu-Jamal. Ed narrated the film clips about Mumia currently featured in the Partisan Defense Committee’s “45 Years in Prison—Free Mumia Now!” posts @PartisanDefense. Honor Ed’s memory by joining the struggle to free Mumia and all class war prisoners. teapawt.net/PartisanDefense/status…

We urge all leftists to follow the Partisan Defense Committee and get involved in the struggle to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, voice of the voiceless and victim of racist police frame-up.

#OTD 1887: John Reed born. Already a well known socialist, Reed was eyewitness to #Bolshevik Revolution and wrote Ten Days that Shook the World. #Lenin hailed it:“Here is a book which I should like to see published in millions of copies and translated into all languages. It gives a truthful and most vivid exposition of the events so significant to the comprehension of what really is the Proletarian Revolution and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.” In 1919, Reed and other leftists expelled from #Socialist Party founded #Communist Party in United States. The next year, he attended Second Congress of Communist International, then Congress of the Peoples of the East in Baku, Azerbaijan, where he got spotted typhus. Due to imperialist blockade he could not receive needed medication and died on October 17, 1920. After a hero's funeral, Reed's body was buried at the Kremlin wall.

This is an excellent episode and we urge everybody to listen and take up these cases.

#OTD 1926, Eugene V. #Debs, a spokesman and candidate for the #Socialist Party, cofounder of the militant Industrial Workers of the World, and opponent of imperialist war, died. Among his last political acts was to support the International Labor Defense, the class-struggle social and legal defense group organized by #Communist Party leader James P. Cannon. Last month, PRL Research Associate Jacob Zumoff (@ZumoffA) recently spoke with the @cleanbreaknow Gimme A Break podcast about Debs' legacy, and what lessons leftists today should draw from his life--and what lessons to NOT draw. In particular, he defended Debs from those "socialists" who support the capitalist Democratic Party, ignoring Debs' lifelong struggle for working-class independence. Listen to "Saving Debs from His Epigones" here: open.spotify.com/episode/2vr…

#OTD 1927, more than 10,000 coal miners in Colorado struck under leadership of Industrial Workers of the World. The IWW organized an elected general strike committee comprising representatives of the ethnic and racial groups among strikers, including Mexican, black, Anglo, Italian, Slavic, and Greek miners. Strikers faced massive repression, culminating in the Columbine Mine Massacre of November 21, when state police fired on 500 picketer, killing six men and injuring at least 20 more strikers. Despite the repression, the strike was a success: even though the workers did not gain all their demands, they obtained a wage increase and ended the strike through a vote in January instead of being smashed. The Communist Party and the International Labor Defense built solidarity with the strike among workers throughout the country, including organizing a protest outside the Standard Oil headquarters in Lower Manhattan after the massacre in November, highlighting the Rockefellers’ role in the Colorado coal industry.

The united front and the popular front--and the differences between the two--are vital issues for the left and the workers movement. We urge everybody interested in these questions to register and attend this class.

This look at the Socialist Workers Party in the United States after the Second World War should be read by all those who are interested in the history of socialism in the United States and internationally--and for those who seek to build a revolutionary movement today. One of the specialties of the PRL is documenting the history of the Trotskyist movement in the United States, including internal material that is not easily available elsewhere, including online. If you are interested in any of the sources mentioned in the article, or in taking a deeper look at the subject, please contact us at [email protected]. iclfi.org/spartacist/en/2026…

PRL Research Associate @ZumoffA will be presenting on the fight of the International Labor Defense to free class-war prisoners Sacco and Vanzetti. We are going to the conference and looking forward to this panel!

The PRL is going to be at the North American Labor History Conference at Wayne State University in Detroit this Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Look for our table! We will also be on the panel 2B on Thursday, 2:15-3:45pm. #NALHC2026 #laborhistory

We have posted the video of our first Red Round table at the PRL featuring Jacob Zumoff discussing the 1926 Passaic strike in New Jersey: youtu.be/FK4AUVziZKI?si=1oBG… During the anti-labor 1920s, some 15,000 workers, largely immigrants and women, struggled for more than a year for better conditions, higher wages, and a union. This was the first mass strike in the United States led by supporters of the Communist Party. Although ultimately defeated, the strike is rich in lessons for the left and labor movement today. @ZumoffA is a research associate of the PRL and author of The Red Thread: The Passaic Textile Strike, published by @RutgersUPress #laborhistory #NJhistory #labor #communism

Just a reminder about our upcoming Red Roundtable in NYC on October 29 at 6pm. Mike Sturza will be discussing his book, The London Revolution, 1640-1643: Class Struggles in 17th Century England. Email [email protected] to register and for location.