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Eugene Victor Debs was an American socialist activist and trade unionist. He was one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and a five-time candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States; through his presidential candidacies as well as his work with labor movements, Debs eventually became one of the best-known socialists living in the U…
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culture · American labor and political leader (1855–1926) · politician · trade unionist · peace activist · political activist · writer · socialist · author · union member · also Eugene V. Debs, Convict Number 9653, Gene Debs, The Revolutionist, Eugene V Debs, Eugene Victor Debs
Born 5 November 1855 · Died 20 October 1926 · Q334993
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We are here to perform a task so great that it appeals to our best thought, our united energies, and will enlist our most loyal support; a task in the presence of which weak men might falter and despair, but from which it is impossible to shrink without betraying the working class
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“I admire him and I revere our murdered comrades who lie in Waldheim, as I do also all the other splendid fighters in your movement. You see, then, I am your comrade. I am with you in your struggle.”
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“We are here to perform a task so great that it appeals to our best thought, our united energies, and will enlist our most loyal support; a task in the presence of which weak men might falter and despair, but from which it is impossible to shrink without betraying the working class”
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Chicago Reader: The Eugene V. Debs Museum is a font of labor history
Time: RADICALS: Eugene V. Debs
insider.si.edu: Eugene V. Debs: Trade Unionist, Socialist, Revolutionary, 18 55-1926 Reel 1 [sound recording]
insider.si.edu: Button, Eugene V. Debs
Moviefone: The Revolutionist Eugene V Debs (2019) - Where to Watch
Democratic socialist New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in his victory speech quoted Debs's appeal to the Supreme Court, saying "I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity
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The Telegraph: Running for US president from prison? Eugene V. Debs did it, a century ago
Yahoo: Running for U.S. president from prison? Eugene V. Debs did it, a century ago
CounterPunch: The Eugene V. Debs Museum: What It Spoke to Bill Walton, Larry Bird, and Me
c-span: Eugene V. Debs, Presidential Contender
Awarded Labor Hall of Honor (1990).
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The Department of Labor named Debs a member of its Labor Hall of Fame
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A documentary about Debs which was released as a film and an audio LP record as an audiovisual teaching aid
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“The Ancient People and the Newly Come”
It was designated as an official historic site of the state of Indiana, and in 1966 it was designated as a National Historic Landmark of the United States
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Debs's home was purchased for $9,500 by the Eugene V
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Died 1926-10-20.
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“When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong.”
In Hinsdale County, Colorado, was named in honor of Debs; the building also served as a community gathering spot for the rural area
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“The workers are the saviors of society; the redeemers of the race; and when they have fulfilled their great historic mission, men and women can walk the highlands and enjoy the vision of a land without masters and without slaves, a land regenerated and resplendent in the triumph of freedom and civilization.”
Not long after being admitted to a sanatorium due to cardiovascular problems that had developed during his time in prison
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Debs was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the Finnish Socialist Karl H
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President Harding commuted Debs's sentence to time served, effective Christmas Day
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Debs won 914,191 votes (3
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Granting women the federal right to vote across the country, and with the expanded voting pool, his vote total accounted for only 3
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To ten years in prison and was also disenfranchised for life
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Debs made a speech in Canton, Ohio, urging resistance to the military draft
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Debs ran with Milwaukee mayor Emil Seidel as a running mate and received 901,551 votes, which was 6
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When he received 6 percent, the highest number of votes for a Socialist Party presidential candidate in the United States
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When Haywood had been on trial for his life in Idaho, Debs had described him as "the Lincoln of Labor" and called for Haywood to run against Theodore Roosevelt for president, but times had changed and Debs, facing a spli
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In Chicago, Illinois, Debs and other influential union leaders including Bill Haywood, leader of the Western Federation of Miners; and Daniel De Leon, leader of the Socialist Labor Party, held what Haywood called the "Co
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1908, 1912, and 1920 (the final time from prison)
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Debs was the first federal office candidate for the fledgling socialist party, running unsuccessfully for president the same year
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Unified forces at a Socialist Unity Convention held in Indianapolis in mid-1901 – a meeting which established the Socialist Party of America (SPA)
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Debs supported Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan in the presidential election following Bryan's Cross of Gold speech
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Debs started his socialist political career
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A New York Times editorial called Debs "a lawbreaker at large, an enemy of the human race"
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Debs became involved in the Pullman Strike, which grew out of a compensation dispute started by the workers who constructed the rail cars made by the Pullman Palace Car Company
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Debs organized one of the first industrial unions in the United States, the American Railway Union (ARU), for unskilled workers
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Career landmark: member of the Indiana House of Representatives (1885–1887).
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Career landmark: municipal clerk (1879–1883).
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Served as a delegate of the Terre Haute lodge to the organization's national convention
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To 1887, a record of which Debs was proud
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In Terre Haute, Indiana, to Jean Daniel and Marguerite Mari Bettrich Debs, who emigrated to the United States from Colmar, Alsace, France
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Born 1855-11-05.
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The workers are the saviors of society; the redeemers of the race; and when they have fulfilled their great historic mission, men and women can walk the highlands and enjoy the vision of a land without masters and without slaves, a land regenerated and resplendent in the triumph of freedom and civilization.
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