Sunday, September 2, 2018

A commemorative address




"Daniel De Leon: Internationalist" is a short pamphlet published by the U.S. Socialist Labor Party. Originally published in 1944, it contains a speech by SLP national secretary Arnold Petersen delivered at the party's De Leon Commemoration in New York City on December 12, 1943. De Leon (who was born in December 1852) was the chief leader and ideologue of the SLP from about 1890 until his death in 1914, when Petersen took over the leadership. During his half-century long (!) tenure as party secretary, Petersen created a kind of personality cult around De Leon.

Still, I must say that "Daniel De Leon: Internationalist" is pretty low key for Petersen. Being a commemorative address, it also lacks the distinctive Petersenite invectives against political opponents. The pamphlet is a pretty straightforward presentation of De Leon's broadly Marxist view of nations and internationalism, his attacks on the anti-immigration policy of Socialist Party leader Morris Hillquit, his criticism of Zionism, calls for international working-class solidarity against wars, etc. Petersen concludes with a lengthy denunciation of German Social Democracy for having betrayed the revolution and thereby brought about Nazism. SLP's super-sectarian stance on World War II (no support for either side) is also plainly visible, as is Petersen's turn against Stalin's Soviet Union, which he had previously supported.

Probably not very interesting to the general reader. One of the few interesting SLP pamphlets is "The SLP and the USSR", reviewed by me elsewhere.

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