1937

JANUARY

"Social Democrats Plan Convention; Meet Next March: Preliminary Eastern States Conference of Social Democrats in Philadelphia to Meet February 7." (New Leader) [Jan. 9, 1937] Messy details about the effort to organize a new organization for those who owe their allegiance "to social democracy as opposed to dictatorship and terror" in the wake of the 1936 Socialist Party split. According to this piece, the new rival entity, the Social Democratic Federation, was formed in Cleveland simultaneous with the May 1936 split at the SPA's convention there. New York had been immediately expelled by the left socialists in the majority at Cleveland and had subsequently, it seems, established themselves as the "People's Party of New York." Other state organizations dominated by the moderate wing had quit the Socialist Party in 1936, including Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Maryland, as well as about half of the New Jersey organization and 2/3 of Massachusetts. Permanent organizations had then been established in New Jersey and the District of Columbia. Julius Gerber's son Gus had handled the job as the provisional SDF's first national secretary until September 1936, after which Jim Oneal had taken over the task. The Indiana state socialist organization had also affiliated with the new provisional group, which had been joined by the Finnish and Jewish (Yiddish language) Socialist Federations. A preliminary "Eastern States Conference" was called by the Socialist Party of Pennsylvania for Philadelphia on February 7, which was to work out a program and agenda for a broader founding National Convention, to be held in Pittsburgh on March 14. Thus volition for the new SDF was not exclusively through the New York apparatus, but rather from the Pennsylvania socialist organization.

FEBRUARY

SDF Calls Convention at Pittsburgh, May 29, by James Oneal [event of Feb. 7, 1937] First-hand report of the “Eastern State Conference of Social Democratic Organizations,” called by the Socialist Party of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia on Feb. 7, 1937. The gathering brought together representatives of Old Guard-dominated Socialist Parties which had left the Socialist Party of America’s orbit, including in addition to Pennsylvania the states of Connecticut, Maryland, and District of Columbia; parts of the Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey organizations; and the Finnish and Yiddish-language Federations. A 7 member committee on arrangements and finance was named as was a committee to draft a formal convention call. The main item of debate related to independent political action vs. participation in labor parties where possible, with Darlington Hoopes of PA and Jim Oneal of NY representing the two perspectives most aggressively. Oneal estimates the membership of the SDF at between 6,000 and 8,000 — including the two powerful federations and states not yet affiliated with the fledgling organization; the Norman Thomas Socialist Party he estimates at 3,000 members of less. The date of the proposed National Convention was moved from March to May 29-31.

MARCH

Peoples’ Party Name Dropped at Convention: Will Act Only as the New York State Branch of Social Democratic Federation(New Leader) [March 27-28, 1937 With a regional conference completed and a formal national convention on the calendar, the former Old Guard Socialist Party of New York — constituted as the “People’s Party” since its 1936 expulsion from the SPA — voted in March 1937 to formally rename itself as the New York state section of the Social Democratic Federation of America. The convention, held in New York City and attended by approximately 100 delegates from around the state, also voted to formally place its electoral efforts in the hands of the strictly trade union-controlled American Labor Party. Recommendations were adopted for establishment of a permanent 5 person committee to supervise a two-pronged youth movement, including both children’s’ and junior sections and for establishment of a network of “women’s clubs” for educational and organizational purposes. Keynote speech was delivered by Louis Waldman, state chairman of the organization. The delegates were also addressed by Abrahan Cahan of the Forward, who expressed satisfaction with the political direction of the SDF in abandoning the radical-dominated Socialist Party. (A short snippet elsewhere in the Leader indicated that Local New York City of the SDF had 44 branches at the time of the name change.)

MAY

The Pittsburgh Declaration of Principles: Adopted by the National Convention of the Social Democratic Federation, May 30, 1937. Formal programmatic document of the newly established Social Democratic Federation of the United States of America at its founding convention in Pittsburgh, May 29-30, 1937. The shadow of the Socialist Party, from whence it sprung, looms large in the organization’s emphasis on formal legality. “Property institutions are the creatures of law,” the document observes, “By law they have been changed in ages past, and by law they can and must be changed in the years to come.” This must be the product of democratic practice, the SDF contends, as “no dictatorship, whatever its avowed purpose, can be trusted to bring liberty, plenty, and peace. The institutions of political democracy must be defended and improved in order that economic and social life may be democratized.” A laundry list of ameliorative reform suggestions is presented, with socialization of mass production industry projected as a multi-year process of “systematic transformation of private profit-making capital into socially owned means of production for use.” Industries at the top of the agenda for socialization included armaments, transportation, communications, and electrical production and distribution. Industries were to be brought under public ownership “as a general rule” through compensation rather than expropriation, the declaration of principles notes.

Social Democrats Combine in New National Federation: Pittsburgh Meet Paves Road for Rebirth of Party.(New Leader) [events of May 29-30, 1937 Participant’s account of the first national convention of the Social Democratic Federation, providing detail about activities of the assembly during its two days of sessions. An extensive extract of the keynote address of Louis Waldman is provided. The Socialist Party was characterized by Waldman as “the betrayers of Socialist ideals,” incapacitated by internal factional warfare, hiding itself from public view to conceal the bitterness of the struggle and what he believed to be the fact that the Trotskyist wing had captured the organization. The Social Democratic Federation, on the other hand, would resume the policy of cooperating with trade union progressives and others working towards independent political action through state and local labor parties, Waldman indicated. Fascist and Communist dictatorship was denounced, and division of the American trade union movement between the AFL and CIO organizations regretted by Waldman. Various resolutions and initiatives of the SDF are discussed, including greetings sent to the Labor and Socialist International, with a view to eventual affiliation.

SDF is Launched at Convention of 19 States: Organization Formed to Serve as Instrument for Socialism and Basis for National Labor Party.(New Leader) [events of May 29-31, 1937 Participant’s account of the first national convention of the Social Democratic Federation, organization formed by Old Guard dissidents who split from the Socialist Party of America. Held the weekend of May 29-30 in Pittsburgh, the SDF convention was established around a bulwark of four state party organizations: the expelled Old Guard structure of New York (about half the former SP organization there), the Socialist Party of Pennsylvania, the Socialist Party of Connecticut, and a large section of the former SP organization from the state of Massachusetts. Smaller party organizations came in full from Maryland and Rhode Island, with scattered elements from more than a dozen states. The Jewish Socialist Verbund seems to have come over as a group; the Finnish Socialist Federation and the powerful (and moderate) Socialist Party of Wisconsin only sent observers — certainly a major blow to the group’s hopes for a successful launch. This enthusiastic account notes that individual states were left free to (1) keep their historic party names; and (2) deal with local alliances with fledgling labor parties as best they saw fit. “On a wider, national scale, the National Executive Committee will seek to bring about unification of all labor and progressive forces aiming at the formation of a Labor Party or a Farmer-Labor Party with a program clearly social in purpose,” the reporter notes. Mayor Jasper McLevy of Bridgeport, CT was elected National Chairman and a 9 member National Executive Committee elected to govern the organization. This group met for the first time at Pittsburgh on May 31 to continue constructing the organizational form and to draft an agenda for political, labor, and propaganda work, the writer states. Counting the National Chairman, the NEC consisted of 2 each from New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and 1 member from Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, and Illinois — another expression of the new organization’s center of numerical strength.

JUNE

NEC Maps Program for Social Democratic Federation: SDF Constitution Protects States.(New Leader) [June 5, 1937 Cursory discussion of the features of the new constitution of the Social Democratic Federation of the United States of America. A return is made to the Socialist Party’s original model of “state autonomy” — the SDF was in a very real sense a federation of largely autonomous state and local groups. At the same time, the original slogan of “No Compromise, No Political Trading” was cast aside: Under the new constitution, state and local affiliates of the SDF were given authority to “adopt another name where necessary or desirable for political purposes.” These affiliates were also free to cooperate with labor parties engaging in political action independent of other political organizations. Thus in Pennsylvania the SDF affiliate would remain called the Socialist Party of Pennsylvania, running its own candidates, while in New York it would be the New York State Section of the Social Democratic Federation, working hand-in-glove with the slate of candidates of the trade union-controlled American Labor Party. A system of internal elections and highly centralized collective leadership was established in which delegated annual national conventions were to directly elect a 9 member National Executive Committee, which was in turn to select the organization’s National Secretary to serve at the NEC’s pleasure. Minimum age for party membership was set at 21. The idea of a youth section was advanced, with members of these junior organizations to be strictly limited to under the age of 21 and to remain under the close supervision and control of the adult organizations in their territories. The die was thus cast for a safe-and-secure, stodgy organization, as befit the Old Guard’s tastes and values in the aftermath of the Socialist Party’s generational revolt.

SEPTEMBER

"'The Pity of It' Jim Maurer Says About Leftist Splits by James H. Maurer [Sept. 1937] The Socialist Party controversy of 1936-37 pitted left and right against one another for control of the Socialist Party's name and assets. The Old Guard lost, splitting the organization to form the Social Democratic Federation at a founding convention held late in May 1937. Interestingly, in the elections of 1937 the radicals challenged the established old guard Socialists in September primary elections — the inspiration for this short article by former Pennsylvania Federation of Labor President Jim Maurer. Maurer deems the split the inevitable result of a struggle between those who "belittled political action, glorified violence, and made the party acceptable to Communists and unacceptable to the American people" and adherents of democracy. Now in the midst of a further factional war with the Trotskyists whom they had themselves welcomed into the Socialist Party, the left socialists were attempting to create a diversion by "hurling mud and calling names." "The real issue here is whether we shall go by the Socialist way or the Communist way, the way or democracy or the way of dictatorship and, finally, of fascism," Maurer declares.

1938

JANUARY

Duty of Social Democrats in the SDF and ALP: Resolution Passed at the New York City Convention, Jan. 29, 1938.” Historically, the Socialist Party of America cast itself as the “political wing” of the labor movement, leaving wage negotiations to its “economic wing,” the trade union movement. By the middle 1920s the political success of the British Labour Party and failure of the SPA to achieve a foothold outside of a very few urban centers had forced a fundamental reevaluation of this notion — a reevaluation particularly embraced by the party’s Old Guard faction. The de facto role of the “political wing” was now seen as that of a pressure group allied with and influencing a union-dominated mass Labor Party. The Social Democratic Federation in New York, state affiliate of the national SDF, attempted to walk a fine line of maintaining an effective and useful existence as a socialist propaganda organization without alienating the labor union-directed American Labor Party to which it had pledged allegiance. This resolution of the 1938 New York City Convention attempts to specify the exact relationship between the SDF and the ALP for its members. SDF members are explicitly prohibited from forming organized factions in the ALP; beyond that proscription the SDF did not “lay down any code of rules to govern its members in their capacity as members in the American Labor Party,” instead calling for them to “be guided by their Socialist knowledge and Socialist conscience in that capacity as in every other.” Participation in meetings of the parallel ALP branch organizations and fulfillment of all duties of an ALP member are urged. As for the SDF, organization of mass meetings, at least once monthly, and leaflets and direct contact to build membership is seen as the way forward. Increased activity in the sale of pamphlets and subscriptions to the weekly New Leader is also specified. The ALP’s opportunistic dual sponsorship of “old party” candidates rather than running a full independent slate — essentially a new permutation of the historical AF of L political strategy of supporting friends and defeating enemies — is explained away as a lack “in cohesion, in self-reliance, and in clearness of view as to its own future road” that was merely part of the organization’s “formative stage.”

SDF Warns ALP of Dangerous Groups: Resolution Passed at the New York City Convention, Jan. 29, 1938. So-called “Section 2” of the resolution of the 1938 New York City Convention of the Social Democratic Federation on the American Labor Party consisted of this warning to the ALP leadership against “Communist infiltration” of the group. “The aim of the Communists has been and is to undermine democracy, to breed dissension in the labor movement, and to destroy every organization that strives for the betterment of the condition of the workers through democratic and peaceful means,” the declaration warns. Urging that the Communists’ whole record rather than their present people’s front phrases should be used to assess the Communists, the Social Democrats warn that “In all countries they have tried to destroy the labor unions and labor parties that they could not control.” Their presence inside the ALP would lead to discredit in the eyes of the people and organized labor alike, the resolution cautions.

An Invitation to Sincere Socialists: Resolution Adopted by the New York City SDF Convention, Jan. 29, 1938.” In the wake of a drive within the Socialist Party of America to expel the organized Trotskyist faction from the organization, the rival Social Democratic Federation of New York City issued the following resolution declaring its ideas victorious and urging “the many sincere and disillusioned members of the Socialist Party” to join SDF ranks to help build the American Labor Party. “A division among Socialists, always a tragedy, may be necessary when a deep cleavage exists in principles or policies. When, however, many members of the Socialist Party have come to accept our viewpoint, and only the existence of two organizations separates those who share our ideas from us, perpetuation of a division between democratic Socialists would become an unforgivable blunder.” The appeal seems to have been more for propaganda effect as an attempt to scoop up loose members rather than refection of a serious effort to mend ideological and policy fences with a view to establishing organic unity.

APRIL

Social Democratic Federation Rejects SP May Day Bid. (New Leader) [April 16, 1938] With war in Europe in the air and united action of “democratic nations” urged by them to stem the tide of fascism; with unity of the divided American labor movement in the face of renewed anti-union activity by employers groups demanded by them, this resolution of the New York affiliate of the Social Democratic Federation richly illustrates the way it approached calls for unity in its own house. Approached by the now Trotskyist-free Socialist Party of New York with an appeal for a joint organizational celebration of May Day, the SDF answers in the negative: “In the presence of a clear opposition between the stand of the Social Democratic Federation and that of the Socialist Party on the fundamental questions of democracy, international relations, and the role of the trade unions, a joint meeting could be held only on condition either that the spokesmen of the two organizations should freely combat each other’s views or that they should all refrain from any definite opinion on those subjects.... We feel that the proposed joint meeting would serve no good purpose and might do considerable harm by confusing or obscuring vital issues, and we accordingly decline the invitation.”

SP Reports Show Sharp Decline in Party Membership.(New Leader) [events of April 21-23, 1938] Unsigned news account from the pages of the rival New Leader purporting to reveal details of a secret (executive session) report of Socialist Party National Secretary Roy Burt to the delegates of the 1938 party convention. According to this article, Burt revealed that membership of the SPA had plummeted to a mere 3,000 for the first quarter of 1938 and that finances were in a critical state. Factional activity conducted by the now-expelled Trotskyist wing had force the revocation of party charters for the state parties of Oklahoma, California, Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio, according to this account, with the additional loss of Arkansas, Arizona, Montana, Washington, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming due to insufficient membership. A new declaration of principles dealing with war and fascism had been adopted by the convention, with the two phrases most objectionable to the Old Guard/SDF dissidents from the 1934 declaration eliminated, it is said.

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