De Leon, Daniel
De Leon, Daniel
(dē lē`ŏn), 1852–1914, American socialist leader. Born on the island of Curaçao of Spanish-American parents, he was educated in Germany and the Netherlands before going (1872) to New York City. There he edited a Spanish newspaper, studied law at Columbia (LL.B., 1876), practiced law for a few years, and then returned to Columbia to lecture (1883–89) on Latin American diplomacy. His interest in labor reform grew, and he joined successively the Knights of LaborKnights of Labor,American labor organization, started by Philadelphia tailors in 1869, led by Uriah S. Stephens. It became a body of national scope and importance in 1878 and grew more rapidly after 1881, when its earlier secrecy was abandoned.
..... Click the link for more information. (1888), Edward BellamyBellamy, Edward
, 1850–98, American author, b. Chicopee Falls (now part of Chicopee), Mass. After being admitted to the bar he tried his hand at journalism and contributed short stories of genuine charm to various magazines.
..... Click the link for more information. 's "Nationalist" movement (1889), and the Socialist Labor partySocialist Labor party,
in the United States, begun in 1877 by New York City socialists. Its membership came largely from German-American workingmen. During the 1880s a national organization was established and the party concentrated, unsuccessfully, on electoral politics.
..... Click the link for more information. (1890).
De Leon was the Socialist Labor candidate for governor of New York in 1891, and for years he edited the Socialist Labor weekly, The People. He was an inflexible and doctrinaire Marxian revolutionist and consequently fell out with most other liberal leaders. He opposed unionization of labor according to trades and led the group that formed the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance, but his leadership was too radical for some of the members (prominent among them Morris HillquitHillquit, Morris,
1869–1933, American lawyer and Socialist leader, b. Riga, Latvia (then in Russia). He came to the United States in 1886. He was the leader of the right-wing, or constitutional, Socialists in their revolt against the radical leadership of Daniel De Leon in
..... Click the link for more information. ), who withdrew in 1899 and ultimately formed the Socialist partySocialist party,
in U.S. history, political party formed to promote public control of the means of production and distribution. In 1898 the Social Democratic party was formed by a group led by Eugene V. Debs and Victor Berger.
..... Click the link for more information. .
De Leon's prestige subsequently lessened. He helped to found the Industrial Workers of the WorldIndustrial Workers of the World
(IWW), revolutionary industrial union organized in Chicago in 1905 by delegates from the Western Federation of Mines, which formed the nucleus of the IWW, and 42 other labor organizations.
..... Click the link for more information. in 1905, but in the quarrel over political action he and his followers were expelled. The rival Workers' International Industrial Union, which he then organized, did not flourish. He wrote a great deal of Socialist polemical literature and translated a work of Karl Marx.
Bibliography
See A. Peterson, Daniel De Leon, Social Architect (2 vol., 1941–53); study by L. G. Raĭskiĭ (1959); C. Reeve, The Life and Times of Daniel DeLeon (1972); bibliography by O. C. Johnson (1966).
De Leon, Daniel
Born Dec. 4, 1852, on the island of Curasao, in the Netherlands Antilles; died May 11, 1914, in New York. A leader of the workers’ movement in the USA.
De Leon was educated in Germany, the Netherlands, and the USA, where he moved in 1872. He lectured in law at Columbia University from 1883 to 1889. In 1890 he joined the Socialist Labor Party (SLP) and soon became its leader and ideologist. In 1891, De Leon became the editor of People, the official organ of the SLP. He defended the idea of the class struggle and opposed craftguild mentality and the ideology of trade unionism. He led the struggle against the rightist and centrist leaders of the SLP and the reformist leaders of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). De Leon exposed the policy of the opportunist leaders of the Second International. However, he committed serious sectarian errors and ignored the significance of the struggle for the everyday demands of the workers. De Leon was defeated in the struggle within the AFL and called on socialists and revolutionary-minded workers to leave the organization. In 1905 he participated in the creation of the Industrial Workers of the World. At the same time, De Leon rejected the leading role of political parties in the labor movement and the necessity for the dictatorship of the proletariat, thus in effect agreeing to the bourgeois theory that America was an exception to general historical laws.
WORKS
Speeches and Editorials, vols. 1–2. New York, 1923–30.Industrial Unionism. New York, 1920.
REFERENCES
Zubok, L. I. Ocherki istorii rabochego dvizheniia v SShA. Moscow, 1962.Foner, F. Istoriia rabochego dvizheniia v SShA, vol. 2. Moscow, 1958.