View source for Socialist Party of North Carolina

{{Infobox political party
| name             = Socialist Party of North Carolina
| logo             = File:SocialistPartyofNorthCarolinaLogo.jpg
| foundation       = 1996 (SPUSA) <br/>
| colors           = [[Red]]
| headquarters     = [[Carrboro, North Carolina|Carrboro, NC]]
| ideology         = [[Democratic socialism]]<br>[[Socialist feminism]]
| national         = [[Socialist Party USA]]
| website          = {{URL|http://www.socialistpartync.org/}}
| country          = the United States
| colorcode        = {{party color|Socialist Party USAof America}}
}}
The '''Socialist Party of North Carolina''' (SPNC) is a multi-tendency [[democratic socialist]] political party in the U.S. state of [[North Carolina]]. The party was launched in 1901 as the state organization of the [[Socialist Party of America]] (SPA), its direct organizational antecedent, and later reformed in 1996 as the state SPUSA affiliate after the SPA became [[Social Democrats, USA]].
==Socialist Party of America Affiliation==
{{Infobox political party
| name            = Socialist Party of North Carolina
| logo            = File:Socialist Party of America - Logo.gif
| foundation      = 1901 (SPA)
| colors          = [[Red]]
| ideology        = [[Democratic socialism]]
| national        = [[Socialist Party of America]]
| country         = the United States
| colorcode       = {{party color|Socialist Party of America}}
}}
===Background===
Throughout the 19th Century and well into the 20th, [[North Carolina]] was an overwhelmingly agrarian state, with 75 percent of North Carolinians living rurally as late as 1930.<ref name=Taylor2>
{{cite book
| first = Gregory S.
| last = Taylor
| title = The History of the North Carolina Communist Party
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=91VyisPZT24C
| publisher = University of South Carolina Press
| date = 2009
| pages = 2
| isbn = 9781570038020
| accessdate = 22 October 2018}}</ref> The farmers of the state were not atomized and apolitical, however, as the state was home to a tradition of political and economic reform dating back to the beginning of the [[progressive era]] in the middle 1880s.<ref name=Taylor1>Taylor, ''The History of the North Carolina Communist Party,'' pg. 1.</ref> The [[populism|populist]] [[Farmers' Alliance]] had grown deep roots in Carolina soil, exemplified by the presence some 2,200 local organizations in the state with a total membership of 90,000 by 1890.<ref name=Taylor1 />
In this period economic development in North Carolina was related in the first place to the region's massive [[tobacco]] industry, with North Carolina workers responsible for the manufacture of half the output of [[cigarette]]s and two-thirds the output of [[chewing tobacco]].<ref name=Taylor2 /> The fabric and clothing manufacturing industry also began to expand dramatically, with North Carolina mills producing half of the nation's [[yarn|cotton yarn]] by the early 20th Century.<ref name=Taylor2 />
===Establishment===
The Socialist Party of America was founded in 1901. The first SP nominee for President was labor leader [[Eugene V. Debs]] and he received votes in North Carolina several times. The first time was in 1904, when he received 125 votes.<ref>David Leip (ed.), [http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=1904&fips=37&f=0&off=0&elect=0&minper=0 "1904 Presidential General Election Results: North Carolina,"] www.USElectionAtlas.org/</ref> In 1912, the party held its convention with 100 delegates from 12 counties in [[Winston-Salem, North Carolina|Winston-Salem]]. A theme of the meeting was opposition to global war.<ref>J.D. Kernodle (ed.), [http://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn84020756/1912-01-11/ed-1/seq-2.pdf "Socialists Hold Convention in North Carolina,"] Alamance Gleaner [Graham, NC], vol. 37, no. 48 (Jan. 11, 1912), pg. 2.</ref> In that year, Socialist nominee Debs received 1,025 votes.<ref>David Leip (ed.),[http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?f=0&fips=37&year=1912 "1912 Presidential General Election Results: North Carolina,"] www.USElectionAtlas.org/</ref>
In 1916, Socialist nominee [[Allen Benson]] received 509 votes for president.<ref>David Leip (ed.), [http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=1916&fips=37&f=0&off=0&elect=0&minper=0 "1916 Presidential General Election Results: North Carolina,"] www.USElectionAtlas.org/</ref> In 1920, Debs was once again the nominee and earned 446 votes while in federal prison.<ref>David Leip (ed.),[http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=1920&fips=37&f=0&off=0&elect=0&minper=0 "1920 Presidential General Election Results: North Carolina,"] www.USElectionAtlas.org/</ref> The vote totals were relatively low because small parties were required to print and pay for the ballots with the names of their party's nominees.<ref name="Richardson2008">{{cite book|last=Richardson|first=Darcy G.|title=Others: Fighting Bob La Follette and the Progressive Movement: Third-party Politics in the 1920s|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jb8VUKAZqpUC&pg=PA378|accessdate=18 June 2017|year=2008|publisher=iUniverse|isbn=9780595481262|pages=378–}}</ref>
The party's 1920 platform included calls for the repeal of poll taxes and the guaranteeing of voting rights regardless skin color,<ref>{{cite book|title=North Carolina Manual|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZFNIAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA301|year=1921|publisher=North Carolina Historical Commission|pages=301–}}</ref> which did not come to fruition until the [[Civil Rights Movement]] decades later.
===The Great Depression years===
In October 1932, Socialist presidential candidate [[Norman Thomas]] spoke before 1,200 people in Raleigh.<ref>http://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073995/1932-11-01/ed-1/seq-2/#index=3&rows=20&proxtext=Socialist+Party&searchType=basic&sequence=0&words=Party+Socialist&page=1 "Socialist Principles" The Enterprise, November 1,
1932</ref> He earned 5,591 votes in the general election.<ref>David Leip (ed.), [http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=1932&off=0&elect=0&fips=37&f=0 "1932 Presidential General Election Results: North Carolina,"] www.USElectionAtlas.org/</ref>
The Socialist Party of North Carolina held a convention in [[Greensboro, North Carolina]] in 1932 during [[the Great Depression]]. It was actively involved in various labor disputes, including locally in the [[Textile workers strike (1934)|1934 textile workers strike]].<ref name="Christensen2010">{{cite book|last=Christensen|first=Rob|title=The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics: The Personalities, Elections, and Events That Shaped Modern North Carolina|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qkNZo3ZzrhAC&pg=PA62|accessdate=18 June 2017|date=2010-10-04|publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press|isbn=9780807899632|pages=62–}}</ref><ref name="PleasantsIII2017">{{cite book|last1=Pleasants|first1=Julian M.|last2=III|first2=Augustus M. Burns|title=Frank Porter Graham and the 1950 Senate Race in North Carolina|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pSp4DgAAQBAJ&pg=PP40|accessdate=18 June 2017|date=2017-03-01|publisher=UNC Press Books|isbn=9781469620701|pages=40–}}</ref> During the 1930s, attempts were made to form a united front between members of the Communist Party and Socialist Party in North Carolina.<ref name="Taylor2009">{{cite book|last=Taylor|first=Gregory S.|title=The History of the North Carolina Communist Party|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=91VyisPZT24C&pg=PA115|accessdate=18 June 2017|year=2009|publisher=Univ of South Carolina Press|isbn=9781570038020|pages=115–}}</ref>
Following the successful efforts to put Thomas on the 1932 ballot, North Carolina drastically increased its ballot access requirements. The North Carolina Attorney General threatened to sue North Carolina voters who signed the party's petition but were not party members.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://mountainx.com/news/party-crashers/|title=Party crashers: The fight for the right to N.C. ballot access|last=Hesse|first=Dan|date=September 1, 2016|accessdate=28 June 2017}}</ref>
===Rejection of the United Front===
From the time of the 1929 [[Loray Mill strike]] in [[Gastonia, North Carolina|Gastonia]], North Carolina had been the target of political organizers of the [[Communist Party USA]] (CPUSA) — bitter rivals and political enemies of the Socialists throughout the CP's ultra-revolutionary [[Third Period]]. With the specter of [[fascism]] growing in Europe, this ultra-left political line of the international Communist movement began to change in 1934, with a move made towards a new [[Popular front|Popular Front]] policy. On September 21, 1934, Communist functionary [[Paul Crouch (activist)|Paul Crouch]] wrote directly to Socialist leader [[Norman Thomas]] proposing united action between Communists and Socialists in organizing the textile industry.<ref name=Taylor114>Taylor, ''The History of the North Carolina Communist Party,'' pg. 114.</ref>
Crouch proposed joint action on a range of political issues, including support of [[unemployment insurance]], repeal of the state's [[regressive tax|regressive]] [[sales tax]], legal defense of jailed strikers and other political prisoners, and monthly meetings between Socialists and Communists in North Carolina.<ref>Taylor, ''The History of the North Carolina Communist Party,'' pp. 114-115.</ref> Thomas poured cold water on the idea of closer ties between the bitter political foes, however, declaring in a negative reply to Crouch that Communist "policy in the labor field is hurtful rather than helpful to the policy we want to achieve."<ref name=Taylor115>Taylor, ''The History of the North Carolina Communist Party,'' pg. 115.</ref>
The rejection of the proposed [[united front]] in North Carolina by the SPA's national leadership had negative repercussions for the Socialist Party of North Carolina, however, inspiring two of the SP's top leaders in the state — State Secretary Alton Lawrence and State Executive Committee member Hazel Dawson — to quit the SPA and apply for membership in the CPUSA.<ref name=Taylor115 /> The Socialist organizing effort was thereby attenuated somewhat and Communist momentum improved; no united front action would never develop, however.<ref name=Taylor115 />
===Towards World War II===
In January 1938, Socialist Party leader [[Norman Thomas]] spoke on campus at the [[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]]. He was introduced by historian [[Howard K. Beale]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073228/1938-01-12/ed-1/seq-1/|title=Norman Thomas Will Speak Here Tonight|date=January 12, 1938|work=[[The Daily Tar Heel]]|pages=1–2|accessdate=18 June 2017}}</ref>
==SPUSA Reorganization==
The Socialist Party of North Carolina (SPNC) was re-formed in 1996<ref name=Williams>Wiley J. Williams, [http://www.ncpedia.org/socialist-party-north-carolina "Socialist Party of North Carolina,"] in William S. Powell (ed.), ''Encyclopedia of North Carolina.'' Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2006; pg. ???</ref> as the modern affiliate of [[Socialist Party USA]], a successor to the historic Socialist Party of America. The SPNC has small, organized groups in Raleigh and Jacksonville. For the first time since 1936, the [[2000 United States presidential election|2000 presidential election]] saw a Socialist Party presidential candidate, [[David McReynolds]], was an official [[write-in]] candidate in North Carolina.
In the early 2000s the SPNC was involved in a variety of causes, including a boycott of Mt. Olive Pickles and the work of People of Faith against the Death Penalty.<ref name=Williams /> Again as a [[write-in]], the Socialist Party presidential candidate in [[2004 United States presidential election|2004]], [[Walt Brown (politician)|Walt Brown]], received about 300 votes in North Carolina.<ref name=Williams />
==Notable Members==
{{Empty section|date=March 2023}}
==See also==
* [[Political party strength in North Carolina]]
* [[Politics of North Carolina]]
* [[Government of North Carolina]]
* [[Elections in North Carolina]]
* [[Law of North Carolina]]
* [[Loray Mill strike]]
* [[Junius Scales]]
==Footnotes==
{{reflist|30em}}
==Further reading==
* Jonathon Gentry, ''Seeing Red: Anti-Communism, Civil Liberties, and the Struggle Against Dissent in North Carolina, 1949-1968.'' PhD dissertation. University of South Carolina, 2003.
* John Salmond, ''Gastonia, 1929: The Story of the Loray Mill Strike.'' Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1995.
* Socialist Party of Asheville, [https://archive.org/details/010330WorkmanPlatform "Socialist Party Platform,"] ''The Workman,'' vol. 2, no. 10 (March 30, 1901), pg. 1.
* Gregory S. Taylor, ''The History of the North Carolina Communist Party.'' Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2009.
* Gregory S. Taylor, ''The Life and Lies of Paul Crouch: Communist, Opportunist, Cold War Snitch.'' Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2014.
==External links==
*[http://ncsocialistparty.weebly.com/ NC Socialist party website]
{{North Carolina political parties}}
{{Socialist Party of America}}
{{Socialist Party USA}}
[[Category:Political parties in North Carolina]]
[[Category:Socialist Party USA by state|North Carolina]]
[[Category:Socialist Party of America by state|North Carolina]]
[[Category:State and local socialist parties in the United States]]
[[Category:Political parties established in 1996]]
[[Category:1996 establishments in North Carolina]]