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Myra Tanner Weiss Papers

Call Number

TAM.158

Dates

1933-1997, inclusive
; 1952-1963, bulk

Creator

Weiss, Myra Tanner
Nagel, Shirley (Role: Donor)

Extent

2.5 Linear Feet
in five manuscript boxes.

Language of Materials

Materials are in English.

Abstract

Myra Tanner Weiss (1916-1997) was a socialist, feminist, and the Socialist Workers Party's vice-presidential candidate in 1952, 1956, and 1960. Together with her husband Murry she organized the School for Marxist Education in New York. The papers contain correspondence, speeches and writings and Socialist Workers Party internal documents.

Historical/Biographical Note

Myra Tanner Weiss was born May 17, 1916. She joined the Socialist Workers Party in 1935 while attending the University of Utah. She moved to Los Angeles in the 1940s, at which time she organized agricultural and cannery workers. She also helped establish the SWP in Los Angeles where she met another party organizer, Murry Weiss [born Morris, in Chicago, September 9, 1915, son of Joseph and Freida; died December 26, 1981] whom she later married. Tanner Weiss ran for mayor of Los Angeles in 1945 and 1949. The Weisses moved to New York City in 1953 where Murry Weiss edited the Socialist Workers Party's newspaper The Militant. Running with Presidential candidate Farrell Dobbs, Myra Tanner Weiss was the Socialist Workers Party's Vice Presidential candidate in 1952, 1956, and 1960. Together with her husband she organized the School for Marxist Education in New York. Tanner Weiss left the SWP in the early 1960's because she thought the party had undergone a 'gross bureaucratization'. According to records of the New York local branch of the SWP Myra Tanner Weiss would no longer be considered a member of the Party as of October 1966. She did however remain politically active and became involved with the New York Socialist Feminists and the Committee for a Revolutionary Socialist Party (CRSP). Tanner Weiss received a masters degree in political science from New York University in 1972. She subsequently worked as a proof reader. She died on September 13, 1997.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged into five series:

Series I: Personal
Series II: Correspondence
Series III: Socialist Workers Party
Series IV: Committee for a Revolutionary Socialist Party (CRSP)
Series V: Speeches and Writings

Scope and Content Note

The collection consists primarily of correspondence and Socialist Workers Party (SWP) internal documents, dating mostly from the 1940s-1970s. The correspondence is mostly by Tanner Weiss and her husband, Murry, related to the SWP and family correspondence. The collection contains a significant amount of SWP internal working materials, including draft resolutions, minutes, correspondence, articles, circulars, reports, flyers, convention materials, and other ephemera documenting the SWP's politics and activities, as well as the Party's responses to splits and the formation of factions. The collection also contains internal papers and correspondence which document Murry and Myra Tanner Weiss' involvement with the Committee for a Revolutionary Socialist Party (CRSP). The collection also contains speeches and writings written by Murry and Myra Tanner Weiss. Important in the collection is the letter to Tanner Weiss from Natalie Sedova-Trotsky concerning a purported meeting between Leon Trotsky and Jack Soble in Turkey in 1931-1932.

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright (and related rights to publicity and privacy) to materials in this collection created by Myra Tanner Weiss was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.

Preferred Citation

Identification of item, date; Myra Tanner Weiss Papers; TAM 158; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Materials were donated by Myra Tanner Weiss and her sister, Shirley Nagel, in 1994. The accession numbers associated with this gift are 1994.015, 1994.016 and NPA.1998.028.

Separated Materials

A set of Discussion Bulletins published by the Committee for a Revolutionary Socialist from 1978-1980 were separated to the library collection.

Related Archival Materials

Tamiment's Oral History of the American Left (OH 002) contains an interview with Myra Tanner Weiss. Other institutions hold materials related to Tanner Weiss, including oral history recordings in Prometheus Research Library, New York (Myra Tanner Weiss interview 12/20/77; 2 cassettes) and Tanner Weiss's campaign literature in the Bob Chester Papers at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

Collection processed by

Natasha Simon, 1998. Edited by Nicole Greenhouse in compliance with DACS and Tamiment Required Elements for Archival Description, July 2013.

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-20 16:54:45 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Description is in English

Processing Information

Photographs were separated from this collection during initial processing and were established as a separate collection, the Myra Tanner Weiss Photographs (PHOTOS 085). In 2013, the photograph collection was reincorporated into the Myra Tanner Weiss Papers.

Repository

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives

Series I: Personal, 1912, 1981-1997

Scope and Content Note

This series contains obituaries, photographs, and other personal and biographical materials related to Tanner Weiss.

Arrangement

Arranged alphabetically.

Biography, 1981-1997

Box: 1, Folder: 1 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Photographs, 1912, undated

Box: 1, Folder: 1a (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Series II: Correspondence, 1933-1987

Scope and Content Note

This series contains correspondence by Myra Tanner Weiss and Murry Weiss, mostly to other correspondents. The bulk of the correspondence dates from the 1940s-1970s. There is also the correspondence of Myra Tanner Weiss' husband, Murry Weiss, much of which concerns his tenure as editor of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) newspaper, The Militant. Tanner Weiss' letters and correspondence concern her speaking tours and political campaigns as SWP Vice Presidential candidate in 1952, 1956, and 1960, as well as personal correspondence with her husband and family. Correspondents include: Shane Mage, Tim Wohlforth, James Cannon, Sam Marcy, Natalie [Natalia] Sedova-Trotsky (Leon Trotsky's widow), Bert Deck, Farrell Dobbs, William Warde, George Breitman, George Clarke, Arne Swabeck, Harry Braverman, Clara Fraser, James Robertson.

Arrangement

Arranged alphabetically and then chronologically.

Weiss Family Letters, 1959

Box: 1, Folder: 2 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss / Myra Tanner Weiss Correspondence, 1948-1958

Box: 1, Folder: 3 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss / Myra Tanner Weiss Correspondence, 1960-1980

Box: 1, Folder: 4 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss - Letters, 1933-1939

Box: 1, Folder: 5 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss - Letters, 1942

Box: 1, Folder: 6 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss - Letters, 1944

Box: 1, Folder: 7 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss - Letters, 1945

Box: 1, Folder: 8 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss - Letters, 1947

Box: 1, Folder: 9 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Correspondence: Murry Weiss/California Third Party Movement, 1947

Box: 1, Folder: 10 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss - Letters, 1948

Box: 1, Folder: 11 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss - Letters, 1949

Box: 1, Folder: 12 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss/Trotsky School Spring Mountain Camp - Correspondence, 1950

Box: 1, Folder: 13 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss - Letters, 1951

Box: 1, Folder: 14 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss - Letters, 1952

Box: 1, Folder: 15 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss - Letters, 1953

Box: 1, Folder: 16 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss - Letters, 1954

Box: 1, Folder: 17 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss - Letters, 1955

Box: 1, Folder: 18 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss - Letters, Jan-Jun 1956

Box: 1, Folder: 19 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss - Letters, Jul-Dec 1956

Box: 1, Folder: 20 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss - Letters, Jan-May 1957

Box: 1, Folder: 21 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss - Letters, Jun-Dec 1957

Box: 1, Folder: 22 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss - Letters, 1958

Box: 1, Folder: 23 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss - Letters, 1959

Box: 1, Folder: 24 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss - Letters, 1960

Box: 1, Folder: 25 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss - Letters, 1962

Box: 1, Folder: 26 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss - Letters, 1963-1964

Box: 1, Folder: 27 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss - Letters/Socialist Workers Party Membership, 1966

Box: 1, Folder: 28 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss - Letters, 1976 -1978

Box: 1, Folder: 29 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters, 1946-1949

Box: 2, Folder: 1 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters, 1951

Box: 2, Folder: 2 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters, 1952

Box: 2, Folder: 3 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters, 1953

Box: 2, Folder: 4 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters, 1954-1955

Box: 2, Folder: 5 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters, Jan-Jun 1956

Box: 2, Folder: 6 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters, Jul-Dec 1956

Box: 2, Folder: 7 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters, 1957

Box: 2, Folder: 8 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Correspondence: Myra Tanner Weiss/Natalie Sedova-Trotsky, 1957

Box: 2, Folder: 9 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters, 1958 -1959

Box: 2, Folder: 10 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters, 1960-1966

Box: 2, Folder: 11 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters/Socialist Workers Party Membership, 1966

Box: 2, Folder: 12 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters, 1969-1975

Box: 2, Folder: 13 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters, 1977-1980

Box: 2, Folder: 14 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters: An Open Letter to the Socialist Workers Party, 1980

Box: 2, Folder: 15 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters, 1981

Box: 2, Folder: 16 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters, 1982

Box: 2, Folder: 17 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters, 1983-1985

Box: 2, Folder: 18 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Myra Tanner Weiss - Letters, 1986-1987

Box: 2, Folder: 19 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Letters: individuals, 1939-1953

Box: 2, Folder: 20 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Letters: individuals, 1955

Box: 2, Folder: 21 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Letters: individuals, 1956-1985

Box: 2, Folder: 22 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Letters, undated

Box: 2, Folder: 23 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Series III: Socialist Workers Party, 1944-1983

Scope and Content Note

This series documents Weiss's activities within the Socialist Workers Party; the documents, correspondence, minutes, flyers, and other ephemera chronicle the Cochranite split, discussions and debates concerning Pabloism (Michael Pablo, Michael Raptis: head of the International Secretariat), the Party's response to the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party and its effect on the Communist Party USA, and consideration of the 1956 uprisings in Poland and Hungary. SWP policy and activity is also chronicled concerning the "regroupment campaign" of 1956-1958, as well as the Party's relationship to the Young Socialist League (YSL), the Young People's Socialist League (YPSL), the Young Socialist Alliance (YSA) and the Workers World Party. In addition, there is material and correspondence concerning the opposition group the Revolutionary Tendency (TR) and the expulsion from the SWP of Lynne Harper, Laurence Ireland, Shane Mage, James Robertson, and Geoffrey White in 1963.

Arrangement

Arranged chronologically.

Martin (Cannon): Comments on the Selection of the National Committee, 1944

Box: 3, Folder: 1 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Felix Morrow: Where I Stand, 1945

Box: 3, Folder: 2 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Myra Tanner Weiss v Los Angeles Broadcasting, Inc..., 1946

Box: 3, Folder: 2a (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Socialist Workers Party Internal Documents, 1949

Box: 3, Folder: 3 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Natalia Trotsky: letter re break with Fourth International and Socialist Workers Party, 1951

Box: 3, Folder: 4 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Johnson-Forest: What We Are Leaving Behind, 1951

Box: 3, Folder: 5 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

M. Pablo: The Building of the Revolutionary Party, 1952

Box: 3, Folder: 6 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Internal Documents, 1953

Box: 3, Folder: 7 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Internal Documents, 1954

Box: 3, Folder: 8 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Club Executive Minutes, 1954

Box: 3, Folder: 9 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Internal Documents, 1955

Box: 3, Folder: 10 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Peng: Pabloism Reviewed, 1955

Box: 3, Folder: 11 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Draft Resolutions: The Soviet Union Today [sect iv]; The Third Chinese Revolution and Its Aftermath [sect ii]; The Rise of the Colonial Bourgeoise [sect iii]; includes correspondence, 1955

Box: 3, Folder: 12 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Digest of 1949 U.S. White Paper on China, 1955

Box: 3, Folder: 13 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Club Executive Minutes, 1955

Box: 3, Folder: 14 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Internal Documents, 1956

Box: 3, Folder: 15 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Communications to National Committee Members, 1956

Box: 3, Folder: 16 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

On the CPUSA, 1956

Box: 3, Folder: 17 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Joseph Hansen: Report on the Trotsky School, 1956

Box: 3, Folder: 18 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Draft Resolution: The World Today, 1956

Box: 3, Folder: 19 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Draft Resolution on Stalinism, 1956

Box: 3, Folder: 20 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Draft Resolution: The Crisis of Stalinism, 1956

Box: 3, Folder: 21 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Draft Resolution on Middle East, 1956

Box: 3, Folder: 22 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

re slogan, Federal Troops to Mississippi, 1956

Box: 3, Folder: 23 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Internal Documents, 1957

Box: 3, Folder: 24 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Tentative Outline for Political Report to Convention, 1957

Box: 3, Folder: 25 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Young Socialist League (YSL): correspondence and reports, 1957

Box: 3, Folder: 26 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Draft Resolution: Towards a Revolutionary Party in Britain; Suez and its Aftermath, 1957

Box: 3, Folder: 27 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Club Executive Minutes, 1957

Box: 3, Folder: 28 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Internal Documents, 1958

Box: 4, Folder: 1 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Internal Documents, 1959

Box: 4, Folder: 2 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Club Executive Minutes, 1959

Box: 4, Folder: 3 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Revised Draft Political Resolution - regroupment, 1959

Box: 4, Folder: 4 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Internal Documents, 1960

Box: 4, Folder: 5 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

James Cannon: letter with 1945 "On The Party Press", 1960

Box: 4, Folder: 6 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Raj Narain Arya: statements, 1960

Box: 4, Folder: 7 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Political Committee Minutes, 1960

Box: 4, Folder: 8 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Draft: Tasks and Perspectives Resolution; Tasks and Perspectives Resolution, 1960

Box: 4, Folder: 9 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Murry Weiss: Memorandum on the Principled Groundwork of Our Tactics and Slogans in the Struggle Against Imperialist War, 1960

Box: 4, Folder: 10 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Concerning Cuba, 1960

Box: 4, Folder: 11 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Internal Documents, 1961

Box: 4, Folder: 12 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Political Committee Minutes, 1961

Box: 4, Folder: 13 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Pre Convention and 19th National Convention Minutes, 1961

Box: 4, Folder: 14 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

National Executive Committee Minutes (with attached correspondence), 1961

Box: 4, Folder: 15 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Monroe Defense Movement, 1961

Box: 4, Folder: 16 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Internal Documents, 1962

Box: 4, Folder: 17 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Political Committee Draft: Problems of the Fourth International And the Next Steps, 1962

Box: 4, Folder: 18 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Draft Resolution: The Chinese Revolution: Its Character and Development, 1962

Box: 4, Folder: 19 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Political Committee Minutes, 1962

Box: 4, Folder: 20 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Internal Documents, 1963

Box: 4, Folder: 21 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Political Committee Minutes, 1963

Box: 4, Folder: 22 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

National Committee Plenum, 1963

Box: 4, Folder: 23 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Myra Tanner Weiss: Plenum Speech, 1963

Box: 4, Folder: 24 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Draft of Convention Resolution: Freedom Now, 1963

Box: 5, Folder: 1 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Draft Resolution on the Organizational Character of the SWP, 1963

Box: 5, Folder: 2 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Suspension of Robertson-Mage-White Minority Tendency: statements and correspondence, 1963

Box: 5, Folder: 3 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Statement of the Reorganized Minority Tendency: The Decline of American Imperialism and the Tasks of the SWP, 1963

Box: 5, Folder: 4 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Draft Resolution: Preparing for the Next Wave of Radicalism in the United States, 1963

Box: 5, Folder: 5 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Draft Resolution: The SWP Position on China (May); The SWP Position on China with Wohlforth amendment (June), 1963

Box: 5, Folder: 6 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Draft Resolution: The Sino-Soviet Dispute; Marxist Policy in the Sino-Soviet Dispute, 1963

Box: 5, Folder: 7 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Internal Documents, 1964

Box: 5, Folder: 8 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Political Committee Minutes, 1964

Box: 5, Folder: 9 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

National Executive Committee Minutes, 1964

Box: 5, Folder: 10 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

21st National Convention Minutes, 1965

Box: 5, Folder: 11 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Internal Documents, 1966

Box: 5, Folder: 12 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Internal Documents, circa 1967

Box: 5, Folder: 13 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Hildegarde Swabeck: resignation letter, circa 1967

Box: 5, Folder: 14 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Internal Documents, 1982-1983

Box: 5, Folder: 15 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Internal Documents, undated

Box: 5, Folder: 16 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Series IV: Committee for a Revolutionary Socialist Party (CRSP), 1978-1981

Scope and Content Note

This series documents Tanner Weiss's involvement with and the activities of the Committee for a Revolutionary Socialist Party (CRSP) in 1978-1981. It consists of meeting minutes, articles, circulars, and conference proceedings. CRSP was dedicated to reinstituting American Trotskyism.

Arrangement

Arranged chronologically.

Internal Documents, 1978

Box: 5, Folder: 17 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Internal Documents, 1979

Box: 5, Folder: 18 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Internal Documents, 1980-1981

Box: 5, Folder: 19 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Series V: Speeches and Writings, undated, 1955-1978

Scope and Content Note

This series contains speeches and other writings by Murry Weiss and Myra Tanner Weiss. Murry's speeches are related to radical political upheaval in the 1950s-1970s and often include handwritten notes. Myra's speech is related to living under FBI surveillance.

Arrangement

Arranged alphabetically.

Murry Weiss, 1955-1978

Box: 5, Folder: 20 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Myra Tanner Weiss, undated

Box: 5, Folder: 21 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
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