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This Week in People’s History, Sept. 12–18

Newspaper headline: Florida Deaths Mounting Deadly hurricane in 1928. Slave-catchers stymied (1858). Feds' forgeries flop (1918). Deadly racist church bombing (1963). Settlers take over Cherokee Strip (1893). Thin-skinned cops get served (1994). Eugene Debs speaks truth to power (1918).

This Week in People’s History, June 13 . . .

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Photo of attorney Michael Ratner denouncing torture of prisoners at Guantanamo A people's tribune's birthday. Opposing the Vietnam War in 1968. Opposing U.S. imperialism in 1898. Debs' 1918 sedition conviction. A win for abolitionists in 1833. Boycotting Jim Crow in 1953. Thousands say, 'Escalate the war on poverty!' in 1968.

The Presidential Campaign of Convict 9653

Thomas Doherty The Conversation
In the election of 1920, Eugene V. Debs, the Socialist Party presidential candidate, polled nearly a million votes without ever hitting the campaign trail. Debs was behind bars in the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, serving a 10-year sentence for sedition. It was a not a bum rap. Debs had defiantly disobeyed a law he deemed unjust, the Sedition Act of 1918.

War Fever

Eric Foner The Nation
The crusade against civil liberties during World War I.

The Young Eugene V. Debs

Tim Davenport, Shawn Gude Jacobin
A pair of leftist historians has undertaken compiling a six-volume collection of Eugene Debs’s writings and speeches. We spoke with one who detailed Debs’s journey from moderate young trade union leader to courageous socialist militant.

The Enduring Power of Anticapitalism in American Politics

Jamelle Bouie The New York Times
From Debs to Sanders to Ocasio-Cortez, an ideal persists. If Sanders actually makes it to the White House, then he’ll be able to continue this work from the summit of American politics. If he doesn’t, then unlike Debs, he’ll have a natural successor.

When American Small Towns Loved Socialism

Noah Van Sciver, Paul Buhle, Steve Max, Dave Nance Yes Magazine
A graphic biography about Eugene V. Debs, folk hero and presidential candidate, reminds us of a time when support for socialism was strong in places like Kansas, Oklahoma, and Ohio.

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New Eugene Debs Film Does the Socialist Proud

Michael Hirsch The Indypendent
Review of a bravura feature length documentary on the life and struggles of militant union leader, socialist orator, five-time presidential candidate against the two-party duopoly and class war prisoner for opposing America’s imperialist entry into World War 1.

Tidbits - January 11, 2018 - Reader Comments: Puerto Rican Foreclosures; Israel - Teens Refuse New Ban on BDS Supporters; Pensions; Second Amendment; Jim Crow history; Women's March 2018 - January 20; and more.....

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Reader Comments: Puerto Rican Foreclosures; Israeli Teens Refuse Army; Israel Bans BDS Supporters; Worker Safety; Pension; Free Market; Settler Colonialism and the Second Amendment; Nuclear Testing; Pollution from U.S. Military Bases - in our country; U.S. history - Jim Crow South; Record Numbers Visit Cuba last year (from the U.S.); Women's March 2018 - January 20; Resources, Announcements; and more.....
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