The Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party was an organized faction within the

Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of Ameri ...

in 1919 which served as the core of the dual

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

parties which emerged in the fall of that year—the Communist Party of America and the

Communist Labor Party of America The Communist Labor Party of America (CLPA) was one of the organizational predecessors of the Communist Party USA. The group was established at the end of August 1919 following a three-way split of the Socialist Party of America. Although a legal ...

History

Precursors

A generalized

Left Wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

had existed prior to 1919, but lacked organizational cohesion. The success of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and the end of World War I was an accelerant that made revolutionary socialism an important issue of the day for many in America and around the world. One important forerunner of the organized Left Wing Section of 1919 was the magazine '' The Class Struggle,'' founded by

Ludwig Lore Ludwig Lore (June 26, 1875July 8, 1942) was an American socialist magazine editor, newspaper writer, lecturer, and politician, best remembered for his tenure as editor of the socialist ''New Yorker Volkszeitung'' and role as a factional leader in ...

of the ''

New Yorker Volkszeitung ''New Yorker Volkszeitung'' was the longest-running German language daily labor newspaper in the United States of America, established in 1878 and suspending publication in October 1932. At the time of its demise during the Great Depression the ' ...

''. Lore's magazine, which first saw print in May 1917, related current events in Europe and discussed matters of import written by various adherents of the Zimmerwald Left with an eager English-speaking audience. Co-editing the magazine with Lore were Louis C. Fraina, a former member of the Socialist Labor Party and voluminous writer on themes relating to the European revolutionary movement, and

Louis Boudin Louis B. Boudin (December 15, 1874 – May 29, 1952) was a Russian-born American Marxist theoretician, writer, politician, and lawyer. He is best remembered as the author of a two volume history of the Supreme Court's influence on American gover ...

, a well known Marxist theoretician. Another regular publication loyal to the left-wing was '' International Socialist Review'' published by

Charles H. Kerr Charles Hope Kerr (April 23, 1860 – June 1, 1944), a son of abolitionists, was a vegetarian and Unitarian in 1886 when he established Charles H. Kerr & Co. in Chicago. His publishing career is noted for his views' leftward progression towar ...

. A Socialist Propaganda League of America had been formed in Boston and by late 1918 had succeeded in taking over the Boston local. The Boston newspaper, ''

The Revolutionary Age ''The Revolutionary Age'' was an American radical newspaper edited by Louis C. Fraina and published from November 1918 until August 1919. Originally the publication of Local Boston, Socialist Party, the paper evolved into the ''de facto'' nationa ...

'' became the major voice of the Left wing in late 1918 and early 1919.

Formation of the Left Wing Section

In New York a specific Left wing group within the party had been formed in February 1919, and began publishing the ''

New York Communist The ''New York Communist'' was a short-lived weekly newspaper issued by the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party of Local Greater New York, encompassing the New York City metro area. The paper was edited by the radical journalist and war cor ...

''. After the National Executive Committee voided the election returns to a new National Executive Committee, which would have a left majority, and expelled several Left Wing locals and federations in May 1919, the Leftist groups decided to meet in a conference in late June. At the conference however, there was still much dissension. The seven expelled federations and the Michigan party demanded that the Left wing go ahead and form a communist party, while the group around the ''Revolutionary Age'' still wanted to try to take over the Socialist party at its September convention. The Federations and the Michigan group walked out and formed a National Organization Committee, which was set on organizing a founding Communist convention to rival the socialist convention in September. They also began publishing their own newspaper, ''The Communist.''

The Left Wing National Council

The majority founded the National Council of the Left Wing and planned to take retake the socialist organization and convention. The council members included Louis Fraina,

C. E. Ruthenberg Charles Emil Ruthenberg (July 9, 1882 – March 1, 1927) was an American Marxist politician and a founder and head of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Biography Early years Charles Emil Ruthenberg was born July 9, 1882, in Cleveland, Ohio, ...

I. E. Ferguson Isaac Edward "Ed" Ferguson (1888–1964) was a North American lawyer and political activist. A founding member of the Communist Party of America, forerunner of the Communist Party, USA, Ferguson is best remembered a co-defendant and attorney i ...

John Ballam John J. "Johnny" Ballam (June 9, 1882 – September 26, 1954) was an American Marxist political activist and trade union organizer. He is best remembered as a founding member and one of the pioneer leaders of the Communist Party of America and as ...

, James Larkin, Eadmon MacAlpine, Benjamin Gitlow,

Maximilian Cohen Maximilian "Max" Cohen was an American socialist politician of the early 20th century. Cohen held a series of important posts during the pivotal year of 1919, including Secretary of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party for Local Greater N ...

, and Bertram Wolfe. Ferguson was named national secretary and the ''Revolutionary Age'', with Fraina as editor, became the official organ. The left wingers who had been elected to the new NEC but had been purged by the old NEC in May held a rump meeting in Chicago, on July 26–27 tabulating the votes for themselves and asking the national secretary, Adolph Germer, to had over the keys to the party headquarters. They were rebuffed. On July 28 the National council of the Left wing gave in and voted to attend the Chicago convention organized by the National Organizing Committee to form the Communist Party of America. Three members of the National Council, however, Gitlow, Larkin and MacAlpine, were adamantly opposed to this. They, together with John Reed and Alfred Wagnknecht, formed a new faction, the Labor Committee of the Left Wing with a new organ, the ''Voice of Labor''.

The Emergency National Convention of 1919

At the August 31 opening of the Socialist party convention the Reed-Gitlow group tried to enter and present their credentials, but were promptly thrown out of the hall with the help of the police. The Left Wingers, joined by other socialist delegates who walked out of the convention in protest over the incident or for other disagreements with the socialist party, including the entire Ohio delegation, then met in the billiards room on the first floor of the Machinists Hall in Chicago and formed the Communist Labor Party.Draper, ''The Roots of American Communism,'' pp. 176–179.

Notes

External links

Left Wing Section of Greater New York
at Marxisthistory.org. {{Authority control Factions of the Socialist Party of America Communist Party USA