Current status of the American Socialist Labor Party

[MarxSchmarx]

What is the current status of the American Socialist Labor Party?

[Octavian]

Dissolved, apparently.

[ZeroNowhere]

I don't believe that they're dissolved as yet, though they're having problems with funding and don't really do much as a group.

[graymouser]

Well, The People stopped publishing with the March-April 2008 issue. Folks on 'spotters say that the SLP is still around and Robert Bills still answers emails, but the party is essentially not running as a party.

What's funny is that I did the math and in 2007 they should have had at least 109 members, probably a few more. If you've got a commitment to grow, that's actually a pretty good start - a number of groups today that are much more active than the SLP was in 2007 were smaller, even considerably smaller. But the SLP is a party that never managed to seriously grow after their last layer of recruitment in the 60s and 70s when there was a general interest in socialism as such.

I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the SLP, although I don't agree with their methods. De Leon had a fascinating way of putting things, and the SLP's politics were always bold and straightforward. And I'll always hold out hope that at least one more edition of The People will be put out. But sadly they're mostly a relic at this point.

[RED DAVE]

They've basically been a relic since about 1910.

RED DAVE

[graymouser]

They've basically been a relic since about 1910.

RED DAVE
I'd go a little more generous and say 1919. De Leon, whatever his faults, was one of the first giants of the American socialist scene. Every revolutionary socialist was for red unions back then, and De Leon's concept of an electoral revolution was pretty mainstream at that point.

But like I said, while I'm not about to become a Deleonist, a little part of my heart always wishes that relic can stick it out a while longer.

[RED DAVE]

I'd go a little more generous and say 1919. De Leon, whatever his faults, was one of the first giants of the American socialist scene. Every revolutionary socialist was for red unions back then, and De Leon's concept of an electoral revolution was pretty mainstream at that point.

But like I said, while I'm not about to become a Deleonist, a little part of my heart always wishes that relic can stick it out a while longer.It's not a matter of the notion of red unions, which, you are correct, revolutionary socialists by-and-large supported. It's a question of the SLP itself. By the time of the founding of the Socialist Party (1901) and the IWW (1906), the SLP had pretty much had it. They played no important role after that.

RED DAVE

[Martin Blank]

It's not a matter of the notion of red unions, which, you are correct, revolutionary socialists by-and-large supported. It's a question of the SLP itself. By the time of the founding of the Socialist Party (1901) and the IWW (1906), the SLP had pretty much had it. They played no important role after that.

If you had to put a date to the SLP's irrelevance as an organization, it would be more like 1921, which is the point when the SLP ended its relations with the Communist International. Until that point, and especially after 1917, the SLP had been in a position to influence class-conscious workers on a large scale through its interactions with non-SLP Marxist currents in the U.S. and internationally, most of which coalesced into the Communist movement in the U.S. after 1919. The Bolsheviks' interest in the SLP resulted in a much-needed "bounce" in support at a time when its influence in other areas, such as in the radical union movement, were on the wane. But after it rejected participation in the formation of the Communist Party of America and its legal face, the Workers Party of America, they began to wither and die on the vine.

[Die Neue Zeit]

^^^ IIRC, the Comintern also considered the IWW as a potential American branch alongside the SLP.


But after it rejected participation in the formation of the Communist Party of America and its legal face, the Workers Party of America, they began to wither and die on the vine.

Wouldn't that have meant the liquidation of the SLP and the transfer of its activists to the new organizations?

[graymouser]

^^^ IIRC, the Comintern also considered the IWW as a potential American branch alongside the SLP.
The process of forming what became the Communist Party of America and the Communist Labor Party, and later the Workers (Communist) Party and finally the Communist Party, was effectively a regroupment between the SP left wing and the Marxists in the IWW. This process concluded with the recruitment of William Z. Foster, a non-IWW syndicalist who became one of the party's biggest figures.


Wouldn't that have meant the liquidation of the SLP and the transfer of its activists to the new organizations?
Presumably it would've meant regrouping them all into a single Communist Party. I don't think "liquidation" is quite the right word as the SLP's material culture would not have been lost.

[Red Commissar]

Looking at the minutes (http://www.slp.org/pdf/slphist/nc_2007.pdf) of their last meeting in 2007 it would seem that they were really running on vapors. The data shows they incurred losses with the distribution of their printed materials and had an overall loss of members from the last meeting- which preempted I suppose the end of the distribution of The People. They barely had the money then to function as the dying party then- mostly running on reserves from what I presume were the proceeds of members that had died before.

According to discussions I read on Leftist Trainspotters, it would appear this meeting had a total of 11 delegates, the national General-Secretary, and two guests. More over the pdf was uploaded in April of 2010- nearly three years after the meeting itself.

From the other stuff I read, it seems the head is still receiving emails like greymouser said, and is working with MIA to help get works relating to De Leon and the party online. If you look at the "What's New" section over at MIA you'll see on May 23rd they added 30 pieces to the De Leon archive. So I would think at this juncture what ever committed members are remaining have mostly gone into trying to digitize what texts they have.