Social Democratic Party (United States)

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The Social Democratic Party (SDP) was a short-lived political party in the United States and a predecessor to the Socialist Party of America. The SDP developed from a non-political social movement called Social Democracy of America, a short lived and disparate group of Marxists, trade unionists (especially veterans of the American Railroad Union), Owenites, populists and unaffiliated radicals. The SDA sought to establish socialist cooperative colonies. The colonization scheme failed to materialize by the second convention of the SDA, held in Chicago from June 9 - 11, 1898. A political-action faction led by Victor Berger left the SDA convention and founded the SDP as an explicitly socialist alternative to the mainstream parties. Later that year the SDP managed early success when two members of the party were elected to the Massachusetts General Court.

In 1900 Eugene Debs stood as the party's presidential candidate and received some 87,000 votes. This was considerably more than the established Socialist Labor Party.

In 1901 several members of the SDP, including Debs, unified the party with several independent state socialist parties to establish the Socialist Party of America.

[edit] Prominent members

• Victor L. Berger
• Ella Reeve Bloor
• Eugene V. Debs
• Margaret Haile
• Carl Sandburg

[edit] External links

• Documents from the foundation of the Social Democratic Party. Archived on the Early American Marxism website. Retrieved August 6, 2006.
• Documents relating to the founding of the Social Democracy of America. Archived on the Early American Marxism website. Retrieved August 6, 2006.
• Guide to the Social-Democratic Party of America Records 1900-1905. Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. New York University. Retrieved August 26, 2006.
• Socialist Party of America (1897 - 1946). Party history beginning with formative Social Democratic Party.