"Resolved, that we condemn the fallacy of protecting American labor under the present system, which opens our ports to the paupers and criminal classes of the world and crowds out our wage earners; and we denounce the present ineffective laws against contract labor, and demand the further restriction of undesirable emigration."
Max, that's Grandpa and Grandma Sawicky they're thinking (unkindly) about... john mage
It sure was. See how forgiving I am. I said this point also raised by DH is well-taken. Though it is interesting that they say 'undesirable' emigration, maybe as if there was a desirable kind.
As CC noted, you could find out-and-out racists in the socialist party too. I still think the progressive components of the old movement are more interesting than the retrograde parts. After all, we don't reject the Bill of Rights out of hand because it was drafted by slave-owners.
Without question, there was at least one point (note that Goodwyn's book title refers to the "populist *moment*") when souther populists were in explicit alliance with blacks. You can find stirrring rhetoric by Tom Watson of Georgia in this regard, although he later turned into his opposite. Although short lived, this was, I submit, a very brave thing to do at that time and in that place. Therefore very interesting and important from our vantage point. That alliance probably lasted longer than the Paris Commune.
mbs