STIRRING STORY OF THE BIR
Debs, Theodore
Stirring Story of the Bir??
The A. R.fU. of Eugene V. Debs, Defeated??
Social Democracy ~ Thg??
By Theodore Debs??
THE merging of the American Railway Union and the Brotherhood of the Cooperative...
...A small group voted for this proposal—and in 1917 Simons left the party to support the war...
...Editor's Corner...
...Like Simons in 1901, it believed that a social revolution was imminent and1 it fought for the exclusion of measures of relief from the party platform...
...THE merging of the American Railway Union and the Brotherhood of the Cooperative Commonwealth terminated in the organization of the Social Democracy at a joint convention held in Ulrich's Hall on North Clark Street, Chicago, on June 18, 1897...
...The result was the formation of a new party to be known as the Social Democratic Party of America...
...In the eighties the S. L. P. was captured by a wing that believed that the revolution was at hand...
...The Pullman strike, though lost, was not in vain...
...In the convention of 1912, another wing opposed a declaration against sabotage and some of its sponsors turned againt political action...
...Once the convention got down to work a Socialist platform and a constitution were adopted The national executive board elected was composed of the old A.R.U...
...Its basic idea was "Destruction of the existing class rule, by all means, i. e., by energetic, relentless, revolutionary, and international action...
...BEFORE the end of the year all the wings but one were urging an "open party" on the basis of a "fight for the immediate necessities of life," as the...
...Several months of underground life brought yearnings for an "open party" and a desire to take advantage of that freedom of a^ion by workers which had been rejected as a "bourgeois prejudice...
...To all o u t w a r d appearances things were moving smoothly and harmoniously within the organization...
...It expired an force Anarchism after the Hayrnarket affair...
...officials: Eugene V. Debs, James Hogan, R. M. Goodwin, Wm...
...Besides, they were unalterably opposed to an anarchist element within the party...
...In 1904, a wing in the Socialist convention opposed unions as "crutches" that must be kicked from under the workers...
...The later period cannot be reviewed in a short article but it is interesting to consider the "wings" the movement has sprouted in this country...
...The organ of one wing, the "Worker's Council," late in 19^1 confessed that the Russian revolution had "carried us off our feet...
...E. Burns and Sylvester Kelliher...
...Few of...
...The minority report submitted by Lloyd favored the continuation of the colonization scheme, while the majority report favored^he adoption of a clear-cut Socialist platform and the abolition of the colony feature...
...All the wings were eventually gathered into the Communist Party but in the last several years, through splits and expulsions, it hus sprouted three wings...
...It "visioned inarticulate rumblings which presage striking occurrences" and believed that 'the soldiers would return home with some vague revolutionary purposes...
...Some Early Socialist Wings...
...He lived to learn better...
...The activity of the anarchists within the party but widened the breach...
...Looking over the entire period since the eighties, the various programs offered in the name of Socialism are grotesque in some phases and none acquired much importance or built anything enduring...
...were 70 delegates, representing 94 branches...
...that independent working class political power and influence was equally necessary, each united in separate organizations, yet acting as a unit on both the economic and political .fields to the mutual .welfare of all...
...Before the end of the year, after spending months in distributing leaflets calling for "armed insurrection," this left wing was driven underground by nationwide arrests...
...In the meantime, this left wing had sprouted a dozen wings, each fighting all the others and each claiming the exclusive support of Moscow...
...Some delegates favor...
...Ita secret retreats were, self-imposed concentration camps...
...Self-advertised as a "proletarian" wing, a later survey of its members by W. J. Ghent showed that nearly 75 per cent were not proletarians...
...Frederic Heath acted as chairman and F. G. R. Gordon as secretary of the gathering...
...This exhibition of political power un the part of the railway corporations brought to the strikers, as it did to thousands of other workers, the stern realization that economic organization alone was insufficient to cope with powerful corporations in time of industrial disputes...
...The Communist Wings 'FHK left wing of 1919 created three Communist par...
...The majority platform, as presented to the convention, was adopted, a national committee chosen, and an address to the membership ordered prepared...
...Here wewew ful of assured I a penny JB t"e much as V;le'd jf office equip™ were imbued * crusaders and Spartans, Natu were established in the writers* miles from the U ludicrous that bearing the pret sounding title of cratic Party °J have its natiofj quarters...
...After the vote was announced, about fifteen delegates, supporters of the majority platform, quietly left the convention and made their way to Parlor A at the old Revere House, almost opposite the convention hall, where many of, the delegates were registered...
...It taught thousands of men and women the imperative need of a working class political party, and it was this lesson that prompted the A.R.U...
...thoi pledge the fullM spective branch* would have to h return home...
...A number of anarchists had and were joining the party, all of whom favored the colonization project but they were utterly indifferent to, or openly scorned politica' action...
...All this is a psychic output of the decay of the capitalist world and the influence of the Russian Revolution...
...The left wing of 1912 favored industrial unionism and sabotage and some of them turned against political action in favor of anarcho-syndicalism...
...The first annual convention, held at Ulrich's Hall, was called to order by Chairman Debs on the ¦norning of June ?, ,1898...
...ties...
...Here the situation was thoroughly discussed...
...members livintj daily occurren^ were constanufj there was sW*l...
...ing straight political action cast their ballots for the minority, firmly convinced Chat a splft in the party was inevitable and that it might as well come then as later...
...The latter had been organized by the Coming Nation, ;i weekly publication with considerable circulation of which the late J. A. \\ ayland was the editor, and had for its purpose the establishing of colonic- in some western state with a view of capturing it politically...
...Within tiro years t^rsc left wings adopted what thchfhad repudiated and repudiated what they had adapted ^n the matter of electoral cam-paigns...
...Conferences' 1...
...A prolonged discussion, often heated and bitter, followed the presentation of the reports, and it continued until 2:30 a. m., when a vote was taken upon the adoption or rejection of the minority report...
...some came *i* others remained Democracy, wbi branches took 1 or disbanded in...
...our readers in this i&ue with a few recollections of the movement in the seventies, and Theodore Debs re-:alls the hardships of comrades in founding the Socialist Party...
...Review of and Comment on Events Here arfd Abroad, Critical and Otherwise...
...Like Simons In 1901 and the left...
...sun had already meeting, which m later in the dai adjourned...
...organ of the Communist Party put it...
...The two first days were consumed in organizing, the election of various committees, presentation of annual reports of national officials and discussion of matters of more • or less importance...
...In 1904 another left wing approved political action but regarded economic organization of the working class as a crutch that must be destroyed...
...At this conthn Cox presided an acted as secretj executive board < Cox, Victor L. tj...
...There...
...But under the surface, as the first annual convention, approached it became more and more obvious that trouble was brejMng-and certain to break out between the political actionists and the colonizers...
...Beginning in 1895 the S. L. P. organized its own unions under Socialist contol and waged a savage battle against the existing unions That adventure expired in the arms of Syndicalism about 1908...
...A left wing delegate said that he did not want to be placed in the position of being "opposed to the scabs" and "taking sides with the union men...
...The impossibilism of Simons in 1901 which ended in the social patriotism of 1917...
...and as the days passed this feeling became more intensified...
...In a short time branches were established in a number of states, and wherever branches were sufficiently strong to place tickets in the field the vote was most encouraging...
...The left wings of 1904 and 1912 offered proposals that were in contradiction with each other...
...Debs, Seymour Frederic Heath writer was »P secretary and tM...
...The result was 5,1 for, against 37...
...This wing repudiated democracy as a "bourgeois prejudice" and urged "establishment of Socialism through a proletarian dictatorship...
...The Railway Times, the official organ of the A.R.U., was converted into the Social Democrat...
...In the Unity Convention that organized the Socialist Party in 1901, A. M. Simons declared that the social revolution was a matter of a few years and fought for the elimination of all relief measures from the platform...
...IAOOB WINNEN, an old Cnicaro Socialist, presents...
...On the third day the committee on platform, composed of John Lloyd (Chicago), Victor L. Berger (Milwaukee) and Margaret Haile (Massachusetts), presented a majority and a minority report...
...While the former had lost a hard-fought conflict with the railways west of Chicago, known as the Pullman strike, in which the General Managers' Association, finding itself defeated at every point, called in all the forces of government, from President Gro-ver Cleveland down to the vilest thug and gunman sworn in as a U. S. marshal, all of whom, including the Attorney-General, federal judiciary and government troops, performed like trained upaniejs when the railway managers cracked the corporation whip...
...Offices were established in Chicago and the work of^prganizing local branches was prosecuted with vigor...
...to take advanced ground...
...Workers' Councils were approved as the only basis by which "Socialism can be introduced...
...We still have wings...
...Since 1901 the wings had gone through the following evolution...
...By James Oneal...
...Reunion and Division...
...It held that these were "master class measures" intended to "prevent the growing class-consciousness of the workers...
...Neve* lent of vent w»< item, especially, nothing to P»yj...
...two years had taught it that its program attracted "numerous romantic irrespon-Stbles...
Vol. 17 • April 1934 • No. 17
