Eugene V. Debs

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Eugene Debs (1912)

Eugene Victor Debs (born November 5, 1855 in Terre Haute , Indiana , † October 20, 1926 in Elmhurst , Illinois ) was an American socialist who was active in the labor movement and five times for the Socialist Party of America for the office of the US -President ran.

Life

Early life

Debs' middle class parents were immigrants from Colmar , Alsace , who settled in Terre Haute, where Debs lived most of his life. At the age of 14 he left the place to work as a stoker for various railways . Five years later he returned to Terre Haute, where he initially worked as an employee in a grocery store. In 1875 he became a founding member of the local section of the Stokers' Railroad Society. There he rose quickly in the hierarchy and was initially deputy editor of their magazine and in 1880 editor and general secretary. At the same time he became better known in local politics and was elected as a Democrat in the Indiana House of Representatives.

From a union perspective, the railroad fraternities were relatively conservative , with an emphasis on cooperative aspects and services to their members rather than collective bargaining. Debs also originally followed this line and did not advocate the great strikes of 1877. Debs later revised this attitude against the background of poor working conditions at the railroad and became convinced that there was a need for a more uniform and confrontational way of working. He resigned as general secretary and in 1893 founded the United States' first industrial union , the American Railway Union (ARU). This union went on strike against the Great Northern Railway in April 1894 and most of their demands were met.

Pullman strike

Debs also took part in the Pullman strike in May 1894. This wildcat strike grew out of disputes over compensation for the workers who built the wagons for the Pullman Palace Car Company . The Pullman Company cut its workers' wages by 28 percent and laid off numerous workers because of slump in income after the economic downturn of 1893. The workers, many of whom were already members of the American Railway Union (ARU), called the union for assistance at their meeting in Chicago . Debs tried to convince union members that a sympathy strike would be too risky, given the hostility of the railroad company and the federal government , the weakness of the railroad workers' union, and the risk that other unions might break the strike. The ARU ignored his warnings and refused to shunt Pullman trains or wagons connected to them, including those that carried mail. Debs decided to take part in the strike carried out by almost every member of the ARU in the Chicago area. The strikers, under Debs' leadership, pushed through boycotts of Pullman cars. Despite his initial hesitation, the strike came to be known as the Debs' Rebellion.

The federal government stepped in, and the Attorney General obtained a ban on all strike support from the railroad workers' union in federal court on July 2 using the Sherman Antitrust Act . The reason for this order was that the strikers had obstructed the railway company by not showing up for work. Finally, army units were deployed on the grounds that the strike was hindering the delivery of mail. This provoked a violent reaction from the strikers, who had remained peaceful until then. The strike cost a total of 13 lives and 57 were injured. Property damage was estimated at $ 80 million. On August 2, 1894, the strike ended. The Pullman Company resumed operations but did not recruit strike leaders. The workers had to sign that they would no longer be unionized.

Union leader Debs and other ARU leaders were charged as "conspirators". The later famous lawyer and civil rights activist Clarence Darrow took over his representation, but could not prevent a guilty verdict for "disturbing the postal service". Debs was sentenced to six months in prison in May 1895 and was not released until November 22, 1895.

Socialist leader

Debs radicalized this experience even further: if he was not a socialist before the strike, he read the works of Karl Marx while in captivity and became enthusiastic about socialism. He ran for president , first in 1900 as a member of the American Social Democratic Party , later for the Socialist Party in 1904 , 1908 , 1912 and - although in custody - 1920 .

Debs, however, was critical of the election process and distrusted the political concessions that Victor L. Berger and other socialists were forced to make. Debs, on the other hand, placed more emphasis on the organization of workers, especially in industry. Debs, however, also rejected the apolitical syndicalism , which was partly cultivated in the organization Industrial Workers of the World . Although he initially supported the IWW, he was later appalled by what he believed to be irresponsible advocacy of direct action , particularly the use of sabotage .

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Although Debs criticized the apolitical pure and simple union work of the railroad fraternities and craft associations within the American Federation of Labor , he himself practiced a form of pure and simple socialism that underestimated the existing power of racism , which he saw as an aspect of capitalist exploitation. As Debs wrote in 1903, the party had no specific offer for the African American population and could not cater to the needs of all races. The Socialist Party is the party of the working class, regardless of skin color, of the entire working class of the world. Debs was advanced in this respect than many others in the Socialist Party: While all his years as a socialist he rejected racism from, he refused in the southern states to racially separate speaking audience, DW Griffith 's " Birth of a Nation He condemned.

Personal impact

Debs was a charismatic speaker who made use of common phrases in Christianity and whose style of speech was reminiscent of Christian preachers, although he was rather hostile to organized religious communities. In an obituary for Debs, Heywood Broun quoted a socialist friend as saying :

“That old man with the burning eyes actually believes that there can be such a thing as the brotherhood of man. And that's not the funniest part of it. As long as he's around I believe it myself. "

“That old man with the burning eyes actually believes that something like a general brotherhood of humanity is possible. And that alone isn't the funnest thing. As long as I am in his presence, I believe in it myself. "

Debs himself was not convinced of his ability as a speaker, as he let his audience know in a 1910 speech in Utah:

“I'm not a Labor Leader; I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I lead you in, some one else would lead you out. YOU MUST USE YOUR HEADS AS WELL AS YOUR HANDS, and get yourself out of your present condition. "

“I am not a labor leader; I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay where you are now. Even if I could, I would not lead you to the promised land, because if I did lead you, someone else would lead you out. You have to use your heads and hands yourself to get out of your current situation. "

Re-imprisonment

A speech given by Debs on June 16, 1918 in Canton , Ohio, in which he opposed World War I , earned him imprisonment and indictment under the Sedition Act of 1918 on June 30 . Because of ten calls for resistance, he was sentenced on September 18, 1918 to ten years' imprisonment and life deprivation of civil rights. Before the verdict was announced, he uttered the following words, arguably among those of his best remembered:

“Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. "

“Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings and I realized that I was no better than the meanest person on earth. I said then and I say today that there is indeed an underclass, and I belong to it. As long as there are criminal elements, I am part of it, and as long as a soul is in prison, I am not free. "

Debs challenged his conviction to the United States Supreme Court . In his judgment on this case, Debs v. United States , the court referred to several statements made by Debs on World War I. Debs had taken great care not to break the Espionage Act in his speeches . However, the court found that his intentions were to thwart the drafting and training of conscripts. Among other things, the court cited that Debs praised the conscripts imprisoned for their refusal to serve. In Judge Holmes ' opinion , Debs' case was little different from that of Schenck v. United States underlying facts in which the court had already upheld criminal judgments of the lower courts.

On April 13, 1919, he was served in federal prison in Atlanta , Georgia . During the imprisonment he ran in November 1920 in the election for the office of US President . With 913,664 votes, he achieved 3.4%, the best result so far for a presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America . He even had slightly more votes than in his previous candidacy in 1912, when he won a share of six percent of the vote with a smaller electoral population ( introduction of women's suffrage in August 1920 ).

Debs was released from prison on December 25, 1921 after President Warren G. Harding released him from the remainder of his term. However, Debs was unable to fully recover from the illnesses that had developed during his detention. He died of heart failure on October 20, 1926. In 1976 he was posthumously restored to civil rights.

Fonts

  • Walls & Bars. Socialist Party, Chicago IL 1927.
  • Debs. His Life, Writings and Speeches. With a Department of Appreciations. University Press of the Pacific, Honolulu HI 2002, ISBN 1-4102-0154-6 .
  • J. Robert Constantine (Ed.): Gentle Rebel. Letters of Eugene V. Debs. University of Illinois Press, Urbana IL et al. a., ISBN 0-252-06324-4 .
  • J. Robert Constantine, Gail Malmgreen (Eds.): The papers of Eugene V. Debs, 1834-1945. A guide to the microfilm edition. Microfilming Corporation of America, Glen Rock NJ 1983, ISBN 0-667-00699-0 .

literature

Archive sources:

  • Indiana State University Library's Debs Collection (searchable collection of leaflets, correspondence, photos, surveillance reports, and more)
  • Eugene Victor Debs Papers, 1881-1940 . Indiana Historical Society manuscript collection
  • Bernard J. Brommel - Eugene V. Debs Papers, 1886–2003 . Research materials and works by Debs biographer Bernard J. Brommel, with notes, photocopies, photos, leaflets, press articles and memorabilia. Also primary sources about and from Debs, with correspondence, works, and miscellaneous. Newberry Library holdings ( online catalog )

Web links

Commons : Eugene V. Debs  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
Wikiquote: Eugene V. Debs  - Quotes
Wikisource: Eugene V. Debs  - Sources and full texts (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Little Encyclopedia. Volume 1. Encyclios-Verlag, Zurich 1950, p. 340.
  2. ↑ Eugene V. Debs. In: Time . November 1, 1926, accessed on November 12, 2017 : "As it must to all men, Death came last week to Eugene Victor Debs, Socialist" (obituary, English, full download subject to charge)
  3. ^ Howard Zinn : A People's History of the United States. 1492 - present. Rewprinted edition. HarperCollins, New York NY 2005, ISBN 0-06-083865-5 , p. 278.
  4. ^ Robert W. Kaps: Air transport labor relations. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale IL et al. a. 1997, ISBN 0-8093-1776-1 , p. 17.
  5. ↑ Jim McGuiggan: Jesus and Eugene Debs ( Memento January 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), on jimmcguiggan.com, accessed November 12, 2017 (English)
  6. ↑ Time and place of this statement are named differently, after Carrier it was 1906 in Detroit, after Salvatore 1910 in Utah.
  7. ↑ Jerry Carrier: Hard Right Turn: The History and the Assassination of the American Left . Algora Publishing, 2015, ISBN 978-1-62894-179-1 , pp. 82 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search - 1906 in Detroit).
  8. ↑ Nick Salvatore: Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist . University of Illinois Press, 1982, ISBN 0-252-01148-1 , pp. 229 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search - 1910 in Utah).
  9. ^ Ray Ginger: The Bending Cross: A Biography of Eugene Victor Debs . Rutgers University Press, 1949, pp. 244 (English, limited preview in Google Book search).
  10. ^ A b Learn About Eugene Debs. Texas Labor, at labordallas.org, accessed November 12, 2017
  11. ↑ Anti-War Speech ( Memento of November 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) on thememoryhole.org, accessed on November 12, 2017 (English)
  12. ↑ Debs' Speech of Sedition , 1918, on wikisource.org (English) (especially from point 5 )
  13. ^ Howard Zinn : Eugene V. Debs and the Idea of ​​Socialism. In: The Progressive magazine. January 1999, online version: EV Debs Internet Archive, 2008, online at marxists.org , accessed on November 12, 2017
  14. ^ Statement to the Court Upon Being Convicted of Violating the Sedition Act. on Marxists.org, accessed November 12, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Debs, Eugene V.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Debs, Eugene Victor (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician
DATE OF BIRTH November 5, 1855
PLACE OF BIRTH Terre Haute , Indiana
DATE OF DEATH October 20, 1926
Place of death Elmhurst , Illinois