Morris Hillquit

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Morris Hillquit around 1915
Morris Hillquit on July 25, 1924

Morris Hillquit (born August 1, 1869 in Riga as Moishe Hillkowitz , † October 8, 1933 in New York City ) was a Russian-American lawyer and politician. He was one of the founders of the Socialist Party of America (SPA) in the USA . He was the chairman of the SPA in New York City and a prominent labor law attorney in the Lower East Side .

Life

Moishe (later in the USA: Morris), son of the Jewish factory owner Benjamin Hillkowitz, attended a Russian-speaking secular Riga school when he was 13 . In 1884 the father emigrated to the United States with the eldest son for economic reasons. Both moved into a two-room apartment in a New York tenement . In 1886, Morris followed with the rest of the family. In his posthumous autobiography, Morris Hillquit describes life in those first American years on the Lower East Side as poor. The feeble youth tried different jobs; worked in the textile industry.

In 1887, on his 18th birthday, Morris joined the Marxist - Leonist Socialist Labor Party of America (SLP, roughly: Socialist Party of Labor of America). At the age of 19, Morris became managing director of the Yiddish Arbeter newspaper founded by Abraham Cahan and Morris Wintschewski . In 1893 he graduated from the New York University School of Law (about: Law Faculty of New York University ) and was admitted to the bar.

In 1901, Morris Hillquit succeeded in merging the SLP (see above) with the Social Democratic Party of Victor L. Berger and Eugene V. Debs to form the SPA (see above). For the rest of his life, Morris Hillquit remained loyal to the SPA as one of its party leaders.

On the VI. International Socialist Congress of the Second International from August 14 to 20, 1904 in Amsterdam , Morris Hillquit also dealt with the anti-immigration resolution. It was about the US problem of immigration quotas. Hired work slaves (for example Chinese and negroes) used US capital at the time as cheap rivals against indolent domestic industrial workers.

In the years leading up to the outbreak of war , Morris Hillquit embarked on grueling inner-party fights. His adversary, the radical Big Bill Haywood , operated from the left syndicalist SPA wing as the leader of the IWW .

The internationalist and anti-militarist Morris Hillquit sat down together with Meyer London and the trade unionist James H. Maurer on January 26, 1916 with President Wilson against the entry of the United States into the war . As a lawyer, Hillquit fought for press freedom in difficult times of war .

In the summer of 1919, the left wing of the SPA sought a split - the establishment of a Communist Labor Party of America . Morris Hillquit, who suffered from tuberculosis , could only follow the events from the sanatorium.

Works (selection)

  • History of Socialism in the United States. Authorized translation by Karl Müller-Wernberg. Introduced by FA Sorge . Verlag JHW Dietz Successor, Stuttgart 1906. International Library Vol. 39 (Funk & Wagnalls, New York 1903: History of Socialism in the United States , five editions during the author's lifetime). There are still translations into Russian, Yiddish, Finnish and Polish.
  • Recent Progress of the Socialist and Labor Movements in the United States (such as Recent Progress in the Socialist and Labor Movements in the United States). Charles H. Kerr & Co., Chicago 1907
  • Socialism - Its Theory and Its Practice . Hepner 1911 (Macmillan, New York 1909: Socialism in Theory and Practice )
  • Socialism summed up (roughly: socialism in a nutshell). HK Fly, New York 1912
  • From Marx to Lenin (From Marx to Lenin ). Hanford Press, New York 1921
  • posthumously: Autobiography: Loose leaves from a busy life (e.g. loose leaves from a restless life). Macmillan Co., New York 1934

literature

Web links

Commons : Morris Hillquit  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

annotation

  1. ↑ Leon Trotsky alludes to Hillquit's visit to Europe in his memoirs. On January 13, 1917, the emigrant Trotsky landed in New York. Twelve years later, in his reminiscences of the American socialists, he only articulates incomprehension and malice: “The socialist party of the United States is ideologically far behind, even behind European social patriotism. The arrogance of the then still neutral American press towards obsessed Europe found an echo in the judgments of the American socialists. People like Hillquit were not averse to playing the role of the socialist American uncle who would come to Europe at the right moment and reconcile the warring parties of the Second International ... In the United States there is a large class ... of semi-open doctors , Lawyers, dentists, ... Hillquit [is] the most ideal socialist leader of the prosperous dentists ... Hillquit's main art was to keep Debs on his left wing ... ”(Trotsky, p. 247, 2. Zvu to p. 248, 2nd Zvu, see also In New York at MIA )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ eng. Socialist Labor Party of America
  2. ↑ eng. New York University School of Law
  3. ↑ eng. James H. Mason
  4. ↑ eng. Communist Labor Party of America
  5. ↑ eng. History of Socialism in the United States. in the Internet Archive
  6. ↑ eng. Recent Progress of the Socialist and Labor Movements in the United States: Report of Morris Hillquit im Internet Archive
  7. ↑ eng. Socialism in Theory and Practice in the Internet Archive
  8. ↑ eng. Socialism Summed Up in the Internet Archive
  9. ↑ eng. From Marx to Lenin in the Internet Archive
  10. ↑ eng. Norma Fain Pratt at jwa.org
personal data
SURNAME Hillquit, Morris
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hillkowitz, Moishe (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian-American lawyer and politician
DATE OF BIRTH August 1, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Riga
DATE OF DEATH October 8, 1933
Place of death New York City