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Daniel De Leon ( December 14, 1852 – May 11, 1914) was born in Curaçao. He was educated in Germany and the Netherlands and arrived in the United States in 1874.
De Leon settled in New York, studying at Columbia University. He became a committed socialist and in 1890 joined the Socialist Labor Party (SLP), becoming the editor of its newspaper, The People. He quickly grew in stature inside the party and in 1891 he ran for the governorship of the state of New York, winning 13,000 votes in the process.
De Leon was a Marxist and argued for the revolutionary overthrow of capitalismCapitalism generally refers to a combination of economic practices that became institutionalized in Europe between the 16th and 19th centuries. Exactly which historic and current practices are considered part of "capitalism" varies among users of the term, trying to divert the SLP away from its LassallianFerdinand Lassalle ( April 11, 1825 August 31, 1864), German politician. Although Lassalle had been a member of the Communist League in 1848 his politics were strongly opposed by Karl Marx and Freindrich Engels. As a result Marx's supporters in Germany di outlook. However, his famous polemic with James Connolly shows him to have been an advocate of Lassalle's Iron Law of Wages.
De Leon was highly critical of the trade union movement in America and described the craft-oriented American Federation of LaborThe American Federation of Labor (AFL) was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886, as an association of various trade unions, by Samuel Gompers. Gompers was the president of the AFL until 1924, when he di as the American Separation of Labor. At this early stage in De Leon's development there was still a considerable remnant of the general unionist Knights of LaborThe Knights of Labor was a labor union founded in in December 1869, by a group of Philadelphia tailors led by Uriah S. Labor Day can be traced to two Knights' parades in New York City in 1882 and 1884. Structure and membership Most unions organized worker in existence, and the SLP worked within it until driven out. This resulted in the formation of the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance (STLA) in 1895, which was dominated by the SLP.
By the early 20th century the SLP was declining in influence, with first the Social Democratic PartyThe Social Democratic Party (SDP) is a former political party operating in the United States. They were formed in 1897 as a left-wing alternative to the mainstream parties. The following year the SDP managed early success when two members of the party wer and then the Socialist Party of AmericaThe Socialist Party of America is a socialist political party in the United States. It was formed in 1901 by a merger between the Social Democratic Party of Eugene V. Debs, formed three years earlier by veterans of the Pullman Strike of the American Railw becoming the leading leftist political force in America. However, De Leon remained an important figure in the US labor movement, and in 1905 he helped found the Industrial Workers of the WorldThe Industrial Workers of the World IWW or the Wobblies is a nominally international, but effectively American, union movement headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, having much in common with anarcho-syndicalist unions, but also many differences. (IWW).
De Leon lost control and the ability to influence the organisation to what he called disparagingly 'the bummery' and left the IWW to form a rival Detroit-based IWW, which was soon renamed as the Workers' International Industrial Union . He died in New York in 1914.
Daniel De Leon proved hugely influential to other socialists, also outside the USA. For example, in the UK, a Socialist Labour Party was formed.
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