In his famous 1918 anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio, in which he martyred himself for a prison term that would last beyond the World War and shave years off his life, Eugene V. Debs declared, “From the top of my head to the tip of my toes, I am a Bolshevik, and proud of it.” This quote is often taken out of context by some to argue that in his later years Debs was turning towards Lenin’s doctrine and perhaps would have joined the Communist Party had he lived long enough. Too many socialists attempt to freeze Debs in a particular moment and argue that because the pioneering leader of American socialism took a certain position, say, forming new industrial unions to compete with and replace the American Federation of Labor in 1907, that that is the correct position for socialists in 2007, even if Debs himself contradicted that position at another point in his life.
That’s why it’s fascinating to read in Edward Johanningsmeier’s excellent biography of William Z. Foster, “Forging American Communism,” is Debs’ response to Foster’s entreaties to join the Communist Party. In a meeting shortly after he was released from prison in 1922, Debs declared, “Some groups propose to take orders from men in Moscow who know absolutely nothing about American conditions. I know more about American psychology and conditions than all the leaders in Russia know in five years, and I will not accept my orders from a maniac like Zinoviev. Since when, I want to know, has socialism become synonymous with Communism? I am not a Communist and I don’t want to be one, and I do not believe in minority rule.”
Debs did, however, publicly endorse Foster’s Trade Union Education League and its program of encouraging radicals to bore from within AFL craft unions to promote an agenda of organizing the unskilled masses and challenging the conservative business union leaders. Debs also served as the Socialist Party’s National Chairman in his twilight years, the only time he held office in the party, or indeed even attended a convention. And he came to the conclusion that the SP should direct its electoral efforts on uniting with the AFL and other progressive groups to form a national labor party. If we are going to let WWEVDD guide us, let’s look at where he stood politically at the end of his life, in a political era that is closer to our own.