In 1979 the International Committee of the Fourth International uncovered an astonishing fact — a group of top leaders of the revisionist Socialist Workers Party all came from the same obscure, conservative Midwest university, Carleton College in rural Minnesota. Among the Carleton graduates who rose to the top of the SWP were: SWP national secretary Jack Barnes, Militant editor Cindy Jaquith, Intercontinental Press editor Mary-Alice Waters, and National Committee members Larry Seigle, John Benson, Betsy Stone and Doug Jenness.

To suppose that the “Carleton Twelve” were part of a disillusioned generation who suddenly embraced Marxism defies the laws of probability. The chance that twelve students from this remote, exclusive campus all joined the same revolutionary party and rose to the top is an arithmetical coincidence which is trillions to one! The fact is that they did not undergo a conversion to Marxism in Carleton at all. They were handpicked, trained and “plugged into” the SWP.

This pamphlet, a critical publication of the Security and the Fourth International investigation, delves into the history of Carleton College and establishes how it became a training ground for agents.