Social Democratic League of America
Progressive Era Repression and persecution Anti-war and civil rights movements Contemporary The Social Democratic League of America (SDLA) was a short-lived social-democratic political party established in 1917 by electorally-oriented socialists who favored the participation of the United States in World War I.
Claiming a membership of 2,500 at its peak — a number possibly inflated — the SDLA achieved some limited success in building support for the military effort among the wavering socialists of France and Great Britain during the last weary months of the war.
Following the end of the European fighting, the SDLA lost much of its raison d'être and dissolved amidst personal acrimony, as did the National Party, a parallel political umbrella organization with which it was closely associated.
This committee passed a majority resolution branding the American government's entrance into the European conflict as "a crime against the people of the United States and against the nations of the world" and promising "continuous, active, and public opposition to the war."
[1] Spargo's alternative resolutions garnered just 5 votes out of the nearly 200 delegates assembled in St. Louis and gained no headway when brought to the party membership as part of the process of ratifying the decisions of the Emergency Convention.
[4] Graham Stokes began work on a manifesto for the new organization during the second half of April 1917, intending to advance a vision of so-called "industrial democracy" which would prove attractive to great numbers of Americans.
"[11] In England Spargo and the labor delegation met with Henry Hyndman and worked closely with his Social Democratic Federation in an effort to undermine the growing strength of pacifist forces in the Labour Party headed by Ramsay MacDonald.
[10] The group addressed a crowd packed into Trafalgar Square in an effort to hear American socialists' views on the war and were feted afterwards by leaders of the House of Commons, who served a dinner in their honor.
[8] Muckraking journalist and author Charles Edward Russell was elected as the new chairman of the organization, with Slobodin tapped as vice-chairman, William English Walling as Secretary, and Graham Stokes as Treasurer.
[8] The SDLA did not publish its own newspaper but was the beneficiary of espousing the same pro-war political beliefs held by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, managing editor of the seminal socialist weekly, The Appeal to Reason.
[3] Haldeman-Julius's paper — renamed The New Appeal in December 1917 — emerged by the summer of 1918 as the highly visible public information source of the new organization, providing the SDLA with both sympathetic coverage and space for its official pronouncements and membership solicitations.
[15] Despite only having a population of 3,000, Girard had postal facilities and capacity of a city many times its size due to the massive volume generated by the Appeal to Reason over the years, helping to justify the unorthodox decision.
Russell and William English Walling traveled to Europe under the banner of the Social Democratic League in an effort to advance the idea among French and British socialists that anti-imperialism and American war aims were not incompatible.
[8] Russell and Walling attempted to solicit support among fellow socialists for the Fourteen Points put forward by President Wilson and for the establishment of a League of Nations to help administer the post-war peace.
[16] Russell and Walling similarly affirmed their support of the Wilson administration's hostility to the fledgling Bolshevik government of Soviet Russia, while expressing critical comments about the Berne Conference of Allied socialist parties.
"[20] With neither a pressing moral mission, nor a united leadership, nor a widely read official organ, nor an active membership, nor a coherent program, nor financial resources, the Social Democratic League rapidly withered and died during the first half of 1920.
