Eugene Debs

[TBF]

Last edited Wed Jun 13, 2012, 05:03 PM - Edit history (1)

Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American union leader, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies), and several times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States.[1] Through his presidential candidacies, as well as his work with labor movements, Debs eventually became one of the best-known socialists living in the United States.

In the early part of his political career, Debs was a member of the Democratic Party. He was elected as a Democrat to the Indiana General Assembly in 1884. After working with several smaller unions, including the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Debs was instrumental in the founding of the American Railway Union (ARU), the nation's first industrial union. When the ARU struck the Pullman Palace Car Company over pay cuts, President Grover Cleveland used the United States Army to break the strike. As a leader of the ARU, Debs was later imprisoned for failing to obey an injunction against the strike.

Debs educated himself about socialism in prison and emerged to launch his career as the nation's most prominent socialist in the first decades of the 20th century. He ran as the Socialist Party's candidate for the presidency in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920, the last time from his prison cell ...

More here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_V._Debs

And this:

Although sometimes called "King Debs", Debs himself was not wholly comfortable with his standing as a leader. As he told an audience in Detroit in 1906:

I am not a Labor Leader; I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out. You must use your heads as well as your hands, and get yourself out of your present condition.

[Demit]

1. I guess the photo is from back when he was still known as Eugene, huh?

[rhett o rick]

2. k

[TBF]

3. Facebook -

I know it's kind of a random post. I found the image on Facebook and wanted to share it here, so I added a little about Debs for others who might wander in.

[rhett o rick]

4. Random post are a good thing. I appreciate the post.

One of my favorite quotes:

“Intellegent discontent is the mainspring of civilization.
Progress is born of agitation.”
Eugene V. Debs

[socialist_n_TN]

5. My brother........

(who also is a member here, both DU and SP) is a big Debs fan. Same birthday as Debs and mine's the same as Trotsky's. Neither one of us had much of a chance at being anything but leftists. It was written in numerology. _

I like Debs too.

[white_wolf]

6. Hmm leftists and the same birthdays as Debbs and Trotsky? Coincidence? I think not

Clearly you are the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky and your brother is Debbs.

[socialist_n_TN]

7. !!!!!!!!

Ya think?

[MrYikes]

8. I can just imagine

the very heated discussion Trotsky and Debbs would create if they were in the same room for an afternoon.

[socialist_n_TN]

10. I'm not sure if they actually met and discussed anything........

but Debs WAS in the embryonic Soviet Union when Trotsky was a big part of that. OK going on a 61 year old man's memory here, but I believe Debs visited the early USSR when Trotsky was still a player.

[no_hypocrisy]

9. Eugene V. Debbs spoke on the balcony of a private home to 10,000 striking silk workers

almost 100 years ago about a mile from where I live. The home is now the American Labor Museum, the only institute dedicated to the history of labor.

In 1927 a radio station was created in the memory of Debbs. Appropriately it was named WEVD. The station went off the air and the call letters retired on August 31, 2001 at 11:59 p.m. I know because I was on the sidewalk outside the station, in a dual protest and death vigil.