Portside

Debs came to the conclusion that no strike or labor movement could ultimately be successful as long as the government was controlled by the capitalist class. 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. Working men and women had to achieve political power, or they would forever be at the mercy of the bosses.

This project allows us to explore the relationships between social movements by bringing them together in time and space. We map the 353 towns and cities that elected socialists to public office between 1904 and 1920. These are interactive maps that can be filtered on a number of variables while providing detailed information about places, publications, periodicals.