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Labour/Le Travailleur

Labour and the Left in America A Review Essay Bruno Ramirez

Volume 7, 1981

URI : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/llt7re03

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Éditeur(s) Canadian Committee on Labour History

ISSN 0700-3862 (imprimé) 1911-4842 (numérique)

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Citer ce compte rendu Ramirez, B. (1981). Compte rendu de [Labour and the Left in America: A Review Essay]. Labour/Le Travailleur, 7, 165–173.

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Bruno Ramirez

Milton Cantor, The Divided Left: American Radicalism, 1900-1975 (New York: Hill and Wang 1978). Glen Sere tan, Daniel De Leon: The Odyssey of an American Marxist (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press 1979). Bernard J. Brommel, Eugene V. Debs, Spokesman for Labor and Socialism (Chicago: Charles H. Kerr 1978). Norma Fain Pratt, Morris Hillquit: A Political History of an American Jewish Socialist (Westport, Ct.: Greenwood Press 1979). Carl and Ann Barton Reeve, James Connolly and the United States (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press 1978). Paul Avrich, An American Anarchist. The Life ofVoltairine de Cleyre (Prince­ ton: Princeton University Press 1978).

STUDIES ON THE HISTORY of the American left rarely escape the question of why socialism failed to become a permanent alternative for a radical transfor­ mation of American society. Although many attempts have been made to provide a conclusive answer, that question is by no means settled and, if properly approached, it is likely to remain on the agenda for quite some time. Similarly, the period during which American socialism experienced its greatest success will probably continue to be a centre of focus for students concerned with that important question. From the latter part of the nineteenth century to the 1920s, in fact, a whole generation of American socialists lived and fought with the belief that a radical social transformation was as much on the agenda in the U.S. as it was in any of the industrialized countries of Europe. Socialist presence was felt at all levels of society: the labour move­ ment was experiencing a rapid growth and consolidation and the intensity of industrial strife made American workers one of the most militant working classes. Yet that generation of socialists, with its strengths and its weaknesses, with its hopes and its illusions, is only part of the picture. Equally if not more important is the American working class itself — that historical actor which more than any other would have insured the success of a socialist alternative. Failure to give it the historical central ity it deserves has often meant that the question "why socialism failed" connotes a negative judgment on the Ameri­ can working class for not having embraced the socialist message. Few historians of American socialism have resisted the temptation of Bruno Ramirez, "Labour and the Left in America: A Review Essay," LabourIU Travailleur, 7 (Spring 1981), 165-173. 166 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR resorting to that classical theoretical con­ historical quality of being hegemonic and struct which divides the working class into of being imposed on the working class two groups: those who possessed class through an unprecedented apparatus of consciousness and those — the great psychological and ideological manipula­ majority of American workers — who did tion. The workers' internalization of those not develop it. values insured widespread allegiance to Thus, the charge against the Com­ the system, thus rendering class domina­ mons' School for having concerned itself tion less risky and more efficient. primarily with skilled trade unionists and One might agree that the notion of neglected the great mass of American hegemony can be more fruitfully applied to workers, often may also be applied to the American scene than the worn-out many leftist historians for their tendency to Leninist notion of stages of working-class belittle the study of workers who allowed consciousness. One should not forget, themselves to be "integrated" into the sys­ however, that in Gramsci's use this notion tem. The result has been that in answering was predicated on a careful assessment of the question of the socialist failure in the class relations existing in a society at a America, the emphasis has been put either given stage of capitalist development. on the socialist movement itself (its lead­ While capitalist hegemony is always ers, its organizations, its theoretical tools), directed against the working class, its or else on "the system" that managed to mode of deployment may vary depending remain impervious to the socialist chal­ (among other things) on the degree of lenge. power the working class has and, conse­ Cantor's book provides a recent exam­ quently, on the concrete threat it poses to ple of this ambivalent way of approaching capitalist domination. Cantor concedes the question. As a synthesis of the best that these complex historical questions known literature on American radicalism, cannot be properly dealt with without a his book is very useful. He discusses the thorough study of the working class itself; major organizations of the left in the twen­ and in fact it is from such an avenue of tieth century — from the Socialist Labor research that progress will be made (and Party to the New Left of the 1960s and indeed is being made) towards a new early 1970s — and provides competent understanding of capitalist hegemonic rule evaluations of each of those organizations' and of the socialist experience. distinct contribution to the success or fail­ ure of the movement. However, Cantor's But to argue for a more thorough application to the American scene of the knowledge of the American working class classical working-class consciousness in all its expressions and specificity does construct does not lead us any further in not mean that already we know all there is our understanding of the left's failure in to know about the socialist movement. As the U.S. In his answer to that question one a movement acting to transform American finds very little that helps us understand society, it had a historical subjectivity why the American working class remained made of theoretical elaborations, organiza­ cold to or outrightly rejected the socialist tional strategies, and — last but not least vision — except to learn that American — personalities. This is what makes bio­ workers developed a false consciousness graphies of socialist militants an important that made them complacent to what genre of historical literature. They may capitalism offered. Cantor's interpretative exert a corrective influence against the ten­ approach is somewhat enriched by his dency of mystifying the movement, as they utilization of the Gramscian notion of allow us to penetrate deeper into the realm hegemony. The cultural and social values of daily existence where socialist militants produced by American capitalism had the like anyone else had to contend with all REVIEW ESSAYS 167

those elements of which ordinary human builder of a proletarian community," and a life is made. leader in the latter's march toward libera­ Of course, biography is no less subject tion. As to Marxism, Seretan maintains to interpretative problems or methodologi­ that it provided De Leon with the ideologi­ cal choices. Witness, for instance, the cal frame within which he could more growing popularity of psychohistory clearly work out his identity transforma­ which no doubt represents the latest meth­ tion, while permitting him to translate his odological innovation in the study of bio­ sense of mission into a scientific program­ graphies. One historian of American matic line. Seretan is very skillful in show­ socialism who has made ample use of the ing how De Leon read into Marxism many psychohistory approach is Glen Seretan. of the fundamental life questions which His book on Daniel De Leon is replete with had tormented him in his search for a new terms such as "self-definition," "uncon­ identity. The class struggle thesis is a good scious," "cathartic experience," "sublimi­ example. De Leon found it especially nal," and so on — terms which are part of appealing, because, in Seretan's words, an interpretative framework Seretan has constructed to make sense out of De ... its cataclysmic depiction of social change Leon's contradictory experience as a major satisfied a deeply felt need for a dramatic and shaper of American socialism. That De thoroughgoing resolution of his vexing problem Leon was one of the most complex person­ of personal alienation. It promised Ècathartic ages of that generation of radicals is some­ experience, a society-wide purgation of the con­ thing readily acknowledged by most stu­ ditions that isolated men from one another. It dents of socialism; it is also reflected in the acted, therefore, to salve his impatience for relief, an impatience that had earlier contributed difficulty one has to reconcile his bril­ to his disillusionment with the temporizing liance as a Marxist theorist with his dog­ attitudes and inconclusive results of reform matism as the absolute master of the movements. (67) Socialist Labor Party from 1890 until his death in 1914. However, historians who If this analysis of De Leon's motivations have limited their analysis of De Leon to for embracing Marxism and devoting his his theoretical contributions and to his con­ life to the socialist movement is correct, it troversial political practice have come up would explain the extent to which his polit­ with a very distorted picture. ical and theoretical approach grew out of an essentially ethical understanding of the According to Seretan, the key that tasks and responsibilities of a socialist mil­ makes De Leon's peculiar experience itant. The dogmatism and sectarianism intelligible is to be found in his intellectual which marked his practice were not those formative stage — a period marked by a of a power-thirsty politician seeking self- profound crisis of identity and by a persis­ aggrandizement and material rewards, but tent sense of personal alienation as De rather those of the high-priest seeking to Leon wandered from one reform move­ instill in his fellow party members disci­ ment to another. What brought De Leon's pline , belief in doctrinal purity, and faith in anguished psychological and political the ultimate redemption of the proletariat. search to an end was the combined influ­ Seretan's thorough research, coupled ence of French novelist Eugène Sue's writ­ with his sophisticated understanding of ings and of Marxism. Sue's novel Le juif socialist politics, has produced the best errant enabled De Leon to appropriate the exposition of De Leon's theories and polit­ notion of proletarian community, allowing ical practice to date. However, his use of him to transmute his identity crisis into a the "Wandering Jew" literary theme as an powerful personal sense of historical mis­ interpretative tool may strike readers as sion. Henceforth, De Leon, "the wander­ being super-imposed and a problem- ing Jew," would become De Leon, "the solving device. He concedes that its adop- 168 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR

tion was dictated by "the limitations over its seven members' daily physical imposed by incomplete data," and one can­ exercises and study. Debs filled the posi­ not but question the psychoanalytic opera­ tion of the teacher. The other three officers tions he performs on De Leon's formative were an inspector, a colonel, and a profes­ life-stage in the absence of such critical sor. Psychohistory could probably go a sources as private correspondence and long way analysing this fragment of Debs' memoirs. To be sure, Seretan does have life, but Bernard Brommel — the author of important pieces of evidence which lend the most recent biography of Eugene Debs some credence to his thesis: Sue's influ­ — settles for less. Since Debs' life is the ence on De Leon is amply demonstrated in best known of all American socialist lead­ the letter's writing; De Leon's fixation ers' lives, with almost a dozen biographies with concealing his Jewish origin, even at already in existence, Brommel sees his the cost of lying publicly, is also well docu­ contribution mainly as that of reconstruct­ mented. But a substantial part of Seretan*s ing Debs* private and public life in the light argument is based only on a skilled of new sources which he himself was exegesis of De Leon's highly symbolic and instrumental in uncovering. At times the rhetorical public pronouncements. Treat­ author's enthusiasm for bringing to light ing these as vehicles through which De previously unknown details of Debs' life Leon was unconsciously giving away bits borders on gossip. For example, some and pieces of his life-data is stretching readers may find it interesting to know that one's interpretative tools a bit too far, par­ Debs' conjugal life was not entirely satis­ ticularly for a propagandist like De Leon, factory and that consequently he kept for for whom the art of oratory was one of the some time a rather intense relationship major weapons in his struggle for persua­ with a Mrs. Curry, a voluntary helper in sion. Seretan's subtle probing into De Debs' office. But to go on and tell us that Leon's mental processes and how they while he was in a federal prison for anti­ affected his political practices may be war activities the prison warden allowed viewed as an important warning against Mrs. Curry to visit Debs alone in his jail easy generalizations about "socialist con­ room may denote more than just love for sciousness" — let alone working-class details. consciousness. At the same time, his read­ However, this question of infidelity is ing of De Leon's Weltanschaung in terms but one of several aspects of Debs' private of eschatology and religious symbolism and public life which Brommel brings to will probably end up giving credence to light in order to give us a more humane and those interpretations stressing the "other less mythical image of a man known to worldness" of American socialism. many generations as the great apostle of Less complex, and better known, are American socialism. Debs' dedication to Eugene Debs' motivations for embracing the socialist cause, his spirit of self- socialism. While spending six months in a sacrifice (he spent many years accepting remote jail for having led the American speaking engagements left and right so he Railway Union in the famous Pullman could fulfil his promise to repay a $40,000 strike. Debs was introduced by some of his debt incurred by the ARU at the time of the visitors to socialist literature. These read­ Pullman strike), and the enthusiasm he ings helped to clarify in his mind the mean­ drew from ordinary workers have long ing of the class struggle of which he him­ made him the object of veneration. self had become a living embodiment. Socialist Party leaders knew this well While completing his jail term. Debs and in five presidential elections they ran also kept himself busy setting up with the him as the party's vote-getter. In a political other six ARU prisoners "The Cooperative culture where the candidate's public image Colony of Liberty Jail" with jurisdiction was one of the most formidable weapons to REVIEW ESSAYS 169 capture people's votes, Debs became the moralism and opportunism, though he image of an organization seeking to con­ does not sufficiently develop the theoreti­ vince voters that socialism was the best cal implications. For, direct action in its choice for America. But Brommel shows various forms was a working-class practice convincingly that in accepting that role to which labourers resorted — regardless Debs knew where his strengths as socialist of their degree of consciousness — to leader lay. He would spend considerable make their resistance against managerial time on his speech notes so that his public tyranny more effective. There is reason to addresses could be most effective. And believe that of all the organizational crises when he addressed his audiences, his style the socialist movement suffered in that was inspirational. As at the time of his period, the one over the issue of direct prison Cooperative Colony, Debs saw his action was the most significant. It not only role as being a teacher to the American brought to a head the long and arduous working class. American socialism had its debate on the relationship between politi­ professors, its colonels, and it certainly cal and economic action — debate to which had its inspectors, but teaching to ordinary all currents of the socialist movement had workers the simple truths of socialism was participated at one point or another; it also what the movement needed most. This does not mean that Debs kept himself took place at a time when the capitalist entirely out of intra-party struggles. restructuring of the labour process was According to Brommel, Debs also did his most sweeping, transforming the terrain of share of skillful manoeuvring, a part of class confrontation and calling for new which consisted in using the prestige he forms of workers' struggle. Debs and his had built up among the rank and file to party associates' response on this issue make his positions prevail with the least revealed how theoretically helpless the involvement in convention-floor fights. party was in the face of their transforma­ Just as Brommel revives the image of Debs tions. It confirmed that their dichotomy as the leader above party factions, so he between political and economic action brings some new insights to the question of (and its strategic implications) was predi­ how radical Debs' socialism was. His cated on a limited understanding of the method is sound when he makes the dis­ workplace and of its centrality in the tinction between Debs' fiery pronounce­ capitalist project of class subjugation. To ments and his political practice. Debs' cre­ be true, in sanctioning direct action and dentials for being classed on the left wing sabotage the iww was certainly not invent­ of the socialist movement include, beside ing that practice. Yet, their willingness to his leadership in one of the most notable elevate it to a mot d'ordre denotes an early attempts of industrial unionism, his extremely keen perception of the changing industrial climate and an effort to make participation in the founding of the Indus­ organizational strategy rest on the daily trial Workers of the World, and a genuine reality of the work place. In condemning faith in the revolutionary potential of the this practice and disassociating from it, the American proletariat. Bui when the dis­ SPA was only retreating into the old theoret­ agreement over the use of direct action ical merry-go-round, while of course turned into open hostility and iww leader revamishing its image for a new assault at Bill Haywood was expelled from the party the polls. for advocating this form of struggle, Debs Probably no one in the SPA establish­ sided with the party's notables on the ment was more concerned about the par­ ground that the use of violence was detri­ ty's public image than Morris Hillquit. His mental to the interests of the working class. influence in determining the policies and Brommel is right in detecting in Debs' strategies of the organization — from its position on this issue a mixture of inception through the 1920s — was cm- 170 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR cial. And quite often this influence was sion of Hillquit's attitude toward immi­ used against radical left-wingers who, in grant workers and toward ethnicity as a his view, threatened the orderly progress of component of the working-class experi­ the political institution he had done so ence in America. In his attempt to divest much to shape. If throughout that period himself of a Jewish identity Hillquit did not the SPA had an ideological and policy go so far as De Leon did. Nevertheless he inspector, it was Morris Hillquit who came saw ethnicity and the stress on ethnic iden­ closest to embodying that role. The histori­ tity as a divisive element — as something cal portrait that Norma Fain Pratt has given which retarded the attainment of a civic us of this major socialist figure is an impor­ maturity within the socialist movement. tant contribution to the study of American Here again the answer lay in Americaniza­ socialist leadership. Readers may find lit­ tion as it allowed immigrants to rid them­ tle new in her conclusion that Hillquit's selves of their ethnicity and become more insistence with working within the system rapidly assimilated into the mainstream of and his belief in "the potential inherent in American life. Progressive reformers the established system" made him the lead­ could not agree more with this vision of ing representative of reformist socialism in social change — especially at a time when the progressive era. But one finds massive immigration and the ongoing pro­ extremely revealing her argument that cess of ethnic recomposition among the Hillquit's brand of reformism was based labouring classes made social and ideolog­ not just on an optimistic view of capitalist ical control an extremely arduous task, one institutions but also on a skeptical attitude which finally could only be dealt with towards workers' potential for radical through the racist and repressive measures change. As she puts it, "... there was little of the Quota Laws and of the American in [Hillquit's] theory that could encourage Plan. a worker to believe that his/her action — In stark contrast with Hillquit's stance even a strike or a vote — might make a toward immigration and ethnicity were the basic difference." (248) One factor con­ views and the practice of a less known but tributing to this negative view of the work­ equally important socialist figure of that ing class was, according to Pratt, the period — James Connolly. He is the sub­ embourgeoisement process she detects in ject of a biographical study by Carl and Hillquit's life experience as he climbed Ann B. Reeve who unfortunately seem from the poverty of the Lower East Side excessively concerned with canonizing Jewish immigrant settlement to the promi­ their hero for the American audience and in nence of a rather successful law practice. so doing fail to unveil the full meaning of a Search for respectability and identification very significant life experience. with the middle class became important Connolly's involvement in the Ameri­ ingredients of the reformist stance, con­ can socialist movement was limited to the cealing a view of the working class as a sort 1902-1910 period, when he sojourned in of transitory state that capable and intelli­ the U.S., attracted both by the growth of gent workers would sooner or later leave the movement and by the need to improve behind. This may explain why, as Pratt the material condition of his family. His argues, Hillquit did nothing for the crea­ presence in the American struggles was as tion of a permanent base of working-class immediate as his reinsertion in the Irish support. It may also explain why he sought struggles when he moved back to his native in the Americanization of the socialist country and a few years later became the party the answer for a lasting insertion of ideological and military leader of the Eas­ socialism into the progressive evolution of ter Rebellion which cost him his life and American life. made him the great martyr of the struggle Equally enlightening is Pratt's discus­ for Irish independence. Connolly's intense REVIEW ESSAYS 171 organizing activities with the SLP first, and American radicalism, anarchism became with the iww later, brought him into close operative in working-class struggles. De contact with the daily reality of immigrant Leon's elaborate typology of all major workers. He went as far as learning a for­ American anarchist currents ends up being eign language so that his organizing work a mere cataloguing of ideas, organizations, among New York dock workers could be and leaders, and is far from supporting his more effective, and fought for the creation major claim that anarchism has always of an Irish-American Socialist Federation been the only authentic form of radicalism so as to better translate the socialist mes­ in America. sage in terms of the concrete conditions of One learns much more from the life Irish immigrants. story of a little known American anarchist, In many ways Connolly's life experi­ Voltairine de Cleyre, as it has been recon­ ence embodied a new working-class inter­ structed by Paul Avrich. De Cleyre's con­ nationalism which has received less atten­ tribution to the American anarchist move­ tion from historians than the official inter­ ment has been overshadowed by the nationalism made of carefully worded res­ exploits of her contemporary movement olutions, annual congresses, and national celebrity, Emma Goldman. Yet, following delegations. It was an internationalism the itinerary of this American-bom radical produced by capital's global penetration through her agitational activities,her writ­ and by the unprecedented shifts of working ings, and her work among the immigrants of the Philadelphia slums, one gaina populations between and across conti­ important insights into the social'and cul­ nents. In this new geography of labour tural climate of urban America in the pro­ power — of which the U.S. became the gressive period. One also learns a great leading terminal point as well as a major deal about the particular difficulties and crossroad — immigration became more conflicts encountered by a woman militant than ever before a crucial terrain through in a world and a movement dominated by which workers' experiences circulated and men. Perhaps this is why she did not leave interacted, often erupting in truly multi­ much of a mark in the organizational his­ national strikes in the heart of the Ameri­ tory of anarchism, and why her greatest can colossus. The Reeves do not raise the contribution was in her poetry and in her question whether Connolly's former mili­ essays through which she translated the tant experience in Ireland contributed to fears and hopes of the working people she making him one of the most able organiz­ lived with. For Voltairine de Cleyre ers and strategists in the U.S., or whether ideologies and organizations should be Connolly's experience in the U.S. may means, and not ends, in the struggle for have determined the political choices he made as leader of the Irish resistance. Yet, human fulfillment. So she moved from in the reconstruction of this sort of inter­ freethinking to socialism, to anarchism, continental itineraries and networks and in sowing hope and reaping despair, but leav­ the discovery of the life experience of less ing behind her what Avrich calls "a true known or still unknown militants lies an proletarian literature" —one which seems important challenge for historians who to be marked less by ideological concerns view the history of radicalism as part of the than by the suffering she shared with those history of the working class, rather than oppressed people to whom she sought to merely the history of ideas and of leaders. bring a message of human hope. A similar point can be made concern­ Today, thanks to the remarkable pro­ ing the history of anarchism in America. gress made in the field of women's history Historians who, like David De Leon, have one can more fully appreciate the signifi­ approached it as intellectual history have cance of a radical life-experience such as rarely shown how, as a component of that of de Cleyre. Likewise, the important 172 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR inroads made in recent years in the study of optimistic about the potential of future bio­ immigration and ethnicity have provided graphical studies which are attuned with new insights into the attitudes and strategic the class reality on which the personages in choices made by radical leaders vis-à-vis question acted. These studies too would immigrant workers. If one adds the crucial help us in viewing "the failure of advances made in our knowledge of socialism" not merely as an academic working-class culture and of the transfor­ question but rather as one that takes on a mation of the work process, one can be new relevance for this present generation.

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