Eugene V. Debs Internet Archive

The Marxists Internet Archive is proudly mirroring the Eugene V. Debs Internet Archive, started by Socialist Party member John Metz in July of 2001. This year is also the 100th anniversary of the the Socialist Party of America, the party founded by Debs. We’ve reformated the text to meet Marxists Internet Archive standards, but all other attributes have been left the same. Debs wrote for many of the hundreds of socialist newspapers journals and magazines that existed during his life. The collection of all these writings is a life time project, a labor of love for America’s greatest Marxist. We are in debt to John Metz and the Chicago Socialist Party for allowing us to help build the Eugene V. Debs Internet Archive. Beginning in 2006, Robert Bills, the National Secretary of the Socialist Labor Party of the US, started contributing rare texts by Debs from the extensive SLP Archives. We thank Robert for his comradely contributions. Lastly, we have been linking to various E.V. Debs documents that have been placed on the Marxists Internet Archive Early American Marxism archive where many Deb’s documents reside and are in PDF format. The MIA’s EAM is a mirror of Tim Davenport’s Marxist History Archive.

EUGENE VICTOR DEBS (1855-1926) was one of the greatest and most articulate advocates of workers’ power to have ever lived. During the early years of the debs labor movement in the United States, Debs was far ahead of his times, leading the formation of the American Railway Union (ARU) and the American Socialist Party.

Debs was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, on November 5, 1855. He left home at 14 to work on the railroad and soon became interested in union activity. As president of the American Railway Union, he led a successful strike against the Great Northern Railroad in 1894. Two months later he was jailed for his role in a strike against the Chicago Pullman Palace Car Company. While in jail, Socialist and future Congressman Victor Berger talked with Debs and introduced him to the ideas of Marx and socialism. When he was released from prison, he announced that he was a Socialist.

He soon formed the Social Democratic Party, which eventually became the Socialist Party in 1901. He became their perennial presidential candidate. He ran on the Socialist ticket in 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920 when he received his highest popular vote—about 915,000 (6%)—from within a prison cell. He had been arrested once again, this time for “sedition”; because he opposed World War I. Many Socialists were imprisoned during this time because they felt that the war was being fought for the profits of the rich, but with the blood of the poor. Debs was fortunately released in 1921.

Debs died in Elmhurst, Illinois, on October 20, 1926, but he is remembered to this day by countless labor activists from all over the political spectrum. The Eugene V. Debs Foundation works to continue his legacy into the 21st century...

To learn more about Debs and his life, read Stephen Marion Reynolds’ Biography of Eugene V. Debs for a full accounting of his life and times.

A full collection of Biographies, Critiques, and Memiors of Eugine V. Debs is located here: Biographies and Critiques of E.V. Debs

1888–1895 | 1897–1899 | 1900–1902 | 1903–1904 | 1905 | 1906 | 1907 | 1908 | 1909 | 1910 | 1911 | 1912 | 1913–1914 | 1915 | 1916 | 1917–1918 | 1919–1920 | 1922 | 1923 | 1924–1927