David North
Chairman of the Socialist Equality Party
Assumed office
August 2008
National SecretaryJoseph Kishore
Preceded byPosition established
Personal details
Born1950 (age 73–74)
NationalityAmerican
Occupation
  • Lecturer
  • Author
  • Activist

David North (born 1950)[1] is an American Marxist theoretician. He is the National Chairman of the Socialist Equality Party in the United States (SEP),[2] formerly the Workers League. He served as the National Secretary of the SEP until the party's congress in 2008.[3] North was the principal political and theoretical leader of the International Committee of the Fourth International during the organization's split with the Workers Revolutionary Party in Britain.[4]

North is the chairman of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site,[5] the publication of the ICFI. The author of several books and articles on the history of the Socialist movement, North lectures in politics[6] and the history of Marxism[7] both in the United States and internationally.[8][9]

Political career

North studied history at Trinity College[10] and became politicized by left-wing movements in the United States in 1968.[1] He stated that he was influenced by the Vietnam War, but also by the historical experiences of World War II, fascism and The Holocaust.[11]

After joining the Workers League in 1971, North served as the Labor Editor of The Bulletin.[12] He covered struggles of the working class, including the coal miners strikes in Kentucky.[13] After Tim Wohlforth was expelled in 1974, North was elected as National Secretary in 1976.[14]

With the ICFI and the support of Workers Revolutionary Party (UK) leader Gerry Healy, North and the Workers League participated in Security and the Fourth International, an investigation into the assassination of Leon Trotsky.[15]

In 1998, North led the change from the print-based Bulletin to the web-based World Socialist Web Site.[16]

Views

Marxism

North has defended the view that Trotsky represented a Marxist alternative to Stalinism, and therefore states that the collapse of the USSR does not mean that Marxism is a failed project.[17] Summarizing these views as described in North's book The Unfinished Twentieth Century, sociologist Charles Thorpe writes that North "makes a powerful case that, to paraphrase Faulkner, these debates and experiences are not dead; they're not even past".[17]

North has argued that contrary to modern academic traditions, Marxism is not defined by academics, but instead by Marxist organizations and Marxist struggle.[18] He writes that this tradition is represented above all by the Trotskyist opposition to Stalinism and its contemporary continuity in the Socialist Equality Party.[18]

Censorship

In 2017, North alleged in an open letter that changes to Google's ranking system and search engine (their project known as Project Owl) demoted left-wing outlets such as the WSWS, which describes itself as an "online newspaper of the international Trotskyist movement".[19] Google would not comment to The New York Times about the WSWS.[19] Contacted by the same source, North said: "I’m against censorship in any form. It’s up to people what they want to read."[19]

United States

Speaking about the 2016 United States presidential election, North told Neues Deutschland that Donald Trump "embodies a cross between all the criminal and immoral features and machinations of the real estate, finance, gambling and entertainment industries".[1]

Interviewed by journalist Chris Hedges in 2018, North stated that while middle class groups promoted identity politics as a response to social tensions and poverty, American workers were not racist and "have a deep belief in democratic rights".[20] North stated that the 20th century problems of war and fascism remained real threats in the 21st century.[20]

Russia and Ukraine

In an article co-authored by North in 2014, Vladimir Putin's regime in Russia is characterized as follows:

"Leading a regime that rests on an utterly corrupt elite—which has deposited a substantial portion of its ill-gotten riches in US and European banks—Putin relies on the reactionary mechanisms of military maneuvers and Great Russian chauvinism.[21]

North anticipated in his writings, such as a co-authored article titled "US imperialism, Ukraine and the danger of World War III" after the ouster of Ukraine's Viktor Yanukovych government, that the developments in Ukraine would lead to war.[22] North further explained his position in 2022, writing, "The Putin regime is the reactionary resurrection of a bourgeois state that emerged out of the 1991 dissolution of the USSR. But the opposition of the International Committee to this regime, including its invasion of Ukraine, is from the socialist left, not the imperialist right."[23] North characterized the Russian invasion of Ukraine as "politically bankrupt and reactionary", but he also maintained, "The outbreak of war in Ukraine has long been foreseen. The relentless expansion of NATO in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union has always been directed toward war with Russia."[24]

Works

Books

  • North, David (1988). The heritage we defend: A contribution to the history of the Fourth International. Detroit, Mich: Labor Publications. ISBN 0-929087-00-3. (Preface via World Socialist Web Site)
  • North, David (1989). Perestroika versus socialism: Stalinism and the restoration of capitalism in the USSR. Detroit, Mich: Labor Publications. ISBN 0-929087-39-9. OCLC 21203230.
  • North, David (1991). Gerry Healy and his place in the history of the Fourth International. Detroit: Labor Publications. ISBN 978-0-929087-58-0.
  • North, David (2004). The crisis of American democracy: The presidential elections of 2000 and 2004. Oak Park, Mich. Bankstown, NSW: Mehring Books. ISBN 1-875639-36-5.
  • North, David (2007). Marxism, history & socialist consciousness. Oak Park, Mich: Mehring Books. ISBN 978-1-893638-03-7.
  • North, David (2007). Leon Trotsky & the Post-Soviet school of historical falsification. Oak Park, MI: Mehring Books. ISBN 978-1-893638-02-0.
  • North, David (2010). In defense of Leon Trotsky. Oak Park, Michigan: Mehring Books. ISBN 978-1-893638-05-1.
  • The Russian Revolution and the Unfinished 20th Century (2014) ISBN 978-1-893638-40-2
  • North, David (2015). The Frankfurt School, Postmodernism and the Politics of the Pseudo-Left: AMarxist Critique. Oak Park, Michigan: Mehring Books. ISBN 978-1-893638-50-1.
  • North, David (2016). A Quarter Century of War: The US Drive for Global Hegemony 1990-2016. Oak Park, Michigan: Mehring Books. ISBN 978-1-893638-69-3.
  • North, David (2021). The New York Times' 1619 Project and the racialist falsification of history: Essays and interviews. Oak Park, Michigan: Mehring Books. ISBN 978-1-893638-93-8.

Lectures and other pamphlets

  • The USSR And Socialism: The Trotskyist Perspective (1989) ISBN 0-929087-45-3
  • Ten Years After The Split in the Workers Revolutionary Party: The WRP's Commemoration Of Healy's Expulsion (1995) ISBN 1-873045-02-6
  • In Defense of the Russian Revolution: A Reply to the Post-Soviet School of Historical Falsification (1995) ISBN 978-0-929087-72-6
  • Socialism, Historical Truth and the Crisis of Political Thought in the United States (1996) ISBN 978-0-929087-73-3
  • Workers League and the Founding of the Socialist Equality Party (1996) ISBN 978-0-929087-74-0
  • Equality, the Rights of Man and the Birth of Socialism (1996) ISBN 1-873045-32-8
  • Anti-Semitism, Fascism and the Holocaust: A critical review of Daniel Goldhagen's "Hitler's Willing Executioners" (1997) ISBN 978-0-929087-75-7
  • A Tribute to Tom Henehan: 1951 to 1977 (1998) ISBN 978-0-929087-78-8
  • Ernest Mandel 1923–1995: A Critical Assessment of His Role in the History of the Fourth International (1997) ISBN 1-875639-14-4
  • Marxism and the Trade Unions (1998) ISBN 1-875639-29-2
  • Leon Trotsky and Fate of Socialism in 20th Century: A Reply to Professor Eric Hobsbawm (1998) ISBN 1-875639-22-5
  • Reform and Revolution in the Epoch of Imperialism (1998) ISBN 1-875639-28-4
  • After the Slaughter: Political Lessons of the Balkan War (1999) ISBN 1-875639-35-7
  • A Tribute to Vadim Rogovin (1999) ISBN 978-0-929087-50-4
  • The Economic Crisis & the Return of History (2011) ISBN 978-1-893638-14-3

References

  1. 1 2 3 Vesper, Karlen (January 2, 2018). "Socialism is coming back". Neues Deutschland. Retrieved November 29, 2018.
  2. ↑ Saccarelli, Emanuele (2017). "Book review: The Frankfurt School, Postmodernism and the Politics of the Pseudo-Left: A Marxist Critique by David North". Critical Sociology. 43 (4–5): 799–802. doi:10.1177/0896920517699161. S2CID 151862205.
  3. ↑ Socialist Equality Party holds founding Congress
  4. ↑ "Internal bulletins". mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk. Retrieved September 12, 2023.
  5. ↑ Wakabayashi, Daisuke (September 26, 2017). "As Google Fights Fake News, Voices on the Margins Raise Alarm". New York Times. Retrieved November 28, 2018.
  6. ↑ "The Crisis in American Democracy..."
  7. ↑ Preface to a D. North lecture "Marxism and the Trade Unions"
  8. ↑ Woutas, Aidan (October 23, 2018). "Chairman of the Socialist Equality Party talks future of ideology, populism". The Michigan Daily. Retrieved September 12, 2023.
  9. ↑ Ltd, TheGridNet. "Leon Trotsky commemoration on Prinkipo receives widespread responses at wsws.org". The İstanbul Grid. Retrieved September 12, 2023.
  10. ↑ "Letter to the Editor: A Letter to President Berger-Sweeney from David W. Green '71".
  11. ↑ Maloney, Devon (November 26, 2017). "Socialism or Barbarism: Reflections on Global Disorder with David North". The St Andrews Economist. Retrieved November 29, 2018.
  12. ↑ "Wohlforth's renegacy, the renewal of the struggle against Pabloism in the Workers League, and the turn to the working class". World Socialist Web Site. September 13, 2023. Retrieved November 22, 2023.
  13. ↑ "Wohlforth's renegacy, the renewal of the struggle against Pabloism in the Workers League, and the turn to the working class". World Socialist Web Site. September 13, 2023. Retrieved November 22, 2023.
  14. ↑ GERRY HEALY A Revolutionary Life.
  15. ↑ "British Trotskyism: Trotskyist Writers: Gerry Healy: The Rise and Fall of Gerry Healy". www.marxists.org. Retrieved November 22, 2023.
  16. ↑ "Northite Pirates Run for Cyberspace" (PDF). Workers Vanguard. March 27, 1998.
  17. 1 2 Thorpe, Charles (2017). "Radical Intellectuals, History, and the Soviet Union". Journal of Historical Sociology. 30: 86–91. doi:10.1111/johs.12146.
  18. 1 2 Saccarelli, Emanuele (2017). "Book review: The Frankfurt School, Postmodernism and the Politics of the Pseudo-Left: A Marxist Critique by David North". Critical Sociology. 43 (4–5): 799–802. doi:10.1177/0896920517699161. S2CID 151862205.
  19. 1 2 3 Wakabayashi, Daisuke (September 26, 2017). "As Google Fights Fake News, Voices on the Margins Raise Alarm". New York Times. Retrieved November 28, 2018.
  20. 1 2 Hedges, Chris (February 5, 2018). "The Bankruptcy of the American Left". Truthdig. Retrieved November 28, 2018.
  21. ↑ "The crisis in Ukraine and the historical consequences of the dissolution of the Soviet Union". World Socialist Web Site. March 7, 2014.
  22. ↑ "US imperialism, Ukraine and the danger of World War III". World Socialist Web Site. March 5, 2014.
  23. ↑ North, David (June 30, 2022). "Letter to a Young Trotskyist in Russia". World Socialist Web Site.
  24. ↑ North, David (April 18, 2022). "The Challenge of May Day 2022: For the International Unity of the Working Class against Capitalism, National Chauvinism and War!". World Socialist Web Site.
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