Historical/Biographical Note

The League for Industrial Democracy (LID) was founded in 1905 as the Intercollegiate Socialist Society by democratic socialist intellectuals to bring "education for the new social order" to the nation's campuses, but its name was changed in 1920 to broaden appeal and better reflect aims of social ownership and democratic control of industry. In 1922, Norman Thomas (1884-1968; later the Socialist Party's head and presidential candidate) joined Harry W. Laidler as Co-Director. LID campaigned throughout 1920s and 1930s for public power development through the Committee on Coal and Giant Power, a spin off group established in conjunction with American Civil Liberties Union and chaired by H. S. Rauschenbush. The LID also sought to preserve civil liberties through the Emergency Committee for Strikers Relief (chaired by John Herling) which aided strikers across the nation with direct relief, organization, and the formation of defense committees for persecutred activists. Laidler's retirement as Director in 1957 led to the succession of Sidney Hertzberg, who aimed to make LID a forum for liberal study. Later leader, Michael Harrington (1928-1989), sought to build constituency of labor, intellectuals, and Black civil rights activists. By the later 1970s, the LID had become politically associated with Social Democrats USA (a grouping of union officials and others with roots in the socialist and Trotskyist movements, whose posture is militantly anti-communist but also retains a commitment to aspects of liberalism), and although still extant as of 2010, it appears to be inactive.

The LID led the defense of Athos Terzani, Italian antifascist framed (in 1933) for murder by (pro-fascist group) Khaki Shirt leader Art Smith, which resulted in Smith's own indictment for perjury. During the Great Depression the LID sought to alleviate plight of unemployed by campaigning for national unemployment insurance, organizing unions of the unemployed by campaigning for national unemployment insurance, opening "recreation huts" (which resembled settlement houses), and publishing The Unemployed, a magazine to bring the socialist vision to the jobless. During Socialist Party schisms of 1930s, Norman Thomas used his LID position to secure leadership of the Militant faction to battle Old Guard. During World War II, the LID supported nation's war effort while defending the social advances of 1930s. Its post-war posture was anti communist.