Tag: Revolutionary Working Class Party

Hellraisers Journal: “May Day and the Revolution” by Eugene Victor Debs

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, SPA Campaign Opens, Riverview Park, Chicago, June 16, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday May 1, 1914
“May Day and the Revolution” by Eugene V. Debs

From The Goltry News (Oklahoma) of May 1, 1914:

May Day and the Revolution

(By Eugene V. Debs.)

EVD Life Size Photo by Jas Soler, ISR p1044, May 1910

We are again about to celebrate the annual holiday of the International Socialist Movement. The thrill of May Day is even now in our veins and our hearts beat faster as we contemplate the glad tiding of this day to the workers of the world. 

May Day is above all days in the year the day of the working class; the day of rejoicing and fraternal greeting; the day of high hope and lofty aspiration; the day of national and international celebration.

Not yet have we of the United Stales risen to the heights of this grand occasion and given to May Day its revolutionary significance as have our comrades in European and other nations; not yet have we grasped the full and splendid meaning of this day to our class and to humanity, but this year I trust our celebration may be worthy of the day and that this jubilee of the working class may resound from coast to coast with the glad tidings of the coming revolution.

May Day was not granted as a boon to the workers by their patronizing masters to tranquilize their discontent, but was chosen and set apart by themselves as the day upon which to arouse themselves from their lethargy, lift up their weary bodies from the earth, clasp hands with their fellow workers, and solemnly vow to break their fetters and emancipate themselves from slavery. 

May Day is henceforth emancipation day for the working class. On this day the revolution breathes the breath of life into the nostrils of the workers and the awaking pulsing workers recruit with eager, passionate spirit the swelling ranks of the revolutionary movement.

Each and every industrial center and each agricultural district should this year join the May Day celebration and make its observance so general and fill it with such ardor and enthusiasm as to compel attention to the program of the day and the significance of the event. The very thought that labor’s holiday has been internationally proclaimed and will be celebrated by the workers of every nation on the face of the earth; the very contemplation of the fine spirit of the day and the eager greeting of comrades to comrade and nation to nation, voiced in every tongue known to man and borne to us on every tide and every breeze, is of itself enough to thrill us in every fiber and set every drop in our veins tingling with the fervor of international solidarity.

On this day of the downtrodden masses the inspiring message that Socialism brings to them must be heard around the world. The electrifying shibboleth of Marx must be echoed and re-echoed everywhere:

“Workers of the world unite: you have nothing to lose but your chains. You have a world to gain.”

Unity and solidarity must be the watchword of the day. Industrial and political organization of the workers, all the workers, regardless of race, sex or creed, must be urged with all the force and persuasiveness at our command. Without organization the struggle is vain and the cause lost. The commonwealth of the workers that is to be must be organized primarily in the industries where they are employed and the time to do that is now, and May Day is the day to emphasize its supreme necessity.

The political power of the workers must also be developed through the Socialist Party, the only party organized and controlled by themselves; the only party which represents their interests, expresses their aspirations, and fights their battles in the war for emancipation.

May Day, pregnant with new and bounding life and rapture of resurrection, is the glorious harbinger of the social revolution, the gleaming promise of industrial freedom and social justice to all the WORKERS of the WORLD.

May Day Red Special International, Goltry OK Ns p2, May 1, 1914

[Photograph of Debs and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From Butte Labor World: Eugene Debs Gives Rousing Speech on Class Struggle to Enthusiastic Audience

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Socialist Ripe Trade Unionist, WLUC p45, May 31, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 29, 1902
Debs Speaks at Butte, Montana: “We Must Gain Possession of the Tools of Trade”

From the Social Democratic Herald of June 28, 1902
-Letter from Eugene V. Debs at Butte, Montana, June 17th:

Letter EVD from Butte June 17, SDH p4, June 28, 1902

From the Butte Labor World of June 20, 1902:

HdLn EVD Butte June 16 Speech, Lbr Wld p1, June 20, 1902

 Eugene V. Debs was given a rousing reception at the Auditorium Monday evening [June 16th]. It was an enthusiastic audience that heard him speak, and as he stood upon the platform for two solid hours and hurled rugged truths at them he was greeted with applause which at times was in the nature of an ovation.

Few public speakers of today could have filled the spacious Auditorium upon so short notice. Stopping off for a day in Butte, it had not been Mr. Debs’ purpose to speak at that time, but he was prevailed upon by a number of the most earnest workers for the cause of Socialism, and he consented. Hardly three hours was given in which to spread the news, but somehow it went the rounds and the Auditorium was filled from gallery to rostrum. Many who had come late were compelled to stand.

A Keen, Forceful Talker.

Upon the platform, as well as off, Eugene V. Debs is a wonderfully magnetic man. His flashes of humor, his clear, strong way of putting the questions before the minds of his auditors, and his cutting sarcasm directed at things and conditions he believes to be wrong, are such as to hold his audience spellbound.

“We Must Gain Possession of the Tools of Trade,” was the tenor of his remarks. “Human life will then be sacred. The badge of labor will be the badge of nobility.”

Charles Whitely, of the Butte Mill and Smeltermen’s union, was the chairman of the meeting and introduced the distinguished speaker.

Mr. Whitely referred to him as the “ablest labor leader the United States has ever produced,” and the audience cheered loudly. Mr. Debs appeared to be pleased with the cordial and earnest feeling with which he was received. It inspired him to extra effort, and the effect was truly notable.

Debs’ Speech.

It seems but a little while-yet four years have passed and many changes have taken place since I had the pleasure of speaking to you.

Never was there a greater demand for intelligent, thorough, and progressive action on the part of the laboring class than now. That such a large attendance could be secured upon so short notice proves that the workers of Butte are alive and determined to wage a struggle with increasing vigor until the working class is free. Not until the capitalist system of exploitation is overthrown and the wage system is abolished and the workers control the means of production and receive the full product of their toil, not until then will the struggle cease and they will stand as the rulers of the world.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1912, Part II: Found in Fresno at California State Convention of Building Trades Council

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Revolutionary Class Conscious Vote, Fno Tb p1, Jan 18, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday February 22, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1912, Part II
Found in Fresno at State Convention of Building Trades Council

From The Fresno Morning Republican of January 17, 1912:

CA Building Trades Council Convention Delegates, Fresno Mrn Rpb p3, Jan 17, 1912

[Delegates to the California State Convention of the Building Trades Council.]

The picture contains most of the prominent labor leaders attending the sessions of the B. T. C. Olaf A Tveitmoe, seated in front can be picked out by his cane. On his right is President McCarthy, ex-mayor of San Francisco, and on McCarthy’s right, J. B. Bowen, first vice president and acting president during McCarthy’s mayoralty. Anton Johannsen, state organizer, and under indictment with Tveitmoe, is seated on the extreme right of the picture. The picture was taken yesterday noon by a representative of the Western  Panoramic company of San Jose.

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UNION MEN URGED TO VOTE AS CLASS
———-
Resolutions Propose Minimum Wage Scale
of $2 and 8-Hour Day
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According to the official report given out yesterday from the session of the California Sate Building Trades Council, the reports from the different local councils give promises of support, both financial and moral, for the fight growing out of the recent indictments returned by the federal grand jury of Los Angeles against Olaf A. Tveitmoe and Anton Johannsen. This information was given out by Tveitmoe, who as secretary is the press bureau of the convention…

The second day of the eleventh annual convention of the California State Building Trades Council which is being held at the Union hall, was marked by speeches by Job Harriman, defeated candidate for mayor of Los Angeles, and Alexander Irvine his campaign manager, urging the banding together of all union men for political purposes. These two speakers are themselves socialists, and would probably prefer to have organized labor fall into the ranks of the Socialist party, but nothing definitely suggesting this was made in their speeches. They urged co-operation between unions and Socialists, probably leading to a Labor-Socialist party.

[…..]

PUBLIC MEETING TONIGHT

In order to allow the general public an opportunity to hear the prominent labor leaders who are now here, a mass meeting of all delegates and visitors will be held at the Barton opera house tonight at 8 o’clock, to which the general public is invited and urged to be present. Olaf A. Tveitmoe, the indicted secretary-treasurer; P. H. McCarthy, ex-mayor of San Francisco; Job Harriman, candidate for mayor of Los Angeles and Alexander Irvine, one of the henchmen of Harriman in his fight for the mayoralty, will all speak…

“Mother” Jones eighty years old and for many years connected with the labor movement of all branches, arrived in Fresno last evening and will probably be one of the speakers of the public mass meeting…..

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Hellraisers Journal: Appeal to Reason: Mother Jones on Capitalism, Socialism, and the Keys to Nature’s Storehouse

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Capitalists should surrender gracefully, AtR p2, Sept 14, 1901—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 18, 1901
Mother Jones,  Interviewed in Indianapolis, Advises Ruling Class

From the Appeal to Reason of September 14, 1901:

An Interview With Mother Jones.

Mother Jones, Drawing, SDH p4, Mar 9, 1901

“Mother” Jones, as she is affectionately called by her boys, for whom she labors in season and out of season, was interviewed by an Indianapolis reporter at the time of her visit to that city, in which she said:

The issues of the day are capitalism and Socialism. We have our rights and I will I fight for them until the bitter end. We are now in a great industrial battle with the two armies of labor and capital arrayed against each other. We want to bring harmony out of chaos. A great industrial war is on. There is no question about it. We will have a number of strikes and other uprisings, but the workers are educating themselves. While they are producing they are reasoning. They will resort to the ballot and not to the bullet. Out of this industrial chaos they will bring industrial harmony. They will not be begging their masters to give them a day’s work or a loaf of bread, They will simply take that which is theirs by rights. They produce it, and in producing it, they should own it. We are after the machinery of production, distribution and exchange.

The era of Socialism is dawning. From the records I find that in 1850 the wealth of the American nation was $8,000,000,000. The share of the working people was 62½%, and the people who exploit had but 37½%. In 1880 the producer’s share went down to 24%, while the wealth of the nation had increased to $48,000,000,000, and the share of the non-producers had increased to 76%. In 1901 the nation’s wealth is estimated at $100,000,000,000, and the exploiters have 90% of that amount, and the producers only 10%. After $22,000,000 were raked in on the first of July as dividends, the workers had not even 10%.

Here is the point I am getting at: The capitalist class can do but little more exploiting in America. The people are disinherited, but they do not seem to realize it.

Inside of the next ten years the capitalists will have reached into eastern nations for new fields, and the middle class capitalists will have disappeared from society. The proletariat of nations will have molded its parts together and will come on the field as the conscious revolutionary party for the first time in the history of the world and will demand the surrender of the keys of nature’s storehouse. If the ruling class takes notice of the past it will surrender gracefully.

I look for the possible solution of the industrial problem in the dawn of the era of Socialism. Then will the masses of oppressed men and women of the nations of the earth rally to its bright banner and hail the advance of the Co-operative Commonwealth when all laborers will be capitalists and every capitalist will be a laborer, and industrial harmony will at last have come to a patient, long-suffering people.

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[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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