Farrell Dobbs | |
|---|---|
 | |
| National Secretary of the Socialist Workers Party | |
| In office 1953–1972 | |
| Preceded by | James P. Cannon |
| Succeeded by | Jack Barnes |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1907-07-25)July 25, 1907 |
| Died | October 31, 1983(1983-10-31) (aged 76) |
| Spouse | Marvel Scholl |
| Children | Carol E. DeBerry, Mary Lou Montauk, Sharon Lee Finer |
| Parent(s) | Isaac Turl Dobbs, Ora Lenore Smith |
| Occupation | Politician,trade unionist, historian |
Farrell Dobbs (July 25, 1907 – October 31, 1983) was an AmericanTrotskyist,trade unionist, politician, and historian.
Dobbs was born inQueen City, Missouri, where his father was a worker in a coal company garage. The family moved toMinneapolis, and he graduated fromNorth High School in 1925. In 1926, he left forNorth Dakota to find work, but returned the following fall. At this point, young Farrell Dobbs was aRepublican, and supportedHerbert Hoover for president in 1928 and 1932.[1]
Dobbs's political viewpoints changed during theGreat Depression in the 1930s. Seeing the plight of workers in that situation (including himself), he became politically radicalized to theleft.
In 1933, while working for thePittsburgh Coal Company inMinneapolis, Dobbs joined theTeamsters.[2] After getting to know the three Trotskyist Dunne brothers, (Miles,Vincent and Grant) and Swedish socialistCarl Skoglund, he joined theCommunist League of America. Dobbs was one of the initiators of ageneral strike in Minneapolis, and for a while worked full-time as a union organizer.
He was influential in the Teamsters' shift from emphasis on local delivery work to over-the-road traffic, which keyed their great expansion towards becoming the largest union in the United States.[3]
Dobbs quit in 1939 to work for the newSocialist Workers Party (SWP). Dobbs met the Russian revolutionary leaderLeon Trotsky when he visitedMexico shortly before Trotsky's death in 1940.
Dobbs served as mentor and advisor to a youngJimmy Hoffa, while Hoffa was making his rise within the Teamsters, eventually becoming its president in 1957. Dobbs primarily inspired Hoffa with his view that the capitalist system was aDarwinian struggle, where power, rather than morality, was the primary factor determining the eventual outcome.[4]
For opposingWorld War II, he and other leaders of the SWP and the Minneapolis Teamsters were convicted of violating theSmith Act, which made it illegal to "conspire to advocate the violent overthrow of the United States Government". He served over a year of a 16-month sentence inFederal Correctional Institution, Sandstone, from 1944 to 1945.
After his release, he became the editor of the SWP's newspaper,The Militant. From 1948 to 1960 he was the SWP's candidate forPresident of the United States, running in four elections. He succeededJames P. Cannon as national secretary of the party in 1953, serving until 1972.
In 1960, Farrell Dobbs andJoseph Hansen, Trotsky's former secretary inMexico, went toCuba to experience the revolutionary movement there. The two American Trotskyists decided to fully support theCuban Revolution and the leadership ofFidel Castro andChe Guevara.
Farrell Dobbs retired in 1972, but remained in the party until his death in 1983. He devoted the later part of his life to historical documentation of the American leftist movement and the Minnesota Teamsters. Dobbs was the author of a four-volume history / memoir of the Minneapolis struggles:Teamster Rebellion,Teamster Power,Teamster Politics andTeamster Bureaucracy. He had completed two volumes of a planned history of theMarxist movement in the United States at the time of his death, titled:Revolutionary Continuity: The Early Years, 1848-1917 andBirth of the Communist Movement, 1918-1922.
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by none | Socialist Workers Party nominee for President of the United States 1948,1952,1956,1960 | Succeeded by |
