Socialist Propaganda League of America
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The Socialist Propaganda League of America (SPLA) was established in 1915, apparently by C. W. Fitzgerald of
Organizational history
Establishment
In the fall of 1915, C.W. Fitzgerald wrote and sent a leaflet to Vladimir Lenin of the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party. Lenin replied, outlining his views on the situation faced by the revolutionary socialist movement.[citation needed]
It was not until November 1916 that any sort of broad-based organization was established. A November 26, 1916, meeting in
According to the group's constitutional objectives, "The SPLA declares emphatically and will work uncompromisingly in the economic and political fields for industrial revolution to establish industrial democracy by the mass action of the working class."[citation needed]
Move to New York
In January 1917, editor Williams traveled to
Beginning with an issue dated April 21, 1917, The Internationalist was moved to New York City and published by the Socialist Propaganda League as The New International.[3] Louis Fraina became the publication's editor at that date.[3] The publication was financed through donations made by Dutch engineer and left wing socialist S.J. Rutgers.[2] Circulation was small, estimated by historian Theodore Draper at "no more than a thousand copies of each issue," which served to limit the paper's influence.[4] Nevertheless, Draper and other historians of the American left regard The Internationalist and its successor as the first propaganda organs of the movement which congealed as the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party in 1919 — forerunner of the American communist movement.[4]
In January 1918, in the aftermath of the
The organization achieved a significant degree of public notice as leading exponents of the Bolshevik Revolution in the United States. On February 28, 1918, a mass meeting was held in a New York City hall at which Louis Fraina quixotically called for the establishment of a "Red Guard" of draft age men to be sent to
Invitation to join the Communist International
The Socialist Propaganda League called for a new revolutionary socialist International and was invited by name to attend the founding Congress of the Communist International in 1919. The organization, however, was unable to send a representative in time to attend the gathering.[citation needed]
Dissolution and legacy
A total of 12 issues of The New International are known to have been produced through October 1918.
Prominent members of the SPL joined the new Communist Party of America, which eventually merged with the Communist Labor Party to form first the Workers Party of America and eventually the Communist Party USA.[citation needed]
Key members
- C.W. Fitzgerald[citation needed]
- Louis C. Fraina
- John Jurgis[citation needed]
- Otto Huiswoud
- S.J. Rutgers
- John D. Williams[citation needed]
Publications
- "Letter to C.W. Fitzgerald in Beverly, Massachusetts, from N. Lenin (V.I. Ul'ianov) in Berne, Switzerland, November 1915," originally published in Lenin Collected Works, Fourth Edition. Moscow: Progress Publishers, vol. 21, pp. 423–428, here at the Marxists Internet Archive
- "Letter to C.W. Fitzgerald in Beverly, Massachusetts, from N. Lenin (V.I. Ul'ianov) in Berne, Switzerland, November 1915," PDF-Version of above from Tim Davenport's article in Marxist History with remarks on dating the letter
- "Manifesto of the Socialist Propaganda League of America (Adopted at a Meeting Held in the City of Boston, November 26, 1916)," International Socialist Review, vol. 17, no. 7 (January 1917), pp. 483–485.
- "Manifesto of the Socialist Propaganda League of America (January 1919)" Revolutionary Age, vol. 1, no. 21 (March 8, 1919), pg. 8.
- "Constitution of the Socialist Propaganda League of America," The Internationalist, vol. 1, no. 1 (January 6, 1918), pg. 2.
References
- ^ a b Walter Goldwater, Radical Periodicals in America, 1890-1950. New Haven, CT: Yale University Library, 1964; pg. 18.
- ^ a b c Theodore Draper, The Roots of American Communism. New York: Viking Press, 1957; pg. 86.
- ^ a b Goldwater, Radical Periodicals in America, 1890-1950, pg. 27.
- ^ a b Draper, The Roots of American Communism, pg. 87.
- ^ a b "Ask Wilson's Leave to Fight for Russia: Harlem Socialists Move to Organize a "Red Guard" Here of Men Above Draft Age," New York Times, March 1, 1918; pg. 2.
- ^ Walter Goldwater in his bibliography of the radical press in America indicated some confusion about the date of termination, stating that 11 issues were known, with Stanford University Library stating that publication continued through October. See: Goldwater, Radical Periodicals in America, 1890-1950, pg. 27. The discovery of a "September–October 1918" issue number 12 in the collection of the Wisconsin Historical Society has definitively ended this debate, however.
- ^ Goldwater, Radical Periodicals in America, 1890-1950, pg. 35.
Further reading
- Paul Buhle, A Dreamer's Paradise Lost: Louis Fraina/Lewis Corey, 1892-1953. Atlantic Highlands. NJ: Humanities Press, 1995.
- Paul Buhle, Louis C. Fraina/Lewis Corey and The Crisis of the Middle Class. New Politics, vol. 5, no. 1 (new series), whole no. 17, Summer 1994.
- Christopher Phelps, "Out of the Fraina and into the Fire," American Quarterly, vol. 50, no. 2 (June 1998), pp. 424–431.
- "Barred Out of Hall: Anti-Conscription Socialists Speak to 1,000 in Street," New York Sun, June 1, 1917, pg. 1.
- "Ask Wilson's Leave to Fight for Russia: Harlem Socialists Move to Organize a "Red Guard" Here of Men Above Draft Age," New York Times, March 1, 1918; pg. 2.
External links
- Tim Davenport, "The Socialist Propaganda League of America (1915 - 1919): Organizational History," Early American Marxism website, www.marxisthistory.org/
- Tim Davenport and Marty Goodman (eds.), "The Internationalist and The New International: Index of issues," Marxists Internet Archive. —Downloadable pdfs of official SPLA newspapers.