Sam Ballan, known by his pen name Sam Marcy, was an American lawyer, writer, and Marxist-Leninist activist of the post-World War II era.
11 Facts About Sam Marcy
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Sam Marcy co-founded the Workers World Party in 1959 and served as its chairperson until his death.
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Sam Marcy studied law at St Johns University and provided legal advice to labor unions in New York.
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Sam 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.
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Sam Marcy joined the Trotskyist movement in the 1940s, building a branch of the Socialist Workers Party in Buffalo.
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The theory not only guided the formation of the Workers World Party but has more recently made inroads into academic Marxist debates in the US 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, and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
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Sam Marcy's writings included extensive works on socialism, the Cold War era and the rise of the powerful military-industrial complex.
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Sam Marcy 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.
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Sam Marcy's 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.
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Sam 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.
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Sam Marcy died at Cabrini Medical Center in Manhattan on February 1,1998, at age 86.