The Socialist Party of New York is the name of two distinct, but historically related state affiliates of the American socialist movement located in New York state. Emerging from a July 1899 split in the Socialist Labor Party of America, the organization existed first as the Social Democratic Party of New York, retaining that name even after the founding of the Socialist Party of America (SPA) in the summer of 1901. A presence was maintained in the state as the Socialist Party of New York for the next seven decades.
The SPNY is currently the state chapter of the Socialist Party USA (SPUSA), an organization which emerged from the ashes of the old SPA in 1973.
Socialist Party of America and antecedents (1890s-1972)
Forerunners
The Socialist Labor Party of America (SLP) throughout its first fifteen years was primarily an organization of German immigrants. Organized in 1876, the party included sections from New York City and its environs from its date of origin.
By the decade of the 1890s the National Executive Committee of the SLP was based in New York, which was also the place of publication of the organization's official organs, including the English-language weekly, The People, and the German-language Vorwärts (Forward).
A bitter dispute over trade union policy led to a split of the SLP in July 1899, with a dissident faction (disparagingly known as the “Kangaroos”) headed by lawyers Henry L. Slobodin and Morris Hillquit. Fighting for control of the National Executive Committee and losing, a majority of the party's membership departed to launch a new organization — also confusingly known as the Socialist Labor Party and issuing an English-language weekly which made use of the same front page nameplate as that of its orthodox rivals.
1900 convention
On Saturday, June 16, 1900, a joint convention was held in New York City bringing together delegates from the dissident SLP and the Chicago SDP. A nine-member State Committee was elected that included, among others, German editor Herman Schlueter, Leonard D. Abbott, and future National Secretary of the Springfield SDP William Butscher.[1]
For a number of years after the formation of the Socialist Party of America in the summer of 1901, the New York state affiliate of that organization retained its prior name, the Social Democratic Party of New York, owing to provisions of New York election law that made a renaming of the party without loss of its ballot line problematic.[2] The party also retained the former ballot logo of the Social Democratic Party with headquarters in Springfield, an upraised arm bearing a torch.[3]
In 1920, Samuel Orr, Louis Waldman, Charles Solomon, Samuel DeWitt, and August Claessens were called before the Speaker of the New York State Assembly. The five were charged with being unfit for membership in the Assembly through their membership in the Socialist Party of America and its state affiliate, and were suspended from their seats by a vote of 140 supporting to 6 against suspension.[9][10] A protracted political trial followed as to the fitness of the five Socialists to assume their seats, which ran throughout the winter and spring. The trial began on January 20, 1920.[11]
Socialist Party USA (1973-date)
The party is affiliated with the Socialist Party USA. It has a close relationship with the Green Party; as such, the Socialist Party almost never seeks ballot access, instead endorsing Green Party candidates (notably Howie Hawkins).
At the SPA's 1972 National Convention, which was held in Manhattan,[12] the SPA changed its name to "Social Democrats, USA" by a vote of 73 to34.[13] During the convention, the majority won every vote, by a ratio of two to one. The Convention elected a national committee of 33 members, with 22 seats for the majority caucus, 8 seats for the coalition caucus of Michael Harrington, 2 for the Debs caucus, and one for the "independent" Samuel H. Friedman.[14] Many former members of the Debs caucus joined David McReynolds in founding the Socialist Party of the United States of America in 1973.[citation needed]
After failing to renew their charter, the Socialist Party of New York City was revived in February 2017.[15] As of April 2017, there are 3 locals of the Socialist Party in New York State; the Capital Region, Central New York and New York City.[16]
Presidential nominee results
In 1956, Darlington Hoopes ran as the final nominee of the Socialist Party of America but was not on the New York ballot. In 1976, following a split in the Socialist Party, Socialist Party USA began running independent candidates with the Socialist Party label. However, no SPUSA presidential nominee appeared on the ballot in New York until 2020, when Howie Hawkins was nominated by both SPUSA and the Green Party. He will appear on the ballot as a Green.
The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of America who had split from the main organization in 1899.
The Socialist Party USA, officially the Socialist Party of the United States of America, is a socialist political party in the United States. The party was established in 1973 as one of the successors to the Socialist Party of America, which had broken up a year prior, resulting in another group called Social Democrats, USA and the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (split).
Social Democrats, USA (SDUSA) is a minor social-democratic organization established in 1972 as the successor of the Socialist Party of America (SPA). The SPA had stopped running independent presidential candidates and consequently the term "party" in its name had confused the public. Moreover, replacing the "socialist" label with "social democrats" was meant to disassociate the group from the Soviet Union.
Ella Reeve "Mother" Bloor was an American labor organizer and long-time activist in the socialist and communist movements. Bloor is best remembered as one of the top-ranking female functionaries in the Communist Party USA.
The Young People's Socialist League (YPSL), founded in 1989, was the official youth arm of the Socialist Party USA. The group comprises party members under the age of 30. It shared the same name as the Young People's Socialist League which was affiliated with the Socialist Party of America.
The Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee was a democratic socialist organization in the United States.
Benjamin Hanford was an American socialist politician during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A printer by trade, Hanford is best remembered for his 1904 and 1908 runs for Vice President of the United States on the ticket of the Socialist Party of America, running next to Presidential nominee Eugene V. Debs. Hanford was also the creator of the fictional character "Jimmie Higgins," a prototypical Socialist rank-and-filer whose silent work on the unglamorous tasks needed by any political organization made the group's achievements possible — a character later reprised in a novel by Upton Sinclair.
Maximillian Sebastian Hayes was an American newspaper editor, trade union activist, and socialist politician. In 1912 Hayes became the first candidate to challenge Samuel Gompers for the presidency of the American Federation of Labor in nearly a decade, drawing about 30 percent of the vote in his losing effort. Hayes is best remembered as the long-time editor of the Cleveland Citizen and as the vice presidential candidate of the Farmer–Labor Party ticket in 1920.
Charles Horatio Matchett was an American socialist politician. He is best remembered as the first candidate of the Socialist Labor Party of America for Vice President of the United States in the election of 1892 and as the party's candidate for president in the election of 1896.
Julius Gerber was a leading Socialist Party of America party official and politician during the first two decades of the 20th century. Gerber headed the important Socialist Party unit for New York City and its environs from 1911 through 1922. He played a key role in the party split of 1919, out of which the Communist Party emerged.
Algernon H. "Al" Lee was an American socialist politician and educator. In addition to serving as a member of the New York City Council during World War I, Lee was one of three co-authors of the controversial anti-war resolution at the 1917 St. Louis emergency convention of the Socialist Party of America. He is best remembered as the Director of Education at the Rand School of Social Science for 35 years.
The Socialist Party of California (SPCA) was a socialist political party in the U.S. state of California. Founded in the early 1900s, it had been the state chapter of the Socialist Party USA since being re-chartered in 2011. As of July 2020, it was no longer listed as active by the national organization.
The Socialist Party of Minnesota was the state affiliate of the Springfield faction of the Social Democratic Party of America, the Socialist Party of America, and finally the Socialist Party USA in the U.S. state of Minnesota.
The Socialist Party of Ohio (SPOH) is a socialist political party in the U.S. state of Ohio. Founded in 1901, the SPO was an affiliate of the Socialist Party of America. Since the 1972 renaming of the SPA to Social Democrats, USA, it has been the state chapter of the Socialist Party USA (SPUSA).
The American Left can refer to multiple concepts. It is sometimes used as a shorthand for groups aligned with the Democratic Party. At other times, it refers to groups that have sought egalitarian changes in the economic, political, and cultural institutions of the United States. Various subgroups with a national scope are active. Liberals and progressives believe that equality can be accommodated into existing capitalist structures, but they differ in their criticism of capitalism and on the extent of reform and the welfare state. Anarchists, communists, and socialists with international imperatives are also present within this macro-movement. Many communes and egalitarian communities have existed in the United States as a sub-category of the broader intentional community movement, some of which were based on utopian socialist ideals. The left has been involved in both the Democratic and Republican parties at different times, having originated in the Democratic-Republican Party as opposed to the Federalist Party.
Simon Philip Van Patten (1852–1918) was an American socialist political activist prominent during the latter half of the 1870s and the first half of the 1880s. Van Patten is best remembered for being named the first Corresponding Secretary of the Workingmen's Party of the United States in 1876 and for heading it and its successor organization, the Socialist Labor Party of America, for the next six years. In 1883 Van Patten mysteriously disappeared, with his friends reporting him as a potential suicide to law enforcement authorities. He later turned up as a government employee, however, having abandoned radical politics in favor of stable employment.
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The Socialist Labor Party (SLP) is the first socialist political party in the United States, established in 1876.
The history of left-wing politics in the United States consists of a broad range of individuals and groups that have sought fundamental egalitarian changes. Left-wing activists in the United States have been credited with advancing social change on issues such as labor and civil rights as well as providing critiques of capitalism.
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