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American Socialism American Socialism (Edited from Wikipedia) Utopian socialism was the US's first Socialist movement. Utopians attempted to develop model socialist societies to demonstrate the virtues of their brand of beliefs. Most Utopian socialist ideas originated in Europe, but the US was most often the site for the experiments themselves. Many Utopian experiments occurred in the 19th century as part of this movement, including Brook Farm, the New Harmony, the Shakers, the Amana Colonies, the Oneida Community, The Icarians, Bishop Hill Commune, Aurora, Oregon and Bethel, Missouri. Robert Owen, a wealthy Welsh industrialist, turned to social reform and socialism and in 1825 founded a communitarian colony called New Harmony in southwestern Indiana. The group fell apart in 1829, mostly due to conflict between Utopian ideologues and non-ideological pioneers. In 1841 transcendentalist utopians founded Brook Farm, a community based on Frenchman Charles Fourier's brand of socialism. Both Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ralph Waldo Emerson were members of the short-lived community. These were all voluntary movements. They all ended in failure. German Marxist immigrants who arrived in the United States after the failed 1848 revolutions in Europe brought socialist ideas with them. Joseph Weydemeyer, a German colleague of Karl Marx who sought refuge in New York in 1851 following the 1848 revolutions, established the first Marxist journal in the U.S., Die Revolution. It folded after two issues. In 1852 he established the Proletarierbund, which would become the American Workers' League, the first Marxist organization in the U.S. But it too proved short-lived, having failed to attract a native English-speaking membership. In 1866, William H. Sylvis formed the National Labor Union (NLU). Frederich Albert Sorge, a German who had found refuge in New York following the 1848 revolutions, took Local No. 5 of the NLU into the First International as Section One in the U.S. By 1872 there were 22 sections, which held a convention in New York. The General Council of the International moved to New York with Sorge as General Secretary, but following internal conflict it dissolved in 1876. 1 A larger wave of German immigrants followed in the 1870s and 1880s. The Socialist Labor Party (SLP) was officially founded in 1876 at a convention in Newark, New Jersey. The party was made up overwhelmingly of German immigrants, who had brought Marxist ideals with them to North America. So strong was the heritage that the official party language was German for the first three years. In its nascent years the party encompassed a broad range of various socialist philosophies, with differing concepts of how to achieve their goals. In 1869 or 1870 Uriah S. Stephens founded the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor around secrecy and a semireligious aura to "create a sense of solidarity." The Knights comprised, in essence, "one big union of all workers." In 1886 a convention of delegates from twenty separate unions formed the American Federation of Labor, with Samuel Gompers as its head. It was never socialist. In a Wikipedia article on Gompers, we read this: Gompers began his labor career familiar with, and sympathetic to, Georgism and the precepts of socialism, but gradually adopted a more conservative approach to labor relations. Labor Historian Melvyn Dubofsky has written, "By 1896 Gompers and the AFL were moving to make their peace with Capitalism and the American system. Although the AFL had once preached the inevitability of class conflict and the need to abolish 'wage slavery,' it slowly and almost imperceptibly began to proclaim the virtues of class harmony and the possibilities of a more benevolent Capitalism." Gompers began to take a neutral stance in politics after his failure to successfully elect Henry George as mayor of New York, but Gompers remained a Single Tax Georgist later in life. Henry George’s view was basically pro-free market. He wanted a tax on land values as the only tax. In other words, almost nobody paid any attention to socialist groups or their ideas. Eugene V. Debs became a socialist when in prison in 1895. He soon became the main leader within the tiny socialist movement. He gained national recognition as a charismatic orator. The Socialist movement became coherent and energized under Debs. It included "scores of former Populists, militant miners, and blacklisted railroad workers, who were… inspired by occasional visits from national figures like Eugene V. Debs." Scores, not hundreds. That is to say, it was tiny. 2 The first socialist to hold public office in the United States was Fred C. Haack, the owner of a shoe store in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Haack was elected to the city council in 1897 as a member of the Populist Party, but soon became a socialist following the organization of Social Democrats in Sheboygan. He was re-elected alderman in 1898 on the Socialist ticket, along with August L. Mohr, a local baseball manager. Haack served on the city council for sixteen years, advocating for the building of schools and public ownership of utilities. He was recognized as the first socialist officeholder in America at the 1932 national Socialist Party convention held in Milwaukee. In short, socialists had no national political influence. Upton Sinclair's magnum opus, The Jungle (1906), was first published in the socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason. It criticized capitalism as being oppressive and exploitative to meatpacking workers in the industrial food system. The book is still widely referred to today, as one of the most influential works of literature in modern history. It did have influence. President Teddy Roosevelt read it. He pushed for the Pure Food and Drug Act. It became a law in 1906. But Roosevelt was no socialist. In 1951, Sinclair, a lifelong socialist, wrote to Norman Thomas, another lifelong socialist: The American People will take Socialism, but they won't take the label. I certainly proved it in the case of EPIC [End Poverty in California – 1934]. Running on the Socialist ticket I got 60,000 votes, and running on the slogan to 'End Poverty in California' I got 879,000. I think we simply have to recognize the fact that our enemies have succeeded in spreading the Big Lie. There is no use attacking it by a front attack, it is much better to out- flank them. It is worth noting that Leonard E. Read got his first exposure to free market principles in 1934, when he was hired by the Chamber of Commerce to go to California and fight against EPIC. There, Read learned about the free market from a businessman, William Mullendore. Read started the Foundation for Economic Education in 1946. I was employed by FEE in 1971-73. Ron Paul was influenced by FEE’s “freedom philosophy.” 3.
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