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Early American Marxism

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1918

JANUARY

“Manifesto of the Socialist Propaganda League of America.” [January 1918] In the aftermath of the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Revolution, the Socialist Propaganda League of America issued a new organizational manifesto attempting to make general application of some of the forms and principles of the Bolsheviks. The SPLA advocated for the “dictatorship of the proletariat,” calling “bourgeois democracy” a “fraud” by which “Imperialism promotes the most brutal interests of the ruling class.” The manifesto stated that “the revolution of the proletariat annihilates the parliamentary regime and state,” replacing it with “a new form of governmnet ... consisting of the industrially organized workers” in the form of workers’ councils. The group called for “the unity of industrial action and Socialist politics” and stated that it was organized “to work in the Socialist Party as well as independently of the party.” It called for the coordinated international action of the proletariant and the establishment of a new International of revolutionary socialist organization—a call rewarded by inclusion of the Socialist Propaganda League by name in the first formal call for the establishment of a Third International in Moscow.

MARCH

“Platform and Constitution of the National Party:...Adopted March 6-7-8, 1918: Principles, Spirit, and Aims.” In 1917 a substantial percentage of the Right Wing of the Socialist Party of America quit the party over the SPA’s militant opposition to American intervention in the European war. Rather than race into the ranks of Wilson’s Democratic Party, in October of 1917 many of these individuals attempted to make common cause with Prohibitionists, Single-Taxers, and the Left Wing of the former Bull Moose Progressive Party in establishing a new political party, the National Party. This is the platform and organizational rules of that organization. The officers of and advisors to the National Party included a number of nationally recognized names, such as John Spargo, W.R. Gaylord, Upton Sinclair, J.G. Phelps Stokes, and Demarest Lloyd.

“Financing a Party of the People.” Statement of the National Party outlining its system of finance. Each “active member” was urged to “contribute in accordance with his means, but not less than $2.00 per year,” which was to be split between the national office and the state organizations. In this way, “strong organizations” could be built at the local level, “with necessary funds to carry on educational work and contest elections.” The National Party was to be a “mighty engine” to “wage a war of extermination on the liquor traffic; on political oligarchy and despotism; on economic privilege and injustice; and upon all those evil forces which burden the people and create conditions for war,” the party declared.

APRIL

“The Onward March of the Socialist Party,” by Adolph Germer. [April 1918] The National Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party of America reviews the party’s fortunes after the first year of American involvement in the European War. “But few have faltered and fallen, in spite of the intimidation and threats by insane and drunken mobs and by nagging public politicians,” Germer notes, stating that the SPA was at that moment numerically stronger than at any time since March 1916. Includes the official series of average dues stamps sold over the course of each year from 1903 through 1917.

“May Day Message,” by C.E. Ruthenberg, A. Wagenknecht, and Charles Baker. [April 7, 1918] A short communique written by three imprisoned leaders of Local Cuyahoga County, Socialist Party to Cleveland party members. The trio call for their comrades to stand firm for the principles of International Socialism, as exemplified by Karl Liebknecht and his companions in Germany and “Trotsky and the Bolsheviki” in Russia.

NOVEMBER

“Joseph A. Weil Devised Arm and Torch Emblem for NY Socialist Party.” This unsigned article from The New York Call of Sunday, Nov. 3, 1918, was published to promote the candidacy of longtime member Joseph A. Weil for NY State Assembly. Weil, a member of the Socialist Labor Party from 1895 and participant in the 1899 split of that party, was revealed in this article as the creator of the SP’s “arm and torch” logo—one of the two primary emblems of the Socialist Party of America. Includes a photograph of Weil from the original article and a color shot of a vintage “arm and torch” pinback button.

“To Our Russian Comrades!” by Eugene V. Debs [Nov. 7, 1918] Short salute from the Socialist Party of America’s most popular leader to the Russian Soviet Republic and its Bolshevik leadership in commemoration of the first year of the regime’s existence. Debs neither hesitates nor hedges in his support of the Soviet Republic, stating, “When the Revolution in Russia occurred a year ago and the actual toiling and producing masses came into power under the leadership and inspiration of Lenin and Trotsky, all the ruling class powers on earth, the United States not excepted, instinctively arrayed themselves against the newborn working class Republic... But in spite of all these stupendous reactionary and destructive forces, the Soviet has survived and the Russian proletariat, thanks to its heroic and uncompromising leadership and its own inflexible determination...” Debs stated that American Socialists pledged not only to protest their government’s meddling and interference in Soviet affairs, but also “to strive with all our energy to emulate your inspiring example by abolishing our imperialistic capitalism, driving our plutocratic exploiters and oppressors from power, and establishing the working class Republic, the Commonwealth of Comrades.”.

“Lenin—An Appreciation,” by Louis C. Fraina [Nov. 7, 1918] Article from a magazine published by the Socialist Publication Society of Brooklyn in commemoration of the first anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Class Struggle co-editor Louis C. Fraina provides a well-informed synopsis of the significance of V.I. Ul’ianov (N. Lenin) as a Marxist thinker and revolutionary leader. Lenin’s primary significance, in Fraina’s view was, was that of rescuer of revolutionary Marxism from opportunist degeneration: “During the past twenty-five years, Marxism has experienced a transformation, becoming the means of interpreting history and a fetish of controversy, instead of a maker of history and an instrument of revolutionary action. This degrading conception of Marxism was dominant in the old International.... Lenin used Marx against these pseudo-Marxists, insisted on making Marxism an instrument of revolutionary action, built upon the basis of Marxism and amplified its scope.” Fraina lauded Lenin’s ability to bring together theoretical acumen with uncompromising revolutionary action—“every opportunity, every crisis, every strength, weakness, and peculiarity of the social alignment becomes the subject of study and appropriate action.” The theoretical work of Lenin will “become a source of inspiration in the coming reconstruction of Socialism, supplemented by the accomplishments of the proletarian revolution in Russia,” Fraina states.

“Leon Trotsky,” by Ludwig Lore [Nov. 7, 1918] Article from a magazine published by the Socialist Publication Society of Brooklyn in commemoration of the first anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Class Struggle co-editor Ludwig Lore provides an absolutely invaluable account of the ten month tenure of Leon Trotsky in New York—Lore crediting Trotsky and his fellow Russian expatriates with a leading role in the establishment of an organized Left Wing faction in the Socialist Party. The list of the Russian luminaries who assembled in a Brooklyn apartment together with American revolutionary socialists is impressive: Trotsky, Bukharin, Kollontai, Vorovsky... While Bukharin advocated the immediate formation of a new organization with its own official organ, his proposal was defeated, Lore says; instead Trotsky’s idea to establish a Left Wing bi-monthly theoretical magazine as an initial step was accepted—the end result being the magazine The Class Struggle. Lore calls Trotsky a born leader, able to stir audiences of thousands but unprepossessed enough to speak intimately with smaller gatherings, a voluminous and perceptive journalist and pamphleteer, a gifted theoretician able to propagate his ideas clearly and in an interesting manner. Lore states that Trotsky was adament about the Left Wing of the Socialist movement needing to organize itself for action, quoting him as saying, ” “The European proletariat is vitally interested in the growth of a strong, revolutionary American movement. For your democracy is the only hope, the last refuge of the European bourgeoisie, who will appeal to your capitalists for help.”.

DECEMBER

“Organizational Preamble of the Communist Propaganda League of Chicago. (Adopted Dec. 6, 1918.)” Organizational manifesto calling for a fundamental change in the form and course of the Socialist Party, demanding that “the personnel of our party officialdom and our candidates for public office...must be brought into harmony with the revolutionary character of our movement. The preamble was signed by a prominent group of members of the Socialist Party of America including the Translator-Secretaries of the Russian, Lithuanian, Latvian, German, and Scandinavian Federations. Secretary of the group was I.E. Ferguson.

“The Fundamentals of Bolshevism,” by N.I. Hourwich [Dec. 7, 1918] A brief exposition of the fundamental premises of Russian Bolshevism, written by a Contributing Editor of The Revolutionary Age for the readership of that paper. Nicholas Hourwich, the son of a radical Jewish lawyer who emigrated from Tsarist Russia to America, was an editor of the New York-based Russian language newspaper Novyi Mir and was better versed than most on matters of Bolshevik history and ideology. Hourwich characterized the Bolsheviks as “first of all a party of revolutionary action, a party of dynamic Socialism.” Their unswerving object was “the revolutionary seizure of power by the proletariat, as an inevitable and necessary condition for the accomplishment of the transition from Capitalism to Socialism,” Hourwich stated. Key to the equation was the Bolsheviks’ melding of “democracy with centralism, of democracy with iron discipline,” in Hourwich’s view. While the Mensheviks refused to take revolutionary measures but instead made alliances with the counterrevolutionary bourgeoisie, the Bolsheviks and their revolutionary allies were uncompromising in their efforts to establish the proletarian dictatorship and to overturn the capitalist world, thus their success in becoming the “’government party’ of the first Socialist republic on earth.