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| In 1973 the Socialist Party of America was taken over by right-]s and renamed the ]. A faction led by ] became the ] and a third faction, including ], formed the ]. | In 1973 the Socialist Party of America was taken over by right-]s and renamed the ]. A faction led by ] became the ] and a third faction, including ], formed the ]. | ||
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Revision as of 18:42, 15 June 2004
Founding of the Party
The Socialist Party of America was formed in 1901 by a merger between the Social Democratic Party of Eugene V. Debs, formed three years earlier by veterans of the Pullman Strike of the American Railway Union, and a wing of the older Socialist Labor Party.
Socialist campaign poster
Election poster for Eugene V. Debs, Socialist Party of America candidate for President, 1904
Prominent members
Prominent members included Helen Keller, Upton Sinclair, Carl Sandburg, and Jack London.
Early History
Before World War I, it elected two Members of Congress, over 70 mayors, and many state legislators and city councilors. Opposition to the war reduced its popularity among native Americans, while its best-known member, Debs, was imprisoned on treason charges. But by 1919, bouyed by increases in membership in its language federations from areas involved in the Bolshevic Revolution such as Finland, Russia, Poland and the Ukraine membership topped 100,000
Expulsion of supporters of Bolshevism
In January 1919, Lenin invited the left wing of the Socialist Party to join in the founding of the Communist International (a.k.a. Cominterm). During the spring of 1919, the left wing of the Party prepared to take control. A referendum to join the Comintern passed with 90% support. Elections for the party's National Executive Committee resulted in 12 leftists being elected out of a total of 15. Calls were made to expel moderates from the party. The moderate incumbents struck back by expelling several state organizations, half a dozen language federations, and many locals, in all two thirds of the membership. They then called an emergency convention which was held in Chicago August 30, 1919. Plans were made by the left wing to continue to gain control of the party at a June conference, the National Conference of the Left Wing, but the language federations, eventually joined by Charles Ruthenberg and Louis Fraina broke away from that effort and determined to form their own party, forming the Communist Party of America on September 2, 1919 at a separate convention in Chicago. Meanwhile plans led by John Reed and Benjamin Gitlow to crash the Socialist Party convention went ahead. It was planned that delegations from the portions of the party which had been expelled would arrive early and demand participation. Tipped off, the incumbents dealt with that maneuver by calling the police who obligingly expelled the leftists from the hall. The remaining leftist delegates walked out and, meeting with the expelled delegates, formed the Communist Labor Party on September 1, 1919. The two parties eventually merged in 1921 to form the predecessor of the Communist Party USA.
Electoral campaigns
The Socialist Party did not run a presidential candidate in 1924, but joined the AFL and railroad brotherhoods in support of independent Sen. Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin. In 1928, the Socialist Party revived as an independent electoral entity under the leadership of Norman Thomas, a founder of the American Civil Liberties Union. Thomas would remain the SPUSA Presidential candidate and leader until after World War Two.
A turn to the left
During the 1930's the party experienced growth particularly among youth and turned leftwards politically. A left wing caucus was formed called the Clarity caucus to argue for more left wing policies. This led to the formation of the Social democratic federation by some of the Old Guard, as they were described, who then left the SP. This deepened the turn to the left.
The youth were organised in the Young Peoples Socialist League. Also in the 1930s and as a result of the left turn taken by the party the small Trotskyist movement dissolved its organisation, at that point named the Workers Party, and joined the Socialists. In a short time they won a great deal of support particularly amongst the youth of the YPSL. At the end of 1938 this led to the Trotskyists leaving the SP to form their own Socialist Workers party and Young Peoples Socialist League (Fourth Internationalist).
World War II and McCarthyism
The party's anti-war stance further weakened it during World War II, and it was hurt by the anti-Communist drives of the McCarthy era. In the succeeding decades, the party was rent by internal dissent.
The Independent Socialist League
In 1958 the SP admitted to its ranks the members of the Independent Socialist League led by former Trotskyist Max Shachtman who was now moving rightwards. Some of his more youthful supporters however rejected his right move and worked in the Young Socialist League of the SP until they left the SP entirely in the early 1960s to form the Indepedent Socialist Committee. Meanwhile Shachtman emerged as the leader of the right wing of the SP.
Split
In 1973 the Socialist Party of America was taken over by right-Shachtmanites and renamed the Social Democrats USA. A faction led by Michael Harrington became the Democratic Socialists of America and a third faction, including David McReynolds, formed the Socialist Party USA.
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