Ben Davidson

Ben Davidson was an American political activist.
==Lovestoneite movement==
During his time in the Lovestoneite movement in the 1930s, Davidson was known as D. Benjamin.Robert J. Alexander, The Right Opposition: The Lovestoneites and the International Communist Opposition of the 1930s, Greenwood Press, 1981, p.134. 
Benjamin was an assistant director of the Lovestoneite Marx-Lenin School formed in 1929, following the split with the Communists.Robert J. Alexander, The Right Opposition: The Lovestoneites and the International Communist Opposition of the 1930s, Greenwood Press, 1981, p.33. He was also a member of the Lovestoneite national committee, elected in November that year.Robert J. Alexander, The Right Opposition: The Lovestoneites and the International Communist Opposition of the 1930s, Greenwood Press, 1981, p.35.
In 1931, Benjamin briefly joined the Musteite Conference for Progressive Labor Action, before returning to the Lovestoneites.Robert J. Alexander, The Right Opposition: The Lovestoneites and the International Communist Opposition of the 1930s, Greenwood Press, 1981, p.98. In 1934, he accused the Musteite American Workers Party of being anti-Soviet and 'making a fetish of Americanism'.Robert J. Alexander, The Right Opposition: The Lovestoneites and the International Communist Opposition of the 1930s, Greenwood Press, 1981, p.99.
Benjamin was an instructor at a three-and-half week intensive training run by the Lovestoneites for workers in August 1935.Robert J. Alexander, The Right Opposition: The Lovestoneites and the International Communist Opposition of the 1930s, Greenwood Press, 1981, p.34.
In 1935, Davidson addressed a mass meeting of left-wing rebels within the Teachers Union of New York. (Later in 1940, when the Teachers Union came under Communist control, the Lovestoneites supported a breakaway group which affiliated to the American Federation of Teachers).Robert J. Alexander, The Right Opposition: The Lovestoneites and the International Communist Opposition of the 1930s, Greenwood Press, 1981, p.55. 
In 1938, Benjamin lectured at the Independent Labour Party's 1938 summer school.Robert J. Alexander, The Right Opposition: The Lovestoneites and the International Communist Opposition of the 1930s, Greenwood Press, 1981, p.261. In the same year, he attended the founding conference of the Workers and Peasants Socialist Party in France as a fraternal delegate.Robert J. Alexander, The Right Opposition: The Lovestoneites and the International Communist Opposition of the 1930s, Greenwood Press, 1981, p.263.
==Liberal Party of New York==
In 1943, when David Dubinsky recommended withdrawing ILGWU support from the American Labor Party, Davidson argued for continued participation in order to prepare the ground for the break away.Robert Parmet, The Master of Seventh Avenue: David Dubinsky and the American Labor Movement, New York University Press, 2005, p.197. Davidson subsequently introduced the motion, seconded by Dubinsky, at the foundation of the Liberal Party of New York in May 1944.Robert Parmet, The Master of Seventh Avenue: David Dubinsky and the American Labor Movement, New York University Press, 2005, p.199.
Davidson was later Secretary of the Liberal Party of New York for a quarter of a century.Robert J. Alexander, The Right Opposition: The Lovestoneites and the International Communist Opposition of the 1930s, Greenwood Press, 1981, p.134.
==Notes==
Davidson, BenDavidson, Ben