The Sewer Socialists Were Pragmatic Class Warriors

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was a Socialist Party stronghold for much of the first half of the twentieth century. Socialists there built a strong presence in the labor movement and city council and held the mayor’s office for nearly forty years between 1910 and 1960. The Milwaukee socialists’ focus on good governance and municipal policy achievements like clean water earned them the ire of some fellow socialists, who derisively dubbed them “sewer socialists.” Yet New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani…