Socialism at the Edges of Civilization: Louis Pio and Colonial Visions in Scandinavia and the United States

Abstract: In 1877 after years of labor organizing in Europe, Louis Pio, the founder of the Danish Social Democratic Party, fled to America to escape persecution. In the United States, Pio attempted to establish a socialist commune, proposed a socialist third-party initiative, published a socialist newspaper in Chicago, involved himself in the Knights of Labor, and supported Edward Bellamy's movement to nationalize production. Throughout his life, however, Pio's commitment to equality, stretching back to his involvement in the International Workingmen's Association, was undermined in practice by his ideas about European civilizational superiority. This article uncovers the roots of Pio's racial ideology—which made him part of a broader pattern that few Northern European socialists managed to break from—and analyzes how it shaped Pio's activities in postbellum America.