Eugene V. Debs
Progressive Era Repression and persecution Anti-war and civil rights movements Contemporary Eugene Victor Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American socialist, political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and five-time candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States.After workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company organized a wildcat strike over pay cuts in the summer of 1894, Debs signed many into the ARU.As a leader of the ARU, Debs was convicted of federal charges for defying a court injunction against the strike and served six months in prison.[4] In July 1875, Debs left to work at a wholesale grocery house, where he remained for four years[4] while attending a local business school at night.One influence was his involvement in the Burlington Railroad Strike of 1888, a defeat for labor that convinced Debs of "the need to reorganize across craft lines", according to Joanne Reitano.The Pullman Company, citing falling revenue after the economic Panic of 1893, had cut the wages of its factory employees by twenty-eight percent.[3] The federal government intervened, obtaining an injunction against the strike on the grounds that the strikers had obstructed the U.S. mail, carried on Pullman cars, by refusing to show up for work.[3][17] An estimated $80 million worth of property was damaged and Debs was found guilty of contempt of court for violating the injunction and sent to federal prison.While serving his six-month term in the jail at Woodstock, Illinois, Debs and his ARU comrades received a steady stream of letters, books and pamphlets in the mail from socialists around the country.[19] Debs recalled several years later: I began to read and think and dissect the anatomy of the system in which workingmen, however organized, could be shattered and battered and splintered at a single stroke.The Cooperative Commonwealth of [Laurence] Gronlund also impressed me, but the writings of [Karl] Kautsky were so clear and conclusive that I readily grasped, not merely his argument, but also caught the spirit of his socialist utterance – and I thank him and all who helped me out of darkness into light.[21] The "tempestuous relationship with a wife who rejects the very values he holds most dear" was the basis of Irving Stone's biographical novel Adversary in the House.[22] The Social Democracy of America (SDA), founded in June 1897 by Eugene V. Debs from the remnants of his American Railway Union, was deeply divided between those who favored a tactic of launching a series of colonies to build socialism by practical example and others who favored establishment of a European-style socialist political party with a view to capture of the government apparatus through the ballot box.[25] Although by no means the sole decision-maker in the organization, Debs's status as prominent public figure in the aftermath of the Pullman strike provided cachet and made him the recognized spokesman for the party in the newspapers.Along with Elliott, who ran for Congress in 1900, Debs was the first federal office candidate for the fledgling socialist party, running unsuccessfully for president the same year.Although he received some success as a third-party candidate, Debs was largely dismissive of the electoral process as he distrusted the political bargains that Victor Berger and other "sewer socialists" had made in winning local offices.It started when the electoral wing of the Socialist Party, led by Victor Berger and Morris Hillquit, became irritated with speeches by Haywood.The decision of the elected officials in Lawrence, Massachusetts, to send police, who subsequently used their clubs on children, disgusted Haywood, who publicly declared that "I will not vote again" until such a circumstance was rectified.[38] Haywood was purged from the National Executive Committee by passage of an amendment that focused on the direct action and sabotage tactics advocated by the IWW.[40] Debs was noted by many to be a charismatic speaker who sometimes called on the vocabulary of Christianity and much of the oratorical style of evangelism, even though he was generally disdainful of organized religion.[43] Howard Zinn opined that "Debs was what every socialist or anarchist or radical should be: fierce in his convictions, kind and compassionate in his personal relations.I am thinking this morning of the men in the mills and factories; I am thinking of the women who, for a paltry wage, are compelled to work out their lives; of the little children who, in this system, are robbed of their childhood, and in their early, tender years, are seized in the remorseless grasp of Mammon, and forced into the industrial dungeons, there to feed the machines while they themselves are being starved body and soul. ...When the mariner, sailing over tropic seas, looks for relief from his weary watch, he turns his eyes toward the Southern Cross, burning luridly above the tempest-vexed ocean.[1] Debs presented what has been called his best-remembered statement at his sentencing hearing:[53] Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth.While Debs had carefully worded his speeches in an attempt to comply with the Espionage Act of 1917, the Court found he had the intention and effect of obstructing the draft and military recruitment.[5] In protest of his jailing, Charles Ruthenberg led a parade of unionists, socialists, anarchists, and communists on May 1 (May Day) in Cleveland, Ohio.[1] In March 1919, President Wilson asked Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer for his opinion on clemency, offering his own: "I doubt the wisdom and public effect of such an action.[62] The President and his Attorney General both believed that public opinion opposed clemency and that releasing Debs could strengthen Wilson's opponents in the debate over the ratification of the peace treaty.[63] At one point, Wilson wrote: "While the flower of American youth was pouring out its blood to vindicate the cause of civilization, this man, Debs, stood behind the lines sniping, attacking, and denouncing them. ...[66]When Debs was released from the Atlanta Penitentiary, the other prisoners sent him off with "a roar of cheers" and a crowd of fifty thousand greeted his return to Terre Haute to the accompaniment of band music.
Indiana House of RepresentativesTerre HauteTerre Haute, IndianaElmhurst, IllinoisHighland Lawn CemeteryDemocraticPopulistSocial DemocracySocial DemocraticSocialistTheodore DebsSocialismin the United StatesUtopian socialismBrook FarmIcariansJonestownLooking BackwardNew HarmonyOneida CommunityProgressive Era1877 St. Louis general strike1912 Lawrence textile strikeCatholic Worker MovementGreen Corn RebellionLabor unionizationHaymarket affairMay DayWomen's suffrageRepression and persecutionAmerican Defense SocietyAmerican Protective LeagueCommunist Party USA and African AmericansCommunist Party USAlabor movement1919–19371937–1957Espionage Act of 1917First Red ScareJohn Birch SocietyMcCarthyismSeattle General StrikeSmith ActSmith Act trialsAnti-warcivil rightsBlack power movementCOINTELPROI Have a DreamMarch on WashingtonNew LeftPoor People's Campaign1999 Seattle WTO protests2007–2008 financial crisisOccupy Wall StreetAlstonAndrewsAvrichBalagoonBellamy (Edward)Bellamy (Francis)BergerBerkmanBookchinBowmanBruenig (Elizabeth)Bruenig (Matt)BrisbaneBrooksBrowderButlerCannonCantorCarmichaelChomskyCockburnDavis (Angela)Davis (Mike)De la CruzDe LeonDennisDreiserDu BoisEhrenreichFearingFeinbergFosterFourierGilmoreGitlowGoldmanGraeberGreeneGuthrieHammettHamptonHarburgHarringtonHarrisonHaywood (Bill)Haywood (Harry)HawkinsHedgesHeywood (Angela)Heywood (Ezra)HillquitHoffmanJamesonKellerLabadieLa GuardiaLondonLovestoneMcReynoldsMitchellMorelloNewtonOcasio-CortezPankenParentiParsons (Albert)Parsons (Lucy)RandolphRipleyRobbinsRobinsonRocker