Debbie's life

1855165438+1October 5th, Debs was born in Triholt, Indiana. My parents are European immigrants and moved from Alsace to this newly developed western town only a few years ago. Old Debs first worked in a meat cannery. Later, he took part in the track-laying project of the first railway in this town. Because his family was poor, Debs left middle school at the age of 14 and became a child laborer in a railway factory. I have been a locomotive stoker for four years since 15 years old. Hard life has cultivated his deep feelings for the proletariat and his indomitable character. Later, he wrote: As a locomotive fireman, I learned that when it snows and hails, the railway work is hard, the danger that may happen at any time on the railway, the threat of unemployment, the meager salary and the very painful fate of railway workers. So in my childhood, I inevitably felt the injustice of workers. "1875, Debs joined the fraternity of motorcycle firefighters. Soon, he was elected as the secretary of the Vigo branch in Trihot. 1880, became the treasurer of the locomotive stoker association, and was the editor-in-chief of locomotive stoker magazine. At the end of this year, the United States recovered from the economic crisis and a new railway was being laid. The motorcycle firemen's fraternity is also very active. Young Debs devoted himself to the trade union work he loved.

Spontaneous labor movements will only lead to unionism. It is not surprising that Debs, who grew up among American proletarians and had simple class feelings, boasted that he was a believer in trade unionism at that time and became the organizer of trade unionism. The locomotive fireman's fraternity he joined is a trade union organization established according to the narrow trade union principle. It only absorbs skilled workers, focuses on establishing an insurance system, strives for fair and reasonable remuneration and other economic requirements for workers' labor fruits, and opposes participation in politics and strikes.

This mistake of unionism was particularly evident in Debon's strike struggle against 1877. The American railway workers' strike from 65438 to 0877 was the first national strike in American history. Engels once called the strike "an epoch-making event in American history". Debs not only does not support such an important strike, but also strongly opposes it. He criticized the strike as "anarchism and revolution"

The upsurge of the workers' movement helped Debs get rid of the bondage of trade unionism gradually, and made him realize that the proletarians must unite as a class and oppose the exploitation of capitalists in order to defend their own interests. May 1886, 1 300,000 American workers took part in general strikes and large-scale demonstrations, demanding an 8-hour working day. As a result, almost 200,000 people have achieved the goal of shortening the working day. Engels spoke highly of this movement, calling it "the beginning of American class war". Debs devoted himself to this movement enthusiastically. He designed a special issue for locomotive stoker magazine with the theme of "8 hours of work, 8 hours of rest and 8 hours of free activities". He mobilized the workers of the Brotherhood of Motorcycle Firefighters to take an active part in this great national struggle.

From 65438 to 0869, a cross-industry trade union organization-"Knights of Labor" appeared in the United States. All workers, whether skilled or not, regardless of race, color and belief, can participate. 1886, this organization has 700,000 members. This made Debs deeply feel the need to unite the independent and scattered railway workers' trade unions into a big trade union. He also suggested using an old American proverb, "If we unite, we will survive; If we are divided, we will die "is the slogan of the trade union.

1In February, 882, the drivers on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railway lines failed to strike, which was an important factor for Debs to change from industrial unionism to industrial unionism. The driver's strike was caused by low wages and unbearable exploitation by capitalists. Immediately after the strike, Debs rushed to the scene, urging firefighters and drivers to unite to fight. However, the strike finally failed because the turnout workers and brake workers refused to participate. Debs summed up the lesson of the strike and said: "The development of the situation made me realize that the old-style trade unions are completely useless and cannot effectively deal with companies that exploit people." "Unless the workers unite and fight for the interests of the same group of people with their joint strength, they will never be treated fairly."

Since then, Debs has actively promoted the development of industrial trade union movement. 1In June, 893, the American Railroad Union was formally established in Chicago. This is an industrial trade union organization, including all railway workers, regardless of type of work or gender. Hosted by Debs. The policy of joint struggle of trade unions in the United States and Russia was warmly welcomed by railway workers and developed rapidly. In less than a year, it has 654.38+500,000 members.

At this time, the 1893 economic crisis that enveloped Europe spread to the United States. The situation of class struggle in the United States suddenly became tense, and the newly established American Railroad Union soon faced the struggle test of two general strikes. 1in the spring of 894, the transcontinental Great Northern Railway Company publicly ordered the dismissal of all workers who participated in and sympathized with the American Railway Union in order to reduce their wages. In order to give the capitalists a strong counterattack, the American Railroad Union called on the workers to hold a general strike on April 13. The strike completely paralyzed the great north railway and forced the management to agree to all the demands of the workers. This is the biggest victory of the American trade union movement for many years.

Two months later, Debs led another railway strike that shocked the whole country. Pullman village, known as "Pullman strike" in history, is located in the southern suburbs of Chicago, and it is named after it was built by George Pullman, the boss of Pullman automobile manufacturing company. 1In May, 894, Pullman's workers went on strike to protest against the company's dismissal of workers, wage cuts, and higher rents and utilities than those in big cities such as Chicago. Debs rushed to Pullman and got into a fight with the workers. After the company refused to negotiate with the union, Debs called on railway workers to boycott trains from June 26th. This boycott later quickly developed into a national strike, with 654.38+500,000 people participating. The whole train from Chicago to the Pacific coast suddenly stopped. This shocked the railway employers' union and the Washington government, who decided to destroy the American Railway Union by violence. After the Railroad Employers' Federation announced that it would fire all workers who took orders from the American Railroad Union,

On July 2nd, the federal court issued a "ban", forbidding trade unions to take any measures to hinder railway commercial activities, and charged Debs and his assistants with "conspiracy to stop postal delivery". Then, federal troops entered Chicago to shoot workers and searched the documents of the headquarters of the American Railroad Union. Debs called on Chicago workers to strike. However, due to the betrayal of Gompas, the leader of the American Labor Union (AFL), the strike failed.

10 In July, Debs was charged with "contempt of court" and sentenced to half a year's imprisonment. Debs refused to accept and appealed to the Supreme Court. 1895 in may, the supreme court rejected the appeal and upheld the original judgment. In this way, Debs was put into Woodstock prison.

Pullman's strike gave Debs a profound class education, which was the starting point for him to move from a pure unionist to a socialist. The leader who fought in the front line of class struggle now has time to learn to think in prison. He read a lot of progressive books and periodicals, including Marx's Das Kapital and other works promoting socialism. New ideological weapons deepened his understanding of the practice of class struggle. Debs went to socialism through his own tortuous road in the actual struggle. Although he came from a working-class family, he was deeply influenced by bourgeois Democrats during his childhood self-study. He joined the Democratic Party in his early years, worked as a secretary in the township government (1879) and a member of the state legislature (1885). Later, I witnessed with my own eyes that the bourgeois parliament did not care about the welfare of workers at all, and then vowed not to be such a member. 1896 helped William Jennings Bryan of the People's Party run for president. He believes that Brian's plan to freely cast silver coins and control the trust "can kill the power of money." As a result, the People's Party collapsed because it allied with the Democratic Party and lost its independence. The struggle experience of the workers' movement, especially the Pullman strike, finally turned him to socialism, as he said: "Socialism gradually attracted me with its irresistible force." He realized that the working class should organize itself economically and politically on the basis of class struggle, liberate itself and end this class struggle forever. 1897 On New Year's Day, he wrote to the American Railroad Union, which was coming to an end, saying, "The current debate is socialism versus capitalism, and I support socialism." From then on, he declared himself a socialist. In June of the same year, he founded the Social Democratic Party. 1901July, the social democratic party merged with Hillquit elements who quit the socialist labor party and was renamed the American socialist party. This party stipulates that its goal is to "turn the existing private ownership of production and distribution tools into collective ownership by the whole people."

Because Debs enjoys a high reputation among the American people, as the presidential candidate of our party, he participated in four elections from 190 1 to 19 12. He traveled all over the country. Everywhere, people gathered to listen to his speech. He gets more and more votes every time. From more than 90,000 190 1 to more than 899,00012, accounting for 6% of the total votes.

Debs is also an outstanding political critic, who often writes for many workers and socialist newspapers all over the country. 19 12, the socialist party led by Debs owned 13 daily newspapers, 298 weekly newspapers and 12 monthly newspapers. Among them, appeal to reason often sells 500,000 copies, and when there is a supplement, it will increase to more than one million copies. This year, the number of the Socialist Party in party member has also increased from 1 10,000 at the beginning to 654.38+200,000. This shows that under the leadership of Debs, the power of socialism is growing day by day, and socialist ideology has exerted a wide influence on the American people. Foster, the famous leader of the American * * production party, spoke highly of Debs's contribution to the promotion of socialism, calling him "an important pioneer of the * * production party". "He bravely challenged capitalism, and he did more than anyone else at that time in promoting socialism to the masses."

1In June, 905, Debs and Heywood of the Western Miners' Federation and Delean of the Socialist Labor Party established the World Federation of Industrial Workers (hereinafter referred to as the World Federation of Industries) in Chicago. In the preface of its program, the World Federation of Industry declared: "The working class and capitalists have nothing in common. As long as tens of millions of workers in Qian Qian are starving and freezing, and a few bourgeoisie live a luxurious life, there will be no peace between them. The struggle between these two classes must continue until one day all workers unite politically and industrially. " After the establishment of the World Federation of Industry, it organized many large-scale strikes and made contributions to safeguarding the interests of the proletariat. But the Federation of World Industries, as well as the former American Railroad Union, are both "dual" trade union organizations. They all brought the fighters out of the old trade unions and set up new ones. This policy, which tends to split the working class, is only beneficial to Gompers and others to consolidate their power in conservative trade unions and weaken their influence among the masses, so it is harmful. In 1908, the World Federation of Industries deleted the important clauses supporting the political actions of trade unions and replaced them with so-called "direct actions" including the use of destructive means. Debs opposed this principled mistake, and soon he withdrew from the World Federation of Industry. Since then, I have never joined any trade unions. During World War I, Debs took a firm internationalist stance. He condemned the imperialist war; Condemn the betrayal of chauvinists in the second international community; Call on workers to refuse to kill each other for capitalists' money bags. 19 15 In September, he wrote "What will I fight for?" In this famous paper, the different nature of imperialist war and revolutionary war is clearly distinguished. He said: "I am not opposed to all wars, nor to wars under any circumstances. Otherwise, I don't deserve to be a revolutionary. When I say I am against war, I mean the war of the ruling class, because only the ruling class makes war. I don't want to shed a drop of blood for the oppressors, robbers, thieves, marauders, bandits and murderers of the working class who exploit the poor (their decadent and shameless dark rule is a heinous crime in history); On the other hand, for the victims who are oppressed by them, I am willing to shed my blood in their liberation war when necessary. "

1965438+In April 2007, the United States entered the war. The American government promulgated a series of reactionary laws in an attempt to suppress the people's anti-war movement. But this can't shake Debs's anti-war stance at all. 1918 in June 16, he delivered another powerful anti-war speech at the Socialist State Congress held in Canton, Ohio. He declared: "From the day the socialist movement came into being, we have always opposed militarism, and we will continue to oppose militarism in the future until it is completely eliminated." "I'm a thousand times more willing to be a free-thinking prisoner in prison than a sycophantic coward outside prison." Four days later, he was accused of violating the "Spy Punishment Act" and was tried in the federal court in Cleveland. In September, he was sentenced to 65,438+00 years in prison. It was not until April of 19 19 that Debs's appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court. As a result, Debs was imprisoned in Montville, Virginia. Two months later, he was secretly transferred to a federal prison in Atlanta. Lenin spoke highly of Debs's anti-war activities. He is called "one of the most beloved leaders of American proletariat" and "August Baerbel of America".

Debs warmly welcomed the October socialist revolution. It is pointed out that this is "the greatest, most glorious and far-reaching achievement in human history." He declared happily, "I am a Bolshevik from head to toe, and I am proud of it. The days of the people have arrived. " 19 18 One of the charges against him is sympathy for Bolshevik revolutionaries. When the United States participated in the armed intervention in Soviet Russia, Debs resolutely stood on the side of the Russian revolutionary people, protested the shameful behavior of the American government, and called on the American proletariat and all progressives to do their utmost to support Soviet Russia.

1920, when Debs lost his freedom in prison, he participated in the presidential election for the last time. Won 920,000 votes. 192 1 year, warren gamaliel harding, who succeeded Wilson as president, had to commute Debs's sentence and release the most famous prisoner on Christmas day under the strong pressure of the "Save Debs Movement" initiated by the American people and people all over the world.

The torture of prison life in recent years has seriously damaged Debs' health. Regardless of his old age and illness, he immediately joined the movement to rescue Sacco and Fanziti after he was released from prison, and as always, he fought endlessly with his eloquence and sharp pen. 1926 10 year 10 On October 20th, America's most beloved proletarian leader died in Elmhirst, Illinois, at the age of 7 1 year.