Tuhia he haere tonu mō tēnei wāhanga - I te tau 1937, i peia ngā Trotskyists i te Pāti Socialist, he mahi i arahi ki te hanganga o te Socialist Workers Party (SWP) i te mutunga o te tau. I roto i te SWP, i hono a Burnham ki a Max Shachtman i roto i te pakanga roopu mo te tuunga o te roopu SWP, i arahina e James P. Cannon, i tautokohia e Leon Trotsky, e tiaki ana i te Soviet Union hei kawanatanga kaimahi kua pakaru ki nga whakaekenga o te imperialism. Ko Shachtman raua ko Burnham, ina koa i muri i te kitenga o te Nazi<unk>Soviet pact o 1939 me nga whakaekenga o Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, me Estonia na te kawanatanga o Joseph Stalin, me te whakaekenga a te Soviet o Finland
I te marama o Whiringa-a-rangi 1939, i haere mai ki te tohe ko te USSR he ahua hou o te hapori akomanga imperialist, na reira kaore i tika te tautoko whakaharahara mai i te kaupapa pāpori.