Chicago Socialist Party
https://www.facebook.com/pg/ChicagoSPUSA
Contact: socialistpartychicago@gmail.com
The Chicago Socialist Party (CSP) is the official Local of the Socialist Party USA in Chicago, Illinois. It is a democratic socialist organization that supports progressive and radical causes in an effort to help build a broad-based party. The Chicago Local is made up of all members of the Socialist Party USA in good standing who live in the City of Chicago and in the rest of Cook County. Members in any towns and cities outside Chicago, but in Cook County may establish their own Locals when the meet the requirements to do so. The Cook County Socialist Party was founded in 1896 as a response to the Pullman strike in Chicago. It held its first convention two years later. In 1901 it joined with other socialists parties in the state to form the Socialist Party of Illinois. The state party affiliated with the national party and its leader Eugene Debs and grew in membership throughout the first two decades of the twentieth century but declined after World War One. The Cook County Socialist Party (CCSP) was comprised of members who belonged to one of the party branches located within the county. The majority of the branches were from Chicago identified by wards, and included others located in suburbs within Cook County including Berwyn, Cicero, Thornton, Northfield, Maywood, and Oak Park. There were also branches that were designated by their ethnicity and were referred to as the 'foreign speaking organizations.' These included German, Hungarian, Italian, Jewish, Lettish, Polish, Lithuanian, Finnish, Russian, Scandinavian, Slavic, and Bohemian branches. On You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5sO5rinnOWIB6IJakV4ciQ THE SOCIALIST PARTY strives to establish a radical democracy that places people's lives under their own control - a non-racist, classless, feminist socialist society...where working people own and control the means of production and distribution through democratically-controlled public agencies; where full employment is realized for everyone who wants to work; where workers have the right to form unions freely, and to strike and engage in other forms of job actions; and where the production of society is used for the benefit of all humanity, not for the private profit of a few. We believe socialism and democracy are one and indivisible. The working class is in a key and central position to fight back against the ruling capitalist class and its power. The working class is the major force worldwide that can lead the way to a socialist future - to a real radical democracy from below. The Socialist Party fights for progressive changes compatible with a socialist future. We support militant working class struggles and electoral action, independent of the capitalist controlled two-party system, to present socialist alternatives. We strive for democratic revolutions - radical and fundamental changes in the structure and quality of economic, political, and personal relations - to abolish the power now exercised by the few who control great wealth and the government. The Socialist Party is a democratic socialist organization, with structure and practices visible and accessible to all members.