While jailed in Woodstock, Ill., Debs was visited by Milwaukee’s socialist newspaper editor Victor L. Berger, who brought a copy of Marx’s Capital. The exchange helped spark a political transformation for Debs, who would spend the rest of his days evangelizing the socialist cause.
This history reflects a reality too often overlooked by contemporary political observers: the spirit of socialism has coursed through the Midwest ever since the movement emerged in the 19th century, and it continues to animate the region’s political landscape.
Far from being the bastion of “coastal elites,” as claimed by some pundits, today an upsurge of organizing efforts are keeping alive a socialist flame that has burned for generations throughout America’s heartland.
As unimpeded industrialization spread across the United States in the latter half of the 1800s, wide swaths of the population faced food shortages, toxic drinking water, run-down housing and a lack of proper sanitation, all while laboring around the clock in factories and worksites that lacked meaningful regulation and safety standards. In the face of these conditions, working people organized under the banner of socialism to call for remedies, including labor rights and less time on the job.
That last demand took center stage May 1, 1886, when 300,000 people nationwide walked off in a general strike to advocate for the eight-hour workday. Three days later in Chicago — a hotbed of the movement — the Haymarket riot led to a number of socialist agitators being hanged. It was soon commemorated as International Workers’ Day.
In Milwaukee, thousands joined the 1886 general strike, shutting down nearly every major factory in the city. Clashes with state militia that followed helped motivate socialist journalist Paul Grottkau to run for mayor while still locked up for his participation. He didn’t win, but his entry inspired others.
In 1910, Socialist Party member Emil Seidel ran for mayor and did win. That same year, Berger became the first socialist elected to Congress where he promoted the nationalization of major industries. In a 1918 article for the Milwaukee Leader, Berger wrote, “Socialism is defined as the collective ownership of the social means of production and distribution. It is the name given to the next stage of civilization, if civilization is to survive.”
In the 1916 election, another socialist, Daniel Hoan, took over stewardship of Milwaukee, serving as mayor for more than two decades. Socialists were elected up and down the ballot, and their efforts to invest in public works, sanitation and housing spawned the idea of “sewer socialism.” In 1948, Milwaukee voted in its third socialist mayor, Frank Zeidler.