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Introducing the Prometheus Research Library
Key Archival Holdings
Collaborative Work
To Collect and Preserve...
Access and Facilities
The Prometheus Research Library is a working research facility for a wide range of Marxist studies and also the central reference archive of the Spartacist League of the U.S., section of the International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist). Library holdings include substantial materials on the organizations inspired and led by Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky, as well as works on related topics, sometimes remote.
The purpose of the PRL is to collect, preserve and make available the historical record of the international workers movement and to assist Marxist scholarship. It is both a strength and weakness of the PRL that it is necessarily centered upon the work and interests of the American Communist and Trotskyist movement.
The Library's collection, which does not circulate, grew out of the forty-year accumulated and organized holdings of James Robertson, both correspondence and printed materials. The collection now includes over 6,000 books and periodical volumes, 100 reels of microfilmed documents and periodicals, and 175 linear feet of archival documents and bulletins. Particular emphasis is on minutes of leading committees and internal discussion material. Approximately three-quarters of the holdings are in English. There are significant materials in Russian: over 300 titles covering much of the record of the Bolshevik Party in the form of stenographic records of Congresses and Conferences, early Cheka reports, memoirs, and publications and exile correspondence of the Left Opposition. Holdings in German, French, Spanish, Polish, and other languages are also significant. Books and pamphlets are catalogued in a card file with 120 subject headings; periodicals are indexed separately. An extensively cross-referenced, computerized version of the card file and document holdings facilitates research.
The Library also contains the published works of many non-Marxist authors who strike our interest. The PRL circulates lists of recent acquisitions to interested libraries and individuals. These circulars, which date from March 1979 to the present, are available upon request.
Key Archival Holdings
• Major published documents of the First through Fourth Internationals.
• Protocols of Executive Committee meetings and World Congresses of the Communist International. Principal periodicals, pamphlets and leading body minutes of the early American Communist Party.
• Central body minutes, internal bulletins and internal correspondence of the American Trotskyist movement, plus its public press, pamphlets and theoretical organs. Materials cover the initial Trotskyist expulsion in 1928, the founding of the Communist League of America and the later Workers Party, the period of entry into the Socialist Party, and the Socialist Workers Party.
• Substantial collection of works by James P Cannon, founding American Communist and Trotskyist leader, including writings and speeches from the 1920s.
• Extensive internal materials from the Workers Party/Independent Socialist League (led by Max Shachtman) and its youth affiliates from the 1940s and 1950s.
• Minutes, documents and bulletins of the International Secretariat of the Fourth International in French and English.
• Books on general subjects ranging from the history and struggle of colonial masses to various idiosyncratic interests of Marxists and others.
Collaborative Work
The Prometheus Research Library evolved over the last 25 years and works under the auspices of the Central Committee of the Spartacist League/U.S. The PRL has 24 staff and individual associates in the U.S. and 10 other countries. The PRL is a member of the American Library Association. The PRL seeks to assist serious efforts to publish histories of Trotskyist sections around the world, both by providing documentation and where appropriate financial support, without regard for our particular agreement with the views of the authors. The PRL occasionally collaborated with Louis Sinclair, the noted bibliographer of Leon Trotsky's work. George Breitman, editor of Trotsky's Writings, advised the PRL in the early stages of the production of our first book, James P. Cannon and the Early Years of American Communism. The Library strongly supports the collaboration and exchange of historical material with individuals and libraries of kindred purpose around the world. It has deposited archival records of the Spartacist League/U.S. and Spartacus Youth League in the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University and the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam.
To Collect and Preserve...
The Prometheus Research Library seeks to collect, preserve and make available the documentary record of the international communist movement. The Library has its own publishing program, making available rare materials that are an indispensable part of the documentary history of the Trotskyist movement. We are very interested in obtaining any relevant minutes, bulletins or correspondence both to complete gaps in our collection and to ensure that such historically valuable documents are not lost. Please note that for our purposes xerox copies of originals are nearly as satisfactory as the originals themselves. Persons who have such archival papers are encouraged to contact the PRL.
Access and Facilities
The Prometheus Research Library is open to qualified scholars needing our specialized collections. Since the Library operates on a limited schedule, researchers are required to send written requests about specific projects and for appointments. The PRL has microfilm and fiche readers. The Library is located in lower Manhattan.
Contact us by email at prl.ny@verizon.net
Principal Facility:
Prometheus Research Library
Box 185, Canal St. Station
New York, NY 10013
Tel.: (212) 966-1866
Western Station:
Prometheus Research Library
Box 32463, Civic Center Station
Oakland, CA 94604
Tel.: (510) 839-0853
email: prometheuswest@comcast.net