24 March 2014: Added to the Early American Marxism mirror of the Marxist History web site are the following documents from the American Socialist and Communist Parties: The Terror, by James Oneal [event of June 1908] Although perhaps slightly fictionalized for the allegorical telling, this short work by Socialist Party activist James Oneal detailing a June 1908 lynch mob which he witnessed stands as his most compelling piece of writing. First published in 1909, this powerful story was reprinted by the New York Call’s Sunday magazine in September 1918. Farewell, Capitalism! by Eugene V. Debs [May 24, 1918] The slaughter of millions on European battlefields, the tottering of war-stressed economies, and the emergence of the Bolsheviks in defeated Russia combined to create a sort of mass hysteria among revolutionary socialists in America, in which prospects were exaggerated and grim political realities minimized. Debs Refuses Nomination: Physical Condition and Busy Months Ahead Given as Causes. (Truth) [event of July 9, 1918] Although a candidate for Congress in his home state of Indiana in 1916, Eugene Debs chose not to run in the subsequent 1918 election. Bomb Explosion Kills 4 in Federal Building in Chicago; Arrests Reported. (NY Call) [event of Sept. 4, 1918] Terse initial report of the Sept. 4, 1918 Chicago Federal Building bombing as published the next morning in The New York Call, Socialist daily newspaper. Chicago Federal Building Bombed: Four Persons Killed, 75 Injured: Haywood There at Time: Structure Containing Landis’ Courtroom Damaged. (Morning Oregonian) [event of Sept. 4, 1918] Apparently a national wire news report of the Sept. 4, 1918 bombing of the Chicago Federal Building. Four were killed and 75 wounded when a high explosive bomb concealed in a suitcase and hidden behind a radiator blew out the Adams Street entrance of the building. Many injuries resulted from flying glass generated by windows of the lowest three stories of two buildings across the street being blown in on their occupants. The IWW -- 95 members of which had recently been sentenced in the building -- was immediately blamed for the terrorism and raids and arrests proceeded at once. For his part, IWW Secretary-Treasurer Big Bill Haywood, who was present in the building at the time of the blast, quickly “deplored the outrage” and vehemently denied an IWW connection. Bomb Explosion Blamed on IWW: Many Fellow Workers Arrested and Held Following Explosion in Federal Building, Chicago, which Killed 4 and Injured Many. (Defense News Bulletin) [event of Sept. 4, 1918] In the afternoon of Wednesday, Sept. 4, 1918, a bomb ripped through the entrance of the Chicago Federal Building, in which recently convicted IWW Secretary-Treasurer William D. Haywood was appearing in the office of the US Federal Marshal. A Terrible Deed. (St. Louis Labor) [event of Sept. 4, 1918] Short snippet covering the Sept. 4 bombing of the Chicago Federal Building from the pages of the Socialist Party of Missouri’s weekly newspaper. 4,000 Listen to Socialists on Russian Affairs: War on Soviet Government Would Mean War on People, Says Speaker, (NY Call) [event of Sept. 13, 1918] Throughout 1918 the ongoing situation in Soviet Russia remained a topic of keen interest among the Socialists of New York City, as reflected in this short news item about a mass meeting from the pages of the New York Call. Reed Held Under Spy Act; Bail is $5,000: Hearing Set for Tuesday on Charge of Violating Law in Recent Speech. (NY Call) [event of Sept. 14, 1918] One day after speaking before 4,000 New Yorkers at Hunts Point Casino, Liberator journalist John Reed was arrested for alleged violation of the so-called Espionage Act for remarks made during the course of his speech. New Jersey Socialist Asks Governor to Right Wrong: Reilly Tells Edge Jersey City Police are Throttling Party’s Campaign, by James M. Reilly [Sept. 26, 1918] Open letter by leading New Jersey Socialist and Senatorial candidate James M. Reilly to Republican Governor Walter Evans Edge pleading for intervention to overturn actions by the Democratic Jersey City political establishment to suppress the Socialist Party. Calling Jersey City “the fountainhead of dirty politics,” Reilly notes that the city’s police had been focused on Socialists: arresting Socialist speakers, coercing hall owners to refuse to rent their premises to Socialists seeking to hold mass meetings, and closing and locking the Socialist Party’s Hudson Country headquarters. June 17th After LaFollette, by C.E. Ruthenberg [June 6, 1924] Executive Secretary of the Workers Party of America C.E. Ruthenberg attempts to put on a happy face following a body blow delivered to the chances of formation of a mass united front Farmer-Labor Party on May 26 by presumed Presidential nominee Sen. Robert M. LaFollette. Circular Letter to All Delegates of the June 17th St. Paul Convention from C.E. Ruthenberg, Executive Secretary of the Workers Party of America, June 10, 1924. Brief circular letter instructing Workers Party delegates to the June 17th Farmer-Labor Party Convention to attend a pre-convention caucus at St. Paul’s Ryan Hotel. “It is very important that there be a preliminary conference of the Party members who are delegates, so that they can be thoroughly familiarized with the Party policies at the Party Convention. It is essential that you attend this conference and you are instructed to do so,” the communique reads. Letter to Nick Dozenberg, Accounting Department, Workers Party of America in Chicago, from Robert Minor in Chicago, Sept. 20, 1924. Short internal communication to one of the paymasters of the impoverished Workers Party of America from cartoonist-turned-magazine editor Bob Minor, begging for some payment for Maurice Becker for his artistic work done on behalf of The Liberator. Allen Cook: A Tribute: A Pioneer of Socialism in Ohio Passes Away -- The Spirit of a Spartan, by Eugene V. Debs [event of July 20, 1925] Brief memorial to a little-remembered Ohio Socialist, Allen Cook, who died of a stroke in July 1925 at the age of 41. Debs remarks upon Cook’s decisive importance to the Socialist movement of Canton, Ohio, as a pioneer there. New Leader Refuses to Admit Fabrication of Stalin’s Speech, by C.E. Ruthenberg [Sept. 16, 1926] On Aug. 14, 1926, the New York Socialist weekly The New Leader published what it purported were direct quotations from a speech by Joseph Stalin, General Secretary of the Russian Communist Party (bolsheviks), indicating a deep rift between the two main factional leaders of the Russian Communist Party. Comrade Stalin Exposes Social Democratic Forgery. (Daily Worker) [cable of Sept. 21, 1926] With C.E. Ruthenberg’s demand for retraction ignored, General Secretary of the Russian Communist Party (bolsheviks) I.V. Stalin takes time to respond to a report in the Socialist Party weekly The New Leader reporting of comments made severely critical of Comintern chief Grigorii Zinoviev. The Socialist Party Furnishes Its “Insurgents,’ by Bertram D. Wolfe [Sept. 23, 1926] Communist functionary Bert Wolfe takes a look at factionalism and “disintegration going on inside the Socialist Party” in this Daily Worker article. He sees the rightward-tilting Jewish Daily Forward as playing the decisive role in the dwindling Socialist organization, with that paper now having abandoned its opposition to Zionism and making an active play for the support of the petty bourgeoisie and right wing union leaders employing “gangster tactics” against left wing locals in the garment industry. Eastman Drops His Mask, by Max Bedacht [Oct. 20, 1926] Top Ruthenberg factional lieutenant Max Bedacht takes up the Comintern’s cudgel against supporters of the opposition in the Russian Communist Party headed by Grigorii Zinoviev and Leon Trotsky. The target here is former Liberator magazine editor Max Eastman, who had the temerity to publish a factionally-driven work on contemporary Soviet history entitled Since Lenin Died. Eugene V. Debs and the Revolutionary Labor Movement, by C.E. Ruthenberg [Nov. 6, 1926] General Secretary of the Workers (Communist) Party C.E. Ruthenberg answers Socialist critics who charge the Communists with misrepresentation and bad faith for conducting memorial meetings in honor of the recently-deceased SPA National Chairman Gene Debs. While acknowledging Debs’ place outside the Communist Party, Ruthenberg pointedly remarks that “the Socialists do not care to be reminded of the many times that Eugene V. Debs disagreed with the reformist and reactionary position taken by the Socialist Party. Harry Gannes Dies: Daily Worker Foreign Editor Succumbs to Complications Following Operation for Brain Tumor, Was 40 Years Old. (Sunday Worker) [event of Jan. 4, 1941] Obituary from the official organ of the Communist Party USA detailing the life of Harry Gannes, former Foreign Editor of the paper. Gannes, born in England in 1900, was a key youth leader of the fledgling Young Workers League, before (presumably Comintern) work in China in 1932-33. [Thanks to Tim Davenport of the Early American Marxism Archive] https://marxists.org/history/usa/eam/index.html
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 19:44:58 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015