"Arouse, Ye Slaves!" by Eugene V. Debs [March 10, 1906] If Debs' Sept. 1914 call for the mine workers of America to arm themselves and resist the violence of their employers by force wasn't the most militant statement ever made by the Hoosier Socialist, this editorial written in response to the kidnapping of William Haywood and Charles Moyer and their transport to Idaho to face charges of capital murder certainly was. The kidnapping is called "a foul plot; a damnable conspiracy; a hellish outrage," and Debs calls the governors of Idaho and Colorado "brazen falsifiers and venal villains, the miserable tools of the mine owners who, themselves, if anybody, deserve the gibbet." Debs declares that "Nearly twenty years ago the capitalist tyrants put some innocent men to death for standing up for labor. They are now going to try it again. Let them dare! There have been twenty years of revolutionary education, agitation, and organization since the Haymarket tragedy, and if an attempt is made to repeat it, there will be a revolution and I will do all in my power to precipitate it." Debs actively advocates the possibility of armed struggle around the Haywood-Moyer case: "Get ready, comrades, for action! ... Capitalist courts never have done, and never will do, anything for the working class.... A special revolutionary convention of the proletariat at Chicago, or some other central point, would be in order, and, if extreme measures are required, a general strike could be ordered and industry paralyzed as a preliminary to a general uprising. If the plutocrats begin the program, we will end it."

 

"The Cleveland Speech of May 27, 1917: A Recounting for the Jury," by C.E. Ruthenberg Along with his comrades Alfred Wagenknecht and Charles Baker, in July 1917 Cleveland Socialist Party leader C.E. Ruthenberg was tried for allegedly attempting to obstruct the draft in violation of the so-called Espionage Law. Making the case that the remarks for which he was charged needed to be placed into context, Ruthenberg was able to recreate his May 27 speech for the jury -- the transcript of which was published as part of a pamphlet by Local Cuyahoga County. In his speech Ruthenberg characterized the European conflict not as a war for democracy, freedom, and liberty, but rather as "a war to secure the investments and the profits of the ruling class of this country." In addition to cravenly switching its position on American participation in the world war after election day, Ruthenberg charges the Wilson administration with having dumped "many beautiful platitudes about democracy" while at the same time putting the "most reactionary and autocratic law, the conscription law, on the books of this country." This law removed the youth of America "from their homes without their consent and sent out to the trenches to murder and be murdered for the profits of the ruling class of this country." Ruthenberg charged that conscription was a flagrant violation of the constitution of the United States: "If law means anything, if words mean anything, when the constitution says that there shall be no involuntary servitude in this nation except as a punishment for crime, it forbids specifically taking a man against his will and making him fight and murder his fellow human beings." Ruthenberg, Wagenknecht, and Baker were found guilty and sentenced to one year in jail on July 21, 1917. The constitutionality of their sentence was upheld by the US Supreme Court on Jan. 15, 1918, and they served their time at the Canton workhouse until being released at the end of their sentences on December 8, 1918.

 

"The Iron Fist Tightens Its Grip on Nation," by William F. Kruse [June 2, 1917] The head of the Socialist Party's youth section, the Young People's Socialist League, declares that "the powers of reaction, now triumphant in this country, are beginning to tighten their fast forming stranglehold upon the liberties of the American people" and details some of the Woodrow Wilson regime's repressive actions. These include: the raid without warrant of the Indiana SP office and holding Indiana State Secretary William Henry and his wife incommunicado before ultimately releasing them without charges preferred; arrest of a SP member in Seattle for instigating anti-conscription activity; raid of the Pittsburgh office of the SP without warrant and confiscation of all books and records, many of which were retained, and the arrest of 11 in connection with the raid; the breaking up by police of a peaceable 5,000 person overflow anti-war meeting at Grant Park; unconfirmed reports of disturbances in Cleveland caused when police broke up peaceable outdoor anti-war meetings; the refusal of the State Department to grant passports to Morris Hillquit, Algernon Lee, and Victor Berger, delegates to a Peace Conference in Stockholm; arrest of a Chicago YPSL for disorderly conduct for putting up an anti-war sticker; arrest of another YPSL in New Jersey for "Treason" for putting up the same sticker and another reading "Impeach Wilson." Kruse warns: "Recent history, in Russia should serve as an eloquent warning to potential despots in this country. There was no provision for impeaching the Tsar. The people could not lawfully remove him from office. Yet they found the means and methods by which his removal was made possible. In this country there are certain clearly marked legal steps that can be taken to remedy an unwise election of a Chief Executive whenever the American people desire to do so. These steps are set forth in the constitution, and if it be treason to request that these steps be taken by Congress, then there are a good many Americans who are guilty of the crime."

 

"What Will We Have, When We Have Enough?" by Irwin St. John Tucker [June 2, 1917] The Socialist Party's head of the Literature Department needles the Wilson Administration for its failure to declare war aims. "Since our entry into the war to abolish secret diplomacy, our State Department has muzzled every member of its staff, with the exception of Secretary Lansing and a newspaper man whom he has appointed chief of the Department of Public Intelligence," he states. Tucker notes that an understanding has been reached between Wilson and the official representatives of Britain and France without that understanding revealed to the public. Meanwhile, in the House of Commons, Robert Cecil on May 16 declared Britain's intention to retain German colonies in Africa after victorious conclusion of the war. "Is this a war for territorial aggrandizement? Are we now making war to transfer German colonies to the British flag?" Tucker asks.

 

"Why You Should Fight," by Irwin St. John Tucker [June 9, 1917] When an agent of the Bureau of Investigation with whom he consulted flippantly suggested to Socialist Party propaganda chief Irwin St. John Tucker that he should prepare a pamphlet explaining to American workers why they should fight in the European war, Tucker took up the challenge. The result was this red-hot anti-militarist screed, ecclesiastical in tone, poetic in structure, and revolutionary in content. Tucker writes: "You must fight to destroy Kaiserism, for certainly the bloody rule of the Prussian junkers must be brought to an end. For the only thing on earth worse than the Prussian junkers is the National Association of Manufacturers, and our third-generation millionaires.... You must throw bombs and slaughter with machine guns to destroy the Prussian political Kaiser; in order that the American financial Kaiser may remain upon his throne at 26 Broadway and around the corner on Wall Street. You must shoot into the enemy the conviction that he should establish a Congress like ours; in order to convince ourselves that we really have a Congress worth the powder it would take to blow up a muskrat." To eradicate Kaiserism in Germany, the workers were being armed with dynamite and machine guns and bombs and high explosives. "Learn your lesson well, is all we ask. Your lesson is the destruction of tyranny; learn it," he implores. Then, when the battle for democracy is won abroad, "COME HOME WITH IT!"

 

"Face to Face with Facts," by Eugene V. Debs [Oct. 17, 1918] Brief campaign-related article by Socialist Party orator Gene Debs. Debs gives no evidence of any minimum demands in the coming campaign, declaring " The issue -- the one and only issue -- in this campaign is Socialism," presenting a quasi-fundamentalist dichotomy: "Socialism or capitalism. Freedom or slavery? Which?" Debs places high priority on the election of Congressmen in the forthcoming election, seeking the election of "score of Socialist Congressmen and at least double the Socialist vote ever cast before in the United States." He also calls for a staunch defense of the constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly, challenging the premise that these rights may be suspended by the governing regime during wartime: "Had it been intended that this constitutional guarantee should be suspended in time of war the constitution itself would have explicitly so provided. In war as in peace we believe in the fundamental democratic right of free speech and upon that rock we shall fight it out without compromise to the end." He also calls for funds to provide for the defense of the myriad of Socialists under arrest or indictment.

 

"Prosecution or Persecution?" from The Milwaukee Leader [Oct. 17, 1918] Unsigned article from the front page of the Milwaukee Leader revealing the highly suspicious timing of a Federal Grand Jury indictment returned and pressed against Victor Berger. The original secret indictment was returned Feb. 2, 1918, but not announced until more than a month later, two weeks before the election for an open seat in the US Senator for which Berger was a candidate -- timing which smacked of campaign-related foul play. Then this case sat dormant for 7 full months, until 2 weeks before the fall election for US House, for which Berger was a candidate. The coincidence was amazing or the sabotage of the Socialist Party's electoral efforts intentional.

 

"Autocracy, Democracy, Hypocrisy," by Victor L. Berger [Oct. 18, 1918] Unsigned editorial from the front page of the Milwaukee Leader attributed to Victor L. Berger. Berger ironically contrasts the continued operation and access to the mails of left wing newspapers Vorwaerts and Unsere Zeit in "autocratic" Germany with the banning of similar publications from the mails of "democratic" America by the whim of one man, Postmaster General Albert Burleson. "Under this law ONE MAN, the Postmaster General, upon EVIDENCE SATISFACTORY TO HIM, may deprive any person or any concern of the use of the mail. Under this law, one man, without judge or jury, without due process of law, may ruin the business of any person or any concern by simply cutting off its mail. Not since the interdict has wielded by the Popes of medieval times has so much power been placed in the hands of one man. Under this law, Mr. Burleson can bankrupt any Republican or Democratic newspaper in the country. His whim is law. There is no appeal. 'The king can do no wrong.' But so far, the law has only been applied to The Milwaukee Leader." Berger vows to fight on despite the so-called Espionage Act.

 

"In the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave," by Victor L. Berger [Oct. 19, 1918] Another indictment of Woodrow Wilson's Postmaster General, Albert Burleson, and the "cowed Congress" which passed the unconstitutional "Espionage Act," which Berger states stood in violation of "every principle of Americanism." Since the Milwaukee Leader had lost its mailing privileges on Oct. 3, 1917, a loss of $70,000 in subscription money and $50,000 in advertising revenue was claimed. "This tremendous loss of $120,000 was the result of the act of one man -- the Postmaster General of the United States," Berger charges, adding that this autocratic power to seize property and destroy business stood in opposition to the US constitution, which stated clearly that "No property shall be confiscated without due process of law." Berger remains unbent: "Go on, gentlemen, and do your worst! Someday a bruised and outraged people will rise in holy anger and cast you on the rubbish pile of history. Hiding behind the plea of making the 'world safe for democracy' you are assassinating the freedom of the American people themselves."

 

"Five Russians Jailed for Distributing Nuorteva Reply: Three Men who Circulated Denunciation of Creel 'Exposé' of Bolsheviki Get 20 Years -- Woman 15." [Oct. 26, 1918] Unsigned news report from the Milwaukee Leader detailing the draconian sentences levied upon anarchists Samuel Lippman, Jacob Abrams, Hyman Lachowsky, and Mollie Steimer and the lesser sentence meted to their erstwhile comrade Hyman Rosanzky, who flipped to become state's evidence. The four main defendants received sentences of from 15 to 20 years in the federal penitentiary for distributing leaflets publicizing the claim of Santeri Nuorteva of the Finnish government bureau that the so-called "Sisson Papers" purporting Lenin's sponsorship by the Imperial German regime, published by Wilson Administration propaganda chief George Creel's Committee on Public Information, were fabrications. The defendants were prevented from calling Creel and Sisson in the trial to defend the documents in question, or Raymond Robins to challenge them. The defendants were also cut short by the presiding judge from making an appeal to the jury, Judge Henry D. Clayton decreeing that he would not allow the accused to "make themselves out as martyrs." The convicted anarchists ultimately sat in prison until Oct. 23, 1921, when their sentences were commuted and they were deported to Soviet Russia.

 

"The Soviet Republic," by Santeri Nuorteva [July 1919] This eloquent defense of the Bolshevik revolution by the Secretary of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau was published in the pages of an American academic journal. Nuorteva states that all the Soviet government wants is an end to military intervention and trade relations. An organized blockade had disrupted not only supplies into the country, but information from the country as well, he states, quoting an unnamed Western press correspondent who told Nuorteva that 95 percent of his telegraph dispatches from Soviet Russia had been intentionally delayed or stopped, particularly those mentioning in any way positive aspects of Soviet construction. The Russian revolution was not a simple matter of personalities taking specific actions, Nuorteva states, but rather a massive sociological upheaval based upon the land question and the peasant nature of the Russian army. He declares that "the peasants just took the land. Whether you approve of it or not, it doesn't matter because you can't change it any more than you can change the course of the sun or the moon." Only the Bolsheviks were willing to accept this reality at face value and to conduct a set of sweeping economic changes which were a logical consequence of the collapse of the land ownership and banking system. Russia was not any more chaotic than the rest of Central and Eastern Europe, Nuorteva states -- indeed, rather stable compared to other nations. Further, it was hypocritical of the press to obsess upon the 3,000 or so killed in the Russian Red Terror when 15,000 had been executed and 10,000 systematically starved to death during the same period by the conservatives in Finland and while the anti-Bolshevik White Army of Kolchak took no prisoners and systematically murdered government officials in villages falling under its control. Victory by Kolchak would mean an exponentially more vicious bloodbath than the rather limited violence practiced by the Bolsheviks, Nuorteva indicates.

 

"Decisions of the Second Annual Convention." [August 22, 1922] A formal set of convention theses adopted by the delegates to the August 1922 Second Convention of the unified CPA, held at Wolfskeel Resort outside of Bridgman, Michigan. In addition to the all-important decision to retain the underground form of organization for the CPA, and to continue the underground party's control over the Workers Party of America, the delegates established a new layer of decision-making authority -- a "Party Council" consisting of members of the CEC and District representatives (with voice and vote) and Federation Secretaries (with voice not vote). This group, somewhat akin to the "National Committee" of the Socialist Party of America, was to meet three times a year to direct general party policy, its decisions only valid upon ratification by the CEC. The Party Council was to retain supreme authority in one function, to formally ratify the expulsion decisions of the CEC -- a task akin to that of the short-lived "Board of Appeals" of the SPA. The Bridgman Convention also set the CPA the task of redoubling its effort in the trade union movement, stating that "Every member of the Party must not only be a member of a trade union, but it at all possible must become a leader in these organizations." Work was to be carried out for amalgamation of unions when conditions were ripe, but the formation of a federation of independent unions in opposition to the AF of L was declared to be "harmful." Contradictory action was taken on inner-party factions, "caucuses" and "caucus discipline" being declared on the one hand to be "formally forbidden" and to be "met with disciplinary measures" -- but CEC composition mandated to include both "majority" and "minority" factional representation on the other. Factionalism was thus simultaneously formally banned but recognized and rewarded by the gathering.

 

"The Convention Has Spoken," unsigned lead article from The Communist [circa Sept. 1, 1922] This lead article in the official organ of the unified CPA announces the decision of the 2nd Convention (held in Aug. 1922 at Bridgman, Michigan) on the central question of whether the CPA should remain an underground organization or whether the underground organization should liquidate itself in favor of a fully legal organizational existence. While acknowledging that "the underground form or the open form of a revolutionary party is determined by existing conditions which may vary from time to time and from country to country," the lead article states authoritatively that "under the conditions that exist at the present time and which will exist for some time to come, the Communist Party of America must continue to be an underground party." Despite the continuation of the underground form of organization, the article further indicates that "the struggle of the working class is essentially in all its stages an open struggle," and that thus the organization must maintain its "center of gravity in open work." In addition to this decision on organizational form and emphasis, a new feature of party ideology emerges here, a sort of "iron law of factionalism." The lead article states that "to accomplish its task the Party must apply itself as a unit. Factions, though they may originate in conscientious efforts to serve the cause and the Party, develop inevitably into conspiracies against the Party and its best interests." The article declares that "The secret of success of any Communist Party is its compactness, its centralized machinery, its uniformity of action. Any factional organization inside of the Party makes impossible such uniformity of action and condemns the Party to the existence of a paralytic."

 

"Letter to the Workers Party of America in Chicago from Vasil Kolarov in Moscow, July 12, 1923." This letter from General Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Communist International Kolarov came into the possession of American government representatives and was regularly trotted out as evidence that the American Communist movement followed "orders from Moscow." Kolarov asserts that " the imperialist powers of France, England, and America are making their plans to divide the spoils in Germany and reduce the working class to the position of coolies" and that it is the task of the Workers Party of America to organized the "vast sentiment for Communism" that it has aroused. Kolarov salutes the WPA's attempt to forge both and economic and a political United Front, calling the establishment of the Federated Farmer-Labor Party "an achievement of primary importance" by bringing together "the militant farmers and workers for the attainment of political power against the control of the capitalist parties." He calls for the Communists to make a great effort to unite the 29 state labor parties and farmer-labor parties into one United Front in the 1924 campaign. Kolarov is critical, on the other hand, of the lack of attention of the WPA on anti-imperialist work. "The huge profits from the war and the exploitation of foreign markets have enabled the American bourgeoisie to penetrate deeper into the Latin American countries," he states, noting particularly American aggressiveness in Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, Santo Domingo, Nicaragua, Panama, and Colombia, and the initiation of great loans to various governments in South America. "American imperialism intends to conquer the Western Hemisphere and force the colonies under complete control," Kolarov declares, adding that opposition to this trend "is a problem of vital importance to the American working class. Fearful imperialist wars face the country. The bourgeoisie is making ready. The government is perfecting its military machinery..."

 

"The Menace of Communism," by Hamilton Fish, Jr. [July 1931] Lengthy article by the Chairman and namesake of the first U.S. House of Representatives "Special Committee to Investigate Communist Activities in the United States" (1930-31). Fish unintentionally provides an interesting study of anti-Communist ideology in the early 1930s. Fish vastly, and with clear ulterior motive, overestimates the number of Communists in America at "5 or 600,000" well disciplined adherents who "take their orders from Moscow and are proud of it." (Number apparently generated by taking total circulation of the Communist daily press and multiplying). But this group -- nearly half as large as the total number of Communists in the larger USSR asserted by Fish -- are not to be feared of "having a revolution in the United States at this time" since in the event of such an uprising "the regular army and the National Guard and the American Legion, using a Russian word, could 'liquidate' all the Communists in the United States in a few weeks' time." (Note especially the envisioned role of the American Legion.) Communists are said by Fish to be defined by their acceptance of 6 fundamental principles: (1) the abolition of all forms of religious belief; (2) the abolition of all forms of private property and inheritance; (3) the promotion of the bitterest kind of class hatred; (4) the promotion through the Communist International of strikes, riots, sabotage, and industrial unrest; (5) the promotion of class or civil war in order to obtain their final objective; being (6) "the establishment of a Soviet form of government, the dictatorship of the proletariat, with headquarters in Moscow." (Note especially the position of primacy attributed to the question of religion). Fish states that "The Communist Party is not an American party; it is a section of the Communist International, taking its orders from Moscow" and that its access to the ballot should be arbitrarily denied since its candidates "could not take the oath of office and allegiance to our government." He states that his committee found that "70 percent of the Communist in the United States were aliens, that 20 percent were naturalized citizens, and that only 10 percent were American-born citizens, whether they were white or black" and he rails that "We have tolerated their insults too long, and if they will not cease this propaganda or go home of their own accord, I can assure you that the next session of Congress will enact legislation to see that all alien Communists are deported to their native lands." (The method by which deportations were to be made to one particular country whom the United States did not diplomatically recognize is not mentioned.) Racial fear is another fundamental aspect of Fish's anti-Communist ideology, noting "Whenever there is a Communist meeting, the white and the colored people assemble together and dance together. The Communists mean just what they say, so their propaganda has some little appeal. Colored men and women are going to Moscow all the time to be trained in the revolutionary schools." Fish states that he had "personally seen order after order from Moscow to the Communists in this country, demanding that an intense campaign be conducted among the Negroes, both North and South, in order to turn them against the government," attributing the lack of success to the churchgoing nature of American blacks. "The Communists cannot understand why the Negroes have not succumbed to their propaganda of social equality, or intermarriage and racial equality, and so on." Fish's view of the American left wing movement is almost comically undifferentiated, lumping together "Communists and Socialists and pink intellectuals" and the American Civil Liberties Union, and stating that "the Communists and the Socialists are joining hands" -- an altogether unique view of political reality during the Third Period.

 

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