De Leonism: Difference between revisions

De Leon settled in New York City, studying at Columbia University. He was a [[File:Georgist.png]] [[Georgism|Georgist]] socialist during the 1886 Mayoral campaign of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_George Henry George] and in 1890 joined the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Labor_Party_of_America Socialist Labor Party], becoming the editor of its newspaper, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_People_(1891) The People].

De Leon became a Marxist in the late 1880s, and argued for the revolutionary overthrow of [[File:Cap.png]] [[capitalism]], trying to divert the SLP away from its [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassallism Lassallian] outlook.

De Leon was highly critical of the trade union movement in America and described the craft-oriented [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Federation_of_Labor American Federation of Labor] as the "American Separation of Labor". At this early stage in De Leon's development, there was still a considerable remnant of the general unionist [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_Labor Knights of Labor] in existence, and the SLP worked within it until being driven out. This resulted in the formation of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Trade_and_Labor_Alliance Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance] (ST&LA) in 1895, which was dominated by the SLP.

By the early 20th Century, the SLP was declining in numbers, with first the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Democratic_Party_of_America Social Democratic Party] and then the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Party_of_America Socialist Party of America] becoming the leading leftist political force in America (as these splinter groups embraced capitalist reforms). De Leon was an important figure in the US labor movement, and in 1904 he attended the International Socialist Congress, held in Amsterdam. Under the influence of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Labor_Union American Labor Union] (ALU), he changed his politics around this time to put more focus on industrial unionism, and the ballot as a purely destructive weapon, in contrast to his earlier view of political organization as 'sword' and industrial union as 'shield'. He worked with the ALU in the founding of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Workers_of_the_World Industrial Workers of the World] (IWW) in 1905. His participation in this organization was short-lived and acrimonious. After DeLeon's death, his ideology was carried on by the SLP with little success, although they had a brief moment in the 60s when disaffected left wing youth were looking for a party to join, the "dogmatic" leadership eventually caused most of that membership to drift away (they even alienated multi-time Presidential candidate Eric Hass into leaving the party). By the time their national office closed in 2008, they had a grand total of 77 members.

* [https://www.marxists.org/archive/deleon/works/1896/960126.htm Reform or Revolution?] (1896) by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_De_Leon Daniel De Leon]

* [https://www.marxists.org/archive/deleon/works/1898/980211.htm What Means This Strike?] (1898) by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_De_Leon Daniel De Leon]

* [https://archive.org/details/SocialismVersusAnarchismAnAddress Socialism vs Anarchism] (1901) by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_De_Leon Daniel De Leon]

* [https://www.marxists.org/archive/deleon/pdf/1902/two_pages.pdf Two Pages from Roman History] (1903) by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_De_Leon Daniel De Leon]

* [https://www.marxists.org/archive/deleon/works/1904/040421.htm The Burning Question of Trade Unionism] (1904) by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_De_Leon Daniel De Leon]

* [https://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1904/condel/delrep.htm DeLeon Replies ...] (1904) by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_De_Leon Daniel De Leon]

* [https://www.marxists.org/archive/deleon/works/1905/050710.htm Socialist Reconstruction of Society] (1905) by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_De_Leon Daniel De Leon]