Eugene Debs and Alternative Forms of Unionism 1901-1924

Eugene Debs

•Born 1855 (5 yrs younger Gompers)

• Brother hood of Locomotive Firemen• American Railway Union 1892 = industrial union • Pullman Strike 1894• Jailed for “Conspiracy”• Socialist Party 1901

Labor’s Heritage, vol. 2 No. 4

The “Red Special”

Labor’s Heritage, vol. 2 No. 4

The Red Special presidential campaign train, Nov.2, 1908. Both Debs and “Big Bill” Haywood are incenter of photograph.

Patterson Strike•Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) (not International Workers of World)

• Patterson, NJ, Silk City

• John Reed & “Parlor Socialists

• Large Immigrant workforce

• Management vs. IWW vs. Textile Workers AFL vs. Immigrant Workforce