The Socialist Labor Party of the United States promoted a socialist agenda and advocated for workers’ rights, but never produced a winning candidate in any presidential election. The party’s national office closed in 2008 due to lack of support, but some politicians in the US still embrace socialist ideas. The party’s political agenda sought to create a classless society through Marxist class consciousness among workers. The party had influential leaders, including Daniel De Leon, but declined in membership after the Cold War. The party now exists only on paper with hopes of boosting its financial situation and membership numbers.
The Socialist Labor Party was a political party in the United States that promoted a socialist agenda and advocated a pro-worker platform. The party ran a candidate in every presidential election from 1892 to 1976, but never produced a winner. Socialism in the United States has never been a majority view, and although party members pledged to change it, by the early 2000s leaders began to feel they lacked the support, both financial and public, to stay intact. The group’s national office was closed at the end of 2008 and the organization has remained on paper ever since. This is not to say that no politician in the United States today embraces socialist ideas; some do, but their formal affiliations are typically with some other usually larger political party.
Understand political parties in general
In the United States, as in most democratic countries, political activities are usually organized by parties. A party system is a way of grouping people of similar beliefs behind a list of agenda items and points of contention. The modern political landscape in the United States is driven primarily by the Republican and Democratic parties, but the nation operates on a multiparty system such that people of any affiliation could, at least in theory, win office and assume governmental control. The Socialist Labor Party has always been a minority party. Members ran for many different elections, both regional and national. Perhaps due to their small membership they have been unable to make much of an impact, at least not on the broader political landscape.
Basic organization
The Socialist Labor Party of the United States was the nation’s oldest socialist political party until it went inactive. The party was created in 1876 as the Workers’ Party and was renamed in 1877. The party originally attracted a variety of socialist members from different backgrounds and schools of thought, but by the 1890s the party had adopted an almost exclusively Marxist worldview.
Organization mainly took the form of local chapters which met periodically, usually culminating in a biennial national congress of democratically elected delegates. Membership was open to anyone who agreed with the party’s program, agreed to abide by its principles, and had no ties to other political parties.
Political agenda
The party’s political agenda, called the Socialist Industrial Union Program, sought to create a classless society by developing Marxist class consciousness among workers in all industries. The “ideal society” embraced by members stipulated that all property would be collectively owned, with industries and social services managed for the benefit of all and controlled by the democratically elected Socialist Industrial Union government. The agenda to achieve this followed the socialist thinker Karl Marx in focusing on the class consciousness of the working class. The thinking was that, by developing a collective consciousness, the working class could develop the political and economic institutions that would allow it to seize power from the controlling capitalist class.
Business and work objectives
The early days of the party were filled with attempts to create the necessary political and economic institutions to fulfill its mission. The party tried to turn the American Federation of Labor and other unions into militant working-class organizations in the late 19th century, but the effort ultimately failed. He supported the Socialist Trade & Labor Alliance and continued to support it until the 19th when the alliance merged with the Industrial Workers of the World.
Shortly after the merger, the organization was overtaken by anarchists. In 1908 party leaders helped found a new International Workers of the World which was later renamed the International Industrial Workers Union. It operated under this name until 1924 when it was disbanded. After that point, the Socialist Labor Party was not directly involved in setting up outside organisations.
Influential leaders
The party has had some influential members over the years, perhaps none more powerful than Daniel De Leon. De Leon developed the Socialist Industrial Union Program and served as editor of The People, the party’s political journal, from 1982 until his death in 1914. The party worked to recognize De Leon’s contributions after his death, but even so making the party he was careful to emphasize that he was just one of many great socialists and that the party was not to be thought of as a “cult of personality”.
final decline
The party’s membership declined, reaching low levels after the end of the Cold War and the stigma the conflict brought on those with radical socialist and communist views. The remaining party members closed the group’s national office on September 1, 2008, and sent most of its materials to Duke University and the Wisconsin State Historical Society to be archived. All local and state party offices closed shortly thereafter. The party began to exist entirely on paper at that point, with the hope of one day boosting its financial situation and membership numbers.
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