The 1934 Declaration of Principles was a political platform of the Socialist Party of America

Socialist Party of America

The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...

 (SPA) passed at the May 1934 National Convention held in Detroit, Michigan

Detroit, Michigan

Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

. The document committed the organization to "refuse collectively to sanction or support any international war" and condemned the "bogus democracy of capitalist parliamentarism" in favor of establishment of a "genuine workers' democracy." The 1934 Declaration of Principles was instrumental in causing a split of the SPA, with its so-called "Old Guard" faction

Old Guard faction

The Old Guard faction was an organized grouping of Marxists in the Socialist Party of America who sought to retain the organization's traditional orientation towards electoral politics by fighting generally younger party members who factionally organized to promote greater efforts at direct action...

 exiting the organization en masse to establish a rival organization, the Social Democratic Federation, in 1936.

History

The chief author of the 1934 Declaration of Principles was Devere Allen, a pacifist follower of Socialist Party leader Norman Thomas

Norman Thomas

Norman Mattoon Thomas was a leading American socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America.-Early years:...

 from Connecticut

Connecticut

Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...

. It was vocally supported by the party's organized "Militant" faction

Militant faction

The Militant faction was an organized grouping of Marxists in the Socialist Party of America who sought to steer that organization from its orientation towards electoral politics and towards direct action and revolutionary socialism. The faction emerged during 1930 and 1931 and achieved practical...

.

In closing the debate at the convention, New York "Old Guard" leader Louis Waldman

Louis Waldman

Louis Waldman was a leading figure in the Socialist Party of America from the late 1910s and through the middle 1930s, a founding member of the Social Democratic Federation, and a prominent New York labor lawyer.-Early years:...

 railed against adoption of the Declaration of Principles:

"I warn against these dangerous, provocative proposals, which will lead the party to run. They are anarchistic, illegal, Communist

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

 doctrine. This is a wild, irresponsible declaration."

Then Norman Thomas went forward to close the debate in favor of adoption of the new declaration. Waldman recalls:

"When Thomas rose, he received a great ovation from the Militants, but he was pale and nervous. He had been maneuvered into a position inconsistent with his long time stance as a social reformer

Reform

Reform means to put or change into an improved form or condition; to amend or improve by change of color or removal of faults or abuses, beneficial change, more specifically, reversion to a pure original state, to repair, restore or to correct....

. He was ill-suited to be a leader of a revolutionary

Revolution

A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...

 movement committed to violence and dictatorship. I considered him more a captive than a leader. While I felt that the leadership and encouragement he had given the Militants had helped bring the party to the brink of disaster, if not past it, I was nevertheless sympathetic to a man who had been cast in a role so alien to his past.


"But he had passed the point of no return. He rejoiced in the declaration, he said. He praised Allen. As a pacifist, he had little difficulty in making a general and eloquent statement about the horror of war, which he condemned. When he got to the questio of seizure of power and the imposition of a dictatorship, he seemed lost. He declared that Fascism

Fascism

Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

, which he said the declaration clearly implied was now at hand, 'left the Socialist Party no alternative but to seize power whether or not it had a majority."

The 1934 Declaration of Principles was approved at the Detroit convention by a vote of delegates representing 10,882 members in favor, and delegates representing 6,512 opposed.