Channels, Spring 2017

Channels • 2017 • Volume 1 • Number 2 Page 65 Socialists and Communists everywhere to prepare for the international revolution, The Socialist Party of America was divided. Because Moscow demanded conformity, the right wing wanted nothing to do with the Third International; the center wanted to join on its own terms, and the left wing wanted to join immediately. 68 Ultimately, a schism occurred, resulting in the formation of the Communist Party of America, formed from the IWW and the left-wing members who were expelled from or simply left the Socialist Party of America. The Communist Party courted Debs, but, wary of Moscow’s autocratic influence and the violence occurring in Russia, he refused to leave the Socialist Party or endorse the Third International. 69 As a result, the Moscow-backed communists stated, “Between the Communist Party and the Socialist Party there can be no compromise,” which evidences the very destructive attitude which made Debs suspicious in the first place. 70 By this time, Debs influence was too limited to heal this further Party division and overcome the pernicious influence of the USSR in controlling the Communist Party of America. Nevertheless, he never compromised the integrity of his ideology, which he stated clearly in another interview with prominent journalist Lincoln Steffens. Debs said, “When the people of Russia aspire toward freedom I’m all for them, but I detest the terror which the Bolsheviks have imposed to wrest and hold power. I still have, and always will have, a profound faith in the efficacy of the ballot.” 71 This faith would be tested in the presidential election of 1920. In 1917 Congress passed the Espionage Act, criminalizing actions that hindered the success of the American war effort. The Wilson administration used this new law broadly to imprison anti-war activists, and Debs certainly fell into that category. He was imprisoned in Atlanta, Georgia for a speech in Canton, Ohio. But ultimately, this imprisonment restored Debs to his preferred position as “the preeminent symbol of American resistance to corporate capitalism.” 72 The event reignited some of his old fervor, and, although he obviously could not campaign across the country as Convict 9653, he still issued fiery statements calling for workers to remember that they were “exploited and starved and degraded.” 73 Nevertheless, his prison setting fostered a depressed realization that his message to the working class had never really sunk in. Debs wrote bitterly, “The people can have anything they want. The trouble is they do not want anything. At least they vote that way on election day.” 74 Perhaps Debs had finally realized that the Socialist camp could not easily win over the American worker as he had attempted earlier with his non-stop speaking and passionate rhetoric. In the end, Debs 68 Morgan, H. Wayne. 1962. Eugene V. Debs; socialist for President . n.p.: Syracuse, University Press, 1962., 172. 69 Ibid, 186-187. 70 Ibid, 187-188. 71 Morgan, H. Wayne. 1962. Eugene V. Debs; socialist for President . n.p.: Syracuse, University Press, 1962., 193. 72 Salvatore, Nick. 1982. Eugene V. Debs : citizen and socialist. n.p.: Urbana : University of Illinois Press, ©1982., 301. 73 Ibid, 325. 74 Morgan, H. Wayne. 1962. Eugene V. Debs; socialist for President . n.p.: Syracuse, University Press, 1962., 189.