Publications Index | Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive
The Militant was published in the United States by the Trotskyist movement originally as the US Section of the International Left Opposition, later the Fourth International. Originally this movement was called the “ The Opposition Group” of the Workers (Communist) Party of the America but settled in as the "Communist League of America (Opposition)" by early 1929. The Militant name became The New Militant, in Decenmber of 1934 when the CLA fused with the American Workers Party (lead by A. J. Musty) to form the Workers Party of the United States.
In 1936 The New Militant itself ceased publication during the period the Trotskyists were members of the Socialist Party, with Socialist Appeal, indexed separately here, published in Chicago, becoming the journal of US Trotskyists from 1936 until 1937. A new Socialist Appeal, however, published in New York City by the Trotskyist dominated left-wing branches of the Socialist Party, started publishing first as a tabloid and then a full broadsheet paper of the same name. At this point the Chicago based Socialist Appeal ceased publications, it’s subscriber lists and resources transferred to the New York based version of the paper. This Socialist Appeal then become the organ of the newly established Socialist Workers Party in early 1938 after the Trotskyists were expelled from the the Socialist Party. In 1941 Socialist Appeal becameThe Militant again, organ of the Socialist Workers Party. Each volume listed below will bring the user to an index page showing a table of contents for each issue during the year.
Special thanks goes to the Holt Labor Library for allowing us access to their microfilm and bound volumes of The Militant. Additionally Earl Gilman has provided the ETOL with some bound volumes of the early years of paper from his personal collection.
Toward the Fall and Winter of 2010, the recently organized Riazanov Library, organized by Dr. Marty Goodman, started bringing his hard-copy and microfilm collection online in collaboration with the ETOL. Additionally, the well established Holt Labor Library located in San Francisco began making it’s own massive collection of original hard-copy Militants completely available for this project as well. Some of the early years of The Militant have been placed on line at various web sites previously. They generally do not have quite the high-quality to what the ETOL is being provided by the Riazionov Library scanning center. Eventually we will transcribe these editions of The Militant so they can be better integrated into the ETOL’s database of writers and subjects.
Important note on file resolution and size
The PDF files posted here are compressed (optimized) from the original Riazanov Library scans, and that uncompressed full resolution scans are avialable to all on request, on a hard drive, for no more than cost of media and shipping (or cost of shipping if media... USB 2.0 or 3.0 or ESATA external hard drive in FAT32 or NTFS format... is provided). Please write Martin Goodman at martygoodman (AT) sbcglobal.net.
1928—Volume 1[PDF available]
1929—Volume 2[PDF available]
1930—Volume 3 [PDF available]
1931—Volume 4 [PDF available]
1932—Volume 5 [PDF available]
1933—Volume 6 [PDF available]
1934—Volume 7 [PDF available]
[Transcribers Note: This ends the run of the original The Militant. With the fusion with the Communist League of America with the American Workers Party (lead by A. J. Muste), the new party, the Workers Party of the United States, launched the New Militant. This starts with the Volume 1 Nos. 1 – 3 for December of 1934 in The Militant directory above. The rest of Volume 1 continues through the year 1935, below]
1935—Volume 1 [PDF available]
1936—Volume 2 [PDF available]
[Transcribers Note: This ends the run of the original the New Militant. With the entry of the Workers Party of the United States into the Socialist Party of America, no official publications of the Left Oppositionists was permitted. This lack of publication was partially mitigated by the Chicago based Socialist Appeal edited by Albert Goldman, a supporter of the Trotskyists but someone who entered the SP before the bulk of the Trotskyists from the Workers Party did. In August of 1936, the Trotskyists in the SP organized the New York City based Socialist Appeal which officially was the paper of the "Left Wing Branches of the Socialist Party" but edited by the Trotskyist faction inside the SP.
1937—Volume 1 [PDF – High Resolution Scans: Approx. 30mb each]
1938—Volume 2 [PDF – High Resolution Scans: Approx. 30mb each]
1939—Volume 3[PDF – High Resolution Scans: Approx. 30mb each]
1940—Volume 4 [PDF – High Resolution Scans: Approx. 30mb each]
Please note that this listing continues onto the final 4 issues of Socialist Appeal, Volume 5 for January of 1941. After this date the paper reverts back to The Militant.
1941—Volume 5 [PDF – Optimized Resolution Scans: Approx. 9.5mb each] Please note that Socialist Appeal is combined back into The Militant. beginning a new volume with "Issue No. 5".
1942—Volume 6 [PDF – Optimized Resolution Scans: Approx. 7mb each]
1943—Volume 7 [PDF – Optimized Resolution Scans: Approx. 7mb each]
1944—Volume 8 [PDF – Optimized Resolution Scans: Approx. 7mb each]
1945—Volume 9 [PDF – Optimized Resolution Scans: Approx. 7mb each]
1946—Volume 10 [PDF – Optimized Resolution Scans: Approx. 7mb each]
1947—Volume 11 [PDF – Optimized Resolution Scans: Approx. 7mb each]
1948—Volume 12 [PDF – Optimized Resolution Scans: Approx. 7mb each]
1949—Volume 13 [PDF – Optimized Resolution Scans: Approx. 7mb each]
1950—Volume 14 [PDF – Optimized Resolution Scans: Approx. 7mb each]
1951—Volume 15 [PDF – Optimized Resolution Scans: Approx. 7mb each]
1952—Volume 16 [PDF – Optimized Resolution Scans: Approx. 7mb each]
1953—Volume 17 [PDF – High Resolution Scans: Approx. 30mb each]
1954—Volume 18 [PDF – High Resolution Scans: Approx. 30mb each]
1955—Volume 19 [PDF – High Resolution Scans: Approx. 30mb each]
1956—Volume 20 [PDF – High Resolution Scans: Approx. 30mb each]
1957—Volume 21 [PDF – Optimized Resolution Scans: Approx. 4mb each]
1958—Volume 22 [PDF – Optimized Resolution Scans: Approx. 4mb each]
1959—Volume 23 [PDF – Optimized Resolution Scans: Approx. 7mb each]
1960—Volume 24 [PDF – Optimized Resolution Scans: Approx. 7mb each]
1961—Volume 25 [PDF – Optimized Resolution Scans: Approx. 4-7mb each]
1962—Volume 26 [PDF – Optimized Resolution Scans: Approx. 3.5mb each]
1963—Volume 27 [PDF – Optimized Resolution Scans: Approx. 3.5mb each]
1964—Volume 28 [PDF – Optimized Resolution Scans: Approx. 7.1mb each]
Publications Index | Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive
Last updated on 10 August 2013