From: HISSGB-AT-lure.Latrobe.edu.au
Date: Tue, 22 Oct 1996 21:00:36 +1000
Subject: Re: M-I: US Labor History


Adam Rose asked about the left in the US Socialist Party pre-World War 1 when
James Connolly was in the US. Yes there was a strong left which was connected
to the IWW. Indeed many of the leading IWW leaders like Big Bill Haywood were
in the SP. For a period they were quite a threat to the reformist mainstream
leadership of the SP who then moved to purge them. The reformists were more
interested in sucking up to the bureaucrats of the AFL (American Federation of
Labor) then supporting the revolutionary synicalist IWW.

Though it has to be said that the IWW supporters in the SP made many mistakes,
reflecting the syndicalists "apoliticism" which made it easier for the SP
leadership to purge them. In particular they used the IWW's support for
"sabotage" to get Haywood who for a period looked like becoming a central
leader of the SP. After Debs he was the most popular figure in the SP,
particularly among the working class membership. Unfortunately Debs though he
himself was on the left of the party and had been involved in the formation of
the IWW was  not prepared to mobilise in a serious faction fight with the right
and by default went along with the purge of the IWW supporters.

After the purge of the IWWers the SP went into something of a decline only to
revive again with the upsurge of radicalism at the end of WW1. A new radical
left then once again emerged centred especially among many of the foreign
language sections of the SP, the Russians, Finns, Jewish etc.

There are numerous books covering this period including Bill Haywood's
autobiography and a book on Connolly by Kieran Allen and various books by
Philip Foner.

Mick Armstrong
Socialist Alternative






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