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'''De Leonism''', occasionally known as '''Marxism–De Leonism''', is a form of unionist Marxism<ref>https://www.marxists.org/archive/deleon/works/1909/3.htm</ref> developed by Daniel De Leon. De Leon combined the rising theories of American unionism in his time with [[File:Ormarxf.png]] [[Marxism|orthodox Marxism]]. According to De Leonist theory, industrial unions (not to be confused with labor unions) are the vehicle of class struggle. Industrial Unions serving the interests of the proletariat (working class) will bring about the change needed to establish a socialist system. These industrial unions will then form the basis for the dictatorship of the proletariat, and then with the establishment of communism, the basis for the association of producers.
==History==
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 [[w:Henry_George|Henry George]] and in 1890 joined the [[w:Socialist_Labor_Party_of_America|Socialist Labor Party]], becoming the editor of its newspaper, [[w: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 [[w:Lassallism|Lassallian]] outlook.
De Leon was highly critical of the trade union movement in America and described the craft-oriented [[w: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 [[w: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 [[w: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 [[w:Social_Democratic_Party_of_America|Social Democratic Party]] and then the [[w: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 [[w: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 [[w: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.
==Beliefs==
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