Debs: His Life Writings and Speeches

Debs ran as a Socialist in 1912 while in prison and got over 3,000,000 votes. Ultimate Socialism accepts Marx’s theory of ‘the surplus value of labor’ meaning that in the production and distribution of all goods: the profit goes to those who do the work. So it is ‘capitalism’ (profit) but one that is decentralized and operates for the masses of people along with union representation, so the executives do not kidnap the company. It is not ‘state capitalism’ (the Soviet Union) nor is it ‘corporate capitalism’ (rich investors who control the company). Marshall Tito in Yugoslavia is the closest modern example. However there are 12,000 companies in the USA today (2015) that are ‘employee owned’. It is done thru the Employee Retirement Investment Security Act (ERISA). It did not exist in Debs time but he did everything he could to convince the population about the need to end wage slavery. Now Senator Bernie Sanders (VT) is running for president in in the Democratic Party 2016 as a Socialist but pretending to be a European Social Democrat but deep in his mind he is real Socialist with a Marxist economic view.