Publications Index | Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive


Truth
[Chicago/Detroit]

(1974-2000)


Truth was first published September, 1974, in Chicago. The comrades of Truth had been expelled from the Revolutionary Socialist League (RSL). During the next months, The Truth group met with representatives of the International League/rebuilder of the Fourth International, an international Trotskyist tendency. The Truth group joined the International League in February, 1975, changing its name to the Trotskyist Organization of the United States (TO/US). It continued to publish Truth.

In 1987, the Fourth International (Rebuilt) decided that the rebuilding of the Fourth International had not been successful. The members changed its name back to the International League (IL). The IL began to explore various ways we could collaborate with other Trotskyists.

We responded favorably to an invitation to open discussions about joining Socialist Action. Within months, we joined Socialist Action and dissolved the TO. The merger was not completely successful. Some of us left and we began to publish Truth again in 1988.

An important part of our organizing work since 1974 had been to support or run candidates for local, state and national offices. In the first issue of Truth, we supported Workers League candidates for local office. We had write-in candidates for president and vice-president in the 1976 elections and candidates for Detroit mayor in 1977 and 1981. After leaving SA, Truth was relaunched as a “Trotskyist Bulletin for a labor party” and supported candidates of different Trotskyist groups on the ballot. In 1989, Truth ran a candidate for Detroit City Council in 1989 on the platform: Equality, Labor Party, Socialism.

Labor Party Advocates

Labor Party Advocates was initiated by the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW) in 1989 to build support for a labor party. LPA urged unions to conduct a survey of their membership to see how much support there was for the Democratic and Republican parties and the idea of a labor party. Invariably, the survey showed much support among rank and file workers for a labor party. LPA literature said, “the bosses have two parties, the workers should have one.” Those who wanted a labor party in the United States needed first to win unions to a labor party to provide the organizational support and grounding, and then develop a program and run candidates for public office.

In addition to the survey, LPA mailed an invitation to join LPA to every known union local in the country — some 36,000 locals.

LPA did not want to undermine the current political work of the unions, largely based on electing Democrats. They asked union local political action committees to use the survey among their members. With this approach, LPA grew. LPA won the official backing 7% of organized labor representing over 2 million members — including the largest railway union, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way, (BMWE), as well as the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), and FLOC (the Farm Labor Organizing Committee). Locals of other unions signed on.

In Detroit we developed relations with OCAW members and leaders who were active in LPA. We worked to recruit local leaders who were supportive of a labor party. There was a long-standing tendency among skilled trades in the UAW supporting a labor party. They had elected officers who openly supported a labor party.

Russ Leone, secretary-treasurer of UAW Local 600, came from the Tool and Die unit in the Ford Rouge Complex. He was supportive of a labor party. He arranged for Detroit LPA to hold its monthly organizing meetings at UAW Local 600 as well as informational forums. We soon had assembled a substantial group of labor party activists including UAW local leaders. Detroit had the only local LPA chapter representative on the first LPA Council.

There was a wave of local strikes pushing back against union-busting by corporations. We urged free LPA membership for striking workers. When the workers in Decatur, Illinois went on strike in the early 1990s— the Staley workers of the Allied Industrial Union, the Caterpillar workers of the UAW, and the rubber workers at Bridgestone, LPA supported their efforts. We were able to hold an LPA meeting at the Caterpillar local with LPA leaders with over a hundred striking workers. We signed up workers to LPA. One-third of Decatur was on strike (or locked out). There were handmade signs against economic terrorism all over town. Dave Watts, the president of the Staley workers local, ran for Decatur City Council. Detroit LPAers campaigned door to door in Decatur for him. We reached out to the New Directions movement in the UAW and recruited UAW 599 (Flint Buick local) leaders.

A key struggle for the Labor Party movement was the Detroit Newspapers strike of July 1995.

Detroit LPA members were on the picket lines of the Detroit Newspapers from the beginning with our t-shirts, and literature. We found support and were invited to speak regularly at rallies. We talked to workers over and over again about the labor party. We eventually recruited over fifty striking workers to LPA. A high point of the founding convention of the Labor Party July, 1996 in Cleveland was the appearance of dozens of striking newspaper workers supporting the Labor Party.

In 1995, the International League reached an agreement with Trotskyists from the Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS) in Argentina to form a new international organization. The name of the new organization was Unidad Internationale de los Trabajadores/International Workers Unity (UIT/IWU).

The goal of the new organization was to rebuild the Fourth International through common work and agreements with other Trotskyist organizations. The IWU published International Correspondence in English and Spanish. Through this organization we formed links to revolutionaries in Brazil. We participated in the World Social Forum movement which began in 2001, based organizationally in the Workers Party of Brazil.

The Truth tendency changed the name of its paper to New Life and then later to Socialism! publishing a print publication continuously up to 2000.


 

[This listing below is organized by whole number, not by issue number]

 

Vol. 1, No. 1, September, 1974

Vol. 1, No. 2, October , 1974

Vol. 1, No. 3, November 15, 1974

Vol. 1, No. 4, December 15, 1974

Vol. 2, No. 1, January 13, 1975

Vol. 2, No. 2, February 15, 1975

Vol. 2, No. 3, March 15, 1975

Vol. 2, No. 4, April 15, 1975

Vol. 2, No. 5, May 15, 1975

Vol. 2, No. 6, June 14, 1975

Vol. 2, No. 7, August 3, 1975

Vol. 2, No. 8, August 3, 1975

Vol. 2, No. 9, September 1, 1975

Vol. 2, No. 10, September 15, 1975

Vol. 2, No. 11, September 29, 1975

Vol. 2, No. 12, October 20, 1975

Vol. 2, No. 13, October 24, 1975

Vol. 2, No. 14, November 7, 1975

Vol. 2, No. 15, December 29, 1975

Vol. 3, No. 1, January 16, 1976

Vol. 3, No. 2, April 1, 1976

Vol. 3, No. 3, April 15, 1976

Vol. 3, No. 4, May 3, 1976

Vol. 3, No. 5, May 10, 1976

Vol. 3, No. 6, May 17, 1976

Vol. 3, No. 7, May 24, 1976

Vol. 3, No. 8, June 2, 1976

Vol. 3, No. 9, June 7, 1976

Vol. 3, No. 10, June 14, 1976

Vol. 3, No. 11, June 21, 1976

Vol. 3, No. 31, June 30, 1976

Vol. 3, No. 32, August 9, 1976

Vol. 3, No. 33, August 30, 1976

Vol. 3, No. 34, September 9, 1976

Vol. 3, No. 35, September 15, 1976

Vol. 3, No. 36, September 29, 1976

Vol. 3, No. 37, October 6, 1976

Vol. 3, No. 38, October 27, 1976

Vol. 3, No. 39, November 5, 1976

Vol. 3, No. 40, November 19, 1976

Vol. 3, No. 41, December 16, 1976

Vol. 3, No. 42-43, February 3, 1977

Vol. 4, No. 44, February 24, 1977

Vol. 4, No. 45, March 10, 1977

Vol. 4, No. 46, March 24, 1977

Vol. 4, No. 47, April 25, 1977

Vol. 4, No. 48, May 9, 1977

Vol. 4, No. 49, May 23, 1977

Vol. 4, Supplement, May 14, 1977

Vol. 4, No. 50, June 9, 1977

Vol. 4, Supplement June 18, 1977

Vol. 4, No. 53, July 3, 1977

Vol. 4, No. 52, June 23, 1977

Vol. 4, No. 54, July 28, 1977

Vol. 4, No. 55, August 17, 1977

Vol. 4, No. 56, August 31, 1977

Vol. 4, No. 57, September 16, 1977

Vol. 4, No. 58, September 30, 1977

Vol. 4, No. 59, October 21, 1977

Vol. 4, No. 60, November 4, 1977

Vol. 4, No. 61, November 11, 1977

Vol. 4, No. 62, December 2, 1977

Vol. 4, No. 63, December 16, 1977

Vol. 5, No. 64, January 13, 1978

Vol. 5, No. 65, January 27, 1978

Vol. 5, No. 66, February 10, 1978

Vol. 5, No. 67, February 24, 1978

Vol. 5, No. 68, March 10, 1978

Vol. 5, No. 69, March 24, 1978

Vol. 5, No. 70, April 17, 1978

Vol. 5, No. 71, May 1, 1978

Vol. 5, No. 72, May 12, 1978

Vol. 5, No. 73, May 26, 1978

Vol. 5, No. 74, June 9, 1978

Vol. 5, No. 75, June 23, 1978

Vol. 5, No. 76, July 7, 1978

Vol. 5, No. 76, Jult 7, 1978

Vol. 5, No. 77, July 21, 1978

Vol. 5, No. 78, August 12, 1978

Vol. 5, No. 79, August 25, 1978

Vol. 5, No. 80, September 15, 1978

Vol. 5, No. 81, September 29, 1978

Vol. 5, No. 82, October 13, 1978

Vol. 5, No. 83, October 27, 1978

Vol. 5, No. 84, November 10, 1978

Vol. 5, No. 85, December 9, 1978

Vol. 6, No. 86, January 12, 1979

Vol. 6, No. 87, January 26, 1979

Vol. 6, No. 88, February 23, 1979

Vol. 6, No. 89, February 23, 1979

Vol. 6, No. 90, March 9, 1979

Vol. 6, No. 91, March 23, 1979

Vol. 6, No. 92, April 6, 1979

Vol. 6, No. 93, April 20, 1979

Vol. 6, No. 94, May 18, 1979

Vol. 6, No. 95, June 1, 1979

Vol. 6, No. 96, June 29, 1979

Vol. 6, No. 97, July 13, 1979

Vol. 6, No. 98, July 27, 1979

Vol. 6, No. 99, August 17, 1979

Vol. 6, No. 100, August 31, 1979

Vol. 6, No. 101, September 21, 1979

Vol. 6, No. 102, October 6, 1979

Vol. 6, No. 103, October 19, 1979

Vol. 6, No. 104, November, 1979

Vol. 6, No. 105, November, , 1979

Vol. 6, No. 106, December 7, 1979

Vol. 7, No. 107, January 18, 1980

Vol. 7, No. 108, February 1, 1980

Vol. 7, No. 109, February 18, 1980

Vol. 7, No. 110, February 29, 1980

Vol. 7, No. 111, March 20, 1980

Vol. 7, No. 112, April 6, 1980

Vol. 7, No. 113, April 18, 1980

Vol. 7, No. 114, May 2, 1980

Vol. 7, No. 115, May 23, 1980

Vol. 7, No. 116, June 6, 1980

Vol. 7, No. 117, July 11, 1980

Vol. 7, No. 118, August 22, 1980

Vol. 7, No. 119, September 5, 1980

Vol. 7, No. 120, September 19, 1980

Vol. 7, No. 121, October 3, 1980

Vol. 7, No. 122, October 24, 1980

Vol. 7, No. 123, November 14, 1980

Vol. 7, No. 124, December 12, 1980

Vol. 8, No. 125, January 25, 1981

Vol. 8, No. 126, February 6, 1981

Vol. 8, No. 127, February27, 1981

Vol. 8, No. 128, March 13, 1981

Vol. 8, No. 129, March 27, 1981

Vol. 8, No. 130, April 10, 1981

Vol. 8, No. 131, May 1, 1981

Vol. 8, No. 132, 1981

Vol. 8, No. 133, 1981

Vol. 8, No. 134, 1981

Vol. 8, No. 135, 1981

Vol. 8, No. 136, 1981

Vol. 8, No. 138, 1981

Vol. 8, No. 139, 1981

Vol. 8, No. 140, 1981

Vol. 8, No. 141, 1981

Vol. 8, No. 142, 1981

Vol. 9, No. 143, 1982

Vol. 9, No. 144, 1982

Vol. 9, No. 145, 1982

Vol. 9, No. 146, 1982

Vol. 9, No. 147, 1982

Vol. 9, No. 148, 1982

Vol. 9, No. 149, 1982

Vol. 9, No. 150, 1982

Vol. 9, No. 151, 1982

Vol. 9, No. 152, 1982

Vol. 9, No. 153, 1982

Vol. 9, No. 154, 1982

Vol. 9, No. 155, 1982

Vol. 9, No. 156, 1982

Vol. 9, No. 157, 1982

Vol. 10, No. 158, 1983

Vol. 10, No. 159, 1983

Vol. 10, No. 160, 1983

Vol. 10, No. 161, 1983

Vol. 10, No. 162, 1983

Vol. 10, No. 163, 1983

Vol. 10, No. 164, 1983

Vol. 10, No. 165, 1983

Vol. 10, No. 166, 1983

Vol. 10, No. 167, 1983

Vol. 10, No. 168, 1983

Vol. 10, No. 169, 1983

Vol. 10, No. 170, 1983

Vol. 10, No. 171, 1983

Vol. 10, No. 172, 1983

Vol. 10, No. 173, 1983

Vol. 10, No. 174, 1983

Vol. 10, No. 175, 1983

Vol. 10, No. 176, 1983

Vol. 11, No. 177, 1984

Vol. 11, No. 178, 1984

Vol. 11, No. 179, 1984

Vol. 11, No. 180, 1984

Vol. 11, No. 181, 1984

Vol. 11, No. 182, 1984

Vol. 11, No. 183, 1984

Vol. 11, No. 184, 1984

Vol. 11, No. 185, 1984

Vol. 11, No. 186, 1984

Vol. 11, No. 187, 1984

Vol. 11, No. 188, 1984

Vol. 11, No. 189, 1984

Vol. 11, No. 190, 1984

Vol. 11, No. 191, 1984

Vol. 11, No. 192, 1984

Vol. 11, No. 193, 1984

Vol. 12, No. 194, 1985

Vol. 12, No. 195, 1985

Vol. 12, No. 196, 1985

Vol. 12, N0. 197, 1985

Vol. 12, No. 198, 1985

Vol. 12, No. 199, 1985

Vol. 12, No. 200, 1985

Vol. 12, No. 201, 1985

Vol. 12, No. 202, 1985

Vol. 12, No. 203, 1985

Vol. 12, No. 204, 1985

Vol. 12, No. 206, 1985

Vol. 12, No. 207, 1985

Vol. 13, No. 208, 1986

Vol. 13, No. 209, 1986

Vol. 13, No. 210, 1986

Vol. 13, No. 211, 1986

Vol. 13, No. 212, 1986

Vol. 13, No. 213, 1986

Vol. 13, No. 214, 1986

Vol. 13, No. 215, 1986

Vol. 14, No. 216, 1987

Vol. 14, No. 217, 1987

Vol. 14, No. 218, 1987

Vol. 14, No. 219, 1987

Vol. 14, No. 220, 1987

Vol. 14, No. 221, 1987

Vol. 14, No. 222 1987

Vol. 15, No. 223, 1988

Vol. 15, No. 224, 1988

Vol. 15, No. 225, 1988

Vol. 16, No. 226, 1989

Vol. 16, No. 227, 1989

Vol. 16, No. 228, 1989

Vol. 16, No. 229, 1989

Vol. 16, No. 230, 1989

Vol. 16, No. 231, 1989

Vol. 16, No. 232, 1989

Vol. 16, No. 233, 1989

Vol. 16, No. 234, 1989

Vol. 16, No. 235, 1989

Vol. 17, No. 236, 1990

Vol. 17, No. 237, 1990

Vol. 17, No. 238, 1990

Vol. 17, No. 239, 1990

Vol. 17, No. 240, 1990

Vol. 17, No. 241, 1990

Vol. 17, No. 242, 1990

Vol. 17, No. 243, 1990

Vol. 17, No. 244, 1990

Vol. 17, No. 245, 1990

Vol. 17, No. 246, 1990

Vol. 17, No. 247, 1990

Vol. 17, No. 248, 1990

Vol. 17, No. 249, 1990

Vol. 17, No. 250, 1990

Vol. 18, No. 251, 1991

Vol. 18, No. 252, 1991

Vol. 18, No. 253, 1991

Vol. 18, No. 254, 1991

Vol. 18, No. 255, 1991

Vol. 18, No. 256, 1991

Vol. 18, No. 257, 1991

Vol. 18, No. 258, 1991

Vol. 18, No. 259, 1991

Vol. 18, No. 260, 1991

Vol. 18, No. 261, 1991

Vol. 18, No. 262, 1991

Vol. 18, No. 263, 1991

Vol. 18, No. 264, 1991

Vol. 18, No. 265, 1991

Vol. 18, No. 266, 1991

Vol. 18, No. 267, 1991

Vol. 18, No. 268, 1991

Vol. 18, No. 269, 1991

Vol. 18, No. 270, 1991

Vol. 18, No. 271, 1991

Vol. 18, No. 272, 1991

Vol. 18, No. 273, 1991

Vol. 19, No. 274, 1992

Vol. 19, No. 275, 1992

Vol. 19, No. 276, 1992

Vol. 19, No. 277, 1992

Vol. 19, No. 278, 1992

Vol. 19, No. 279, 1992

Vol. 19, No. 280, 1992

Vol. 19, No. 281, 1992

Vol. 19, No. 282, 1992

Vol. 19, No. 284, 1992

Vol. 19, No. 285, 1992

Vol. 19, No. 286, 1992

Vol. 19, No. 287, 1992

Vol. 19, No. 288, 1992

Vol. 19, No. 289 1992

Vol. 19, No. 290, 1992

Vol. 20, No. 291, 1993

Vol. 20, No. 292, 1993

Vol. 20, No. 293, 1993

Vol. 20, No. 294, 1993

Vol. 20, No. 295, 1993

Vol. 20, No. 296, 1993

Vol. 20, No. 298 1993

Vol. 20, No. 299, 1993

Vol. 20, No. 300, 1993

Vol. 21, No. 301, 1994

Vol. 21, No. 1, 1994

Vol. 21, No. 2, 1994

Vol. 21, No. 3, 1994

Vol. 21, No. 4, 1994

Vol. 21, No. 5, 1994

Vol. 21, No. 6, 1994

Vol. 21, No. 7, 1994

Vol. 21, No. 8, 1994

Vol. 21, No. 9, 1994

Vol. 22, No. 10, 1995

Vol. 22, No. 11, 1995

Vol. 22, No. 12, 1995

Vol. 22, No. 13, 1995

Vol. 22, No. 14, 1995

Vol. 22, No. 15, 1995

Vol. 22, No. 16, 1995

Vol. 22, No. 17, 1995

Vol. 22, No. 18, 1995

Vol. 22, No. 19, 1995

Vol. 22, No. 20, 1995

Vol. 22, No. 21, 1995

Vol. 23, No. 22, 1996

Vol. 23, No. 23, 1996

Vol. 23, No. 24, 1996

Vol. 23, No. 25, 1996

Vol. 23, No. 26, 1996

Vol. 23, No. 27, 1996

Vol. 23, No. 28, 1996

Vol. 23, No. 29, 1996

Vol. 24, No. 30, 1997

Vol. 24, No. 31, 1997

Vol. 24, No. 33, 1997

Vol. 24, No. 32, 1997

Vol. 24, No. 34, 1997

Vol. 24, No. 35, 1997

Vol. 25, No. 36, 1998

Vol. 25, No. 37, 1998

Vol. 25, No. 38, 1998

Vol. 25, No. 39, 1998

Vol. 26, No. 40, 1999

Vol. 26, No. 41, 1999

Vol. 26, No. 42, 1999

Vol. 26, No. 43, 1999

Vol. 27, No. 44, 2000

Vol. 27, No. 45, 2000

 


 

Last updated on 28 May 2020