A Letter to James P. Cannon [1]¶
Core Argument¶
In this brief letter dated 16 January 1940, Leon Trotsky communicates to James P. Cannon his contempt for an open letter written by Max Shachtman. The core narrative thrust is Trotsky’s immediate and dismissive reaction to Shachtman’s political intervention, which he characterises as “miserable writing.” Trotsky asserts that the sole value of Shachtman’s open letter is that it compelled him to articulate the full truth about Shachtman’s political trajectory. This is a direct, polemical exchange within the factional struggle then tearing apart the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in the United States.
The key claim is that Shachtman’s politics have degenerated to a point requiring a definitive, comprehensive refutation. Trotsky does not elaborate on the content of Shachtman’s letter here, but the context is the bitter split over the nature of the Soviet Union, the Stalinist bureaucracy, and the proper orientation for the Fourth International. Shachtman, along with Burnham, had broken with Trotsky’s position that the USSR was a degenerated workers’ state, arguing instead that it was a new class society or state capitalist. Trotsky’s response, which he mentions is already dictated and awaiting polishing, will be a full-length polemic, comparable in scale to his earlier letter to Burnham. The reference to the Burnham letter situates this within a sequence of factional documents, each escalating the theoretical and organisational rupture.
The historical context is the crisis of American Trotskyism in the late 1930s and early 1940s, following the expulsion of the right opposition and the impending split that would form the Workers Party. Trotsky’s tone is one of exhausted but resolute combat. He offers no substantive argument in this note itself, only a verdict and a promise of a longer reply. The polemic is directed squarely at Shachtman, but by extension at the entire faction that rejected Trotsky’s analysis of the USSR. The letter is notable for its brevity and its blunt, almost weary, dismissal of Shachtman’s political evolution. It functions as a cover note, signalling to Cannon—the leader of the SWP’s pro-Trotsky faction—that the theoretical counter-attack is underway. The letter draws on no new evidence; its weight lies entirely in the authority of Trotsky’s judgment and the impending doctrinal statement.