DOCSLIB.ORG

Early American Marxism (14-11)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

H-Labor Early American Marxism (14-11) Discussion published by Tim Davenport on Friday, April 4, 2014 Early American Marxism website • www.marxisthistory.org/ Weekly Update no. 14-11 • March 16, 2014 A dozen new files. All of these are clustered in the first quarter of 1919, ground zero for the establishment of the left wing movement that ultimately led to a split of the Socialist Party. In this vein, of particular interest is the publication here of the minutes of the first three sessions of the City Committe of the Left Wing Section of Local Greater New York, Socialist Party. Debsiana includes a de facto open letter by Debs calling for a general strike for the freedom of Tom Mooney if all other efforts failed and a letter to Debs from Ludwig Lore, publisher of The Class Struggle. Also appearing here is material by Mary Marcy, Jack Carney, and C.E. Ruthenberg. Of final note is a short piece documenting the short-lived effort by Harry Wicks and others to establish a "Workers and Soldiers Council" in Portland, Oregon. All files are available for free download and non-commercial reproduction at the following URL: http://www.marxisthistory.org/subject/usa/eam/14-11.html Thanks for your interest, Tim Davenport [email protected] Corvallis, OR ============= NEW FILES ============= (1) "The Coming Struggle," by Mary Marcy [Jan. 1, 1919] This article by the co-editor of the recently terminated International Socialist Review gives voice to the revolutionary enthusiasm and illusions that swept the American radical movement in the aftermath of World War I. "To my mind the ultimate triumph of Socialism is as inevitable as the coming of the spring," Marcy declares. "The capitalist financial system is already crumbling. The spirit of revolution is already spreading beyond the boundaries of Russia into Germany, Bulgaria, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and down to Romania and far into Sweden and Finland." In response, capital was becoming internationally organized into a single world entity, with a single world army to defend its interests, Marcy says. In order to be effective in the future, "Socialism must become more and more international," she indicates. * * * (2) "Letter to Arthur E. Elmgreen in Chicago from Eugene V. Debs in Terre Haute, Jan. 11, 1919." This Debs document was apparently conceived as an open letter directed to the delegates of the Mooney Labor Congress, convened in Chicago on Jan. 14, 1919. Debs proclaims jailed California labor leader Tom Mooney to be "absolutely innocent" and "the victim of the most infamous conspiracy in American history." He condemns Gov. William Stephens of California as a "tool of the corporations" and the state's courts as "debauched to the last degree" and urges united action of the working class and organized labor movement to win the freedom of Mooney and his associate Warren Billings, culminating if necessary in a general strike. "[I]f all entreaties are in Citation: Tim Davenport. Early American Marxism (14-11). H-Labor. 04-04-2014. https://networks.h-net.org/node/7753/discussions/15365/early-american-marxism-14-11 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-Labor vain and all measures fail, then as a last resort let a general strike be ordered and the industries of the nation paralyzed from end to end by an outraged working class determined upon rebuking crime and securing justice. ...The working class and the common people and all who sympathize with them must take this matter into their own hands and fearlessly meet the issue by stopping the wheels of industry long enough to compel the financial bandits and their mercenaries to realize that the honest workers have some rights they are bound to respect." (3) "Workers and Soldiers Council Organized in Portland." (Oregon Socialist Party Bulletin) [events of Jan. 9-13, 1919] While the organization of "Soviets" in Winnipeg and Seattle in association with general strikes in these cities are remembered as major historical events, less widely noted is a short-lived effort to establish a Soviet in Portland, Oregon. This article from the monthly publication of the Socialist Party of Oregon reprints a solicitation letter written shortly after the Jan. 9, 1919 formation of the "Portland Council of Workers and Soldiers" over the signatures of the organization's "Temporary President," Harry M. Wicks (later of Proletarian Party and Communist Party fame) as well as its Recording Secretary, Joe Thornton of the Street Railway Men's Union. Although decked out in bright red revolutionary bunting, the modest main purpose of the organization seems to have been to provide a mechanism for the integration of returning soldiers into the labor movement and to thereby avoid the growth of right wing "patriotic" organizations and strikebreaking. The entity itself seems to have generally resembled a city central labor council, with all unions entitled to representation on the basis of 1 delegate for every 100 members in good standing, or major fraction thereof. Only a very few meetings of this stillborn organization were held. (4) "The Bolshevists: Grave-Diggers of Capitalism," by C.E. Ruthenberg. [Jan. 29, 1919] Reformatted edition. Ruthenberg, Secretary of the large Local Cuyahoga Country, Socialist Party organization, poses the question whether or not the Russian Bolsheviks actually represented "something new." While the capitalist press accused them of "anarchy, ...rioting and bloodshed, wholesale murder and destruction" leading to "the collapse of orderly society," Ruthenberg argues that the Bolsheviks represented instead the consistent application of the established principles of Marxian Socialism. After outlining the basic tenets of Marxism, Ruthenberg declares himself in favor of the latter proposition... * * * (5) "Minutes of the New York City Committee, Left Wing Section, Socialist Party, Feb. 2, 1919." Minutes of the first meeting of the New York City Committee of the Left Wing Section, Socialist Party, with Edward Lindgren in the chair. Election of committees took place, including a permanent 4 person "International Committee" consisting of Rose Pastor Stokes, Jim Larkin, Nick Hourwich, and Jack Reed; a 3 member Speakers Committee, including Bert Wolfe, Ed Lindgren, and Max Cohen; and a 5 person Press Committee, of Julius Hammer, Jay Lovestone, Fannie Horowitz, Harry Hiltzig, and a Comrade Spanier. The decision was made to print dues cards and to collect dues of 10 cents per month for members of the organized faction. County Organizers were selected for four boroughs as well as the Russian and Yiddish language branches. John Reed was named New York editor of The Revolutionary Age, published in Boston, with a Comrade Lehman made the circulation and business manager, with wages of $25 a week guaranteed. Temporary committees were established to investigate rental of an office and to put out the Left Wing Manifesto in pamphlet form. (6) "The Left Wing," by Jack Carney [Feb. 21, 1919] Short editorial from the pages of Duluth Truth announcing publication of the Left Wing manifesto in the pages of that paper and promising the Left Wing the support of "the comrades of the Scandinavian and the English locals of Duluth" and the paper editorially. The Irish-born Carney writes: "The Left Wing manifesto and program comes at a time when it is most needed. It will arouse those comrades who have left the party disgusted with the opportunism of its leader. It will inspire those who have remained true to the cause of the International, before the war, during the war, and after the war. It will compel those who have stood still, to reconsider their position anew." Citation: Tim Davenport. Early American Marxism (14-11). H-Labor. 04-04-2014. https://networks.h-net.org/node/7753/discussions/15365/early-american-marxism-14-11 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 2 H-Labor (7) "Killing the Socialist Party: An editorial in The Ohio Socialist, Feb. 26, 1919." In January 1919 dues stamps sales suddenly exploded for the Socialist Party, as this editorial in left wing Ohio Socialist notes. Ohio's sales were up 85% from the figures of the previous month and more than triple those of January the previous year. Interestingly, this does not seem to have been directly related to the party's referendum election of a new National Executive Committee, hotly contested by the left wing, as the "regular" states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania also seem to have posted unusually large January sales, this article intimates. Some 12,616 Socialist Party dues stamps were sold in Ohio in Jan. 1919, making it the third largest state in membership dues collected, following New York and Wisconsin and ahead of Illinois. (8) "Minutes of the New York City Committee Left Wing Section, Socialist Party, March 2, 1919." Minutes of the second meeting of the City Central Committee of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party, Greater New York. A fairly mundane meeting, marked by the resignation of Carl Brodsky as organizer of New York County and a decision to send the Left Wing Manifesto to the printer for publication as a pamphlet the next day. Edward Lindgren is dispatched to Boston to work on the Revolutionary Age there. An office was rented out for the group's headquarters at a cost of $15 per month. Future Communist leaders J. Wilenkin and Rose Wortis make their appearance as delegates. Minutes were compiled by Ella Wolfe as Recording Secretary, wife of Bert. (9) "Letter to Eugene V. Debs in Terre Haute, IN, from Ludwig Lore in New York City, March 5, 1919." Reformatted edition. Letter from Ludwig Lore, first among equals on the editorial board of The Class Struggle, to his new, albeit nominal, co-editor Gene Debs.
Recommended publications
  • By Leon Trotsky

    By Leon Trotsky

    Why Is Russia Mobilizing?... By Leon Trotsky Not Even the Three - Times - a - Week Kremlin Knows! L E T T H E P E O P L E VOTE ON WAR Moscow mobilizes and everybody asks himself, against Socialist Appeal whom? But at the present moment even the Kremlin doesn’t know. One thing is clear: the German-Soviet agreement facili­ Official Organ of the Socialist Workers Party, Section of the Fourth International tated the defeat of Poland, but didn’t at all guarantee the Soviet Union’s neutrality. The Polish army proved to be weaker than many supposed. Now in Paris and London, undoubtedly, the VOL. Ill, No. 70 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER I5, 1939 3c a Copy people are looking at the German arm y’s approach to the Soviet border with interest and without excessive alarm. The friend­ ship of Stalin and Hitler needs distance. The complete defeat of Poland can prove fatal to the German-Soviet agreement. Hav­ ing settled down on the borders of the Ukraine and White Rus­ sia, Hitler w ill propose to Stalin to give a more active character to his new “friendship” . Simultaneously, he can turn to Paris and London with a proposition to give the German army an op­ portunity to march farther east, and w ill show complete willing­ F. D. R. CALLS SPECIAL SESSION ness to bind himself, at the same time, not to raise the question of colonies for twenty-five or fifty years (Hitler gladly exchanges time for space). Under the pressure of double blackmail Stalin will have to make a definite choice.
  • American Committee for the Defense of Leon Trotsky, No. 2, January 27

    American Committee for the Defense of Leon Trotsky, No. 2, January 27

    NEWS BULLETIN AMERICAN COMMITTEE FOR THE DEFENSE OF LEON TROTSKY 22 East 17th Street, Room 511, New York City Telephone: GRamercy 7-6025 Denn ADeD SUZANNE LAFOLLETTE, Treasurer Evelyn Scott Anita Brenner Vida D. Scudder Paul F. Brisseadea Benjamin Stolberg James Burnham Harvey Fergusson Sam Jaffee Joseph Wood Krutch Margaret De Silver Norman Thomas Joha Chamberlain Lewis Gannett .Oscar Jaszi Harry W. Laidler Freda Kirchwey Carlo Treaca Sarah Cleghora Martha Gruening Horace M. KaUen William Ellery Leonard Joha Dos Passes John Brooks Wheelwright John Dewey Louis M. Hacker Dorothy Kenyon Ludwig Lore . Burton Rascoe Edmund Wilaon Max Eastman Maudbs n Wallr:ren William H. Kilpatrick Ferdinand Lundberg James Rorty I Charles Erskine James T. Farrell Sidney Hook Manuel Komroff Max Nomad Edward Aylesworth Ross Scott Wood This Committee Exists (1) To Safeguard Trotsky's Right to Asylum and (2) to join in th« Oraanieation of an Impartial Commission of Inquiry. BULLETIN No.2. ...... 357 JANUARY 27,1937 For an Impartial Commission of Inquiry! For an Impartial Commission of Inquiry! To the millions of workers and honest liberals all over the world bewildered, confused and demoralized by the succession For a Day in Court of trials in Moscow, this is the one demand that holds forth some hope of clarification and release from the doubts and By LEON TROTSKY questions these trials have aroused everywhere. (T lieu telegraplied statements appeared in the Manchester Guardian on Jan. 25 and 26) Let a group of prominent· figures, drawn from liberal and labor ranks, of unimpeachable integrity, weigh all the evidence, MEXICO CITY, Jan.
  • Rethinking the Historiography of United States Communism: a Comment

    Rethinking the Historiography of United States Communism: a Comment

    American Communist History, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2003 Rethinking the Historiography of United States Communism: A Comment JOHN MCILROY Bryan Palmer’s critical commentary on the historiography of American Com- munism is eloquent and persuasive and I fully endorse the core components of his argument. Absent or insubstantial in many studies, both traditional and revisionist, a singular casualty of historical amnesia, Stalinism matters. A proper understanding of American Communism demands an account of its political refashioning from the mid-1920s.1 Moreover, Palmer’s important rehabilitation of the centrality of programmatic disjuncture opens up what a simplistic dissolution of Stalinism into a timeless, ahistorical official Commu- nism closes down: the existence of and the need to historicize different Commu- nisms, the reality of an “anti-Communism” of the left as well as of the right, the possibility of rediscovering yesterday and tomorrow a revolutionary interna- tionalism liberated from Stalinism which threatened not only capital but organized labor, working-class freedoms and any prospect of socialism. In this note I can touch tersely on only two points: the issue of continuity and rupture in the relationship between the Russians and the American Party in the 1920s and the question of how alternative Communisms handled the problem of international organization. Russian Domination and Political Rupture My emphasis on the continuity of Moscow control of US Communism is different from Palmer’s. What I find striking is the degree to which Russian domination of the Comintern and thus of the politics of its American section was sustained from 1920, even if the political content of that domination changed significantly as Stalinism developed.
  • Sam Dolgoff Papers

    Sam Dolgoff Papers

    THE SAM DOLGOFF COLLECTION Papers, 1907-1969 (Predominantly, 1922-1935) 1.5 linear feet Accession Number 568 L.C. Number The papers of Sam Dolgoff were placed in the Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs in September and October of 1972 by Mr. Dolgoff and opened for research in July of 1983. Born in 1902, Sam Dolgoff began working at an early age as an itinerant laborer in lumbercamps, steel mills and construction projects. He was involved in radical movements since the age of 15 when he joined the Socialist Party youth organization, later turning toward anarchism. His view of anarchism as a constructive social movement was influenced by his mentor Gregori Maximoff, a Russian anarchist. Using the pen name Sam Weiner, Dolgoff wrote widely in radical and anarchist periodicals. Two of his pamphlets are recognized as important critiques of American labor: Ethics and American Unionism (1958) and The Labor Party Illusion (1961). They are not included in this collection. He also served as a correspondent for a number of radical papers in Europe. The papers of Sam Dolgoff which consist of pamphlets on anarchism, socialism and communism reflect his interest in and involvement with radical unionism and politics. Important subjects covered in the collection are: Industrial Workers of the World Radical unionism Communism An index to subjects will be found on p. 5 Sam Dolgoff - 2 - Contents 3 manuscript boxes Series I, Pamphlets, 1907-1969; Boxes 1-3: Pamphlets and booklets on communism, socialism, and radical unions. Non-manuscript materials One copy of the newspaper The Industrial Worker received with the collection was removed and is available in the Archives Library.
  • Volume II September-October 1918 No. 4

    Volume II September-October 1918 No. 4

    TIE CM? STNKMIE Devoted to International Socialism Vol. II SEPTEMBER—OCTOBER, 1918 No. 4 An Open Letter to American Liberals By SANTERI NUORTEVA Reconstruction in Russia A Lesson in practical Socialism Armed Peace on the Pacific By SEN KATAYAMA Laborism and Socialism By LOUIS C. FRAINA V Price, 25 Cents SOCIAUST PUBLICATION SOCIETY 431 PULASKI ST., BROOKLYN, N. Y. THE CLASS STRUGGLE Iff Devoted to International Socialism. Vol. II SEPTEMBER—OCTOBER, 1918 No. 4 PUBLISHED BY The Socialist Publication Society, 431 Pulasky Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. Issued Every Two Months— 25^ a Copy; $1.50 a Year Editor.: LOUIS C. FRAINA and LUDWIG LORE CONTENTS VOL. II SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1918 No. 4 Page The I. W. W. Trial By LudwJg Lx>re 377—383 The I. W. W. Trial Soviet Russia Speaks to Britain By LUDWIG LORE By Maxim Litvinoff 384—387 Sixty-five minutes of "deliberation," and the jury brought Armed Peace on the Pacific in a verdict of "guilty" on all four counts against all of the 101 defendants in the courtroom. And at that, this polite pause By Sen Katayama 388—404 of one hour and five minutes was nothing more than a matter of form. As soon as Judge Landis had finished his instruc- The Chief Task of Our Day tions to the jury, the foreman of the jury might have honestly By N. Lenin 405—409 declared: "Will it please the court. The jury agrees to a ver- dict of guilty on all counts!" Laborism and Socialism It is this that makes us so furious when we hear from the By Louis C.
  • AMERICAN SOCIALISTS DURING the PROGRESSIVE ERA by THOMAS FREDERICK JORSCH Bachelor of Science Carroll

    AMERICAN SOCIALISTS DURING the PROGRESSIVE ERA by THOMAS FREDERICK JORSCH Bachelor of Science Carroll

    MODERNIZED REPUBLICANISM: AMERICAN SOCIALISTS DURING THE PROGRESSIVE ERA By THOMAS FREDERICK JORSCH Bachelor of Science Carroll College Waukesh~ Wisconsin 1993 Master of Arts University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Milwaukee,. Wisconsin 1996 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May,2004 MODERNIZED REPUBLICANISM: AMERICAN SOCIALISTS DURING THE PROGRESSIVE ERA .. " ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express gratitude to my dissertation advisor, Dr. Ronald Petrin. Thank you for your guidance, wisdom, and :friendship during this fulfilling, if at times difficult, process. The rest of my dissertation committee, Dr. Laura Belmonte, Dr. Joseph Byrnes, and Dr. Michael Taylor, inspired me to explore ideas and concepts that allowed me to look at old concepts in new ways. I appreciate your teaching and insight as well. Members of the Oklahoma State University faculty and my fellow graduate students contributed to the completion of my dissertation through thoughtful criticism and friendly encouragement. Among the faculty I would like to thank Dr. Ted Agnew, Dr. Matt Bokovoy, Dr. James Huston, Dr. L.G. Moses, Dr. Richard Rohrs, Dr. John Shook, Dr. Michael Willard, and Dr. Elizabeth Williams. All the graduate students provided encouragement in some way, but I want to especially thank Aaron Christensen, Stefanie Decker, Tom Franzmann, Dr. Steve Kite, Dr. Jim Klein, and Dr. Todd Leahy. I also wish to thank my parents and brother for their continued support through my educational journey. I especially want to thank Lisa Guinn for her love, encouragement, and sympathy. You helped me immensely in finishing my dissertation.
  • Attempt by Communists to Seize the American

    Attempt by Communists to Seize the American

    ATTEMPT BY COMMUNISTS To Seize the AMERICAN LABOR MOVEMENT A Series of Six Articles Prepared by United Mine Workers of America and Published in Newspapers of the United States. International Union U.NITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA Indianapolis, Ind. 1923 This series of six articles was prepared by the United Mine Workers of America) disclosing the attempt that is bC'ing made by the red forces) under the direct super­ vision of Moscow) to seize control of the. organized labor movement of America and use it as the base from which to carryon the Communist effort for the overthrow of the American Government. These articles are the result of an independent searching investigation on the part of the United Mine Workers of America which led directly to original sources. NATIONAL CAPITAL PRESS, INC., WtoSHINGTON, O. C. 2 ~4 THE AMAZING SCHEME ARTICLE I The United Mine Workers of America with this article begins an expose of the Communist revolutionary movement in America, as promoted and fostered by the Communist International at Moscow, and dealing with it as it involves the welfare of the miners' union, and other similar labor organizations, and the interests of the American people as a whole. The purpose and object of the United Mine Workers of ·A merica in bringing to the attention of the American people the far-reaching and intensive activities of the Communist . organization in this country is twofold. The United Mine Workers of America wants the public to know what this thing is. It wants the public to know something about the fight which the miners' union is waging to stamp it out.
  • R186d3 1918.Pdf

    R186d3 1918.Pdf

    .. : Dclrotcd to the Critical Investigatibn of Scientific Socialism. It represents a partisan Effort to spread Socialist Education, and to estab- lish clarity in the Labor Movement. Its Ecli’corial Policy is outspokenly ~larsial7-a~~-!:l-essive, revolutionary and dc.5tructivcly constructive. it advocatesICcvolution,not Palliation ; the Indnstz-ial Republic, not State Capital- 183-l 85187 EAST BROADWAY ism ; and holds t!Jat the Reconstruction of Sdciaiist Prjnciples and Tactics must es- scntially- he predicated upon the Kecogni- tion of that irrefutable Contention: that J. E. ERON, A.B., A.M., Principal Right without Might is moonshine. From the January-March Number The Revolution in Germany Hop into the aeroplane of pro- Fred. H. Hartmann gress by learning something new Bolshevism or Socialist Industrial Unionism? that will GET you somewhere. Herman Richter Revisionism and Anarchism . Anton LPannekoek Come to the ERON SCHOOL; we Karl Marx and the Polish Question will show you How to Save Time Dr. John J. Kallen and how to rise to a position of The Proletarian Philosophy of Joseph Dietzgen Social Usefulness. A. A. Doblin The Genesis of Religion Register NOW for the Winter Thoughts on Nietzsche I. A. Gold&tin Term. The Socialist Party of Canada and the Radical Review A Discuvion on the Source of Proletarian Power in P.irtianlx and Class Power in General J, Barrington and Karl Dannerberg And contributions from TATHAS SCIIWAKTZ, DAVID S. REISZ, N. Pam and others Twenty-five Cents per Copy 112 rages One Pollar per Year --__ P~ISli~hcr! QtIxrtzr!y by I For Sa!e at the Rand School Rook Store.
  • Coffeyistrict Weinstone

    Coffeyistrict Weinstone

    10, Page Four THE DAILY WORKER Thursday, July 1924 MASSACHUSETTS MOTHERS LEAGUE PACKING HOUSE COMPANIES USE WORKERS WILL LOYAL DETROIT SHOWS WAY FOR ORGANIZATION OF CHINESE CREWS PENSIONS TO BREAK STRIKES, FIGHTER-FRIEND WORKING CLASS WOMEN FOR FIGHT BOUND TO BRITISH MORRIS SUIT EVIDENCE SHOWS STUDY WORLD’S By LABORMOVEMENT) By DR. ANTOINETTE F. KONIKOW. SHIPS LIRE SERFS LELAND OLDS OF WORKERS DIES D'ally Worker) (Special to The (Federated Press Industrial Editor) Frances Ellaire Dead BOSTON, Mass., July 9.—To organize women working in While American Seamen (Second and Concluding Article) New York School Open* After Accident shops does not present the difficulties we meet in trying to reach Walk the Streets Industrial pension systems are revealed as a slave driving, Tomorrow Night the woman at home, the housekeeper and mother. strike breaking, class reconciling agency of employers in the CARNEY. (Special to The DAILY WORKER,) By CYRIL LAMBKIN. The working woman in shop and factory is surrounded by By JACK Morris & Co. pension case before Judge I, C. Ryner of the Chicago DAILY WORKER) NEW YORK CITY, July 9. Tb« (Special to the almost the same conditions as her men-comrades. She feels the Along the San Francisco waterfront circuit DETROIT, Mich., July 9.—The De- day after day, American sailors tramp court. Employers are shown by C. W. Armstrong, attorney Workers’ School has announced the movement the loss of exploitation of her boss directly, can be urged to join her trade- troit mourns looking for jobs that never turn up. for the pensioners, to regard such pensions as a scheme for get- subjects of its summer school which who died Comrade Frances Ellaire, union organization, and is more in touch with the educational At night they accost the passer-by ting a body of docile workers by July Septem- sustained in will continue from- 9 to last week from injuries average worker.
  • The Socialist Popularization of Science in America, 1901 to The

    The Socialist Popularization of Science in America, 1901 to The

    The Socialist Popularizationof Science in America, 1901 to the First World War GEORGE COTKIN THROUGHOUT MUCH OF THE nineteenth century the ascendent star of science was closely tied to the rise of the middle class. Science reflected their optimism and aided them in understanding a world and society in constant motion. The middle class embraced science in a hearty manner and as a labor of love they sought to popularize it in America. By the turn of the century, the middle class enthusiasm for popularization had abated somewhat, but science was still being pursued and popularized with great ardor by others. Only now the group most enamored of science, and certain that its rise was tied to the prestige and power of science, was the socialist movement, the self-appointed sentinel of the working class. No less than the middle class, the socialist intellectuals sought to ground their discourse in scientific language and to make the fruits of science readily available to a wide audience. The great revolutions in science-the Copernican, Newtonian, and Darwinian- became the subject matter for socialist popularizers of science. Their tale was simple: Marxism was a science, a scientific revolution in social thought, that would usher in not only a new world-view, but a new society, a new age. Science served as a powerful symbol and "attitude of mind" for nineteenth- century Americans. As the handmaiden of technology, science was changing the physical landscape of America in the era of the railroad, telegraph, steam, and electricity. For most Americans, science was a symbol easily reconciled with the prevalent assumptions of societal progress.1 A scientific knowledge, according to geologist Clarence King in his Catastrophism and the Evolution of Environment (1877), would be "a means of clearing away the endless rubbish of false ideas from the human intellect, for the lifting of man out of the dominion of ignorance."2 Yet science was more than an object of veneration or a description for new technologies; it was a explanatory and normative concept as well.
  • Communist Party of America: New York City — June 7-15, 1921

    Communist Party of America: New York City — June 7-15, 1921

    Minutes of the CEC of the (unified) CPA, June7-15, 1921 1 Minutes of the Central Executive Committee, (unified) Communist Party of America: New York City — June 7-15, 1921. A document in the Comintern Archive, f. 515, op. 1, d. 52, ll. 9-17. First Day, [Tuesday] June 7. Pan-American Council of RILU. Read communica- tion from [Mikhail] Tomsky. Applied for the Party All present.† turning over the Pan-American Council the paper in Chairman — “Griffith” [Joseph Zack Kornfed- C.‡ er]. Motion (by “Dow” [Dirba]): To refuse the re- Order of Business: (1) Minutes of previous meet- quest of the Pan-American Council for the paper. ing; (2) Report of Secretary; (3) Matters left to full Amendment (by “Carr” [Katterfeld]): That we meeting; (4) Convention Committee Reports; (5) place the paper at the disposal of the Pan-American Manifesto; (6) Communications; (7) New Business. Council for special propaganda among the unions, with the provisions that (1) the paper shall remain the Minutes of Last Meeting, May 30-June 3. property of the Party; (2) its editorial policy shall re- main subject to the control of the CEC through its May 30 — OK. Editorial Committee, which in cooperation with the May 31 — OK. Pan-American Council shall outline the specific field (“Scott” [Karlis Janson] came.) to be covered by the paper; (3) its business manage- June 1 — Insert that “Burke” [Charles Krum- ment shall work in cooperation with the management bein] was elected DO5 [Chicago] by 6 votes. of the Party press. June 3 — Instead of “Harper” use the name Amendment carried by 9 to 1, as against the mo- “Spencer” [???] for Treasurer.
  • Charles H. Kerr and Company and the Progressive Era Socialist Movement

    Charles H. Kerr and Company and the Progressive Era Socialist Movement

    Business at the Margins of Capitalism: Charles H. Kerr and Company and the Progressive Era Socialist Movement Jason D. Martinek Although historians typically view the history of social protest as discrete from business history, small business enterprises, especially in the publishing industry, have served significant roles in social movements since the American Revolution. Many professional activists were, contrary to conventional wisdom, business people. The goods and services that they sold just happened to be meant to overthrow the status quo. In this essay, I explore the business of social protest through a case study of Charles H. Kerr and Company, a Chicago-based publisher that specialized in disseminating radical literature for the socialist movement. Charles H. Kerr and Company, a Chicago publishing company, opened its doors in 1886, the same year that the Supreme Court’s decision turned the corporation into a juridical personality in the landmark case, Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad. Kerr was among a generation of middle-class Americans who felt the squeeze wrought by the rise of the modern corporation. Identifying his situation as a by-product of the class struggle, he sought a more democratic and equitable alternative. In the 1890s, he expressed his frustration by aligning with the People’s Party. With the failure of that endeavor, he turned to the nascent socialist movement. From that point on, his company became the de facto publisher for the Socialist Party. As a radical publisher, he had two major goals: to produce high-quality translations of European Marxist classics Jason D. Martinek <[email protected]> is assistant professor of history at New Jersey City University.