Industrialisti was a Finnish-language newspaper published from Duluth, Minnesota , United States. Founded in 1914 under the name Sosialisti , the newspaper was politically linked to the Industrial Workers of the World . It was published daily, but was converted into a fortnightly in its later years.
113-605: Sosialisti had emerged in the back-drop of the 1913 copper and ore-dock strike. The 1913 strike had caused division amongst the Finnish socialists in Minnesota. They were now divided between a 'political' wing who wanted to focus on electoral struggles (through the Socialist Party of America ) and those who favoured direct action . The split culminated at the annual conference of the socialist Työmies Publishing Company in
226-492: A "clearly undemocratic, quasi-Leninist platform" that lobbied for the removal of the current "bogus democracy of capitalist parliamentarianism". Wanting the government to be replaced by a "genuine worker's democracy", the American Socialist Party stated that "whether or not it is a majority, will not shrink from the responsibility of organizing and maintaining a government under the workers' rule". This
339-484: A "specific, concrete, definite, affirmative declaration of guilt" of the five Assemblymen before they were ever charged with any offense. It was also Sweet who appointed the members of the Judiciary Committee to which the matter was referred. "Thus the accuser selects his own judges", Hillquit declared. Hillquit sought to remove for reasons of bias any members of the Judiciary Committee who had taken part in
452-427: A Crime? , and his statement of the 1960s social democratic consensus, Socialism Re-examined . At the 1932 Milwaukee convention, Thomas and his radical pacifist allies in the party joined forces with constructive socialists from Wisconsin and a faction of young Marxist intellectuals called the "Militants" in backing a challenger to National Chairman Morris Hillquit. While Hillquit and his cohort retained control of
565-634: A broad Farmer–Labor Party upon the model of the Canadian Cooperative Commonwealth Federation , but remained supportive of the Militants and their vision of an "all-inclusive party", which welcomed members of dissident communist organizations (including Lovestoneites and Trotskyists ) and worked together with the Communist Party USA in joint Popular Front activities. The party descended into
678-714: A continued effort to gain control of the SPA at its forthcoming Emergency National Convention in Chicago, to be held at the end of August, while another section, headed by the Russian Socialist Federation of Alexander Stoklitsky and Nicholas Hourwich and the Socialist Party of Michigan seeking to wash its hands of the Socialist Party and immediately move to establish a new Communist Party of America . Eventually, this latter Federation-dominated group
791-656: A date that was not selected accidentally. The 1st National Convention of the CPPA was assembled in Cleveland at the city auditorium, which was packed with close to 600 delegates representing international unions, state federations of labor, branches of cooperative societies, state branches and national officers of the Socialist, Farmer-Labor and Progressive Parties as well as the Committee of 48 , state and national affiliates of
904-501: A gathering that punted on the issue of committing itself to the 1924 presidential campaign, deciding instead to "immediately issue a call for a convention of workers, farmers, and progressives for the purpose of taking action on nomination of candidates for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States, and on other questions that may come before the convention". The decisive moment finally came on July 4, 1924,
1017-899: A maelstrom of factionalism in the interval, with the New York Old Guard leaving to establish themselves as the Social Democratic Federation of America , taking with them control of party property, such as the Yiddish-language The Jewish Daily Forward , the English-language New Leader , the Rand School of Social Science , and the party's summer camp in Pennsylvania. In 1937, Thomas returned from Europe determined to restore order in
1130-519: A military and economic sense. If we are not to be overwhelmed by the 'rising tide of color' we must breed against the world. If our nation is to survive, it must have more cannon and more babies as prospective food for the cannon." Thomas was also very critical of Zionism and of Israel's policies toward the Arabs in the postwar years (especially after the Suez Crisis ) and often collaborated with
1243-671: A minister, Thomas preached against American participation in the First World War. This pacifist stance led to his being shunned by many of his fellow alumni from Princeton, and opposed by some of the leadership of the Presbyterian Church in New York. When church funding of the American Parish's social programs was stopped, Thomas resigned his pastorate. Despite his resignation, Thomas did not formally leave
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#17327872609481356-479: A new political party. The Socialist Party was an enthusiastic supporter of the CPPA and the group dominated its thinking from the start of 1922 through the first quarter of 1925. In this period of organizational weakness, the party sought to forge lasting ties with the existing trade union movement, leading in short order to a mass labor party in the United States on the British model. A first National Conference of
1469-616: A parallel convention. It was this gathering that established itself as the Communist Labor Party on August 31, 1919. Meanwhile, elsewhere in Chicago, the Federations and Michiganders and their supporters established the Communist Party of America at a convention gaveled to order on September 1, 1919. Unity between these two communist organizations was a lengthy and complicated process, formally taking place at
1582-557: A pastorate at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania , which allowed Norman to attend Bucknell University . He left Bucknell after one year to attend Princeton University , the beneficiary of the largesse of a wealthy uncle by marriage. Thomas graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University in 1905. After some settlement house work and a trip around the world, Thomas decided to follow in his father's footsteps and enrolled in Union Theological Seminary . He graduated from
1695-466: A resolution declaring your seat herein vacant, pending a hearing before a tribunal of this house, you will be given an opportunity to appear before such tribunal to prove your right to a seat in this legislative body, and upon the result of such hearing and the findings of the Assembly tribunal, your right to participate in the actions of this body will be determined. The Assembly suspended the quintet by
1808-669: A secret convention held at the Overlook Mountain House hotel near Woodstock, New York , in May 1921 with the establishment of a new unified Communist Party of America. A Left Wing loyal to the Communist International remained in the Socialist Party through 1921, continuing the fight to bring the Socialist Party into the ranks of the Comintern. This group, which opposed the underground secret organizations
1921-520: A sizeable readership across the border in Canada . Industrialisti was published by a publishing cooperative, the Workers' Publishing Company (which also published Finnish-language IWW literature). It began as Socialist Publishing Company in 1914. After the 1917 lawsuit, it re-appeared as the Workers' Socialist Publishing Company, changing its name to Workers' Publishing Company in 1954. Industrialisti
2034-491: A socialist ticket was in 1912 , when Debs gained 901,551 total votes, 6% of the popular vote. In 1920 , Debs ran again, this time while imprisoned for opposing World War I, and received 913,693 votes, 3.4% of the total. Early political perspectives ranged from radical socialism to social democracy. Victor Berger and New York party leader Morris Hillquit sat on the party's more social democratic or right-wing side. Radical socialists and syndicalists, including Debs and members of
2147-487: A special election was held to fill the five seats vacated by the Assembly, with each of the five expelled Socialists running for reelection against a "fusion" candidate representing the combined Republican and Democratic parties. All five Socialists were returned to office. Three of the five, Waldman, Claessens and Solomon, were again denied their seats after a contentious debate by votes of 90 to 45 on September 21, 1920. Orr and DeWitt, deemed less culpable than their peers by
2260-484: A vote of 140 to 6, with one Democrat supporting the Socialists. Civil libertarians and concerned citizens raised their voices to aid the suspended Socialists and protest percolated throughout the press. The principal argument was that the expulsion of elected members of minority parties by majority parties from their councils set a dangerous precedent in a democracy. The battle culminated in a highly publicized trial in
2373-787: A week after the Palmer Raids had swept and stunned the country, the New York Assembly was called to order. The majority Republicans easily elected their candidate for the Speaker, Thaddeus C. Sweet and after opening day formalities the body took a brief recess. Back in session, Sweet declared: "The Chair directs the Sergeant-at-Arms to present before the bar of the House Samuel A. DeWitt , Samuel Orr , Louis Waldman , Charles Solomon , and August Claessens ",
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#17327872609482486-466: Is strangely inconsistent on the lips of men who practice celibacy and preach continence." Thomas also deplored the secular objection to birth control because it originated from "racial and national" group-think. "The white race, we are told, our own nation—whatever that nation may be—is endangered by practicing birth control. Birth control is something like disarmament—a good thing if effected by international agreement, but otherwise dangerous to us in both
2599-648: The 1912 elections . Sixteen Socialist candidates in the 1912 House elections received over 20% of the popular vote and five of those received over 30%. In June 1918, Debs made an anti-draft speech, calling for draft resistance . Urging young men to ignore the draft law was a crime under the Sedition Act of 1918 and Debs was convicted and sentenced to serve ten years in prison. President Warren G. Harding commuted his and two dozen others' sentences at Christmastime 1921. According to historian Sally Miller, Victor Berger : In January 1919, Vladimir Lenin invited
2712-553: The American Council for Judaism . After 1945, Thomas sought to make the anti-Stalinist left the leader of social reform, in collaboration with labor leaders like Walter Reuther . In 1961, he released an album, The Minority Party in America: Featuring an Interview with Norman Thomas , on Folkways Records , which focused on the role of the third party. Thomas actively campaigned for Lyndon B. Johnson in
2825-527: The American Federation of Labor (AFL). AFL leadership, headed by Samuel Gompers , strongly opposed the Socialist Party, but many rank-and-file unionists in the early 20th century saw the Socialists as reliable political allies. Many moderate Socialists, such as Berger and International Typographical Union President Max S. Hayes , urged close cooperation with the AFL and its member unions. Others in
2938-673: The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), sat on the left. There were also agrarian utopian-leaning radicals, such as Julius Wayland of Kansas, who edited the party's leading national newspaper, Appeal to Reason , along with trade unionists; Jewish, Finnish and German immigrants; and intellectuals such as Walter Lippmann and the Black activist/intellectual Hubert Harrison . The party outsourced its newspapers and publications so that it would not have an internal editorial board that
3051-555: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People . Walling and Ovington both argued inside the party that it had not done enough to oppose racism and they were joined by other left-wing intellectuals who published articles in the party press about the importance of anti-racism to the socialist cause, including Hubert Harrison and I. M. Rubinow . The party had a tense and complicated relationship with
3164-887: The Socialist Labor Party of America who had split from the main organization in 1899. In the first decades of the 20th century, the SPA drew significant support from many different groups, including trade unionists , progressive social reformers, populist farmers and immigrants . Eugene V. Debs twice won over 900,000 votes in presidential elections ( 1912 and 1920 ), while the party also elected two U.S. representatives ( Victor L. Berger and Meyer London ), dozens of state legislators, more than 100 mayors, and countless lesser officials. The party's staunch opposition to American involvement in World War I , although welcomed by many, also led to prominent defections, official repression, and vigilante persecution. The party
3277-451: The South . The Socialist Party of Louisiana initially adopted a "Negro clause" that opposed disenfranchisement of blacks , but it supported segregation. The clause was supported by some Southern socialists and opposed by others, although this was not because of its accommodation of racism as such, but because it officially enshrined this accommodation. The party's National Committee persuaded
3390-716: The Soviet Union . Leaders of two of its caucuses formed separate socialist organizations, the Socialist Party USA and the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee , the precursor of the Democratic Socialists of America . The few own the many because they possess the means of livelihood of all. [...] The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for
3503-641: The Workers Party of America , sent four delegates to the CPPA's December 1922 gathering. But after protracted debate, the Credentials Committee strongly objected to the participation of Communist representatives in its proceedings and issued a recommendation that Workers Party's representatives and youth organization not be seated. The Socialist Party's delegates strongly supported excluding the Communists and acted accordingly, even though
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3616-666: The "Committee on free elections in the Dominican Republic", an organization based in the U.S. that monitored the election, in which Juan Bosch of the Dominican Revolutionary Party , affiliated with the Socialist International , was beaten closely but decisively by the conservative ex-president Joaquín Balaguer . Balaguer continued to govern the country on and off for the next 30 years. In the autumn of that year, Thomas received
3729-664: The "Regulars", who controlled a big majority of the seats of the Socialist Party's governing NEC. When it seemed certain that the 1919 party elections for a new NEC had been dominated by the Left Wing, the sitting NEC, citing voting irregularities, refused to tally the votes, declared the entire election invalid and in May 1919 suspended the party's Russian, Latvian, Ukrainian, Polish, South Slavic and Hungarian language federations , in addition to Michigan's entire state organization. In future weeks, Massachusetts's and Ohio's state organizations were similarly disfranchised and "reorganized" by
3842-446: The "forces of every progressive, liberal, and radical organization of the workers must be mobilized" to repel conservative assaults and "advance the industrial and political power of the working class". This desire for common action seems to have been shared by various unions, as late in 1921 a call was issued in the name of the country's 16 major railway labor unions seeking a Conference for Progressive Political Action (CPPA). The CPPA
3955-540: The 1912 platform of the Tennessee party stated that white supremacist ideology was a tool of the capitalist class to divide and rule the working class, while the Virginia party passed a resolution three years earlier to focus more attention on encouraging solidarity between black and white workers and to invite nonwhite workers to join the party. Most notable was the Socialist Party of Oklahoma , which led opposition to
4068-540: The 1964 presidential election. He was critical of Johnson's foreign policy, but praised his work on civil rights and poverty. Thomas called Johnson's opponent Barry Goldwater a "personable man with good stands on domestic issues" but also described him as "the greatest evil" due to his views on foreign policy. Thomas's 80th birthday in 1964 was marked by a well-publicized gala at the Hotel Astor in Manhattan. At
4181-469: The American labor movement as claimed by our extreme industrialists", he declared. The issue of "syndicalism vs. socialism" was bitterly fought over the next two years, consummated by Haywood's recall from the Socialist Party's National Executive Committee (NEC) and the departure of a broad section of the left wing from the organization. The memory of this split made the intraparty battles of 1919–1921 all
4294-573: The American people". After the November election a new party might well be established, La Follette said, that might unite all progressives. Norman Thomas Norman Mattoon Thomas (November 20, 1884 – December 19, 1968) was an American Presbyterian minister , political activist, and perennial candidate for president. He achieved fame as a socialist and pacifist , and was the Socialist Party of America 's candidate for president in six consecutive elections between 1928 and 1948 . Thomas
4407-430: The Assembly's five Socialist members. Sweet attacked the five, declaring they had been "elected on a platform that is absolutely inimical to the best interests of the state of New York and the United States". The Socialist Party, Sweet said, was "not truly a political party", but rather "a membership organization admitting within its ranks aliens, enemy aliens, and minors". The party had denounced America's participation in
4520-408: The Assembly, which dominated the body's activity from its opening on January 20, 1920, until its conclusion on March 11. Socialist Party leader and former 1917 New York City mayoral candidate Morris Hillquit served as chief counsel for the suspended Socialists, aided by party founder and future Socialist vice-presidential candidate Seymour Stedman . At the trial, Hillquit charged that Sweet had made
4633-459: The CPPA after the convention. Although the Socialists did not realize it at the time, the chances that the organization would ever be transformed into an authentic mass Farmer-Labor party like British Labour were greatly lessened by the FLP's departure. The Socialists remained optimistic, and the May 1923 National Convention of the Socialist Party voted after lengthy debate to retain its affiliation with
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4746-472: The CPPA and to continue its work for an independent political party from within that group. The May 20 vote in favor of maintaining affiliation with the CPPA was 38–12. Failing a mass farmer-labor party from the CPPA, the Socialists sought at least a powerful presidential nominee to run in opposition to the old parties. A 3rd National Conference of the CPPA was held in St. Louis, Missouri , on February 11 and 12, 1924,
4859-537: The CPPA was held in Chicago in February 1922, attended by 124 delegates representing a broad spectrum of labor, farmer and political organizations. The gathering passed an "Address to the American People" stating its criticism of existing conditions and formally proposing an amorphous plan of action validating the status quo ante: the labor unions on the group's right wing to endorse labor-friendly candidates of
4972-548: The Communist Parties had become, included noted party journalist J. Louis Engdahl and William Kruse , head of the party's youth affiliate, the Young People's Socialist League , as well as a significant segment of the Socialist Party's Chicago organization. These left-wing dissidents continued to make themselves heard until their departure from the party after the 1921 convention. On January 7, 1920, less than
5085-474: The Democratic Party, the Socialists and Farmer-Labor Party adherents on the group's left wing to conduct their own independent campaigns. From the Socialist Party's perspective, perhaps the most important thing the CPPA did at its first National Conference was agree to meet again. The party leadership understood the process of building an independent third party that could count on the allegiance of
5198-623: The European war and had lent aid and comfort to Ludwig Martens , the "self-styled Soviet Ambassador and alien, who entered this country as a German in 1916". It had supported the revolutionaries in Germany , Austria and Hungary , Sweet continued; and consorted with international Socialist parties close to the Communist International . Sweet concluded: It is every citizen's right to his day in court. If this house should adopt
5311-534: The Farmer-Labor Party calling for "independent political action by the agricultural and industrial workers through a party of their own" defeated by a vote of 52 to 64. A majority report declaring against an independent political party was instead adopted. This defeat of the bid for an independent political party cost the CPPA one its major component organizations, with the Farmer-Labor Party delegation announcing that its group would no longer affiliate with
5424-608: The IWW and the radical wing of the Socialist Party to join in the founding of the Communist Third International, the Comintern . The Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party emerged as an organized faction early that year, building its organization around a lengthy Left Wing Manifesto by Louis C. Fraina . This effort to organize in order to "win the Socialist Party for the Left Wing" was staunchly resisted by
5537-487: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, a bitter split took place in the Socialist Party regarding support for the war; Thomas reluctantly supported it, though he thought it could have been honorably avoided. His brother and many others continued their pacifist opposition to all wars. Thomas later wrote self-critically that he had "overemphasized both the sense in which it was a continuance of World War I and
5650-626: The Left Wing language federations suspended, a big majority of the hastily elected delegates to the gathering were controlled by the Executive Secretary Adolph Germer and the Regulars. A group of Left Wingers without delegate credentials, including Reed and his sidekick Benjamin Gitlow , made an effort to occupy chairs on the convention floor before the gathering was called into order. The incumbents were unable to block
5763-472: The Left Wingers at the door, but soon called to their aid the already present police, who obligingly expelled the boisterous radicals from the hall. With the Credentials Committee firmly in the hands of the Regulars from the outset, the gathering's outcome was no longer in doubt and most of the remaining Left Wing delegates departed, to meet with other co-thinkers downstairs in a previously reserved room in
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#17327872609485876-690: The Louisiana party to withdraw the clause, but when the state party subsequently established segregated branches, the wider party did not object. Segregated locals could also be found in state parties in Texas and elsewhere. When Texas socialists established a Land Renters' Union in 1911, they initially banned black tenants from joining, before later setting up segregated locals for black and brown farmers. The party's membership rose by over 50,000 from 1901 to 1910. The party had 4,320 members in 1901, 20,763 in 1904, 41,751 in 1908, and 58,011 in 1910. Elsewhere,
5989-638: The NEC, while in New York and Pennsylvania the "Regular" State Executive Committees undertook reorganization of Left Wing branches and locals on a case-by-case basis. In June 1919, the Left Wing Section held a conference in New York City to discuss its organizational plans. The group found itself deeply divided, with one section, led by NEC members Alfred Wagenknecht and L. E. Katterfeld and including famed radical journalist John Reed favoring
6102-512: The Socialist Party dismissed the AFL and its craft unions as antiquated and irrelevant, instead favoring the much more radical IWW and the "syndicalist" path to socialism. In 1911, IWW leader Bill Haywood was elected to the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party, on which AFL partisan Morris Hillquit also served. The syndicalist and the electoral socialist squared off in a lively public debate in New York City's Cooper Union on January 11, 1912, with Haywood declaring that Hillquit and
6215-436: The Socialist Party had won 1,200 political offices, including U.S. representative, 32 state representatives and 79 mayors. It gained new votes in ethnic strongholds such as Milwaukee and New York from conservative German Americans who also opposed the war. From 1912 to 1938, the party ran more candidates for seats in the United States House of Representatives than any other minor party, with its height being 358 candidates in
6328-458: The Socialist Party was formed by a merger between the Social Democratic Party of America (headquartered in Chicago, IL ) and dissident Lassallean members of the Socialist Labor Party of America , who had also adopted the name Social Democratic Party of America (headquartered in Springfield, MA ). The new party chose "socialist" over "social democratic" because the latter lost its meaning when translated from German to English . From 1901 to
6441-523: The Socialist Party withered, its membership level below that of 1928. In April 1938, Thomas was the center of national controversy when he came to Jersey City, New Jersey to defend labor organizers' free speech and challenge the political machine of Mayor Frank Hague . Hague was a close ally of Franklin Roosevelt and controlled federal patronage in the state. Though denied a permit for political reasons, Thomas came anyway to speak at an outdoor rally. The police arrested him as soon as he got out of his car. As
6554-453: The Socialist Party's options were limited, and the little-known minister from New York with oratorial skills and a pedigree in the movement became the choice of the 1928 National Convention of the Socialist Party. The 1928 campaign was the first of Thomas's six consecutive campaigns as the presidential nominee of the Socialist Party. As an articulate and engaging spokesman for democratic socialism , Thomas had considerably greater influence than
6667-420: The Socialist Party, which stood and stands for democratic and representative government". The legislature attempted to prevent the election and seating of Socialists in the future by passing laws designed to exclude the Socialist Party from recognition as a political party and to alter the legislature's oath-taking procedures so that elected members could be excluded before being sworn. Governor Al Smith vetoed
6780-410: The Socialist Party. He and his followers in the party teamed up with the Clarity majority of the National Executive Committee and gave the green light to the New York Right Wing to expel the Appeal faction from the organization. These expulsions led to the departure of virtually the whole of the party's youth section, who affiliated to the new Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party . Demoralization set in and
6893-520: The Socialist ticket—for governor of New York in 1924 , for mayor of New York in 1925 , for New York State Senate in 1926, for alderman in 1927, and for mayor of New York again in 1929. In 1934 , he ran for the US Senate in New York and polled almost 200,000 votes, then the second-best result for a Socialist candidate in New York state elections; only Charles P. Steinmetz polled more votes, almost 300,000 in 1922 when he ran for State Engineer . Thomas's political activity also included attempts at
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#17327872609487006-470: The Socialists ought to try "a little sabotage in the right place at the proper time" and attacking Hillquit for having abandoned the class struggle by helping the New York garment workers negotiate an industrial agreement with their employers. Hillquit replied that he had no new message other than to reiterate a belief in a two-sided workers' movement, with separate and equal political and trade union arms. "A mere change of structural forms would not revolutionize
7119-399: The US presidency. Following Eugene Debs 's death in 1926, there was a leadership vacuum in the Socialist Party. Neither of the party's two top political leaders, Victor L. Berger and Hillquit, was eligible to run for president because of their foreign birth. The third main figure, Daniel Hoan , was occupied as mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin . Down to approximately 8,000 dues-paying members,
7232-544: The United States to Jewish victims of Nazi persecution in the 1930s. Thomas was an early proponent of birth control. The birth-control advocate Margaret Sanger recruited him to write "Some Objections to Birth Control Considered" in Religious and Ethical Aspects of Birth Control , edited and published by Sanger in 1926. Thomas accused the Catholic Church of hypocritical opinions on sex, such as requiring priests to be celibate and maintaining that laypeople should have sex only to reproduce. "This doctrine of unrestricted procreation
7345-412: The Women's Committee on Political Action and sundry individuals. Very few farmers were in attendance. It was around this time that the Socialists began actively participating in discussions about democratic principles as much as Marxist ones. By 1924, they supported the Progressive Party ticket, which pushed for the reform of the Democratic Party . Ten years after that, the American Socialists adopted
7458-455: The activities of the Lusk Committee , the New York State Senate's anti-radicalism committee. He particularly challenged the presence of Assemblyman Louis A. Cuvillier , who had stated on the floor of the house the previous night words to the effect that "if the five accused Assemblymen are found guilty, they ought not to be expelled, but taken out and shot". The Assembly voted overwhelmingly for expulsion on April 1, 1920. On September 16, 1920,
7571-419: The call and declaring that the time had come "for a militant political movement independent of the two old party organizations". But La Follette declined to lead a third party, seeking to protect those progressives elected nominally as Republicans and Democrats. He said that the primary issue of the 1924 campaign was breaking the "combined power of the private monopoly system over the political and economic life of
7684-470: The capacity of nonfascist Europe to resist the Nazis ". Thomas was one of the few public figures to oppose President Roosevelt's incarceration of Japanese Americans following the attack on Pearl Harbor. He accused the ACLU of "dereliction of duty" when the organization supported the forced mass removal and incarceration. Thomas also campaigned against racial segregation , environmental depletion, and anti-labor laws and practices, and in favor of opening
7797-414: The country's trade union leadership would be a protracted process and the mere fact of "agreement to disagree" but nevertheless meeting again was regarded as a step forward. The communist movement also sought to pursue the strategy of bursting from its isolation by forming a mass Farmer-Labor Party. Finally emerged from its underground existence in 1922, the Communists, through their "legal political party",
7910-436: The earlier findings of the Judiciary Committee, were seated by votes of 87 to 48. In solidarity with their ousted colleagues, the pair refused to take their seats. After the five seats were again vacated, Hillquit expressed his disappointment at the Assembly's "unconstitutional action". But, he continued, "it will draw the issues clearer between the united Republican and Democratic parties representing arbitrary lawlessness, and
8023-475: The early 1930s behind presidential candidate Norman Thomas . The party's appeal was weakened by the popularity of President Franklin D. Roosevelt 's New Deal , the organization and flexibility of the Communist Party under Earl Browder and the resurgent labor movement 's desire to support sympathetic Democratic Party politicians. A divisive and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to broaden the party by admitting followers of Leon Trotsky and Jay Lovestone caused
8136-576: The event Thomas called for a cease-fire in Vietnam and read birthday telegrams from Hubert Humphrey , Earl Warren , and Martin Luther King Jr. He also received a check for $ 17,500 (equivalent to $ 171,900 in 2023) in donations from supporters. "It won't last long," he said of the check, "because every organization I'm connected with is going bankrupt." In 1966, the conservative journalist and writer William F. Buckley, Jr chose Thomas to be
8249-406: The exploiters of labor. The majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands—the ownership and control of their livelihoods—are set at naught, we can have neither men's rights nor women's rights. The majority of mankind is ground down by industrial oppression in order that the small remnant may live in ease. — Helen Keller , Socialist Party of America member, 1913 In 1901,
8362-437: The labor, peace, civil rights, and civil liberties movements, fundamentally disagreed about the socialist movement 's relationship to the labor movement and the Democratic Party and about how best to advance democracy abroad. In 1970–1973, these strategic differences became so acute that the SPA changed its name to Social Democrats, USA , both because the term "party" in its name had confused the public and to distance itself from
8475-664: The leading voice of liberal Christian social activism of its day. In 1921, Thomas moved to secular journalism when he was employed as associate editor of The Nation magazine. In 1922 he became co-director of the League for Industrial Democracy . Later, he was one of the founders of the National Civil Liberties Bureau , the precursor of the American Civil Liberties Union . Thomas ran for office five times in quick succession on
8588-487: The legislation. In the first half of 1919, the Socialist Party had over 100,000 dues-paying members, and by the second half of 1921 it had been shattered. Fewer than 14,000 members remained in party ranks, with the departure of the large, well-funded Finnish Socialist Federation adding to the malaise. In September 1921, the NEC determined that the time had come to end the party's historic aversion to fusion with other political organizations and issue an appeal declaring that
8701-414: The ministry until 1931, after his mother's death. It was Thomas's position as a conscientious objector that drew him to the Socialist Party of America (SPA), a staunchly antimilitarist organization. When SPA leader Morris Hillquit made his campaign for mayor of New York in 1917 on an antiwar platform, Thomas wrote to him expressing his good wishes. To his surprise, Hillquit wrote back, encouraging
8814-467: The more bitter. The party's opposition to World War I caused a sharp decline in membership. It suffered from the Postmaster General 's decision to refuse to allow the delivery of party newspapers and periodicals via the U.S. mail, severely disrupting the party's activity, particularly in rural areas. Radicals moved further left into the IWW or the Communist Party USA . Members who supported
8927-414: The officers prepared to expel him from the city, Thomas quipped, "So this is Jersey justice". People across the political spectrum, including the 1932 and 1936 Republican presidential nominees, Herbert Hoover and Alfred M. Landon , criticized Hague for his suppression of free speech and Roosevelt for his silence about the incident. Thomas and Landon became good friends as a result of the incident. Thomas
9040-501: The onset of World War I , the Socialist Party had numerous elected officials throughout the United States. There were two Socialist members of Congress, Meyer London of New York City and Victor Berger of Milwaukee (a part of the sewer socialism movement, a major front in socialism, Milwaukee being the first and the only major city to elect a socialist mayor, which it did four times between 1910 and 1956); over 70 mayors ; and many state legislators and city councilors. The party
9153-457: The organization at this time, this action earned the lasting enmity of Hillquit's New York-based allies of the so-called "Old Guard" . The diplomatic party peacemaker Hillquit died of tuberculosis the following year, lessening the stability of his faction. At the 1934 National Convention of the Socialist Party, Thomas's connection with the Militants deepened when he backed a radical Declaration of Principles authored by his longtime associate from
9266-418: The pamphlets and books that were sold at party meetings. Approaches to agriculture and farmers' interests were subject to significant debate in the party. While members in most parts of the country advocated collective farming , the Texas and Oklahoma state parties supported populist policies based on small-scale farm ownership, which socialists elsewhere considered economically backward. The populist position
9379-408: The party adopted a program of reforms including state-backed agricultural cooperatives , socialization of transport, storage and processing facilities, progressive land taxes, and government-supported land leases for small farmers. Positions in the party on racial segregation varied and were the subject of heated debate from its foundation to the 1919 split. At its founding convention, a resolution
9492-605: The party who sought to organize white, black and indigenous workers across color lines through their party or labor movement work included Ameringer, Covington Hall , and Otto Branstetter . More widely, anti-racist socialists were spurred to action by the Springfield race riot of 1908 . Socialist writer William English Walling 's reporting on the riot inspired another socialist, Mary White Ovington , among others, to work with prominent black leaders such as W. E. B. Du Bois , Ida B. Wells , and Mary Church Terrell to establish
9605-582: The radical pacifist journal The World Tomorrow , Devere Allen . The Militants swept to majority control of the party's governing National Executive Committee at this gathering, and the Old Guard retreated to their New York fortress and formalized their factional organization as the Committee for the Preservation of the Socialist Party , complete with a shadow Provisional Executive Committee and an office in New York City. Thomas favored work to establish
9718-416: The resolution enshrined a commitment to opposing racism, sections of the party continued to argue against that. For example, Victor Berger drew on scientific racism to claim that blacks and mulattoes "constitute[d] a lower race". They were opposed by others who defended the spirit of the resolution, most notably Debs. This spread of opinion was reflected in the drawing up of constitutions by state parties in
9831-600: The same terms as Mr. Roosevelt". In testimony to Congress in January 1941 he opposed the proposed Lend Lease program of sending military supplies to Great Britain, calling it "a bill to authorize undeclared war in the name of peace, and dictatorship in the name of defending democracy". He said that the survival of the British Empire was not vital to the security of the United States, but added that he favored helping Britain to defend herself against aggression. After
9944-519: The second Eugene V. Debs Award for his work in promoting world peace. In 1910, Thomas married Frances Violet Stewart (1881–1947), the granddaughter of John Aikman Stewart , financial adviser to Presidents Lincoln and Cleveland , and a trustee of Princeton for many years. Together, they had three daughters and two sons: Thomas died at the age of 84 on December 19, 1968, at a nursing home in Huntington, New York . Pursuant to his wishes, he
10057-619: The seminary and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1911. After assisting the Rev. Henry Van Dyke at the fashionable Brick Presbyterian Church on Manhattan 's Fifth Avenue , Thomas was appointed pastor of the East Harlem Presbyterian Church, ministering to Italian-American Protestants. Union Theological Seminary had been at that time a center of the Social Gospel movement and liberal politics, and as
10170-523: The state's 1910 ballot initiative on a grandfather clause to prevent blacks from voting . Prominent party member Oscar Ameringer wrote the ballot argument against it, and the party launched an unsuccessful lawsuit to prevent the question from going to the ballot. Party propaganda argued that if working-class solidarity did not extend across racial lines, then the ruling class would exploit blacks as strikebreakers and an instrument of repression. The state party's 1912 platform stated: "safety and advancement of
10283-400: The summer of 1914. At the conference, a heterogeneous coalition of political radicals and pro-direct action/pro-IWW unionists broke away and set up the publishing company behind Sosialisti . In 1916 the name of the newspaper was changed to Teollisuustyöläinen . In 1917 a lawsuit was levelled against the newspaper. It would re-appear under the new name Industrialisti . By this time, the paper
10396-530: The third guest on Buckley's new television interview show, Firing Line . In 1968, Thomas signed the " Writers and Editors War Tax Protest " pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War . Also in 1966, Thomas traveled to the Dominican Republic along with future Congressman Allard K. Lowenstein to observe that country's general election . The two were leaders of
10509-416: The third, William Costley, held that blacks were in "a distinct and peculiar position in contradiction to other laboring elements in the United States". Costley introduced his own resolution, which also condemned the campaign of "lynching, burning and disenfranchisement" that black Americans suffered. His resolution passed, albeit with the language on "lynching, burning, and disenfranchisement" removed. While
10622-518: The traditional Old Guard to leave and form the Social Democratic Federation . While the party was always strongly anti-fascist as well as anti-Stalinist , its opposition to American entry in World War II cost it both internal and external support. The party stopped running presidential candidates after 1956 , when its nominee, Darlington Hoopes , won fewer than 6,000 votes. In the party's last decades, its members, many of them prominent in
10735-480: The two organizations shared a vision of a party akin to the British Labour Party in which constituent political groups jointly participated while retaining their independent existence. The fissure between the organizations thus widened. As with the first conference, the 2nd Conference of the CPPA split over the all-important issue of an independent political party, with a proposal by five delegates of
10848-756: The typical perennial candidate . Although most upper- and middle-class Americans found socialism unsavory, the well-educated Thomas—who often wore three-piece suits and looked and talked like a president—gained grudging admiration. Thomas frequently spoke on the difference between socialism, the movement he represented, and communism and revolutionary Marxism . His early admiration for the Russian Revolution had turned into energetic anti-Stalinism . (Some revolutionaries thought him no better; Leon Trotsky criticized Thomas on more than one occasion.) He wrote several books, among them his passionate defense of World War I conscientious objectors , Is Conscience
10961-550: The war effort quit, ranging from the rank and file to prominent intellectuals such as Walter Lippmann , John Spargo , James Graham Phelps Stokes and William English Walling . Some briefly formed the National Party in an unrealized hope of merging with the remnants of Theodore Roosevelt 's Progressive Party and the Prohibition Party . Official membership fell from 83,284 in 1916 to 74,519 in 1918. By 1918,
11074-475: The working class depends upon its solidarity and class consciousness. Those who would engender or foster race hatred or animosity between the white and black sections of the working class are the enemies of both." This stance earned the party support from key black leaders in the state. In the Southwest , the non-racial United Mine Workers aided black recruitment into the party. Notable figures associated with
11187-491: The young minister to work for his campaign, which Thomas energetically did. Soon thereafter he himself joined the Socialist Party. Thomas was a Christian socialist . Thomas was the secretary (then an unpaid position) of the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation even before the war. When the organization started a magazine called The World Tomorrow in January 1918, Thomas was employed as its paid editor. Together with Devere Allen , Thomas helped to make The World Tomorrow
11300-454: Was a power in its own right. As a result, a handful of outside publishers dominated the published messages the party distributed and agitated for a much more radical anti-capitalist revolutionary message than the party itself tolerated. The Appeal to Reason newspaper thus became part of its radical left wing as did the Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company of Chicago, which produced over half of
11413-458: Was able to successfully run candidates in smaller municipalities as well as big cities, winning the mayoralty of Butte, Montana , with Lewis Duncan and that of Schenectady, New York , with George R. Lunn . Its voting strength was greatest among recent Jewish, Finnish and German immigrants, coal miners and former populist farmers in the Midwest. According to Jimmy Weinstein , its electoral base
11526-587: Was backed by Algie Martin Simons , who argued that small farmers were not being eradicated under capitalist pressure as many socialists believed, but that they were "a permanent factor in the agricultural life in America" and that socialist and labor movements needed to attract their support to advance working-class interests. After disappointing performances in the 1908 elections when it ran on an under-developed agrarian platform based on land collectivization, in 1912
11639-646: Was completely under the control of the IWW faction. The newspaper was strongly opposed to the U.S. participation in the First World War . For example, the first issue of the refounded Industrialisti in March 1917 carried a strong anti-war message. Leo Laukki was the Industrialisti editor at the time. At the time of its foundation, Sosialisti had a circulation of around 4,000. As of 1919 Industrialisti had around 10,000 subscribers. The newspaper had
11752-636: Was cremated and his ashes were scattered on Long Island . The Norman Thomas High School (formerly known as Central Commercial High School) in Manhattan and the Norman Thomas '05 Library at Princeton University 's Forbes College are named after him, as is the assembly hall at the Three Arrows Cooperative Society , where he was a frequent visitor. He is also the grandfather of Newsweek columnist Evan Thomas and
11865-553: Was further shattered by a factional war over how to respond to the October Revolution in the Russian Republic in 1917 and the establishment of the Communist International in 1919—many members left the Socialist Party to found Leninist Parties. After endorsing Robert M. La Follette 's Progressive Party in 1924 , the party returned to independent action at the presidential level. It had modest growth in
11978-689: Was initially as outspoken in opposing the Second World War as he had been with regard to the First World War. Upon returning from a European tour in 1937, he formed the Keep America Out of War Congress, and spoke against war, thereby sharing a platform with the non-interventionist America First Committee . In the 1940 presidential campaign he said Republican Wendell Willkie was the candidate of "the Wall Street war machine" and that he "would take us to war about as fast and about on
12091-455: Was joined by important Left Wingers C. E. Ruthenberg and Louis Fraina, a depletion of Left Wing forces that made the result of the 1919 Socialist Convention a foregone conclusion. Regardless, Wagenknecht's and Reed's plans to fight it out at the 1919 Emergency National Convention continued apace. With the most radical state organizations effectively purged by the Regulars (Massachusetts, Minnesota) or unable to participate (Ohio, Michigan) and
12204-445: Was originally intended to be an umbrella organization bringing together various elements of the farmer and labor movement together in a common program. Invitations to the group's founding conference were issued to members of a wide variety of "progressive" organizations of widely varied perspectives. As a result, from its inception the heterogeneous body was unable to agree on a program or a declaration of principles, let alone congeal into
12317-446: Was presented in favor of "equal rights for all human beings without distinction of color, race or sex", specifically highlighting African Americans as particularly oppressed and exploited and calling for them to be organized by the socialist and labor movements. This was opposed by a number of white delegates, who argued that specific appeals to black workers were unnecessary. Two of the black delegates present agreed with this position, but
12430-466: Was seen as an attempt to propose a political reform that would ultimately result in a better social and economic reform consistent with their beliefs. The National Committee had previously requested that Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette run for president. The Cleveland Convention was addressed by La Follette's son, Robert M. La Follette Jr. , who read a message from his father accepting
12543-482: Was shut down in 1975. When it was closed down, it was one of the last non-English publications of the IWW. Socialist Party of America Progressive Era Repression and persecution Anti-war and civil rights movements Contemporary The Socialist Party of America ( SPA ) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of
12656-684: Was strongest west of the Mississippi River , "in the states where mining, lumbering, and tenant farming prevailed". It was also able to attract support from railroad workers. Its vote shares were highest in Oklahoma , Nevada , Montana , Washington , California , Idaho , Florida , Arizona and Wisconsin , and it also attracted support in Texas , Arkansas and Kansas . From 1900 (before its formal union) to 1912, it ran Eugene V. Debs for president at each election. The best showing ever for
12769-581: Was the oldest of six children, born November 20, 1884, in Marion, Ohio , to Emma Williams (née Mattoon) and Weddington Evans Thomas, a Presbyterian minister. Thomas had an uneventful Midwestern childhood and adolescence, helping to put himself through Marion High School as a paper carrier for Warren G. Harding 's Marion Daily Star . Like other paper carriers, he reported directly to Florence Kling Harding . "No pennies ever escaped her," said Thomas. The summer after he graduated from high school his father accepted
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