Jay Lovestone and James P. Cannon were in the very top leadership of the Communist Party together throughout the 1920s, and bitter factional enemies since 1919. Both were expelled from the International within a year and leading ‘Right’ and ‘Left’ external oppositions in 1934 when they engaged in one more debate. After the victory of Nazism in March, 1933, the ‘Third Period’ was quickly abandoned, in practice if not in theory, and many of the ‘ultra left’ criticisms of Lovestone’s International Communist Opposition were assuaged. Crucially, the ‘Red Union’ position was dropped, with Lovestone’s Communist Party (Opposition) heavily involved in leadership of AFL unions at the time. The ICO also had a policy not to publicly criticize the Soviet internal regime while the International Left Opposition, represented by Cannon, began their critique of the Comintern with a critique of the Soviet regime. At the same time the ILO felt the Comintern’s dramatic shift from ‘class against class’ toward international diplomacy to combat fascism, resulting in the U.S.S.R. joining the League of Nations (34) and signing security pact with France (35), was a betrayal too far. Cannon and the Trotskyists began calling for a ‘Fourth International’ and, no longer seeing themselves as an external opposition, soon began negotiations with Muste’s American Workers Party. Lovestone’s group would remain the ‘Communist Party (Opposition)’ until increasing criticism of the International after the Popular Front  and especially the Spanish Civil War, combined with the Moscow Trials and executions including of ‘Right’ leaders Bukharin and Rykov, led them to rebrand themselves as the Independent Communist Labor League in June, 1937 and the Independent Labor League of America in August, 1938, with almost the entire leadership going over to Cold War anti-Communism well before the Cold War. Two brief accounts of this debate from The Militant (claiming 1500 in attendance) and Workers Age (claiming 1200).

‘Cannon and Lovestone Debate Internationals’ from Workers Age and The Militant. March 5, 1934.

‘Big Crowd At Debate’ from The Militant. Vol. 7 No. 10. March 10. 1934.

Before an audience of 1500 the debate which the Lovestone group had so long evaded occurred. In a packed hall, on Monday evening. March 5th at the Irving Plaza the representative of the Communist Party (Opposition), Jay Lovestone, defended the position of the reform of the Communist International, while James P. Cannon, representing the Communist League, spoke for the formation of the Fourth International. Sidney Hook acted as chairman. At the conclusion of the debate the question which stood outstanding was why the Lovestone group was outside the ranks of the Stalinist party, since such warm defenders of the Stalinist Comintern really deserved to hold a place within it.

Lovestone maintained that with some tactical reforms in the line of the Comintern it could be made to serve the interests of the proletarian revolution,

Cannon in an annihilating reply showed how Lovestone completely ignored the significance of the great events which had occurred internationally in the last year, that Lovestone could just as well have made the same speech two or three years ago with no change. From the rise of Hitler to power in Germany, from the tragic defeat of the Austrian workers in their desperate attempt to defend themselves against Fascism, Lovestone was incapable of drawing any Marxist conclusions. In these events not only social democracy, but also Stalinism had demonstrated Its bankruptcy and impotence. Does the working class need the victory of Fascism in a few more countries before the revolutionists will be convinced of the necessity of a new International?

“Yes, it is true, the Communist International has made many mistakes of an ultra-Left character”, said Lovestone, “but it is getting better”. Cannon had merely to point to the decisions of the 13th) plenum of the Comintern which endorsed the whole disastrous course in Germany and to the native Stalinists with their hooligan actions at the recent Madison Square meeting to finish this ridiculous assertion. Stalinism, said Cannon, does not follow only an ultra-Left course but also a Right opportunist one as was manifested in the referendum with the Fascists in Germany, and the agreement to refrain from criticism of the social democrats in the united front manifesto of March 1933.

As to the program of the Fourth International, Cannon stated, it won’t have any innovations, but will stand on the foundation of the first four congresses if the Communist International and the revolutionary experiences of the last ten years. In other words, on the ideas of Marx and Lenin. Lovestone’s attempt to make of the International Communists opponents of the Soviet Union because they fight the Stalinist bureaucracy collapsed dismally. Marxist revolutionists could not be silenced and prevented from speaking the truth by such methods.

Is it to be expected, asked Cannon, that the Stalinist parties which so miserably capitulated before Fascism would be capable of defending the Soviet Union against the attacks of the imperialist bourgeoisie? The answer is obvious. They would prove just as bankrupt. For the defense of the Soviet Union it is necessary the creation of new Communist Parties and a new Communist International. -G.R.

‘Lovestone-Cannon Debate Draws 1200’ from Workers Ages. Vol. 3 No. 5. March 15, 1934.

New York City. Over 1,200 workers filled the large Irving Plaza Hall to hear Lovestone and Cannon debate the issue–“The Crisis In The Communist International”.

Jay Lovestone, for the Communist Opposition defended the position of reforming and unifying the Communist International. He portrayed the utter collapse of the whole edifice of ultra leftism as constructed by the Comintern; analyzed the debacle in Germany as a defeat for tactical line of the Comintern but of bankruptcy of the principles of Social-democracy. Pointing out that despite the ruinous tactical course, the C.I. has not departed from the fundamental premise of Communism, he insisted that no principle base exists for establishing a new or “Fourth International” and that efforts to establish such are based on an approach to centrism.

Cannon, speaking for a “Fourth International”, was exceptionally eloquent in his attacks against the Soviet Union. To Cannon the Ccmintern is no longer a problem since it has completely disappeared. The Bolshevik Party is no longer that, the mantle of Bolshevism being confined to the Trotsky supporters only and they, he said, were in the Russian jails. The Dictatorship of the Proletariat has become merely a “parasitic growth” and the leadership of the C.P.S.U. was characterized as “these Russian scoundrels.”

The main issues clarified in this debate were: The basically anti-communist character upon which the “Fourth International” is being based and the viciously anti-soviet character of present-day Trotskyism.

PDF of The Militant: https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/themilitant/1934/mar-10-1934.pdf

PDF of Workers Age: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/workers-age/1934/v3n05-mar-15-1934-WA.pdf