"Mitä Amerikan Suomalainen
Sosialitijärjestö Enimmin Tarvitsee Juuri Nyt?"
("What Does the American Finnish Federation Most Badly Need
at this Moment?") by Yrjö Sirola -- IN FINNISH [Feb.
24, 1914] Non-machine
readable pdf from Säkeniä ("Sparks")
, the Finnish language theoretical-literary monthly published
by Raivaaja Publishing Co. of Fitchburg, MA, and edited by Santeri
Nuorteva. Discussion by a leading Finnish radical leader of the
factional situation in the Finnish Socialist Federation of the
Socialist Party of America. Sirola discusses the good and bad
sides of capitalist industry and touches upon the question of
syndicalism which was then dividing the Finnish Federation. Sirola
at this time had returned to Finland, where in 1918 he would
play a leading role in the short-lived Red Finnish government.
In 1925, Sirola would return to the United States as a Communist
International "Rep." IF ANYONE WOULD BE WILLING TRANSLATE
THIS ARTICLE INTO ENGLISH, PLEASE GET IN TOUCH. -- thanks! Tim,
MutantPop@aol.com
"The Story of the Egg,"
by Morris Hillquit [Nov. 28, 1919] A Socialist parable from the New York SPA leader,
provided to illustrate that "A country can be educated,
led, and transformed into Socialism, but it cannot be driven,
lured, or bulldozed into it. The Socialist conception of the
world process is evolutionary, not cataclysmic. Socialism has
come to build, not to destroy." Hillquit likens the development
of one mode of production inside of the previous epoch to the
development of an embryo within a chicken egg, gradually transforming
itself from one form to another. "As soon as the latter
develops sufficient strength and sense, it just cracks the old
shell from the inside. The shell breaks into a number of fragments
with great noise, the rebellious chick jumps out, and to the
superficial observer this act appears to be the revolution which
has converted the egg into the chicken. As a matter of fact,
however, the actual revolution has taken place in the gradual
growth of the chicken embryo at the expense of the egg substance,"
Hillquit writes. Socialist propaganda is like the hen, developing
the egg into its subsequent form. "Should the hen become
impatient or get into her feathery head a syndicalist notion
to 'hasten the process,' and should she attempt to break the
shell before the time, she would only destroy the embryonic life
of the chicken," Hillquit warns, concluding that "No
system of society can be transformed into a Socialist commonwealth
unless it has in it the germs of a social order, and on the other
hand, no system of society will grow into a Socialist state unless
planfully directed to it."
"The Issue is 'Americanism
vs. Bolshevism,'" (probably) by Oscar Ameringer [Dec. 6,
1919] Front page
piece of campaign agitational literature from the Milwaukee
Leader answering the conservatives' attempt to smear Socialist
Congressional candidate Victor Berger with the taint of Russian
Bolshevism. Rather than flinching, the writer -- probably Oscar
Ameringer, but possibly Berger himself -- returns the rhetoric
in kind, revealing the so-called "Americanism" of the
so-called "100% Patriots" to be a fraud. The words
of the Declaration of Independence are cited and real "Americanism"
defined as "democratic government by the consent of the
governed." This is contrasted with the anti-democratic,
anti-libertarian, racist actions of the anti-radical Right: "Jingoism
is not Americanism. Race hatred is not Americanism. Mobbing foreigners
is not Americanism. Lynching opponents is not Americanism. Obeying
blindly the brutal Wilson-Palmer-Burleson combination is not
Americanism. Declaring our form of government is perfect is not
Americanism. Foaming at the mouth about Bolsheviki and IWW is
not Americanism.Painting churches and homes yellow is not Americanism.
Breaking up peaceful assemblies by mobs of ex-soldier boys is
not Americanism. Destroying the freedom of expression by packed
juries is not Americanism." The denial of Victor Berger
his rightfully won seat in Congress by the alliance of Republicans
and Democrats is deemed "a flagrant violation of fundamental
Americanism," and such subversions of the democratic process
is presented as dangerous and conducive to the development of
a culture of revolutionary violence. The writer argues: "There
are but two ways for the forces of evolution -- expansion or
explosion. All history is but the recounting of the struggle
of the new against the old. And always the new cried for light,
for air, for room to grow. And always the old, in tottering self-conceit,
denied the new a place in the sun, until the youthful giant burst
his bonds and killed his parents. Must we, too, refuse the guiding
light of history and tread the path that leadeth to destruction?"
"Berger Vote Soars; Leads
by 4,722: Socialist Gets 14,004 Ballots While Harmony Man Gets
9,282: Bolo Bodenstab Proves to be Weak Candidate: Fusionists
Fight." [Dec. 9, 1919] On Monday, Dec. 8, 1919, voters of the 5th Congressional
District in Wisconsin went to the polls in a primary election
to name the candidates for a Dec. 19 general to fill the open
seat of Victor L. Berger. Berger had been denied his seat in
Congress won in the fall 1918 election by the combined action
of the Republicans and Democrats. To increase their chances of
stopping Berger's re-election to the vacant seat on the basis
of a plurality, the Republican and Democratic County Committees
met and agreed upon a united "fusion" candidate, running
on the Republican ticket, Henry H. Bodenstab. Voters of the Wisconsin
5th resoundingly rejected the anti-democratic shenanigans of
Congress by rewarding Berger with 14,004 votes of the 23,286
cast and he headed for the general election in a position of
strength.
"Wake Up, Americans!"
by William F. Kruse [Dec. 10, 1919] Agitational article from the pages of the Milwaukee
Leader attempting to build public support for the cause of
Kate Richards O'Hare, Bill Haywood and other imprisoned members
of the IWW, conscientious objectors imprisoned during the war,
and Eugene V. Debs and other members of the Socialist Party subjected
to state suppression by the Wilson regime and its allies. Kruse
indicates that there are nearly 1500 of such "political
prisoners in a political democracy," almost all of whom
were convicted not of any crime against person or property, but
rather of various forms of criminalize speech or thought. "Wake
up, Americans! Your institutions are in danger. Political freedom
is being destroyed by those who at any cost, even to the destruction
of the republic and its civil liberties, would maintain themselves
in political and economic power. As long as any man or woman
can be imprisoned for "unorthodox" political opinions,
you yourselves are not safe -- your turn may come next,"
Kruse warns. He urges the mass writing of letters to President
Wilson, Congress, newspapers, unions, churches, and clubs. "Nowhere
else in the world, save in reactionary Japan, is there such vindictive
and relentless punishment of political offenders. Shall we travel
in this company?" Kruse asks.
"People's Rule Upheld in
Berger Victory: District Returns Socialist to Seat Congress Refused:
Big Business routed by 4,806 Votes, as Balloting Shows Gain of
6,548 for Socialist Party: Genuine Americanism Wins Decisive
Victory." [Dec. 20, 1919] Election results of the Dec. 19, 1919 general
election for the Wisconsin 5th Congressional District -- a seat
vacated when Democrats and Republicans in Congress colluded to
deny Socialist Victor Berger the seat to which he had been elected
in 1918. Voters resoundingly re-elected Berger to the same position,
as Berger defeated Republican-Democratic "fusion" candidate
Henry H. Bodenstab by over 4800 votes out of 43,928 cast. The
total vote in this special election exceeded that of the 1918
General Election -- a remarkable fact illustrating the great
interest generated by the race. Previously elected by a plurality
against divided capitalist opponents, Berger won the rematch
handily in a head-to-head match up against one challenger. "The
landslide majority accorded Berger indicates the voters disapproved
the action of Congress in barring him from the seat to which
he was elected in the regular election in November 1918, and
admire the courageous fight he waged in the interest of representative
government and fair play," the Leader report indicates.
"Landis, Who Denied Prejudice,
Would Have V.L. Berger Shot." [Dec. 30, 1919] On Dec. 29, 1919, the slightly
unhinged Federal Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis spoke before
the Advertising Men's Post of the proto-fascist American Legion
in Chicago. During the course of his remarks, he was quoted as
complaining: "It was my great displeasure to give [Socialist
Congressman Victor] Berger 20 years in Ft. Leavenworth. I regretted
it exceedingly because I believe the laws of this country should
have enabled me to have Berger lined up against a wall and shot.
The district that voted to re-elect Berger ought to get out of
this democracy and back in their monarchy. Berger's platform
was that he was 100% German and on that basis he was re-elected.
Watch the vote in Congress for his reinstatement and let those
fellows who uphold him know how we feel about it." In related
news, Joe Jackson hit .351 for the Chicago White Sox in 1919,
going 181 for 516 over 139 games -- 5th in the Junior Circuit.
His 7 home runs tied him for 8th in the AL, led by Boston Red
Sox star Babe Ruth, with 29. Jackson also drew 60 walks, which
computes to an On Base Percentage of .418.
"Mob Law and Civil Rights.
Statement of the National Executive Committee of the Socialist
Party of America." [Published Dec. 30, 1919] There were two new social systems
to emerge from the carnage of World War I -- Bolshevism and Fascism.
There were two primary American manifestations of proto-fascism
in the immediate post-war years -- (1) the resurgent Ku Klux
Klan, which grew dramatically throughout the first half of the
1920s and fueled a culture of lynch law and race war; and (2)
the American Legion, which conducted episodes of organized violence
against perceived enemies of the state, primarily political radicals
and trade unionists. This resolution of the Socialist Party's
governing NEC condemns the latter of these two threats to American
democracy. "Mayors and police officials have accepted orders
from the American Legion; they have revoked their own orders
at its command; they have made the constitution a 'scrap of paper,'
and allowed the American Legion to serve as an upper chamber
with veto power over city and state executives," the resolution
states, noting 7 specific instances in which American Legion
thugs broke up lawful meetings. The de facto rule of the American
Legion Posts "has created a privileged mob in the American
Legion, whose will is made superior to constitutions and statutes.
It is practically given a mandate over the opinions of all citizens
with the power to revoke permits for public meetings under the
threat of using violence if its will is not obeyed. Scores of
communities have been terrorized and in some cases bloodshed
has only been averted by organizations temporarily abandoning
their meetings." The resolution asserts that "Without
free discussion of all social, economic, and political questions
no peaceable solution can be found, while it is certain that
the intelligent thinking masses will not submit to a dictatorship
of businessmen, bankers, corporation lawyers, and capitalists."
"Workers' News Service, Backed
by Labor Only, Launched Here." [Jan. 3, 1920] Very useful unsigned news article
from the Milwaukee Leader detailing the launch of the
Federated Press, a press service serving cooperating members
of the trade union and radical working class press. The Federation
Press was conceived of at the National Convention of the Labor
Party, held in Chicago, Nov. 15, 1919. The Federated Press was
formed through merger with an existing service -- the International
Labor News Service (ILNS), of New York City. Louis P. Lochner
of ILNS stayed on with the new organization as Business Manager,
while E.J. Costello of the Milwaukee Leader served as
Managing Editor and executive head of Federated Press. The central
office was established in Milwaukee. The Federated Press was
governed by an Executive Board of cooperating subscribers, headed
by Robert M. Buck of The New Majority, official organ of the
Chicago Federation of Labor and the new Labor Party. Respected
representatives of other labor papers, including E.B. Ault of
the Seattle Union Record and Joseph Schlossberg of The
Advance, organ of the Amalgamated Garment Workers Union,
filled out the governing body. The Federated Press was to be
financed through the sale of $100,000 worth of 5 year, 6% bonds,
to which unions and individuals were encouraged to subscribe.
First day of operation of the Federated Press was Jan. 3, 1920.
Included in this article is the full text of an initial press
release from the Federated Press, including the statement that
"The Federated Press is not a propaganda organization. Its
function is strictly that of reporting the truth concerning happenings
of interest to the workers of America and Canada. All "spot
news" and news correspondence will be handled without bias
for or against the various groups associating themselves in this
enterprise."
"NY Call in Conspiracy
Against Russia; Also in War on American Communists; NY Socialists
Hold Underground Meeting," by H.M. Wicks [April 21, 1923]
**REPOST** CHANGE
OF ATTRIBUTION, FROM ENGDAHL TO WICKS BASED ON STYLE** During the winter of 1922-23
and the spring of 1923, the Workers Party and the Socialist Party
simultaneously engaged in an escalation of rhetoric, making permanent
a rift in the ranks of the American Left that would last for
decades. Aspects of this "Divided Front" included the
ongoing effort of the Socialist Party to exclude and isolate
the Workers Party from the Conference for Progressive Political
Action (Dec. 11-12, 1922) and from the American Labor Party (March
3-4, 1923) and a covert operation of the WPA to infiltrate its
members in the SPA down to the branch level (per March 17, 1923
memo by Ruthenberg). As was the case during the 1919 Socialist
Party internal war, the SP daily New York Call was dragged
from a position of relative neutrality in the internecine scuffle
into the position of being an instrument of factional warfare
on behalf of the SP Regulars. This article from the WPA weekly
organ, The Worker, reports (on the basis of unnamed sources
providing "absolutely trustworthy and authentic information")
a "secret meeting" held on the evening of Thursday,
March 23, 1923. At this meeting, said to include representatives
of the Call Managing Board, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers,
the Jewish Daily Forward, and the Rand School -- Call
Editor David Karsner was said to have been subjected to serious
criticism for pulling punches in the factional war and for soft-pedaling
defects in the political practice of Soviet Russia. A resolution
was unanimously adopted, according to the Worker exposé,
which launched a systematic attack on the Communists and their
efforts at "boring from within" in the labor movement,
and directing Karsner to ignore Soviet Russia as much as possible.
The Worker article cites New York Call content
from the issues of April 3, 4, 6, and 7, indicating that this
direction to Editor Karsner was put into practice. The Call
was thus engaged in a "campaign of slander against the
Communists and the Russian Revolution" and was further taking
positions at odds with those of SP leader Gene Debs, who supported
the Russian Revolution, the constitutional rights of the Michigan
trial defendants, and the work of the Trade Union Educational
League, the Worker article charged.
"An Open Letter to David
Karsner," by J. Louis Engdahl [April 21, 1923] Engdahl, a former leading editor
of the official publications of the Socialist Party (now editor
of the Workers Party's English weekly), writes this open letter
to David Karsner, managing editor of the New York Call,
making an effective personal appeal to Karsner's philosophy of
intellectual liberty on behalf of the Workmen's Circle Mandolin
Orchestra and Jewish comedian Ludwig Salz, both threatened with
repressive measures if they performed at organized gatherings
on behalf of the Workers Party or its institutions. Engdahl intimates
that The Call, financially supported by the vociferously
anti-Communist Jewish Daily Forward and the anti-Communist
leadership of the Workmen's Circle, was complicit in the heavy-handed
efforts to deprive these Jewish artists of their freedom of action,
impinging upon the development of working class culture. "I
was just wondering how you felt in the atmosphere created by
those who fear for the existence of their own little dictatorship
so much that they must needs resort to such diabolical suppression,"
Engdahl asks of Karsner.
"Party United Front Policy
is Approved," by C.E. Ruthenberg [WPA Executive Council
actions of May 7-8, 1923] Published
summary of the actions of the 11 member Executive Council at
its May 7-8 meeting. The Executive Council was a smaller group
elected by the unwieldy 25 member CEC to conduct the business
of the CEC between its plenary meetings. Ruthenberg indicates
that the body decided the following: (1) to approve the United
Front policy and instruct the Political Committee to launch an
educational program on the limits of this policy; (2) to instruct
the Organization Committee to work out a plan for party reorganization
with more and smaller districts, and new units based in the workplace;
(3) favoring the moving of WPA headquarters to Chicago, when
practicable; (4) to accept the resignation of M.J. Olgin as editor
of the Freiheit, and replacing him in that position with
Benjamin Gitlow. The question of merging the two English language
weeklies, The Worker (New York) and The Voice of Labor
(Chicago) was also discussed, with this decision to be linked
to plans for an English language daily. Final decision was delayed
on this matter as was fundraising for a daily, due to demands
on party funds to cover legal expenses.
"Problems of the Party (III):
My Party, Right or Wrong, My Party," by John Pepper [May
19, 1923] In this
third part of his "Problems of the Party" series, John
Pepper takes aim at a tendency toward interest-group patriotism
among many members of the Workers Party, instead of "Party
Patriotism." No monolithic and blindly-obedient party here
-- Pepper states that "It happens very often that Communists
who work in a trade union or in a benefit society consider the
special group interest of that particular organization as more
important than the interests of their party.... These Communists
who develop an AF of L patriotism are just as much in the wrong
as those who have an independent union patriotism. Likewise,
those who have become Benefit Society patriots are just as much
in the wrong as those who have become Technical Aid patriots.
They do not understand that the task of a Communist is not to
be one-sided in upholding the interests of one group of workers,
but that he must represent the common interests of the working
class as a whole." Pepper indicates that the failure of
such party members to "identify themselves 100 percent with
the party" is "the chief hindrance to the strengthening
of the Workers Party." Divided among 16 Language Federations
and 1200 groups, "it is impossible that every member in
such a party should possess the same uniform attitude on every
question at all times," Pepper states. However, he continues,
party members "must develop just as much patriotism towards
their party as capitalists develop patriotism towards their country"
by adapting the slogan of the capitalists of "My Country,
Right or Wrong, My Country" to their own purposes. "Every
militant Communist should write on his shield: 'My Party, right
or wrong, my Party!'" Pepper insists.
"Problems of the Party (IV):
Be American!" by John Pepper [May 26, 1923] In the 4th installment of his
"Problems of the Party" series, party leader John Pepper
analyzes the continued division of the Workers Party of America
into a multiplicity of Language Federations, noting that not
only the spoken language varies from group to group, "but
often the ideology." He notes that "Our Russian comrades
have a different historical tradition from the Italians, the
Germans from the Poles. The workers belonging to various nationalities
are still very deeply rooted in the social and political conditions
of their old countries." Main issues of concern differed
from group to group, as did their practical activity: "Our
Italian comrades arrange a collection for the persecuted Communists
of Italy, our German comrades send relief for the hungry children
of German Communists. Our Hungarian comrades put forth great
efforts to collect money for political prisoners suffering in
Horthy's prisons. Our Polish comrades have made a collection
for the support of the Communist election campaign in Poland.
Our Ukrainian comrades collect money for the support of the Ukrainian
publishing activities in Europe. Our Russian comrades are of
course with heart and soul interested in relief of Soviet Russia.
Our Jewish comrades collect money for needy Jewish workers in
the Ukraine." Very often non-citizens and alienated from
American political life, the Federations tended to retreat into
their own "Ghettos," Pepper states. Political education
and political activity had to be directed towards bringing the
foreign-born majority of the WPA membership into the real American
political struggle. To this end, Pepper puts forward the slogan
"Be American!" -- a slogan which he says "means
to struggle against the whole capitalist class of America; it
means the hardest struggle against 100 percent nationalism of
the jingoes. Be American means for the militant Communist to
present the claim for the workers' rule of America."
"What Heinous Crime is This?"
by H.M. Wicks [May 26, 1923] The spring 1923 attempt of the Workers Party of
America to convince the Proletarian Party of America to discontinue
its separate existence and to amalgamate was decisively rejected
by the National Executive Committee of the PPA. The NEC went
on the offensive, instructing PPA members to discontinue support
of and participation in the Trade Union Educational League and
insisting that it, the PPA, remained the sole legitimate vehicle
of American Communism. Former PPA member Harry Wicks was called
upon to return the salvo in kind, which he did with this article
from the pages of The Worker. Wicks pulls no punches,
calling his former comrades on the PPA's NEC "boastful hypercritical
super-Marxists (?)" who were tending towards the swamp of
Centrism through their over reliance on rank and file spontaneity
in lieu of vanguard leadership. Wicks ironically remarks that
"The Proletarian Party favors independent political action
of labor, but that action must be confined to the Proletarian
Party and does not embrace a Labor Party. However, it will favor
a Labor Party 'if brought on by the rank and file.' What sort
of leadership is this? Here are those who pretend to be a part
of the vanguard of the proletariat waiting for the rank and file
to act, then they, as gallant leaders, will follow." The
Proletarian Party leadership dismisses the program of the Workers
Party as a "fig leaf to cover old Centrist Leaders,"
Wicks notes, but in actual fact, the PPA's belief that a Labor
Party was impossible without its development through the spontaneous
action of rank and file workers was "as ridiculous as the
opposite position held by J.B. Salutsky and his Centrist group,"
who asserted that a Labor Party is impossible due to resistance
of Samuel Gompers and the AF of L machine. These were two sides
of the same coin, in Wicks' opinion. "In the present case
it is clear that the objective conditions for such a Labor Party
are here, and evidence is accumulating every day that the subjective
condition, viz., a strong demand for such a party from the
rank and file of labor, also exists," Wicks asserts.
"A Radical Irish Magazine,"
by T.J. O'Flaherty [June 2, 1923] Announcement by Workers Party of America journalist
Thomas J. O'Flaherty of The Irish People, a new WPA-related monthly
magazine directed to the task of radicalizing the Irish workers
in America. O'Flaherty briefly outlines the history of the socialist
Irish press in America, beginning with James Connolly's paper
The Harp (1908); Big Jim Larkin's short-lived 1918 paper,
The Irish Worker; and running through the first incarnation
of The Irish People, published by the Irish American League
and edited by O'Flaherty for 6 months in 1921. This new monthly
version of The Irish People was intended to "tell
the Irish workers in America some things they are not told by
their bourgeois, superstitious press," O'Flaherty declares.
Business manager of the publication was M.J. Scanlan of the Amalgamated
Street Carmen's Association, and included among the contributing
editors was William F. Dunne.
"Socialist Party National
Convention Delegates Remain Silent in Face of Attack on Soviet
Russia: Cahan Rages in Attack on Soviet Rule," by H.M Wicks
[June 2, 1923] First-hand
account of the Socialist Party's 11th National Convention (May
1923) written by The Worker's journalistic attack dog,
Harry Wicks. Wicks sinks his teeth into the convention keynote
speech of "notorious Bolshevik baiter and editor of the
Jewish (Socialist) Daily Forward" Abraham Cahan --
a "tirade that was so acrimonious, intemperate, and obviously
false that the majority of the delegates were stunned."
Wicks quotes Cahan as calling Trotsky a "bombastic windbag,"
Lenin a "muddlehead fanatic," Radek a dishonest and
shady adventurer, Bukharin a "simple-minded fellow -- a
mere baby in intelligence," and Zinoviev a "rotten
egg" responsible for mass murder with a Swiss bank account
at his disposal. He repeats accusations in the capitalist press
that the Soviet government had made available a "$13 million
fund sent out...to corrupt the world." Wicks quotes Cahan
as saying of the Communists in America that "we must always
fight them. Never show them any favors, but knock them in the
head." Wicks intriguingly adds (without providing any specifics)
that "This advice seems to have been followed by the yellow
leaders of some of the needle trades unions, who employ sluggers
and gangsters against the 'Left' opposition in their own unions."
Only 6 of those present applauded Cahan's ill-tempered remarks
upon their conclusion, Wicks notes. Wicks also details the Socialist
Party's inability to pass any meaningful resolution on the question
of International affiliation, sending the question back to committee
from whence a carefully drafting and vapid resolution completely
avoiding the controversial topic of alliance with the advocates
of "Social Peace" issued forth.
"Socialist Party Convention
Rejects the United Front," by John Pepper [June 2, 1923]
Workers Party
of America leader John Pepper comments upon the recently-concluded
1923 Convention of the Socialist Party of America, which he characterizes
as a "debacle without equal" and a "pitiful spectacle."
Pepper declares that the SPA, devoid of ideas and of leadership,
had produced a gathering so vacuous that "the emptiest convention
of the smallest trade union is more instructive and richer in
content than this so-called National Convention of a so-called
political workers' party." Pepper adds that "It may
sound paradoxical, but it is true nonetheless, that in spite
of its opportunism, the Socialist Party is nothing but a sect.
We are accustomed to consider opportunism and reformism as maladies
of mass parties. But the Socialist Party is a freak -- an opportunist
sect." Pepper upbraids the SP for refusing to join the WPA
in a United Front on common matters of interest to the working
class. He notes that the accusation that the WPA is directed
by Russians is preposterous coming from a party dominated by
emigre Jews from the Russian Empire, such as Hillquit, Cahan,
London, Shiplacoff, and Panken. Pepper asserts that the SPA's
claim to American origins is false, with its own statistics proving
that "almost half of it consists of Foreign Language Federations,
and when we examine more closely the so-called English-speaking
elements in the SP, we see that even these are mainly foreign-born,
principally Jewish elements." Pepper declares that "The
Socialist Party rejects the United Front with the Workers Party
because it has degraded itself to an accomplice of the agents
of the capitalists," allying itself with Gompers and the
lower middle class reformers of the CPPA against the interests
of the working class in establishing an independent Labor Party.
"In obstructing the United Front the Socialist Party becomes
an agent of the capitalists," Pepper asserts. Pepper also
accuses SP leader James Oneal of falsifying quotations of Communist
documents in order to subvert any movement towards a United Front.
"Debs - Chairman of the Socialist
Party," by John Pepper [June 9, 1923] This is perhaps as interesting for the presumptions
which Workers Party leader John Pepper makes about the rival
Socialist Party of America than for its concrete analysis. Veteran
Left Socialist Eugene V. Debs has been elected to the National
Executive Committee of the SPA for the first time since 1899,
Pepper announces, and further elected National Chairman of the
organization. As the titular leader, Debs now faced a "dilemma"
of whether to continue to support the policies he had long advocated,
including Amalgamation, support of Soviet Russia, and support
of the United Front with the WPA -- or whether he would cave
in to support the "petty Tammany Hall" regime of "Hillquit
and Berger" which stood as official party policy. "If
he fights for his own political views, he must fight against
the petty Tammany Hall of Hillquit and Berger. But the destruction
of the petty Tammany Hall of the Socialist Party officialdom
means the death of the Socialist Party. And yet, if Debs chooses
the other way, and accepts the policy of the petty Tammany Hall
of Hillquit and Berger, the laboring masses who have confidence
in him today will quickly abandon him. That also means the death
of the Socialist Party in another way." Includes extensive
footnotes by Tim Davenport examining various dubious assertions
about SPA ideology made by Pepper in this article, which seems
to have been essentially agitational rather than truly analytical.
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