Left Wing Section Of The Socialist Party
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party was an organized faction within the
Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of America ...
in 1919 which served as the core of the dual
communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
parties which emerged in the fall of that year—the
Communist Party of America The Communist Party USA (CPUSA), officially the Communist Party of the United States of America, also referred to as the American Communist Party mainly during the 20th century, is a communist party in the United States. It was established ...
and the Communist Labor Party of America.


History


Precursors

A generalized Left wing had existed prior to 1919, but lacked organizational cohesion. The success of the
Bolshevik Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It was led by Vladimir L ...
in Russia and the end of
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
was an accelerant that made
revolutionary socialism Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine, and tradition within socialism that stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary to bring about structural changes in society. More specifically, it is the view that revo ...
an important issue of the day for many in America and around the world. One important forerunner of the organized Left Wing Section of 1919 was the magazine '' The Class Struggle,'' founded by Ludwig Lore of the '' New Yorker Volkszeitung''. Lore's magazine, which first saw print in May 1917, related current events in Europe and discussed matters of import written by various adherents of the Zimmerwald Left with an eager English-speaking audience. Co-editing the magazine with Lore were Louis C. Fraina, a former member of the
Socialist Labor Party The Socialist Labor Party (SLP)"The name of this organization shall be Socialist Labor Party". Art. I, Sec. 1 of thadopted at the Eleventh National Convention (New York, July 1904; amended at the National Conventions 1908, 1912, 1916, 1920, 192 ...
and voluminous writer on themes relating to the European revolutionary movement, and Louis Boudin, a well known Marxist theoretician. Another regular publication loyal to the left-wing was '' International Socialist Review'' published by Charles H. Kerr. A Socialist Propaganda League of America had been formed in Boston and by late 1918 had succeeded in taking over the Boston local. The Boston newspaper, '' The Revolutionary Age'' became the major voice of the Left wing in late 1918 and early 1919.


Formation of the Left Wing Section

In New York a specific Left wing group within the party had been formed in February 1919, and began publishing the '' New York Communist''. After the National Executive Committee voided the election returns to a new National Executive Committee, which would have a left majority, and expelled several Left Wing locals and federations in May 1919, the Leftist groups decided to meet in a conference in late June. At the conference however, there was still much dissension. The seven expelled federations and the Michigan party demanded that the Left wing go ahead and form a communist party, while the group around the ''Revolutionary Age'' still wanted to try to take over the Socialist party at its September convention. The Federations and the Michigan group walked out and formed a National Organization Committee, which was set on organizing a founding Communist convention to rival the socialist convention in September. They also began publishing their own newspaper, ''The Communist.''


The Left Wing National Council

The majority founded the National Council of the Left Wing and planned to take retake the socialist organization and convention. The council members included Louis Fraina, C. E. Ruthenberg, I. E. Ferguson, John Ballam,
James Larkin James Larkin (28 January 1874 – 30 January 1947), sometimes known as Jim Larkin or Big Jim, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican, socialist and trade union leader. He was one of the founders of the Irish Labour Party (Ireland), Labou ...
, Eamon MacAlpine,
Benjamin Gitlow Benjamin Gitlow (December 22, 1891 – July 19, 1965) was a prominent American socialist politician of the early 20th century and a founding member of the Communist Party of the United States, Communist Party USA. At the end of the 1930s, Gitlow t ...
, Maximilian Cohen, and Bertram Wolfe. Ferguson was named national secretary and the ''Revolutionary Age'', with Fraina as editor, became the official organ. The left wingers who had been elected to the new NEC but had been purged by the old NEC in May held a rump meeting in Chicago, on July 26–27 tabulating the votes for themselves and asking the national secretary, Adolph Germer, to had over the keys to the party headquarters. They were rebuffed. On July 28 the National council of the Left wing gave in and voted to attend the Chicago convention organized by the National Organizing Committee to form the
Communist Party of America The Communist Party USA (CPUSA), officially the Communist Party of the United States of America, also referred to as the American Communist Party mainly during the 20th century, is a communist party in the United States. It was established ...
. Three members of the National Council, however, Gitlow, Larkin and MacAlpine, were adamantly opposed to this. They, together with John Reed and Alfred Wagenknecht, formed a new faction, the Labor Committee of the Left Wing with a new organ, the ''Voice of Labor''.


The Emergency National Convention of 1919

At the August 31 opening of the Socialist party convention the Reed-Gitlow group tried to enter and present their credentials, but were promptly thrown out of the hall with the help of the police. The Left Wingers, joined by other socialist delegates who walked out of the convention in protest over the incident or for other disagreements with the socialist party, including the entire Ohio delegation, then met in the billiards room on the first floor of the Machinists Hall in Chicago and formed the Communist Labor Party.Draper, ''The Roots of American Communism,'' pp. 176–179.


Notes


External links


Left Wing Section of Greater New York
at Marxisthistory.org. {{Authority control Factions of the Socialist Party of America Communist Party USA