Eugene Victor Debs was an American socialist, political activist, trade unionist, founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and five-time Socialist Party of America presidential candidate. Debs rose to prominence as a socialist in the United States as a result of his presidential candidacies and involvement with labor unions. Debs began his political career as a member of the Democratic Party. He was elected as a Democrat to the Indiana General Assembly in 1884. After collaborating with numerous smaller unions, including the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Debs led his union on a ten-month strike against the CB&Q Railroad in 1888. In the summer of 1894, workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company organized a wildcat strike against pay cuts, and Debs signed many of them into the ARU. He led the ARU's boycott of handling trains with Pullman cars, which became known as the countrywide Pullman Strike, affecting most lines west of Detroit and more than 250,000 workers in 27 states. President Grover Cleveland employed the US Army to break the walkout, ostensibly to keep the mail flowing. Debs, the ARU's leader, was convicted on federal charges for violating a court injunction prohibiting the strike and sentenced to six months in prison.
