Eugene Victor (Jin) Debs ( eng. Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs 1855 - 1926 ) is a worker in the US left and right movement, one of the organizers ( 1900 - 1901 ) of the Socialist Party of America , and (in 1905 ) the trade union organization " Industrial workers of the world . " The leader of the Socialist Party and its five-time candidate in the presidential election, gaining up to 6% of the votes of American voters.
Eugene debs | |
---|---|
Eugene V. Debs | |
Date of Birth | |
Place of Birth | Terre Hot , Indiana , United States |
Date of death | |
Place of death | Elmhurst , Illinois , United States |
Citizenship | USA |
Occupation | trade union leader |
Religion | Christian |
The consignment | Socialist Party of America |
Awards | [d] ( 1990 ) |
Autograph | |
Content
Biography
Eugene Debs graduated from 8 classes and from the age of 14 he began his career as a railway worker, then as an assistant stoker, and finally (in 1870) as a stoker locomotive. He began his social activities at the literary Occidentel Club in his hometown of Terre Hot, in which, at his invitation, Robert Green Ingersoll and Susan Anthony performed.
Eugene Debs devoted the first third of his life to the creation and expansion of the trade union movement. He sought to unite numerous labor unions into one strong global union. But his designs were not destined to come true. After the failure of the Pullman Strike - the most massive strike of that time, Debs is imprisoned for six months. At trial, he was defended by renowned attorney Clarence Darrow , resigning from his position as a corporate lawyer at the Northwest Railway, in order to identify himself with the case of Eugene Debs.
Darrow (as well as one of the leaders of the American Social Democrats, Victor Berger ) and prompted Debs to familiarize himself with the socialist teachings. It was in prison, reading the works of the socialists (in particular, Edward Bellamy , Robert Blatchford , Karl Kautsky and Karl Marx ) that Debs begins to think that a union without political support cannot effectively help the workers in their struggle for improving working conditions. As one of the founding organizers at the beginning of the Social Democratic, and then the Socialist Party of the United States, Debs travels a lot around the country to give lectures on the themes of socialism .
In 1904, 1908, 1912 and 1920, Eugene Debs was nominated as a candidate from the Socialist Party of America to participate in the election campaign for the presidency of the United States.
In 1904, only about 20 thousand voters voted for the candidate Debs.
In 1908, Debs already received about 500 thousand votes. The party showed the best result in the presidential elections of 1912, when 901,551 votes were cast for Debs, or 6% of the votes (one of the best indicators for the “ third party ” candidate in the entire history of the American elections). In 1920, Debs was nominated again, this time in prison on charges of violating the espionage law, and collected 913,664 votes (3.4%) - more than the Socialist Party candidate ever did.
After 1921, Debs departs from active politics and focuses on agitation in favor of socialism. Until his death, Debs travels around America, giving lectures with the support of his brother Theodore Debs.
During his life, Debs often needed money for himself, the organizations he founded, and also to support party newspapers and magazines whose editor he or his brother was. To cover these and other expenses, Debs often spent all his savings. At the time of the crisis, to cover the debts of trade union organizations, Debs had to take a loan in his own name.
“A revolutionary, but without a clear theory, not a Marxist,” V. Lenin described Debs.
In 1962, the Debs Foundation was founded; The laureates of his awards were historians Arthur Schlesinger (1974) and Howard Zinn (1998), the writer Kurt Vonnegut and the public figure Jesse Jackson (1978).
Debs Sayings
- “As long as the lower class exists, I treat it, as long as there are criminals — I am one of them, while at least one soul languishes in prison — I am not free.”
- On April 21, 1918, Debs published an article entitled The Soul of the Russian Revolution in the New York Call newspaper, in which he glorified the workers and peasants, the Bolsheviks who had accomplished the revolution in Russia. "... Whatever the fate of the revolution," writes Debs, "her burning soul is immortal, it will flood the whole world with light, freedom and love."
- September 4, 1920 - In his message to the newspaper “New Day” in connection with the presidential election campaign, Debs writes: “There can be no change as long as several people own our country, its production, its resources, while they control it wealth and, consequently, politics. ”
Chronicle of the Life of Yu. Debs
1855-1894
- November 5, 1855 in the city of Ter Hot ( Indiana ), Eugene (Eugene) Victor Debs was born.
- 1875 - Becomes one of the founders and secretaries of the Brotherhood of locomotive firemen.
- Late 1875 - Elected president of the literary Occidental Club in Ter-Hot.
- 1878 - Becomes Assistant Editor of the Journal of the National Brotherhood of Locomotive Stokers.
- 1879 - First elected to the post of secretary of the municipality of Terre Hot on the Democratic electoral list.
- 1880 - Appointed executive secretary of the Union of the National Brotherhood of locomotive stokers and becomes editor of the journal of the trade union.
- 1884 - Elected member of the Legislative Assembly (Assembly) of the state of Indiana as the representative of the Democrats from the city of Terre Hot.
- 1885 leaves the Assembly in protest, because (in his opinion) it does not serve the interests of the working people.
- 1892 - the congress of the union of the Brotherhood of locomotive firemen re-elects Debs to the post of editor of the journal of the official body of the trade union.
- 1893 , June - Debs organizes the first American Union of Railway Workers in Chicago.
- 1893 , August - The American Union of Railwaymen conducts a successful strike on the Great Northern Railway. The strike lasts 18 days. The railroad owners satisfy all the demands of the striking workers.
- 1894 , May - Debs led a grand strike of railway workers, which covered 23 railway lines of the country (a strike on the Pulmanovsky railway). By order of US President Cleveland, the strike was suppressed by federal troops.
- 1894 , July 23 - Debs and other leaders of the American Railwaymen's Union were arrested, and then, in May 1895, convicted (Debs to six, the rest to three) and imprisoned in a high security prison in Woodstock .
1895-1918
- 1895 , November 22 - Debs and his comrades in the leadership of the trade union and the strike on the Pulmanovsky railway, a prison term, were released.
- 1898 - Debs takes an active part in the formation of the Social Democratic Party of America.
- 1900 - The Social Democratic Party nominates Debs for the presidency of the United States.
- 1901 - Debs and colleagues found the Socialist Party of America.
- 1904 - Debs is nominated for the first time as a candidate for the US presidency by the Socialist Party of America.
- 1905 - takes an active part in the formation of the US trade union organization Industrial Workers of the World (IRM).
- 1906 - leads an active press campaign in defense of the leaders of the Western Federation of Miners Moyer and Heyve-da, falsely accused of murder.
- 1907 - 1912 - Debs works as an assistant editor at the Appilot Reason newspaper in Girard, Kansas.
- In 1908 and 1912 - again nominated for the presidency of the United States by the Socialist Party of America.
- 1913 - active participation in the campaign against the intervention of American troops in Mexico.
- 1914 - Debs strongly condemns the armed suppression of the miners' strike in Ludlow, Colorado; call on workers to resist.
- 1914 - 1916 - Y. Debs makes a tour of the country, opposes a war in Europe, for the establishment of peace between nations, against the preparation of the United States for entry into the First World War. Publishes many strong anti-war articles.
- 1917 - leads an active anti-war campaign, opposes the United States entering the war.
- 1917 , November - Debs warmly welcomes the victory of the revolution in Russia. In this victory, he saw the approach of the end of the war, the strengthening of the socialist movement in the United States.
- 1918 , April 21 - Y. Debs published an article entitled The Soul of the Russian Revolution in the New York Call newspaper.
- 1918 , June 16 - Y. Debs speaks his famous anti-war speech in the city of Canton, Ohio, at a congress of socialists.
Arrest soon followed, and later for this and other speeches, for speeches condemning the American capitalist system, for greetings to the Russian Bolsheviks, the Federal Court in Cleveland, Ohio, convicted Debs for 10 years of strict imprisonment.
1919—1926
- 1919 - 1920 - Being imprisoned in a federal convict prison in Atlanta, Georgia, speaks with articles and correspondence condemning the Palmer police raids, massacre of dissidents.
- 1920 , May - Official representatives of the Socialist Party of America visit Debs in prison and ask for consent to nominate him (from the United States Socialist Party) to participate in the elections for the presidency of the United States.
- 1920 , October 2 - Debs publishes an article in the New Dey newspaper, Bomb on Wall Street, in which he condemns the American capitalist system as a system of exploitation of man by man, as a system of wars and lawlessness.
- 1920 , December 4 - in the article “Before and after”, published in the newspaper “New Dei”, J. Debs explains the class essence of a two-party bourgeois system: the republican and democratic parties are capitalist-class parties, financed and controlled by capitalists for their own benefit .
- 1921 , December 26 - under the powerful pressure of the American and foreign progressive publics, President Harding was forced to early release Debs from prison, but he was deprived of American citizenship. Debs met with Harding at the White House.
- 1921 , December 28 - arrival home in the city of Terre-Hot, where Debs was greeted by thousands of citizens and workers. After prison, Debs's health was undermined.
- 1922 , March - Debs enters into an agreement with the Bell Syndicate to write twelve articles about their stay in the Atlanta penal prison. He fulfilled his contract. However, the Bell Syndicate did not fully fulfill its obligations. He has published nine articles in full. Only after death all articles were published in full.
- 1922 , March 24 - a press statement calling on American workers to “give up the last dollar”, to support Soviet Russia, in which a number of areas were starved because of a terrible drought.
- 1922 , May 19 - a repeated appeal to the Americans with a call to increase aid to the starving in Soviet Russia.
- 1922 , October - Debs' article in the press, that he is quite healthy and determined to serve, as before, the cause of the working class.
- December 1922 - Debs writes the article "Battle-Taken Liberators of Russia", published in the journal Liberator. In particular, it says: "The Russian revolution ... will be inscribed in the tables of humanity as the most vivid and far-reaching event."
- 1923 - Participation in the workers', trade union and socialist movement, traveling around the country, giving lectures, calling for workers to join in trade unions on a production basis.
- The end of 1923 - the beginning of 1924 - despite the deterioration of his health, Debs does not stop his social activities.
- January 22, 1924, Debs responds to the news of the death of V. I. Lenin, with these words: “I consider Lenin to be the greatest thinker ... In the memory of future generations he will remain as a state man, as a bright heroic person, as a fighter for the rights and freedoms of the working people” .
- 1926 , October 20 - the death of Debs and his funeral in the city of Terre Hot.
Interesting Facts
- In May 1920, Debs, who is in prison, is visited by representatives of the Socialist Party of America and receive his consent to nominate him (from the Socialist Party of America) to participate in the election for the presidency of the United States. For the first time in US history, a person who was in prison participated in the presidential election as a candidate.
- Well-known writer Kurt Vonnegut counted himself among the followers of Eugene Debs (Debs died when Vonnegut was four years old).
In literature
- Irving Stone “The Furious Wanderer” (in another translation, “The Rival in the House”) - Eugene Debs Art Biography.
- John Dos Passos "The 42nd Parallel" - the chapter "The Friend of Mankind" about Eugene Debs.
- Kurt Vonnegut "Hocus Pocus" - the main character is named after Eugene Debs.
- Jack London "Debs Dream" (1909) - a story about America's future, describes a general strike of workers 30 years after the emergence of this idea from Debs.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 BNF ID : 2011 open data platform .
- ↑ 1 2 Encyclopædia Britannica
- ↑ 1 2 SNAC - 2010.
See also
- Presidential Election in the USA (1900)
- Presidential Election in the USA (1904)
- Presidential Election in the USA (1908)
- Presidential Election in the USA (1912)
- Presidential Election in the USA (1920)
Links
- Debs Eugene // Great Soviet Encyclopedia : [in 30 t.] / Ch. ed. A. M. Prokhorov . - 3rd ed. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978.
- Eugene Debs: "How I Became a Socialist" - New York Comrade, April 1902
- Eugene Debs: "I am a Bolshevik, and proud of it" (inaccessible link)
- Eugene Debs: “We came into politics not to get votes, but to free the working class”
- Eugene Debs: “Vote as you strike. Strike you vote! ”
- Eugene Debs: Jesus Christ - the martyr of the working class