Socialist Party of America. Founded in 1901, the Socialist party of America (SPA) drew on deep roots of dissent within American society, enjoyed its peak influence during the
Progressive Era, and remained a sometimes lively ghost in later years. The Socialist party's precursors—including abolitionists, women's rights campaigners, agrarian radicals, utopian socialists, and trade unionists—had long proposed alternative social arrangements. Small socialist political organizations, led mainly by
German Americans in the post–
Civil War decades, played a crucial role in the formation of the American
labor movement. But the depression of the 1890s, violent labor struggles, the Populist revolt, and the appearance of newer ethnic immigrants (especially East European Jews) with socialist connections all foreshadowed a major reorientation. A split in the sectarian Socialist Labor party of 1899 and the emergence of former railroad‐union leader Eugene V.
Debs in 1900 brought unity within sight.
The SPA's founding convention, held at Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1901, included various elements of the socialist movement, especially small‐town and rural socialists—native‐born, often middle‐aged railroad mechanics, teachers, ministers, and farmers—who carried the educational zeal of earlier times into hundreds of local presses, study clubs, and political campaigns. Because these grassroots activists were unimpeachably “American,” immigrant socialists usually ceded them leadership in the movement. By 1912, Oklahoma had become the epicenter of socialist influence, more than a thousand socialist candidates had been elected nationwide, and Debs garnered 6 percent of the presidential vote.
The labor movement changed dramatically as well. Beginning in 1909, a wave of strikes by unskilled, foreign‐born workers shook the confidence of the business classes. The
Industrial Workers of the World, launched with socialist assistance in 1905, preached “solidarity” among all working people. Even within the staid
American Federation of Labor, headed by antisocialist Samuel
Gompers, a number of member unions turned strongly leftward. Buoyed by this energy, the Socialist party reached a membership of 100,000, including a growing number of foreign‐language federations made up of immigrant nationalities.
But the two‐party system quickly adjusted itself to the threat of radical outsiders. In many localities where socialists sought election, Republicans and Democrats formed “fusion” tickets with resources beyond the reach of newcomers. Elsewhere, reformers appropriated socialist positions involving municipal issues and honest government. Many disappointed voters fell away from Socialist party ranks. America's entry into
World War I nearly finished off socialism, as the government's crackdown on antiwar activities fell heavily upon socialists and labor radicals.
The Socialist party never fully recovered from the war. Although Debs received a million presidential votes in 1920 while in a federal penitentiary, the party lost more than half of its members. Its remaining appeal owed largely to the charismatic leadership of Norman
Thomas, a former Presbyterian minister from New York. A perennial candidate for local, state, and national office, Thomas garnered 800,000 votes for president in 1932. Yet the party faced an uphill struggle as the
New Deal borrowed socialist planks (as in the
Social Security Act) and won blue‐collar workers to the
Democratic party. A shattering division in 1936 between moderates and radicals and the coming of another world war reduced the party to a few thousand members. Nevertheless, loyalists persisted in maintaining a few press organs and running local candidates for office. A handful continued to be elected, generally in nonpartisan races.
See also
Capitalism;
Depressions, Economic;
Labor Movements;
Political Parties;
Populist Era;
Socialism.
Bibliography
Richard Judd , Socialist Cities: Explorations into the Grass Roots of American Socialism, 1990.
Mari Jo Buhle, Paul Buhle, and Dan Georgakas, eds. Encyclopedia of the American Left, rev. ed., 1998.
Paul Buhle
