Louis B. Boudin
1874 — 1952
Biography
It would therefore
be absurd for a labor party in this country to waste any energy on
getting any labor legislation passed unless it at the same time took
steps to prevent these laws being declared “unconstitutional.”
It would have to start out by demanding the “curbing” of
the Supreme Court, the abolition of its power to declare laws
“unconstitutional.” And it would have to back up this
demand by such a show of determination to use the entire resources of
the working class and all the weapons and ammunition at its command
in an endeavor to enforce this demand, as to carry the conviction to
the entire capitalist class, including the Supreme Court, that it
must “end” or “mend.”
In other words, in order to do something practical it would have to begin by being revolutionary. And there goes the dream of a “practical,” “safe and sane,” American Labor Party. . . .
From Prospects of a Labor Party in the U.S. (1910)
Works:
The Materialistic Conception of History and Practical Idealism, May 1901
The Theoretical System of Karl Marx, February 1907 📖
Immigration at Stuttgart, November 1907
Letter of Acceptance [of nomination in the NY Supreme Court election], October 1909
Prospects of a Labor Party in the U.S., April 1910
Our Enemies and Their Ways, May 1910
Who is Who in the United States, May 1910
A Serious Blunder, June 1911
Socialism and War, December 1914 📖
Magna Carta — 700 Years Later, July 1915
Revising State Constitutions, November 1915
Let Us Take Ourselves Seriously!, December 1915
Socialist Congressional Responsibility, January 1916
Sorel on Violence (review), April 1916
First Minority Report of the Committee on War and Militarism, April 1917
The Autocrat in the White House, May 1917
Die Neue Zeit— An Obituary, November 1917