The Revolutionist: Eugene V. Debs is a documentary film which premiered on US television (PBS) in 2019.
As the title says, this film covers the life and times of Eugene Debs, a trade union organizer and a socialist politician, who played a significant role in American history for several decades (from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century).
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Writer and director: Kim Jacobs
** Narrator: Danny Glover
** The voice of Eugene Debs: Tim Grimm
** Original music composed by Tim Grimm
** Run time: 56 minutes
Several historical experts are interviewed in the film. Here are the names of the participants (listed in alphabetical order):
** Paul Buhle – Brown University
** Allison Duerk – Eugene Debs Museum
** Rosemary Feurer – Northern Illinois University
** Ernest Freeberg – University of Tennessee
** William P. Jones – University of Minnesota
** James H. Madison – Indiana University
** Michelle Moran – Indiana State University
** William S. Pretzer – Smithsonian Museums
** Nicholas (Nick) Salvatore – Cornell University
** Dennis Vetrovec – Indiana State University
Archive footage is used between the talking heads. Archive footage is used when the narrator is speaking. Archive footage is used to support and supplement the statements made by the talking heads and the narrator.
As stated above, this film covers the life and times of Eugene Debs. We follow him from the beginning of his life in Terre Haute (Indiana) in 1855 to the end of his life in Elmhurst (Illinois) in 1926.
As stated above, Eugene Debs was a trade union organizer and a socialist politician. He was a founding member of two trade unions and a founding member of a political party:
** In 1893, the American Railway Union (the ARU) was founded by Debs and others. This union was special, because it was open for every person who worked on the railway. It was not a crafts union which was only open to skilled workers and only open to one kind of workers.
The idea behind a comprehensive railway union was that it would be stronger and more effective if it had to stand up to a private railway corporation.
** In 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World (the IWW) was founded by Debs and others. This union was special, because it was open to every worker without any discrimination: men and women, skilled workers and unskilled workers, white people and people of colour.
The slogan was “one big union for all workers.” The idea was that one big union for all workers would have more power to stand up against large capitalist companies.
** In 1901, the Socialist Party of America (the SPA) was founded by Debs and others.
According to the founding members, the established political parties could not be trusted by the workers, because these parties supported capitalism. The purpose of the SPA was to support the workers in the struggle against capitalism.
Debs ran for president of the US several times. He never won. He knew he was not going to win, but he felt he had to run in order to show the American workers that there was an alternative; there was another option. The workers did not have to vote for one of the established parties.
According to the SPA, the established political parties were never going to support ordinary workers. They were never going to protect the interests of ordinary workers.
Debs was quite popular on the left wing of American politics. At that time, the US political spectrum had a left wing which was active and real. Not only a centre and a right wing.
But Debs was not popular among the owners of the large private corporations.
They wanted the government to stop Debs and the popular movements he represented. He was regarded as a threat. The popular movements (the ARU, the IWW and the SPA) were regarded as a threat which had to be stopped.
The executive branch (the government) and the judicial branch (the courts) had more sympathy for the corporations than for Debs. They sided with the large corporations against Debs and the left-wing organisations he represented.
Debs was arrested and sent to prison two times: the first time in 1894, because he and others had organized a strike against the Pullman Railway Company. The second time in 1918, because he had spoken out in public against US participation in World War One (known as the Great War).
In American history, Eugene Debs represents the road not taken. For many years, he fought against capitalism – the only war he was prepared to fight – but he lost. He wanted to have a revolution, but it was not allowed to happen.
The owners of the private corporations wanted to silence him and destroy the popular movements he represented. The owners of the large corporations joined forces with all three branches of the American government.
Debs was vilified, his ideas were ridiculed and the popular movements which supported him were crushed.
The story of Eugene Debs is a significant chapter of American history. The contents of this chapter are uplifting and at the same time depressing. Whether we like him or not, his story deserves to be told, and in this film, it is done very well.
What do reviewers say about it?
On IMDb it has a rating of 58 percent which corresponds to (almost) three stars on Amazon.
If you ask me, this rating is too low. This film covers an important topic, a significant chapter of American history which is not well-known, and the topic is covered very well.
I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).
REFERENCES
# 1. Articles available online
** Mark Harris, The Measure of a Revolutionary: Remembering Eugene V. Debs, Counterpunch, 7 September 2015
** Louis Proyect, From Debs to Berlusconi: The Socially Relevant Film Festival, Counterpunch, 10 March 2017
** Andrew Stewart, Eugene Debs: A Graphic Biography is a Masterpiece for the Ages, Counterpunch, 8 February 2019
** William P. Jones, Something to Offer, Jacobin Magazine, 11 August 2015
** Erick Trickey, When America's Most Prominent Socialist Was Jailed for Speaking Out Against World War I, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 June 2018
# 2. Documentary films
Eugene Debs and the American Movement
Directors: Renner Wunderlich & Margaret Lazarus
The words of Eugene Debs are spoken by Milton Shubert Sebree (1890-1980)
Cambridge Documentary Films, 1977
Run time: 43 minutes
Available online
American Socialist: The Life & Times of Eugene Victor Debs
Director: Yale Strom
Narrator: Amy Madigan
The voice of Eugene Debs: Nick Cagle
Blackstream Films, 2017
Run time: 97 minutes
Available on DVD
# 3. Books (biographies)
** The Bending Cross: A Biography of Eugene Victor Debs by Ray Ginger (1949) (1969) (1992) (2007)
** Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist by Nicholas (Nick) Salvatore (1982) (2007)
** Democracy’s Prisoner: Eugene V. Debs, the Great War and the Right to Dissent by Ernest Freeberg (2008)
** Eugene V. Debs: A Graphic Biography by Paul Buhle, Steve Max & Noah van Sciver (2019)
# 4. Books (the American labor movement)
** The Pullman Strike & the Crisis of the 1890s edited by Richard Schneirov, Nicholas Salvatore and Shelton Stromquist (1999)
** Against Labor: How U.S. Employers Organized to Defeat Union Activism by Rosemary Feurer & Chad Pearson (2017)
** A History of America in Ten Strikes by Erik Loomis (HC 2018) (PB 2020)
** The Edge of Anarchy: The Railroad Barons, the Gilded Age, and the Greatest Labor Uprising in America by Jack Kelly (Hardcover 2019)
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