Early American Marxism (14-10)
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H-Labor Early American Marxism (14-10) Discussion published by Tim Davenport on Monday, March 10, 2014 Early American Marxism website • www.marxisthistory.org/ Weekly Update 14-10 • March 9, 2014. Fourteen new files. Two clusters of documents, the first from 1916 featuring debate over the Socialist Party's national platform, which included a militant anti-war minority plank that disavowed even defensive war. The second cluster, dating from 1922, focuses on the first national convention of the Young Workers League, youth section of the communist Workers Party of America. More Debsiana as well, per usual: on Prohibition, Preparedness, the 1916 SPA platform, and 1922 May Day greetings. Of final note, an obituary published at the time of the death of the father of Kate Richards O'Hare makes it clear that this prominent Socialist woman may be added to the list of famous "Red Diaper Babies." All documents may be freely downloaded for non-commercial use at the following URL: http://www.marxisthistory.org/subject/usa/eam/14-10.html Thanks for your interest, Tim Davenport [email protected] Corvallis, OR ================= NEW FILES ON EAM ================= (1) "On Liquor and Prohibition," by Eugene V. Debs [Feb. 2, 1916] Citing personal experiences gained during his seven years of frequent residency in the dry state of Kansas, Gene Debs offers a pragmatic view of prohibition and the liquor question. This article, originally written for his hometown newspaper, was part of an ongoing debate over the liquor question between Debs and a local Methodist minister. Debs argues forcefully that prohibition leads to the closure of otherwise healthy businesses and the consequent decrease of tax revenues, while at the same time boosting costs of government operation. Moreover, prohibition only leads to an illegal economy, Debs indicates: "There are 19 prohibition states in the country and every one of them swarming with bootleggers; not one of them in which you cannot buy all the whiskey you want if you have the money to pay for it. There is not an actually dry county in all these states and there never will be." * * * (2) "Preparedness Will Crush You," by Eugene V. Debs [April 8, 1916] Accusing steel magnates Charles Schwab and Andrew Carnegie of being the vocal nucleus of the so-called "preparedness" movement, Socialist leader Gene Debs warns his readers of the future effects of militarism in their daily lives. For the industrialists "the more preparedness the more profit," declares Debs, adding that "If war follows preparedness, as intended, all the better." But for the working class preparedness was, in Debs' view, "a fraud and a sham in so far as it means an army and navy controlled by the capitalist state," which "will respond to the commands of the ruling class and the workers need expect nothing from it except to be crushed by it when they revolt against starvation." Debs instead calls for an alternative "working class preparedness" based upon education and organization -- "preparing the working class, in every way that may be necessary for the class struggle, however it may be fought, and the overthrow, by whatever means, of the capitalistic system that now enslaves and robs them." Citation: Tim Davenport. Early American Marxism (14-10). H-Labor. 03-19-2014. https://networks.h-net.org/node/7753/discussions/14413/early-american-marxism-14-10 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-Labor (3) "Andrew Richards: An Obituary." (St. Louis Labor) [events of July 6-9, 1916] This obituary of the father of Missouri Socialist Kate Richards O'Hare makes it clear that she should be added to the long list of prominent "red diaper babies." Born of a slave-owning family, Andrew Richards had come to hate the institution as a boy and had enlisted in the Union Army as a bugler and drummer boy at the outbreak of hostilities. Following the war he had married his childhood sweetheart and moved to Western Kansas, where the couple raised Kate and her four siblings. During the 1890s, Andrew Richards had helped organize Section Kansas City of the Socialist Labor Party, the obituary intimates. Richards is called "one of the grand old workers of the Socialist movement" and funeral services had been conducted by Socialist Party of Missouri State Secretary Otto Vierling and editor Harry Tichenor of the socialist-free thought monthly, The Melting Pot, the obituary notes. Pallbearers had included Missouri Socialist worthies Phil Wagner and G.A. Hoehn. (4) "Our Platform for the 1916 Campaign: As Drafted by the National Executive of the Socialist Party." (St. Louis Labor) [July 29, 1916] This lengthy campaign document of the Fall 1916 Presidential campaign of the Socialist Party was drafted by 10 party worthies -- the members of the outgoing and incoming National Executive Committees, "in conference with" Presidential nominee Allan Benson and Vice-Presidential nominee George "Kirk" Kirkpatrick. Although not one of these eleven men and one woman were connected with the party's syndicalist or revolutionary socialist left wing, the document nevertheless includes a militant minority plank opposing war and militarism that foreshadows in tone and content the party's famous "St. Louis Resolution" passed the following spring. A lengthy litany of immediate demands follows, including such staples as hikes in income, corporate, and inheritance taxes to fund socialization of industry, the provision of low cost loans to states and cities to fund their own socialization programs; woman suffrage; adoption of a unicameral legislature and elimination of Supreme Court power to void law; extension of the public domain over mines, forests, oil wells, and water power; initiation of public works to employ the unemployed, etc., etc. The draft platform was to be immediately submitted to a referendum vote of the party membership for ratification, considering its various planks seriatim. (5) "On the Proposed National Platform," by Eugene V. Debs [Aug. 4, 1916] With the Presidential nomination already to be made by referendum vote, in an effort to conserve scarce party funds the 1916 national convention of the Socialist Party was canceled. The job of writing a new party platform was delegated to the staid party veterans of the National Executive Committee. The document which these moderates returned raised a firestorm of protest by the Socialist Party's center and left, including this impassioned letter to the rank and file from iconic party leader Gene Debs. Debs lists three deficiencies in the platform: a failure to clearly stand for the class struggle, a failure to clearly stand for "the revolutionary industrial union as against the reactionary craft union," and two passages which indicated the legitimacy of a war of self-defense. * * * (6) "Constitution of The Federated Press League." [As revised Feb. 4, 1922] New reformatted edition. The labor news service known as the Federated Press was launched in January 1920 as the brainchild of Socialist Party member Edward J. Costello, Managing Editor of Victor L. Berger's Milwaukee Leader. The news service was intended as a mechanism to systematically provide content of interest to the scores of labor and left wing political newspapers functioning around the country. Members of the underground Communist Party of America gradually gained control of the service. This constitution, approved at a convention held Feb. 4, 1922, documents a short-lived effort to transform the Federated Press into a mass organization called the Federated Press League. * * * (7) "California Radical Leaders Reindicted: American-born Communist Labor Party Organizers Will Be Tried for Political Activities." (Federated Press Bulletin) [April 15, 1922] Left wing news coverage of the state of California's decision to move forward on long-delayed 1920 cases against members of the Communist Labor Party for alleged violation of the state's so-called "criminal syndicalism" Citation: Tim Davenport. Early American Marxism (14-10). H-Labor. 03-19-2014. https://networks.h-net.org/node/7753/discussions/14413/early-american-marxism-14-10 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 2 H-Labor statutes. The cases of three had already been tried: Anita Whitney was convicted in 1920 and remained on bail pending appeal, James Dolsen was tried and freed by a hung jury, and John C. Taylor was convicted and spent time in San Quentin before being released on parole. Five more cases remained to be resolved, held over for more than two years by the District Attorney. These defendants, headed by Oakland World editor J.E. Snyder and including J.A. Ragsdale, E.B. Smith, C.A. Tobey, and J.G. Reed, were to be tried jointly in connection with the long-postponed 1920 red scare cases, it was announced on Feb. 21, 1922. Appeals of this decision to conduct a single trial were unsuccessful and the defendants were preparing to represent themselves, the article notes. A connection between the decision to move forward with prosecution and pressure from the right wing Better America Foundation is alleged. (8) "Foster Would Meet Gompers in Debate: Accepts Challenge When Chicago Amalgamation Resolution is Denounced by AF of L Chief," by Carl Haessler [event of April 19, 1922] In April 1922 the American Federation of Labor moved to stifle radical elements within the Chicago Federation of Labor centered around William Z. Foster's Communist-backed Trade Union Educational League and to short- circuit a proposed conference of international unions called by the CFL on the question of amalgamation. President of the AF of L Samuel Gompers called an April 19 meeting to include all international officials in Chicago, local officials, and officials of the CFL. Chairing the meeting himself, Gompers launched attacks on the amalgamation and Farmer-Labor Party efforts being conducted by the CFL.