Local San Francisco of the Socialist Party was badly split, nearly down the middle, between revolutionary ‘industrial’ Socialist and opportunist ‘political’ Socialists in the years before World War One. The split, which had many real-life practical implications during strikes and elections, hobbled the large local in a labor city, As voice of the Left, the newspaper Revolt was a particular target of the Right, which through the Local’s Women’s Committee attempts to get sales banned at Party events. Leading Revolter Caroline Nelson calls them on their ‘game.’

‘A Trick in Playing the Game’ by Caroline Nelson from Revolt (San Francisco). Vol. 2 No. 20. November 11, 1911.

Official Gang Attempts to Destroy Press That Exposes Deals.

When the scribe of this became a Socialist she had a “fat” job in a millionaire’s family. Her employer was a typical plute-hating labor unions and Socialists with his whole well-fed body. She kept the Appeal to Reason. She knew if Mr. Plute ever got hold of it her position was in danger, but she risked it and carefully watched the mail. One day Mr. Plute came in, and in a low, angry voice called his rebel housekeeper before him.

“Madam,” he said, “do you subscribe for this contemptible, dirty, treasonable gutter sheet?” and held out the Appeal to Reason.

“Yes, Mr. Plute,” she said, “I had heard so much about it. I believe in investigating everything.”

“Of course,” he said, “that is right. I believe in having an open mind and look into everything. But this sheet ought to be suppressed because it is not only filthy, but it tells lies about our noblest men, and holds up the criminal Debs as a martyr. It never has anything good to say about anybody who has any position or any responsibility of any kind. I believe in progress, but you can’t make any progress by circulating lies and filth, you must foster purity and nobility and truth.”

The above is not an imaginary conversation or incident, but took place just as it is here told. It came vividly to my mind last night when I was attending the business meeting of our San Francisco Local, where the woman’s committee of the Socialist party petitioned the Local to pass a resolution to prohibit the sale of REVOLT in all party meetings upon the ground that it was a “filthy, dirty, lying, gutter sheet, which lied about our noble standard bearers in the Socialist party, and had never anything good to say about anybody who had responsibility and position in said party.”

Our secretary, Miss Bishop, is a very enthusiastic young lady, and it is but natural that she should champion, as she said, the cause of “purity, nobility, and truth as against filth, lies and slanders,” in the Socialist party, and that in her youth and inexperience she should be unable to see beneath this mere word juggling, is also very natural. But when one realizes that this inexperienced comrade was the mouthpiece of a committee dominated by gray-haired women, who came upon the world’s stage when the ideals of the new life had not made the slightest impression, and therefore could not help to shape their minds to any extent, one feels that there is a possibility of the old life prolonging its existence by influencing the new in our party itself. This is a thousand times more serious than the life of any paper. Anyone who has read history knows that every progress of the human race has met a solid phalanx of ugly sounding words backed up with all the power that could be commanded. Everything in that sense has literally come from the gutter and the so-called gutter people. Every world savior, according to legends, was born in a filthy stable, because there was no other room for such an event. So that the REVOLT’S suppression as a filthy sheet ought not to disturb anybody who has anything to do with its publication. But that such a thing could occur in the Socialist Party, in the year 1911, ought to make a profound impression upon the minds of the party membership. We are fighting tooth and nail for free press and free speech outside our party, while inside, the San Francisco Local triumphantly votes to suppress a Socialist paper that does not strike the fancy of the official gang by forcing through the following resolution fostered by a few of the ring:

“To Local San Francisco Socialist Party: We, the Woman’s Committee of Local San Francisco Socialist Party, hereby recommend that the sale of the newspaper called “Revolt” be prohibited at the headquarters and at all meetings held by Local San Francisco.

“We make this recommendation because of the malicious, false and misleading statements which REVOLT is continually publishing regarding Socialists who have been elected to public office, Socialist party candidates now running in Los Angeles, the State Secretary, the State Executive Committee, the last San Francisco Campaign Committee, the present San Francisco Campaign Committee, the Organizer of Local San Francisco, the proceedings of Local San Francisco and the Local itself.

“We consider this sheet as an enemy to the Socialist party, a treacherous Judas in our midst, and a fraud upon the Socialist movement, slanderously endeavoring to undermine the organization, confuse the membership and the outside public, while hypocritically posing as a champion of Socialism and a paragon of honesty, sincerity and purity.

“As party members who are acquainted with the facts referred to, and who have the welfare and solidarity of the Socialist party at heart, we feel that we have tolerated the foul fighting tactics of REVOLT long enough, and that it is time to consign it to the gutter from whence it came.

“And we further urge that copies of this recommendation be sent to all Socialist papers, and to the State and National Officers of the Socialist party.

“THE WOMAN’S COMMITTEE OF LOCAL SAN FRANCISCO.

“Above resolutions were endorsed and recommendations concurred in at the last regular meeting of Local San Fran- cisco, Social Party, on November 6th, 1911.

“As per instructions I am hereby mailing copy to all Socialist papers and the State and National Officers.

“Fraternally, JOHN KELLER, Organizer Local San Francisco, Socialist Party.”

THIS DOES NOT REPRESENT THE WILL OF THE MEMBERSHIP, AS AN AMENDMENT CALLING FOR A REFERENDUM VOTE WAS VOTED DOWN.

Now, here in California we are not so foolish as to believe that we are the only folks who have trouble inside our party. In any party or organization there is always trouble, where members are allowed to think for themselves, because our thinking apparatus revolves at different speed in different directions. It is only the Christian Science and the Catholic churches that are able to maintain harmonious organizations, by having popes who perform that thinking function infallibly (?). For centuries we were used to that sort of harmony with its diabolical strength. We fear it perhaps with an unreasonable fear. Our ancestral brain shrinks from it with horror, and sometimes we conjure up straw popes to swat with mighty blows. On the other hand, other people’s ancestral brains have a strong leaning toward popeism, and gloat over the strength of it, and dream of what could be accomplished with it. This is the brain that glories in noble “standard bearers.” But of course a standard bearer cannot be recognized as such without his host. So the fellow that can gather the largest host about him in our party is the standard bearer for the time being. His method and means of gathering this host is not questioned so much as the fact that he catches the crowd and the vote.

Here is our trouble. We demand that the Socialist principle shall be spoken straight out, without any trimmings or compromise, no matter if it turns thousands away from us. The “opportunists” hold that that is bad policy, that Socialism can be so presented that all classes will accept it, and that that is the only way to get it. We hold that that is the only way it can be defeated, because it will be so twisted and distorted that it will enable the ruling class to use it to fool the workers.

But sometimes it happens that a good, sound revolutionist comes to us laden with literary fame from the capitalist press. Such a comrade is Charles Edward Russell. He practically takes the side of the “suppressed” REVOLT. He looks with horror upon compromise with capitalist-minded craft labor leaders and political grandstand plays. He is too big for the official gang to suppress. So, they calmly accept him, and make use of his name to boost themselves, while the little fellow, standing for the same principle, is requested to go back to the gutter from whence he is supposed to have come. Too human, alas! The ruling-class taint impressed upon our brains. We have it all in some form. When the worker speaks his own philosophy, unvarnished in its awful truth, the mind sees not the white-washed sepulchers of life, the rotten bones hidden there, and we say, “for God’s sake let us get away from it.” But it would show much more wisdom to say, “Let us clean up the rotten bones and dirty headquarters,” instead of saying, “To the gutter with you, and a nice clean office building for us, where nice people live.”

However, it is well for the Socialists to look calmly at this latest tendency in our movement and then act calmly. This REVOLT episode is merely a manifestation putting forth its first sprout. We may be sure that it will sprout all over, if it is not uprooted. And the best way to uproot it is to support REVOLT until it’ll become a daily paper. Ultra radicalism will be the cry of the workers in the very near future. Let us prepare to boost it along with a radical sheet. SO, THREE CHEERS FOR REVOLT, AND A LIBERATED “GUTTER POPULATION,” WHO MUST DO THE JOB THEMSELVES.

[The majority at this meeting refused to submit the resolution born in the “Woman’s Committee” (?) to the membership of San Francisco, for the simple and sufficient reason that the last referendum taken on the question of recalling Merriam, in the city of San Francisco, was 154 to 144 favorable to the recall. So in reality the “resolution” is the output of a minority.–Ed. Note.]

Revolt ‘The Voice Of The Militant Worker’ was a short-lived revolutionary weekly newspaper published by Left Wingers in the Socialist Party in 1911 and 1912 and closely associated with Tom Mooney. The legendary activists and political prisoner Thomas J. Mooney had recently left the I.W.W. and settled in the Bay. He would join with the SP Left in the Bay Area, like Austin Lewis, William McDevitt, Nathan Greist, and Cloudseley Johns to produce The Revolt. The paper ran around 1500 copies weekly, but financial problems ended its run after one year. Mooney was also embroiled in constant legal battles for his role in the Pacific Gas and Electric Strike of the time. The paper epitomizes the revolutionary Left of the SP before World War One with its mix of Marxist orthodoxy, industrial unionism, and counter-cultural attitude. To that it adds some of the best writers in the movement; it deserved a much longer run.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/revolt/v2n20-w29-nov-11-1911-Revolt.pdf