The Rochester Socialist

Category: Friends of Labor

The Rochester Socialist was published weekly at this site from December 1907 to March 1908. Its banner proclaimed that "Labor is the Sole Creator of Wealth" and "Wealth Should Belong to Those Who Create It." During the early 1900s, Socialists were active in Rochester’s working class culture, local politics, and organized labor. Among unions with strong socialist membership in 1900 were the garment workers, typographers, glass blowers, boot and shoe workers, and iron molders. Eugene Debs, leader of the American Railway Union, a founder of the Industrial Workers of the World, and five-time presidential candidate on the Socialist Party ticket, campaigned in Rochester during his unsuccessful bids.