David North | |
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Chairman of the Socialist Equality Party | |
Assumed office August 2008 | |
National Secretary | Joseph Kishore |
Preceded by | Position established |
Personal details | |
Born | 1950 (age 74–75) |
Nationality | American |
Occupation |
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Part of a series on |
Trotskyism |
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DavidNorth (born in 1950, otherwise known as David Green [1] ) is an American Marxist, who has been active in the international Trotskyist movement since 1971. [2] He is currently the National Chairman of the Socialist Equality Party in the United States (SEP), [3] formerly the Workers League. He served as the National Secretary of the SEP until the party's congress in 2008. [4]
North is the chairman of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS), the publication of the International Committee of the Fourth International. [5]
David North was a student of the history department at Trinity College. [1]
North joined the Trotskyist Workers League in 1971,[ citation needed ] before being elected to the post of national secretary in January 1976. [6]
Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, North covered and participated actively in numerous labor strikes, most notably the 1973-1974 unionization drive of miners in Harlan County, [6] and the 1983-1986 Phelps Dodge miners strike. [7]
North helped lead the investigation initiated by the International Committee into the circumstances surrounding the assassination of Leon Trotsky in 1940 and the extensive infiltration of the Fourth International by agents of both the Soviet secret police and the US FBI. [8] [ page needed ]
In 1982, North informed the Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP), the British section of the ICFI and close collaborator of the Workers League, of his differences with the theoretical methods and politics of the organization. North's 1982 and 1984 documents were distributed throughout the ICFI and to the WRP membership during the crisis that erupted in the WRP in August 1985. [9] While a majority of the ICFI accepted North's criticisms, as well as a section of the WRP membership, the WRP rejected the political authority of the ICFI over its national organization and broke from the International Committee in February 1986. [10]
North opposed the restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union. [11]
At the founding congress of the Socialist Equality Party (US), held in August 2008, North was elected as the national chairman of the party. [4]
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. 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". [12]
North has argued that contrary to modern academic traditions, Marxism is not defined by academics, but instead by Marxist organizations and Marxist struggle. He writes that this tradition is represented above all by the Trotskyist opposition to Stalinism and its contemporary continuity in the Socialist Equality Party. [3]
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". Google would not comment to The New York Times about the WSWS. Contacted by the same source, North said: "I'm against censorship in any form. It's up to people what they want to read." [5]
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". [2]
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". [13] North stated that the 20th century problems of war and fascism remained real threats in the 21st century. [13]