Eugene Debs

[inquisitive_socialist]

have any of you read anything by Debs? i recently read several speaches he made and was highly impressed. he seems really intelligent and i was struck by his perseverence for the workers cause, even in the face of such violence.

[SonofRage]

I've been a big fan of Debs for a while. Reading Debs probably have an influence in my joining the Socialist Party USA and the IWW.

[inquisitive_socialist]

its amazing how well he grasped the situation of modern communism/socialism.He even forsaw the problems redstar talks about in his radical workerism letters.

[RedCeltic]

Much like "Son of Rage" I was also highly influenced by Eugene V. Debs which led me to join the Socialist Party USA... (which he founded in 1901) and the IWW (Which he cofounded in 1905 along with many other socialists & anarchists.)

I am also quite fond of Debs because of how he had come to socialism was much like how I, myself had also done.

Debs was a labor leader, had helped form the Industrial Railroad Union, which took a major part in the Pullman Strike. "Pullman" was a manufacturer of luxury railroad cars, and like the corperation that built the town I currently live in... Pullman had a town out in the midwest built that is called a "company town. Everything is owned by Pullman and everyone worked for Pullman.

Debs used the "Industrial Union" concept to unite factions of the Railroad industry into one big railroad union, so that when they called a general strike against Pullman... Debs was able to bring railroads in the United States to a screeching halt.

They had to call out the national Guard, and Debs was locked up. Before the strike, Debs had been a member of the Democratic Party, and always saw militant Unionism as the way to liberate the working class.... however had never really sat down and had a good look at the system they lived in... not until he was in prison for the Pullman Strike.

The Pullman Strike had given him some national attention, and a prominant Socialist figure of the time, sent Debs a copy of Das Kapital. That, along with correspondence with socialists outside of Prision convinced Debs that the way forward for the working class, was the elimination of the capitalist system.

When I think of great socialists in American history... a few names come to my mind... Eugene V Debs, Daniel De Leon, Farrel Dobbs, WEB Dubois, Paul Robeson.
....

I'm sure others may come up with a diffrent list, but Debs seems to be the first one that most think of.

[inquisitive_socialist]

dude, did you just quote a fuckingtextbook or something?! Christ, you typed that like it was rote or something. obviously i know what he did and who he was, i just said i read his speeches. who are you strutting for? or do you just like to quote books to sound bright?

Edit: that was harsh, sorry but you can see what i mean right? Im glad you've read some of his works, and that you were impressed enough to join the Spusa and the wobblies.

[Xvall]

One of my favorites. I think I owe Wedit a wallpaper of him or something.

[inquisitive_socialist]

I thought this topic would do better than it has. oh well. its probably off the the trash can. As a closing arguement, i wouldlike to hypothesize that Debs has quite possibly predicted every problem communism and socialism have encountered since his creation of SPUSA.

[FatFreeMilk]

We just covered The Pullman strike in school like this week. It was about freaking time. I never read any of his books but he was a cool dude indeed. I am so getting an A++ on the upcoming chapter test.

[redstar2000]

After the Bolshevik coup in 1917, there was a tremendous struggle within the Socialist Party USA about whether to become involved in this new "communist international" and, in a sense, whether or not to become a more militantly anti-capitalist party...openly "pro-revolution".

Debs was already in a federal prison at the time (for his courageous attacks on U.S. imperialism, Wilson, the war profiteers, and especially conscription).

The leaders of the SP who were not in prison did not want to become involved with the Comintern under any circumstances...and bureaucratically expelled large numbers of SP members to keep that from happening.

Most of those expelled were recent immigrants from eastern Europe and even Russia itself (and a great many of them were ethnic/cultural Jews as well).

So what do you "Debs fans" know about these events? Did Debs know that this shit was going on in his own party? Did he ever say anything publicly against it?

:redstar2000:

The Redstar2000 Papers (http://www.redstar2000papers.fightcapitalism.net)
A site about communist ideas

[Rage Against the Right]

I'm feeling ignorant in this thread, does Debs have anything published that I should check out?

[inquisitive_socialist]

if you want to read up on debs you could always visit the Debs Foundation website at http://www.eugenevdebs.com/ And in resonse to redstar. I think Debs either didn't have knowledge of what was going on in his party, or couldn't do anything about it. If you read his speeches he would have been all for joining comintern. its seems pretty obvious that the heads of the SPUSA were afraid of backlash from the government and so felt they had to evict those more radical members. this doesn't excuse thyere actions however. had they not done this, its quite possible that the left in america would be stronger and more equally represented than it currently is. iknew about this and its one of the things that has kept me from joining the SPUSA. this peice of history makes me fear something similar were the government of the US to crack down on radical groups. i wouldn't want to be handed to Rumsfeld on a platter because i gave my personal information to them.
Debs couldn't have known about what was going on in the SPUSA or he would have vociferously protested. I think the heads of the SPUSA felt that they were safe in their actions BEACUASE Debs was in prison and couldn't do more than verbal protests.