JANUARY
"Now For the Next Step,"
by C.E. Ruthenberg. [Jan. 1919] Text
of a direct mail piece sent out to subscribers of the Socialist
News [Cleveland] by Local Cuyahoga County, Socialist Party
over the signature of Sec. C.E. Ruthenberg. Ruthenberg seeks
to bolster the subscription roll of the newspaper in order to
fund its expansion. The capitalist press was poisoning the minds
of the workers, both with regard to the Russian Revolution and
as to the nature of the American workers' movement itself, Ruthenberg
states. "There will never be any hope for us unless we can
build up newspapers pledged to the interests of the workers which
will present the truth about the workers' cause and offset the
lies of the capitalist press."
"The Situation in Ohio,"
by Eugene V. Debs. [Jan. 8, 1919] This
article was written for The Ohio Socialist by Gene Debs, essentially
the Socialist orator's hometown newspaper during from the tail
end of 1918 into early 1919 during the legal persecution of Debs
for his Canton speech. Prohibited from public speaking outside
of the court's jurisdiction, Debs concentrated his efforts on
rousing the Ohio Socialist movement. Debs portrayed the situation
in the heavily industrialized state of Ohio as "extremely
favorable" and noted that he was in the process of speaking
to a series of large and enthusiastic crowds. " Let me ...
bid you take advantage of the present favorable situation and
combine all your energies to organize thoroughly the class-conscious
forces of labor for the mighty task which now confronts it,"
Debs urged. Debs also noted the release from prison of leading
Ohio Socialists Charles Baker, C.E. Ruthenberg, and Alfred Wagenknecht,
"These comrades have been consecrated behind prison bars
and will now rise to their full stature in the service of the
revolutionary movement," Debs prophetically noted.
"International Socialist
Delegates," by Louis C. Fraina [Jan. 11, 1919] This editorial by Louis Fraina
in The Revolutionary Age sharply criticizes the National
Executive Committee of the Socialist Party for arbitrarily appointing
Algernon Lee, James Oneal, and John M. Work as delegation to
a forthcoming international convention called by Camille Huysmans,
while it was Morris Hillquit, Victor Berger, and Lee who had
been elected delegates to an altogether different international
gathering by party referendum a year previously. "The constitution
of the Socialist Party provides for the election of delegates
to International Socialist Conventions, it provides several ways
in which they may be elected, but it does not provide that the
National Executive Committee shall appoint delegates. The appointment
of the present men in contrary to the constitution, it is arbitrary
and it is illegal," Fraina charges. He notes that the NEC
had been previously approached by various units of the party
to call an Emergency National Convention in order to give the
membership an opportunity of "expressing their will on all
the matters arising out of the present crisis through which the
world is passing," including the question of international
affiliation and the selection of international delegates.
"Summary Results of Voting
for Candidates to Membership in the Executive Committee and for
Secretary of the Russian Socialist Federation." [Jan. 15,
1919] Extract
of an interesting (albeit highly esoteric) document seized by
the Bureau of Investigation during the Palmer Raids of Jan. 1920
-- the tally sheet for the Russian Socialist Federation's election
which closed Jan. 15, 1919. Candidates were nominated by the
4th Convention of the RSF (Sept. 28-Oct. 2, 1918) and the EC
was elected by referendum vote of the rank and file. The race
to replace Detroit resident V. Rich as Secretary of the RSF was
not close, with Oscar Tyverovsky netting 627 votes to a combined
624 for his two opponents. The two top vote-getters in the contest
for the 14 CEC slots were individuals whose names have not thus
far been remembered by history -- Babich and Bogopolsky; Communist
Party of America founder, New York DO, and Central Caucus chief
George Ashkenuzi finished a respectable 3rd on the 24 name list.
Two big names are missing: Russian Socialist Federation Translator-Secretary
Alexander Stoklitsky was elected by the 4th Convention itself,
as was Nicholas Hourwich (Nikolai Gurvich), elected editor of
the Federation's organ, Novyi Mir. [Note finally that
ASHKENUZI is the correct Library of Congress transliteration
of that particular surname, as opposed to the 6 or so various
other ways that the name has been spelled in the literature;
ditto TYVEROVSKY, using terminal -Y instead of terminal -II.]
"The Necessity of an Emergency
Convention," by Louis C. Fraina [Jan. 18, 1919] Left Wing theoretician Louis Fraina
argues that during the recently complete world war, "contradictory
elements" had been forced to make alliances; now that the
war was over, "the real alignment of the conflicting forces
of the world" began to emerge, the struggle between capitalism
and socialism. In the revolutionary movements of Russia and Germany,
the struggle between socialism and capitalism, had actually taken
the form of a "fight between Socialists and Socialists,"
Fraina states -- with the same group of Majority Socialists that
had rallied to their national flags during the world war continuing
to lend every assistance to the bourgeoisie in the repression
of these new revolutionary movements. The socialist movement
was thus split into two camps -- on the one hand, the movement
headed by Camille Huysmans, who had recently issued a call for
a Congress in Europe, to which the Socialist Party's NEC had
named delegates; on the other hand, the Third International called
for by the Bolsheviks in Russia, the Spartacus Group in Germany,
and their allies. "Socialists are fighting and dying in
Europe that Socialism may triumph, mankind is trembling on the
brink of worldwide Social Revolution. The action which the American
movement takes now will commit it to the policy of Socialism
or the policy of counterrevolution," Fraina declares. He
states that "on such a momentous matter it is vitally necessary
that the whole American Socialist movement decides on what policy
to pursue and the only effective method of so deciding is the
convocation of an Emergency National Convention." He calls
for the NEC of the Socialist Party of America to immediately
call such a convention and to recall its delegates to the Huysmans-called
European Socialist Congress.
"A New Appeal," by John
Reed [January 18, 1919] Substantial
essay by famed journalist John Reed about the state of the Socialist
Party and the task of the revolutionary socialist movement in
America. Reed sees a dichotomy in the ranks of the SPA -- "American"
members of the petty bourgeoisie and intellectuals and "Foreign-born"
workers and intellectuals. He states that due to its vast size
and seemingly limitless resources and fluidity of social boundaries
"the American worker has always believed, consciously or
unconsciously, that he can become a millionaire or an eminent
statesman," no matter how far detached from reality is this
premise. The American worker also views his world politically
rather than economically, Reed says, having a healthy disgust
for the "dirty" politicians of both the Republican
and Democratic parties but viewing Socialism as an alien system
"worked out in foreign countries, not born of his own particular
needs and opposed to 'democracy' and 'fair play,' which is the
way he has been taught to characterize the institutions of this
country." The task of the Left Wing is not to pander for
support of American workers at the ballot box, but rather to
go to the workers, listen to their needs, and implement a practical
program which not only meets those needs but raises the workers'
thinking beyond these immediate wishes -- to "make them
want the whole Revolution." It is not the ballot box but
"revolutionary direct mass action" in the workplace
that will bring about the Social Revolution, Reed states. He
concludes that "the workers must be told that they have
the force, if they will only organize it and express it;
that if together they are able to stop work, no power in the
universe can prevent them from doing what they want to do - if
only they know what they want to do! And it is our business to
formulate what they want to do."
"The Background of Bolshevism,"
by John Reed [Jan. 25, 1919] On Jan. 15, 1919, over 2 months after conclusion
of the World War, Dr. Morris Zucker was convicted of 4 counts
of violating the Espionage Act for comments made in a speech
protesting soldier attacks on Socialist meetings. In this article
in The Revolutionary Age, John Reed addresses the question
of factuality and viability of each of Zucker's "criminal"
assertions: (1) "America is becoming today what Russia used
to be in the old, old days...." (2) "Here in America
they may tear the red flag from our hands, but they only implant
it more firmly in our hearts...." (3)"While I confess,
my friends, I claimed exemption in America, if I were in Germany
or Russia I would only be too proud to fight in the first trench
lines..." (i.e., in a Revolutionary Army). (4) "Yes,
it is might that we are after...." (5) "Next Thanksgiving
Day we will celebrated the fact that the United States recognizes
the red flag as the flag of democracy...." With regard to
the controversial statement that "it is might we are after,"
Reed declares: "When the official organs of justice themselves
disregard the law, what is there left but 'might'? When the political
ballot is canceled by the money power which corrupts or nullifies
the men we elect to represent and govern us, what is there left
but to oppose it with some other kind of power? When, in this
'land of the free,' men are sent to prison of 10 and 20 years
for political offenses --punishments unparalleled in the Empire
of the Russian Tsar -- when conscientious objectors are tortured
more fiendishly, and military offenders broken more brutally,
than ever under the autocracy of the German Kaiser, what are
we to do but resist?" Reed only disagrees with Zucker's
assertion that a revolution was proximate.
"The Bolshevists: Grave-Diggers
of Capitalism," by C.E. Ruthenberg. [Jan. 29, 1919] Ruthenberg, Secretary of Local Cuyahoga Country
[Cleveland], first published this article in the Jan. 29, 1919,
issue of The Ohio Socialist, the official organ of the
Socialist Party of Ohio. Ruthenberg poses the question whether
the Russian Bolsheviks actually represented "something new"
-- "anarchy, ...rioting and bloodshed, wholesale murder
and destruction.... the collapse of orderly society..."
(as depicted in the pages of the capitalist press) -- or whether
it represented instead the consistent application of the established
principles of Marxian Socialism. After outlining the basic tenets
of Marxism, Ruthenberg argues in favor of the latter proposition,
of course, stating that Bolsehevism is "Marxian Socialism
in action. It is the workers on the road to victory and a better
world." Ruthenberg later served as the first Executive Secretary
of the Communist Party of America.
"A View of the Trial,"
by Adolph Germer [Jan. 22, 1919] National Executive
Secretary of the Socialist Party Adolph Germer (in the past a
miner and United Mine Workers Union official, in the future one
of the key participants in the 1919 Socialist-Communist split)
briefly summarizes the results of the Trial of the Five Socialists,
in which he was a leading defendant. The Guilty verdict was "disappointing
though not in the least surprising," Germer states, as the
jury pool was carefully screened by the prosecution against those
with any knowledge of the labor movement and in favor of those
"who are instinctively hostile to us." The trial was
not of the individuals named as defendants, Germer says, but
rather of the Socialist Party and its principles. Germer is unrepentant,
declaring "I have nothing to regret and nothing for which
to apologize. If the democracy of which we heard so much and
for which we were told we entered this war can be had only through
prison cells, I am willing to take my place with countless others
who have been denied their liberties because of a conviction."
FEBRUARY
"Problems of American Socialism,"
by Louis C. Fraina [Feb. 1919] Lengthy theoretical article by one of the leading
lights of the early American Communist movement, Louis Fraina.
America had become the greatest capitalist power, in Fraina's
view, with tremendous natural wealth within its borders, twice
the financial wealth of its nearest competitor, Great Britain,
geographic proximity that would allow it to make a play on the
wealth of Central and South America, a large navy and the proven
capacity to rapidly generate a large standing army. In short,
Fraina declares, "American Capitalism has all the physical
reserves for aggression and is becoming the gendarme of the world."
It was therefore pivotal to the world socialist movement to challenge
and defeat American capitalism. This task was not being accomplished,
however, due in large measure to the petty bourgeois spirit which
animated both the Socialist Party and the Socialist Labor Party.
These organizations were both slaves to "the illusions of
democracy," failed to aggressively participate in the industrial
class struggle, failed to deliver aggressive support of the epochal
Russian Revolution, and were trapped in petty bourgeois parliamentarism
and anemic daily routine. Instead, it was the task of the Left
Wing to revitalize the Socialist Party for the final struggle
with capitalism and imperialism. "The revolutionary crisis
in Europe is spreading, becoming contagious. It is admitted that
if Germany becomes definitely Bolshevik, all Europe will become
Bolshevik. And then? Inevitably, this will develop revolutionary
currents in the United States, will develop other revolutions,
will accelerate and energize the proletarian struggle. The United
States will then become the center of reaction; and imperative
will become our own revolutionary struggle." The victory
of socialism in America is ultimately essential for the victory
of socialism on world basis, in Fraina's view: "it is necessary
that we prepare ideologically and theoretically for the final
revolutionary struggle in our own country -- which may come in
6 months, or in 6 years, but which will come; prepare for that
final struggle which alone can make the world safe for Socialism."
Fraina urges that a revitalized Socialist Party take advantage
of the future strike wave by promoting revolutionary industrial
unionism, in contrast to the "reactionary trade unionism
and laborism" of the Right Wing of the Socialist Party.
"The problem of unionism, of revolutionary industrial unionism,
is fundamental" since "the construction of an industrial
state, the abolition of the political state, contains within
itself the norms of the new proletarian state and the dictatorship
of the proletariat," Fraina states. "The fatal defect
of our party is that there is no discussion of fundamentals,
no controversy on tactics," Fraina asserts, adding, "Let
us integrate the revolutionary elements in the party, an organization
for the revolutionary conquest of the party by the party!"
"The Day of the People,'
by Eugene V. Debs [Feb. 1919] "From the crown of my head to the soles of
my feet I am Bolshevik, and proud of it," famously declares
Socialist Party leader Gene Debs in this article from Ludwig
Lore's quarterly magazine, The Class Struggle. Debs salutes
the Left Wing Socialist leaders of Germany, Karl Liebknecht and
Rosa Luxemburg, in their struggle against "Ebert and Scheidemann
and their crowd of white-livered reactionaries," acting
in concert with German reaction against the revolutionary movement
in that country. Now "the battle is raging in Germany as
in Russia, and the near future will determine whether revolution
has for once been really triumphant or whether sudden reaction
has again won the day." says Debs. "Scheidemann and
his breed do not believe that the day of the people has arrived.
According to them the war and the revolution have brought the
day of the bourgeoisie," Debs notes, arguing that instead,
"The people are ready for their day.... Who are the people?
The people are the working class, the lower class, the robbed,
the oppressed, the impoverished, the great majority of the earth.
They and those who sympathize with them are the people..."
Debs declares that "in Russia and Germany our valiant comrades
are leading the proletarian revolution, which knows no race,
no color, no sex, and no boundary lines. They are setting the
heroic example for worldwide emulation. Let us, like them, scorn
and repudiate the cowardly compromisers within our own ranks,
challenge and defy the robber-class power, and fight it out on
that line to victory or death!"
"What Is the 'Left Wing'
Movement and Its Purpose?" by Edward Lindgren [Feb. 1919] Lindgren,
one of the organizers of the Left Wing section of the Socialist
Party in New York City, outlines a brief history of the faction
in this article published in Louis Fraina and Ludwig Lore's theoretical
journal, The Class Struggle. Lindgren contends that while
factions had long existed inside the SPA, firm dividing lines
were not drawn up until 1912, when the Right Wing won firm control
of the party apparatus and launched a purge around the "sabotage"
clause of the party constitution. The test of the 1914 war and
failure of the party leadership to act in a principled manner
led to an alienation of the rank and file membership of the party,
which demanded and received an Emergency Convention in 1917 to
declare its antimilitarist principles in no uncertain terms.
The violent splits of the socialist movement in Germany (majority
socialists/Spartacists) and Russia (Mensheviks/Bolsheviks) made
the situation in the American party clear to "almost anyone
who understands the theory of the class struggle." The "Left
Wing" group was thus "the logical outcome of a dissatisfied
membership -- a membership that has been taught by the revolutionary
activities of the European movements 'to compromise is to lose,'"
says Lindgren. Includes a "Tentative Program" and "Immediate
Demands" of the Left Wing section.
Manifesto of the Left Wing Section
of the Socialist Party of America: As Modified by Local Cuyahoga
County, Socialist Party [Feb. 1919]. The Manifesto of the Left Wing Section is the
fundamental theoretical document of the American Communist movement,
an analysis and program that was systematically promoted by an
organized faction within the Socialist Party of America intent
on moving that party's orientation from the electoral to the
revolutionary socialist path. The original document was collective
work written in early February 1919, attributed by the historian
Theodore Draper to the pens of Bertram Wolfe and John Reed, then
extensively revised by Louis C. Fraina. Whatever its origin,
this document was further extensively revised before being published
in the pages of The Ohio Socialist on Feb. 26, 1919. Whether
these changes were rendered by C.E. Ruthenberg, Alfred Wagenknecht,
or some other figure in the Cleveland Socialist Party organization
remains unknown -- although Ruthenberg would certainly seem the
most likely candidate. The version reprinted here compares the
text of the "official" New York variation with the
revisions made in the document as published in Ohio.
"The Chicago Socialist Trial,"
by J. Louis Engdahl .
A contemporary account of the Dec.
1918-Feb. 1919 Trial of the 5 Chicago Socialists written by one
of the defendants. J. Louis Engdahl was the editor of "The
American Socialist," the official monthly periodical of
the Socialist Party of America. He was convicted along with his
comrades of violating the infamous Espionage Act and was sentenced
to a term of 20 years imprisonment at Leavenworth Penitentiary.
This material was first published in the 1919-20 edition of "The
American Labor Year-Book," published by the Rand School
of Social Science.
"The Socialist Party on Trial,"
by William Bross Lloyd [February 1919] An
extensive report of the trial of Beger, Germer, Kruse, Engdahl,
and Tucker by the financial angel of the Left Wing, published
in the pages of The Liberator. The trial of the five began
in Chicago on December 9, 1918, before Judge Kennesaw Mountain
Landis for conspiracy under the so-called Espionage Law, which
Lloyd characterizes as a "clumsily subtle way of lending
to the Administration the aid of the courts in enforcing the
official war morality.... Criminality under this law consists
of any attempt to impugn the idealistic advertisement under which
the war is being imposed. And conspiracy is a joint attempt."
Lloyd provides brief character-sketches of the five principle
defendants, as well as the judge and the chief accusers, District
Attorney Clyne and Assistant District Attorney Fleming. He characterizes
the trial as "twenty days of irritating stupidity"
wrought by the prosecution, notes that the focus of the attack
was on William Kruse, who as head of the Young People's Socialist
League was cast as the leading figure in a conspiracy to subvert
conscripton (despite Kruse's personal decision to register for
the draft), and comments extensively on the testimony of defense
witness Carl Haessler, a Socialist already convicted and imprisoned
under the so-called Espionage Act whom the prosecution approached
in an attempt to construct its case against Victor Berger. When
the prosecution was rebuffed, retaliatory action was taken against
Haessler's wife, who lost her job as an Illinois teacher.
"The Yipsels and the Socialist
Sedition Case: Part 1 -- The Prosecution's Case, by William F.
Kruse. [Feb. 1919] One of the
biggest show-trials conducted by the Wilson Administration against
its radical opponents was the Trial of the Five Socialists --
a group of defendants which included former Congressman and NEC
member Victor L. Berger, Socialist Party National Executive Secretary
Adolph Germer, Secretary of the Young People's Socialist League
William F. Kruse, Editor of the SPA's official publications J.
Louis Engdahl, and former head of the SPA's Literature Department
Irwin St. John Tucker. The five were indicted for alleged violation
of the so-called "Espionage Act" on Feb. 2, 1918, and
were finally brought before Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis for
trial beginning on Dec. 9, 1918 -- nearly a month after conclusion
of the war. This article on the presecutorial hijinks behind
the trial was written by defendant Bill Kruse for the monthly
magazine of the YPSL. This first installment of a three part
series was published in the Feb. 1919 issue of The Young Socialists'
Magazine.
"Declaration to the Members
of the Socialist Party of America of the Communist Propaganda
League: With comments by Alexander Stoklitsky, Feb. 6, 1919."
While the nascent
Left Wing of the Socialist Party of America in the years 1915
and 1916 was grouped around an organization called the Socialist
Propaganda League, the Left-Right conflict was submerged under
a panoply of greater issues during the years of American participation
in the European war. On Nov. 7, 1918, with the war coming to
a merciful close, the Left Wing's struggle against the Regular
wing of the Socialist Party erupted anew, starting with the formation
of a group based in Chicago called the Communist Propaganda League
(CPL). According to this statement of the CPL, the organization
was launched by bringing together members of the "Bolshevist
Federation of the American Socialist Party" (i.e., the Russian
Federation and the various Federations comprised of nationalities
of the former Russian empire) as well as "several important
active members of the local Socialist movement who thoroughly
agree to the program and principles of the Russian Bolsheviks."
The group is said to have been formed to discuss the current
situation facing the Socialist Party and "to determine the
methods and means of directing our American Socialist Party to
the truly revolutionary way." According to the program of
the CPL (included here), the Socialist Party "all in all
does not take into consideration to a sufficient degree the importance
of mass demonstrations of the proletariat, which are the only
means of leading us to the revolution," but instead lent
its support to the "pure parliamentary system." A key
element of the CPL program declared that "Socialistic propaganda
must be exclusively the revolutionary class struggle of the proletariat"
and demanded an end to "the use of small bourgeois reforms
as a basis for the activities of the Socialist Party." A
professional, paid National Executive Committee at the head of
the party, close party control over all officers and other officials,
and a centralized party press and lecture bureau were also significant
demands of the Communist Propaganda League. Nominal Secretary
of the CPL was Isaac Ferguson, although it appears that mail
was actually sent to the office of Alexander Stoklitsky, Translator-Secretary
of the Russian Socialist Federation, at party headquarters in
Chicago.
"Report of the Delegate of
the Lithuanian Socialist Federation to the Conference of the
Russian Immigrant Revolutionary Socialist Federations,"
by I.J. Kravcevic [held Feb. 9, 1919] Due to the high survival rate of periodicals and
documents of the Anglophonic Left Wing movement of 1919 (and
the ability of scholars to make use of them), we know a great
deal more about the ideas and actions of the small band of English-speakers
in New York than we do about a larger parallel movement in the
ranks of the Socialist Party among those who spoke Russian, Lithuanian,
Yiddish, Latvian, Croatian, Ukrainian, Finnish, Polish, or any
other of about a half dozen languages. This translated document
from the Lithuanian press helps enrich our understanding. On
Feb. 9, 1919, a conference was held in New York City by delegates
of the "Revolutionary Socialist Federations of the Socialist
Party of America." It is not at this time known who planned
this gathering or when the call for it went out -- planning certainly
predated the first session of the Left Wing Section of Greater
New York, which held its organizational meeting on Feb. 2, 1919.
The Conference of "Russian Immigrant Revolutionary Socialist
Federations" included delegates from the Russian, Latvian,
Ukrainian, and Estonian language sections of the Socialist Party,
this report by Lithuanian delegate I.J. Kravcevic notes. Radical
discontent with "opportunist" policies of the Socialist
Party leadership had been brewing, and the decision was made
"there is need for organized and disciplined revolutionary
action within the party now" -- a formal organization of
revolutionary socialists within the SPA. "We have to combine
all of these federations and separate groups within the party
into a Left Wing of the SP, to start and organize a bitter fight
with the opportunists within the party in order to establish
a program of the principles that would fit the present revolutionary
movement of the working class," Kravcevic noted, adding
that "in order to discourage the opportunists from distorting
these principles, there should be a party discipline and those
not complying with it should be ejected from the party without
further ado." Additional goals of the gathering were to
make contact with the Russian Soviet government and to establish
an information bureau on its behalf to make the real situation
in Russia known to Americans.
"The End of War," by
C.E. Ruthenberg. [Feb. 12, 1919]
This article by the Secretary of Local Cuyahoga County, Socialist
Party was published in the official organ of the Socialist Party
of Ohio. In it Ruthenberg addresses the proposed League of Nations
-- specifically its claim that it will be an institution able
to abolish future wars. While acknowledging the desire of the
capitalist class to avert destructive wars and the revolutions
which they may well precipitate, Ruthenberg states that the division
of the non-industrial world into "mandatories" would
do nothing to alleviate the "inexorable conditions of capitalist
production" that causes capitalist powers to compete for
foreign markets. "In spite of all the machinery of arbitration
and conciliation" the capitalist countries would be driven
"to an appeal to arms in the struggle for survival,"
Ruthenberg says. He contrasts this with a system in which the
full product is appropriated by the workers producing it, which
would have no innate dynamic to secure foreign markets, with
its products either consumed, traded to other countries for necessary
products produced elsewhere, or production contracted through
the reduction of working hours.
"Report on IWW or Bolsheviki
Activities in the District of Massachusetts to William E. Allen,
Acting Chief of the Bureau of Investigation in Washington,"
by Boston BoI Informant J.S. Peterson [Feb. 13, 1919] This document summarizes Bureau
of Investigation reports on "recent developments in the
IWW situation in this district" -- actually the doings of
the revolutionary Socialist movement rather than syndicalist
unionists. Individuals reported upon hailing from the Boston
area included Louis C. Fraina, Eadmonn MacAlpine, Ludwig Lore,
Gregory Weinstein, Nick Hourwich, Santeri Nuorteva, and Peter
P. Cosgrove. Publications briefly mentioned include The Revolutionary
Age (English), Il Pensiero (Italian), A Luz
(Portuguese), Atbalss (Latvian), and Raivaaja (Finnish).
Additional coverage is given for the Eastern, Southeastern, and
Western regions of Massachusetts. Informant Peterson indicates
that the "deportation of leaders may not solve the whole
problem of industrial unrest," instead advocating a betterment
of working conditions, housing, and recreational opportunities
for the workers. Peterson states that he "has felt very
keenly, on attending the various meetings in which the audience
was largely foreign born, that to these people the radical meetings,
instituted by the local socialists, and charging no admission,
were a real enjoyment, purely from the opportunity it gave them
on their free day to mingle with their own kind and enjoy the
program. It seemed, therefore, that if the trouble had been taken
on the part of the community, or some local organization, other
than the radical elements, to provide such an afternoon, that
the audience might have been as receptive to more healthy doctrines
than those promulgated at these meetings."
"Speech to the Court at the
Time of Sentencing," by J. Louis Engdahl [Feb. 20, 1919]
Socialist editor
John Louis Engdahl was one of five top leaders of the Socialist
Party tried by the federal government for alleged violation of
the so-called Espionage Act during the first part of 1919 --
the other defendants including National Executive Secretary Adolph
Germer, former and future Socialist Congressman Victor Berger,
youth section leader William F. Kruse, and Literature Department
head Irwin Tucker. All five of the accused were found guilty
and sentenced to 20 years in Federal prison by hangin' Judge
Kennesaw Mountain Landis -- verdicts which were eventually reversed
on appeal due to judicial prejudice. This is Engdahl's speech
to the court at the time of his sentencing, as published in a
pamphlet issued by the SPA. "I have noting to retract, at
this crucial moment in my life. No valid argument presents itself
why I should change any statement I have made, either through
the printed or the spoken word," Engdahl declared. His view
of the European conflagration in which Woodrow Wilson had embroiled
America remained unchanged: "It was a capitalist war. It
was born of the imperialistic ambitions of money-mad nations
in the grip of the profit system. No nation can join in the struggle
to create a free world until it has liberated itself from the
social system that breeds both wealth and want, war, and woe."
Engdahl saw the nationalist hysteria associated with American
entry into the war as the direct cause of the repression: "For
the time being extreme intolerance has usurped the places"
of American constitutional guarantees of liberty, he declared.
Engdahl depicted the Socialist movement as the vanguard of the
3rd American revolution -- the first two being independence from
English monarchy and the defeat of the Southern "black slaveocracy."
The legal structure of decaying capitalism was no more capable
of rendering sound judgment on the adherents of the new day than
the defenders of British despotism or of American chattel slavery
had been in their own, Engdahl declared, adding of the prosecution
in his case, "Coercion, intimidation, misrepresentation,
and falsification -- all that, and more, is expected as a matter
of course. Our trial, therefore, was no disappointment. No ends
were too mean, no act too low, if it only lead to a conviction."
"The Michigan Convention,"
by W.E. Reynolds [event of Feb. 24, 1919] This news report by CLP charter member W.E. Reynolds
from the pages of the Left Wing weekly, The Ohio Socialist,
sheds light on the unique and turbulent history on the Socialist
Party of Michigan. On Feb. 24, 1919, 51 delegates gathered in
Grand Rapids for the state convention of the Socialist Party
of Michigan, Reynolds notes. The convention was a "harmonious
gathering of boosters, the utopian element being either absent
or without spokesmen," Reynolds indicates. Michigan State
Secretary Bloomenberg resigned and was replaced by former State
Secretary John Keracher (future founder and leader of the Proletarian
Party). "A platform was adopted without any immediate demands
and calling for the abolition of the wages system," Reynolds
notes, and an amendment to the national SPA constitution calling
for an end to such social reform planks on the national level
proposed. "The convention adopted a part of the Left Wing
program in its centering the attention of the abolition of capitalism
instead of working for petty reform -- but it did not adopt the
Left Wing program of urging economic organization amongst the
workers," Reynolds observes.
MARCH
"After the War - What?"
by C.E. Ruthenberg [serialized Dec. 1918-March 1919] Serialized over a 3 month period,
this article represents the longest single work written by Cleveland
Left Wing Socialist leader C.E. Ruthenberg -- rightfully remembered
by history as a skilled organizational administrator rather than
a theoretician. Written originally for the Ohio Socialist
(complete runs of which have not survived), this work was preserved
en toto as a reprint in the Buffalo, NY New Age. Ruthenberg
argues that "the halo of capitalism has been smashed by
the war" and the de facto socialist organization of key
industries by government due to wartime expedience had shattered
the myth of the economic structure's permanence and unchangeability.
A widespread demand had emerged for a fundamental retooling of
American economic society in the immediate postwar period --
a program of the working class opposed by a capitalist class
which sought a restoration of the economy to the status quo ante
bellum. Ruthenberg outlines at length the instability, inefficiency,
and injustice of the old capitalist form of organization and
contrasts the efficiency of wartime collectivism, to which Ruthenberg
proposes the addition of democratic social control. Ruthenberg
declares that the government's action during the war with regard
to the transportation and communications industries had demonstrated
the correctness of the Left Wing Socialist declaration that "When
we get ready to take over the industries, we'll just take them"
-- this was exactly what the government had done during wartime,
according to Ruthenberg, albeit temporarily. Whether the former
owners of industry were compensated with Liberty bonds to be
taxed out of existence in 10 years or industry to be expropriated
without compensation was a matter of little import to Ruthenberg.
He asserts: "Industry must no longer be conducted as a private
business for profit, but must become a coordinated, collective
process for the purpose of supplying human needs and comforts.
Such a transformation can only be accomplished by taking the
ownership of the national resources and means of production and
distribution out of the hands of the present owners and vesting
the ownership in the people collectively." Ruthenberg soft-pedals
his belief in the ultimate necessity of revolution as opposed
to parliamentarism to achieve the fundamental reorganization
of the economy, only noting in his final installment that "the
idea that Socialism would be established through a series of
legislative acts extending possibly over a decade or two, has
been shown to be an illusion. Socialism will not be legislated
into existence but will be established by a mass movement of
the workers in the industries. The legislative acts will merely
give the accomplished fact the stamp of approval as the will
of the majority. The struggle of the working class will henceforth
be a political struggle for control of the state because it must
gain control of the government before it can hope to establish
democracy in industry."
"Yipsels and the Socialist
Sedition Trial," by Harry L. Gannes [March 1919] New Editor in Chief of The
Young Socialists' Magazine continues the story of the "Trial
of the 5 Chicago Socialists" (Berger, Germer, Engdahl, Kruse,
and Tucker) begun in the previous issue of the magazine. The
18 year old Gannes provides a number of tidbits, fine detail,
about the defense's argument in the trial, cross-examination,
final arguments in the case, instructions to the jury, and the
verdict and the reaction of the assembled Socialists thereto.
Despite failing to prove the substance of its case, Kruse indicates
that the government was able to sell a specious conspiracy argument,
resulting in a guilty verdict against all five defendants after
only four hours of deliberation. Gannes depicts the trial as
a "baptism of fire" for the relatively new national
Young People's Socialist League organization which it managed
to withstand well, its witnesses performing ably without flinching
or compromising.
"Is the 'Left Wing' Right?
A Letter to the Editor of The New York Call, March 4,
1919," by Cameron King. The 1919 faction fight within the Socialist Party
in general, and the Socialist Party of Greater New York in particular,
was wound up in matters of personality, position, and power.
This is a rare serious critique of the ideology of the opposite
camp by one of the leaders of the New York Socialist Party establishment.
King is critical of the contention in the Left Wing manifesto
that the Socialist Party should eliminate reform planks from
its platform limit itself to agitation for a complete revolutionary
overturn of capitalism. He argues that the transition to Socialism
will almost certainly be a long and protracted process, with
initial victories in cities and several industrial states prior
to the achievement of control of Congress and the Presidency
by the Socialist Party. In the interval, the Socialist Party
must actively improve the lot of the working class, or face defeat
at the polls amidst charges of betrayal. Further, King cites
a recent pamphlet by Lenin to validate his assertion that there
is a roll for the political action of the central state in the
administration and control of industry and distribution even
after the revolutionary turnover of state power. The "Left
Wing" doctrine on political action is inadequate and must
be rejected because it does not recognize this essential policy
of the pre-revolutionary socialist movement and the post-revolutionary
state, King argues.
"Manifesto of the Workers',
Soldiers', Sailors' and Farmers' Council of Buffalo and Erie
County." [adopted March 4, 1919] On March 4, 1919, a short-lived Soviet called
the "Workers', Soldiers', Sailors', and Farmer's Council"
was established in Buffalo, New York, producing this manifesto
on behalf of 35,000 unemployed workers of the area. A set of
"immediate demands" are put forward, including institution
of the 4-hour workday; the abolition of the collection of rent,
taxes, and interest from unemployed workers; and the provision
of office space and meeting halls for use of the Soviet. These
were presented as transitional to "the ultimate aim"
-- "the only solution to prevent a nationwide revolution
is to make provision for plans to socialize all industries of
America." A nationwide call was to be issued to all workers
to organize on the same plan as the Buffalo Soviet. A total of
38,000 copies of this document were produced and distributed.
"A Proletarian Dictatorship
vs. Parliamentarism," by Alexander Bilan [March 5, 1919]
Article from the
pages of The Ohio Socialist by future founding member
of the National Executive Committee of the Communist Labor Party
Alexander Bilan. Bilan states that "It is a mistake to believe
that parliamentarism is a synonym for democracy. On the contrary,
we find that where the parliamentary majority rules it is not
democratic, and where it is approaching democracy parliamentary
government becomes a weak institution." Victories of working
class candidates in capitalist parliamentary elections do not
lead to true democracy, Bilan observes, but rather to a powerless
life in the margins. "As long as the working class representatives
are few in number they are merely disturbers of the peace of
the gay bourgeois company, to whom nobody is willing to listen
unless compelled to. If the bourgeois have enough confidence
in their strength and the support of the troublemakers is weak,
they simply throw them out of the parliamentary body," he
notes. If, on the other hand, working class representatives are
elected in sufficient number, their votes can become decisive
for certain reform legislation, although the question of their
limits in participation soon arises. "The working class
is denied the possibility of gaining a majority of the seats
in parliament as long as the constitutions drawn by the ruling
class exist," Bilan states. "Where free press, free
speech, and freedom of assemblage exist, parliamentarism has
played its part, just the same as has the capitalist system on
the economic field. The best agitation and propaganda forces
of the working class have to be employed outside of parliament
in great mass meetings.... It is necessary that the rising power,
the working class, organize as a class politically, but with
the firm conviction that parliaments represent the dictatorship
of the capitalist class, which must be replaced by the dictatorship
of the working class. This dictatorship of the proletariat arouses
the ire of the capitalist class because it abolishes all privileges
and puts everybody in one class," Bilan concludes.
"Letter to Eugene V. Debs
in Terre Haute from Ludwig Lore in New York City, March 5, 1919."
Letter from Ludwig
Lore, first among equals on the editorial board of The Class
Struggle, to his new, albeit nominal, co-editor Gene Debs.
Lores asks whether Debs might be able to contribute and article
"on some American topic" for the forthcoming issue.
"I suggest an American subject because I sometimes fear
that The Class Struggle is rather in danger of treating too exclusively
with the revolutions of Russia and Germany, without sufficient
application to conditions at home," Lore says. Lore offers
his opinion on the burgeoning Left Wing movement in the Socialist
Party: "You know, of course, that 'Left Wing' organizations
are springing up everywhere in the party. Although I am in full
agreement, as you know, with the fundamental principles that
prompt these organizations, I personally feel that at this time
they constitute a grave danger, not only to the party, but tot
he very cause for which they are being created. So far as I have
been able to discover, the membership of our party is radically
inclined and will support the revolutionary position. But the
propagation by organizations such as these within the party must
inevitably, I feel, bring about a split in the movement. A split
that will, moreover, not strengthen, but weaken revolutionary
socialism in America by driving the rank and file into the arms
of Right Wing leaders as a protest against the methods of the
more radical minority." The Socialist Publication Society
was to hold a meeting in a few days to determine its formal position
towards the Left Wing movement. Later, when the feared split
of the Socialist Party became a reality, Lore turned over The
Class Struggle to the fledgling Communist Labor Party, which
retained him on the Editorial Board for what proved to be one
final issue.
"The Growth of the Left Wing,"
by Maximilian Cohen [March 8, 1919] A fascinating brief recounting of the history
of the Left Wing Section of Local New York by the organized faction's
Secretary, Max Cohen, who was present at the creation. Cohen
notes that there had long been a Left-Right division in the Socialist
Party of New York, dating back to the days before the world war.
The betrayal of International Socialism by the Social Democratic
parties of the Second International on the one hand, and the
victory of the Bolshevik Revolution on the other, had energized
and accelerated the pre-existing division. The support of the
New York Socialist Aldermen for the Liberty Loan spurred the
struggle between the Left and Right in the New York SPA, and
trench lines were dug over efforts of the Left to discipline
or formally criticize Conrgressman London for his war position.
When a joint meeting of New York City Committees called to address
the Aldermanic situation was sabotaged by Julius Gerber, as chairman
of the meeting, a walkout ensured. "These delegates and
comrades crowded in the corridor and forced Comrade [George]
Goebel to give them a meeting room, a thing which he at first
refused to do. There the Left Wing Section had its birth as an
organization," Cohen states. A 14 member committee was elected
to draft a temporary manifesto and program. An all-day convention
was called for Feb. 15, 1919, and it was on that day that the
Left Wing Section was formally launched, with the Manifesto and
Program revised for publication, organizational rules adopted,
officers elected, and The Revolutionary Age certified
as the official organ of the group.
"Jobless Face Shotguns in
Hands of Police: Meeting of Unemployed in Niagara Square is Ruthlessly
Suppressed: Soldiers', Sailors', Workers' and Farmers' Council
Denied Right of Assemblage -- Many Thousands of Hungry Toilers
Throng Streets Converging on McKinley Monument." [events
of March 6-10, 1919] The
confrontation between the civic authorities of Buffalo, New York
and the short-lived Buffalo Soviet proved to be a one-sided affair,
as is documented in this article from The New Age, weekly
organ of Local Buffalo, Socialist Party. A demonstration was
called by the Workers' Council for March 10, 1919, to be held
at the McKinley Monument in Niagara Square, downtown. The gathering
was announced in advance in a letter to Mayor George S. Buck
(reproduced here), and a request for facilities for a meeting
of the demonstrators was made; Local Buffalo, Socialist Party
was called into action to facilitate the demonstration on behalf
of the Soviet's organizing committee. However, no such accommodation
was made and the meeting of the Buffalo Soviet was banned by
the city council and Mayor Buck, and a cordon of shotgun-bearing
policemen were dispatched to prevent the planned meeting. Although
thousands of workers milled in the streets surrounding the plaza
in response to the distribution of 38,000 leaflets announcing
the meeting (an unlikely estimate of 40,000 is reported here),
police prevented a concentration at the plaza with little trouble
or opposition.
"A Left Wing -- And Why:
A Statement of Cause and Effect," by N.S. Reichenthal [March
12, 1919] A lengthy and intelligent
letter to the editor of the New York Call seeking a measured
and open-minded approach to the emerging Left Wing Section of
the Socialist Party. Reichenthal states that he is neither with
the Left Wing and the "state within a state" in the
Socialist Party nor a blind, epithet-spewing "loyalist."
To these latter, "all those who are crudely attempting to
change or modify party policy and tactics are rank disrupters,
anarchists, or syndicalists" to be purged -- a mentality
which Reichenthal believes is akin to the anti-liberal patriotic
frenzy of the war years or the sectarian Socialist Labor Party
regime in the factional war of 1899-1900: "Therefore, comrades,
let's stop talking nonsense and imitating DeLeon and our own
dear Security League. Let's discuss principles and tactics, not
personalities and hare-brained metaphysics." Reichenthal
states that the platform of the Socialist Party from 1900 to
the one adopted in 1917 became steadily more "practical,"
to the point where "all reference to internationalism, to
the party itself being the 'Left Wing' of the international proletariat
striving to overthrow the capitalist state, is entirely eliminated."
Combined with opportunistic local platforms and less-than-stellar
performance in office by elected Socialist officials has been
"disappointing and very disheartening, and seem to justify
the conclusions arrived at by some that mere parliamentary action
as encouraged and practiced by the Socialist Party is a snare
and a delusion." On the trade union front "we became
mere apologists for Gompers' unionism, and our policy compelled
us to keep silent or defend many rotten deeds on the part of
certain unions and their officials," resulting in the factional
war of 1912-13 and the departure of thousands of supporters of
the IWW and revolutionary industrial unionism. The Left Wing
Section emerged as a direct response -- cause and effect -- to
these factors. Reichenthal states that he has changed his own
mind on these things since "we live in the midst of the
revolution. Only action, revolutionary action, counts" and
"the Russian Bolsheviki have demonstrated what a resolute,
though 'ignorant,' proletariat and peasantry can do." Reichenthal
calls for an honest discussion of the merits of the argument
of the Left Wing Section rather than mechanically resorting to
"parliamentary tricks" or "reorganization"
to stifle dissent in the manner of Daniel DeLeon.
"Left Wing Are Distruptionists,"
by Joseph Gollomb. [March 12, 1919] Text of a long letter to the Editor of The
New York Call, in which SPA member Joseph Gollomb attacts
the ideology and tactics of the Left Wing Section and its leaders
in the struggle for control of the party apparatus in New York
City. Gollomb charges that the so-called "Left Wing Section"
is an internal enemy of the Socialist Party, "the spirit
and purpose of old Michael Bakunin." These "anarchists,
IWWs, and SLPs" have flocked into the SPA "not out
of conversion, but with blackjacks behind their backs. They have
organized a body within the party, with delegates from different
branches, Central Committees, Executive Committees, State Committees,
a National Committee, constitution, and membership cards, part
for part with the organization of the party proper, with mandates
on their members to be carried out at the meetings of the party."
Gollomb cites concrete examples of Left Wing tactics at SP branch
meetings, with specific charges directed at Nicholas Hourwich
and Jim Larkin. Gollomb advises immediate action to stop the
seizure of the party by an organized minority.
"'Parliamentarism' and 'Political
Action,'" by Jay Lovestone and William Weinstone. [March
17, 1919] Former
City College of New York Young People's Socialist League leaders
Jay Lovestone and William Weinstone co-authored this lengthy
letter to the New York Call in response to New York Socialist
leader Cameron King's critique of the Left Wing Manifesto published
earlier in those pages. Lovestone and Weinstone conceive of the
radical movement as being divided between "moderates"
and "socialists." The pair conclude that "the
moderate contends that the industries can be socialized by means
of the present bourgeois state... Our conception of socialist
political control is, to quote Marx, 'a transition period, in
which the state cannot be anything else but a dictatorship of
the proletariat.' We hold with the Communist Manifesto
that 'the proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest,
by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralize all
instruments of production in the hands of this state -- i.e.,
of the proletariat organized as the ruling class.'... It is not
by attempting to solve the insolvable, capitalism's contradictions,
but by 'teaching, propagating, and agitating exclusively for
the overthrow of capitalism and the necessity of instituting
of the proletarian dictatorship' that socialism can be attained!"
"'Wants a Conference,"
by J. Codkind [March 18, 1919] Letter to the Editor of The New Yok Call in
reply to the long March 12 letter of Joseph Gollomb. Codkind,
a Left Wing member of New York City's 17th Assembly District
Branch states that Gollomb is a purveyor of inaccuracies, indicating
that attendance at business meetings of the the 17th AD Branch
had increased rather than decreased over 1918 and that no business
had been conducted by the Left Wing in the wee hours. Codkind
states: "Undoubtedly, there have been unfair tactics employed.
In my opinion, this is much more prevalent among the Right Wingers
than the Lefts, but both sides are equally guilty. Why people
on both sides - undoubtedly honest and sincere in their convictions
- should descent to the use of these methods is more than I can
understand... Let us stop calling each other names. Let us act
like real men, and not like kids. Let us face the absolute fact
- that both sides are honest and sincere. Let us try to calm
ourselves; and let both sides elect or select about five delegates
to hold a conference through which our differences may be settled
without a party split." Codkind suggests that the delegates
to such a conference might be chosen by the factional caucuses
of the Central Committee of Local New York.
Letter to Morris Hillquit in Upstate
New York from Adolph Germer in Chicago, March 22, 1919. Historians of American Communism
running the gamut from Theodore Draper to William Z. Foster have
depicted Morris Hillquit as the master puppeteer behind the expulsions,
suspensions, and split of the Socialist Party in 1919. As this
letter from SPA National Executive Secretary Adolph Germer indicates,
Hillquit was actually out of the loop during the critical months
of 1919 -- at a sanitarium at Saranac Lake, New York, recovering
from a bout of tuberculosis. Rather than the far-seeing General
calling all the shots, Hillquit was resting and recuperating,
receiving periodic updates of information by mail. In this letter,
Germer notes that since the imprisoned Eugene Debs was $1400
in debt, the Socialist Party would be retaining him on the payroll
at the rate of $50 a week, with periodic articles promised and
some small chance of eventual repayment. Germer also expresses
surprise at Kate O'Hare's decision to accept nomination for International
Secretary and run against Hillquit in the 1919 SPA election,
a reversal of her expressed opinion of a fortnight earlier. Germer
also updated Hillquit on the plans of the Left Wing section,
noting that based on information received from New York party
leader Julius Gerber, "they are making a well organized
campaign to capture the district. What is true of District 1
is true of every other district. The impossiblists are determined
to capture the party. If they cannot do it by capturing the National
Executive Committee, they intend to do it in convention. As usual,
they have no sense of responsibility and are of the opinion that
the all important thing is to 'propagate,' regardless of consequences."
"A Basis for Discussion:
A Letter to the Editor of The New York Call by 13 Members of
the Socialist Party, March 23, 1919." With the internecine war heating up in the ranks
of the Socialist Party, an effort was made by some members associated
with the "Center-Left" to work out the programmatic
differences between the Regulars and the insurgent Left Wing
in an orderly manner. This open letter to the daily New York
Call lists 9 assertions of principle around which a newly
radicalized party might unite. The letter declared for a uniform
declaration of principles, agitation for socialism only and elimination
of reform planks from the platform, new party literature, propaganda
for industrial unionism, and enforcement of party discipline
upon elected Socialist officials. Particularly interesting is
the ideological range of the signers of the statement, including
founding members of the Communist Labor Party (Moses Oppenheimer,
Albert Pauly), future members of the Workers Party of America
(Scott Nearing, Ludwig Lore, Benjamin Glassberg), and a couple
of names associated with the Anti-Left Wing movement (David Berenberg,
editor of the New York Socialist, and Walter Cook, Secretary
of the Socialist Party of New York who presided over the SEC
that purged Left Wing Locals and Branches later in 1919).
"Letter to S.J. Rutgers in
Moscow from unknown New York correspondent 'F.' with note from
Ludwig Martens in New York, March 21 & 24, 1919." This is a fascinating handwritten
archival document rescued from illegibility, written by an adherent
of the Left Wing Section with a name initial "F." (not
Fraina) to Seybold Rutgers, in Moscow for the founding of the
Communist International. "F." notes that the Socialist
Propaganda League had been terminated, replaced by an organized
Left Wing Section, which would be transmitting credentials to
Rutgers to serve as its delegate to the founding convention.
"F." notes that he had asked the "International
Relations Committee of the Left Wing Section" for a brief
outline history, which is included here in full. This history
notes that the Manifesto of the Left Wing had its roots in a
February 15, 1919, convention in New York City. A postscript
is added by Ludwig Martens noting "Since my appointment
with all my heart and soul I am in the work. Doubtless we shall
have results very soon." Martens adds that "We need
all information in regard to your needs in machinery, supplies,
etc. I think we will have the best chances in the world to create
here a great organization which will be of greatest use for economical
development of Russia."
"Minutes of the State Executive
Committee, Socialist Party of New York, Meeting of March 26,
1919." These
minutes are most important for what is not included -- nary a
word on the Left Wing Section or any hint the split which was
to rupture the New York organization in a matter of months. Sitting
on the outgoing SEC was Alexander Trachtenberg, later one of
the principles of the CP-affiliated International Publishers.
A list of nominees for the 9 member SEC appears; included among
the long list are a number of future Left Wing luminaries: Joseph
Brodsky, Louis Boudin, Benjamin Gitlow, Ludwig Lore, Scott Nearing,
A. Pauly, and Alexander Trachtenberg. The majority of the new
SEC fell into the hands of the SP Regulars, however, with drastic
consequences for the Left Wing movement in the state.
"Proposal Ambiguous and Incomplete,"
by Algernon Lee. [March 29, 1919] Letter to the Editor of the New York Call by
Lee, a founding member of the Socialist Party of America and
leading figure of the New York constructive socialist faction.
Lee takes issue with a proposal made by 13 members of the New
York Left Wing for a reasoned settlement of party differences
rather than proceeding down the path of mudslinging and factional
trench warfare. Lee accuses the 13 of having advanced a "creed"
and a "statement of ready-made conclusions," of being
"ambiguous and incomplete" in their demand to eliminate
all social reform planks from the party platform, and of sidestepping
the fundamental questions of whether America would face a revolutionary
crisis in the near future and whether a majority of the populus
would support the program of a revolutionized Socialist Party
in the crisis. If the crisis were instead to be fought between
a revolutionary minority and a reactionary minority, Lee states
that there was no consideration of which side was apt to win,
and based upon that likelihood, whether the revolutionary crisis
was to be sought or avoided by the party.
"Toledo Crowd Compels Release
of Socialist Speakers: Audience Aroused Because Denied Freedom
of Speech Disarm Policeman and Marches on Police Station."
[events of March 30, 1919] News
report of a little-known event of the turbulent year 1919 --
a near-riot in Toledo, Ohio, caused when the mayor arbitrarily
decided to deny Eugene Debs uses of a city auditorium which had
been rented out to a local union and transferred to the use of
the Socialist Party. Even though Debs was ill in Akron and unable
to make the trip, the facility was locked up by the city administration.
A great mass of people, unable to attend an indoor rally at which
state organizer Charles Baker was to speak, moved to a city park
nearby -- where they were met by virtually the entire Toledo
police department, who began arresting one person after another
as they mounted the McKinley Monument and began to speak. The
crowd swelled to as many as 10,000 people and grew more and more
restive as the Socialists decided to take a stand for free speech
by sending an endless list of speakers to the front, thus filling
the jail and force the issues. Over 70 people were arrested and
police control of the vast throng was slipping. To avert a riot,
the city administration negotiated with Socialist leaders, who
insisted upon the release of all those arrested in exchange for
their work to pacify the mob. The mayor made this concession
and the mood of the crowd was turned from anger to jubilation
at the free speech victory won.
"Sidelights on Toledo Free
Speech Fight," by Thomas Devine [events of March 30, 1919]
Valuable participant's
memoir of the March 30, 1919 Debs Rally Gone Awry in Toledo,
Ohio. City Councilman Devine provides a colorful description
of the events of the afternoon and evening, which was apparently
triggered when the police interpreted a ban on Debs' use of a
city auditorium as a ban on the constitutional right of Toledo
Socialists to assemble and speak. When a Socialist soldier named
Frank Serafin was roughly arrested by the police, the mood of
the crowd turned hostile. Devine and Secretary of Local Toledo,
Socialist Party, Frank Toohey were the two individuals with whom
the city negotiated at the 11th hour to avert the riot which
they nearly created. Devine characterizes the crowd as both orderly
and disciplined and blames the trouble on Mayor Schreiber's poor
decision to ban the Socialists as well as the local police for
their unconstitutional behavior and excessive tactics. The jubilee
in the streets with the freed soldier Frank Serafin hoisted aloft
as a hero of liberty is characterized by Devine as the end to
"a perfect day." A letter from the mayor to the Toledo
Safety Director is appended in which Schreiber in which he states
that "The order issued from the executive department closed
Memorial Hall to Eugene V. Debs, but that was the full extent
of the order" and that police had overstepped their authority
by attempting to ban the further outdoor meeting of the Socialists,
noting the "right of free speech is a fundamental right,
clearly guaranteed by the constitution of the United States,
and one to be jealously guarded. It prevails everywhere, both
in public and in private places."
"An Evening's Experience,"
by Max Schonberg. [March 31, 1919] An interesting and rather illuminating first-hand
report of hardball tactics employed at a March meeting of the
3rd-5th-10th AD Branch of Local New York, with "Big Jim"
Larkin in the chair. Schonberg is sharply critical of Larkin's
"shameful tirade of cheap, personal abuse" directed
towards Joseph Gollomb, who had the floor representing a contrary
position for 10 or 15 minutes. Larkin is also criticized for
failing to follow correct rules of parliamentary procedure and
for speaking against a motion made by 15 or so regular members
against the Left Wing leadership of the branch, during the course
of which "he began a vicious attack of bitter invective
and vituperation upon each of the individuals whose names were
appended to it." Later, Larkin is said to have rushed down
from the platform with the intent of beating up Gollumb.
"Party Tactics," by
Morris Zucker. [March 31, 1919] Letter to the Editor of the New York Call from
Zucker, a prominent member of the Left Wing Section. Zucker is
encouraged at what he sees as "almost unanimous acclaim"
of the Left Wing Manifesto by the rank and file of the Socialist
Party. He sees, however, a "Centrist element" which
adheres to the Left Wing program but who "are opposed to
the tactics of the Left Wing within the party as likely to cause
a split in the organization." Loyalty to principle must
take precedence over loyalty to the SP organization, Zucker contends,
and a split on programmatic lines appears inevitable: "if,
after making every honest and honorable effort, the Socialist
Party does not, in substance, accept the program of the Left
Wing, then it becomes the solemn duty of the Left Wing to organize
a new party upon the basis of its principles and program. The
party is merely an instrument for the accomplishment of a certain
end, and not an end in itself." Zucker challenges the Right
and Center factions to call a general party meeting of the various
locals of Greater New York to debate the question, "Resolved:
That the Socialist Party shall endorse and adopt the manifesto
of the Left Wing as an expression of its principles and policies."
APRIL
"Resolution Passed by the
3rd Congress of the Ukrainian Federation of the Socialist Party
of America: New York, NY -- April 1919." This unanimous resolution of the
April 1919 convention of the Ukrainian Federation of the Socialist
Party proclaims that the Federation has "denounced in the
past, we denounce now, and shall continue to denounce in the
future, all groups and all parties which defend the old and corrupt
social order." Expressing pride in the Bolshevik revolution,
the Federation insists "we unreservedly adhere to the Ukrainian
(and international) Communist-Bolshevik Party. We shall continue
to support it as the sole representative of revolutionary aspirations,
as the only party competent to free the workers of all lands
and all races from the heavy yoke of capitalism, as the only
party which, upon the ruins of existing society, will be able
to upbuild the new order, the resplendent and just order of Communism...
We hold ourselves ready to fight in person as soon as we shall
have overcome the obstacles put in our way by our powerful enemies.
All hail to the universal revolution!"
"Letter to the Left Wing
Section of Greater New York from Amy Colyer, Assistant Secretary
pro tempore of Local Boston, Socialist Party regarding The
Revolutionary Age, April 1, 1919." Esoteric letter from a responsible
authority of Local Boston, Socialist Party -- publishers of the
main organ of the Left Wing Section, The Revolutionary Age
-- to the Left Wing Section of New York, which sought the move
of the publication to that more important center. Colyer relates
the results of a resolution passed the previous evening by Local
Boston which stated "Local Boston intends to keep The Revolutionary
Age in Boston, until a National Convention of Left Wing organizations
shall be held. Organizations taking part in said convention should
agree with the tactics of Bolshevik Russia and the Left Wing
Manifesto as published in the March 22 [1919] issue of The Revolutionary
Age. Delegates in said Convention should have voting power in
proportion to membership represented. Local Boston intends to
turn over the paper to the executive body elected by such Convention."
(The publication was in fact moved to New York City after the
June Conference of the Left Wing, where it was merged with John
Reed and Ben Gitlow's New York Communist, effective with
the issue of July 5, 1919.)
"Open Letter to Louis C.
Fraina in Boston from Adolph Germer in Chicago, published April
2, 1919." Testy
reply of Socialist Party Executive Secretary Adolph Germer to
comments levied against him by Louis Fraina in the March 8, 1919
issue of The Revolutionary Age. Germer declares that "It
is a thousand times easier to circulate a falsehood, and create
distrust, than it is to instill confidence in the honesty and
integrity of those who have been selected, wisely or unwisely,
to administer the affairs of the Socialist Party. It seems to
be human nature to believe that persons in official party positions
always have 'ulterior motives.' There are also persons who regard
it as a greater duty to carry on an internal quarrel, regardless
of the consequences to the movement, than to enlist new converts
to our cause." He outlines his personal opposition to an
Emergency National Convention of the SPA in 1919, citing factors
of cost and a previously planned platform and nominating convention
in 1920. Germer states that Fraina's assertion that Germer had
administratively disqualified the referendum motion of Local
Queens County, NY to hold a 1919 convention was erroneous. He
also indicates that the Socialist Party's effort to reach out
to other organizations to generate mass pressure upon the Wilson
regime to "regain victims for the wartime victims"
(a United Front action, it should be noted) was a higher priority
than holding a national convention to take a stand on international
issues. Germer further indicates that the call for the convention
is rather a matter of factional power-politics, writing "One
of the champions of the convention idea put it very bluntly the
other day when he said: 'We want to see who is boss in the party.'
Others have expressed it more tactfully."
"A Reply to Algernon Lee:
Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by Moses
Oppenheimer [April 3, 1919] Veteran Socialist Moses Oppenheimer responds to
Algernon Lee's critique of the "Basis for Discussion"
Letter to the New York Call, of which Oppenheimer was
a signatory. He declares that "under the opportunist leadership
of men like Hillquit, Berger, Ghent, and Robert Hunter, the struggle
for [ameliorative] reforms has gradually overshadowed and supplanted
the demand for the abolition of wage slavery. More and more it
has resulted in petty tactics for vote catching. Berger's Old
Age Pension bill was a glaring exhibit of opportunist incapacity."
Oppenheimer argues that the worship of the ballot by the SP "opportunists"
ignores the fact that half of the working class in America is
disfranchised through lack of citizenship. "This lame policy
of the opportunists follows logically from their desire to be
considered safe and sane and respectable," Oppenheimer declares,
adding "The old roar of opportunism led us nowhere, except
to barren failure.... The time for picayune politics is irrevocably
gone."
"Socialist Party Tactics
and Policies: A Speech at Hunt's Point Palace, Bronx, NY -- April
4, 1919," by Louis Waldman New York Assemblyman Louis Waldman, a staunch
adherent of the SP Regular faction, shared a platform in the
Bronx with Left Winger Benjamin Gitlow at a meeting called to
moot the factional controversy in the party. A stenographer was
present to preserve these speeches -- Waldman's later being reprinted
a month later in the factional newspaper the New York Socialist,
edited by David Berenberg. Waldman presents a well-ordered summary
of the Party Regulars' view of the controversy. Waldman denies
he is a "Right Winger," adding "To my knowledge
there is no such thing. I am aware of the fact that there is
a group who organized and call themselves the 'Left Wing.' There
is the Socialist Party and this so-called 'Left Wing.'"
He ironically asks of his factional opponents: "You say
the Socialist Party did not captivate the imagination of the
workers because it was not revolutionary enough. Very well; what
was the remedy? If we are weak because we have not been revolutionary
enough, why is it that the SLP, claiming to be the 100% revolutionary
article, has not only failed to captivate the imagination of
the working class, but has gone down to ruin?" Waldman adds
only 3 million of 18 million industrial wage-workers are unionized
and asks "if the only reason the some 15 million workers
are not organized is because the AF of L is not revolutionary,
what about the Industrial Workers of the World? Why has it not
crystallized this industrial revolutionary movement? The IWW
had since 1905 to do it. Heaven knows they were not short on
revolutionary phrases, if that is what the American working class
wants." Waldman states that there is no revolution in sight
and that only by fighting for immediate demands to correct the
most grievous deficiencies of capitalism can the workers be won
to the socialist movement. "I want to tell you cynical comrades
we live in a time when we have not got the courage to face reality
and our own convictions. We live in a time when we are afraid
to listen to the truth. We deliver revolutionary speeches in
a time when we cannot train ourselves in revolutionary action....
That is what the party is suffering from." He advises that
"if our platform is not revolutionary enough, if our resolutions
are not revolutionary enough, the thing to do is not to destroy
the party, but to change them, as party members, within the party,
and not as an outside organization foisting its will on the party."
"Enemy Outside, Not Inside:
A Letter to the Editor of the New York Call, April 7,
1919," by William M. Feigenbaum Socialist Party journalist William Feigenbaum
writes to editor of the New York SP daily announcing that he
had now taken a position in the "Left Wing" controversy
that was sweeping the party -- in support of the "Regular"
faction. Feigenbaum sarcastically remarks of the "Left Wing"
that "most of them are such veterans in the movement, with
such a record of fully six months each...that they must of necessity
know all about us. They know that we are hidebound, reactionary,
bourgeois, and no good generally. How do they know it? From our
actions? Our thoughts? Our records? No. There is a better test.
We are old-fashioned enough to care for the party that has meant
so much to us. That is inexcusable to them. We have the illusive
fetish of 'unity' and they (or many of them) in their superior
way, will have us understand that there is something better than
unity. And that is, jamming down an artificial 'program' at all
costs -- even at the cost of wrecking the movement, if they can
accomplish it in no other way." Feigenbaum asserts that
the Socialist Party will stand upon the principles of class struggle
and anti-militarism, but sees the Left Wing as comprised of newcomers
who do not know the temper of the Socialist Party and who are
intent on provoking a needless split. "Is this difference
of opinion a sufficient basis for the wild accusations and countercharges
that we are treated with today? I think not. And the vast majority
of the comrades think not. The enemy is outside. Not inside,"
Feigenbaum states.
"Socialists of Buffalo as
One Man Swing Over to Left: The Largest Meeting of Party Members
Ever Held Endorses Program Promulgated by Left Wing of Local
New York." [event of April 13, 1919] This article from Buffalo Socialist Party weekly
The New Age chronicles the move of the Buffalo party into
the ranks of the fledgling Left Wing movement at a meeting held
April 13, 1919. A special meeting held to consider the Left Wing
program of Local New York, which was approved by a unanimous
vote according to the article. The resolution sought the elimination
of social reform agenda, declaring instead that "the party
must teach, propagate, and agitate exclusively for the overthrown
of capitalism, and the establishment of Socialism through a proletarian
dictatorship." Demands were made for a party-owned press,
repudiation of the Berne international in favor of a new international
incorporating the Bolshekiks of Russia and the Spartacans of
Germany, and for the immediate convocation of an Emergency National
Convention of the Socialist Party.
"New York State Committee,
Socialist Party Holds Annual Meeting: Walter Cook Elected State
Secretary -- Locals Affiliating with Left Wing Have Charters
Revoked -- Asks National Convention." [held April 13, 1919]
Account of the
seminal April 1919 annual meeting of the New York State Committee,
which effectively made affiliation with the Left Wing Section
a party crime meriting expulsion. The key resolution was proposed
by David P. Berenberg of Local Queens County, calling for the
State Executive Committee to revoke the charter of any local
affiliating with the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party
or permitting any of its affiliated branches to do likewise.
Berenberg's proposal spurred hours of heated debate, with the
Party Regular faction winning the test of strength with the Left
Wingers by a vote of 24-17, with 2 abstentions. The meeting also
elected Walter Cook of the Bronx as State Secretary and a new
State Executive Committee, consisting of Theresa Malkiel of New
York; Simon Berlin, New York; Herbert Merrill, Schenectady; Nicholas
Aleinikoff, New York; Esther Friedman, Bronx; James Sheehan,
Albany; F.A. Ariand, Albany; Jacob Hillquit, New York; and Julius
Gerber, New York. A group of resolutions on contemporary issues,
reprinted here, were also passed.
"New York State Committee,
Socialist Party Resolution on the Left Wing Section, Adopted
April 13, 1919." On
April 13, 1919, the State Committee of the Socialist Party of
New York gathered in Albany for its annual meeting. A resolution
was proposed by David Berenberg of Local Kings County which denounced
and effectively banned the Left Wing Section as an organization
"in violation of the spirit of the constitution." The
New York State Executive Committee was instructed by Berenberg's
resolution to "revoke the charter of any local that affiliates
with any such organization or that permits its sub-divisions
or members to be so affiliated." A heated debate followed
which continued until 4:30 pm, with the final tally showing 24
in favor, 17 opposed, and 2 abstaining. This decision paved the
way for a factional civil war in the Socialist Party of New York,
which erupted immediately.
"BoI Agent Account of a Mass
Meeting of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party: Minneapolis,
MN," by Frank O. Pelto [April 13, 1919] This document chronicles the debut
meeting of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party in Minneapolis
on April 13, 1919. On the motion of Latvian socialist Charles
Dirba (later Executive Secretary of the Communist Party of America),
a committee was elected to arrange a mass meeting in honor of
May Day 1919, "and if possible a demonstration." World
war veterans in the party were to be appealed to to march in
uniform in the parade in an effort to preempt police repression
of the march. Next on the agenda at this meeting of about 75
Twin Cities Socialists was consideration of a Left Wing Manifesto,
called the "Resolution of the Left Wing of the Twin Cities"
(reproduced in full here). This resolution made the following
"General" demands: (1) Revolution, nor Reform; (2)
Revolutionary Mass Action, not mere Parliamentarism. (3) No Compromise
in or out of the Party; (4) Dictatorship of the Proletariat,
not Constituent Assemblies or Coalition Government; and (5) International
Working Class Solidarity and Struggle Against the Capitalist
Class at All Times, not limited by any nationalistic considerations.
The resolution was passed and then Dirba addressed the gathering
on the subject of the difference between "the so-called
Left Wing Movement and the so-called Reform Socialists."
According to Pelto, "another speaker took the floor who
put a little dissension in the ranks by stating that the Left
Wing Movement was drifting away from the principles upon which
Socialism was built." Dirba answered by matching Marx quotation
with Marx quotation. A.L. Sugarman was then given the floor,
and he characterized Dirba's opponent as a "2-by-4 Non-Partisan
Leaguer," provoking hostile comment and leading to the meeting
adjourning in a state of disorder.
"Revolutionary Romanticists:
Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by Ralph
Korngold [April 14, 1919] This
letter to the New York Call by well-known SPA Regular
Ralph Korngold attacks "certain literary gentlemen in New
York, Boston, and elsewhere" for their impatient desire
to immediately conduct a revolution in America: "They want
it right away. They are tired of voting. They are tired of teaching
the masses how to vote. They sneer at ballot box victories, laugh
at ballot box defeats, speak with disdain of 'parliamentarianism'
and parliamentary methods. They find education too slow a process,
so they propose as a substitute Billy Sunday's method -- hysteria."
Korngold likens these individuals to "impatient children,"
anxious to abandon one game for another. "The IWW was their
plaything but yesterday; today it is the Soviet; tomorrow 'mass
action,'" Korngold declares, adding "When you point
out to them that the Socialist Labor Party, which has just received
Lenin's approval, has had a more radical program, and has had
even less success, they brush the fact aside with contempt. What
care they for facts? Let us have the tom-toms, and hysteria,
and barricades in the streets." At root, Korngold says,
is the "anarchistic contempt of majority rule" because
"they know they are the minority and have not the patience
to await the test of discussion and time."
Letter from Adolph Germer in Chicago
to Morris Hillquit at Saranac Lake, NY, April 17, 1919. A very important letter from the National Executive
Secretary to NEC member and leading party luminary, Morris Hillquit,
then recuperating from tuberculosis at a sanitarium at Saranac
Lake, New York. Germer acknowledges Hillquit's critiicism of
the party leadership and states the primary difficulty is one
of lack of communication with party members, which the SP's Bulletin
and The Eye Opener and first class mail stopped by Chicago
postal authorities while the press of the Left Wing Section seemingly
has free access to the mails. Germer states that most of the
party's growth is in the language federations, particularly the
Russian, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian, while "we are not reaching
the American worker who, after all, is needed to achieve the
revolution." Germer notes a new form of campaigning for
referendum seconds and remarks on the first example of bloc voting
for a slate of candidates, in this case 16 ballots from a Russian
Branch of Local Willimatic, Connecticut. He notes that a motion
has been made for a meeting of the NEC May 24 and states the
"very important matter" of establishing "the organization
to hold title of property for the property" remains. It
is clear throughout that ideas and information with regard to
the 1919 faction fight are flowing from Germer in Chicago to
Hillquit in New York, not vice versa, contrary to the theme of
the secondary literature of the 1919 faction fight.
"Socialist Tactics?"
by John Reed [April 19, 1919] In the debut issue of The New York Communist,
Left Wing Socialist John Reed editorializes about the fact
that Secretary of Local New York Julius Gerber had spoken against
the Left Wing Section by reading from an original copy of the
Left Wing City Committee's meeting minutes. While "the Left
Wing is not a secret organization" and the minutes would
be subsequently published, Reed notes, "the important point
is that an official of the Socialist Party reads from copies
of minutes that he had no title to possess, to one of the highest
delegate bodies of our organization. It was obvious to everyone
present that he had not come by his copy openly, yet he was allowed
to proceed without anyone making a protest." Reed sees as
hypocritical the fact that the Socialist Party protests against
government and private labor espionage, but " sits open-eared
and prepares to act on the information" when its own officials
practice similar espionage. "Are these the methods the Right
Wing intends to use inn the future? Does the membership of the
party support these methods?" Reed asks.
"The Party Situation in New
York," by John Reed [April 19, 1919] The April 13, 1919, annual session of the New
York State Committee effectively banned the Left Wing Section
in the party, instructing the State Executive Committee to revoke
the charters of all locals and branches supporting the Left Wing
manifesto. This article by John Reed provides other details about
the factional civil war in the Socialist Party of New York. First
and foremost, Reed notes that membership access to the party
was being restricted by the Party Regulars: "In the past
the party has been very lax regarding the admission of new members,
practically anyone who signed an application blank being admitted
without question. This fact has often been pointed out by many
of those members who now constitute the Left Wing, but without
result. But those who suggested a change in the method of admitting
new members had no idea of handing the control of the growth
of the party in this city over to a few handpicked individuals."
The filtering of Left Wingers at the time of their attempted
entry of the party is "a direct attempt by those at present
in control to perpetuate themselves," Reed believes, and
he charges that hundreds of applications have been held up for
factional reasons. A historically valuable first-hand account
of the "inquisition" of the "amateur Overman Committee"
to which new applicants in New York were forced to submit in
the spring of 1919 is provided in full. Reed also charges that
the Regulars engaged in other unscrupulous tactics in the factional
fight, including failure to allocate the requisite number of
seats on the City Central Committee to branches believed to be
dominated by Left Wing sentiment; gerrymandering party districts
to minimize Left Wing power; and banning of mention of Left Wing
meetings or advertising of the Left Wing press from the dominant
Socialist Party publications of New York City -- The Call
and The Jewish Daily Forward.
"One Reason for an Organization
Within an Organization: A circular letter to factional allies
from Julius Gerber in New York, April 19, 1919." With the decision made for factional
war to the knives in the Socialist Party at New York by decision
of the State Executive Committee at its seminal meeting of April
13, 1919, the Regular faction of the Socialist Party commenced
to organize itself. The primary leader of this faction was Julius
Gerber, Secretary of the Socialist Party of New York County,
who sent this organizational letter to a limited number of factional
allies on April 19. In Gerber's view, "The reason the Left
Wing has grown and is making converts is because they have an
organization that does nothing else. They have their organs that
give their side. They act as a group while we have neither organization,
nor press (The Call should not be used for factional purposes)
and our comrades act as individuals. Result is chaos on our side,
organization, discipline, and success on their side." Gerber
indicates that "The situation in the party is rather critical
at this time, and it is almost too late now to stem the tide,"
noting that "the so-called Left Wing is determined to either
capture or split the party." Gerber believes that "A
split in the party will at this time do irreparable injury to
our party and to the Cause, while the control of the party by
these irresponsible people will make the party an outlaw organization,
and break up the organization." He calls for an organizational
meeting on the night of April 21 at the home of the Rand School
of Social Science, in advance of the critical meeting of the
Central Committee of Local New York. "At this meeting the
die will be cast as far as Local New York is concerned. We ought
to decide beforehand. We ought to know what we are to do,"
Gerber declares.
"Minutes of the Left Wing
Section of Greater New York: First General Membership Meeting
-- April 20, 1919." Minutes
of what seems to be the first general membership meeting of the
Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party in New York City, Chaired
by Ben Gitlow. The minutes state that the organization originated
with a bolting minority delegation at a City Central Committee
meeting, which had grown to an organization of 4,000 in Greater
New York, of whom "about 800" were in attendance at
this meeting at the Manhattan Lyceum. The group heard a resolution
sent in by Ludwig Martens of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
"extending his allegiance and support to the Left Wing movement."
Resolutions were adopted calling for a strike on May Day, supporting
the Lawrence Strike, and calling for establishment of a working
class organization to fight for the freedom of Political Prisoners.
A resolution was adopted supporting the candidacy of Max Cohen
for Secretary of Local New York (running against Julius Gerber)
and for three Left Wing candidates running for the NEC of the
Socialist Party in the electoral district -- Louis Fraina, Nicholas
Hourwich, and Edward Lindgren. The action of the New York City
Committee of the Left Wing establishing the New York Communist
was approved and a "Red Week" of fundraising to support
that paper and the other recognized publication of the Left Wing
Section, the Yiddish-language Der Kampf, was approved.
There was a discussion about the State Executive Committee's
dissolution and reorganization of the 17th Assembly District
branch, and a committee of 7 was elected to cooperate with the
10 Left Wing members of the branch's Executive Committee ousted
in the fight.
"State Committee Proposition:
Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by L.
Basky [pub. April 23, 1919] Left Wing Hungarian Socialist Federation member
L. Basky writes to the New York Call about the April 13,
1919, ruling of the New York State Committee finding the Left
Wing Section to violate "the spirit of the constitution"
and instruct its Executive Committee on that basis to revoke
the charter of any local that affiliates with the Left Wing Section
or which permits its subdivisions or members to be affiliated.
Basky calls for the decision of the 24 members of the State Committee
majority to be put to a referendum vote of the Socialist Party
of New York. "The Left Wing is not a counter-organization
to the Socialist Party," Basky states, but rather a reflection
of the sentiment "that it was high time to set the party
abreast of the revolutionary events" and "to make it
a useful instrument in the darkest and bitterest and most critical
hours of the class struggle instead of making it what the Social
Democratic Party of Germany turned out to be -- the last fortress
of the dying capitalist system." Changing the party's course
required organization and a program, Basky notes. This program
is reducible to a set of concrete propositions, he feels: "To
abolish all reform planks in the Socialists' party platform;
to strictly adhere to an uncompromising class struggle, the last
phase of which will be the dictatorship of the proletariat; to
propagate revolutionary industrial unionism; to have the party
own all its official papers and institutions; to repudiate the
Berne Congress and to elect delegates to an international congress
proposed by the Communist Party of Russia." He calls for
an electoral test to determine whether these values reflect majority
opinion in the Socialist Party. However, "The fight is on,"
Basky notes, adding "I welcome the attack of the State Committee.
We at least know some of those we would have to face in the critical
hour. Might as well fight it out now, whether they or the Left
Wing represents the party. Let us find out right now who is with
us and who is against us."
"The Pink Terror, Part 1:
The Rape of the 17th Assembly District Branch," by John
Reed [events of April 17-23, 1919] With the April 13 decision of the New York State
Executive Committee behind them, the Regular faction set about
purging the Socialist Party of New York of Left Wing Locals and
Branches. First on the list was the 17th Assembly District Branch
of Manhattan -- the largest branch of Local New York, with about
400 members in good standing. Prompting action was an April 10
branch meeting which voted to recall the branches officials,
have extended discussion of party principles, and elect new officers
-- a motion which Reed states was approved by a vote of 27 to
7 (although Reed later notes that the branch's quorum was 46).
Some of these recalled officials appeared before the Executive
Committee of Local New York and requested the branch to be reorganized
-- Left Wing EC member Julius Codkind being "beaten up"
and expelled from the meeting in the process. The 17th AD hall
was padlocked by order of the Executive Committee of Local New
York prior to the weekly meeting of April 17, and on the next
day branch members received a letter from the Socialist Party
of New York County announcing the reorganization of the 17th
AD branch at a special purging meeting held that same evening.
Some 150 members showed up at this meeting and were forced to
turn in their party cards. Each was questioned whether they were
"a member of the Left Wing." Reed states that only
30 of those present were invited into the reorganized branch.
This small group received a letter inviting them to another special
meeting to reorganize the 17th AD branch, to be held April 20,
with admission by presentation of the notification letter only.
This meeting was guarded by 2 NYC policemen, Reed says, who made
sure the banned Left Wingers were physically excluded from the
meeting. Reed states that the episode concluded on April 23,
when a moving van swept up to 17th AD branch headquarters and
removed the furniture, also under police protection.
"The Situation in Local New
York," by David P. Berenberg [event of April 22, 1919] Participant's account of the April
22 meeting of the Central Committee of Local New York. The first
test of strength came with the election of the chairman, with
Regular U. Solomon defeating Left Winger Max Cohen, 39 to 19.
A protest was of the credentials of the delegates from the 17th
Assembly District branch, the subject of a recall on the one
hand and a branch reorganization on the other. A protracted debate
of over an hour was conducted on the matter, the delegates of
the 17th AD ultimately retaining their seats. Once it was clear
that the majority was lost, the Left Wing proceeded to engage
in dilatory tactics, says Berenberg, raising repeated points
of order, challenging decisions of the chair, and demanding or
fighting roll call votes in order to disrupt the meeting. "The
hall was crowded with visitors -- mostly young boys and girls
whose membership in the party is from a month to about a year,"
Berenberg states, and the Left Wing played to the crowd in an
attempt to an environment in which no business could take place.
"A motion was made and seconded and carried that the Central
Committee adjourn subject to the call of the Executive Committee,
and that the Executive Committee of Local New York be instructed
to reorganize Local New York, and put it on a working basis before
it calls the next meeting of the Central Committee. This motion
was carried by a vote of 71 to 36, whereupon the meeting was
adjourned," Berenberg writes, adding that the pandemonium
generated by Left Wing committeemen and supporters attracted
the attention of the police, who subsequently cleared the room.
"An Answer to Moses Oppenheimer:
Letter to the Editor of the New York Call," by Israel
Amter [April 25, 1919] In
this letter to the New York Call, Left Winger Israel Amter
takes on Centrist Moses Oppenheimer and his associates for bolting
a recent meeting of Local Bronx, Socialist Party. "These
comrades seem unable to grasp the first elements of democracy,"
Amter declares, adding "They complain that the meeting elected
Dr. [Julius] Hammer to the chair for three consecutive sittings.
It would appear obvious to anybody but a Right Winger that his
constant re-election was due to the confidence of the assemblage
in Dr. Hammer and to the democratic notion of majority rule."
Amter complains that after three meetings of Local Bronx held
to discuss tactics and the Left Wing Manifesto, Oppenheimer and
his comrades were intent upon "dilly-dallying" and
"preventing the assemblage from determining its own will"
by sending the matter to a handpicked committee of 15 for further
discussion. Amter indicates that the Left Wing Manifesto is "merely
a basis upon which we can get together for revolutionary action"
and adds that "no claim is made that it is a perfect document."
Amter thunders that the Left Wing "shall not rest till the
Socialist Party of America not only stands for, but lives up
to, the revolutionary ideas that it originally propagated. We
shall not rest till all the compromisers, surrenderers, and traitors
have been swept out of the party. And do not forget that there
are many more of this class in the party than left it in the
wake of those arch-revolutionists, Russell, Spargo, Walling &
Co."
"The Pink Terror, Part 2:
The Pillage of the 18th-20th Assembly District Branch,"
by John Reed [event of April 25, 1919] Having purged and reorganized the 17th AD Branch,
the reorganizers in New York set their sites on the 18th-20th
AD Branch, located in Harlem. The branch's meeting of April 25
was characterized by Reed as "orderly," and it elected
6 new delegates to the Central Committee of Local New York. Reed
states that the "Right Wing" declined to run for these
positions, that 8 candidates were nominated and 6 affiliates
of the Left Wing Section were elected. "The unanimous action
of the Right Wingers showed that there was some sort of scheme
on foot, so after the meeting the Propaganda Committee proceeded
to copy the records of the branch, for fear that Alderman Calman
and his moving van might swoop down and carry them off,"
Reed notes. This foreboding proved well placed, he adds, as the
very next day the Financial Secretary's desk was broken into
and party records were removed. The branch's facility was then
padlocked. A meeting of the (Left Wing) branch was held on Sunday,
April 27, at which it was decided to allow the Executive Committee
of Local New York "to remove the furniture or take any other
illegal action they pleased," b
