Eugene V. Debs Speaks

by Eugene V. Debs

Speeches by the pioneer U.S. socialist agitator and labor leader, jailed for opposing Washington's imperialist aims in World War I. Debs speaks out on capitalism and socialism, anti-immigrant chauvinism, how anti-Black racism weakens the labor movement, Rockefeller's massacre of striking miners at Ludlow, Colorado, and more.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction, Labor, Biography, Theory, United States

328 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1970

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

[Julio The Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

The bravest, most intelligent, fiercest and proudest of all working class warriors the United States has produced. Eugene Debs led the Railroad Workers union in multiple strikes against the Pullman Car Company, served numerous jail and prison sentences for his agitation, totaling four years, converted to socialism behind bars after reading Marx and Engels, ran for president six times on the Socialist Party ticket, preached socialism with his booming voice coast to coast, agitated against Wilson's war of 1917, spending three years in the federal slammer at Atlanta, Georgia for allegedly calling for draft resistance, President Warren Harding, in one of his few good gestures, commuted his sentence from ten years, and died in 1926 more certain of the socialist future, in America and abroad, than ever. EUGENE DEBS SPEAKS collects his best speeches, and articles from the Socialist newspaper APPEAL TO REASON, to demonstrate his commitment to the twin goals of industrial democracy and international working class solidarity. Building one big industrial, not craft, union and one single party of and for the working class was the golden chalice of Debs. His legacy remains contested. Eric Foner, first-rate historian and political junk bond salesman, wrote an "Open Letter to Bernie {Sanders}" years back calling on him to "return to the socialism of Eugene Debs, dedicated to curbing the excesses of capitalism". Sorry, Eric. Debs was a revolutionary, non-violent to be sure. He aimed for nothing less than "wrenching power from the capitalist class, abolishing private property, and vesting the means of production in the hands of the producers of wealth". Every selection in DEBS SPEAKS attests to that simple, powerful vision. A timely Appendix cites from Debs's posthumously published prison memoirs and his call for the abolition of all prisons, "the bosses holding pens for the poor".

[Thibaud Sanchez · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third pathfinder press book I read. This is a great book by Eugene Debs. We need a party that represents workers and farmers. His lessons are relevant in this day. He is an important figure in labor history along with Mother Jones. We can't speak of Mother Jones, Bill Haywood, and other IWW leaders without Karl Marx, Frederich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Karl Liebknecht, and Rosa Luxemburg. The book gives us essential lessons like organizing over individual terror. My favorite thing he said is that it is better to be a free soul in jail over a coward on the street.

[Marc Lichtman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bernie Sanders says he identifies with Eugene Debs, but Sanders has been trying to reform capitalism, and Debs wanted to overthrow it. The speeches in here will knock your socks off.

The problem with the Socialist Party was the same problem with most of the Socialist International—it contained both reformers and revolutionaries. The introduction by James P. Cannon, explains this.

Debs had been the central leader of the Pullman strike in 1894, before becoming a socialist, and he continued to work for industrial unionism while supporting all labor organizing. The best biography of him is ‘The Bending Cross’ by Ray Ginger. Another useful book is ‘The American Socialist Movement: 1897–1912,' by Ira Kipness. Kipness ends the book with the expulsion of IWW leader Big Bill Haywood from the SP, but while that was a blow, the left wing continued and most went on to be founders of the Communist Party. Debs didn’t. As much as he disagreed with the right wing, he couldn’t make that break.

There is an important book by Farrell Dobbs, ‘Revolutionary Continuity: The Early Years’ that presents American Marxism from 1848–1917, and a second volume that takes it up to 1922. Another key book is ‘The First Ten Years of American Communism’ by James P. Cannon.

[Donna Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like Debs as an historical figure, despite some disagreements I have with his ideology. Of all biographies of Debs, I like this one best because it is his own words. Surprised so few people have read it.

[zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

provoking yesterday, not today.

"The subject has passed entirely beyond the domain of sneer and ridicule and now commands serious treatment. Of course, socialism is violently denounced by the capitalist press and by all the brood of subsidized contributors to magazine literature, but this only confirms the view that the advance of socialism is very properly recognized by the capitalist class as the one cloud upon the horizon which portends an end to the system in which they have waxed fat, insolent and despotic through the exploitation of their countless wage-working slaves."

"For myself, I want no advantage over my fellowman and if he is weaker than I, all the more is it my duty to help him. Nor shall my door or my heart be ever closed against any human being on account of the color of his skin."

[Nicholas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Debs is an inspiration. Must read.

[JD · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good as an origin story for the Democratic Socialist movement of the 21st century. Wish Debs didn’t feel like such a relic, seeing how resistant the modern US system has been to progressive change via labor & rejection of capital. Made me think about my dad, who spent years both as a member of and negotiating with trade unions.