Joshua Kluever is a lecturer of history at Alvernia University. He received his PhD from Binghamton University (SUNY), and his dissertation explores how socialist state legislators operated in statehouses during the early twentieth century.
At its peak in the 1920s and early ’30s, the Socialist Party in Wisconsin used both confrontational tactics and pragmatic alliances with nonsocialists to make legislative advances. It’s a model that may hold promise for socialist legislators today.
With her win last week, Buffalo’s India Walton will almost certainly become the first socialist mayor of a major US city in years. She’s reviving a robust American tradition: municipal socialism.