Betrayal on the homeFront: socialism and the Great War
Labor relations with management has long been a point of contention in capitalist societies. During the First World War this tension was brought to an even larger extreme. Because so many men were off fighting the war and depended upon the production here at home to keep them alive it was imperative to keep the machinery of war rolling throughout the war. This meant stamping down on any activities that could impede production such as strikes and Anarchist activity.
Since the Haymarket riots of 1896 Chicago has been a hotbed of Anarchist actions. The period leading up to and following the First World War was no exception. Starting in 1905 with the creation of the industrial Workers of the World, a Socialist labor organization that held its founding convention in Chicago at 170 Clark Street in Brand’s Hall. In 1916 the IWW would announce its opposition to the war stating that they condemn all wars and that “we openly declare ourselves the determined opponents of all nationalistic sectionalism, or patriotism, and the militarism preached and supported by our one enemy, the capitalist class[1].”
This did not sit well with many Americans especially soldiers as the newspaper they were provided during the war had a strong Anti-Socialist leaning. With statements that demonized any Socialist candidates that were running for office as despite differences across the political aisle “The only thing the two parties are passionately agreed upon is that the Socialists must be beaten[2]”. This coming from the newspaper, The Stars and Stripes, that was given out to and sometimes written by troops during the war. Being some of the only news that the soldiers received during a time when information was not as widely available as today slants the opinions of the soldiers into thinking that Socialism was the enemy.
Things continued to escalate in 1907 in Chicago with the appointment of Mike Mills as the leader of the Chicago bomb squad, later renamed the Chicago Industrial Squad. Staunchly against anything deemed Red, Mills infiltrated the IWW and attempted to rouse fellow workers into acts of violence as well as grandstanding with fake anti-capitalist sentiment[3]. Mills would continue his anti-red tirade for many years to come as a prominent member of Chicago's police force.
The Media Exacerbates the problem
It was not only Socialism that was attacked in the American press and popular zeitgeist of the time but it was the Russian people as well. The February revolution in Russia had changed the landscape of their involvement in the war. Now a much more apt to peace group was in power in Russia casting an eye of suspicion on all Russian immigrants. A large accusation from the Daily News, a large Chicago newspaper states that revolutionaries were in talks with German spies to develop a separate peace . This type of accusation would only be thrown towards a people whose country had already fallen to Bolshevism in the previous months. As no claims towards other racial groups were made.
The period directly following the First World War showed a great deal of racial tension in Chicago, having some of the bloodiest race riots ever in the city. The main reasoning behind these was the simply horrific conditions in the cities “Black Belt” or area in which African Americans were allowed to live and purchase homes in. However this was not the story that the U.S. Department of Justice wanted to tell. They wanted to blame the Reds[4]. A term that has had about as many groups attached to it as there are hues of the color.
Not only was everything from a pacifist to a Socialist seen as Red in the eyes of federal officials. Red had become a term for anything that did not fit into the mold of what would become American consumerist culture years later. The beginnings of this having taken root much earlier. During the 1920s meetings took place that in the words of the press release “This meeting has no political aspect” and it is to address "The immediate peril of Bolshevism[5]” the same flyer later uses the terms Reds as something of a catch all for peoples who are of the leftist mindset.
The Era surrounding the First World War was highly charged with tension between management and those who wished to unionize. Considering that it came directly after the Gilded Age in which exploitation of the working-man ran rampant it stands to reason that only an extremely large event would change this course of history. The First World War and its predominate affects upon the psyche of the nation changed what could have been a slow movement towards leftist labor ideals and set the stage for what was to come not only in terms of the Second World War but the domestic actions that followed it during the roaring twenties.
Created by Judson Smith
Works Cited
Donner, Frank. 1990. Protectors of Privilege: Red Squads and Police Repression in Urban America. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Encyclopedia Britannica. 2018. Chicago Race Riot of 1919. 04 23. Accessed 04 23, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/event/Chicago-Race-Riot-of-1919.
Encycolpedia of Chicago. 1920. Press Club's Anti-Red Mass Meeting,1920. 9 5. Accessed 04 23, 2018. http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/10717.html.
Industial Workers of the World. 1905. Convention. 6 27. Accessed 04 23, 2018. https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/unions/iww/1905/convention/ch01.htm.
Industrial workers of the world. 1916. The IWW position on War. 02 06. Accessed 04 23, 2018. https://www.iww.org/history/resolutions/Convention_war_1916.
Krist, Gary. 2012. City of Scoundrels. New York: Random House.
Pochta, Russkaya. 1917. The Newberry: Concerning the Accusations against the Russian Colony (Editorial). 4 29. Accessed 04 23, 2018. http://flps.newberry.org/article/5423967_2_0735.
Stars and Stripes. 1918. Library of Congress. August 2. Accessed 04 23, 2018. https://www.loc.gov/resource/20001931/1918-08-02/ed-1/?sp=5&q=socialist.
Picture Locations:
https://www.history.com/news/remembering-the-haymarket-riot
https://www.iww.org/sv/history/resolutions/Convention_war_1916
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/10717.html