The Sewer Socialists Were Pragmatic Class Warriors
Milwaukee’s “sewer socialists” have often been dismissed as tepid reformers. In fact, they were pragmatic champions of a world beyond capitalism who were laser-focused on organizing the working class.
The oft-maligned sewer socialists of early 20th-century Milwaukee were in fact strategic champions of working-class interests, combining a pragmatic legislative strategy with efforts to organize workers outside the state. (HUM Images / Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was a Socialist Party stronghold for much of the first half of the twentieth century. Socialists there built a strong presence in the labor movement and city council and held the mayor’s office for nearly forty years between 1910 and 1960.
The Milwaukee socialists’ focus on good governance and municipal policy achievements like clean water earned them the ire of some fellow socialists, who derisively dubbed them “sewer socialists.” Yet New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has cited them as an inspiration for his own administration, and, as Jacobin contributor Eric Blanc argued in an essay for Catalyst earlier this year, the sewer socialists’ pragmatic approach to building working-class power has much to teach the Left today.
David Griscom recently interviewed Blanc for The Jacobin Show about his research on the Milwaukee socialists, discussing their strategy and potential takeaways for Mayor Mamdani and American socialists in the current moment. You can watch the full interview here. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
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