Eugene Victor Debs
promoted the labor movement in the United States, intervened in the
creation of the American Railway Union (ARU), and Industrial Workers of
the World. He has been the socialist with the most votes in
the history of the United States presidential elections achieving 6% of
the total votes.
The Pullman Strike was a railroad
strike across the United States in 1894, this was facing the American
Railway Union against the Pullman Company. Eugene V. Debs led this strike and won many supporters among the workers of the Pullman Company factories. With the boycott, they planned to force Pullman to respond to their demands. However,
the arrival of the federal forces, ARU's efforts to close the national
transportation system failed, when 12,000 United States Army troops
intervened. In 1894, President Grover Cleveland and Congress, declared Labor Day a federal holiday.
