"A Brief History of Socialism in America." [Published January 1900] Morris Hillquit's 1903 History of Socialism in the United States has been long regarded as the first comprehensive history of the American Socialist movement in the English language written by a participant. In actuality, Hillquit's book was the second; this history of the American Socialist movement by an unnamed founding member of the Social Democratic Party of America predated Hillquit's work by over 3 1/2 years! First put into print in January 1900 by the fledgling publishing house of Eugene V. Debs as a primary part of The Social Democracy Red Book, the section reproduced here picks up the story with the coming of Marxian socialism to America in the 1850s -- a lengthy discussion of the various permutations of communal socialism in the 19th Century having been omitted. Detail is strong for the history of the Socialist Labor Party of the late 1880s. The work is especially valuable for its account the formation of the Social Democracy of America and the Social Democratic Party of America which emerged from it. The fine detail relating to the split at the 1898 convention indicates this unsigned work was clearly the product of a participant -- although equally clearly not that of Gene Debs himself. One passage of particular interest demonstrates the deep fissure in the American Socialist movement between Social Democratic and proto-Communist wings even as early as 1900: "Social Democracy is but another term for democratic Socialism. In this sketch of the development of the Socialist movement in America, we have seen...in the Socialist Labor Party, a kind of Socialism, or rather of Socialistic propaganda, in which a hierarchy ruled, and which, besides heresy-hunting among its own members, instinctively stood for a Socialist state in which the administration of affairs would, to say the least, be bureaucratic. Such an administration would be quite apt to develop into a despotism. Presented in such a spirit, Socialism had little attraction for the Yankee lover of freedom, and so it had to make way historically for a truly democratic type -- for a party standing for social democracy." Historians interested in the origins of the Socialist Party of America will want to print out and preserve this 18 page document, which includes illustrations of four early SDP activists: successful Massachusetts politician James F. Carey, editor of the official organ A.S. Edwards, pioneer Texas Socialist W.E. Farmer, and little-known SDP founding member Margaret Haile. (Rather large file, 425 k.)

 

"Again Mr. Hillquit." [Published circa Dec. 1, 1920] This is the unsigned lead article from the UCP's official organ, The Communist (#11), written in response to a piece called "Again the Moscow International" by Socialist Party leader Morris Hillquit which appeared in the New York Call on Nov. 15-16, 1920. Hillquit, called a member of a "triumvirate" of the SP's current leadership (along with Party founders Victor Berger and Seymour Stedman), is taken to task for expressing the belief in the possibility of the working class being able to make use in the existing American state apparatus for its own purposes -- rather than facing the necessity of destroying that apparatus and constructing a new one, as the UCP contended. "It is too much to ask of Mr. Hillquit's Marxism that it realize or acknowledge that the mission of the proletarian revolution is not the establishment of a working class government similar to the government of the capitalist class, but that its aim is to build an instrument for the fundamental change of society from capitalism to communism," the unnamed UCP writer asserts. Hillquit is also criticized for his statement that the leaders of the Comintern are intent upon making use of "a new, untried, and fanciful form" of political organization "to supplant the historic organizations of Socialism and labor." The Social Democratic parties of Germany, Russia, France, Great Britain, and the United States are all dismissed as bulwarks of national chauvinism and collaborators with the war on the Bolshevik revolution. Hillquit is called a "charlatan" for "posing as a revolutionist" while at the same time "betraying the workers' revolution to the capitalist class." This article demonstrates the depth of hostility expressed by the American Communist movement towards the Social Democratic movement from its earliest days.

 

"Spies and Traitors! [re: Morris Zucker]" [Published circa May 1, 1921] This is a short, unsigned news snippet from the 16th and final issue of the United Communist Party's official organ making note of the return of Morris Zucker from Soviet Russia. Zucker, formerly a leading figure in the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party and a founding member of the Communist Labor Party, traveled to Russia in November 1920 and soon ran afoul of the Cheka, who imprisoned him as a suspected spy, only releasing him towards the first of April 1921 on condition of his immediate departure from the country. Zucker is characterized as a "traitor to the workers" and a "turncoat," since "he comes back a 'disillusioned' man! It is his intention to agitate against the Russian Government!" The short news item closes with a rather ominous warning: "Is Zucker a traitor and spy? If he is, let him take care!" Includes a brief biographical footnote on Morris Zucker.

 

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