Carl Skoglund (April 10, 1884 – December 11, 1960) was a Swedish-American socialist, affectionately called ''Skogie'' by all his American friends and comrades. He was born in Dalsland and went to the United States in 1911, sailing in steerage first on board the Swedish ship ''Oslo'', sailing from

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

Hull, England Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south-east o ...

; and thence on the White Star Line ship ''Cymric'', sailing from Liverpool to Boston; his destination was Minneapolis. After spending some time in the Industrial Workers of the World he became one of the founders of the American Communist Party and later became a Trotskyist and one of the co-founders of the Socialist Workers Party.

Early life in Sweden

As Carl entered his teens his father died, making it necessary for him, as the oldest child, to leave school and earn a living for the family. He found a job in a

pulp mill A pulp mill is a manufacturing facility that converts wood chips or other plant fiber sources into a thick fiber board which can be shipped to a paper mill for further processing. Pulp can be manufactured using mechanical, semi-chemical, or ful ...

. Wages were low and working conditions hard in the mill, so Skoglund organized a union and lead a strike for better conditions. Through his experience in the

class struggle Class conflict, also referred to as class struggle and class warfare, is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society because of socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor. The forms ...

, he became interested in Marxism and joined the

Swedish Social Democratic Party The Swedish Social Democratic Party, formally the Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party ( sv, Sveriges socialdemokratiska arbetareparti ; S/SAP), usually referred to as The Social Democrats ( sv, link=no, Socialdemokraterna ), is a social-d ...

. Later on Skoglund was called up for service in the

Swedish army The Swedish Army ( sv, svenska armén) is the land force of the Swedish Armed Forces. History Svea Life Guards dates back to the year 1521, when the men of Dalarna chose 16 young able men as body guards for the insurgent nobleman Gustav Vas ...

. When the conscripts were kept in uniform beyond the legal period of compulsory service, he became one of the leaders of a soldiers' protest movement demanding that they be demobilized. For his militant political activities, Skoglund was

blacklisted Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist (or black list) of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list. If someone is on a blacklist, t ...

and could not find a job in Sweden. In 1911, he decided to go to the United States. His fiancée remained behind and they were never rejoined.

In America

In the United States, Skoglund joined the IWW and spent a period on a railroad construction gang after which he went into the woods working as a lumberjack. There he suffered a serious foot injury, after which the company fired him. Skoglund went to Minneapolis where he sought medical care, maintaining himself by working as a janitor and boiler tender. As the injury mended and he could get around better, he worked as a mechanic and took job as a car repairman in the railway shop. Skoglund joined the Socialist Party of Eugene V. Debs in 1914 and became one of the left-wing leaders of the Party's Scandinavian Federation. Skoglund helped translate the works of Karl Marx from German to English. In 1917, a split in the Socialist Party was caused by the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...

in which the left-wing of the party provided the main force to found the American Communist Party in 1919, which became affiliated with the Communist International led by Lenin, Zinoviev and Trotsky. Carl Skoglund was one of the founding members of the American Communist Party. In 1922, after having been the organizer and leader of a major strike, Skoglund was blacklisted on the railroads, and he had to turn to driving a coal truck for a living.

Socialist Workers Party

Carl Skoglund was expelled from the Communist Party in 1928 for opposing

Stalinism Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...

and supporting Trotsky and

Bolshevism–Leninism Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...

. Carl Skoglund helped the American Trotskyist

James P. Cannon James Patrick Cannon (February 11, 1890 – August 21, 1974) was an American Trotskyist and a leader of the Socialist Workers Party. Born on February 11, 1890, in Rosedale, Kansas, the son of Irish immigrants with strong socialist convictio ...

(also expelled from the CP) to found the Socialist Workers Party in 1938. Skoglund also played an important part in the great Teamsters strike in Minneapolis in the 1930s together with Farrell Dobbs and

Ray Dunne Vincent Raymond Dunne (17 April 1889 – 17 February 1970), also known as Vincent R. Dunne or Ray Dunne, was an American Trotskyist, teamster, lumberjack, and union organizer with the Industrial Workers of the World and the International Brotherh ...

. Skoglund was one of the 18 SWP leaders (including Cannon, Dunne, and Dobbs) imprisoned in World War II under the Smith Act. The US government tried to deport Carl Skoglund in the 1950s and he was still under deportation orders on the day he died in 1960.''Carl Skoglund'' (International Socialist Review, Winter 1961)
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References

Other sources

*Ross, Carl ''Radicalism in Minnesota, 1900–1960: a survey of selected sources'' (Minnesota Historical Society Press. 1994) {{DEFAULTSORT:Skoglund, Carl 1884 births 1960 deaths People from Dalsland Industrial Workers of the World members Members of the Socialist Party of America Members of the Communist Party USA Members of the Socialist Workers Party (United States) Socialist Workers Party (United States) politicians People convicted under the Smith Act Swedish emigrants to the United States Swedish communists American trade unionists of Swedish descent Minnesota socialists Trade unionists from Minnesota