Old Guard faction
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The Old Guard faction was an organized group in 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 America ...
(SPA) that sought to retain the organization's traditional orientation towards electoral politics by fighting the Militant faction of generally-younger party members who factionally organized to promote greater efforts at direct action in advancing the cause of
revolutionary socialism Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine, and tradition within socialism that stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary to bring about structural changes in society. More specifically, it is the view that revo ...
. The Old Guard had its roots as the "Regulars" in the inner party factional war of 1919, which resulted in the fragmentation of the Socialist Party into the Communist Party of America and Communist Labor Party of America. In 1935, the personal and political friction between the Old Guard and the Militants (and their "Progressive" allies) led to an organizational split, with the Old Guard faction leaving to establish the Social Democratic Federation (SDF).


History


Formation of the Old Guard faction

The Old Guard and their Militant foes both hailed from the broad
Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...
tradition, the former seeing democracy as a positive value in itself and emphasizing the efficacy of the electoral road to power while the latter tended to see democracy as a sort of chimera, a tactical expedient propagated by the
bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...
in its maintenance of class power. Beyond this important analytical difference, the divide between these two factional groupings was largely generational, with the Old Guard dominated by middle aged party veterans of large standing while newcomers into the Socialist Party during the Depression years of the early 1930s tended to gravitate as a younger and more aggressive caucus. Historian Irving Howe, himself a young Militant in the SP in the early 1930s, later recalled his own perception of the "Old Guard":
On the right stood the Old Guard, hard and unyielding. As a youthful newcomer to the socialist movement, I was of course contemptuous of the Old Guard, and so was almost every other new member. ... In the American left of those days anything not 'revolutionary' was dismissed as beneath discussion; but that didn't bother the Old Guard, which gloried in its distance from the vulgar ferment of popular radicalism. Perhaps the Old Guard carried within itself too large a weight of historical pain — its admirers would say, historical knowledge. It had won the struggle against the communists in the garment unions during the 1920s, but that had drained much of its socialist spirit. It made of its very moderation a mannerism of excess. With a principled sort of grouchiness, it seemed almost intent upon showing that
sectarianism Sectarianism is a debated concept. Some scholars and journalists define it as pre-existing fixed communal categories in society, and use it to explain political, cultural, or Religious violence, religious conflicts between groups. Others conceiv ...
can be found anywhere along the socialist spectrum.


Split of the Old Guard

In March 1935 the combined Progressives and Militants of the Socialist Party launched a new weekly newspaper in New York City to supplant the Old Guard-dominated '' The New Leader'' — '' The Socialist Call.'' The Managing Editor of the new 12-page publication was Bruno Fischer, with Miliitant stalwart Jack Altman acting as Business Manager. The paper took direct aim at the Old Guard from the outset in declaring itself to be "the organ of revolutionary socialism": SPA National Chairman Leo Krzycki sent the new publication his warm greetings at the time of its launch, although beseeching it to "steer clear of party controversy.""The Socialist Call Needed to Fight 'Radio Misleaders,' Chairman Krzycki Writes," ''The Socialist Call,'' vol. 1, no. 1 (March 23, 1935), pg. 4. The participation of Norman Thomas was even more direct, as he launched a regular weekly column in the pages of ''The Socialist Call,'' a piece called "At the Front."


Footnotes


See also

* 1934 Declaration of Principles * Social Democratic Federation (U.S.) {{DEFAULTSORT:Old Guard Faction Factions of the Socialist Party of America 1919 establishments in the United States 1935 disestablishments in the United States