"LEARNING FROM EUGENE DEBS" ENDNOTES
[1]. The opening words of a National Public Radio piece state that "Eugene Debs was the first major Democratic Socialist in American history" (Will Huntsberry, "Eugene V. Debs Museum Explores History Of American Socialism," NPR, May 2, 2016, https://www.npr.org/2016/05/02/476498750/eugene-v-debs-museum-explores-history-of-american-socialism).
[2]. Paul Buhle and Mari Jo Buhle call Debs "a symbol of democratic socialism" ("The Face of American Socialism before Bernie Sanders? Eugene Debs," The Guardian, March 23, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/23/american-socialism-bernie-sanders-eugene-debs).
Two additional examples of Debs being identified as a "democratic socialist" despite calling repeatedly for suppression of those he considered parasites as well as for government ownership of all production thereby making private business ownership (large and small) illegal:
Michael Kazin writes about Debs going to jail and how he "emerged from his cell a democratic socialist" ("How Eugene Debs Became a Socialist," Dissent, Spring 2019, https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/how-eugene-debs-became-a-socialist); Nick French writes about "the democratic-socialist tradition to which Bernie Sanders, Martin Luther King, and Eugene Debs belong" ("Democratic Socialism Is about Freedom," Jacobin, March 2020, https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/03/democratic-socialism-freedom-rights-authoritarianism-capitalism).
[3]. Ramsay MacDonald and Emile Vandervelde are two additional examples of celebrated democratic socialists who attack alleged parasites and call for parasite suppression, just like Debs and any number of other socialists described as "democratic." Vandervelde even wrote an entire book on the topic: Parasitism: Organic and Social.
Examples of MacDonald and Vandervelde being identified as "democratic" socialists (emphasis added):
"He [MacDonald] had been regarded as … a model for democratic socialists throughout the world." (Kenneth O. Morgan, "Ramsay MacDonald and the Rise of Labour,"[New Perspective Volume 1. Number 3. March 1996, http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~semp/ramsay.htm]
"Vandervelde's principled democratic socialism evolved between revisionism and orthodox Marxism." (Janet Polasky, The Democratic Socialism of Emile Vandervelde [Washington, D.C.: Berg Publishers Limited, 1995], 9.)
Three examples of Ramsay MacDonald attacking "parasites" and "parasitism" (emphasis added):
"All socialism and a Socialist system of distribution can claim to do is to destroy social parasites." (J. Ramsay MacDonald, Socialism and Society, 6th ed. [London: Independent Labor Party, 1908], 204.)
"The economic constitution of the Socialist State would be such that parasitism would not, and could not, produce incomes, whilst the moral coercion of public opinion would be effective even before the economic changes closed every opportunity for parasitical living." (Ramsay MacDonald, Socialism: Critical and Constructive [New York: Cassell and Company, 1921], 139.
"It is therefore proposed that only those who work should vote and that the parasitic groups and classes should be disfranchised [lose the right to vote—how democratic!] (Ramsay MacDonald, Socialism: Critical and Constructive, 237.)
Three examples of Emile Vandervelde doing likewise (again, emphasis added):
"Parasites … who swarm like maggots on the capitalist dunghill." (Emile Vandervelde, Collectivism and Industrial Evolution, trans. R. P. Farley [London: Independent Labor Party, 1907], 107.
"For each Goethe, each Tolstoy, each Puvis, how many slackers are there who try to disguise their parasitism, by taking the look of the intellectual laborer!" ("Mais pour un Goethe, un Tolstoi, un Puvis, combien de fainéants qui essaient de déguiser leur parasitisme en prenant la livrée des travailler intellectuel!" Émile Vandervelde, Essais socialistes: l'alcoolisme, la religion, l'art [Paris: Felix Alcon, 1906], 207.)
"If the society is poorly or defectively organised, there is a free multiplication of the parasitic classes, and the collapse and total ruin of that society soon follows. On the other hand, if the resistance which it offers to exploitation be at all adequate, there will be a speedy elimination of the individuals and classes who become parasitic. (Jean Massart and Emile Vandervelde, Parasitism, Organic and Social, trans. William MacDonald [New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895], 122.)
[4]. "Debs Last Call to Voters in 1920" https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1920/d288d43_1920.pdf.
[5]. Eugene V. Debs, "The Socialist Party's Appeal," The Independent (New York), October 15, 1908, https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1908/appeal.htm.
[6]. Eugene V. Debs, "The Socialist Party's Appeal," The Independent (New York), October 15, 1908, https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1908/appeal.htm.
[7]. "Roosevelt's Stale and Silly Objections: An Answer to the Articles in The Outlook (May 1, 1909)," https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1909/090501-debs-rooseveltstaleandsilly.pdf (Debs attacks parasites 3 other times in this article.)
[8]. "The Growth of Socialism (March 17, 1906)," in Eugene V. Debs, Debs: His Life, Writings and Speeches, with a Department of Appreciations, (Girard, Kansas: Appeal to Reason, 1908), 220.
[9]. "Aims and Objectives of the Social Democratic Party (November 3, 1899)," https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1899/991103-debs-aimsandobjectsofthesdp.pdf
[10]. "Jesus, the Supreme Leader (March 1914)," in Labor and Freedom: The Voice and Pen of Eugene V. Debs (St. Louis, Phil Wagner, 1916), 28.
[11]. "Strike for Your Life (August 16, 1906)," https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1906/060816-debs-strikeforyourlife.pdf
[12]. "Debs Concluding Speech in Denver (February 06, 1908)," https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1902/020608-debs-concludingspeechindenver.pdf
[13]. Capital and Labor: Parasites and Hosts (August 1, 1903) https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1903/030801-debs-capitalandlabor.pdf
[14]. Capital and Labor: Parasites and Hosts (August 1, 1903) https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1903/030801-debs-capitalandlabor.pdf.
[15]. "Unionism and Socialism" in Eugene V. Debs, Debs: His Life, Writings and Speeches, with a Department of Appreciations, (Girard, Kansas: Appeal to Reason, 1908), 145.
[16]. "Debs Last Call to Voters in 1920" https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1920/d288d43_1920.pdf.
[17]. "The Canton, Ohio Speech (June 16, 1918)" [Debs attacks parasites three other times in this speech.] https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1918/canton.htm.
[18]. "The Socialist Party and the Working Class (September 1, 1904)," https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1904/sp_wkingclss.htm.
[19]. "The Labor Question and Humanity," (October 15, 1906), https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1906/061015-debs-laborquestionandhumanity.pdf
[20]. "The Day of the People," International Socialist Review, Vol.29 No.2, March-April 1968, pp.55-57. Originally published: The Class Struggle, February 1919, Vol. III No.1.
[21]. "Class Unionism (November 24, 1905)," https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1905/classunionism.htm.
[22]. "Prison Labor — Its Effects on Industry and Trade (March 21, 1899),"https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1899/990321-debs-prisonlabor.pdf.
[23]. "The Rights of Working Women," The Melting Pot [St. Louis, MO], vol. 1, no. 3 (March 1913), pp. 12-13 https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1913/0300-debs-rightsofworkingwomen.pdf.
[24]. "Industrial Unionism (December 10. 1905)," in Eugene V. Debs, Debs: His Life, Writings and Speeches, with a Department of Appreciations, (Girard, Kansas: Appeal to Reason, 1908), 465.
[25]. "The Fight for Freedom (July 21, 1912) in Labor and Freedom: The Voice and Pen of Eugene V. Debs (St. Louis, Phil Wagner, 1916), 159.
[26] "Greetings to Our Russian Comrades [November 7, 1918]," in Voices of Revolt—Speeches of Eugene V. Debs (New York: International Publishers, 1928), 68-69.
[27]. "St. Louis Convention Rejects Government by Injunction (August 31, 1897)," https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1897/970831-debs-stlouisconventionrejects.pdf.
[28]. "The Tragedy of Toil (October 1904)," https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1904/041000-debs-thetragedyoftoil.pdf
[29]. "Unity and Victory (August 12, 1908)," https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1908/1908-unity.htm