{{Short description|American lawyer (1911–1998)}} {{Use American English|date=April 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Sam Marcy | office = Chairman of the [[Workers World Party]] | term_start = 1959 | term_end = February 1, 1998 | birth_date = 1911 | birth_place = {{nowrap|[[Russian Empire]]}} | death_date = {{death date and given age|mf=yes|1998|2|1|86}} | death_place = [[New York City]], U.S. | occupation = {{Hlist|Political activist|writer}} | party = [[Workers World Party]] (after 1959) | spouse = Dorothy Ballan<ref name = obituary/> | other_party = [[Communist Party USA]] (until 1940s)<br />[[Socialist Workers Party (United States)|Socialist Workers Party]] (1940s–1959) }}
{{Trotskyism}} '''Sam Ballan''' (1911 – February 1, 1998), known by his [[pen name]] '''Sam Marcy''', was an American lawyer, writer, historian, and [[Trotskyist]] activist of the post-[[World War II]] era. He co-founded the [[Workers World Party]] in 1959 and served as its chairperson until his death.
==Biography== Marcy was born in the [[Russian Empire]] to [[Jewish]] parents. During the [[Russian Civil War]], his family was a target of anti-Jewish [[pogroms]] by the [[White movement]] and received protection from the communist forces. They resettled in [[Brooklyn]], where Marcy became an activist for the [[Communist Party USA]]. He studied law at [[St. John's University (New York)|St. Johns University]] and provided legal advice to labor unions in New York.<ref name="obituary">{{cite news|last=Thomas|first=Robert McGill Jr.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/09/nyregion/sam-marcy-marxist-writer-dies-at-86.html|title = Sam Marcy, Marxist Writer, Dies at 86|work=New York Times|date=1998-02-09}}</ref>
Marcy grew discontented as a member of the Communist Party, viewing the [[Third International]] as increasingly detached from working class interests and instead a mouthpiece for [[Joseph Stalin]], whose oppressive bureaucracy he despised. He joined the Trotskyist movement in the 1940s, building a branch of the [[Socialist Workers Party (United States)|Socialist Workers Party]] (SWP) in [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo]].<ref name="obituary"/> Yet he again became dissatisfied, finding the SWP uncommitted to revolutionary politics and instead oriented toward parliamentary reform.<ref>[[House Un-American Activities Committee]] (1968) ''Subversive influences in riots, looting, and burning''</ref> Marcy, [[Vincent Copeland|Vince Copeland]], and other SWP members developed a theory of "global [[Class conflict|class war]]", according to which Marxists had a duty to defend the existence of the USSR and its satellites in spite of their bureaucracy.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/10/obituaries/vincent-copeland-77-is-dead-led-anti-war-protests-in-1960-s.html|title = Vincent Copeland, 77, is Dead; Led Anti-War Protests in 1960's|newspaper = The New York Times|date = June 10, 1993|last1 = Lambert|first1 = Bruce}}</ref> The theory not only guided the formation of the [[Workers World Party]] but has more recently made inroads into academic Marxist debates in the U.S.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ford|first=Derek R.|title=Education and the production of space: political pedagogy, geography, and urban revolution.|publisher=ROUTLEDGE|year=2017|isbn=978-0-367-19437-6|location=New York|pages=34–53|oclc=1102795622}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Malott|first=Curry|title=History and education : engaging the global class war|date=2016|publisher=Peter Lang|isbn=978-1-4331-3399-2|location=New York|pages=1–100|oclc=945730106}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Malott|first=Curry|title=Marx, capital, and education : towards a critical pedagogy of becoming|publisher=Peter Lang|others=Derek Ford|year=2015|isbn=978-1-4539-1602-5|location=New York|pages=8, 40, 51–61, 89, 154|oclc=913956545}}</ref><ref>{{Cite thesis|last=Chambers|first=Collin L.|url=https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/121|title=The People's Republic of China and the Global Class War|type=MA thesis|publisher=Syracuse University|year=2017|location=Syracuse|pages=1–165}}</ref> Over several years Marcy clashed with the SWP leadership on several questions, including their approach to Communist China and North Korea, whether the SWP should endorse [[Henry A. Wallace]],<ref>Marcy, Sam (1953) ''The Global Class War and the Destiny of American Labor''</ref> and the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]]. On the last question, Marcy's faction supported the Soviet military intervention, arguing that the initial worker uprising had attracted class elements that sought to restore capitalism.<ref>Copeland, Vincent (1956) [http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/copeland/V-Grey-Class-Character-Hungarian-Uprising.pdf "The Class Character of the Hungarian Uprising"]</ref><ref>Marcy, Sam (July 1, 1993) "The bright side of a long struggle: Remembering Vince Copeland"</ref>
In 1959 the "global class war" faction set up a new organization, the Workers World Party, characterized by outspoken defense of all Communist governments in the world. Marcy's writings included extensive works on socialism, the Cold War era and the rise of the powerful [[military-industrial complex]]. He also wrote about the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, the [[anti-war movement]] during the Vietnam War, the economic forces behind capitalist downsizing and the impact of [[high technology]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/|title = Selected Works of Sam Marcy}}</ref> Selections of his works have been translated into many languages, including [[Persian language|Persian]], Spanish, [[Turkish language|Turkish]], Korean, French and German.{{citation needed|date=June 2015}}
His writings show a strong support for [[Mao Zedong]] and the [[Chinese Cultural Revolution]], and he defended the leadership of the [[People’s Republic of China]] until the reforms of [[Deng Xiaoping]]. Marcy defended both China and the Soviet Union against charges of imperialism despite disagreeing with some policies and practices of the Communist Party leadership of both countries.<ref>Marcy, Sam. "Memorandum on the Unfolding War and the Tasks of the Proletariat in the New Phase of the World (Permanent) Revolution." Marxists.org, 1950. https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/marcy/gclasswar.pdf</ref>
In addition to his writings, Marcy and Copeland were some of the organizers of the first demonstration in the United States against the Vietnam War. The demonstration, by WWP affiliate group Youth Against War and Fascism, occurred in August 1962 and was subsequently noted by [[Ho Chi Minh]] in an interview with the ''[[National Guardian]]'' newspaper.{{citation needed|date=June 2015}} Marcy died at [[Cabrini Medical Center]] in Manhattan on February 1, 1998, at age 86.<ref name = obituary/>
== References == {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/ Selected works of Sam Marcy at the Workers World Party website] *[http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/samtrib/marcybio.htm Biography by Deirdre Griswold at the Workers World Party website] *[http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/1998/02/marc-f13.html "Sam Marcy, an apologist for bureaucracy"] Obituary by Fred Mazelis on the ''[[World Socialist Web Site]]'' {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marcy, Sam}} [[Category:1911 births]] [[Category:1998 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century American lawyers]] [[Category:20th-century American writers]] [[Category:Activists from New York City]] [[Category:American communists]] [[Category:American anti–Vietnam War activists]] [[Category:American political party founders]] [[Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent]] [[Category:Jewish socialists]] [[Category:Lawyers from New York City]] [[Category:New York (state) socialists]] [[Category:20th-century Russian Jews]] [[Category:Soviet emigrants to the United States]] [[Category:St. John's University School of Law alumni]] [[Category:Workers World Party politicians]] [[Category:Writers from New York City]] [[Category:20th-century American male writers]]