Breitman, George (1916–1986)

BORN IN A WORKING-CLASS neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey, George Breitman's formal involvement in leftist politics started when he was barely out of his teens. His father's early death forced his older sister to quit school and support their family. She joined the Young Communist League and was a strong influence in the development of Breitman's political beliefs. His first job after graduating from high school was as a construction laborer with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and later, with the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

In 1935, he became a part of the American Trotskyist movement as a member of the Spartacus Youth League and shortly thereafter, as a member of the Workers Party. By the time he was 20 years old, he had been arrested for inciting a riot in Burlington, New Jersey as a member of the Workers Relief and WPA Union. He was also active in the Workers Alliance, an organization of the unemployed.

In 1938, Breitman became a founding member of Socialist Workers’ Party (SWP). He was elected to its national committee in 1939; he was only 23 years old. In 1940, in the first of four tries, he ran as SWP candidate for senator from New Jersey. In 1941, he became the editor of The Militant, the weekly paper of the SWP. In 1942, he ran again as SWP candidate for Senator. While still an editor of the paper, he was drafted and sent to Europe in 1943. In Europe, he took the opportunity to link up with several European Trotskyists and to help rebuild the Fourth International.

At the same time, his meritorious service during the war was recognized by the French government, which awarded him in 1945 the Croix de Guerre avec Etoile de Bronze (War Cross with Bronze Star) for exceptional service rendered during the operations for the liberation of France.

[Page 54]After the war, he resumed his editorship of The Militant, and held this position until the early 1950s. He also found time to run again as SWP candidate for senator from New Jersey in 1948 and then in 1954. Thereafter, Breitman moved to Michigan and worked as a proofreader from the mid-1950s to the late 1960s. As part of his organizing work, he became a member of the International Typographical Union and the leader of the Detroit, Michigan, branch of the SWP. While there, he ran as SWP candidate for presidential elector for Michigan in 1960 and 1964. He also initiated the Friday Night Socialist Forum (later called the Militant Forum), an open discussion group that appealed to many activists, including those from the labor, student and African American movements. During this period, Breitman wrote using several pseudonyms, for example, Philip Blake, Chester Hofla, Anthony Massini, Albert Parker, and John F. Petrone.

Breitman regarded race as an aberration of capitalism and in 1953, wrote that the “negro question” was not about segregation and self-determination, but about integration. He looked at the African American problem as a working-class problem, where the crucial criterion is economic, and not the geographic concentration (that is, the South) of the population. Not surprisingly, it was also during this period that he edited Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements(1965).

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