The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-11-07
BY C. E. RUTHENRERG,
General Secretary,
Workers lcommunIstl Parry.

I dIOuSeu ana dldIu6u D6CduS6 LIS
Workers (Communlst) Party is pay
/ ing tribute to the work of Eugene "
Debs in the struggle against capital
ism by participating in memorial meet
ings in honor of the memory of Debs.
The socialists do not care to be re-
minded of the many times that Eugene
V. Debs disagreed with the reformist
and reactionary position taken by the
socialist party. They wish to make
the tradition of Debs' work in the rev.
dictionary labor movement part Of the
background of the utterly bankrupt
socialist party and hide it with the
mantle of non-class struggle reform
ism, which is the policy of the social
ist party today.
The memory of the work of Eugene
V. Debs in the American labor move
ment is something which every revo-
,lutionary worker can cherish. The
history of the socialist party in the
United States does not begin with
1919. Debs worked in the socialist
party for nearly two decades prior to
/ 1919. He supported inside of the so
cialist party, while the struggle was
Istill going on inside of the party be-
tween yellow reformism and class
conscious revolutionary action, not the
Hillquits, Bergers and Oneals, but the
reds" the left wing of the socialist
party.
Debs can still speak for himself.
His eloquent voice is hushed by his
death, but the many flaming words of
denunciation he wrote against those
who turned the socialist party from
class struggle, revolutionary policy
j still speaks for him against the Hill
quits, Bergers and Oneals.
Debs on immigration.
! 1t is only possible here to cite a few
incidents showing how Debs differed
with the right wing, reformist leader
ship of the socialist party. These,
however, will suffice to indicate that
Debs did not belong to yellow reform
ism
In the 1910 convention of the social
+ Isl party q 4GpOlL was AllttAC Ny q 1OAAA-
mittee on immigration which adopted
the reactionary A. F. of L. position to
bar orientals from the United States.
Debs could not accept such version
of internationalism. In the July, 1910,
number of the International Socialist
Review he wrote about this brand of
nternationalism, which the official
leadership of the socialist party was
trying to force upon the party, as fol-
lows:
"Have just read the majority re-
port of the committee on lmmigra-
ton. 1t is utterly unsoclalistic, re-
dictionary and in truth outrageous.
Let US stand square on our
revolutionary working-cIass prinei-
Piles and make our fight openly and
uncompromisingly against all our
enemies"
The Attempt to Liaudate the Socialist
Party.
In 1910 a movement developed with /
in the socialist party, led by A. NJ. 81
mons, for the merging of the socialist |
party into labor party. The proposal |
was not that united front organiza-
ton consisting of delegates from va
rious labor unions and workers organ
izations should be organized and the |
socialist party affiliate with such a
party, but rather that the socialist /
party should cease to exist, merging /
itself completely into a labor party. |
This, Of course, was quite different /
proposal than the present day move
ment supported by the Workers Com
munist) Party for the formation of a
labor party with which the Workers /
(Communist) Party would affiliate,
maintaining at the same time its sep
arate organization and its revolution I
airy program.
The movement Of 1910 would have
resulted in the liquidation in the I
United States of the socialist party as
a party having It's objective the aboli- I
ton Of capitalism, within which there
was the left wing. which stood for a
revolutionary class struggle.
Debs wrote about this proposal in
the January, 1910, issue OF the Inter
national Socialist Review aS follows:
"The revolutionary character Of
our party and our movement must
be preserved In all Its integrity at
all costs, for II that be compromised
X had better cease 10 exist"
It would be we'll for the Hilluuits,
Bergers and oneals who have stripped
the socialist party Of any claim that
It has a revolutionary character to
again read these words OF Eugene v.
Debs.
The Struggle Between the "YelIows"
and "Reds."
In the year 1912 there was a bitter
struggle within the socialist party be-
tween the right and left wings, termed
at that time the "yellows' and the
reds over the question OF how tho
xrorlara would oohfava t1nwar nahaH