The Social Democratic Federation of America (also known as Social Democratic Federation USA) was a political party in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, formed in 1936 by the 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...

 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...

. The SDF later merged again with the Socialist Party in 1957 to form the Socialist Party-Social Democratic Federation (SP-SDF).

Origins of the split

Social Democratic Federation 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:...

 noted in his memoirs that while the official split of the Socialist Party that resulted in the creation of the Social Democratic Federation took place in 1936, "the crucial events occurred at the party's national convention in Detroit in 1934." It was at this national gathering that the ongoing factional war between a youthful "Militant" faction favoring aggressive advocacy of revolutionary tactics and joint action with the Communist Party

Communist Party USA

The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....

 won the day and pushed through a new Declaration of Principles

1934 Declaration of Principles

The 1934 Declaration of Principles was a political platform of the Socialist Party of America passed at the May 1934 National Convention held in Detroit, Michigan...

, leading the SPA's right wing faction, known as the "Old Guard" to abandon the organization. Throughout the 1930s the Socialist Party had achieved moderate growth, it's paid membership returning to the 25,000 level and its candidate for President of the United States

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 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:...

 polling nearly a million votes in the election of 1932.

Waldman recounted the main points of departure between the radical youth of the party and the staid older elements:

"It all began with the formation of groups in the Socialist Party that wanted to commit it to direct action

Direct action

Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...

. 'Direct action' means that an organized group will take any action, illegal as well as legal, that it believes will bring about the reform, changes, or objective it seeks. The general strike for political purposes, sabotage, the use of violence, the spread of fear, the paralysis of industry, trade, commerce, and even government are examples....


"The direct-action groups in the Socialist Party called themselves Militants; some formed the Revolutionary Policy Committee

Revolutionary Policy Committee (U.S.)

The Revolutionary Policy Committee was an offshoot of the so-called "Militant" faction in the Socialist Party of America during the middle-1930s...

; others used other names.


"When they first appeared on the scene, they wore blue shirts and adopted the upraised arm and the clenched fist as a form of salute. They insisted that the party coin flamboyant slogans, organize street demonstrations, arrange great protest rallies, and in general, do the things that the Communists had made popular in their day-to-day activities. The Militants also proposed that, as the Communists had done, we form separate organizations for the unemployed, youth, tenants, and housewives, as if those groups had interests distinct from those of the workers as a whole....


"In due time, organizations of students, youths, tenants, housewives, and the unemployed formed by the Socialist group entered United Front

United front

The united front is a form of struggle that may be pursued by revolutionaries. The basic theory of the united front tactic was first developed by the Comintern, an international communist organisation created by revolutionaries in the wake of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.According to the theses of...

s with like organizations under Communist auspices. The fronts became transmission belts for the Communists... Most of the fronts sought to carry out the objectives of Soviet foreign policy, to glorify the Soviet system, and to spread confusion in the ranks of society.


"We were convinced that by engaging in United Front activities, we, who were opposed to Communist aims, would soon become witting or unwitting parties to the furtherance of those ams and to the destruction of democracy."

The National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party also established a department aimed to direct the activities of Socialists in the trade unions, a tactic which smacked of quasi-Communist tactics to the members of the Old Guard faction.

The 1934 Declaration of Principles was merely the result of a long process, in the view of the Old Guard leadership, its call for the "development of the dictatorship of workers and peasants" particularly galling. In closing the debate on the matter for the Old Guard at the Detroit convention, New York state party chairman Waldman had condemned the Declaration in no uncertain terms, accusing the Declaration of advancing "dangerous, provocative proposals" which advanced an "anarchistic

Anarchism

Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...

, illegal, Communist doctrine."

Organization of the SDF

After the passage of the Declaration of Principles and the closing of the convention, the Old Guard returned home. On behalf of the Socialist Party of New York, chairman Waldman immediately issued a statement disavowing the actions of the Detroit convention:

"We repudiate the essential features of the Declaration of Principles adopted at the Socialist National Convention insofar as they depart from the traditional socialist position and commit the Socialist Party to the use of violence and extralegal means.


"As between the program of orderly, peaceable, constructive, and intelligent political action and the insurrectionary, destructive, and violent methods proposed by the left wing, Socialists will have no difficulty in making their choice."

The Old Guard opponents of the Detroit decisions formally organized themselves as a faction immediately after the close of the Detroit conclave, establishing the Committee for the Preservation of the Socialist Party

Committee for the Preservation of the Socialist Party

The Committee for the Preservation of the Socialist Party was a short-lived organized factional grouping in the Socialist Party of America established in 1934 by its New York-based "Old Guard" faction...

. Pamphlets were published and distributed alleging the Declaration of Principles was a "culminating point of a deep seated antagonism" within the Socialist Party — the proverbial "straw that breaks or threatens to break the camel's back." A stern warning was issued that it was "not enough" to merely defeat the Detroit Declaration of Principles in the party referendum held for their ratification, but that "the Socialist Party must be made safe for Socialism, for social democracy." Names of sympathizers were gathered, funds collected, and an office established in New York City. A "Provisional Executive Committee" of the faction was named, including such long-time members of the SPA as James Maurer of Pennsylvania, Algernon Lee

Algernon Lee

Algernon H. Lee was an American socialist politician and educator, best known as the Director of Education at the Rand School of Social Science for 35 years.-Early years:...

 and Louis Waldman of New York, George Roewer of Massachusetts (Chairman of the Provisional Executive Committee), George Goebel of New Jersey, and Mayor Jasper McLevy

Jasper McLevy

Jasper McLevy was an American politician who served as mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut from 1933-1957. He was a member of the Socialist Party, later leaving in protest to join the Social Democratic Federation....

 of Bridgeport, Connecticut

Bridgeport, Connecticut

Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in Fairfield County, the city had an estimated population of 144,229 at the 2010 United States Census and is the core of the Greater Bridgeport area...

. Louis Hendin was engaged as Executive Secretary of the faction, which had already in 1934 taken the form of a "party within the party."

In his 1944 memoir, Socialist Party of New York State Chairman Louis Waldman freely acknowledged that he and his New York Old Guard comrades violated the supreme authority of the 1934 National Convention (so designated under party law) and immediately engaged in a factional property-grab:

"Back from Detroit, I was immediately confronted with a problem which involved millions of dollars of property controlled by subsidiaries of the Socialist Party. In New York alone there were such institutions as the Jewish Daily Forward, the leading Jewish newspaper in the world with a circulation running into hundreds of thousands and with reserve funds amounting to millions. There was The New Leader, a weekly newspaper published in English; there was the Rand School of Social Science which, together with Camp Tamiment, had enormous property value, not to speak of their importance as propaganda and educational instruments. Control of the Forward alone also meant probable control of fraternal and labor organizations such as the Workmen's Circle, with its millions of dollars in property and tens of thousands of members throughout the United States....


"After Detroit it was obvious that the militant Socialists controlled the Socialist Party. I saw that all they had to do in order to gain control of the valuable property in New York was to revoke the New York State charter and expel all state organizations controlled by the Social Democrats or the Old Guard. Since there was always a minority of militant Socialists in each of these corporate institutions, these properties involving millions of dollars in property value and cash reserves would quickly fall into the hands of the militants....


"All during 1935 and the early part of 1936 my office was converted into a meeting place for the various committees and members of the organizations threatened by the militants. Constitutions and bylaws were modified in such a way as to prevent control falling into the hands of 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:...

' super-revolutionists."

It was not until January 1936 that the National Executive Committee finally revoked the charter of the Old Guard-dominated Socialist Party of New York and reorganized the state under the leadership of an alliance of forces loyal to Norman Thomas and members of the Militant faction. The marriage had already broken up long before this divorce was finalized, however.

Although the split had taken place at the time of the 1936 National Convention, the SDF did not formally organize itself until holding a convention Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

 on May 29-30, 1937. The gathering elected Mayor Jasper McLevy

Jasper McLevy

Jasper McLevy was an American politician who served as mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut from 1933-1957. He was a member of the Socialist Party, later leaving in protest to join the Social Democratic Federation....

 of Bridgeport, Connecticut

Bridgeport, Connecticut

Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in Fairfield County, the city had an estimated population of 144,229 at the 2010 United States Census and is the core of the Greater Bridgeport area...

 as National Chairman of the new organization. The gathering passed a resolution of support to the Loyalist government

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

 of Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 and supporting an anti-Nazi boycott. The convention also voted to apply to the Labour and Socialist International

Labour and Socialist International

The Labour and Socialist International was an international organization of socialist and labour parties, active between 1923 and 1940. The LSI was a forerunner of the present-day Socialist International....

 as an affiliate.

The SDF chose to seek international affiliation immediately with the Socialist International

Socialist International

The Socialist International is a worldwide organization of democratic socialist, social democratic and labour political parties. It was formed in 1951.- History :...

, over the objections of some delegates like William Karlin of New York, who urged his fellows to wait the short time until "the Trotsky Communists who call themselves the Socialist Party" joined the 4th International before seeking admission. This theme of communist influence in the Socialist Party from whence they sprung was echoed by Louis Waldman, who declared to the press than Norman Thomas had come under "communist influence" and that "rather than lose our identity as Americans, we left the party."

The Social Democratic Federation was not organized as an electoral political organization but rather as an interest group seeking to establish connection with the trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

 movement in a broader labor party. At the time of its creation the organization did incorporate the former SPA state locals in New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. The influential municipal parties in Reading, Pennsylvania

Reading, Pennsylvania

Reading is a city in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, and seat of Berks County. Reading is the principal city of the Greater Reading Area and had a population of 88,082 as of the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown and Erie,...

 and Bridgeport, Connecticut

Bridgeport, Connecticut

Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in Fairfield County, the city had an estimated population of 144,229 at the 2010 United States Census and is the core of the Greater Bridgeport area...

 also left the Socialist Party to establish the SDF. In New York, the SDF supported Franklin Delano Roosevelt and American Labor Party

American Labor Party

The American Labor Party was a political party in the United States established in 1936 which was active almost exclusively in the state of New York. The organization was founded by labor leaders and former members of the Socialist Party who had established themselves as the Social Democratic...

 candidates, but the takeover of the ALP by the Communist Party USA

Communist Party USA

The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....

 drove the SDF's adherents from that organization.

Executive Secretary of the SDF was August Claessens

August Claessens

August "Gus" Claessens was an American socialist politician, best known as one of the five New York Assemblymen expelled from that body during the First Red Scare for their membership in the Socialist Party of America...

, who later served as National Chairman of the group until his death in 1954.

Reunification with the Socialist Party

Reunification with the dissident Social Democratic Federation was long a goal of the Socialist Party regulars, with initial attempts beginning as early as 1937. In his 1938 book, Socialism on the Defensive, SP leader Norman Thomas acknowledged that a number of issues had been involved in the split which led to the formation of the SDF, including "organizational policy, the effort to make the party inclusive of all socialist elements not bound by communist discipline; a feeling of dissatisfaction with social democratic tactics which had failed in Germany" as well as "the socialist estimate of Russia; and the possibility of cooperation with communists on certain specific matters." Still, he held that "those of us who believe that an inclusive socialist party is desirable, and ought to be possible, hope that the growing friendliness of socialist groups will bring about not only joint action but ultimately a satisfactory reunion on the basis of sufficient agreement for harmonious support of a socialist program." This speedy reunification failed after Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939 revealed the threat of a coalition of two totalitarian states. The threat revealed by this pact reduced the influence of pacifists in the Federation, the socialist Party, and in the labor movement.

During the years of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 through the first half of the 1950s, the SDF's paid membership drastically declined. Its influence on New York politics and labor unions similarly dropped. These declines corresponded with a general decline in the prestige of socialist organizations in the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

 period, as well as the growth of Americans for Democratic Action

Americans for Democratic Action

Americans for Democratic Action is an American political organization advocating progressive policies. ADA works for social and economic justice through lobbying, grassroots organizing, research and supporting progressive candidates.-History:...

 and other liberal organizations, which tapped the SDF's support among sympathetic progressives. This decline made the SDF more amenable to reunification with the Socialist Party

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...

, which lost members while maintaining its opposition to communism and critical support for the U.S. policy of containment

Containment

Containment was a United States policy using military, economic, and diplomatic strategies to stall the spread of communism, enhance America’s security and influence abroad, and prevent a "domino effect". A component of the Cold War, this policy was a response to a series of moves by the Soviet...

. After several years of negotiations, a merger was finally accomplished in 1957 to form the Socialist Party-Social Democratic Federation (SP-SDF). A small group of holdouts refused to reunify, establishing a new organization called the Democratic Socialist Federation

Democratic Socialist Federation

The Democratic Socialist Federation was founded by members of the Social Democratic Federation who had opposed the latter's 1956 reunification with the Socialist Party of America in 1956.The Federation merged with the Socialist Party in March of 1972...

.

Publications

The SDF published a monthly, Social Democrat edited by Algernon Lee, August Claessens and Liston Oak. It ran from Vol. I #1 July 1944 to Vol XII #5 December 1955.

• Social Democratic Federation U.S.A: principles and program. Washington, D.C. : Social Democratic Federation U.S.A., 1937
• Louis Waldman Should unions be incorporated? Responsibility of unions under the law, Washington, D.C. : Social Democratic Federation U.S.A., 1937
• Frederick Shulman The meaning of social democracy New York City, N.Y. : Social Democratic Federation, 1940
• Souvenir Journal : Social Democratic Federation, Ninth Anniversary Celebration. New York : Social Democratic Federation, 1944
• William Feigenbaum "Let us review the scene" with William Feigenbaum New York City, N.Y. : Social Democratic Federation, 1951

External links

• Guide to the Social Democratic Federation of America Records 1933–1956. Collection maintained by Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University. 6.5 linear feet (13 boxes). Call Phrase: Tamiment 011 R2644-R2647. Accessed Feb. 11, 2009.