Labor and Freedom: The Voice and Pen of Eugene V. DebsDebs, Eugene V. (Eugene Victor)
History
Labor and Freedom: The Voice and Pen of Eugene V. Debs
Debs, Eugene V. (Eugene Victor)
Labor -- United States; Socialism -- United States; Socialist Party (U.S.); Working class -- United States
To the extent that you have made progress, to the extent that you have
developed power, and to the extent that you have achieved victory, to
that extent you are indebted to your own class-conscious efforts and
your own industrial and political organization. To the extent that you
lack power, to the extent that you are defeated and kept in bondage, to
that extent you lack in economic and political solidarity.
Rightly organized and soundly disciplined on both the economic and
political fields, the working class can prevail against the world.
The economic organization and the political party of the working class
must both be revolutionary and they must work together hand in hand.
Industrial unionism means industrial solidarity, but craft unionism
means division and disaster. The printing trades pitted against each
other in Chicago in their struggle with the newspaper trust furnish a
fatal illustration of the weakness and treachery of craft division in
the present industrial conflict.
_The Workers of Milwaukee._
The workers of Milwaukee have to an exceptional extent overcome the
obstacles to unity and have worked together with signal success on both
the economic and political fields. I appeal to them in the name of the
future to get closer and closer together in the bonds of economic and
political solidarity. If they do this their complete and final victory
is assured.
The Socialist party of Milwaukee has marched steadily to the front since
it first began its career. Its latest defeat was its greatest victory.
It forced the Republicans and Democrats to unmask and to fly into each
other's arms. There is no Republican or Democratic party in Milwaukee.
They are dead, and in the coming election their remains, masquerading as
a party of the people, will be buried by the Socialist party.
_The First Congressman._
The Socialists of Milwaukee will always have the distinction of having
elected the first representative of the working class to the congress of
the United States. Victor L. Berger has made good at Washington. For
the first time since he is a member the voice of labor has been
distinctly heard on the floors of congress, and in every emergency when
the working class needed a champion at the seat of power, they found him
ready and eager to espouse their cause and defend their interests.
It was to defeat Berger's re-election that the Republicans and Democrats
in Milwaukee combined, just as they did to defeat Emil Seidel for mayor
and drive the Socialist administration from power.
But Berger is making a record at Washington and the Socialist
administration made a record in Milwaukee that will stand the test of
time, and if the workers now rally their forces in support of Berger, he
will be triumphantly re-elected against the combined opposition of the
old parties, and in the next municipal election the City of Milwaukee
will be permanently restored to a Socialist administration.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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