Czech Americans

CZECH AMERICANS. Despite their relatively small numbers in the United States (310,000), Czech (or Bohemian) Americans were quite prominent in the Left of several American cities—particularly in Cleveland and Chicago—in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Czech American Left first made its influence felt in the wave of strikes that accompanied the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. In Chicago, Czechs dominated both the leadership and the rank and file of a major strike in the lumberyards. In Cleveland, Czechs were similarly noticeable in the coopers’ strike at Standard Oil. In both cities, strike activity carried over into politics and the Workingmen’s ticket fared well in predominantly Czech neighborhoods.

Less conspicuous, but no less important, was the role of Czech skilled workers who labored in smaller manufacturing establishments. It was these individuals who furnished a large and influential part of the core membership of Czech socialist clubs and fraternal societies. Also important in the 1870s were a small number of worker-intellectuals, such as Lev Palda and Frank Škarda, who attempted to organize and politicize Czech immigrant workers. The Czech Left also found allies in the liberal editors of the influential Czech anticlerical newspapers. These included Charles Jonáš of Slavie (Racine, Wisconsin), Václav Snajdr of Dennice Novovëku (Cleveland), Frantisek Zdřubek of Svornost (Chicago), and John V. Čapek of New York Listy.

After suffering a decline in the early 1880s, the Czech Left reemerged in the mid-1880s with renewed vigor as a result of the rise of the Knights of Labor as well as the immigration of several Czech socialist anarchists to the United States. The Czech anarchists are most famous for their role in the Haymarket Incident in Chicago in 1886. Some of the most notable Czech immigrant anarchists included Robert Zoula, Joseph Pečka, Jakub Mikolanda, and Leo Kochman. Owing in large part to the Haymarket fiasco and the setbacks faced by the Knights of Labor, however, the more revolutionary wing of the Czech American Left found itself replaced in influence by more moderate socialists in the late 1880s and 1890s.

Events in the Czech homeland also help explain the ascendance of the moderate socialists within the Czech American Left. The legalization of the Social Democratic Party in Austria in 1889 allowed for the construction of socialism as a mass movement in the Czech homeland. The revolutionary tactics of the 1880s now appeared anachronistic as party members reveled in the newfound vitality of the Czech socialist movement.

The moderation of the socialist movement in the homeland in the 1890s was mirrored in the United States. Large numbers of socialist Czechs made their way to the United States from 1890 to 1914. By the early part of the twentieth century, Czech socialist immigrants had created a durable subculture within urban Czech communities. They sponsored a number of organizations and institutions including several newspapers such as Spravedlnost (published daily in Chicago beginning in 1905), Americké Dělnické Listy (Cleveland), and Obrana (New York). They also established a wide array of gymnastic, theater, music, and social clubs. By the 1910s, Czech socialists numbered perhaps 10,000 of the approximately 150,000 Czechs living in American urban centers.

Despite suffering a decline in the late 1880s and 1890s, the more revolutionary Czech socialist faction reemerged with renewed vigor in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Its renewed strength was fueled largely by the push toward industrial unionism that was occurring in the years from 1900 to 1920 in both the United States and Europe.

Revolutionary and moderate socialists appear to have been relatively equal in influence within the Czech American Left on the eve of World War I. Differences in political hue were apparent, however, between Czech socialists from one American city to the next. New York Czech socialists had the most radical reputation in the years before World War I, Czech socialists in Cleveland were the most moderate, and Chicago Czech socialists were made up of significant numbers of revolutionaries and moderates. After World War I, New York, Chicago, and Detroit Czech socialists joined the Communist Party, while those in Cleveland remained with the Socialist Party.

The Czech American Left maintained its influence within urban Czech communities in the United States until well into the 1950s. By that time, the deaths of most first-generation Czech socialists combined with the left-wing purges of the McCarthy period spelled the end for the Czech American Left.

“Bohemian Socialists Demand Repeal of the St. Louis Platform,” The Bohemian Review, Vol. 2 (1918), pp.41-42.

Čapek, Thomas. Czechs in America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1920.

Chada, Joseph. The Czechs in the United States. Chicago: Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, 1981.

Schnierov, Richard. “Free Thought and Socialism in the Czech Community in Chicago, 1875–1887.” In “Struggle a Hard Battle”: Essays on Working Class Immigrants, edited by Dirk Hoerder. De Kalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1986.