Brandon Cruz
Dr. O’Hara
Rhetoric and Civic Life, Millennium Scholars
July 20th, 2015
Communism, Commie bastards, the reds, pinkos, and Socialism. All of these ‘dirty words’ evoke even the least patriotic among us to rescind in a wave if nationalism. After all, Communism and Socialism have always been the great evils wanting only the death of America. Great autocracies like the USSR and China have been some of our greatest rivals. The source of this rivalry has been that of two conflicting ideologies of leftist Communism/Socialism and right wing Capitalism. However different these systems are, the prior has not always been met with hostility. This hostility is the view that Americans have taken more recently. To the surprise of many it has not always been this way. Times like the progressive era and the ‘heyday’ of the labor movement spawned political activity aligned with more Socialist principals, and for a while it appeared that they would arise to become the dominant political movement. Then after the Second World War, the escalating tensions with the USSR gave birth to the infamous red scare. The witch hunt of the 20th century gave birth to the mass American suspicion of the communist despite having recently flirting with Socialism. Yet sixty years later in America today some would say that Socialist or ‘Progressive’ principals not seen since the labor movement are on the return with politicians like Bernie Sanders getting unprecedented approval ratings. The prevalent view of Communism/Socialism in the United States has gone from acceptance to hatred to rising approval all within the span of a century.
In the middle of the 19th century, Europe saw great political unrest. The revolutions of 1848 raged across countries like France, Germany, Austria, and Italy. Widespread unrest against the monarchies caused the lower classes to rage in upheaval. Already destabilized France fell to its once again revolutionaries, but Germany and Austria withheld the revolt. It was this suppression of the lower orders that caused a great leftist mentality to become rampant (Britannica). The most notable of these groups was the Marxists. Many dissatisfied and disillusioned Marxists decided to pursue their left agenda elsewhere, and this place would be none other than the United States. Early colleagues of the esteemed Karl Marx that sought refuge in the United States all started forming America’s first socialist organizations. However, these organizations failed to take root for a few decades. This was, in part, because these organizations did not appeal to English speaking Americans (Draper 11). But the fight was not lost; German immigration saw an exponential increase.
Socialism was beginning to be seen as an acceptable political movement in the United States. As the influence of German culture in America increased, so too did acceptance of Socialist and Communist ideals. Native English speaking Americans really started joining these startup German political parties for a large quantity of reasons. The first and foremost reason arose from the simple need for Socialism itself. As the industrial revolution raged on across the country, increased production gave rise to the need for cheaper labor. This need caused large corporations and trusts to unanimously lower wages and take less care into the realm of the working conditions. These abuses of labor cried out for the hope that was Socialism. Many sought solidarity through groups like the American Federation of Labor, founded in 1886 and spearheaded by Samuel Gompers. Gompers was one of the biggest proponents of what is called ‘trade unionism’. Trade unionism is a movement that spawned from Marxism and its ideals. It promoted solidarity of the working class to curb the power of big business. This movement was often seen as the more peaceful approach to Socialism as it was not associated with as many radicals like mainstream Socialism began to be. Thus, many Americans felt safe in identifying with this industrial counter culture (AFL).
By this point in time Socialism was rarely associated with negative connotations outside of its small constituency of radical revolutionaries. Yet, this small minority would begin to ruin American perceptions of Socialism and Communism as a whole. For instance, in the same year the American Federation of Labor came to be, an extremely unfortunate riot would occur in Chicago, Illinois. On the morning of May 4th, 1886 a smaller than expected gathering of workers occurred in Haymarket Square. These protesting workers were gathering in response to recent police action taken against union strikers. Many of the designated speakers never showed up, and instead of 20,000 people only about 3,000 attended. Despite the protest being declared peaceful, police arrival prompted a violent reaction from a few radicals in the crowd. A dynamite bomb was thrown and detonated causing the police to retaliate in random shooting (Britannica Haymarket) This extremely unfortunate event scathed the reputation of Socialists in the labor movement. The radical few caused suspicion to the entire ideology itself. However, this was not the end for Socialism in the US.
Collective bargaining would forever unite Socialism and the labor movement. General strikes and action by workers would proliferate as working conditions and wages worsened. As public suspicion of Socialist radicals increased, so did government determent of such movements. The Pullman railroad strike had some of the fiercest government attack on organized labor ever known. After strikers started interfering with mail cars, President Grover Cleveland obtained and injunction against the union and sent in federal troops to break up the strike. This lead to the arrest of the famous Eugene V. Debs, the head of the American Railroad Union (Brendel 8). Increased tensions between the Socialist movements and the federal government would only rise. However, the common man would soon find much more solace in socialism due to literature. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, published in caused a great public outcry in the realm of government regulation. Sinclair’s piece runs through the life of fictional Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant, who is forced through the worst that capitalist America has to offer. The book contains a significant exposé on the meat packing industry and various other food production and its horrors. Public sentiment grew in the favor of using government power to heavily monitor and regulate the private sector. One such product of this book is the Food and Drug Administration, also known as the FDA. This proliferation is also due, in large part, to Roosevelt era progressivism. Theodore Roosevelt, the American president at the time believed in the perfectibility of man such that “mankind is neither chained to the past nor condemned to a deterministic future…” (US His.). This idealistic motive on policy coupled with the charismatic constituency of the Socialist Party. Roosevelt was also known as a ‘trust buster’ in that he relentlessly assaulted the abuses of big business and the growth of monopolies. This concern for the working man can be juxtaposed to socialistic ideas and seen as nearly identical. During this time socialism seemed to thrive and would reach its public climax.
This interlude of public support for Socialism would give rise to the successful attainment of Socialists in public office across the nation. In 1911, Victor Berger would be the first Socialist elected into congress. Berger would be widely noted for his hardline leftist stances in the role of government, as well as getting negative press for signing off on a bill to abolish the senate (House of Rep.). During this time the membership in the Socialist Party was at 125,000 people. Eugene Debs used this momentum to launch his presidential candidacy in 1912. He got nearly a million votes, a staggering number for a third party. Most historians attribute his total to the Socialist Party’s stance against entering World War One, which would later get the party in trouble. Despite not getting even close to winning the election, this unprecedented number acted as a litmus test for increased lack of confidence in American political standards at the time.
The beginning of the end for the Socialist Party in the United States began upon the entrance to World War One. Wartime induced a strong sense of national security. This lead to Americans being especially suspicious to the point of hostility against German culture. Federally sponsored oppression was expressed via legislature such as the Espionage Act of 1917. It was not uncommon for citizens of German background to receive large amounts of discrimination and even legal consequences. Consequentially, socialism received a very negative reputation because of its close ties with German culture. Leaders like Eugene Debs himself were imprisoned by simply presenting their anti-war position. These arrests caused great amounts of fear amongst the general public. Many socialists were especially instilled with fear, such that they would start to recede from the public. Political persecution and ideological differences nearly tore the socialist party apart. However, the party remained somewhat intact however scarred by the American public’s new attitude towards it.
American hatred of the reds would only persist and intensify. In January of 1920 over 5000 socialists/communists were arrested under the auspices of their association with the party. Hysteria and fear of socialism and communism were at the heart of this breach of liberty. It seemed as though the death of this leftist ideal was at hand. Even though party membership would be limited in the 1920s and 1930s it would still persist. A large part of its persistence would lie upon the fact that the American economy would suffer one the greatest depressions in history. Widespread poverty incited widespread disillusionment with capitalism. As homelessness became rampant there was a significant portion of society that clung to socialism and insisted that government was the only way out. However, the event that would pull the United States out of the great depression would also send Socialism into a downward spiral in the eyes of the public. This event would be none other than the Second World War. Anti-German sentiment took over once again and although by this time socialism had expanded outside of German culture, it still took a toll. In addition to this, heightened tensions with the Soviet Union would plant the seeds for the events to come.
Upon Allied victory in World War 2, the rivalry that had developed between the Communist Soviet Union and Capitalist America would escalate exponentially. The immediate threat arose from the development of nuclear weapons in both the USSR and the US. This meant that should war erupt, the stakes could mean greater casualties than the world had ever known. Thus communism and socialism would now be associated with our great red enemies. The actual fight between capitalism and communism would begin to fade under the Cold War. From this arose the ‘witch trials’ of the 20th century. Joseph McCarthy launched his relentless crusade on via the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). While there were legitimate concerns of Soviet espionage, the federal government put in place the Loyalty Act which demanded the immediate loyalty audit of every federal employee. This created mass hysteria and red panic. Many took the mentality that everyone was a communist until proven otherwise. Ludacris hearings took place and famous figures such as Helen Keller, Charlie Chaplain, and Langston Hughes were all accused of being communists (History Channel). By this point, however, the public began to realize the illegitimacy of the trials. But this did not end the Cold War which was ultimately the new source of communo-phobia.
Political tensions would rise and fall throughout the span of the cold war, thus the Socialist party as it was known would die. While there were a few startups in which candidates such as Gus Hall would run for president, they would not gather much of a following beyond their normal extreme constituency.