Portside

Few figures on the left have been as committed to realizing the democratic promise of American politics as Eugene Debs.

The history of labor in the region gets shouted down by corporations.

An Endless Coverup (1986), Genocide’s the Real Crime (1996), Whites Kill, Blacks Do Time (1966), Andrew Jackson, Ahead of His Time (1834), How Did President Wilson Sleep? (1921), Wars Kill, But Mum’s the Word (1991), John Kennedy, Movie Fan (1961)

"I ask no mercy and I plead for no immunity. I never so clearly comprehended as now the great struggle between the powers of greed and exploitation on the one hand and upon the other the rising hosts of industrial freedom and social justice.”

‘No Kings’ Has Long Pedigree (1795), Jim Crow Can’t Ride (1870), Halloween Parade Grows Up (1985), Whose Right to Vote? (1890), Hope for Everything, Expect Nothing (1920), When Communists Filled Madison Square Garden (1940), Racism’s Admirers (1890)

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).

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.

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.

The crusade against civil liberties during World War I.