Austin Lewis (socialist)

Austin M. Lewis (April 7, 1865 – June 26, 1944) was an English-born socialist author, translator, labor lawyer, and politician. After emigrating to Northern California in 1890, he became active in socialist causes. He created the first English translations of works by Friedrich Engels. Among his own books, the best known was The Militant Proletariat (1911). He ran on the Socialist Party ticket for California governor in 1906, and for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1910. As a lawyer, he sought pardons for Thomas Mooney and Warren K. Billings, and defended members of the IWW. He helped found the Northern California affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Biography

Austin Lewis was born into a Jewish family in Garston, Lancashire, England in 1865.[1] His father was a schoolmaster.[2] Austin attended the University of London where he obtained a bachelor's degree and law degree. As a student, he was influenced by the writings of English socialist William Morris.[3][4]

In 1890, Lewis emigrated to California and settled in the Bay Area. His first job was teaching Classics at the Tamalpais Military Academy in San Rafael,[5] where he remained until 1898.[2] That year he passed the California Bar Examination.[6] From 1900 to 1906, he contributed occasional articles to the San Francisco Examiner and other newspapers, mostly on science and research topics.[2][5]

By 1906, Lewis was living in East Oakland and was active in the newly formed Socialist Party of America (SPA). He had earned name recognition throughout the state from his writing and lecturing.[5] In the 1906 California gubernatorial election, he ran as the Socialist candidate and garnered 5.1% of the vote.[7] He ran again on the Socialist ticket in the 1910 U.S. House elections—he was vying to represent California's 4th congressional district—and finished in third place with 6.5%.[8]

At the start of the 20th century, Lewis was a prolific writer. He authored books such as The Church and Socialism (1906), The Rise of the American Proletarian (1907), and The Militant Proletariat (1911).[9] He also created the first English translations of works by Friedrich Engels and Karl Kautsky.[10] Historian Allen Ruff said of The Militant Proletariat that Lewis:

strove to produce a sound, rigorous Marxian analysis of contemporary conditions in order to bolster the left's argument for industrial unionism. Released in December 1911, The Militant Proletariat went further than any other book of the period to elucidate the reasons for the rise and the rational necessity for that new unionism capable of transcending the narrow confines of conservative, outmoded craft unions.[11]

Lewis's support for industrial unionism put him in the left-wing faction of the SPA. In May 1911 he joined with like-minded San Francisco socialists William McDevitt, Nathan Greist, and Cloudseley Johns to launch a weekly newspaper called Revolt: The Voice of the Militant Worker. Lewis was one of the paper's editors and a frequent article writer who articulated a revolutionary left viewpoint, which was increasingly in conflict with SPA's direction.[12] Revolt ceased publication in May 1912 due to lack of funds.[13] When Bill Haywood was ousted from SPA in 1913 for advocating a militant "direct action" approach by labor,[14] Lewis sided with Haywood and resigned from SPA as well.[13]

During these years, Lewis was a regular contributor of magazine articles. His work was often printed in Charles H. Kerr's publication, International Socialist Review. From 1913 to 1916, Lewis wrote for New Review magazine and sat on its Advisory Council. He served as editor of Class Struggle magazine (1917–19) when it took a pro-Bolshevik position in the wake of the Russian Revolution.[1]

In his capacity as a lawyer, Lewis defended trade unionists, labor organizations, and fought government injunctions.[1] In one of his high-profile cases, he defended IWW leaders Richard Ford and Herman Suhr in the Wheatland Hop Riot trial.[2] For many years, Lewis was the lawyer for Thomas Mooney and Warren K. Billings, and worked to exonerate the two men from wrongful conviction in the 1916 Preparedness Day bombing.[1][15]

In 1926, Lewis formed a Northern California affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union. The new affiliate did not last, but Lewis tried again in 1934 and was able to establish it on a permanent basis.[16]

Death

Austin Lewis died at his home in Oakland on June 26, 1944. He was 79.[17] He was survived by his wife Ethel C. Lewis, who had been active in the women's suffrage movement, and their four children.[18]

Works

Books

  • The Church and Socialism. Workers' world series.no. 1. Oakland: The World Press. 1906.
  • The Rise of the American Proletarian. International library of science. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co. 1907. LCCN 07014260.
  • The Militant Proletariat. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co. 1911. OCLC 2037325.
  • Proletarian and Petit-Bourgeois. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co. 1912.

Selected articles

Translations

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Austin Lewis (1865–1944) Biographical Note". Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved January 2, 2026.
  2. ^ a b c d De Leon, Solon, ed. (1925). The American Labor Who's Who (PDF). New York: Hanford Press. p. 137.
  3. ^ Ruff, Allen (1997). "We Called Each Other Comrade": Charles H. Kerr & Company, Radical Publishers. The History of Media and Communication. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. pp. 250–51n57. ISBN 978-0252065828.
  4. ^ Buchanan 1907: Lewis was "essentially a product of the Socialist fermentation of the '80s — that decade remarkable for the production of the school led by such men as Bernard Shaw, Zangwill and Wells."
  5. ^ a b c Buchanan, Agnes Foster (January 1907). "The Story of a Famous Fraternity of Writers and Artists". The Pacific Monthly. Vol. 17. pp. 73–74.
  6. ^ Ruff 1997, pp. 250–51n57.
  7. ^ "November 6, 1906 – General Election". JoinCalifornia. Election History for the State of California. February 2007.
  8. ^ "November 8, 1910 – General Election". JoinCalifornia. Election History for the State of California. February 2007.
  9. ^ Ruff, Allen (1998). "Lewis, Austin M.". In Buhle, Mari Jo; Buhle, Paul; Georgakas, Dan (eds.). Encyclopedia of the American Left (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 442. ISBN 978-0195120882.
  10. ^ "Notes from Marx-Engels Collected Works – Anti-Dühring by Frederick Engels 1877". Anti-Dühring was published in English for the first time in 1907, in Chicago as F. Engels, Landmarks of Scientific Socialism. Anti-Dühring. Translated and edited by Austin Lewis. This work has been repeatedly reprinted.
  11. ^ Ruff 1997, p. 134.
  12. ^ "'War in the Socialist Party' by Austin Lewis from Revolt. Vol. 2 No. 29. January 13, 1912". Revolution's Newsstand. March 6, 2024.
  13. ^ a b Siegfried, Mathew. "Revolt (1911–1912)". Retrieved January 3, 2026 – via Marxists Internet Archive.
  14. ^ Siitonen, Harry (March 2005). "The IWW: Its First 100 Years". Industrial Workers of the World. Archived from the original on July 6, 2008.
  15. ^ "Lewis (Austin) Papers". Online Archive of California. Retrieved January 2, 2026.
  16. ^ Kutulas, Judy (July 17, 2019). "Matters of Principle". American Civil Liberties Union.
  17. ^ "vol. 9, no. 7". ACLU of Northern California News. San Francisco: American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. July 1944.
  18. ^ "Biographical Sketch of Ethel C. Lewis". Biographical Database of Militant Woman Suffragists, 1913–1920. Alexander Street. October 2024.

Further reading

  • Byington, Lewis Francis; Lewis, Oscar, eds. (1931). The History of San Francisco. Vol. 2. Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. pp. 335–36. OCLC 9592779.
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