Eugene V. Debs exploded upon the national scene in 1894 as the leader of a sensational strike by his American Railway Union (ARU) against the Pullman Parlor Car Company—a job stoppage which paralyzed the country's transportation network for nearly two weeks. On January 1, 1897, the polarizing public figure Debs declared his allegiance to international socialism, emerging as the most widely recognized socialist in America. He would thereafter tour the country relentlessly, speaking to large audiences and writing hundreds of articles on political and economic themes over the ensuing three decades.
Debs almost singlehandedly established a new political party, the Social Democracy of America, in the summer of 1897, building upon the remnants of the depleted ARU. The organization advanced a double agenda, seeking to promote both electoral politics and the construction of socialist colonies on the frontier—a dual focus which led to internal tensions and a bitter split. In 1898 Debs cast his lot with Milwaukee publisher Victor L. Berger in a new organization dedicated to political action, the Social Democratic Party of America.
After a split of the older and larger Socialist Labor Party of America in 1899, protracted unity discussions between the Debs group and an organized body of former SLP dissidents ensued. This unity effort was marked by Debs's first run for president of the United States on a joint Social Democratic ticket in November 1900. After heated on-again off-again negotiation between the two groups, a marriage was finally brokered in the summer of 1901 and the Socialist Party of America was launched. The party would soon grow to become the third biggest in American politics, with Debs enthusiastically heading the Socialist ticket in 1904 in the second of his five runs for the presidency.
Other books edited by Tim Davenport and David Walters
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The Selected Works of Eugene V. Debs Vol. IV
Edited by Tim Davenport and David Walters -
The Selected Works of Eugene V. Debs Vol. III
Edited by Tim Davenport and David Walters -
The Selected Works of Eugene V. Debs Volume II
Edited by Tim Davenport and David Walters -
The Selected Works of Eugene V. Debs, Vol. I
Edited by Tim Davenport and David Walters -
The American Exceptionalism of Jay Lovestone and His Comrades, 1929-1940
Edited by Tim Davenport and Paul Le Blanc
Other books of interest
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The American Socialist Movement 1897-1912
by Ira Kipnis -
The Bending Cross
by Ray Ginger -
Class Struggle and the Color Line
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Tramps and Trade Union Travelers
by Kim Moody -
When Workers Shot Back
by Robert Ovetz