George Lavan Weissman
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George Lavan Weissman (December 14, 1916 – March 28, 1985) was an American Marxist activist, journalist, and Socialist Workers Party leader.


Early life

Weissman was born in Chicago and grew up in Boston, where he was educated at
Boston Latin School The Boston Latin School is a Magnet school, magnet Latin schools, Latin Grammar schools, grammar State school, state school in Boston, Massachusetts. It has been in continuous operation since it was established on April 23, 1635. It is the old ...
. There he served as an assistant business manager of the Boston School Register, the student newspaper. Following this, he attended
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
, where he became active in the Marxist circles and joined the Young People's Socialist League. After the expulsion of the Trotskyists from the
Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...
in 1938, he was a founding member of the Socialist Workers Party in 1938, along with Larry Trainor and Antoinette Konikow, among others. During the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
, Weissman attempted to go to Spain to fight with the Loyalists but was prevented by the theft of his money while he was traveling to Algeria. In 1941, Weissman was drafted into the army. In 1943 at the
USO The United Service Organizations Inc. (USO) is an American nonprofit-charitable corporation that provides live entertainment, such as comedians, actors and musicians, social facilities, and other programs to members of the United States Armed F ...
canteen in New Jersey, he met Constance Fox Harding, a wealthy New York society leader, who was volunteering there. They were married in September, after Constance received a divorce in June from her husband, William Barclay Harding. Following their marriage, Constance joined the SWP and remained a party member and Trotskyist until her death in 1971.


Political activism

Weissman began his work with the SWP as a branch organizer in Boston and Youngstown between 1939 and 1946. He then moved to New York, where he served as the editor and director of the SWP's publishing operations Pioneer Publishers and
Pathfinder Press Pathfinder, Path Finder or Pathfinders may refer to: Aerospace * ''Mars Pathfinder'', a NASA Mars Lander * NASA Pathfinder, a high-altitude, solar-powered uncrewed aircraft * Space Shuttle ''Pathfinder'', a Space Shuttle test simulator Arts and ...
until 1981. In addition, he also worked as a manager of Mountain Spring Camp in New Jersey, a vacation retreat for the SWP that also hosted a training school for the Marxist education of new members. The land for the camp had been purchased in 1948 by Constance Weissman and donated to the party. He also worked as the business manager and editor for ''
The Militant ''The Militant'' is a socialist newsweekly connected to the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and the Pathfinder Press. It is published in the United States and distributed in other countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Franc ...
'', the SWP's daily newspaper. During his editorship, the newspaper attracted national controversy for its involvement in the Kennedy assassination, as
Lee Harvey Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963. Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at age 12 for truan ...
was revealed to be a subscriber. Following the assassination of Kennedy, the SWP's Political Committee met at Weissman's house to decide on a public response, given the party's role as leftist critics of Kennedy. Although he was open about his Trotskyist beliefs and party membership, Weissman was one of SWP members named by Herbert Hill to the FBI. In addition to his party work, Weissman was active in civil rights activism and helped found the committee to Combat Racial Injustice (CCRI), and served as its secretary. The Committee worked to aid James Hanover Thompson and David Simpson who were falsely accused and jailed in the 1958
Kissing Case The Kissing Case was the arrest, conviction and lengthy sentencing of two prepubescent African-American boys in 1958 in Monroe, North Carolina. A white girl kissed each of them on the cheek and later told her mother, who accused the boys of rap ...
in Monroe, North Carolina. In 1964, the FBI created a poem accusing Weissman of stealing money from the home of A.E. Perry, the Monroe head of the committee to Aid Monroe Defendants. According to Nelson Blackstock, this gives Weissman “the dubious distinction of being the first publicly known subject of an FBI poem”. Copies of this poem were mailed by the FBI to nine prominent political figures including
James Baldwin James Arthur Baldwin (né Jones; August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer and civil rights activist who garnered acclaim for his essays, novels, plays, and poems. His 1953 novel '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'' has been ranked ...
,
Harold Cruse Harold Wright Cruse (March 8, 1916 – March 26, 2005) was an American academic who was a social critic and teacher of African American studies at the University of Michigan until the mid-1980s. ''The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual'' (1967) ...
, and
Tim Wohlforth Timothy Andrew Wohlforth (May 15, 1933 – August 23, 2019), was a United States Trotskyist leader. On leaving the Trotskyist movement he became a writer of crime fiction and of politically oriented non-fiction. As a student, Wohlforth joined th ...
.


Party expulsion and later life

Following Constance's 1972 death, George married Muriel Gravelle McAvoy in 1973. (McAvoy was the widow of
American Labor Party The American Labor Party (ALP) was a political party in the United States established in 1936 that was active almost exclusively in the state of New York. The organization was founded by labor leaders and former members of the Socialist Party of ...
candidate
Clifford T. McAvoy Clifford Thomas McAvoy (October 30, 1904 – August 9, 1957) was an American politician and activist with the American Labor Party. Biography McAvoy was born in New York, the son of John V. McAvoy, a Justice on the New York State Supreme Court, ...
.) In 1984, Weissman was expelled from the SWP. The party, under the leadership of Jack Barnes, had turned away from Trotskyist ideas of
permanent revolution Permanent revolution is the strategy of a revolutionary class pursuing its own interests independently and without compromise or alliance with opposing sections of society. As a term within Marxist theory, it was first coined by Karl Marx and ...
and attempted to follow the model of the Cuban revolution and
Castroism ("Fidelism" in English), otherwise known as Castroism, consists of the personal beliefs of Fidel Castro, which were often anti-imperialist, Cuban nationalist, supportive of Hispanidad, and later Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist. Castro ...
. This shift proved controversial for older SWP members such as Weissman, who were expelled following their protests of the Party's new direction. During a confrontation with Barnes and other members, Weissman defended himself, declaring “I’m a Trotskyist; I still believe in Permanent Revolution and I refuse to regress to the Democratic Dictatorship of the Proletariat and Peasantry." Following his break with the SWP, Weissman joined fellow expelled members, such as
George Breitman George Breitman (February 28, 1916 – April 19, 1986) was an American political activist, author, and publisher affiliated with the Trotskyist movement. He was a founding member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and a long-time editor of it ...
and
Frank Lovell Frank Lovell (July 24, 1913 – May 1, 1998) was an American Communism, communist politician. Lovell was born in Ipava, a town situated in the farming district of Illinois. Lovell studied psychology at the University of California in Berkeley, ...
, to form the
Fourth Internationalist Tendency The Fourth Internationalist Tendency (FIT) was a public faction of the Socialist Workers Party (US), formed after the 1983 expulsion from that organization of a group of supporters of the Fourth International. While the SWP was not formally affili ...
, a group arguing against the SWP's approach towards Trotskyism and Cuba.


Publications

In addition to articles and editorials for ''The Militant'' (written under the penname George Lavan), Weissman was the editor of two books. In 1967, he published ''Che Guevara Speaks'', the first English anthology of
Guevara Guevara is a surname of Basque origin. Notable people with the surname include: * Amado Guevara (born 1976), Honduran football (soccer) player * Álvaro Guevara (1894–1951), Chilean painter * Ander Guevara (born 1997), Spanish footballer for Rea ...
’s writings and speeches. In 1980, Weissman published ''The Balkan Wars, 1912-13: The War Correspondence of Leon Trotsky.''  In addition, Weissman was a friend of
Betty Shabazz Betty Shabazz (born Betty Dean Sanders; May 28, 1934/1936 – June 23, 1997), also known as Betty X, was an American educator and civil rights advocate. She was married to Malcolm X. Shabazz grew up in Detroit, Michigan, where her foster ...
and was able to use this connection to assist with Pathfinder Press’ publication of
Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an African American revolutionary, Islam in the United States, Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figur ...
's speeches.


References

{{Authority control 1916 births 1985 deaths Members of the Socialist Workers Party (United States) Marxist journalists Members of the Socialist Party of America American political writers American Trotskyists Harvard College alumni