| on Debs |
Die Neue Zeit, 1913-14, 32, 1, pp. 1007-08. Debs in the International Socialist Review (1913, March) is for unity of the Socialist Party+the Socialist Labour Party[1] and the Industrial Workers of the World (of which Debs was a founder) against the American Federation of Labour. The New York Volkszeitung, March 7, 1913, comes out furiously against Debs, saying that he is abusing his “privi- lege to make stupid statements” (sic!), that the Industrial Workers of the World=nought, that the American Federation of Labour= “the American labour movement”, and that “it is impossible to ‘educate in a progressive spirit’ the workers’ movement by the formation of so-called revolution- ary organisations with radical programmes” (sic!) .... (Obviously, in America, too, one sees the usual picture: the New York Volkszeitung=the orthodox, the Kautskyites, whereas Debs is a revolutionary, but without a clear theory, not a Marxist.) |
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[1] The Socialist Labour Party of America was founded in 1876 at a Unity Congress in Philadelphia by a merger of the American sections of the First International and other socialist organisations. The Congress was held under the guidance of F. A. Sorge, longstanding associate of Marx and Engels. The bulk of the party consisted of immigrants largely unassociated with the Americanborn workers. In the early years, the party leadership was dominated by the Lassalleans, who committed errors of a sectarian and dogmatic nature. Marx and Engels severely criticised the American Socialists for their sectarian tactics. In the nineties the leadership passed to the Left wing, headed by Daniel De Leon. However, they committed anarcho-syndicalist errors. The S.L.P. repudiated the struggle for partial working-class demands, rejected work in the reformist trade unions, and gradually lost whatever ties it had with the mass labour movement. In the First World War it tended towards internationalism. Under the influence of the October Socialist Revolution in Russia, its more revolutionary section took an active part in forming the Communist Party. At present the S.L.P. is a small organisation without any influence in the labour movement.
The American Federation of Labour (A.F.L.)—America’s biggest trade union centre, founded in 1881. Organised on craft principles, it united mainly the “labour aristocracy”. Its official organ, the monthly journal American Federationist, began to be published in Washington in 1894. The reformist leadership of the A.F.L. advocated class collaboration, defended the capitalist system, pursued a splitting policy in the international working-class movement, and actively supported the aggressive foreign policy of U.S. imperialism. In 1955 it merged with the other big trade union federation, the Congress of Industrial Organisations (C.I.O.), and the organisation is known as American Federation of LabourCongress of Industrial Organisations (A.F.L.-C.I.O.).
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