Eugene Victor Debs left school at the age of fourteen, to scrape paint and grease off the cars of the Vandalia Railroad, in Indiana, for fifty cents a day. Текст научной работы на тему «История злоключений Юджина Дебса или как американское правительство боролось с «Пятой колонной» в годы первой мировой войны». As civil war hashtags are trending on social media and Trump is backed into a corner, desperate to find a distraction, let’s remember the wise words of legendary American socialist Eugene Victor Debs at.
SUBSCRIPTIONS
- Юджин Дебс: цитаты, афоризмы и высказывания
- Премия Юджина В. Дебса
- Eugene V. Debs, the Five-Time Socialist Candidate for President Who Once Campaigned From Prison
- OPINION: A day with Eugene Debs
- Вы точно человек?
- Eugene Debs, the Espionage Act, and the Election of 1920
ДЕБС ЮДЖИН
These days American society is deeply polarized and most of the charges against Trump will be tried in venues such as DC, Manhattan, and Atlanta where the jury-pools are sure to be heavily larded with Trump-haters. With so many dozens of serious charges against him, our 45th President seems likely to end up behind bars. These latest indictments finally moved longtime progressive columnist and cartoonist Ted Rall into that same camp of outright Trump sympathizers. The massive vilification of Trump in such quarters indicates that those elites fear Trump as their most dangerous foe, so many voters may eventually conclude that the enemy of their enemy is at least worth a casual vote on the November ballot.
But although countless American candidates throughout our history have bitterly complained about stolen elections and sometimes contested the outcomes, our rabidly partisan Democratic prosecutors have now decided to treat that behavior as a crime, apparently hoping to destroy their Trumpian nemesis using the power of the courts. This judicial innovation may be unique in the developed world and seems extremely rare even outside it. Rather than being prosecuted and imprisoned, AMLO eventually gave up on his unofficial presidency and after creating a new party as his vehicle, ran for president a third time in 2018, winning in a huge landslide despite any election fraud.
Fortunately for AMLO, his protests of a stolen election had occurred in 2006, long before Trump entered the scene, so any attempt by his own government to prosecute and imprison him would have surely been denounced and ridiculed by the American establishment as an outrageous violation of basic democratic principles. But these days, the globally-dominant and Trump-hating American media plays a very different tune, so the precedent of prosecuting a losing candidate for protesting alleged election fraud may soon spread worldwide. In Brazil, the conservative establishment had used a somewhat doubtful corruption conviction to block former President Lula from seeking to regain the presidency , but once it was overturned by the courts, he successfully did so, and his own courts then used the excuse of election protests to prohibit his defeated rightwing opponent President Bolsonaro from trying to do the same in four years time.
In India, the ultra-rightwing Modi government is overwhelmingly popular, but still decided to take no chances. The parliamentary opposition is led by Rahul Gandhi, the son, grandson, and great-grandson of past Prime Ministers, but the government prosecuted him for making a public statement seeming to imply that Modi was crooked, successfully banning him from politics as a consequence, though on Friday a court overturned the verdict. I fear that all too many democratic or semi-democratic governments around the world will now eagerly seize upon the innovative electoral strategy pioneered by our own Democratic Party and henceforth use judicial means to eliminate their political rivals.
Moreover, while the ferociously anti-Trumpist media would never admit the possibility, the Donald and his angry supporters actually have a very strong case in their bitter complaints of a stolen 2020 election. I explained those simple facts back in January 2021. Although hardly suggested by our mainstream media, the officially-reported results demonstrated that our 2020 presidential election was extraordinarily close.
All the regular pre-election polls had shown the Democratic candidate with a comfortable lead, but just as had been the case four years earlier, the actual votes tabulated revealed an entirely contrary outcome.
On June 16 1918 , after nearly a half century of union and political organizing — now in his 60s -- Debs gave a speech in Canton, Ohio in opposition to World War I. He was arrested under the Espionage Act of 1917. He was convicted, sentenced to serve ten years in prison and disenfranchised for life. Once again, the Supreme Court upheld his conviction. He was pardoned and released on Christmas Day, 1921 by President Harding at age 65. While his health was broken, his spirit and optimism remained indomitable. He remained an outspoken advocate for the cause of labor and the working class.
Later he added further eulogies and said that he was proud of them. It is with little exception not studied in the law schools, and it is rarely cited or noted in even the more elaborate casebooks or treatises on constitutional law. Though it is still too soon to predict an imminent change in First Amendment law, such changes often follow dramatic shifts in dominant cultural values.
Джирарде, штат Канзас. В 1908 и 1912 гг. Лудлоу, штат Колорадо; призывает рабочих к сопротивлению. Дебс совершает турне по стране, выступает против войны в Европе, за установление мира между народами, против подготовки США к вступлению в Первую мировую войну. Публикует много сильных антивоенных статей. В этой победе он видел приближение окончания войны, усиление социалистического движения в США. Дебс опубликовал статью «Душа русской революции». Дебс произносит свою знаменитую антивоенную речь в г. Кантоне, штат Огайо, на съезде социалистов. Вскоре последовал арест, а позже за эту и другие речи, за выступления, осуждающие американскую капиталистическую систему, за приветствия российским большевикам Федеральный суд в г. Кливленде, штат Огайо, осудил Ю. Дебса на 10 лет строгого тюремного заключения. Атланта, штат Джорджия, выступает со статьями и корреспонденциями, осуждающими пальмеровские полицейские рейды, расправы с инакомыслящими. Дебс объясняет классовую суть двухпартийной буржуазной системы: республиканская и демократическая партии — это партии капиталистического класса, финансируемые и контролируемые капиталистами ради своих выгод. Дебса из тюрьмы, но он был лишен американского гражданства. Состоялась встреча Дебса с Гардингом в Белом доме. Терре-Хот, где Дебса его приветствовали тысячи горожан, рабочих. После тюрьмы здоровье Дебса было подорвано. Свой договор он выполнил. Однако «Белл Синдикат» свои обязательства выполнил не полностью.
Debs defies court injunction against strike
- Eugene Debs and the Kingdom of Evil
- «Формат с двумя картами ведёт к ничьим» — Ceb о групповой стадии ESL One Birmingham 2024
- Eugene V. Debs (1855 — 1926)
- Eugene V Debs — Railroad Workers United
- Юджин Дебс
ДЕБС ЮДЖИН
На выборах 1920 года Дебс баллотировался в президенты из тюрьмы и получил 919 799 голосов, что составляло более 3 процентов от общего числа участвовавших в голосовании. Eugene Debs, at center with flowers, who was serving a prison sentence for violating the Espionage Act, on the day he was notified of his nomination for the presidency on the socialist ticket by a. Текст научной работы на тему «История злоключений Юджина Дебса или как американское правительство боролось с «Пятой колонной» в годы первой мировой войны». Eugene Victor Debs (1855–1926) was a radical American trade union leader and politician. For decades, many of Eugene Debs’s admirers have claimed that the socialist leader was a good, patriotic American unsullied by a foreign doctrine like Marxism.
Free Speech on Trial
Судя по реакции Дебса на фразу Вэна, ему пришлось спросить тиммейтов на сцене, какую шутку он пропустил. На момент публикации материала OG и G2. Проигравший покинет соревнование, а победитель сразится с Team Falcons в следующем матче.
While the tragedy is generating headlines throughout the world, Eugene V Debs, a late politician, is gaining attention on social networking paltforms. Eugene V. He is facing racketeering and conspiracy charges related to his alleged efforts to overthrow the 2020 election results. While the incident is making headlines across the world, a late politician, Eugene V Debs is garnering attention on social media platforms.
Это и есть суть войны. Войну всегда объявляют правящие классы. Но в сражениях участвуют классы бесправные. Хозяева жизни получают всё и ничего не проигрывают. Простые люди не получают ничего и теряют всё — в первую очередь свои жизни. Они всегда учили вас верить, что это ваш патриотический долг — пойти на войну и умереть по команде. Но во всей истории мира, вы — простые люди — никогда не объявляли войну, и как ни странно, сам народ ни в одной нации никогда за все времена не объявлял войны. Рабочий класс, который ведет в се сражения, рабочий класс, который приносит величайшие жертвы, рабочий класс, который обильно проливает свою кровь и усеивает поле боя трупами, никогда еще не имел права голоса ни в объявлении войны, ни в заключении мира. Именно правящий класс неизменно делает и то, и другое.
In the year 1920, he contested the presidential elections from the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. It is the ruling class that invariably does both. They alone declare war and they alone make peace. The socialist leader received around one million votes, which were around for about six percent of the total ballots cast.
June 16, 1918: Eugene V. Debs Speech Against WWI
Юджин Дебс — одна из фигур, без которых невозможно представить историю не только американского, но и мирового профсоюзного движения. Eugene Debs held a rally in Canton and was convicted sedition for statements he made at the rally. Юджин Дебс покидает Белый дом вскоре после своего освобождения из тюрьмы, 1921 год. Keep Consortium News going in the tradition of Bob Parry.
Can Trump Pull A Eugene Debs In 2024 After Indictment In Classified Documents Case?
ДЕБС (Debs) Юджин (5.11.1855, Терре-Хот, штат Индиана – 20.10.1926, Элмхерст, штат Иллинойс), амер. политич. деятель. Из бедной семьи франц. эмигрантов. In the election of 1920, Eugene V. Debs, the Socialist Party presidential candidate, polled nearly a million votes without ever hitting the campaign trail. “It’s a stewing sense of unfairness last tapped to broad affect by a couple of his political heroes: socialist presidential candidates Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas, each of whom lost five times in the early. The socialist leader Eugene Debs was jailed for opposing World War I. It didn’t stop his presidential campaign. According to "Eugene V. Debs: an American paradox," Debs soon split with the IWW "in protest against its policies regarding the use of sabotage and ”direct action.'". Eugene Debs, at center with flowers, who was serving a prison sentence for violating the Espionage Act, on the day he was notified of his nomination for the presidency on the socialist ticket by a.
June 16, 1918: Eugene V. Debs Speech Against WWI
Debs Collection. Of six children born to Daniel and Marguerite, Eugene was the oldest son. Theodore idolized his brother and later became his devoted assistant. By all accounts, Debs was a good student, but the excitement of working on the railroad was too much for the youngster to ignore. Within a year he became a fireman for the railroad. In 1875 Debs, now unemployed, accepted a position with H. Debs was a charter member and was elected recording secretary. Debs believed that small, disparate, class- and trade-driven unions possessed little power to influence social change for their members.
After years of first hand experience with the failures of the old craft unionism, Debs was now firmly convinced of the need for this new advanced form of union — the industrial union — where all workers in the industry would be organized as a whole, as opposed to separated — and hence ineffectual — under the old outmoded craft union structure. The American Railway Union generated wide interest and support among the rail workers of North America. Rails were signing up at the rate of 2,000 a week, and within six months the new organization had 150,000 members! ARU members from all crafts struck and the Great Northern was paralyzed. In less than three weeks time, the union had emerged victorious, winning nearly all of its demands. The power of industrial unionism had been demonstrated! The carriers — and corporate America as a whole -- were determined to smash the ARU because it presented a formidable opponent, a valuable example of what can be achieved when workers organize along industrial lines.
Walter Rauschenbusch, a Christian theologian, Baptist minister and leader of the Social Gospel movement , thundered against capitalism. He equated the crucified Christ with the abolitionist John Brown. That wrong is also done to us, And they are slaves most base, Whose love of right is for themselves And not for all the race. It was also a period beset with violence, including anarchist bombings and assassinations. An anarchist killed President William McKinley in 1901, unleashing a wave of state repression against social and radical movements. Striking workers engaged in periodic gun battles, especially in the coalfields of southern West Virginia, with heavily armed company goons, National Guard units, paramilitary groups such as the Coal and Iron Police , and the U. Debs, although a sworn enemy of the capitalist elites, was adamantly opposed to violence and sabotage, arguing that these actions allowed the state to demonize the socialist movement and enabled the destructive efforts of agents provocateurs. The conflict with the capitalist class, Debs argued, was at its core about competing values. They would always seek to use the law as an instrument of oppression and increase profits through machines, a reduction in wages, a denial of benefits and union busting. They would sacrifice anyone and anything—including democracy and the natural world—to achieve their goals. He knew that corporate power is countered only through organized and collective resistance by workers forced to fight a bitter class war. Debs turned to politics when he was released from jail in 1895. Debs was a powerful orator and drew huge crowds across the country. In his speeches and writings he demanded an end to child labor and denounced Jim Crow and lynching. As a presidential campaigner he traveled from New York to California on a train, called the Red Special, speaking to tens of thousands. He helped elect socialist mayors in some 70 cities, including Milwaukee, as well as numerous legislators and city council members. He propelled two socialists into Congress. In the elections of 1912 he received nearly a million votes, 6 percent of the electorate. Eighteen thousand people went to see him in Philadelphia and 22,000 in New York City. He terrified the ruling elites, who began to institute tepid reforms to attempt to stanch the growing support for the socialists. Debs after the 1912 election was a marked man. At first they were opposed by the people and denounced by the press. But it did not fail. Revolutions have a habit of succeeding when the time comes for them. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. I listened to all that was said in this court in support and justification of this prosecution, but my mind remains unchanged. I look upon the Espionage Law as a despotic enactment in flagrant conflict with democratic principles and with the spirit of free institutions. At fourteen I went to work in a railroad shop; at sixteen I was firing a freight engine on a railroad.
Still, it was a start. Debs ran again in 1904, this time as a member of the next political party he helped establish: the Socialist Party of America. His totals jumped to around 402,000 votes ; in 1908, he returned with 420,000 votes , losing to Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft , respectively. Debs fell short once again, but his total ballooned to more than 900,000 votes —6 percent of the popular vote. It would be another eight years before his fifth and final presidential campaign—arguably one of the strangest the country has seen. The profit system is responsible for it all. Debs traveled across the Northeast to speak to his base of frustrated workers looking for a unifying voice against war. On April 6, 1917, the United States officially declared war against Germany. Debs knew the risks he was taking with his anti-war crusade, but he continued throughout the Midwest, culminating in a speech at a Socialist Party gathering in Canton, Ohio, on June 16, 1918. For two hours, the impassioned orator made his case, criticizing everything from the war to the Sedition Act to the military draft.
Eugene Debs
Espousing socialism invites controversy from every corner, but Debs was never afraid to speak out and did so at great personal cost. While I was at the Debs house I thought about Republican Senator and Voldemort lookalike Rick Scott , who recently said socialists and communists were not welcome in the state of Florida. He is an example to all socialists. Faith in the people is crucial.
It is ultimately the workers themselves who will bring about radical change. What we should take from Debs, each and every worker, is his courage, his willingness to struggle. Like Moses never saw the promised land, Debs never saw socialism — may he forgive me for the comparison.
But I know we will get there eventually.
He formed the American Railway Union, led the Pullman strike of the 1890s in which he was jailed and emerged a dedicated Socialist. An idealistic, impassioned fighter for economic and social justice, he was brilliant, eloquent and eminently human. Five times the Socialist candidate for president, his last campaign was run from federal prison where he garnered almost a million votes.
William McKinley won the race with a total of 7,207,923 votes, while Debs garnered just 86,935. Still, it was a start. Debs ran again in 1904, this time as a member of the next political party he helped establish: the Socialist Party of America. His totals jumped to around 402,000 votes ; in 1908, he returned with 420,000 votes , losing to Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft , respectively. Debs fell short once again, but his total ballooned to more than 900,000 votes —6 percent of the popular vote. It would be another eight years before his fifth and final presidential campaign—arguably one of the strangest the country has seen. The profit system is responsible for it all. Debs traveled across the Northeast to speak to his base of frustrated workers looking for a unifying voice against war. On April 6, 1917, the United States officially declared war against Germany. Debs knew the risks he was taking with his anti-war crusade, but he continued throughout the Midwest, culminating in a speech at a Socialist Party gathering in Canton, Ohio, on June 16, 1918.
Over a hundred thousand workers staged what became the biggest strike in U. The response was swift and brutal. They were arrested, denied bail and sent to jail for six months. The strike was broken. Thirty workers had been killed. Sixty had been injured. Over 700 had been arrested. The Pullman Co. Any advances made by an organized working class would be reversed once the capitalists regained absolute power, often by temporarily mollifying workers with a few reforms. Debs feared the rise of the monolithic corporate state. Walter Rauschenbusch, a Christian theologian, Baptist minister and leader of the Social Gospel movement , thundered against capitalism. He equated the crucified Christ with the abolitionist John Brown. That wrong is also done to us, And they are slaves most base, Whose love of right is for themselves And not for all the race. It was also a period beset with violence, including anarchist bombings and assassinations. An anarchist killed President William McKinley in 1901, unleashing a wave of state repression against social and radical movements. Striking workers engaged in periodic gun battles, especially in the coalfields of southern West Virginia, with heavily armed company goons, National Guard units, paramilitary groups such as the Coal and Iron Police , and the U. Debs, although a sworn enemy of the capitalist elites, was adamantly opposed to violence and sabotage, arguing that these actions allowed the state to demonize the socialist movement and enabled the destructive efforts of agents provocateurs. The conflict with the capitalist class, Debs argued, was at its core about competing values. They would always seek to use the law as an instrument of oppression and increase profits through machines, a reduction in wages, a denial of benefits and union busting. They would sacrifice anyone and anything—including democracy and the natural world—to achieve their goals. He knew that corporate power is countered only through organized and collective resistance by workers forced to fight a bitter class war. Debs turned to politics when he was released from jail in 1895. Debs was a powerful orator and drew huge crowds across the country. In his speeches and writings he demanded an end to child labor and denounced Jim Crow and lynching. As a presidential campaigner he traveled from New York to California on a train, called the Red Special, speaking to tens of thousands. He helped elect socialist mayors in some 70 cities, including Milwaukee, as well as numerous legislators and city council members. He propelled two socialists into Congress. In the elections of 1912 he received nearly a million votes, 6 percent of the electorate.
Юджин Дебс
- EugeneSagaz Club
- Юджин В. Дебс — рыцарь борьбы за свободу
- Юджин Дебс, «Мы пришли освобождать рабочий класс»
- Also Known For :
Author: Eugene Debs
According to "Eugene V. Debs: an American paradox," Debs soon split with the IWW "in protest against its policies regarding the use of sabotage and ”direct action.'". Their leader Eugene Debs, who actually ran for President more often than Joe Biden, summed up his view of the world in saying. Enter, from stage left, the ghost of Eugene V. Debs, the most impressive socialist in American history, whose conviction for sedition was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1919. Eugene Debs made his famous anti-war speech protesting World War I which was raging in Europe. The claim is sometimes made that Eugene Debs promised to pardon himself if elected President in 1920.
Free Speech on Trial
Рыцари создали множество кооперативов, принадлежащих самим рабочим, но эти эксперименты в конечном итоге зашли в тупик. Дебс пришёл к выводу, что необходимо нечто более амбициозное: подлинно коллективная собственность на средства производства и распределения. Если бы все граждане имели свою долю в экономике, где нет неподотчётных боссов, которые могут их уволить при малейшем намёке на выгоду, то у людей появилась бы экономическая безопасность, необходимая для того, чтобы их можно было считать по-настоящему свободными. Более того, на самом рабочем месте рабочие, а не капиталисты, смогли бы управлять организацией труда и, таким образом, не подчиняться прихотям владельцев, которые не несут ответственности перед теми, кого они наняли. Дебс приходит к социалистическому республиканству. Хотя свобода, даруемая контролем над собственностью, остаётся центральной в этой республиканской истории, это уже не частная собственность.
Вместо этого, «Экономическая свобода может быть результатом только коллективной собственности». Настоящая республика, по мнению Дебса, не может ограничивать демократию сугубо политической деятельностью, но должна быть основана на экономической демократии. И при этом ничего ценного не будет утрачено, поскольку «владельцы железных дорог и разных великих машин нужны нам не больше, чем нам нужен король». Именно этот идеал лёг в основу Социалистической партии Америки и её предшественницы, Социал-демократической партии Америки , которую Дебс помог создать в 1901 году. Этот поворот к электоральной политике был мотивирован не только возможностями для пропаганды, предоставляемыми избирательными кампаниями, но и осознанием того, что политическая должность необходима для существенного преобразования страны.
Однако это не означало отказа от профсоюзной деятельности, которой Дебс посвятил большую часть своей жизни. Подобно тому, как он перешёл от ремесленных союзов, разделённых по типам должностей, к общеотраслевому Американскому союзу железнодорожников, Дебс пришёл к принятию ещё более обширной модели промышленного профсоюзного движения, которая стремилась объединить весь рабочий класс. Таким образом, вместе со многими наиболее влиятельными членами рабочего движения США, Дебс внёс свой вклад в создание организации «Промышленные рабочие мира» в 1905 году. Они были нацелены на отмену наёмного труда и в конечном итоге стремились построить «новое общество внутри оболочки старого». Плакат Союза промышленных рабочих мира.
Притягательность Дебса не ограничивалась его своевременной политической программой, а проистекала из его страстного и чуткого характера. Его речи становились легендой, и у трудящихся не оставалось сомнений в том, что он всегда будет сражаться на их стороне. Но он ненавидел демагогию и часто подчёркивал важность самообразования и следования голосу своей совести: Никакой я не профсоюзный лидер. Я не хочу, чтобы вы следовали за мной или кем-то ещё. Если вы ищете Моисея, который выведет вас из этой капиталистической пустыни, вы останетесь там, где находитесь.
Я бы не повёл вас в землю обетованную, если бы мог, потому что, если смогу вас туда завести, кто-то другой сможет вывести. Вы должны использовать не только руки, но и голову, чтобы выбраться из вашего нынешнего состояния. Это — социализм снизу. Требовались не отцы-командиры, которые с великой дальновидностью будут руководить классовой борьбой. Вместо этого рабочий класс должен освободиться, черпая свои силы из демократической энергии рабочих и граждан как единого целого.
Всё ещё находясь за решёткой, он наберёт миллион голосов в качестве кандидата в президенты в 1920 году Эта забота о других не ограничивалась границами страны. Несмотря на то, что ему претил прусский милитаризм, Дебс считал, что Первая мировая война была бессмысленной катастрофой для рабочего класса всех вовлечённых в неё стран. В пламенной речи в Кантоне, штат Огайо, в 1918 году он выразил свой протест против войны. Не прошло и двух недель, как Дебс был арестован за подстрекательство к мятежу, затем предстал перед судом и был приговорён к десяти годам тюремного заключения после того, как суд установил, что он пытался воспрепятствовать вербовке в армию. После вынесения приговора Дебс сделал одно из самых известных своих заявлений: Пока существует низший класс — я к нему отношусь, пока есть преступники — я один из них, пока хоть одна душа томится в тюрьме — я не свободен.
Именно это искреннее отождествление с угнетёнными обеспечивало Дебсу такое признание на протяжении всей его политической карьеры. Действительно, он наберёт около миллиона голосов в качестве кандидата в президенты в 1920 году, будучи еще заключённым и не имея возможности проводить митинги или произносить речи. Победивший в этом состязании соперник, Уоррен Дж. Хардинг, в итоге сократит ему срок наказания, и Дебс будет освобождён на Рождество 1921 года, проведя в тюрьме более двух с половиной лет. С разрешения Национального архива Атланты, RG 129.
Политическая карикатура с изображением Юджина В. Дебса в его камере; комментарий «на крылечке» относится к консервативной президентской кампании кандидата от республиканской партии Уоррена Дж. С разрешения Национального архива. Дебс на Рождество 1921 года возле федеральной тюрьмы Атланты после своего освобождения. С разрешения Библиотеки Конгресса.
Walter Rauschenbusch, a Christian theologian, Baptist minister and leader of the Social Gospel movement , thundered against capitalism. He equated the crucified Christ with the abolitionist John Brown. That wrong is also done to us, And they are slaves most base, Whose love of right is for themselves And not for all the race. It was also a period beset with violence, including anarchist bombings and assassinations. An anarchist killed President William McKinley in 1901, unleashing a wave of state repression against social and radical movements. Striking workers engaged in periodic gun battles, especially in the coalfields of southern West Virginia, with heavily armed company goons, National Guard units, paramilitary groups such as the Coal and Iron Police , and the U. Debs, although a sworn enemy of the capitalist elites, was adamantly opposed to violence and sabotage, arguing that these actions allowed the state to demonize the socialist movement and enabled the destructive efforts of agents provocateurs. The conflict with the capitalist class, Debs argued, was at its core about competing values.
They would always seek to use the law as an instrument of oppression and increase profits through machines, a reduction in wages, a denial of benefits and union busting. They would sacrifice anyone and anything—including democracy and the natural world—to achieve their goals. He knew that corporate power is countered only through organized and collective resistance by workers forced to fight a bitter class war. Debs turned to politics when he was released from jail in 1895. Debs was a powerful orator and drew huge crowds across the country. In his speeches and writings he demanded an end to child labor and denounced Jim Crow and lynching. As a presidential campaigner he traveled from New York to California on a train, called the Red Special, speaking to tens of thousands. He helped elect socialist mayors in some 70 cities, including Milwaukee, as well as numerous legislators and city council members.
He propelled two socialists into Congress. In the elections of 1912 he received nearly a million votes, 6 percent of the electorate. Eighteen thousand people went to see him in Philadelphia and 22,000 in New York City. He terrified the ruling elites, who began to institute tepid reforms to attempt to stanch the growing support for the socialists. Debs after the 1912 election was a marked man. At first they were opposed by the people and denounced by the press. But it did not fail. Revolutions have a habit of succeeding when the time comes for them.
I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. I listened to all that was said in this court in support and justification of this prosecution, but my mind remains unchanged. I look upon the Espionage Law as a despotic enactment in flagrant conflict with democratic principles and with the spirit of free institutions. At fourteen I went to work in a railroad shop; at sixteen I was firing a freight engine on a railroad.
Затем Дебс отправился на железнодорожную станцию, чтобы ехать в свой дом в городе Терре-Хот, штат Индиана. Прибыв на вокзал, он отказался от роскошного пульмановского вагона, заняв вместо этого более скромное место.
Разницу в стоимости проезда он пожертвовал в фонд помощи голодающим в Советской России. На станции он сделал заявление прессе по поводу заключенных в тюрьме сторонников: «Я оставил там 2300 человек, и все они должны быть освобождены». По прибытии в Терре-Хот его приветствовала толпа из 50 тысяч человек.
The working class have never yet had a voice in declaring war. If war is right, let it be declared by the people — you, who have your lives to lose. For this speech he was arrested and convicted in federal court in Cleveland, Ohio under the war-time espionage law.