Class dates: Mondays, June 1, 8 and 15 (3 weeks)

Class time: 10:00 am to 11:00 am

Location: Online (via Zoom)

Ignited by Karl Marx, German, Jewish, and Finnish immigrants brought their best books with their best clothes to America and set about to make their new home a more equitable place to live.  Joseph Weydemeyer, Abraham Cahan, and Antero Tanner, organized industrial, garment, and mine workers for fair wages and workplaces. They were ideologically similar but ethnically distinct in their missions to evangelize Marxism in their communities.  In this three-session course, we'll see how the groups of socialist immigrants catalyzed the American labor movement, only to fracture under the pressure of political and ideological forces at home and abroad.

Instructor: Karl Hakkarainen is a long-time WISE instructor who has taught courses on history, technology, intellectual property law, music, and literature. He is currently researching Martin Hendrickson, a Finnish immigrant who was dubbed "The Apostle of Socialism."