Overview
Socialism is a range of economic and social systems characterised by social ownership and democratic control of the means of production, as well as the political ideologies, theories, and movements that aim at their establishment. Socialism often overlapped with union and labor activities. For instance, the Industrial Workers of the World was a labor union that was founded by many notable socialists including Eugene Debs, "Mother" Mary Harris Jones, and Daniel De Leon. Labor unions were concerned with equal rights for workers, while socialists wanted to ensure more equality for all groups in society.
The Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), also known as the "Wobblies," is an international union. IWW membership does not require that one work in a represented workplace nor does it exclude membership in another labor union. The IWW contends that all workers should be united as a class and that the wage system should be abolished. They are known for the Wobbly Shop model of workplace democracy, in which workers elect their managers and other forms of grassroots democracy (self-management) are implemented.
The IWW was founded in Chicago in June 1905 at a convention of 200 socialists, anarchists, and radical trade unionists from all over the United States who were opposed to the policies of the American Federation of Labor (AFL).
The IWW's goal was to promote worker solidarity in the revolutionary struggle to overthrow the employing class. The Wobblies' motto was, "an injury to one is an injury to all," which improved upon the nineteenth-century Knights of Labor's creed, "an injury to one is the concern of all." In particular, the IWW was organized because of the belief among many unionists, socialists, anarchists, and radicals that the AFL not only had failed to effectively organize the American working class, as only about 5 percent of all workers belonged to unions in 1905, but also was organizing according to narrow craft principles that divided groups of workers.
The Wobblies differed from other union movements of the time in its promotion of industrial unionism, as opposed to the craft unionism of the AFL. The IWW emphasized rank-and-file organization, as opposed to empowering leaders who would bargain with employers on behalf of workers. This manifested itself in the early IWW's consistent refusal to sign contracts, which they felt would restrict workers' abilities to aid each other when called upon. Though never developed in any detail, Wobblies envisioned the general strike as the means by which the wage system would be overthrown and a new economic system ushered in, one which emphasized people over profit, and cooperation over competition.
One of the IWW's most important contributions to the labor movement and broader push toward social justice was that, when founded, it was the only American union (besides the Knights of Labor) to welcome all workers including women, immigrants, African Americans, and Asians into the same organization. Indeed, many of its early members were immigrants, and some, such as Carlo Tresca, Joe Hill, and Mary Jones, rose to prominence in the leadership.
Wobblies membership card
A membership card for the Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the "Wobblies."
Laurence Gronlund
Laurence Gronlund was an American lawyer and socialist. Gronlund was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on July 13, 1846. He graduated from the Law School of the University of Copenhagen in 1865, and moved to the United States in 1867. He taught German in Milwaukee until he was admitted to the bar in 1869, at which point he began practicing law in Chicago.
Gronlund was converted to socialism by Blaise Pascal's Pensées, and gave up the practice of law to write and lecture on socialism. He was closely connected with the work of the Socialist Labor Party from 1874 to 1884, after which he devoted himself almost exclusively to lecturing. This ended with his appointment to a post in the Bureau of Labor Statistics. After his period of civil service, he again returned to the lecture field, and was an editorial writer for the New York American and Chicago American from 1898 until his death in New York City, on October 15, 1899.
Gronlund considered the United States more advanced, and therefore better fitted for a socialistic regime, than any other country. The only obstacle he saw was the nation's race problem. That being said, he thought that social equality between the black and white races could and would be established. He thought a vast national organization, composed of energetic young men from every locality, could bring about a peaceful revolution in a few years.
Edward Bellamy
Edward Bellamy was an American author and socialist, most famous for his utopian novel, Looking Backward, a Rip Van Winkle-like tale set in the distant future (the year 2000). Bellamy's vision of a harmonious future world inspired the formation of more than 160 "Nationalist Clubs" dedicated to the propagation of Bellamy's political ideas. These clubs worked to bring about Bellamy's predicted world.
Bellamy claimed he did not write Looking Backward as a blueprint for political action, but instead as, "a literary fantasy, a fairy tale of social felicity." In spite of this, the book inspired legions of readers to establish these Nationalist Clubs, the first of which began in Boston in 1888.
Bellamy depicted a country relieved of its social ills through the abandonment of the principle of competition and the establishment of state ownership of industry. This vision proved an appealing panacea to a generation of intellectuals alienated from the dark side of Gilded Age America. By 1891, it was reported that no fewer than 162 Nationalist Clubs were in existence. Bellamy himself came to actively participate in the political movement that emerged around his book, particularly after 1891, when he founded his own magazine, The New Nation. At this time, Bellamy began to promote united action between the various Nationalist Clubs and the emerging People's Party.
For the next three and a half years, Bellamy devoted his time to politics, published his magazine, worked to influence the platform of the People's Party, and publicized the Nationalist movement in the popular press. This phase of Bellamy's life came to an end in 1894, when The New Nation was forced to suspend publication because of financial difficulties.
With key Nationalist Club activists largely absorbed into the apparatus of the People's Party, Bellamy abandoned politics and returned to literature. He set to work on a sequel to Looking Backward, entitled Equality, attempting to deal with the ideal society of the post-revolutionary future in greater detail. The book was printed in 1898 and was Bellamy's final creation.