"Finn Federation Report Pledges Aid for Party: Reorganized Socialist Division now has 3,300 Members with 66 Locals in 14 States...: Convention Decides Central Office Will Be Moved from Chicago to Fitchburg, Mass."(NY Call) [events of Aug. 13-15, 1921] This unsigned news report in the Socialist Party's New York Call announces the results of an August 1921 convention reorganizing the Finnish Socialist Federation, which had declared its independence from the SPA at the end of 1920 and slowly moved towards the Communist orbit. The reorganization convention had been attended by 12 delegates, each representing approximately 300 members of the Finnish Federation. The reorganized Finnish Socialist Federation included 66 locals in 14 states, predominantly in New England and elsewhere in the East. New organizational rules for the reorganized Finnish Socialist Federation were adopted and headquarters for the group were moved from Chicago to Fitchburg, MA -- location of the federation's daily newspaper, Raivaaja. The unknown Finnish-American writer optimistically notes: "Our Federation is now smaller than it has been for many years. But the days of dissension and dissolution are past. The agitated and chaotic state of the European Socialist movement, which has reacted upon our movement here, is slowly subsiding. The progress of events demonstrated that the new revolutionary theories, built by the Russian Communists upon the moment's expediency, are false. The workers, and especially the Socialists, received an object lesson in Marxian theory that there is no shortcut to Socialism. And this lesson will be of immense value for the Socialist movement in the future. It will save it from destructive emotionalism."

"Socialist Vote Will Have Worldwide Effect: Speech at the Lexington Theater, New York City," by Morris Hillquit [Sept. 25, 1921] Text of a speech by Socialist Party leader Morris Hillquit kicking off the party's 1921 electoral campaign. Hillquit characterizes the New York City mayoral campaign as a meaningless choice of evils between a "self-confessed 'friend of the people'" and "the avowed candidate of the vested interests." Neither will solve the fundamental problems faced by the city's working class. Hillquit argues that the 1921 election does have an important aspect, however -- "The election separates and groups the voters of the whole city into distinct camps or parties, which voice their political views, aims, and aspirations. The vote cast on election day is a faithful mirror of the mental and moral caliber of the electorate.... The only manifestation of an awakening working class intelligence, the only ray of hope that the election may offer, will be in the votes cast for the Socialist Party." A crisis is approaching, in Hillquit's view, wherein "the delicate industrial machine of capitalism is cracking, and the shortsighted capitalist master machinists are making frantic efforts to repair it with sledgehammers." However, the union-busting efforts of the capitalist class will be thwarted, Hillquit believes: "There will be no return to capitalist normalcy. There is nothing but war and strife ahead of mankind unless the entire discord-breeding machine of capitalism is scrapped, and the workers of the world take hold of the governments and industries and run them rationally and peacefully for the equal benefit and happiness of all people and all peoples." Hillquit also makes a plea for Russian famine relief, under the slogan "Give till it hurts."

 

"Socialist Party Declared Dead: Ex-Members Dine, Chant Requiem for Organization in Various Keys." (NY Call) [event of Oct. 8, 1921] This short news report in the New York Call notes the formation of the Workers Council organization by anti-Socialist Party members of the Jewish Socialist Federation and the newly departed SP Left Wingers of the Committee for the Third International. This article chronicles a dinner held in New York City and addressed by J.L. Engdahl, Benjamin Glassberg, J.B. Salutsky, Rose Weiss, Alexander Trachtenberg, L. DeGregoria, Isadore Cohen, and Ludwig P. Lore. The purge of Communists at the Rand School of Social Science seems to have been a contributing factor to the formation of the Workers Council organization, with both Glassberg and Trachtenberg alluding to the event, the latter of whom said: "I have tried to continue on in the Socialist Party. A few weeks ago I found that it was impossible to stay in. Now is the time to build up a class-conscious, revolutionary party that will stay our in the open." Keynote speaker was Lore, who told the attendees ""We need the Communist Party. We need frank discussion and education for the masses. This is the movement which will give us what we want and need."

 

"Where We Stand," by Charles W. Ervin [Oct. 13, 1921] This statement by managing editor of the Socialist Party's New York Call, Charles Ervin, contrasts the ideology of the SPA with that of the Communist movement. Ervin neatly summarizes the Social Democratic ideology: "From the very first this paper not only adhered to the Socialist movement of the world at large, but it was one of the organs of the Socialist Party of America. It believed then, as it believes now, in the immense value of political education. It does not go into a political campaign merely for the sake of bringing its ideas to the people. It believes in striving for political power to use it in securing industrial control. It believes, and always has believed, in the great importance of immediate demands. If it did not, it certainly would not support the battle of the labor unions as it does. It believes that every advantage, no matter how slight, that is wrested from the capitalist class puts the workers in a position where they will be able to secure still further advantages until they become sufficiently organized to stretch out and grasp all the good things of life. This paper does not believe that things have to get worse before they get better. It does not believe that when men and women rise to a higher standard of life they become so contented that they cease to strive to reach toward higher things. On the contrary, it strives for and welcomes every improvement in the human mind and body, every improvement in physical environment, every step toward a higher spiritual development that mankind succeeds in making."

 

 

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