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Marxism and the USA

Core Argument

Marxism and the USA sets out to demolish the pervasive myth of American exceptionalism — the claim that the United States is uniquely immune to class struggle, socialist ideas, or revolutionary upheaval. Alan Woods argues that the USA, far from being barren ground for Marxism, possesses a powerful revolutionary heritage stretching back to the War of Independence and the Civil War, and that the American working class is destined to rediscover this tradition and stand once more in the front line of world revolution. The book insists that the same laws of capitalist development and class struggle that Marx and Engels identified globally apply with full force to the United States, and that the Marxist method is indispensable for understanding — and changing — American society.

The central thesis is that American history, compressed into a few intense centuries, was built on the exploitation of African slaves, European indentured servants, Native Americans, and successive waves of immigrants, and that this history is one of class struggle, not consensus. Woods contends that socialism is not a foreign import but has deep indigenous roots in America, predating capitalism itself in the communist formations of Native American societies. The book argues that the American working class, despite periods of defeat and demoralisation, possesses strong industrial militancy and class consciousness, and that the task of Marxists is to recover this revolutionary tradition and build a disciplined leadership capable of channelling it toward the socialist transformation of society.

Overview

The book opens with an extended historical sweep that grounds American revolutionary traditions in the communist societies of Native Americans, whose democratic constitution directly influenced Marx and Engels through Lewis Henry Morgan's work. Woods traces the destruction of these societies as the primitive accumulation of capital — capitalism born "dripping blood from every pore" — and establishes that class struggle existed from the very beginning of European colonisation. The Pilgrim Fathers are presented as left-wing refugees who operated on the principle "from each according to ability, to each according to need," while Bacon's Rebellion of 1676 is identified as the moment when plantation owners replaced white indentured labourers with African slaves, degrading all manual labour and depressing wages.

The analysis of the American Revolution reveals it as a bourgeois revolution that succeeded only because the masses were mobilised, but which immediately consolidated power in the hands of a new oligarchy. Woods argues that the formal political democracy won in the Revolution was from its inception a hollow vessel, its egalitarian rhetoric contradicted by property qualifications, literacy tests, and the entrenchment of wealthy elites. The Jeffersonian ideal of a republic of virtuous small farmers is shown to be already obsolete at its moment of conception, rendered impossible by the capitalist development the Revolution unleashed. The chapter on the Civil War presents it as a second American revolution, in which Northern industrial capital crushed the Southern slave-owning aristocracy through revolutionary methods including the Emancipation Proclamation, the recruitment of black soldiers, and the expropriation of two billion dollars of slave property without compensation.

The book then traces the transformation of the American working class from a reservoir of revolutionary European energy into a force repeatedly crushed by industrial capital. Woods documents the violent suppression of the Knights of Labor, the Molly Maguires, the Great Rail Strike of 1877, the Haymarket martyrs, and the Industrial Workers of the World, arguing that craft unionism under Samuel Gompers represented a step backward — a "labour aristocracy" that Lenin argued was inherently bourgeois. The analysis of imperialism shows the United States entering the scramble for colonies late, seizing an empire through the Spanish-American War and establishing dominance in the Western Hemisphere through the Roosevelt Corollary. The First World War transformed the USA into the world's dominant power, while the Russian Revolution inspired a white terror against labour at home.

The Great Depression is presented as the inevitable convulsion of a capitalist system built on the super-exploitation of an atomised working class, with the New Deal understood as an attempt by far-sighted sections of the ruling class to avert social revolution by opening space for working-class organisation. The Second World War is analysed as a conflict entered not to defend democracy but to protect capitalist interests, with the Soviet Union's planned economy proving decisive in defeating Germany. The post-war period saw American imperialism dominate the world, but the colonial revolution in Vietnam exposed its brutal contradictions, and the anti-war movement radicalised American society from within. The book concludes by arguing that the United States has betrayed its own democratic ideals, becoming a plutocracy where a tiny caste of super-rich executives rules in the interests of capital, and that only socialism can realise the principles of the American Revolution.

Chapter Guide

  1. Front Matter — Establishes the publication details and situates the work as a polemical intervention against American exceptionalism, reinforced by appendices from Trotsky, Engels, and contemporary comrades.
  2. Introduction to the Second Edition — Surveys the changed political landscape since 2008, arguing that Occupy, Black Lives Matter, and the teachers' strikes vindicate Woods's premise that the US is torn by tremendous class contradictions.
  3. Author's Introduction — Frames the book as a corrective to the prejudice that the USA has no revolutionary tradition, attacking both "senseless anti-Americanism" on the left and isolationist fantasies.
  4. "Blood From Every Pore" — Traces America's communist roots in Native American societies and the Pilgrim Fathers, establishing that class struggle existed from the beginning of colonisation.
  5. The American Revolution — Analyses the Revolution as a bourgeois revolution driven by the young bourgeoisie but only succeeding through mass mobilisation, immediately followed by a counterrevolutionary consolidation of oligarchic power.
  6. Rich and Poor — Dismantles the American Dream myth through primary source evidence of horrific industrial conditions, presenting Andrew Jackson as a contradictory figure whose populism masked a hollow alliance with the slavocracy.
  7. The Second American Revolution — Argues the Civil War was a revolutionary class struggle in which Northern capital crushed the slave-owning aristocracy through methods including the Emancipation Proclamation and the expropriation of slave property.
  8. Labor and Capital — Traces the transformation of the American working class from revolutionary European refugees into a force repeatedly crushed by industrial capital, documenting the violent suppression of the Knights of Labor, the IWW, and the Haymarket martyrs.
  9. Imperialism — Analyses the United States' entry into the scramble for colonies, the Spanish-American War, and the white terror against labour that followed the Russian Revolution.
  10. The Great Depression — Presents the Depression as the inevitable convulsion of capitalism, with the New Deal understood as an attempt to avert social revolution by opening space for working-class organisation.
  11. World War II — Argues the US entered the war to protect capitalist interests, that the Soviet Union's planned economy proved decisive, and that the post-war upswing eroded revolutionary traditions in the labour movement.
  12. The Colonial Revolution — Documents the Vietnam War as exposing the brutal contradictions of US imperialism, alongside interventions in Guatemala, Cuba, Chile, and throughout Latin America.
  13. The Soul of America and the Future of Humanity — Argues the US has become a plutocracy where a tiny caste rules in the interests of capital, and that only socialism can realise the principles of the American Revolution.
  14. If America Should Go Communist — Trotsky's 1935 pamphlet arguing that a communist revolution in America would be fundamentally different from the Russian experience due to America's immense wealth and advanced technology.
  15. Address of the International Working Men's Association to Abraham Lincoln — Marx's 1864 address framing the Civil War as a world-historical class struggle with direct implications for the European working class.
  16. The Need for a Labor Party — Engels's 1887 preface arguing that the primary task of the American labour movement is the consolidation of the working class as an independent political force, not doctrinal purity.
  17. Shays's Rebellion and the American Revolution — Analyses the 1786–87 uprising as the most significant popular revolt against the post-revolutionary consolidation of oligarchic power.
  18. When the Socialist Party Was a Factor in US Politics — Examines the Socialist Party of America's rapid growth and fatal weaknesses, arguing it offers crucial lessons for building a Marxist leadership today.
  19. The 75th Anniversary of the 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters Strike — Demonstrates how a revolutionary Marxist leadership transformed a demoralised workforce into a fighting force capable of defeating a united employers' front.
  20. Bibliography — Lists the works cited or consulted, from classic Marxist texts to American histories and literary sources.

Key Concepts

American exceptionalism — The claim that the United States is uniquely immune to class conflict, socialist ideas, or revolutionary upheaval, which the book systematically refutes.

Primitive accumulation — Marx's concept of capitalism's violent birth "dripping blood from every pore," applied to the genocide of Native Americans and the enslavement of Africans.

Second American Revolution — The Civil War understood as a revolutionary class struggle in which Northern industrial capital crushed the Southern slave-owning aristocracy.

Labour aristocracy — The privileged upper stratum of the working class, whose conservative leadership under Gompers and the AFL betrayed the broader class struggle.

Business unionism — The conservative, class-collaborationist approach to trade unionism that accepts capitalism and limits itself to negotiating wages and conditions within the existing system.

Democratic centralism — The organisational principle of a disciplined Marxist party, whose absence in the Socialist Party of America contributed to its fatal weaknesses.

Class-struggle unionism — The militant approach to trade union organisation that prioritises rank-and-file democracy, solidarity, and independent political action over collaboration with employers.

Permanent revolution — Trotsky's theory that in backward countries, the bourgeois-democratic tasks can only be accomplished through the dictatorship of the proletariat, which the book applies to understanding the American Revolution's unfinished character.

Chapters

20 chapters