When Columbus, Ohio elected four red flag-flying Socialists to city council.

‘Ohio Elects Socialists’ from the International Socialist Review. Vol. 12 No. 9. March, 1912.

Local Columbus—At the last city election the Socialists at Columbus polled 11,000 straight, class conscious votes, electing four councilmen, four assessors and three members of the board of education. On the morning after election a prominent Columbus businessman declared that the Socialists could have swept the city if they had not carried the red flag in the monster parade the Saturday night before election. It is sufficient to quote the reply the comrades made in their splendid paper, the Socialist, to show where they stand: The Socialist party has no apology to offer for its platform, its candidates or the RED FLAG. The working class will understand the true significance of the Red Flag before another election and that emblem of human brotherhood will be the insignia of victory. The Local will put on two rousing Haywood lectures on April 7th.

The International Socialist Review (ISR) was published monthly in Chicago from 1900 until 1918 by Charles H. Kerr and critically loyal to the Socialist Party of America. It is one of the essential publications in U.S. left history. During the editorship of A.M. Simons it was largely theoretical and moderate. In 1908, Charles H. Kerr took over as editor with strong influence from Mary E Marcy. The magazine became the foremost proponent of the SP’s left wing growing to tens of thousands of subscribers. It remained revolutionary in outlook and anti-militarist during World War One. It liberally used photographs and images, with news, theory, arts and organizing in its pages. It articles, reports and essays are an invaluable record of the U.S. class struggle and the development of Marxism in the decades before the Soviet experience. It was closed down in government repression in 1918.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v12n09-mar-1912-ISR-gog-Corn.pdf