Dennis E. Batt

There he came under the influence of John Keracher, an immigrant from Scotland who espoused the doctrine of impossibilism — a belief that ameliorative reforms only stood to bolster the capitalist system and that the socialist movement should limit itself to the education and training of workers for the inevitable overthrow of capitalism.

In June 1919, Batt was among five delegates from the Socialist Party of Michigan who attended the National Conference of the Left Wing in New York City.

Batt, Keracher, and the other Michigan delegates sided with the seven suspended foreign language federations of the SPA in arguing for the immediate establishment of a new communist party.

[1] He also attended the 3rd World Congress of the Communist International as a guest, making an attempt to win recognition for the Proletarian Party as the American section of that organization.

[6] Batt's position in the Detroit Federation of Labor brought him into conflict with Keracher and the Proletarian Party, and he was expelled from the organization in the first half of the 1920s.