The Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance was a failure from the outset.
Only a small portion of even the socialist-minded trade unionists were
willing to join in the venture. Many trade union leaders who had been
allied with the socialists now openly sided with Gompers. In brief, the
socialist "revolution" in the American labor world suffered the fate of
all unsuccessful revolutions: it alienated the moderate sympathizers and
forced the victorious majority into taking up a more uncompromising
position than heretofore.
Finally, the hopelessness of DeLeon's tactics became obvious. One
faction in the Socialist Labor party, which had been in opposition ever
since he assumed command, came out in revolt in 1898. A fusion took
place between it and another socialist group, the so-called Debs-Berger
Social Democracy,[78] which took the name of the Social Democratic
Party. Later, at a "Unity Congress" in 1901, it became the Socialist
Party of America. What distinguished this party from the Socialist Labor
party (which, although it had lost its primacy in the socialist
movement, has continued side by side with the Socialist party of
America), was well expressed in a resolution adopted at the same "Unity"
convention: "We recognize that trade unions are by historical necessity
organized on neutral grounds as far as political affiliation is
concerned.
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