Following nearly a half decade since Detroit last had an organized Socialist Party local, the Socialist Party of Michigan has re-chartered the Detroit Socialist Party, with jurisdiction covering the entirety of Wayne, Macomb, and Oakland counties.
The Detroit Socialist Party carries a long and pronounced history that largely overlaps with that of the formative years of the Detroit and U.S. industrial labor movement. In its early history, the Detroit Socialist Party had as many as sixteen separate branches, ran candidates for nearly every elected city post, and operated numerous local offices and meeting halls, including the still-standing “House of the Masses,” at Gratiot and Saint Aubin…
With respect to the particularly key role the Detroit Socialist Party played in the formation and development of the United Auto Workers up through the early 1940s, the directly following emergence of today’s prevailing ‘business unionism’ model was largely personified by Walter Reuther’s concurrent break from the Detroit Socialist Party. Even as late as 2004, the Detroit Socialist Party was among the most conspicuous organizations challenging the attempted privatization of the Highland Park Water Department, on which the 2007 documentary film The Water Front focuses.
Metro Detroit area SP members held a re-organizing meeting at Detroit’s Cass Cafe on July 4th 2009 – the 308th birthday of the city of Detroit – at which they signed a local charter application and elected an interim Local Executive Committee. Its next meeting will be held at 3PM on Sunday August 30th at Cafe 1923 in Hamtramck. The newly re-organized Detroit Socialist Party can be contacted at Detroit @ spmichigan.org