Happy Holidays DU!! ... A little Zinnspiration for you .... Remember, a better world is possible !

[marmar]

Eugene Debs and the Idea of Socialism
by Howard Zinn

excerpted from the book
Howard Zinn on History


When the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1989, we heard a constant refrain in the press and from the mouths of politicians, that socialism had been discredited, and capitalism was the wave of the future. I was annoyed by the way Stalinism was mistaken for socialism, and wanted to recapture that idea of socialism which had inspired millions of people in this country before the Bolshevik revolution ever existed. No one represented that idea more eloquently than the socialist leader Eugene Debs.

We are always in need of radicals who are also lovable and so we would do well to bring back to public attention the person of Eugene Victor Debs. Ninety years ago, at the time The Progressive was born, Debs was nationally famous as leader of the Socialist Party, and the poet James Whitcomb Riley wrote of him:

As warm a heart as ever beat
Betwixt here and the Judgement Seat

Debs was what every socialist or anarchist or radical should be fierce in his convictions, kind and compassionate in his personal relations. Sam Moore, a fellow inmate of the Atlanta penitentiary, where Debs was imprisoned for opposing the first world war, told, years later, how he felt as Debs was about to be released on Christmas Day 1921: "As miserable as I was, I would defy fate with all its cruelty as long as Debs held my hand, and I was the most miserably happiest man on earth when I knew he was going home Christmas."

Debs had won the hearts of his fellow prisoners in Atlanta. He had fought for them in a hundred ways, and refused any special privileges for himself. That day of Debs' release from Atlanta prison, the warden ignored prison regulations and opened every cellblock to allow over two thousand inmates to mass in front of the main jail building to say goodbye to Eugene Debs. As he started down the walkway from the prison, a roar went up and he turned, tears streaming down his face, and stretched out his arms to the other prisoners.

This was not his first prison experience. In 1894, not yet a Socialist, but an organizer of railroad workers in the American Railway Union, he had led a nationwide boycott of the railroads in support of the striking workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company. They effectively tied up the railroad system, burned hundreds of railway cars, and were met with the full force of the capitalist state: Attorney General Richard Olney, a former railroad lawyer, got a court injunction to prohibit blocking trains. President Cleveland called out the army, which used bayonets, and rifle fire on a crowd of five thousand strike sympathizers in Chicago. Seven hundred were arrested. Thirteen were shot to death. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/EDebs_Socialism_HZOH.html

[silverweb]

1. Two of my favorite people.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Both an inspiration.

One of my favorite quotes from Debs:

You need at this time especially to know that you are fit for something better than slavery and cannon fodder.

How many do not know or believe that statement of fact to this day?

And one about him:

That old man with the burning eyes actually believes that there can be such a thing as the brotherhood of man. And that's not the funniest part of it. As long as he's around I believe it myself.
-Heywood Broun, quoting an unnamed person in "It Seems to Me."

If only we all believed it!

[marmar]

2. great quote

[silverweb]

3. There are so many, it's sometimes hard to choose.