- Jack MacDonald
:"For the former mayor of Hamilton, Ontario, see
Jack MacDonald (Hamilton politician) "Jack MacDonald (nicknamed "Moscow Jack" Macdonald" in the 1920s) born in
Falkirk, Scotland , was a founding member of theCommunist Party of Canada and one of its leaders. He was party Chairman from 1921 to 1923, and National Secretary from 1923 to 1929.MacDonald supported the expulsion ofMaurice Spector forTrotskyism in 1928. Subsequently, he tried to play a balancing role between theTim Buck 'sStalin ist faction and the party majority headed by Finnish, Ukrainian and Jewish groups of whichJ.B. Salsberg was a notable figture. Macdonald failed and was expelled from the party in 1931 being accused of being a Lovestoneite (that is a supporter ofBukharin 'sRight Opposition ). MacDonald, however, maintained that he was attempting to play an independent role. Accusations of "Lovestoneism" are further undermined by the fact that MacDonald went on to reconcile with Spector and joined the Toronto branch of the International Left Opposition (Trotskyist) Canada in 1932.MacDonald and Spector sided with
Martin Abern andMax Shachtman in a dispute within theCommunist League of America that threatened to split the Trotskyist movement in North America in the early 1930s. The split emerged in the late 1930s, this time over the question of the class nature of theSoviet Union with both MacDonald and Spector siding with Shachtman in his split from the International in 1940. MacDonald subsequently dropped out of Marxist politics altogether.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.