The Eugene V. Debs Reader: Socialism and the Class Struggle

by Eugene V. Debs, William A. Pelz (Editor), Howard Zinn (Introduction)

This collection of writings and speeches by early 20th century America's most radical labor leader brings to life the once powerful Socialist movement. "This selection of Debs words will help introduce a new generation to an authentic American hero whose vision is as powerful today as in years past." -- Howard Zinn (Introduction to this title)

Genres: Politics, American History

205 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 2000

About the author

Eugene Victor Debs was an American union leader, a founding member of the International Labor Union & the Industrial Workers of the World, as well as candidate for President as a member of the Social Democratic Party in 1900.

In 1855, labor leader, reformer and socialist Eugene V. Debs was born in Terre Haute, Ind. He was not baptized by his formerly Catholic mother. The family living room contained busts of Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. When a teacher gave Debs a bible as an academic award, inscribing it, "Read and obey," Debs later called, "I never did either." (New York Call interviews with David Karsner). He dropped out of high school at age 14 to work. By 1870 he had become a fireman on the railroad, attending evening classes at a business college. His labor activism began in 1875. As president of the Occidental Literary Club of Terre Haute, Debs brought "the Great Agnostic" Col. Robert Ingersoll, whom he always revered despite political differences, Susan B. Anthony and other famous speakers to town. He was elected state representative to the Indiana General Assembly as a Democrat in 1884, while continuing his labor activities. As editor of the Locomotive Firemen's journal for many years, Debs routinely attacked the church, promoted women's and racial equality, and promoted justice for the poor. "If I were hungry and friendless today, I would rather take my chances with a saloon-keeper than with the average preacher," Debs once said (cited in Eugene V. Debs: A Man Unafraid, 1930, by McAlister Coleman). He saved his strongest denunciations for the Roman Catholic Church, for being an anti-democratic, anti-family, authoritarian "political machine."

In June 1893, Debs organized the first industrial union in the United States, the American Railway Union in Chicago, which held a successful 18-day strike against Great Northern Railway the next year. Debs and leaders of the union were arrested during the Pullman Boycott and Strike of 1894, and were sent to jail for contempt of court for 6 months in 1895. An inspired campaigner, Debs ran for president as a candidate of the Socialist Party in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912 and 1920, employing the "Red Special" train to visit America during his 1908 campaign. The irreligious Debs was beloved by many. He was associate editor from 1907-1912 of the Appeal to Reason, a popular weekly published by freethinker E. Haldeman-Julius in Girard, Kansas. In 1918, Debs delivered his famed anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio, in protest of WWI, and was arrested and convicted in federal court under the wartime espionage law. His appeals to the jury and to the court before sentencing went into legal history. Debs was sentenced to 10 years in prison and was disenfranchised for life, losing citizenship. While in prison, he was nominated to run for president and conducted his last campaign, winning nearly a million votes. His opponent, Warren G. Harding, commuted Debs' sentence and released him on Dec. 25, 1921. Debs was welcomed by 1,000 fellow Terre Hauteans upon his return. His health broken by his imprisonment, he died at a sanitarium. The Terre Haute home he built with his wife in 1890 is today a National Historic Landmark of the National Parks Department and a museum. D. 1926.

More: http://debsfoundation.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_V...

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...

http://www.biography.com/people/eugen...

http://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/wilson/p...

http://www.ushistory.org/us/37e.asp

http://www.history.com/topics/eugene-...

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

As one of the iconic figures of the American left, Eugene Debs’s words have been anthologized several times since his death in 1926. Indeed, in his preface, the editor of this collection, William Pelz, even references these collections to point out how they reflected the efforts by people from across the ideological spectrum – from New Deal liberals to Trotskyites – to adopt Debs posthumously for the benefit of their own causes. While an informative reflection of his historical stature, such efforts can get in the way of Debs’s own words, which is always the real value of these collections.

Of course, what matters more with such efforts is not the arguments advanced by the editors and other contributing writers to claim Debs for themselves, but what they select from the body of Debs’s articles, speeches, and other works to represent Debs’s thinking. The surprising thing about Pelz’s collection in this respect is how similar it is to Arthur Schlesinger’s older Writings and Speeches of Eugene V. Debs, as all but one of the thirty-five readings in this book were included in Schlesinger’s more comprehensive collection. Moreover, their presentation suffers by comparison, as the level of editing in this book is disappointing. Minor errors such as missing italicizations and quotation marks are scattered throughout the text, while the one additional reading – a lengthy 1923 speech on “The Negro Workers” – is tacked on at the end rather than organized chronologically along with the other selections.

All of this makes for a disappointingly limited reader that doesn’t do full justice to its subject. For all of the value of the introductory essays by Pelz, Mark Lause, and the late Howard Zinn, these are no substitute for the pared-down nature of the selections or the indifferent editing they received. While the book provides a serviceable enough sampling of Debs's writings, anyone seeking a more comprehensive selection of his work that better reflects the range of his activism would be better off turning either to the new multi-volume Selected Works of Eugene V. Debs currently being edited by Tim Davenport and David Walters or to Schlesinger’s older compilation.

[Ryan O'Malley · Rating 5 out of 5]

“While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free”

One of the most successful leaders of the socialist movement in America, Eugene Debs led the Socialist Party to its highest vote total ever. This collection of speeches is engaging, funny, and very relevant still today.

I never realized Debs was such a good writer. I am especially surprised by his anti racist stances in a time of such heightened racism.

[Shira and Ari Evergreen]

recommended by billy